Okay......enough with the numbering!

6:56 am - Wednesday - March 20th - Wittmann, AZ - 50º F (yeah, baby!), 31% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast......clear blue skies with a forecast high of 82º F (yeah, baby!).  We roll our wheels in 2 hours for Indio, CA where the high today will be 88º F (yeah, baby!).  As I sat down this morning to compose my latest missive I decided I was done with numbering my days in a particular location.  I numbered our days at Desert View for 127 days, and then continued numbering them here in Wittmann for 3 additional days.  I need to re-engage my imagination and start generating original titles again.

Tuesday was our last day in Wittmann, AZ this year.  I spent most of the day when I wasn't reading (and I read a LOT), working in the trailer to discard a few things, as well as find new storage places for others, and by the end of the day I had things pretty much under control for the first time in months.  

About 9 am our over night Newell visitors, George and Phyllis, fired up their Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine and made their way slowly out of the McCloud Compound.  We will be following their example on Wednesday......

.....it has been a wonderful 5 days in Wittmann spent visiting with Tom and Darlene, and re-acclimating to lower elevations and much warmer weather.  I was thinking the other day about how long we had been living in cold temperatures before we departed Desert View, and it seems it has been since late September in Montana.  Other than our two trips to SoCal for weddings in that interim, and then a our 1 week stay at Lone Rock (Lake Powell) just before we arrived at Desert View, we have been living in cold temps for 6 months.....that's enough for one lifetime, right?

Around 4:30 we decided to go ahead and insert the VW into the trailer, and then we were pretty much done getting ready for our current departure.  All that remains to do Wednesday is to disconnect the utilities and stow the patio awning.

Our plan Wednesday is to drive to Indio, CA where we will meet up with good friends Steven and Linda for three days at the Indio Elks Lodge.  We stayed there with them 2 years ago for 2 days in January of 2016.  During a span of time from New Year's Eve 2015 to late January 2016 we traveled with them from Octotillo Wells, to Borrego Springs, to Indio, to Quartzite.  It was a great three weeks!  We haven't seen them since then, and are really looking forward to spending a few days with them again.

Tuesday felt like a reading day, and that is what I spent most of my time Tuesday doing.  I actually started and finished a book on Tuesday.  Haven't done that for a long time!

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Decompression - Day 3

7:11 am - Tuesday - March 20th - Wittmann, AZ - 43º F, 34% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northeast.......clear blue skies with a forecast high today of 77º F.

It's interesting how the human mind adapts and adjusts so quickly......we've only been gone from Desert View for three days + days, but it seems like much longer than that.....seems like a month has passed.  I got used to seeing early morning temperatures in the teens and 20's at Desert View, but now, just 240 miles south of that location I think nothing of seeing an early morning temperature in the mid 40's every single day.  I'm beginning to stow away my winter wear in favor of more shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.....I spend more time outside each day than I do inside.

I had three things I wanted to accomplish Monday......completely detail the VW......thoroughly vacuum all the sand and gravel out of the interior, put some leather dressing on the seats, and then wash and detail the exterior.  Secondly I needed to refill my oil reservoir, which was down to about 1 gallon of Dello 400, 40 wt. oil.....the reservoir holds 3 gallons total.    I think the last time I topped it off was about 14 months ago when we were in Wittmann the last time.  Then, after emptying the two 1 gallon jugs of oil which I store in the left engine bay into the reservoir I would need to refill them out of my 5 gallon bucket of the same oil, which had 4 gallons left.  Finally, I needed to dump the black tank as it has been a week since the last dump.

She looks 'purty' again

I began the VW detailing project about 10 am and finished just before noon at which time I took a nice break  in Tom's man cave talking with him, then it was on to topping off the oil reservoir......

 The 3 gallon oil reservoir

 The sight tub has a black line drawn for every quart....you just move the white zip tie down 1, 2, or 3 quarts and then turn on the gate valve to let the oil drain into the engine until the oil level falls to the zip tie level, then turn off the gate valve

The gate valve that controls the oil flow into the engine

......I have to get out my short step ladder to to stand on while pouring the oil into the reservoir.....I use a large funnel an 18" flex tube......40 weight oil is quite thick and it takes a while to pour in two gallons without it overflowing the funnel.  It took me about 30 minutes in all to get that done, and yes, there were a few spills.

