Caballeros!

8:12 am - Mountain Time - Thursday - 49 F degrees, 65% humidity, wind 4 mph out of ENE......high clouds, but lots of blue sky.  

The other night when we attended the 'Festival of Lights' some people were handing out candy canes.....attached to those candy canes were free passes to the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in downtown Wickenburg.  We first became aware of this museum last year when we were visiting Tom and Darlene, but the entry fee of $12/person kind of put us off.....we've been to a lot of western museums over the past few years with most of them being 'free'.  Now for 'free' you can get really hokey, or really good.  Since we now had 'free' passes we decided we would drive into Wickenburg Thursday to check it out.

We left Wittmann around 11:30 for our 21 mile drive up to Wickenburg and arrived there within 25 minutes......we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the Museum......the first room we visited was one filled with scale model saddles of the various types of western saddles......there were dozens....I had no idea there were so many distinct styles.

There are two separate buildings and entrances

 Learned that Wickenburg is the home of the famous Bolo tie

Oil painting of the Grand Canyon which looks almost like a photograph

 Nice collection of antique Arizona license plates

Scale model of early Wickenburg

.....we spent about 90 minutes touring both museum buildings thoroughly enjoying all the displays before deciding it was time for a late lunch about 1:30.....within half a block is a great sandwich shop called Nana's Sandwich Shoppe.......

.....we ate here last year and decided it was the perfect place for lunch.....they have an alfresco dining patio in back, which is where we decided to sit there for lunch.....

.....both of us ordered a half sandwich and soup of the day.....Creamed Broccoli.....OMG.......

.......the kind of soup in which you can stand your spoon!  I had the 'Westerner' (cheese, bacon and a large green chili on sourdough).  The food and atmosphere was just as we remembered from last year.......Yelp give them 4.5 stars on 66 reviews and we agree!

We were home about 3 pm after stopping at Basha's, a regional supermarket chain, to do some 'small' grocery shopping, and managed to exit the store with half a cart.  We spent the rest of the afternoon reading.  Around 5 pm TLE served dinner which consisted of 'General Tsos' Chicken', which was simply amazing.

We watched a recorded episode of 'Bull' before settling in for the evening to watch the current 'Survivor' finale.  We thought anyone of the remaining three (Hannah, Ken, Adam) could win, and our pick was Ken, but we were totally wrong......Adam won an apparently unanimous vote.  That's the first time in a long time we haven't guessed the winner.  They all played a good game, but it really came down to who the 'jury' favored, and that ended up being Adam.

We were in bed by midnight......thanks for stopping by!

Knockoff........

8:11 am - Mountain Time - Wednesday - 49 F degrees, humidity 75%, wind 3 mph out of the NE.......once again we have high cloudiness.....forecast high 74 F degrees....getting warmer!

Tuesday started out slowly, and ended with a whimper.......I didn't exit the Newell for the first time until almost 11 am and that was to go and talk with Tom in the Newell garage to see if he had a 'check engine' light code reader.  The other day when we were coming back from Surprise after my haircut I got a check engine light (we got one just before we left Fontana, but  reset it to see if it would come back, and it did, of course), so I wanted to find out what caused it.  I had tried to go to a local Autozone back in SoCal, but apparently in California they are not allowed to allow you to borrow their code reader.....how odd is that?  Well, Tom does have one (he has everything), and is not bound by California law, so I plugged it in and here what I got.....

......two years ago I had a 'check engine' light here in Wittmann and it was the 'knock sensor 2', which is quite difficult to reach (I went to a VW dealership in Flagstaff on our way north that year and had them replace it), but 'knock sensor 1' can actually be seen, and reached without removing the intake manifold.  Tom and I looked it up on 'YouTube' to find out exactly where it was, and were able to quickly locate it on my 1.8 turbo engine.  Before actually removing the old one and replacing it the video suggested we first loosen the bolt holding it in place, and then re-torque it (15 foot pounds) to see if that solved the problem.  Well that's much easier, naturally, than actually removing it and replacing it so we did that.....once again Tom had the right tool.....a torque wrench small enough to fit in the space! Time will tell if that solves the problem.  If not, then I'll buy a new one and replace it myself.....they only cost about $18.

That was the sum total of my Tuesday (TLE washed our sheets, and made the bed, and washed some other clothes whilst I was otherwise engaged in my knock sensor diagnosis/troubleshooting endeavors).  I did a short workout on my back/ab machine, and then spent the balance of the day reading. Tom and Darlene had a church obligation spanning the late afternoon/early evening, so we were on our own for dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just scraping by....

