Grand Mesa, CO

Ken, Faye, Dave, Bev and I drove up over Grand Mesa (the world’s largest flat-top mountain with over 300 lakes sprawled across 500 square miles) to have lunch at the Wagon Wheel...

Great food with great friends

It has been a while since I have seen temperatures this low

Ice Maker Repair

A couple days ago, the plastic tube that supplies water to the Norcold ice maker developed a pinhole leak. I tried covering it with electrical tape to no avail. Fortunately, there was a valve that allowed me to turn off the water so I could continue to use the refrigerator.

Today, I took the tube to a RV dealer and was told it would take 2-3 weeks for the parts and the shipping cost alone would be $23.50. Much to my surprise and delight, I was able to find everything I needed to fix the problem at the local Ace Hardware for $1.12. Once I had the right parts, the repair was quick and easy. I am now back to making ice just in case I need to rehydrate with a little Wild Turkey American Honey Bourbon.

Montrose, CO

Arrived safe and sound in Montrose without the engine light coming back on 😀. My favorite party animals, Ken & Faye, are out painting the town red tonight which is a good thing as it is going to be a race between me and the chickens to see who turns in first.

FYI - On Sundays Rib City offers a full rack of some of the best ribs I have ever eaten along with two sides for only $14.99. If you still have room for dessert, I highly recommend the key lime pie 😈.

Gallup, NM

I am in Gallup, New Mexico working my way to Montrose, Colorado. I did not intend to leave the Arizonian this early but the park had another power outage and you do not want to be in southern Arizona this time of year without air conditioning.

Yesterday, out in the middle of nowhere, the RV's engine light came on. Not knowing what the problem might be made for an anxious drive into Gallup. The good news is I was able to get an appointment for this morning at a diesel repair shop less than a mile from where I am staying. 

According to the mechanic, the "engine light was caused by an inactive code and had a count of 1 (first time recorded), cleared code and ran regen; completed regen and no codes retained". Although I am delighted I can continue my journey, I am a little concerned that he could not explain what caused the malfunction. I'll just have to hope for the best. While waiting for the RV to be repaired, I used my pocket knife to do some wood carving...

PS - if you like Native American jewelry and trains, Gallup is your kind of town.

Storm Damage

Last night about 10:00 p.m. a severe thunderstorm with high winds rolled through the park damaging several park models and knocking out power. I was fortunate that my property was not damaged but my friends, Keith & Jayne, were not so lucky...

The worst part of the storm for me is the loss of electricity. Salt River Power estimates that our power may not be restored until 8:00 p.m. this evening. The forecast is for a high temperature today of 108 F so I will be firing up the generator in the RV &/or going to the mall.

Update: It occurred to me that I had a 6,000 BTU window air conditioner stored in the RV, so I dragged it out, hooked it up to my Honda 2000 generator and now have some cool air for the park model. It will not cool the entire unit but may be enough to keep me somewhat comfortable in the living area.

Back Home

I returned to the Arizonian a little earlier than planned. I simply ran out of interesting things to do in the Show Low area and was getting bored. Fortunately, the temperature here in the valley had dropped down to a balmy 105. The forecast for next week is in the 90s with a reasonable chance of rain which is greatly needed. July is typically the "monsoon season", but they did not have one last year which contributed to the area's severe drought. 

My next eye injection is the middle of this month which will give me plenty of time to prepare for my trip to Colorado in August and Utah in September where I am looking forward to some off-road adventures with friends...

Government Closing Campgrounds

As if it was not tough enough finding available campsites this summer, the U.S. Forest Service and Arizona State Land Department have started closing public campgrounds here in the Southwest due to wildfires. It is a frustrating time to be a RVer.

Petrified Forest

About 40 years ago I visited the Petrified Forest National Park with my parents. I figure the park probably depends upon repeat customers like myself so I plan to return in another 40 years.

