On this date......

 7:23 am - Wednesday - March 3rd - Riverside, CA - 42° F, 49% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northeast....partly cloudy today, with a chance of rain later this morning, and a forecast high of 59° F.  

For my friend Tom....today's blog post is for you....enjoy!

On this date in 2011 we were living, and working as camp hosts at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside, CA.......↴

......on this date in 2012 we were having lunch in Austin, TX with my sister and brother-in-law (Glenn and Laureen)........↴

....on this date in 2013 we were at Monk's Vineyard in St. Augustine tasting wine...↴

.....on this date in 2014 we were near Blythe, CA at Mayflower County Park on the Colorado River.....↴

.....on this date in 2015 we were in Pasadena, CA attending a college reunion...↴

....on this date in 2016 we were hiking Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside, CA....↴

....on this date in 2017 we were taking a tandem ride on our Cannondale viewing the numerous steel sculptures around Borrego Springs, CA........↴

....on this date in 2018 we were having dinner with Roscoe and Geni at a restaurant at the Grand Canyon, AZ.......↴

.....on this date in 2019 we were attending a fund raiser at the home of Tom and Darlene in Wittmann, AZ.......↴

.....on this date in 2020 we were at the Quechan Casino near Yuma, AZ for dental appointments the next day in Los Algodones......↴

....and, finally, on this date in 2021 we are in Riverside, CA at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park, where it all began.....↴

Tuesday greeted us with temps in the low 30's in Indio, CA.  By 9 am we were rolling our wheels a few blocks over to the local Walmart to do a little shopping before logging the final 79 miles to Rancho Jurupa Regional Park where we will spend three days visiting with our kids, and their kids.  

Our daughter-in-law, Laila (Tim's wife) picked us up around 3:30 pm to take us to their home in Ontario for dinner.  My daughter, Sharon, her husband, Rod, and son, Brayden, joined us there for dinner, along with my oldest daughter, Meredith.  We had a typical Hockwald time......three, or four conversations in progress at the same time.....lots of laughter, and hugs thrown in for good measure.....

....it has been over a year since we were able to hug and kiss our kids, and grand kids, and there will be much more of that over the next few days!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

Trouble in paradise.....

 6:40 am (Pacific Time Zone) - Tuesday - March 2nd - Indio, CA - 31° F, 43% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high here in Indio of 77° F.  On this date in 2018 we were having a couple of beers at Bright Angel Cocktail Lounge after hiking the Rim Trail at the Grand Canyon......↴

.....our view this morning.......↴

I began Monday with a sort of cloud over my head.  I didn't write about this yesterday as I was still trying to work out what had happened.  About 60 miles after leaving Wittmann the alternator stopped pouring electrons into our batteries, and my tachometer started jumping around like a water bug.  My mind always goes to dark places initially when things go wrong, and I began to believe I may have installed the alternator incorrectly by not engaging the gears correctly, and maybe, just maybe they had ground themselves into a pile of metal shavings.  This, of course is the worst, worst case scenario, and the worst, worst case scenario rarely, and I mean rarely, happens, but I go there anyway.  I did not sleep well Sunday night, tossing and turning as I worked through all the possible reasons why the alternator was not doing its job.  I awoke Sunday still not really knowing the 'why'.  

TLE wanted to arrive at the Quechan Border Parking lot by 9 am so she could visit Best Optical before our dental appointment at 11 am, and order some new eye glasses.  As a result we left Foothills Village around 8 am so we could stop off at the local ARCO fuel station to pay the rent (take on diesel).  We arrived at the ARCO around 8:20 am, and were back on the road about 25 minutes later after taking on 117 gallon of #2 diesel at $2.759 per gallon.  We do not want to take on fuel in California as diesel is a full dollar more, if not a $1.20 more per gallon.  We have covered 978 miles since fueling up in Sparks, NV which means we averaged 8.3 miles per gallon....a new record for us!  Of course the tailwind we had most of the drive south accounts for a lot of that increase, for sure. 

We arrived at the border parking lot around 9:05 am, paid our $12 parking charge, and were quickly on our way walking across the border into Los Algodones where we found most people wearing masks, but not all.  As we approached Best Optical we began to realize the sign had been removed from the building, and that they were no longer in business....DOH!  We've been buying our prescription glasses from them for the past 5 years, and TLE did not want to try another, so we walked over to our favorite little mall to get some coffee, and kill an hour before walking the final two blocks to Dr. Urena's office........

We love this place!

.....we decided to walk the final two blocks to Dr. Urena's office at 10:30 am just in case they could get us in early.  Due to the Wuhan Flu the border closes each day at 2 pm, so we needed to be in line to recross the border no later than 1 pm.  As it turned out they were able to get us in early, and by 12:40 pm we were finished, and on our way walking back to the border.  We got in line about 10 minutes to noon, and were through customs by 1:15 pm, in spite of a very long line.

