Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Don't eat too much Turkey......... Or you'll fall asleep during the Football game!

Retired Rod

New Antenna

There it is up there....!  And you can't forget to crank it down....  But it cost as much to install it as it was worth by almost twice....

And changing the fuse circuit breaker was over $100 more....  The breaker was only about $20...  So, about $700 later the whole deal was done.....

But that turned out to only be the tip of the ice burg here today, as a fellow came up to me while I was hooking up the Jeep to tow it back over to storage....  I remember thinking to do things really deliberately while I was otherwise being distracted while doing departure chores...

The fellow wanted to see how to hook up the Blue Ox  tow bar...  And then began to lay all of his towing problems on me...  I know I was in the driveway of the repair facility, but I thought advice was inside with the techs...  But I showed him what he wanted to know...

But then he said his wife thought the car swung back and forth behind their coach...  She was evidently following in yet another vehicle to see this...  I suggested that the car might need alignment so it would track better...  But he protested because the car was brand new...  So we had to discuss how only a few new cars actually get aligned, and from then on they keep using the last settings for all of them....  I'm not sure he believed me....

Eventually I was able to leave and go back to the storage lot... where I determined that I didn't have the key to the Jeep any longer...  It wasn't on the D clip keyring that it lives on...  Not on the floor of the car or the coach... Not on the ground outside in storage anywhere either...  I wasn't moving the Jeep... simple as that....

So while being talked to while working, somehow I managed to drop the car key..... I had several rings and only one key was gone from one of the rings.... But it was the Jeep key...  So I drove the Motorhome back to the repair place without the Jeep....  And NOPE no one saw any keys on the driveway around here....

That made me drive the MH all the way back to the house about 6 miles to the South... And after retrieving the spare key, all the way back to the storage lot..  I looked and looked but couldn't decide what had happened to the first key....  Slowly, I was coming to the realization that I was going to have to purchase another, all in one anti theft chipped remote fob key...  Those are about $350.....

About 4PM, I was over at the Quick Trip gassing up the Jeep and began looking under the driver's seat again, and for some reason put my hand down under the carpet next to the steel flooring... And came out with the key!  It must have fallen off of the key ring and slid down under the carpet.....

By that time I was just emotionally drained.... Trying to figure out how I had lost that key.....

So if you are distracted by something or some one while hitching anything.....   Just stop!!  Wait until they are gone......!

Retired Rod

Staying in

Its Saturday, and that means I have to clean up this joint...  Not that I let it get all that dirty, but the clutter seems to grow...  My late wife would toss it out or put stuff into drawers just to get rid of it on the counter....   But I'm not as good about knowing when to get rid of things...

Roomba is running all around the house as I type this and Biscuit is staying well clear...  She knows that roomba has an evil mind and will chase her....  It does have a sensor that knows where walls and obstructions are, causing it to change directions all at once...  Biscuit kind of tolerates the machine, and doesn't follow it around barking at it any more...  But it goes under the bed looking for dust bunnies, and that's were Biscuit likes to hide......

I didn't go out at all yesterday after the day of the big motorcycle ride...  It didn't even occur to me that I should try and go somewhere...   I did call the RV repair folks, as they originally thought it wouldn't take very long to do the work....  But they haven't had time to look into it yet... So much for an appointment...  They know I am not living in the coach, and others here are, so their repairs do take a more immediate nature...  That's OK, I didn't feel like going over and hooking the jeep up anyway...

I was thinking how it was a shame that we only spent a couple of hours down in Yuma, on Thursday.. I always like to go to the swap meet down there and over to Mexico and stuff...  Maybe I had better get the MH up and ready for another trip.....  Its only about 200 miles from here........ !  

Retired Rod

Certifiably Nuts!

We met again at the Denny's restaurant on Chandler Blvd and the I 10 interchange...  Not many riders..  only 4 bikes but one had a couple on it....  It was cool outside, only in the mid 50s when I left the house...  About 59 when we were standing around at Denny's...   No one else showed up to go...

After 10 Am we left and headed down to the Maracopa turn off  at the Wild Horse Casino...  They thought maybe some others would join us at the corner along the Gila River Indian Reservation but no one was around....  We rode on to Maracopa..

