Our Travel Blog

Another warm night, but not a warm day, again we just made it to 20°C. We did manage to spend sometime sitting outside, but it was cool (for us).

My apparent miscalculation involves the next place we move to, Williams Az, next Tuesday. The current forecast has 50cm of snow falling between Friday and Sunday, with night time lows around -8°C. That may not be low at home where there are big furnaces and well insulted double glazed houses to keep you warm. In a not so well insulated, propane heated trailer it is bl**dy cold. Hopefully the forecasters will be wrong yet again!

Lyn headed off to the craft group this morning. Unfortunately it was still too wndy for spray painting or quadcopter flying, so I spent some time with Excel trying to get it to do what I wanted and not what it thought I wanted. I won, eventually.

I have a gizmo in the truck that monitors and displays various engine parameters that I use primarily for measuring fuel consumption. It is about 5 years old and I have never updated the software in it, primarily because you need to send it off to the US for the update (and pay $25!). I finally decided to do something about it, but found out that the turn around time wouldn’t guarantee it would be mailed back before we left, BUT I discovered the factory was only about 20 miles from here, and I could go up there and get the upgrade done in 10 minutes for free. Guess where we’re going tomorrow.

After crafts Lyn spent some time on planning the Alaska trip, we suddenly realised it is not that far away!

We went for a walk around the resort after lunch and we even got a few drops of rain to keep us company.

Woke up to overcast skies at some ridiculous hour for me (7AM). Hopefully that bad habit won’t continue. The trailer was the warmest it had been overnight and the heating didn’t kick in at all. All sounds a bit contradictory to the title, but as the day wore on it struggled to get above 20°C! It was also much windier than usual, but it remained dry.

This morning we just hung around the trailer doing odd jobs, it was a bit too windy to do any spray painting today. I finally got around to doing some work on the quadcopter; one of the engine mountings needed a little TLC (glue) after a “wobbly” landing, and there was also a software update available for the flight computer. This software update then required a change in programming to the transmitter. Once that was all completed it was still too windy to do any test flying unfortunately.

After lunch we headed out to the town of Maricopa, about 25 miles NW of here. The primary reason was to get some antenna cable from Radio Shack. The price was ridiculously low, no wonder they filed for bankruptcy protection.

While we were there we also did some geocaching, we got 7 for 7 (they really don’t hide them too well down here!) which took me past the 300 mark.

Running out of titles and things to say! Another warm day, a little overcast but still up in the high 20’s.

It was a very slow start for me, but Lyn headed out after breakfast to a craft sale that was taking place at the resort. She returned remarkably empty handed , only 2 items! Over the course of the day I continued painting the frame of the 3D printer, it’s now about 75% painted.

We spent some time sitting around outside doing very little. After lunch we did a longish walk around the resort, and then on to the gas station outside the resort to get some shopping. We did about 2 miles in all.

I did some programming and computer work when we got back, and managed to destroy one of the computer boards I had been using. You live and learn!

Other than that, a very quiet day.

Warm and overcast today, temperature went up to around 28°C, but with the humidity down around 30% it doesn’t feel as warm as it would back home at that temperature.

Lyn had a bit more laundry to do this morning, so I got a little more painting done while she was gone. Once the bedding was hung out to dry we headed off to do the weekly shopping.

After lunch we headed into Casa Grande so I could get some more shorts, the ones I am wearing at the moment are 36″ waist and believe it or not, I now fit (comfortably) into a 32″. Lyn was being helpful and even found me a pair with a 33″ waist, but they were too big!

We also picked up a few other things that we hadn’t been able to get in the morning, then it was my turn to choose the store. Harbor freight was the store of choice, similar to Princess Auto back home. There were so many things to buy, but so little justification for buying them.

Back at the site we had coffee and sat around outside for a while, then I did a little more painting and called it a day. Don’t want to do too much work right ahead of the week-end.

Usual wake up conditions, but it is getting warmer during the day. We got up to 29°C this afternoon.

After breakfast Lyn headed out to do the laundry and I decided to start working on the 3D printer. The first order of business is to paint all the components that make up the framework. I got the first part done, then Lyn returned from the laundry, and I decided it wasn’t a good idea to spray paint while the laundry was hanging out to dry! I retired to do some programming. Later I just hung around outside doing some Sudoku as it was getting pretty warm in the trailer.