I was in the middle of topping off the oil reservoir when another Newell owner arrived at the McCloud Compound for an overnight stay.  We've never met an Newell owner we did not like and we immediately took a liking to George and Phyllis.  I stopped what I was doing and got out my 10' b50 amp extension cord so George could plug into the second 50 amp plug.  After our introductions I went back to the oil reservoir project finishing it about 30 minutes later.  Then I had to refill the two 1 gallon jugs so I will have 5 gallons of oil with me when we leave Wittmann on Wednesday.  Just for the record, Detroit Diesels series 92 engines typically use about 1 quart of oil every 8 hours of operation, and that was the case when we first bought our 1982 Newell, but over the 60,000 miles we have put on the coach since then the oil usage has decreased to 1 quart every 12-14 hours of operation, so we're adding about 1 quart every 800 miles driven.

George and Phyllis' 1995 Newell, 46'

Finally, I was down to my last task of the day.....dump the black tank, which was done in short order.....so much nicer dumping the black tank when it is in the 70's outside.....so much nicer!

TLE spent the afternoon preparing lasagna for dinner, and it turned out wonderfully.  We had a nice group dinner in Tom and Darlene's dinning room.  I was tired after a long day of physical work, which I haven't done for a long time, so after dinner I retired to the Newell, took a nap, and then watched some TV before heading to bed around 10:30 pm after awaking from a second nap!  TLE spend time inside playing cards with Darlene.  So, Day 3 of 'Decompression' is complete!

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Decompression - Day 2

7:39 am - Monday - Wittmann, AZ - 45º F, 31% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west.....clear blue skies once again!  Forecast high for today is 72º F!

It takes me a while to break an old habit, and the habit I am trying to break right now is waking up at 5:15 am.  I managed to make it all the way til 6:30 am Sunday morning, but I was awake at 5:30 am......does that count?  I have successfully broken the habit of wearing pajamas in the morning.....I'm now down to a t-shirt and shorts first thing in the morning. I'm still wearing my slippers, however.  We are now down to running one electric heater first thing in the morning instead of 4.....that is a big change!

By 9:30 am we had all the windows open in the Newell....that hasn't happened since last October.  We had planned to set off a 'bug bomb' to kill spiders, and other small insects which tend to accumulate when sitting in one place for months at a time, and we have been idle for 8 of the last 9 months, so it was time.  While the 'bug bomb' did it's duty we drove into Surprise to do some shopping, including the local Goodwill store where TLE found a few things she could not live without.  Then it was across town into Peoria to have lunch at one of our favorite local micro breweries.....Rock Bottom Brewing.  Whenever we are in Wittmann we always have lunch, or dinner there at least once......we arrived there about 11:30 and were quickly seated outside, and within seconds our server was taking our beer order......

.....two Roadrunner Brown Porters, thank you (the 25 oz. for moi, and 20 oz. for TLE)!

 

Sizzling Stuffed Peppers (roasted poblano peppers stuffed with chicken, chorizo and three cheeses) for moi

The Quesadilla for TLE

We haven't utilized alfresco dinning for months, but Sunday was the day!  We sat there savoring our entrees (we did also order one of their starters.....bacon wrapped, stuffed jalapeños).  It was close to 1 pm before we decided it was time to head across the parking lot to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things before heading for home.

We were back home by 2:30 and airing the 'bug bomb' out of the Newell.  TLE then spent the next 90 minutes thoroughly vacuuming all the spider and bug corpses that remained.....the 'bug bomb' did its job!

While TLE put away the groceries and did the aforementioned vacuuming I spent time in the trailer installing a couple of hooks to hang all of our extension cords.  I had been storing them in our electrical bay with our 50 amp extension cords, but they have become so numerous it has been difficult to find anything in there.....

.....yeah, I know, but you can never have too many extension cords.  I have found that however many extension cords you may have you will always wish you had one more.

While this was going on I was watching the current PGA tour event, and watching Tiger climb the leaderboard.  At one point he was 12 under par, and only one stroke behind the leader....then he bogied the next two holes while the leader went on a birdie binge finishing at 18 under par whilst Tiger faded to 10 under.  The rest of the afternoon and early evening I watched more NCAA March Madness games featuring several amazing upsets, which is what I love about March Madness!  

Well, that was our 'Decompression - Day 2'.....thanks for stopping by!

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