Cyber-Monday at the camper...

Dar is not feeling well (icky tummy and a bit dizzy) so I am hanging out here at the camper and playing nurse.

Sooooooo....   I bought our Christmas presents..  ((We both picked out the models we liked))..  Neither of us have ridden a bike in roughly 20 years so we will be starting slow.  

They should be delivered in a week. We will look at helmets then too. Then I get to play bike mechanic and assemble. That's okay because even if they were pre-assembled, I would take them apart, inspect and re-lube the bearings etc..  Hey - a guy's gotta have his projects!

It's getting pretty cool here at night.  There was frost on our SxS outside and the local temps were said to be about 32.  We have pretty close to full propane tanks so I'm not too worried about it.  There's not a cloud in the sky and the temp is 69 now at 1PM here..  I may just have to go outside and shovel some sunshine!!! :)

Blue Sunday - it's not what you think!

11/29 - Sunday

Not a big update today...  Actually, I'm not even sure that I need to make it.  But I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you and some of my perspective...
I won't go into a long diatribe about the commercialization of Christmas - those that know us also know where we stand with our faith..
We're all under seige by every retailer both brick and click to save HUGE money by shopping their exclusive super BLACK FRIDAY sales - Americans seem to be wearing down and the hype is not working.. How is that? Oh I don't know - maybe my first clue was the early November "Sneak previews limited only to our VERY BEST customers" namely anyone with a buck that will click or read their leaked evidence of unprecedented low prices...  And those sales will run deep into the first week in December via Cyber-Monday and hold-over sales.
Gee - do you think that just maybe we might be being over-charged the rest of the year?
Enough already!
All that said - we've both turned to online shopping for much of what we need. It's all about convenience and spending our time and money as wisely as possible.

Pics below are ---
WE LOVE LIGHTS!!!
Pics 1&2 - our camper after sundown
Pics 3&4 - our house in Kenyon after sundown (taken last year)

We do like to celebrate Christmas and we love all the decorations and displays that go along with it.
We also love lights!

Playing Hooky!!!!

Friday 11/27 -- Dar and a couple of ladies from the park went to town to do some Produce shopping. I stayed back (((far back))) from that excursion to take care of a few things on the GrassHoppa SxS..  After working on re-seating the cable for the temperature sensor, I went for a short ride out in the desert today as a test with a few buddies..  

Initially we rode out to find the site where someone(s) had blown up a home made bomb out in the desert a few nights ago..   We found the shredded remains of a Water Heater.  We presume that they had put Propane in it, sealed it and ignited with a long fuse.  The shrapnel was scattered hundreds of feet from the point of detonation.  I hope they got the charge out of it that they were looking for.  Or maybe they just wanted to scare half the Seniors that live in our RV Resort?  

We policed the area a bit and made several piles of the shards to get them out of the trails.. Usually when I find litter in the desert, I pick it up and bring it back to the re-cycle dumpster by our camper. This stuff was too big and too sharp. I did, however, pickup the brass and shotgun shells from someone's fun time in the desert.. 

What next?  Hey let's go thataway!!!  We rode deeper and off to the north a ways..

One of our stops was to observe some corn grinding holes known as Morteros (where the people would pummel corn and other grains into meal) in the rocks - this was 8 to 10 centuries ago and the civilization was known as the Hohokams...
Take a look at the following link for more details::
http://tucson.com link to Grinding holes

After that, we just explored the rocks in the washes like four school-boys playing hooky..  Great fun! I'm starting to get used

 to this retirement gig..  Not bad!!!

Oh and the GrassHoppa behaved himself just fine.  So the new sensor I ordered will probably only be installed if we have a repeat performance of the error codes..  Computers and sensors are great when they work as designed.

It is Thanksgiving Leftovers Night at the RV Park in the meeting hall...  The four of us guys had all gone off into the desert without lunch, but remembered our waters..  When we got back, we were dusty and hungry - our wives probably all looked at us with shaking heads..  Shoes and jackets off outside - don't bring all that dust into the house - get cleaned up, you're a mess ----  

Just wonderful!!

Picture legend below....