After lunch we headed out to the convention centre in town where there was a presentation by the Canadian Snowbirds Association. This is a group that provide support and information for Canadians spending winter months in the US. One of their key pieces of work at the moment is to persuade the US to allow retired Canadians to spend longer in the US than current rules allow, i.e. 182 days. They also have customised medical insurance and currency exchange programmes. One of the things that we have learnt through them is to fill out some IRS forms that will exempt us from being treated as US citizens for tax purposes…. worth doing if you are in the US for more than 30 days a year.

Once the information session was complete there was some entertainment provided by comedian Jimmy Flynn and singer John McDermott.

Back at the resort we just lounged around again, doing nothing in particular. Again the BBQ was brought into use for dinner, it gets used about 5 times a week. Talking, indirectly, of food I am having problems with my weight….. it continues to fall. I’m down 45lbs from the start, and Lyn is down 50lbs and still slowly dropping. I’ve started to eat some snacks, and as I don’t feel particularly hungry I’ll plod along as is and at some time an equilibrium should be reached.

It has got very quiet on the comments from readers…. is there any one out there, besides Michelle?

Again, sunny and clear when we woke up.

After breakfast we decided it was time to go exploring. Our destination was to the south, just outside Tuscon in the Saguaro National Park. We used the Interstate to get there as there was no simple alternate route.

Once off the freeway we had a few navigation problems, but got those sorted out with a quick stop at the tourist information bureau.

General View From Truck

We left the paved surface and started out on a sand / gravel road that was recommended for high clearance vehicles only! The road was pretty rough with a washboard surface, it meandered its way up and over a 3,000ft mountain; I wouldn’t have been happy taking the car. All around us were cacti and more mountains.

We even found a flowering cactus

We had packed a lunch and stopped at one of the picnic areas that had been set up back in the 1930’s. The US government had a make work project back in the great depression to allow out of work people to earn some money and and do projects that will benefit the community.

Lunch with a view

After lunch we headed out along the road to walking trail. This was a hard slog as we were about 3000′ up and the temperature was around 25°C. To make life a little more difficult the trail was fairly soft sand. Along the trail were a number of Blue Palo Verde trees, which despite the English part of the name, are green.

Two miles of this was a good workout. Back at the beginning of the trail, there was a shorter trail that led up to some petroglyths (rock engravings), that date back many thousands of years.

After the exercise we slowly wound our way home over more hospitable roads.

A beautiful clear and sunny day again. Temperatures climbed into the mid 20’s in the afternoon.

After breakfast Lyn headed off to do some “her” shopping, I wasn’t invited! While she was doing that I tried to come to terms with some software I was trying to pummel into submission. The software wasn’t willing to submit.

I went over to check the mail, and there was a cable there I had been waiting for. A similar one arrived a week ago, but was defective. Through the magic of eBay the seller just put another in the mail for me.

The cable will be used to connect the backup monitor in the truck to the two camera inputs I had been working on a few weeks ago. The monitor had been zipped tied to the dash in the interim, but I wanted to move it up closer to the mirror. In addition I wanted to install a switch to allow me to switch between cameras or switch the monitor off.

Once I got all the wiring done it was time to test out the setup….. it didn’t work! The camera from the truck worked, but the wireless one from the trailer didn’t. What followed was not pleasant, I figured I’d had enough issues with this setup previously and nothing else could go wrong. When I got nowhere with the setup in the truck I took the gear out and set it up in the trailer; it worked! I eventually tracked the issue down to a wrong connection on the switch I installed. I guess I tried too be little to smart on the way I wired up the switch. I finally got it all back together, and it now works as planned.

After all that, it was time to head out for our walk, we just went around the resort for a mile or so.

I think I finally have everything running how I want it in the truck and the trailer, hopefully it will stay that way. It’s now time to get some toys like the robot working the way I want them to.

Today was a holiday down here, Presidents Day. Held the third Monday of February it stems from a celebration of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays.

We woke up to sun and clear blue skies, although it was down to 10°C overnight.

After breakfast Lyn headed over to the craft meeting, and I spent a couple of hours doing a lot and achieving nothing!

After lunch we headed out for some geocaching a few miles north west of here, we got in about 2.5 miles of walking and managed to go 12 for 12 on the geocaches. The afternoon temperature made it up to 26°C, which was a great improvement over yesterday afternoon.

The rest of the day we were busy doing nothing!

We woke up this morning to clouds… not impressed! Today was cooler reaching only around 20°C.