As we made it to the center of town, the couple on the Honda trike seemed upset that no one else was coming and they apologized over the CB radio and decided to go back home.....   Say what?

Now there was just the ride leader John, myself and the lady from Vancouver Island, that rides her Goldwing down here in the fall...  Her name is Donna, and she can ride that Goldwing better than me....!

We headed for Gila Bend on Az 238 also known as Maracopa Road..  And it was during that time that John and Donna hatched a plan...  Over the CB...  I could only listen as I use a hand held plugged into my Blue Tooth headset..

They were going to Yuma now instead of Ajo......  They were going to stop and ask me what I thought...  So I held my hand UP with a Big Thumbs UP signal...  That took them by surprise as they didn't know I was listening...  Donna said "can you hear us Rod?"  I shook my head and held up my thumb..   Is Yuma OK....?  I held up my thumb again...  So were now going to Yuma.....!!!

And we did make it to Yuma out in the Fortuna Hills area, where we ate lunch on a picnic table outside the truck stop station...  There we decided to go on up to Quartzsite...

At Quartzsite it looked really empty where the big tent is usually erected for the RV show..  It appeared that they were spreading more rock  on the site with end loaders...  So they are getting prepared...  Also it is amazing how many RVs are out in the BLM grounds to the South of town..  People must live there long term...  Not too sure about the 14 day limit...

We gassed the bikes up town and I had to change the radio channel as the skip was coming in on the original choice....   Of course they do it right on their dash, but my hand held is in the rear top case, so I have to stop...

As we headed West on Quartzsite's main street, we passed by the Reader's Oasis, where Paul Winer was standing in the front door "Au Naturel", watching the traffic go by....   Only in Quartzsite..!!!

We didn't mess around much, as we still had the I 10 trip back to Phoenix ahead of us...  We arrived back in downtown right at 5 PM  The folks that drive that rush hour traffic are aggressive and nuts.. We stayed in the HOV lane which allowed us to move faster at times, but we were stopped a lot too...

A side note here, the trike is much easier in this kind of traffic, as you don't have to keep putting your feet down and supporting a 950 pound motorcycle....  Stop and go traffic on a big bike is difficult...

It was after dark when I opened the garage.....   Biscuit is for sure I am a bad daddy for leaving her alone all day...!  She is laying on my right foot as I type this so I can't get away from her again...

Retired Rod

Cooler here too, and RV repairs..

I usually don't like to talk about the weather, so I promise that this will be just the facts...  Arizona doesn't get really cold down here on the desert, but with that said, we had a night or two that was in the upper 30s...  That's at least ten degrees colder than normal for this time of year....

Had to start the heat one night, as it was only about 55 inside...  That sleeps OK but when you get up, there is a little frost on things..  I just switched the stat over to heat and set it on 68....   Haven't messed with it since...

But after dark, these crazy Arizonians are wearing winter coats.....  At 58 degrees...  One lady in Wal Mart had her winter gloves on and a knit stocking cap....  Really!!!  Back in Kansas its been below freezing all week....  Wonder what she would do...........

Anyway I have been pondering what to do about the list of broken RV  stuff...   Every RVer has this list, though only in their mind at times....  I try to put it off...  But eventually it bugs you when stuff don't work right...

High on that list is my crank up TV antenna...  I've drug it thru the trees in campgrounds so many times I can't count them...  And now that Loyce is gone and not watching me from the seat of her chase car, .......  well she would radio me to put the dumb thing down...  Its on my departure check list too...  But its Murphy's law, if it can, it will....

But anyway, I have found that East Valley RV Specialists up on Apache Trail is the authorized Tiffin repair facility out here in our end of town...  So I spent the afternoon taking the RV out of storage and hooking the Jeep to the back for about a two mile trip from storage...  Until I missed the driveway, which made me go around a 4 mile loop, in order to try again..

They are installing a new roof antenna that will turn to receive the strongest signal, but that won't crank up and down...  It is low enough to not catch on anything...  Its about $170 but I have no idea how much labor will be to install it...  Possibly more than that...