My older cousin, Chris, used to wrestle these things

Petrified tree trunk

Can you spot the old fossil in this photo

Sections of the park remind me of the Badlands in South Dakota

There is a path that allows you to hike around the these mounds

Fool Hollow Lake

Although Show Low is a nice town with great summer weather, there is not much in the way of outdoor activities that I find interesting. If you do an Internet search for "things to do in Show Low", the Fool Hollow Lake Recreational Area is generally the number one pick, so I checked it out.

It's a small lake (particularly, with the severe drought we are having here in the southwest) that allows swimming, boating, fishing, hiking and camping (92 hookup sites and 31 non-hookup sites all of which were full). It is a great place for families and friends to gather on the weekends. 

In looking at a map, everything I think I would like to see will require a long drive out of the area. One of the reasons I chose to spend a month in Show Low was to see if this might be my future summer home to escape the heat down in the valley. Now, I am not sure I want to spend 3-4 months here.

Now Hiring

Everywhere I have gone the last month, there have been "Now Hiring" signs at most businesses. Here in Show Low the situation is so bad that all of the restaurants I have frequented have had to reduce days and/or hours that they are open. It's a sad time in this country when our own government makes it more attractive to be on the dole than work for a living.

Update (6/10/2021): Out of curiosity, I looked up unemployment compensation for Arizona and found it to be $47,396/year. At this rate a couple would collect $94,792/year for sitting home doing nothing! No wonder people do not want to go back to work.

Mogollon Rim

About 60 miles west of Show Low is the Mogollon Rim, a rugged escarpment that forms the southern limit of the Colorado Plateau. The trail along the rim is known as Forest Road 300 and although it offers some great views of the valley below, it is a rough, bone-jarring, gravel road that takes its toll on you and your machine. In my opinion, there are not enough interesting things along the way to justify the long, grueling drive unless you just want to say "been there, done that".

Show Low, AZ

I am spending the month of June in Show Low, a small town about 3 hours northeast of Phoenix. At an elevation of 6345 feet, it is generally 20-25 degrees cooler than down in the valley. The forecast for the next week is 80s during the day and 50s at night (great sleeping weather). I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures and doing some exploring in the Jeep.

Knowing available RV sites would be hard to find this summer, I made my reservation at the K-Bar RV Resort back in February based solely on comments at Campground Reviews. It's a little early to say for sure but so far, I like the park. The staff was extremely friendly and guided me right to my pull-through site. There are lots of trees in the park and they even have cable tv with movie channels. 😀

My RV had been in storage for the last six months and although I start the engine and generator every month, I wondered if everything was still working as it should. The only problem I encountered was the propane igniter for the refrigerator did not ignite. The solution was to unplug the refrigerator and then plug it back in again; it works just fine now. If I ever quit breathing, unplug/plug me to see if I reboot.

Saguaro Cactus Growth

In the ten years I have been visiting southern Arizona, I have heard numerous stories about the slow growth of the iconic saguaro cactus. Here is an image that depicts the growth of the cactus over the years...

Imagine what this saguaro has lived through in its 175+ year history...

Windstorm

This is the normal view of the Superstition Mountains from my park model...

However, we are currently experiencing 25 mph winds with gusts up to 45 mph. Here is what that view looks like today with all the desert sand in the air...

I hated these kind of days in the RV as it continually rocked side to side and the noise from the slide covers and roof was surprisingly loud. The park model does not move and the only noise is the wind through the carport. 😊

Desert Horned Lizard

When I looked outside this morning, I saw this large raven attacking a strange critter in my driveway. Hoping to get a video of the encounter, I slowly opened the door but the raven flew off before I could capture anything. Here's what it was trying to have for breakfast... 

Up In The Pines

Cory invited me to join him and his friends on a ride up in the mountains north of Globe, Arizona where it was considerably cooler than here in the valley...

As the title of the post suggests, we were in pine tree country...

Where we encountered a major roadblock... 

