The final 'TO DO'.......

 7:20 am - Sunday - February 28th - Wittmann, AZ - 44° F, 24% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the northwest......crystal, clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2013 we were in St. Augustine, FL......↴

I began Real Saturday with a 'TO DO' list of 6 items, and ended the day with zero.....one of my better days.  The list consisted of, but was not limited to:

1) Polish a years' worth of oxidation off my ALCOA wheels

2) Lube the Winegard satellite dish

3) Remove the last of the blue masking tape

4) Apply caulk to the top of TLE's bedroom window

5) Dump the black tank

6) Put our eBikes back on the bike rack in preparation for our departure Sunday

Number 1 took the most time, as one might imagine, but I got them looking better than ever after about 2.5 hours of labor the ALCOA's and I were both smiling......

.....the salt laden air of the Oregon Coast is not kind to my ALCOA's, and I will have to find a better way of protecting them when we return to Seal Rock, OR two weeks from now.

By the end of the day I was tuckered, and in need of some jacuzzi therapy, so around 3 pm I hopped into the jacuzzi to soak away the soreness from my muscles and joints....sitting on the ground polishing aluminum is not a suitable activity for someone 71 years of age, but someone has got to do it, and I'm that guy.

Around 4:30 pm we convened inside Tom and Darlene's home for our final communal dinner.  I have neglected, so far, to provide an 'usie' of our gang of 6 for your viewing pleasure....

Left to right: Bob, TLE, Darlene, Tom, Sandy and moi

....Sunday will be another day of bittersweet 'until next times', but we shall trundle on knowing we will return to Wittmann again for another sojourn.  Of all the places to which we have returned often in our 9 years of travels, Tom and Darlene's home is the place to which we have returned most often. I always tell TLE as we drive through the property gate "we're home", and that is how it feels each time we return.

For dinner we had 'Taco Salad', prepared by the loving hands of Darlene with the assistance of TLE.  Each dinner here has been filled with wonderful food, and scintillating conversation, and a lot of laughter.  Thank you Tom and Darlene for the welcoming, hospitable, loving environment you provide for all of your guests.  You are loved and appreciated more than you can know.

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Two Michelin 'stars'......

 7:23 am - Real Saturday - February 27th - Wittmann, AZ - 40° F, 46% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north....mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  The view this morning.......↴

.....and on this date in 2020 we were hiking up to the stone snake near Borrego Springs, CA with Rich and Marnie......↴

....how ironic it is that we will see them again, tomorrow!

We were up by 7 am Friday in anticipation of our 47 mile drive into Phoenix, and specifically Purcell Tire on McDowell.  I unplugged the Newell just after 9 am, and we were on our way.  The traffic was incredibly light, and we arrived at the tire store just after 10 am.  Within minutes, Chris, the manager, had us pull into one of the truck bays, and within another few minutes his workers were removing our two front ALCOA wheels in order to remove the 7 year old Firestones, and replace them with brand new Michelins.  Soon they were inflating the tires to 105 PSI.......

.....then putting them on the spin balance machine.......

.....by 11:30 the ALCOA wheels with the new Michelin tires attached had been reinstalled.  There was no bill to pay at that time.....National Tire Concierge will be billed by Purcell, who will in turn bill me.  We were on our way back home to Wittmann by 12 pm....

.....I spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing....Saturday will be a busy last day here in Wittmann, and I need to be rested.....lol.  I did take time to fill our fresh water tank, and take a jacuzzi, but otherwise I took a couple of naps, and watched TV.  On Real Saturday I will finish my last task here in Wittmann.....polish those beautiful ALCOA wheels, and make them shine again!

One of my readers reminded me via comment, that I neglected to give a review of my new Flexsteel captains seat/chair.....frankly, it was so comfortable that I forgot all about it....seriously!  Well, I love it, and am looking forward to many long hours sitting in it on our way home to Oregon!  It has wonderful lumbar support, and sits at just the perfect height....I am in love.

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Please be seated, the show is about to begin.......

