I wish it would not be raining so much

After some very nice warm and sunny days at the beginning of April I was hopeful to get lots accomplished on our property. Well, some got done, but then we slid into wintery temps again and so much rainfall that put a stop to my outdoor activities. The grass grew nevertheless and I took the weed trimmer out to pre cut some of the grass as it was already so high and too wet for the mowers. Then when we had a few days of dry and sunny conditions I cut it all down with the John Deere tractor and the Husqvarna push-mower. However, in a matter of a few days it’s regrown already! Oh, the fun of garden maintenance.

Yes, the cats have been in it again ;-(

So enough lamenting about the wet conditions. I’m happy that the spring flowers are all in full bloom and seem to survive despite the neighbour cats using my flowerbeds as their preferred litter boxes. And finally, the Orioles have arrived! Now I’m waiting for the Hummingbirds as they should also be on their way. Benno and I love to watch the birds on our feeders while we are sitting at the table eating our meals. As I grew up, I had no patience for birds, but my grandmother used to sit by the window for hours with binoculars watching the birds in her garden. Funny how our interests change as we grow wiser and older.

Took the photo through the rainy window

This Northern Flicker kept pecking at our lawn. Had to use my tele through the window.

Benno is also waiting for the weather to improve. He spent some time to adhere labels to most of the electrical wires in the boat so it will be easy to identify where they are connected to. We have three different kinds of label makers in our household to do jobs incl. a wire label printer and it had been a bit tedious to do but so worth it in the long run when you have a electrical problem you will be able to identify the right wire. 

A closeup of the lettering on the electrical wires

More labeling inside the electrical panel

This label maker is for the wire lettering

The new sink and faucet had arrived and installing it was no easy task as they sit above the holding tank for the toilet and there is not much room to work with. That is done now and a mirror cabinet got installed above. The cupboard type cabinet in the odd shaped crevice adjacent to the counter is next to get finished. 

The sink and faucet installed

The mirror cabinet installed above

The plumbing for underneath, notice the two round inspection holes in back

That is how the drain of the sink and hot and cold water for the faucet are installed underneath
as seen through the round inspection port

That is how Benno had to work through the inspection ports to hook up the plumbing

After rethinking the navigation arrangement in this boat and all the rewiring Benno is doing, he decided to depart with the Raymarine Radar with Navionics Charts, Plotter and GPS units that are probably now 15+ years old. We sold them quickly on Marketplace and ordered new equipment. 

A photo of our ad for the old equipment

The new Furuno GPS Chart  Plotter- Fishfinder Combo on the dashboard will be coupled to a new Furuno Radar DRS4W that is wireless except for the actual power cable. The Radar display can be called up on the Plotter, iPhone or iPad. How convenient! So no new extra holes have to be drilled into the cabin roof. Bonus! 

The new Furuno GPS-Chart-Plotter-Radar-Fishfinder Combo

All hooked up and ready to display

For all the woodwork jobs requiring the saws etc. Benno wants to do them outside to avoid all that dust inside the garage, so weather depending. In the meantime he also is problem solving of how to modify the existing steering for a future autopilot. The boat came with a hydraulic wheel steering system made in Australia to which we cannot get easily parts locally. Yes, building or rebuilding a boat involves a lot of problem solving, but my hubby is pretty good at that. So I’m hopeful at the outcome.

The hydraulic steering pump apart in Benno's shop

That’s all for my little update for now so you don’t think I have abandoned my blog. See you hopefully soon again with more details.

Thanks for dropping in.

It’s so nice to be back home

We made it back home on Wednesday afternoon. Our return trip included a bit of a detour to the Grand Design RV Headquarters in Middleburry, Indiana, and their Service Center in Elkhart, Indiana. 

Wherever you look in that region you see fields of RVs of any kind and size parked waiting to be transferred to the dealerships. I have to say that their customer service is really excellent and we had the impression that they try to accommodate and address every client’s issue to their satisfaction.

