Paying for that overnight shipment last week....

OK, I thought the little light wires I had ordered would be here today... Wrong...

They shipped them by the post office.....  But the tracking number didn't work in the post office tracking system...  It was a number that started with 1Z which sounds like a UPS number, so for grins I copied it over to UPS tracking and it came up as coming from Texas...  And going to Mesa, Az...  Well that had to be right..

And it arrived in Mesa yesterday, so I assumed that it would be delivered today....  That's the wrong part.... When I looked the package had been transferred to the post office... So essentially it was mailed locally...  Of course that could take days....

My friend Rich from Des Moines arrives on Tuesday, so that means that Q is now out of the picture...

Maybe I could drive down and do the big tent thing on Sunday or something, but that makes a huge day out of a couple of hours at the tent....   But I've been every year......  See the argument I'm having with myself here...

Base plates and visits....

The base plate is on the Jeep...  And all I had to do was sit in a comfy wooden arm chair and read my tablet computer...  While I was waiting......

The place of all this fun was Bishop's Trailer Sales on the East end of Apache Junction....  They have acres of trailers...  Utility style and working folks trailers... And horse or stock trailers...  They install trailer hitches and work on all the trailers....

The service manager has been out looking at new Jeeps, and fairly jumped at the chance to work on my new Jeep....  Did I mention his enthusiasm.... I arrived at 9:30 and he was on it immediately... We went thru the kit looking at all the pieces and the instructions...  He understood the job and took it from there... Really, I didn't even go out and pester him once.....

He charged me for two hours of his labor, which is about how long he worked, and the bill came in at under $200...   I was happy, and he was still busy showing me his good work, as I was leaving...  He had to see the window sticker for the little truck that I had in the glove compartment, and I really didn't think he was going to let me leave...  Its just a matter of time, he's Jeep hooked....

I also ordered a tail light kit for the Jeep, but unlike the base plate, they mailed it, and they estimate it will be here on the 25th of the month....  Well that's way too late to get to Q...  So perhaps the idea to tow the Jeep anywhere will have to come sometime in February...  I've been to Q several years running, and never buy anything that amounts to much so saving the money for base plate installations, works for me..

Today we warmed up to 75 or more today before 2 in the afternoon....  I rode the Goldwing over to Sam's Club to check on battery availability if I should need to change the coach engine batteries...  They are just three years old now, which is about when they poop out...  For some reason, this Sam's has the commercial truck group 31s that semi trucks and my motorhome require...  $112.50  and they had several...  I ate a big piece of Sam's pizza and rode on....

Since I was so far South by this time, I rode out to the very Southeast end of the valley....  This is where Gordon and Juanita Pierce are in a nice small RV park... Skyline named after the road it is located on...

I hadn't made any plans with them, but just happened by at 4 PM, official RVers happy hour...  They did happen to be home, and before long we had several of their neighbors out in front of their home as well, we were discussing broken gray water tanks, and other things of extreme interest... You know how this goes in almost every RV park...

This park is a nice place way out in the country...  Once you pass the park, the road only goes about a mile or so farther and turns to gravel..  The neighbors places that far out are acreages with horses and such...  Much like John and Brenda Brown's neighborhood in Maricopa..

Not wanting to overstay an unplanned visit, I excused myself at about 5 PM as not long after that the sun will disappear...  Its still January...  We agreed that when Sandie and Jim get back from their winter shenanigans in Q, that we will get together for another Burger at Fudd's...   Perhaps we can get Ray and Cindy to come too, if they are back over in this area by then....

Another fine day in the Desert of Arizona...

Retired Rod

Jeep needs towed....

I ordered a base plate for the front of the Jeep Wrangler...  The part you connect your tow bar too to tow it down the highway with the motorhome...  I looked at the difficulty of installing it and it was rated a 2 out of five...  Drill 4 half inch holes... Didn't seem too bad..  Price was cheaper off of Amazon....

I opted for the 5-8 day shipping that would be free...  That was last Thursday...  About midnight Thursday night, I was emailed that it was shipped... Humm, same day...  But then I noticed it would be there on the 10th... which was tomorrow...  What the heck...?

And about 7 PM on Friday the door bell rang and it was the UPS driver with the big 42 pound box....  Shaking my head, I checked the tracking..  and it came from ........... Phoenix..  The return label said Kentucky, but that obviously didn't mean anything...

The shipping was free, but I was charged tax since it didn't leave the state...

But...... reading the instructions I learned the front bumper of the Jeep has to be removed before you drill those 4 holes...  I'd bet it weighs 100 pounds... Wouldn't be a big deal back in Kansas, as I would put the floor jack under it and lower it to the deck...

Of course out here, I would have to go buy another floor jack..  And it was a stretch to drill the holes, because I would have needed to go get a half inch drill at Harbor Freight...  I do think there is an electric 3/8ths in the motorhome bins but that would need a step up drill bit...  So what the heck..

I went over to the Trailer place that fixed the axle on the utility trailer and have an appointment to get them to deal with the big bumper.  I probably saved enough getting the plate off of the internet to pay for the installation.... but time will tell...

I also have a Patriot Brake Box and it was dead all summer if it wasn't plugged into the car.. Its internal battery was deader than a door nail...  I couldn't get the case apart because it had really deeply set phillips screws... I could get four of them out with the longest driver I had, but not the fifth...

So I made a point to look all over the Home Depot for a driver that would work...  And sure enough, they had a Kline 7 inch #2..  That opened the thing right up..  Of course because it was a Kline, it was a $10 screw driver...

The battery is a little lead acid cell, that was sourced from batteries plus for $25...   The guy went right over to the shelf and picked out a replacement without even looking the numbers up.....  So that's back together and more importantly back alive...

I have been riding the motorcycle in the afternoon for the last two days... its been in the high 60s both of the afternoons, and perfect for bike rides...

Retired Rod

Its still nice out here.....

With it being so cold back in the Midwest, I haven't wanted to say much about our weather out here...  My son made the comment that I was rubbing it in when I told him the temperature out here...  But he asked....

I did go out on a 2 hour motorcycle ride on Monday, as it was 68 on the bike dashboard....  That was about the time that the temps were so bad back home...   The problem is that I don't have any bike friends out here, so I ride alone...  Its much more fun when a couple of you go off to a luncheon that is in a distant city or town.  And then hang out together at that restaurant...

We tend to take over almost every place we go for an hour or so...  But we show up at 11 or before, so usually we're gone before the regular lunch crowd... Anyway, it isn't the same stopping by a distant Wendy's....  LOL

I thought my cold or what ever it is was getting much better, but then today I woke up right back where I started last Saturday with my chest burning and coughing....  I can hope for it to go away, but perhaps the doctor will be the alternative of choice....

It kind of frightens me to be all alone and sick....  Its amazing how you take care of each other... Wouldn't worry about it except diabetes can make you go wacko when your blood sugar is too far out of line....

Biscuit doesn't know how to call the people that can help....

Retired Rod