Saturday, April 4, 2020

Something's rotten in Denmark.....

7:19 am - Real Saturday - April 4th - Wittmann, AZ - 48° F, 55% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the northeast.....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79 F.

I thought it would be interesting to go back in my blog to April 4th for prior years to see where we were and what we were doing. On April 4th, 2015 we were boondocking at Goosenecks State Park in Southern Utah near Mexican Hat.  This is one of my favorite boondocking sites ever......


.....unfortunately Goosenecks is closed right now to visitors, except those who live within San Juan County.

As I mentioned briefly at the beginning of yesterday's post, we awoke to a sulfating 8d battery.  You know a battery is sulfating when you think you are smelling rotten eggs.  When I opened the bay door to the 'house battery' compartment to investigate the source I was met with an overwhelming wave of rotten egg smell.....yuk!  It was one of the 'house' batteries that I replaced back in May of 2008....so it was almost 12 years old......I originally thought it was 8, or 9 years old, but after doing some checking I found out how old it was.....amazing!  Before I did anything else I retrieved a 1/2" socket, and a 3/8" ratchet to disconnect the now deceased battery from our 12 volt system.  It was too hot to touch from sulfating all night long, so I let it cool down for a few hours, and then removed it.....


.....once it was cool enough to handle I removed it from its cradle and set it on the ground.  While I was taking care of the battery my friend Tom made a call to the local O'Reillys where he does business and negotiated a great deal on two 8d batteries for $195 each.  Most people, including Tom, will recommend that you replace both batteries at the same time.  Over the years I have just replaced the one that went bad, and it has worked out okay, but this time I decided to go ahead and do the recommended thing.  Tom ordered two 8d batteries for me, and we will drive into town Saturday to take delivery.

After posting my daily blog entry I set about rearranging where our bicycles are stowed when in travel mode.  When I bought the Haibike eBike I just stowed it in the space where the Cannondale tandem used to reside, and left the other two Cannondale's in their existing spots, but I found that it was extremely difficult to stow the Haibike there.  It was just too tight, so I switched the bike tights and am now stowing my Cannondale Bad Boy in the corner, and the Haibike in its former spot.......

 The Bad Boy in its new travel position

......I then moved the Haibike to the back of the trailer with TLE's eBike so now I have room to workout again......my 'back machine' is now set up again, and I can walk from front to back of the trailer without having to squeeze between bikes.....


 The bike tight for the Haibike is now out of the corner

......I also got another Amazon delivery.....my bag of 40 polishing wheels for my Black and Decker dremel......


.....after my work in the trailer was finished I called it a day, and spent some time on my laptop doing some research for our future travels.  We capped off our day soaking in Tom and Darlene's Jacuzzi with Tom.  It was a beautiful, clear night sky with stars everywhere....a great way to finish another day in the Wittmann desert.

Good news on the mother front......my mother's Chinese virus test came back NEGATIVE, which we expected, so she can now be transferred to Hospice care, and that will happen today, Saturday.  She is comfortable, and in good spirits.  TLE and I are also still negative for any COVID-19 symptoms.  The Arizona numbers this morning are as follows: 1,769 positive tests, 22,904 negative tests, 249 people who are currently hospitalized, or were hospitalized at some point, with 41 deaths to date.

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