Pic-1 That is the GrassHoppa in the middle

Pic-2 Ancient Corn grinding holes

Pic-3 My size-13 shoe for size comparison. The corn grinding holes were about 10-12" across and 8-10" deep.

Pic-4 Green Lichen all over the place here..

Pic-5 Randy alongside a stand of Prickly Pair cactus to give you an idea as to their adult size..

Wow - what a day and sunset!

We had another one of Arizona's famous sunsets tonight...  The temps were a bit cool today..  Randy had to see the dentist today and got a root canal. No joy there, but at least he won't be suffering from that infected root any longer.  We hope to get a final diagnosis and repair on the SxS soon.  Randy will probably just see if he can replace the sensor.

Happy Trails - Ride #3

Sorry for the delay in our updates. We just got our monthly allotment of bandwidth on our cell phones...

Monday 11/23

We went for another ride out into the desert today in search of an old cabin that we didn't find.  We had a problem with the Arctic Cat Wildcat Trail today.  It started flashing an error code that indicated an erratic engine coolant temperature..  We really didn't want to take any chances of being stalled out.  I'll check the connections to the sensor when we get back to the RV Park.

Lots of cactus (as usual), but still very interesting..  I remember a western movie where John Wayne extracted water from a Barrel Cactus..  This was movie madness and cacti are not to be used as a direct source of water. The fluid inside cactus is actually very noxious and high in alkalies which would make you sick. 

Picture 1 - These little round guys in the first picture are called Prickly Pear cactus..  They are more prevalent than any other cactus in the area and grow very quickly as an invasive weed.  Edible after a lot of effort to remove the spines and the outer sheath and further preparation I won't go into here..  

The second picture is a Saguaro we found while on our ride. This guy has got to be 40-50' tall and possibly between 150 and 200 years old...  Simply amazing with all its arms!

Third picture is of part of the trail we were on.

Rocky trails are the norm in most areas here..  Rocks are exposed by water washing out the sand when it rains.  Many of the rocks are soft with round edges ,while other parts of the trail are loose and very sharp jagged rocks are all over.  It's important to have good tires that will resist puncture and yet give you good traction while negotiating some of the steeper washes and small ravines..

The fourth picture is of a hill which lot of yellow moss / fungus on it - We found it to be rather strange and not characteristic of the area...  Then again it may not be strange at all.  We are still learning and will be for a very long time..

Pictures 5 & 6

These are some very interesting. They look like quartz that was melted a dripped into a rose like pattern.  I have one of these rocks at home that is probably 2 x 3"...  After a bit of Internet sleuthing, I've found that these rocks are actually called Chalcedony which is a cryptocrystalline (say that fast three times) form of quartz. These can be found growing in veins and hosted by a number of different types of rock as well as basalts.

We seem to be turning into Rock Hounds...  We now have a small hammer and chisel in case we happen upon another area which may have turquoise!

Desert run to a defunct Turquoise Mine

We went for a nice ride in the desert today with the temps in the upper 60's..  We went to an area called 4 peaks.  Many narrow trails and loose-sharp rock.  The GrassHoppa earned his keep and may be renamed.  Dar thinks we should have named the SxS "Billy Goat"..  In a way I agree...  Some of the inclines we went up were steeper than I could have climbed on my own.  We used 4 wheel drive in case we lost traction with the rears.

At just shy of half-way in our 35 mile journey today, we visited a defunct turquoise mine.  There were still a few veins visible but we had no chisel or hammer..  Notes taken for tools to be taken along on future trips.  At that we could still pick up chunks of rock with turquoise embedded..

We stopped on the north side of one of the peaks at an area called Sherwood Forest.  It was a lush green area in the middle of the desert.  Pretty neat!

Connections....

Hi folks...
It's been a little while since our last post.  We have very sporadic internet connectivity here and are looking into affordable options.  We're basically out of wireless data bandwidth for the next 10 days so it may be a little while before we can upload pictures.