Fortunately, we had a professional logger with us...

At the top of the mountain, we were rewarded with views like this...

I even had my own stone recliner from which to enjoy lunch with a view...

Alternative View of Climate Change

Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom is a well documented book that challenges the popular belief that climate change is an existential threat to human civilization and will create a global catastrophe. The author, Patrick Moore (one of the founders of Greenpeace), believes that climate change is being used to create an atmosphere of fear that politicians are using to grow government, scientists to receive government grants and climate alarmists to profit from it (think Al Gore).

Although I would recommend this book to anyone who is concerned about climate change, I am at a point where I do not know who to believe anymore. Politicians and the main stream media simply cannot be trusted. I would love to see an honest debate between all parties and something other than computer models before we spend trillions of taxpayer dollars on something that may not be a problem and where government interference could create more problems than it solves.

Lastly, anyone who says "the science is settled" should not be believed (I suspect people in the middle ages who thought the world was flat said the same thing). First, we never stop learning. Second, the scientific consensus is frequently wrong. Third, scientists are just as capable of bias as anyone else.

Arizonian OHVs

The Arizonian RV Resort is the winter home for a lot OHV owners. Someone thought it would be a good idea to get everyone together for a group photo...

Drone photo courtesy of Randy Van de Loo

As impressive as this is, it represents only a portion of the actual number of OHVs in the park.

My Viral Video

Back in October of 2017, I posted a video titled Oversize Load Crash that shows a semi hauling a huge tank getting stuck under an overpass on I-10. For the next three years, it was viewed around 20-40 times a day. Suddenly about a month ago, it went viral and is now being viewed 20,000+ times a day!

I have not been able to determine the reason for the video's recent popularity. My guess is some site(s) with a large following recommended it. I keep hoping YouTube will contact me to let me know that I am about to become rich and famous. 😎

Trail Cam Sites

My friends with RZRs were kind enough to help me look for new places to setup my trail cam. With Jimmy leading, Dave & Wylie in the middle and Gary & I at the back, we boldly went where no sane man had gone before. Unfortunately, most of the old waterholes we found were dry as a bone. However, it was still a great day to be out with friends enjoying a beautiful day in the desert. Here's some "eye candy" for the ladies...

Profiles in Corruption

I just finished Profiles in Corruption by Peter Schweizer. In my opinion, this book should be required reading in schools. It is a detailed description of how politicians use their positions of power and influence to make themselves and their families very wealthy. One of the things I like about Schweizer's books is the extensive documentation he lists in the bibliography. He does not rely upon "anonymous sources" as many so-called journalists do today.

Skydio 2 Drone

After crashing my DJI Mavic, I was not sure I would buy another drone. Then the Skydio 2 came out with the best obstacle avoidance system on the market. After looking at a number of YouTube videos, I felt comfortable enough to give it another try. 

The following is my first "motion tracking" video where the drone autonomously follows my Jeep without any direction on my part. I start out in a wide open area to first make sure it is tracking correctly. At about the 3:00 minute mark the obstacle avoidance is put to a real test and you get to see how well the drone manuvers around bushes and trees.

Sand Hollow Extreme Rock Crawling

Regular television has become so depressing that I have turned to YouTube for entertainment and information. You can find pretty much anything you are looking for there. Recently, I came across a video that features a highly customized rock crawling machine and professional driver, who explains how he tackles one of the most difficult trails in the country...

The obstacles get increasingly harder as the video progresses

Rare Sight

We finally got some much needed rain. The surprise was the sleet and snow that came with it. Here's the view of the Superstition Mountains from my porch...

Desert Cam Take 3

After leaving the trail cam at the waterhole out back of the RV park for three days, I got a lot of video but most of it was birds that were not very interesting to watch. I did capture one very thirsty coyote that I thought was worth publishing...

I always thought coyotes traveled in packs but so far, I have only videoed one at a time.