We arrived in the afternoon at their headquarters to see what they would suggest to repair or if they had the parts we needed to fix the damage our exploded tire had caused. However, it is an Amish area and most of their staff had already left for home as they start their work days at 6:00 a.m. But, they found a technician and we were in good hands. 

The pin is at the RV Park for the Grand Design customers

The Service Center for RV parts

The Grand Design Headquarters has a small complimentary RV Park for clients just like us who come to have repairs done on their units. Since it was too late in the day to get the parts from their Service Center, we spent the night plugged in at their RV Park and next morning went to pick up the items, including a new tire of the same manufacture as the other tires on our travel trailer. 

Back home the sun was out when we arrived. Benno and I hit the ground running and we wasted no time to get settled. Benno unlocked quickly our garage to get the large water valve tool to turn the water valve near the road on to get the water supply going to our house. We always shut the water off before we leave south for the winter break. The heat in the house from the furnace can be activated or raised via internet, which we did while driving using our iPhone a few hours earlier still in Indiana. We’ll be busy for a while until we have time to sit down to relax. 

Benno is holding the water valve tool

Thanks everyone for following along. I’ll be posting of all the things that go on around here soon. 

Travel Update

 Hi everyone, day two of our travel route back to Canada. Presently we are parked at the AOK RV Park in Amarillo, Texas, Exit 80 on Hwy40. The weather is beautiful and we are having the door open. We lost yet another hour when we crossed the state line, and it is still sunny at 6 o Clock.

Driving through New Mexico

So a bit of a recap which I had meant to post yesterday, and I explain why I didn’t.

About two hours out after we left yesterday our RV park in Arizona, and driving at 55 mph on I-10, which by the way has a terrible patched up right lane, there was an incredible loud bang and we knew we had a tire problem. The rear right tire of our travel trailer had exploded, and bits and pieces of rubber were flying off. We made it to a wider shoulder right after a merging side road to assess and see what we could do. The explosion had damaged the upper side panel and much more underneath the trailer. Benno dismantled that piece and set to work to get that damaged tire off and to put the spare on. I don’t need to detail all that as you probably all have changed tires before. 

The spare tire

I took lots of photos! The transport truck traffic was very heavy and they kept on flying by at 75mph. When we were done with the job, but could not bring the spare to the 80psi as it is marked on the trailer, because our compressor only came up to 60psi, we drove on. It was not far to the New Mexico border where we went into a Pilot truck station and there we were able to fill the spare tire to the proper psi. 

Crossing into New Mexico we lost an hour in addition to the time we had spent changing the tire, so a short driving day.

Heat outlet under a cabinet by the door

That is where the heat outlet is located

In the evening we pulled into a Lowe’s parking lot in Alamogordo, NM where we spent the night.

After we had settled in and had dinner, I was downloading 45 photos that I had taken yesterday and planned on using some of them for my post. Something went wrong and I think I deleted the photos before they were all downloaded. Short story short, ALL photos were lost! I was then too upset to post anything without a single photo. 

Today was much better with no incidents and we took our time on the highway 70 direction Roswell, but didn’t go there to see the aliens, then onto 60 and to 40 through some nice scenery and some kind of boring, flat land. At Bovina and Hereford I took some photos of the thousands of cattle along the road waiting to be transferred. Good thing they do not know where to. There were lots of very long trains running parallel to the highway to keep us entertained.

A couple lookouts waiting for the transport

Hopefully the rest of our homebound trip will be uneventful. If I can post, I will, otherwise it will be from home.

Our site at the AOK RV Park in Amarillo

Take care everyone and thanks for dropping in.

Such nice weather, but we are heading home

This past week we did not do much except for the usual shopping, laundry, cleaning and hiding from the rain until the sun showed up again.

I have still a collection of photos that I took during our stay here in the winter that I didn’t post. Perhaps they will find their way into my blog in a while. However, this morning the Farmers Market in Sierra Vista was on again while we were in town. During my stroll through the stalls several things I found quite interesting and I took photos for you to enjoy as well.

