Alamo Canyon Re-Do

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Feb 16, 2015

Today dawned beautiful and bright, and we were anxious to get out and go on a hike.  We asked our good friends Bob and Beverly if they'd like to pack a picnic lunch and hike up Alamo Canyon in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument south of us.

We have blogged about Alamo Canyon before, and it is one of those places that because of it's grand scale and rich beauty stays high on our list of favorite places in the Sonoran desert.  The fact that there is usually water in the streambed this time of year doesn't hurt the allure of the place.

We hiked the well maintained trail that follows the semi-dry streambed up through the canyon.  The  towering walls of the canyon seem to rise straight up on both sides of the trail, until you get to the homestead about a mile up the canyon.  Here the canyon widens enough to provide a place for a small meadow.  Ranchers in the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s used the canyon as a place to corral their livestock and feed and water them.  The main corral fencing is somewhat intact, and the remnants of a watering system can still be seen.  

The streambed (wash) always seems to have water in it, if not flowing on the surface, it certainly fills small pools here and there on its way down the canyon.  Our friend's dog Charlie is enjoying the cool water on this warm day.

We had a very enjoyable lunch in the shade near the wash.  We watched the slow stream of water as it trickled into the pool, only to dissappear into the gravel traveling underground to the next lower pool.  Last year's post on Alamo Canyon has more photos and more history if you want to read more click here Alamo Cyn

Another friend arrived at the RV park today.  Barb is a solo RVer who pilots a 40 ft. Monaco Diplomat with a Jeep in tow.  Barb has had her share of troubles on her way south from the Denver area this season.  One of these headaches was an electrical gremlin which caused the loss of her TV and in-dash radio.  

The TV was the original analog CRT TV from 2002 and its demise is no loss, however the new digital TVs are a very different shape and won't fit properly in the overhead cabinet.  In addition, the TV cabinet in her coach is similar to the way our our old TV was, in that it is a head knocker.  As you come up the entry stairs at the front of the coach, the cabinet projects out enough, and is low enough to klonk you on the head if you don't jog left in time. (we did a similar mod on our coach back in 2012)

Barb's extended warranty would pay for the new TV and mount, but not for the necessary modifiction of the overhead cabinet.

I always kick myself for not taking before pictures, so here is what the cabinet looked like after we took it down and cut the top off it and re-installed it.  (I enlisted help from several fellow RVers- most notably Bob Burns and Bob Bass,  as well as the RV owner Barb who was a great helper)

Here is the end result.  The cabinet is 6" shorter in height and the exact same width.  The new Vizio 32" TV is on an extendable/ tilt/ swivel mount, that when released will allow the TV to be extended out and angled left or right.  This also allows the cabinet behind to be used for storage.  The release mechanism is right above the speaker mounted below the TV.  Best of all the TV is well out of the way as you come up the entry stairs.

Stay tuned

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan