'Charging' ahead.......

 8:02 am - Friday - February 19th - Wittmann, AZ - 41° F, 42% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest......crystal, clear, blue skies today with a wonderfully delicious high of 69° F forecast.  On this date in 2015 we were boondocking outside Cottonwood, AZ on National Forest land watching a hot air balloon fly over our coach, and then went to breakfast at Crema Craft Kitchen and Bar downtown.......↴

It has been so long since I last had a #2 Combo at In 'N Out Burger that I cannot remember when it was.  It may be as long as 9 months.....the last time we were in Wittmann, AZ.  That is far too long in between so about mid morning TLE and I hopped in Tom and Darlene's Honda CRV, which they have graciously loaned to us for use whilst we are here, and drove into Surprise to do just that.  Of course, 10 am is a little too early for a hamburger so we stopped off at Home Depot first (at least 9 months, also, since I have darkened the doors of same) to pick up a few things for our home improvement projects currently underway.  Once that task was complete, we headed down Bell Road to the local In 'N Out Burger......

It has been far too long!

....the last time we were here (April, 2020) they only offered drive through service.....no indoor, or outdoor dining allowed.  Now you can go inside, order, and eat in either venue, so we parked the car and went inside.  You are not allowed to pour your own soft drinks, or gather your own condiments, but it's almost back to normal....

.....we arrived around 11:30 am, and had our dual #2's in hand within 10 minutes.  We chose outdoor dining on this day.....

....after lingering at our alfresco table for a nice, leisurely lunch, we were off once again to the local Autozone to pick up a few automotive things, and then to COSTCO to resupply on our favorite coffee beans (San Francisco), some wine, prunes and other necessaries.  By the time we finished with our COSTCO run it was closing in on 1:00 pm....we were home around 1:30 pm to find that while we were gone my new Progressive Dynamics converter/charger had arrived.  You will recall that this converter/charger is a multi stage charger, and as the batteries near 100% it reduces the rate of charge eventually reaching 'trickle charge' status when the batteries finally reach 100%.  At some point just before we left Seal Rock the multi stage aspect of the charger went away, and it would only provide a continuous bulk charge.  I happened to look up at our Danforth analog state of charge gauge one evening to find the needle in the red......

This is where the needle was (see RED needle)....

.....and this is where the needle should be (see white needle)...

.....I immediately turned off the charger, and then ordered a new one from Camping World so I could install it while we are here in Wittmann.  During the intervening days I only turned on the charger long enough to get the batteries back to 95%, then turned it off for the rest of the day allowing our solar system to top off the batteries.  It took me just 30 minutes to remove the old converter/charger, and install its replacement.  Now my analog D-C Amperes gauge is reading zero once again when the batteries are at full charge....they are not discharging, and not charging.....they are on trickle charge once again.......

.....once that was done I returned to my headlight project to apply the second coat of gloss back to the passenger side headlights assembly, removed the masking tape, and reinstalled the chrome bezel......

......my paint job easily passes the 10 foot test....looks great........

.....below is a picture of the driver side headlight assembly, which shows the paint deterioration over the years.....

.....I'll remove the chrome bezel from that assembly Friday, mask off the headlight assembly, paint it, and then cross one more item off my 'TO DO' list.

By the time I finished it was going on 4 pm, and time for a shower.  We joined Tom and Darlene, and their two guests (Bob and Sandy) for dinner, and great conversation.  Bob and Sandy have a 2007 Newell, 46' coach with four slides.  He and Tom are working on his coach to find, and stop numerous air leaks in his air system.

After dinner, when it was fully dark, I turned on the headlights to get a picture to give you an idea of how good these new LED's are......

Low beam.....

.....high beam....amazing, right?

....these headlights are brighter than my old ones by a factor of at least 5.....this is really a game changer.  While I still do not plan to drive at night when at all possible, at least I will be able to do so now safely.

One additional thing I have repeatedly forgotten to write about since we arrived in Wittmann is the replacement of another major (to us) appliance.  This replacement was completely voluntary, and not due to breakdown.  TLE has wanted a Breville  Smart Oven Pro   for a long time now......

.....the Breville replaces our Black & Decker toaster oven, which TLE did really like, but this Breville is the Cadillac of 'toaster ovens', plus it can handle up to a 13" pizza, and has an air fryer option.  Here you see some 'spent grain' muffins being cooked for breakfast.....yum!

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