This fella gave me a demonstration on the various Steel Tongue Drums

Very unique pens, all very nice and they do not shoot! but not my price range

Month end is upon us and we have decided to head out tomorrow morning on our trek home. The route will be Roswell, Amarillo, Oklahoma, Joplin, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Detroit + 40 miles to home in Canada. How long we will be on the road, we don’t know yet. I cannot promise to post from underway, but  perhaps it will happen. If not, you’ll hear from me when we are home.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and thanks for dropping in.

Part 2, From Chiricahua National Monument along the Pinery Canyon Trail to Paradise and beyond.

For me, it was an epic trip crossing the Chiricahua Mountain Range along the Pinery Canyon Trail and over the Onion Peak Pass. So to speak the icing on the cake in excitement and views for a while for sure.

Coming out of the Chiricahua National Monument on the paved road and making a left turn into the sandy Pinery Canyon Road, also named Forest Rd 42, you are back in ranch country with cattle guard and herds of cattle. You have to slow down to 15 to 25 mile speed, otherwise your truck chocks will not like the punishment.

We were passing 2 ranches and after about 3 miles the scenery changed into forest. Almost unnoticed the first couple of deers came into view and a flock of wild turkeys a bit later. This area is as well boondocking material and poking through the trees we spotted RV Trailers, Truck Campers and pitched tents with hammocks strung between the trees. Even the Forest Management had a good looking pad with a Camping Trailer set up. 

Driving along we passed a guy in crocs and swim trunks with a towel slung over his shoulder. We speculated where he was coming from or going to and found it odd. I looked at the wash beside the trail and it was dry. Well, a couple hundred yards further we came across a few cattle under the trees grouping around a water trough and I think we had our answer, although of course, who knows, but it made us laugh.

Along this trail through the mountains I just had to get out of the truck lots of times and take photos which never really capture what my eyes see, but I tried anyway. I can understand that people like to dry camp in this area and just enjoy nature. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast taking the many twists and turns, up and down the trail. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So I will post photos that might capture what I saw.

We chose the Forest Road 42 over the 42D, because Benno wanted to see the little town of Paradise which turned out to be just a cluster of houses and a cemetery. Kelly and Al Bossence from “Travel with the Bayfield Bunch” were here 15 years ago and had done the same trip. You should read their blog entry of that day HERE. It was Kelly, who triggered our curiosity to do this trip. Thank you Kelly!

Next to the truck the road has cracked up and is falling into the canyon

Also back home I found on the Internet some description of this trail we had just taken and that gives you a good idea what we experienced. That link is HERE.

Paradise Cemetery

From Paradise we turned right into a road that lead to Portal after talking to a Forest Ranger for direction. In Portal the sandy trail changed into a paved road. It was getting late and we had another point of interest in town of Rodeo on our plate, so we could not explore Portal and put the pedal down and chased the Portal Road East, crossing the state border Arizona-New Mexico. At the intersection to Hwy 80 was the Chiricahua Desert Museum, but to our dismay it was almost closing time, so we only took some photos on the outside.

Although disappointed, we then decided to have a peek and drive by John McAfee’s former Ultralight Aircraft place that was just a few miles further. Most of you know McAfee Security Program for computers or Antivirus Protection. That guy was a flamboyant person, two-time presidential candidate, playboy and who knows what. This business adventure in Rodeo with ultralight airplanes came to an end when one of his clients smacked the ultralight aircraft he was flying into a canyon wall that he did not survive. A blog post from Bloggers Odel and Laurie about McAfee is HERE.

Previous McAfee complex with greenhouse

Now called Sky Gypsy Cafe

The white buildings are two of four hangars with landing strip in rear

We then headed home via Hwy 80 and I-10 after a long day. I hope you enjoyed this trip with me.

Thanks for dropping by.