8:32 am - Mountain Time - Tuesday - 53º F, 68% humidity, wind 3 mph out of east northeast.....forecast high 71º F.....high wispy clouds again, but plenty of sun.

I didn't have much planned for Monday, so I volunteered to help Tom with one of his new projects.....redoing the interior of a 1940 Ford Sedan street rod (below), which he bought in October......

1940 Ford Sedan with suicide doors

......to me the interior looked pretty good when it was first delivered.......

Interior before being gutted.....

.....sans interior

.......my task was to scrape and clean all the glue, etc. off the metal in the front area of the car in preparation for the installation of sound proofing (you can see some of it already installed inside the driver's side door).  We spent a couple of hours cleaning the floor board and firewall before calling it day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon outside in my zero gravity chair reading and enjoying the delightfully balmy Wittmann weather.  As we often do when in Wittmann, we gathered in Tom and Darlene's dining room for dinner together with Tom regaling us with some humorous stories about a past bout with kidney stones......not that having kidney stones is humorous, but the way Tom tells the story is just hilarious.

Thanks for stopping by!

Making it feel like 'home'.....

8:12 am - Mountain Time - Monday - 49 F degrees, 71% humidity, wind 3 mph out of northeast....high wispy clouds.....forecast high 71 F degrees.

It has been a tough week for my NFL teams......first Oakland lost, then Sunday the Broncos lost a close game 13-10 to Tennessee, and the Seahawks lost in a blowout to the Packers.  Then came the Sunday night game between the league leading Dallas Cowboys and my New York Giants.....I have to admit I didn't think the Giants had a chance, but that is why they play the games, right?  The weather in New York was freezing, and the same Giant defense that defeated the Cowboys in the first game of the year showed up again and the Giants came out victorious 10-7, so at least NFL Sunday ended on a high note.

During the day I continued to deploy stuff.......I brought out the anti gravity lounge chairs, and tables for the patio area, I put the jack stands under the four corners of the trailer to stabilize it since it is not attached to the coach right now, and then spent time cleaning the dust off the rear of the coach, and the front of the trailer.

Feeling more at home now....

.......jack stand stability......

......separation from the mother ship

Sometime in the afternoon I got the step ladder out so I could spray off the patio awning and all the window awnings.....they still had grime on them from the 6 months we were in South Lake Tahoe, as well as some pine tree sap........I think they turned out pretty good......

 This is the best the patio awning has looked in a year.....not bad for almost 35 years of age, huh?

.......I even got out and set up the back/ab machine without having to remove the tandem, or TLE's Cannondale!

We had dinner with Tom and Darlene courtesy Darlene......chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, salad and corn.  After dinner I headed back to the coach to watch the aforementioned Cowboy vs. Giants game whilst TLE and Darlene drove into Wickenburg to see a dance performance.  TLE was home just before the end of the game.....we watched the last 45 minutes of 'Lake House' (2006) starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.  If you have not seen 'Lake House' give it a watch.....very interesting premise and story.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wittmann life.....

8:43 am - Mountain Time - Sunday - 52 F degrees, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of east northeast.....high clouds.....buckle up, and get ready for NFL Sunday Ticket!

Saturday began with a visit to the local Wittmann Flea Market which runs every Saturday and Sunday 52 weeks per year.  Tom sent me a message about 8 am advising if I wanted a ride he was leaving at 8:30 am, and true to form Tom was in his car waiting just outside the Newell when I exited the coach.

It takes about 3 minutes to drive to the Flea Market from Tom's home.....it is right at the intersection of SR-60 and Center Street and is held on approximately 5 acres of vacant land right across the street from the local water company.  Tom and I have pretty specific interests which essentially revolve around good quality used tools.  On this Saturday I came across nothing I could not live without, but Tom found another 1/2" drive ratchet along with a 6" extension.....the seller was asking somewhere north of $8 for both pieces, but Tom got him to accept $6 for both.

Wittmann Flea Market

On the way home Tom suggested we take a 'quad' ride........he has a few Kawasaki quads in his garage, which have 5 speed automatic transmissions.  There are dirt roads, and paths that wander for miles over the local landscape.  You can literally ride for hours and never see pavement.  We spent over an hour riding from 'here to eternity' before arriving back home around 11 am.  I have no idea where we went, or how we got back home as I was completely disoriented most of the time, however, at one point Tom stopped and pointed to the northeast......we could see the upper portion of his enormous Newell garage.....it is amazing how far away you can see his garage!