 7:40 am - Friday - February 26th - Wittmann, AZ - 41° F, 41% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2013 we were having lunch at the Manatee Island Bar and Grill in Port Salerno, FL.......↴

Ever since I purchased my new Flexsteel driver seat off eBay on February 4th, I have been dreaming about sitting  in that seat, and holding onto the large Newell steering wheel.  Thursday marked exactly three weeks since that day, and it was time to finally install it.  TLE was with me from beginning to end on this project, and offered several good, and timely suggestions along the way.  In addition to this being a 'power' seat with numerous functions (back, forward, up, down, tilt forward and back), it also has a lever which, if pulled, allows one to swivel the seat around, and use it as an additional chair when we have company.......

The Flexsteel seat on the floor of the salon while we fixed the cable 

.....we discovered pretty quickly that the bracket which holds the cable in place was missing, so I obtained some angle aluminum from Tom, cut off a 2" piece, and fabricated a new bracket....

....once that was done it was time to drill the holes in the floor.  TLE suggested making a template out of cardboard with the hole positions and then tape it in place where we wanted the seat, then drill holes through the four black dots......

.....normally one might expect, out of an amatuer, that one of the holes would be off a tad, and required enlarging to get the 4th bolt in, but not this day.  That template was amazingly accurate, and all four bolts went in relatively easily......

.....pretty soon the chair was in place, and the grade 8 bolts were tightened down securing the seat to the floor.......

.....of course that fourth bolt was the one which comes out in between the two steels walls under the coach next to the Kohler generator.....TLE snapped this picture of me down in that foreboding cavity tightening the 4th, and last bolt.....

....in all it took us around 3 hours beginning to end, but she's in, and she is sooooo comfortable.  I am really looking forward to our drive over to Purcell Tire on Friday to get our new Michelins installed!

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To do......

7:49 am - Thursday - February 25th - Wittmann, AZ - 54°, 21% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the north.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2013 we were having lunch with good friends Ernie and Carol in West Palm Beach, FL.......↴ 

It has been over 6 months since our gear driven Leece-Neville alternator ceased sending electrons into our batteries.  Fortunately, diesels do not require a spark to create that explosion in the cylinder which moves the piston, and turns the crank shaft, or we would have had to deal with getting it rebuilt long before now.  We drove close to 2,000 miles without it, but all that has been rectified thanks to Turbo & Electric of Phoenix.

Wednesday was the designated day to reinstall the Leece-Neville, and to say I had feelings of fear and trepidation after the ordeal we went through last May reinstalling Glenn and Laureen's Leece-Neville into their 1984 Newell would be an understatement.  As you will recall, it took Glenn and I some 5.5 hours of continuous effort to get the three bolts into their alternator due to the extremely cramped conditions of their engine bay (you can read about that here).  While I was sure this installation would bear no resemblance to that one, there is always that nagging doubt in the back of my mind.  All that being said, it was not difficult.  It took less than 40 minutes beginning to end to reinstall the alternator, and I only required TLE's assistance for about 2 minutes.  It was so easy it was kind of scary.......

The Leece-Neville reinstalled, and producing electrons!

.....once the alternator was in, and tested it was time to turn my attention to hooking up my new Speedhut digital tachometer.  The tach comes with a 20' cable, but that it not nearly long enough to reach the engine bay, so I ordered a 50' cable to run back to the alternator.  As I wrote the other day, I had already run the cable down through the floor, and into the inverter bay, so I just needed to pull out the Kohler genset once again, raise and block the coach, and then crawl under and feed the cable through one of three PVC conduits Newell installed for just this purpose.  These conduits begin just behind the front wheels, and run all the way to the engine bay.  Tom has 8 of these very thin 3' fiberglass rods which screw together for just this purpose.....I needed 6 of them.  I first pushed the rod through the length of the conduit, then attached the cable to the end remaining at the front using electrical tape, then went to the engine bay and pulled it through.  Within 30 minutes I had the cable attached to the alternator, and plugged into the tachometer.  It was then just a matter of connecting the power wire to a source activated by the ignition switch, and then attach the ground to a good ground. Once that was done I plugged the calibration cable into the back of the tachometer......

.....turned on the engine, and then moved the red needle to the correct idle RPM setting for our Detroit Diesel 6v92......500 RPM's.....

Ignition off.....

....ignition on, engine running at 500 RPM's

.....the former tachometer had quit working about 10 years ago on a trip we took to Santa Fe, NM, and has not worked since.  It is so nice to have a working tachometer again after all these years!

While I was thus occupied TLE was re-dying her Ekhornes recliner.  I had removed the armrests, and the footstool cushion for her to work on Wednesday, and she got all three items done.....the color is a tad darker, but we like it.......

The exposed leather is now nicely covered with the SEM dye

......by the time we had both finished with our projects it was after 1:30 pm, and I was one tired puppy.  I put away my tools, releveled the Newell, and then took a long, hot shower.

Only two projects remain on my 'TO DO' list.....install the new Flexsteel driver seat, and get the new Michelins installed.  The seat will be installed Thursday, and on Friday we'll drive to Purcell Tire in Phoenix to have the two new steer tires installed.  We'll return to Wittmann for two more nights before departing for Los Algodones, and our yearly dental checkups.  I had allotted up to 20 days here in Wittmann to get everything done, but it appears we will have everything done in 12.

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Leece-Neville.......

 7:41 am - Wednesday - February 24th - Wittmann, AZ - 46° F, 49% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north......crystal, clear, blue skies again today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2017 I was walking to work at the General Store at Desert View at the Grand Canyon after a fresh snowfall.....↴

I spent about 90 minutes helping Bob finish trimming the trees, and bushes back from the rest of Tom's fence, but had to withdraw around 10:30 am to take a shower, and get ready to drive into Surprise for lunch.  As I alluded at the very end of yesterday's post I received a call from Turbo & Electric of Phoenix that the rebuild on my Leece-Neville, gear driven alternator was complete, and I could pick it up any time.  Ironically, we had plans to meet my ex-brother-in-law, Charles Wilson, in Surprise for lunch at 11:30 am, so it was just a matter of continuing south on Grand Ave. to Phoenix after lunch to pick up the alternator.

We left home around 11:05 am to make the 25 minute drive to a local Mexican restaurant, and arrived exactly at 11:30 am to find Charles had arrived just minutes earlier.  We chose to dine alfresco, and were the only ones on this delightfully balmy day to do so.  Charles, and his former wife, Bobbi, met us numerous times during successive summers around the country (Lake Tahoe, Yellowstone, Mount Desert Island in Maine, etc) as we traveled full time.  They have a very nice 5th wheel, in which they traveled each summer to escape the Phoenix heat.  Regrettably, Bobbi died suddenly about 10 months ago just following successful hip replacement surgery.  It was good to see Charles is doing well, and to spend an hour talking about everything under the sun.  He will continue to travel each summer, and I am sure our nomadic paths will cross again soon.

It is about 19 miles from Surprise to Turbo & Electric, and we covered that quickly arriving there a little after 1 pm.  Within minutes I was reunited with my Leece-Neville alternator, and we were on our way home.......

The work tag....they replaced a lot of stuff!

.....after a quick stop to top off the Honda CRV gas tank, and another at the Walmart in Surprise, we were home around 3 pm.  While we were gone I received notification from UPS that my new Speedhut digital tachometer had been delivered, so you know what I did first thing, right?  Yup, you know me.....I installed it......

.....that is the easy part.  Now I have to run the 50' cable back to the engine bay, and connect it to my rebuilt alternator, then calibrate it with the engine running.  Once that is done I can then install my new Flexsteel seat, and we are ready to hit the road once again!  

Once that was done I called our dentist in Los Algodones to move our dental appointment up to this coming Monday, March 1st, at 11:30 am.  I also made an appointment with Purcell Tire in Phoenix to have the two new Micheline tires we ordered installed this Friday, then return to Wittmann for two more nights before we depart for Los Algodones on Sunday.

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Helping out......

8:01 am - Second Saturday - February 23rd - Wittmann, AZ - 44° F, 49% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north.....clear, blue skies today with thin clouds on the horizon, and a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2012 we were in Bullard, TX at the home of TLE's sister, Phyllis, awaiting the imminent delivery of our gear driven water pump.  The water pump had failed just as we finished parking our 62' in Phyllis' backyard......↴

First thing Monday morning, around 8:30 am, Bob and I rode with Tom into Phoenix to visit the local 'Parker Store', where Tom and Bob hoped to pick up a few air fittings to be used in fixing numerous air leaks under Bob's 2007 Newell Coach.  We were back before 11 am, at which time Bob went to work again fixing his air leaks with the newly acquired parts.  I've been remiss in not providing pictures of Bob and Sandy's beautiful 2007 Newell.....

.....it comes in at just under 46' in length, has four slides, and 1.5 bathrooms......

.....Bob and Sandy arrived last Wednesday for what they hoped would be two, or three days of finding, and fixing air leaks with Tom's help......they are now in their 5th day of fixing air leaks, but are nearing the end of the project.

While Tom and Bob were working away at that project, I spent time trimming bushes, and trees away from the white fence on the north side of the Newell barn. Whenever we stay with Tom and Darlene we always try to do a couple of chores for them to show our appreciation for their hospitality.  I managed to fill a flatbed trailer with the fruits of my labor.......

.....after a couple of hours working in direct sunlight.....something with which I have not had much experience lately......I was ready to call it a day.  I've got a few more bushes to cut back on the north side, and then I will turn my attention to the south fence line, and remove, completely, that large tree growing through the fence by Tom's trailer......

......that tree will take a lot of elbow grease to erase it from the landscape!

That was the extent of my day.  After putting away the tools I took a long, hot shower, and took a nap....it is 8:30 am on Tuesday, and I just received a call from Turbo and Electric of Phoenix, and am happy to announce my the rebuilding of our Leece-Neville shaft driven alternator is finished and ready for pickup! The end of our projects is in sight!

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Time keeps slipping away.....

 7:35 am - First Saturday - February 22nd - Wittmann, AZ - 42° F, 41% humidity,  wind 7 mph out of the north.....crystal, clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2013 my friend, Ernie Prociw, drove TLE and I up to Vero Beach to visit the former 'Dodgertown' spring training facility.  Here I am standing at home plate at Holman Field pretending I'm waiting for a pitch from left hander Sandy Koufax.....↴

Ahhhh.....the memories.....

We began Sunday with a jacuzzi at TLE's suggestion, and what a great suggestion it was......

In the jacuzzi again...

.....she followed that with a late breakfast consisting of peppered bacon, scrambled eggs (with spinach and cheese), and leftover French fries from our In 'N Out Burger combo the other day.  She crisped them up with the 'air fryer' option the new Breville has, and they came out perfectly!

The rest of the day I spent time measuring where I am going to drill the four new holes for my new Flexsteel seat.  I was hoping that with the new hole pattern of the new chair that I could avoid drilling a hole which comes out in the space between the two steel walls, but it cannot be avoided unless I move the chair to the left, but then the chair would be too close to the driver side wall of the driver area, so I'm stuck....oh well.

I also spent time throughout the day cleaning some more salt residue from the exterior, washing road grime from out trip south off our 1upUSA bike rack, then dumping and flushing our black tank.  The balance of the day was spent relaxing, and getting ready for a flurry of activity this coming week when we get the rebuilt alternator, new tachometer, and I can then install my Flexsteel seat.

We began watching a new series on Netflex called 'Lupin' suggested to us by Bob (of Bob and Sandy fame who are visiting Newell House in their 2007 Newell).  We watched 4 episodes, and are hooked.  It is a French production with the voices overdubbed (quite well done if you ask me), and some sub titles.

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A break from regularly scheduled programming.....

 8:05 am - Sunday - February 21st - Wittmann, AZ - 46° F, 40% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the northwest......crystal, clear, blue skies again today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2013 we were at a shooting range near Stuart Beach, FL with our good friend Ernie Prociw (pronounced Procee)......↴

....the views this morning........↴

As I suggested in yesterday's post it was time for a break in regularly scheduled programming after five straight days of working on projects.  We slept in, and after writing my latest missive I retired to my recliner to watch the rest of an English Premier League soccer match.  I had promised to accompany Tom to the local refuse transfer station to discard my old Flexsteel seat, the wooden pallet upon which the 'new' Flexsteel seat was delivered, and some other miscellaneous stuff whose time had come to be cast into the gigantic trash compactor at the transfer station.  We left around 10 am, and were home before 11 am, at which time I resumed my former position in my leather recliner.