I had not spoken to TLE about the alternator problem at this point, so on our way back to the Newell I filled her in on the problem, and what I planned to do.  I needed to remove the alternator to see if I had installed it incorrectly.  We were back at the Newell by 1:30 pm where I changed into some work clothes and began to remove the Leece-Neville alternator from its cradle.  As I pulled it out I saw that I had done nothing wrong.....everything was intact, as it should be.  I could hear an audible sigh of relief escape my lungs.  Now to determine what was wrong.  I gave TLE the good news, and asked her to come out and help me reinstall the alternator by helping me get the first bolt in, which I was able to do in pretty short order.  I reattached all the wires, including the tachometer wires, and then started up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92.....still no power coming out of the alternator. I then put the multi meter on it to confirm zero volts were flowing into our batteries.....DOH!

This is when the light went on in my mind......since the positive cable goes directly to the battery bank I should have been getting some reading, even if it was just from the batteries.  Then it occurred to me that there are two 90 amp breakers in the rear main electrical panel......one for the batteries, and second for the alternator.  I opened up the door to the panel and pressed the battery breaker, but it was okay.  I then pressed hard on the alternator breaker, and what do you know?  I heard an audible 'click ' meaning I had successfully reset it.  That was the problem.....for some reason it had tripped on Sunday.  Once it was reset, the alternator began working, and my tachometer began working properly again.  Yay for our team!!!  I ran to the entry door to the Newell, and yelled to TLE that our problem was fixed.....whew!  Below you can see the two 90 amp breakers....it was the alternator breaker which was preventing electrons from flowing to our batteries.......

......before solving this problem we were faced with possibly having to return to Phoenix to get the alternator fixed, and then having to rearrange our reservations in Riverside, as well as at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge, but now we were free to continue northward to our original destination for the day.....Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA.  We quickly buttoned up everything once  again, and began the 136 mile trek to Indio around 3:30 pm, arriving at the casino around 5:10 pm.  The elevation here at the casino is exactly sea level.....

The casino

Our parking spot for the night

....we quickly leveled the Newell, and settled in for the night knowing everything is once again working as it should.....what a relief!  I took a hot shower, and was treated to a dirty martini by TLE upon my exit.  We sat listening to music as the sun set behind the Newell.  The day had a shaky start, but ended in victory!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

'On the road again.......'

 6:44 am - Monday - March 1st - Yuma, AZ - 43° F, 25% humidity, wind - 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2017 we hiked up to the stone snake sculpture near Borrego Springs, CA with Becky Schade, a nomadic friend we first met while working at Amazon in Fernley, NV in 2014....

.....our view this morning......↴

As the sun rose in the east Sunday morning it became obvious it would be a day of crystal, clear, blue, wind swept skies.  All of the online weather forecast showed winds in the 20+ mph range along our route to Yuma, AZ out of the north by northwest.  We, as you know, prefer not to drive when it is windy, but sometimes you have no choice, but to proceed with a stiff upper lip, and hope for the best.  This is the third time on this one month trip we have done something we prefer not to do (drive at night, drive in the rain/snow).  We have dental appointments Monday morning in Los Algodones, Baja California, and we did not want to make the 176 mile drive early Monday morning.

After saying our 'until next times' to Tom, Darlene and Bob (Sandy was still asleep) we rolled out through the entrance gate around 9 am.  While there was a breeze, it was not too bad early on, but as we merged onto I-10 we began to feel the push from the passenger side.  Fortunately, we only had to cover about 10 miles of I-10 before turning south once again for another 30 miles to I-8, where we were once again headed west, and there we began to be buffeted about by the wind.  Much to my surprise, this only lasted about 30 minutes, and the winds seemed to abate somewhat, and were not an issue the balance of our drive into the eastern outskirts of Yuma.

We made one rest stop at the Sentinel Rest Area near Sentinel, AZ with about 70 miles to go.  The drive was completely uneventful, which is for what we always hope.  We arrived a little after 12 pm Arizona time, and were in site #408 at Foothills Village RV Park a few minutes later.  This is an older Encore/Thousand Trails park, but it neatly kept.  They provide contactless check-in online, but we were escorted to our site via golf cart by one of the park hosts, Peggy.

So, why did we choose an RV park 21 miles short of Los Algodones?  We normally park overnight in the Quechan Casino RV parking area, but due to the Wuhan Flu they are not allowing overnight parking at this time.  We, normally, do not make reservations, another thing we do not like to do, but because of the Wuhan Flu pretty much every RV park requires reservations.  Another reason was our former managers at Ramona Oaks RV Resort, Rich and Marnie, are staying just a block away, and we wanted to see them.

Around 3 pm we walked about 1/2 block through the park to a gate which led to a local cafe where we met Rich and Marnie for a late lunch. We talked non-stop for almost 2 hours before saying our 'until next times'.  By the time we exited the restaurant just before 5 pm the winds had begun to die down.  It was such a blessing to spend time again with Rich and Marnie, and I look forward to the next time our nomadic paths cross!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

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!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!