I needed a haircut in the worst kind of way so TLE and I decided to drive into Surprise to the local Supercuts around noon time where I encountered a long line.  Since we were next to the local Fry's supermarket she decided to do her grocery shopping whilst I waited for my haircut.  After that was done we headed to a nearby Autozone where I picked up a gallon jug of Simple Green which I will use to power wash my radiator, and a can of Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish which will be used to polish up my ALCOA rims.

We got home in time to watch the end of the annual Army - Navy football game......Army came in having lost the last 14 games to Navy, and they were determined to end that streek, which they did winning a close contest 21-17.

We spent the evening relaxing.....TLE reading, and me watching mindless TV.....thanks for stopping by!

Light it up!

7:41 am - Mountain Time - Saturday - 44 F degrees, humidity 75%, wind 2 mph out of the north.......high clouds this morning, and the forecast for the near future is pretty much the same.....forecast high is 70 F degrees.

We spent part of the day deploying some of our Xmas decorations......we made a point of retrieving our small Xmas tree from my son's warehouse to bring with us as we will be celebrating Xmas on the road again this year.  TLE did a nice job of decorating it.....

.......I put up our regular decorative lights that we use whenever we are in one place for an extended time, such as we are now.  

I spent time cleaning the dust off our windows.....where we are staying most of the roads are not paved, and just driving into the property we are staying at covered everything in dust.  I'll be washing the exterior of the coach in the next few days, and especially all of the awnings as they haven't really been cleaned since our 6 month stint at SLT (South Lake Tahoe).

Around 5 pm we drove into Wickenburg to meet our friend Tom who drove in earlier with his daughter to prepare for the annual Wickenburg Parade of Lights.  It's not a highly organized parade.....all you have to do to participate is add your name to the parade list and show up with your vehicle decorated with lights.  After fueling up at a local station we arrived at the parade venue around 5:45, and the parade began promptly at 6:30 pm......

10 minutes until parade time!

And it begins!

.......I didn't take any pictures of the parade, but TLE got the sightly blurry one above.  I did do a Facebook 'LIVE' video which can be seen on my Facebook 'Wall' if you wish to view it.

We were home by 7:45 pm, and settled in to watch 'Gold Rush', 'Hell's Kitchen', and a recorded episode of 'Designated Survivor' before heading to bed around 11 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!

Arizona charm......

7:53 am - Mountain Time - Friday - 44 F degrees, humidity 71%, wind 4 mph out of the north......partly cloudy, but mostly blue skies greet us this morning.

We began Thursday by removing the VW from the trailer, then dropping the trailer and moving it back about 3 feet with the 'Trailer Valet', and finally putting out our awning mat, awning, and sun shade......

......I moved the trailer back 3 feet in anticipation of power washing our rear facing radiator, which has not been cleaned in about 8 months......unless it (the trailer) is moved back I cannot open the radiator 'door' far enough to get at the radiator properly with the pressure washer.

I then spent time installing the handlebar mounts for our new Garmin cyclo computers.  TLE and I have used the Garmin Edge 205 for 10 years, and they have been great, but they are old, and their batteries don't hold a charge as long as they used to, so I decided to upgrade to the Garmin 500 for each of us.....

Edge 205 on left, and Edge 500 on right

......these new Garmin are much more powerful, compact, and have much longer battery life.......the great thing about GPS based cyclo computers is there is no wiring, and no need to program in your tire size, and,  therefore,  it can be moved from bike to bike with ease. meaning we only have to have two of them!

While I was working on the Garmin install Tom (our host) put up a picture of his Gilligan Island pinball machine with a special message he had just programmed into it......

......love that Arizona Charm!

Around 1:15 we drove into Wickenburg to watch a rehearsal by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the Wickenburg Ranch subdivision......this is not something I would have been interested in 5 years ago, but I am glad I went......I was intrigued by the creative process.  Tom's daughter, Laura, works for the Del Webb Performing Arts Center in Wickenburg, so that was our 'in' to see the rehearsal.  We were home before 4 pm.

I watched the Thursday Night Football game (TNF) between the Raiders and Chiefs......it was played in Kansas City in freezing, windy conditions.  Ultimately the game was decided by a kickoff run back for a touchdown by the Chiefs.  The Raiders never got untracked, and lost 21-13.

Thanks for stopping by!