We decided to treat ourselves this morning and go to Sunday breakfast at the resort. This resort is unique among all the ones we have stayed at, it has its own chef. Every morning there are free waffles and orange juice; so far we have refrained.In the evening there is

either a catered meal, or a pot luck and on Sunday morning a breakfast buffet. The meals cost between $6 and $8 each. Breakfast was good with great omelettes, potatoes, sausages, ham, grits and biscuits as well as warm cinnamon rolls, O.J. and coffee.

We got back from breakfast just in time to say good bye to our neighbours who were moving out to Yuma.

After breakfast it was time to tackle the toilet repair. It actually went much better than I dared to hope. The toilet did not need to be removed from its mounting, and the whole valve replacement took less than 30 minutes with no “yucky” stuff.

Given the large breakfast we skipped lunch and headed over the road to the fair grounds where there was a President day fun-fair and a rodeo. Last time we tried for a rodeo was in Texas where we almost drowned in a prolonged downpour, and didn’t see anything of the rodeo. Today, as we walked there it started to rain, not too heavy but the clouds were gathering in the lee of the mountains. We decided to go for it anyway, and as soon as we took our seats the rain got heavier. We stuck it out, and the rain came and went throughout the afternoon, at least it was a warm(ish) rain.

The rodeo featured a number of skills:

Wild horse or bronco riding where the rider had to stay on the horse for eight seconds. To qualify one hand had to remain off the horse and saddle for the entire time.

Stray cattle roundup, where two yearlings had to be caught and tied up by the feet.

Wild cow milking, here a cow had to be caught, brought to the ground, tied up and some milk taken. Fastest time wins.

Rounding up stray cattle into a trailer. A crew of four with two horses simulated arriving in an area where there were two stray cows that had to be rounded up and put in a trailer. It started with two horses in the trailer and the cowbows at the truck. At the signal they had to unload the horses from the trailer, round up the cattle, get them into the trailer, get the horses back into the trailer and lock the doors, again fastest wins.

Finally, branding. Here about 20 cattle were brought into the area, and herded behind a line about one third of the way down the arena. A team of 4 cowboys had to isolate a yearling from the herd move it down the area, catch it, lay it down and tie it then mock brand it. The rest of the herd had to remain behind the line, again fastest wins.

Despite the wet weather, a good time was had at our first rodeo.

We walked back to the resort where we changed out of wet clothing and had a hot drink before heading off to a friends site for afternoon drinks and conversation. What a difficult life!

Well it’s the weekend again. It doesn’t seem that long ago since the previous one; conversely it feels as tho we have been here for ages.

Another warm, but partially cloudy day today, up in the mid 20’s but more humid than we have felt for a while. After breakfast I made an executive decision…. toilet repair can be put off at least one more day. Instead I decided to (re)do the trailer  brake adjustment. I made a half hearted attempt at this a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have the correct tool, and didn’t get the full range of adjustment. The tool arrived the other day, and it made life a bit simpler. I also wanted to test out the hydraulic jack; the previous one complained about the weight and died, even though it was rated for 8000 lb and only had to lift 3000 lb. The one I have now was a replacement for the other, and works perfectly.

Last night we ran out of hot water, for some reason the gas water heater didn’t start so I recycled it and all was good. I did notice when it fired up that there was some debris in the combustion chamber, so that got a good clean out this morning.

After lunch it was back to a bit more planning, our friends who will be in Alaska the same time as us said that the hotels in the Denali Park were filling up quickly, even in June. They were right! I managed to track down a room for two nights at an RV resort! The resort has an associated hotel, we won’t be in a trailer. Even better it is only two miles from their hotel.

The only thing not booked for this trip is where to leave the trailer when we head home. The choice is fairly limited where we will be staying for the final week, and the price is more than we were expecting. I thought we would be OK as the campground that we will be staying at offers storage at a reasonable rate, but it turns out there is a waiting list. I was thinking of towing the trailer back with us and leaving it around Reno, which would position it well for a Lake Tahoe trip when we start out next year, but I am not sure leaving it in the heat of the desert is the best thing to do. I finally tracked down a place that is about 20 miles off our route home, and the price is reasonable. Hopefully that is all I need to do for this trip other than work out stopping places for the long trek east in March.

Mid afternoon we headed out for our walk around the resort, we definitely felt the humidity then. Back at the trailer we had our neighbours over for a farewell drink as they are moving out tomorrow.