Also for years, I have had a 12 volt circuit breaker on the main battery panel above the frame rail in the passenger side foot locker behind the tire, that would trip when a lot of the stuff is running in the coach...

I would stop and push the button to reset it and then not run the dash air fan on high anymore...  And of course when I came into the 99 degree heat of the desert back in the middle of October, I went brain dead and ran the dash air on High and it only lasted about 10 minutes....

This service manager suggested replacing the breaker with an auto reset breaker, so it will just fix itself once it cools off.....  I've put up with that for about 3 years...  Not bad enough to warrant a repair of its own...  but still nothing works until its reset...  Seat, windows, radio, AC fan, all that stuff on the dash...    Anyway that's on his list..

I have a lot more on my list, but one has to pay for all of this stuff.......  Besides, I got the big one fixed last summer when I replaced the electric heating element in the water heater....  The rig is a 2008, and it needs a lot of stuff that I don't even know about yet....  And tires........  That's a biggy..

Another motorcycle trip in the morning...  We are planning to ride down to Ajo....  That's about 130 miles each way....  To make up for not riding on Thanksgiving I was told.... Sounds perfectly logical...... doesn't it?

Retired Rod

Seeing more of Arizona..... From the Spyder

Today was more of a Lazy route as we didn't have much in the way of a time constraint....  Cracker Barrel serves almost any kind of a meal any time of day...

We met up at the Denny's on Chandler Boulevard which the club calls number 3....  Must be secret code...  LOL..   That is the 7400 W Chandler Blvd dot on the map...  That was 25 miles away from the house out here on Signal Butte...  I left at 9 but didn't need to be at Denny's until 10..

They just assemble out in the back part of the parking lot and don't go inside, unless it is a last minute pit stop....  Some folks were late and we had to wait, as they called on the phone to one of the leaders..    No problem...  its not hot and we got all day...

We rode straight South on I 10 to Casa Grande..  That's where the Cracker Barrel Old County Store is located at the main intersection...  They weren't busy, and we were seated immediately..  We had about 16 folks.   Only 4 of us didn't have significant others along...  Goldwings are usually ridden with passengers...

After about an hour and a half, we were sufficiently stuffed, and moved on for the rest of the ride..  This was on I 8 like you are headed to Yuma...  We went about 25 miles and then turned North on Az 84 for Maricopa..  

I did a salute at Papago Road as I passed by the corner where you turn to go to JB and Brenda's Dog Pound South... They had no idea I was out riding around, and I didn't want to just stop on by.....  Anyway, I had already been out for the day, and I hope to visit when I can take them to a nice place...   Its MY TURN  dog gone it JB...  So anyway we went on by...

After buzzing downtown Maricopa, we came back to the Wild Horse Casino, but again they didn't stop...  This group is intent on getting their ride in...  I'm more used to stopping for a coke  every ten miles...

Anyway my independent side took over as they were about to get back on I 10 again, so I waved good by and went straight on Queen Creek Rd...  No more following in line and worrying about not being in formation like the leaders want...   I'm too independent, I guess.....

Retired Rod

Saturday motorcycle breakfast and then lunch too...

We had the Goldwing Road Riders Assn Mesa Chapter meeting Saturday for the month of November..  And being optimistic I managed to be over at the buffet at 8 AM..  We had a nice meeting with breakfast, and I managed to only take a small plate of breakfast items and not go back for seconds...  And that's hard to do for me in those food of plenty style buffet places...

After the meeting, we all lined up to go to North Scottsdale and the Penske Auto Mall...  A place to buy expensive exotic cars...  Bently, Maserati, Ferarri and stuff like that...

I took some pictures with my phone, but the club photographer was wandering around and even managed to get a photo of Roger Penske himself...  The photos included here are from his shots..

They have a Racing Museum in the center of the auto group and it was quite the thing to see... But many of the cars out and around the car dealerships were just as impressive....

Club members wear blue shirts and even I have one on back in the back with suspenders over it... LOL

Our club photographer actually managed to get a picture of Roger Penske himself and talk to him for a moment, as they were having a meeting on the second floor of the museum..  That is where the trophies are on display, but because of the meeting we will have to return on another day to see them..