Randy's still dealing with a sinus infection and hopefully it's on the way out.  Dar's allergies are also kicking but not as bad.
We missed a ride on Friday where many were trailering their SxS up into the mountains and riding out from there.  We spent the day getting settled in, shopping and yes - we bought a small enclosed used trailer.
We are still enthralled with the beautiful scenery here. The cactus' range from little guys barely a few inches tall to Saguaro that are 30-40-50' tall....  We've not encountered any snakes, tarantulas or scorpions to this point and hope that we don't..  Wild pigs and coyotes are in the area, but have not been in the park area to our knowledge.  The temps here dip down to the upper forties and low fifties. The high temps over the last couple of days are in the upper 70's to low 80's.  I think the humidity must be 30 or less.  No need for AC, but the furnace gets clicked on during the evening.  There are very few flying insects here - which is truly a blessing and makes being outdoor very enjoyable.
The forecast for next week says we will get some cool and rainy weather..  Sounds like a good opportunity for us to work a little harder on learning to play Cribbage.
CoCoa is getting used to our gravel lawn but she'd far prefer grass..  It's going to be a while before she sees that again.  She has met a number of dogs both large and small here and she's her typical "indifferent" self around them.
Well, we're going to try and post this update now. Pictures will follow - we promise!!!

Desert Destinations

Hi folks,

Our friends Tom & Joyce showed us the shopping spots in town today. Actually we went into Mesa to Walmart, Harbor Freight tools, Tractor Supply Co. and Camping World. We came back with a truck full of supplies, groceries and such..

Afterward we made our first trip out into the desert on the SxS...

While we only went about 15 miles or so, we had a blast.  Lots of cactus.  Rocks with Petroglyphs and GOBS of sunshine and beautiful scenery!

Randy's allergies are still kicking his tail...  It will probably take some time to get acclimated..

This is one of the bazillions of Saguaro cactus in the area.  This one is a good 35' tall or taller.  I'm told that they don't start growing their "arms" until they reach about 75 years of age. Many out here are multiple hundreds of years old... 

The Fortress has landed!!!

Hi folks...

Well we've put on a bit over 2,000 miles in the last week and are now here at our winter home in the RV Resort in Gold Canyon AZ.

Here's a pic right at sundown...

For those interested in the performance of the 2015 F350 diesel --

Big-Foot did a great job.  Our average fuel economy was as low as 7.2 with a slight headwind and as high as 8.7 with a slight tailwind.

Regenerations of the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) were about every 350 miles or so and did not seem to impact fuel economy at all... I was watching on my ScanGuage-II for the Temp on the fourth EGT sensor and it went as high as 1180..  Funny thing is that the GPL was never over .8 and a lot of guys think that the truck won't regen until it is over 3.5..

This truck is strong as an Ox and I am well pleased with his performance.

Thank you to all our friends and family that wished and prayed for a safe arrival!

Y'all Betcha!!!

It's a bit chilly here this morning in Las Cruces (40)..  CoCoa found a warm spot to hang out for a bit last night...

We will be packing away the hoses and cords - pulling in the slides and lifting anchor in the next couple of hours so I thought I would share these pics.

The mountains are very pretty to us relocating flat-landers from Minnesota..  

We have to be getting our southern Minneeeesoda 'twangs warmed up..  :)

Y'all Betcha!!!

The Coyote and RoadRunner

The Coyote and RoadRunner

I'm writing this from our camping (parking) spot for the evening..  We are at the CoachLight RV park in Las Cruces New Mexico and have the Xfinity NASCAR race at Texas on the TV.. We've seen a number of NASCAR trailers for the Camping World series that were also headed west. Presumably to Phoenix. 

The pictures are of our spot for the evening and from the road as we were driving west from Monahans Texas...  Lots of loooooooong road with cactus and mesquite trees on either side.  The speed limit was 80 most of the way, but since we're not in a hurry we stuck to 65 or so...  West Texas is REALLY big and I swear you can see forever in any direction.  Funny but odd note - as we were driving down the highway, we saw (many times) the remains of Coyotes that were not as fast as their executioners..  No sooner did we mention all the Coyotes, we had a Road Runner dart across the highway in front of us and I am certain that I heard the BEEP-BEEP as he hopped up on a guard rail and smiled...

For those interested in the performance of Big-Foot (the truck) -

It has been getting slightly better economy today at 8.2 MPG avg.  Big-Foot never broke a sweat while hauling up the mountain roads we have encountered so far.