I could not spend the entire day doing nothing so I spent a short time cleaning more salt residue off the front, and right front of the Newell.  I also disassembled the old charger/converter to scavenge the screws, the 20 amp cord, and the 12 volt fan.  Around 4 pm we had to stow the patio awning as the forecast afternoon winds had arrived.  They were gone by 8 pm, but we left the awning in its stowed position overnight.

We shared another community dinner with Tom, Darlene, Bob, and Sandy, and added to the mix some more friends of Tom and Darlene.....Gary and Cathy, who had stopped by to visit late afternoon.

We have now been in Wittmann for one week, and the weather has been exactly that for which we had hoped.....low humidity, temps in the 60's and 70's, and mostly crystal, clear, blue skies....this is how man was intended to live (that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it!).  It has been a time of much accomplishment with just a few projects remaining.....reinstall the rebuilt alternator when it is ready, install the new tachometer, install the 'new' Flexsteel seat, and get the new Michelin tires installed on our way out of town.  I'm sure I will add a few other small tasks to the list, but those are the four main tasks remaining.

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Time for a day off......

 7:45 am - Saturday - February 20th - Wittmann, AZ - 43° F, 41% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west by northwest......crystal, clear, blue skies again today with amazing forecast high of 73° F!  On this date in 2011 I was at the Blast Soccer Complex preparing to officiate a soccer match......↴

....and on this date in 2017 we awoke to 0° F, and 5 inches of snow on the ground at the Grand Canyon.......↴

I began Friday with low expectations, but ended up doing quite a bit.  I began slowly,  sitting in a camp chair, masking off the black area around the headlights on the driver side, then applying 3 coats of black gloss Krylon aerosol paint.  The finished product makes me smile.....

.....next up I needed to install the new Sirius/XM radio antenna.  The old one was about 7 years old, and reception was becoming spotty at times.....

.....first I had to remove the old lap sealant which covered the opening in the roof near the driver side air horn where the XM antenna, and DirecTV cables pass through the roof, and from the wire, and antenna, then clean the area with acetone in preparation for the application of fresh lap sealant.  Once that was done I removed the old antenna and wire, and then began to feed the new antenna wire through the hole in the roof into the compartment just above the driver seat inside.  Next I returned to the roof to apply the new lap sealant to cover the hole in the roof, and the wire leading to the antenna.  I seated the antenna head with silicone caulk affixing it to the aluminum roof.  That was the easy part....the hard, time consuming part was feeding it through the hole in the floor of the compartment over the driver seat (where our DVR is), then down the wire chase along the driver side windshield post, then under the dashboard to the Sirius/XM receiver.....

The overhead compartment

There's the antenna wire

The hole in the floor of the overhead compartment

The driver side window post wire chase

Plugged into the receiver!

.....after that I applied some grease to the track under TLE's Ekhornes chair to make it easier to rotate the chair, then tightened the screws affixing the shelf by TLE's chair to take the 'sag' out of it.  By the time I finished with TLE's shelf I was beat.....time for a much deserved jacuzzi.....

....shortly after I finished my jacuzzi sojourn Tom got out his drone and shot some aerial pictures of our 1982 Newell......

.....and then as he was landing it he took a picture of Bob and I talking.....

.....we shared dinner again with Tom, Darlene, Bob and Sandy.....by 8 pm I was one tired puppy, so bid our hosts adieu and headed for my recliner....another great day of accomplishment, but I think after 5 straight days of one project after another I'll take *Real Saturday off, and just relax.....I think I've earned it.

Thanks for stopping by!

* - Real Saturday = When I retired every day felt like Saturday to me.  I began to call Monday 1st Saturday, Tuesday 2nd Saturday, and so forth.  Therefore, Saturday became Real Saturday, and Sunday remains Sunday.

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