We ended up at the Scottsdale Western Honda dealership where they were having a cook out for their anniversary...   They had picnic tables set up out under the shaded roof overhang where bikes are normally displayed....  I had a bratwurst... and a roasted jalapeno pepper...  it was stuffed with cream cheese......  and a lot of the seeds were still in it too......  hot.!!

Comparing art??

And over here we have.......

Us older folks don't have much art....?? LOL

But we know how to eat at a Bar B Cue..

It was a fun day....  We rode singly back to Mesa...  That I mean by ourselves, not it a group...

The Red captions are from the GWRRA photographer.. I tried to just include a link to his album, but the pictures were emailed to me so I had to download and upload all of them...  I'm sorry if I broke the rules about too many...  But they tell the story better than I could have with words...

Retired Rod

Payson and then Roosevelt Lake again.

Our ride yesterday..(Thursday)..  Was much the same as last week, but with different stopping points and a much bigger circle....

This club uses several meet up points, and today it was the Denny's Restaurant on Country Club and Southern..  This is not convenient for me out here in the extreem East part of the valley..  But hey it is what it is...  So the first part of the ride was down the 6 lane highway 60 back to the center of downtown Mesa...  

They met up at 10 AM and I was so early that I thought perhaps they had changed things...  The reason for using that as the starting point, is because it is on highway 87 which is the road to Peyson, Az.. 

 

Once on the highway, these folks are all long range riders, and they put their head down and set the cruise controls on 70..  The ride is led by people with hundreds of thousands of miles on Goldwings and they ride thru the mountains like it was flat land...  Of course I am brand new on my three wheeler, and that pushes my skill set...  So I slow down at times when the road is challenging, which makes them pass me by and think poorly of me...  Oh Well...

We ate lunch at the El Rancho Mexican Restaurant there in the middle of Payson...  It is right across from the McDonalds...  At the main intersection of highways...  The food was authentic and good, but I have trouble with the spices in Mexican, so I stuck with a hamburger...  and a salad..

As we were congregating out in the parking lot, I asked if we were going right back down the highway  to Mesa...  And most folks didn't want that.  We decided to veer off and do the same ride we did last week passed the Roosevelt reservoir..  And then back thru Globe...  We looked at the GPS and it was another 127 miles..  That took most of the afternoon, but it was a high 80s day in the mountains and past the lake...  There wasn't a cloud in the sky, so the lake was very blue...

Once back into town, people veer off from the main highway heading on to their home points...  No one returns to the original beginning point...  So we just honk and wave as we leave the remaining riders...

I was gone about 6 hours, and Biscuit was glad to see me come home...  She was sleeping in my big recliner, and sat on my lap once I wiggled into it with her...   

Retired Rod 

Yard things...

I'm still here, but just some slow laid back days...   I was working in the yard, trying to get it cleaned up, but also asked the home management guy to send his guy to help...

So last night I went out and bought a bush trimmer, and just like that....  Using it this morning, caused the yard guy to show up right after lunch...  I hadn't even cleaned up my piles of clippings....  Of course the yard guy did way more work in a couple of hours than I had done all morning....  Its his business...

I had ordered a hose cart from Wal mart on line..  And they told me it would come by November 10th..  or perhaps later... Its a steel one with rubber tires...  They rust back in the Midwest, but not much chance of that happening out here where there is no rain or even water in the air for that matter..

It came in a big box this afternoon, and parts and pieces came raining out when I opened the tape...  Bolts and nuts and things all over the garage floor..  I told myself to stay positive...  The box didn't look damaged...  Surely it was all there....  So I just laid it all out on the floor and decided where the bolts and screws must go...   I did have a booklet in seven languages, written by someone that had Chinese as his first language...  Oh, goody!

But I managed to get the thing pieced together and was only missing one little washer..  So the hose is on its nice cart out by the water spigot...  Now watch someone will like it better than me and roll it off...

Tomorrow is the big motorcycle ride..  So perhaps that will give another story to tell...

Retired Rod