I have noted that there is a 2-3 MPH speedometer error at 65 MPH (GPS) where the speedo indicates 68 but GPS says 65. I'm inclined to believe the GPS.

Also noted was the cruise control - which is rock solid when not towing - will allow the speed to drift down from 65 to as low as 62 before it accelerates to as high as 68 before backing off..  Not really happy about that - nor are the people following me. I will probably have to take it to a dealer once we land in AZ.

Dawn in the desert....

I just had to share these pictures from our camper...  It's 47 degrees and supposed to rise to low 70's...
We had a good nights rest and will be on our way in just a few hours..  We are traveling along I-20 which will merge with I-10.  We will probably go as far as Las Cruces New Mexico today..

West-Ward HO!!!!!!!!

After looking at one oilfield "shanty town" RV Park after another in the Midland-Odessa area, we decided to press west-ward...  We are so glad that we did!!! We are camped at Monahan's Sandhills State Park in Monahans Texas..

What a beautiful place!  Sand dunes everywhere - full hook ups - pull through site - $15 a night and $4 for each person...

So far that beats the bananas out of Walmart!

The Journey West - continues

We've had a marvelous few days here in Texas and got to spend some quality time with family and dear friends here...
Randy and Dean (our son's Godfather) worked on lowering the fifth wheel hitch and the hitch in the truck. Apparently, we did not have enough clearance and when we were parking, the hitch fouled the side rails on the truck for our bed-cover.  After that adjustment, he managed to spend some time today with a long brush and scrubber to get many of the bugs off the truck and Fortress.  I won't show pictures of bugs, so you'll have to take our word for it that both had literally pounds of bugs mashed all over.
We had some pretty bad storms move through North Texas today and there were tornados in the area. We were luckily in a section of the area that was missed by most of the heavy rains and high winds.
Tomorrow we leave at 9:00 AM and head west.  Our next stop is Monahan Texas where we will spend the night at an RV park. Well, that's the plan as of now.
More later!

Walmart Camping oh BOY!!!

Hi folks,

I'm writing this from the comfort of our camper in a campground about a mile from the Texas Motor Speedway (NASCAR track) in Roanoke TX.  We got here just after dark and have to tell you that backing this 58' long monster up in the dark is a real treat!

Okay - lets back up the bus and I'll fill you in on last night's fun!  We stayed a Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Olathe Kansas.  Sam Walton had made it possible for travelers to stop and rest the night in his parking lots. Most Walmarts still observe this rule and the one we stayed at was no exception.
When we pulled in to the back of the lot, we were all alone. I posted our update just before three 18 wheeler drivers pulled in on either side of us.  Once they shut their engines down, things were pretty quiet except for all the street traffic...  About an hour later engines started running again as they were probably getting cold and needed heat.  We did not need heat but sure could have used some peace and quiet.  Between Dar and I, I think we got maybe 6-7 hours total rest.  Bleh!
Sunrise at Walmart in Olathe was beautiful.  The trucks all pulled out about an hour earlier..

The weather the past couple of days has been absolutely marvelous.  As we drove through Kansas' Flint Hills area on the I-35 turnpike, we were reminded of the early settlers as they made their way west in their wagons through that beautiful area.

Dar is particularly enamored with Wind Farms - which we have seen many. On this trip we have seen a number of very long truck-trailers carrying one blade each of new GIANT wind turbines. Each of these blades had to be easily 150' long (no joke). The trucks had lead and follow vehicles that accompanied each of them.  Sorry we did not get any pictures as they were all headed in the opposite direction and no sooner did we see them coming, it was too late to get the camera into position to snap a pic.  The pic below was just one of the many windmills we saw..

On the road!!!

Hi folks..

I am writing this entry from a Walmart Superstore parking lot in Olathe Kansas..  We're the only RV here so it's a toss up if we will be able to spend the night..

The truck is doing well as is the Fortress.
I shot these pics earlier in the day...

We left about 10:15 this morning and have had beautiful weather all day although a pretty good headwind much of the way.  Fuel economy is not this truck's strong suit - especially when dragging a 13.5' tall - 8.5' wide - 40' long - 18,000+ pound parachute behind it....  That's 7.4 MPG! It got as low as 7.2 for a while..

More later!!!
Randy, Dar & CoCoa!