South for the Winter

 Odometer 71,855 miles

Trip Meter- resting

One of the great perks for our situation here in north Phoenix is that our hosts assign us a Model T to drive while we are here!  This year, as last time in 2019, we were assigned the 1917 touring shown above.  The conditions are that we drive, service and maintain the car as if it were our own.  This particular car is a very original hand started car (yep, the crank in front is the only starter).  This car has the original 1917 four cylinder 170 cubic inch engine, which has been rebuilt about 25 years ago.  The car has been stored for most of those years and not driven very much.  That means the engine is still young and that we get almost all of the original 20 horsepower that it can produce.  Twenty horsepower with a two speed gearbox means that you can “fly” along at a brisk 40 miles per hour on the flat, and somewhat slower climbing hills.  For various reasons, skinny tires on wood spoke wheels among them, 40 mph is plenty fast in this car.  We drive the car frequently, and find it to be a great car for shopping and trekking out for breakfast or lunch at a local restaurant.

One of our favorite times of the year is the annual Hidden in the Hills Art show in Cave Creek, and Carefree.  Over a hundred local artists open their homes and studios to the public and put on amazing displays of their works.  There are examples of just about every conceivable art media somewhere in the show.  We watched artists sculpting, painting, carving, blacksmithing, making  jewelry, glass blowing, weaving, and much more.

To make it even more fun, we would drive with several other couples, all in our Model Ts to each home and studio.

Our hosts had recently purchased a classic 1956 Thunderbird sports car, and it needed a bit of attention, which gave us a shop project.

We chased down a short circuit in the dash wiring, repair the turn signal switch, clean the plugs, and mount the spare tire.

For the last several Christmases we have been decorating the Model Ts with colored lights and going in groups around to the various neighborhoods to view the Christmas lights an decorations.  This year was chilly and we all dressed in puffy coats, wool hats and gloves.  There is no heater in a T !  The 1917 we were driving had no running lights, brake lights, or turn signals so I had to hustle and get some LED lights tastefully mounted and hooked up, as well as decorating with light strings.

Showing off my drywall prowess

Another project for Jeff was our hosts kitchen ceiling which had been damaged by a roof leak last year.  The house has a new roof now, so it was time to come to grips with the damage done by the water intrusion.  We went to Lowes and bought a few drywall tools and some tape and compound.  Another trip, this time to Harbor freight netted us a texture gun and hopper.  While we were at it, we decided to upgrade the kitchen lighting with some new LED fixtures.

Each evening we made it a point to come together on the back porch for happy hour, where , other than conversation and cold drinks, the main attraction was to watch the wild bunnies come looking for carrots strategically placed around the porch.  Here we have even attached some to the cactus thorns.  Great fun watching them chase each other and compete for the carrots.

What fun!

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan

On the Road Again!

 Odometer 70,804 miles

Trip meter this trip 1051 miles

Fast forward to November of 2021, the house is finished, and the Pandemic is at a low ebb, we are all vaccinated and boosted- we see no reason to put our ramblings on hold any longer.  We pulled the coach up to the house and began loading up.

A very late start from Grants Pass meant that by the time we had reached Weed, CA on Interstate 5 it was getting dark and we were getting hungry.  We pulled up to the curb in the rest area just south of Weed and had a late dinner and retired for the night.

Up early in the morning with hustle all around us.  Trucks all around us starting engines and checking loads.  I could walk to Starbucks, so I went for a couple hot mochas and sweet rolls before Joan was fully up, and brought them back to the bus.  We were all hooked up and road ready, so it took literal minutes to set up the car for towing (insert key and turn to accessory- check braking system and lights) off we went.

Crossing over the mountains in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, skirting the base of Mount Shasta is easily one of my favorite parts of this trip

And today is spectacular in the clear clean air and bright sunshine.  We see snow as we traverse the high points, but it’s all in drifts beside the road.  I feel exhilarated !  

We have coffee at Starbucks in Susanville and set off for Yearington, Nevada where we’ve stayed the night in previous trips.  

Our transit through Reno is mostly uneventful, if you don’t count the stopping for fuel.  We have a couple fuel stations we find are easy to get in and out of without unhooking the car, and our luck holds at our first stop.  We take Exit 78 off US 395, and turn east on N. Red Rock road where we can get to the outside pumps at the Shell station and get away cleanly.  A clear win for us!

We took Interstate 80 east of Reno, Then jump off on State Route 439 south through a big growing distribution center.  The warehouses here are MEGA sized, and there is a new one being built every time we come through.  Nevada 439 ends at NV 50 and we have to jog a couple miles south on 50 before we come to the entrance to Alternate US 395 which is the most direct route to connect up to US 395 in Shurz, NV.  US395 does a split at Shurz, where you can either go straight north to Fallon, NV on 95 or head north-west and angle over toward Reno.  Were now thinking it was too early to stop at Yearington (on Alt 395) so we continue onto Shurz, and turn right onto US395 towards Walker Lake and Hawthorne.

We arrive at Hawthorne and check into Whiskey Flats RV Park.  We get there in time to hookup in the waning sunlight and take a walk around the park chatting with the brave few who venture out in the chilly evening air.

The next morning we drove the motorhome over to Safeway and did a quick shop before heading south again on 395.  Always easy when you can wheel your cart over to the door of the RV and stock the refrigerator right from the front door!  By 10 AM we were on the road south.  We stopped briefly in Tonapah (elevation 6,000 ft) for a lunch from Subway and continued on to Beatty, NV (gateway to Death Valley !). Just north of the town of Beatty we checked into Beatty RV Park for $25/ night full hookups !  That’s a good deal!  

Relentlessly on, we left Beatty at 8AM (early for us :->) heading 120 miles south to Las Vegas to meet friends.  In Vegas, we stopped at our designated rendezvous, the Meadows Mall, only to get a call that our friends had to bail on us.  We were close to a Panda Express and Starbucks so Lunch was at hand!  After lunch we fueled up a in Henderson at $3.79/ gallon and headed for Kingman, AZ.  We chose to go on Interstate 11 which took us over the new bridge over the Colorado gorge just downriver from Hoover Dam.  Crossing the bridge is underwhelming, because you can’t really see anything but the road bed, and you don’t get the sensation that you are 890 feet above the river below.  Interstate 11 is proposed to replace (or follow the route of) US 93 through Arizona to Phoenix some day.  

Today we get as far as Kingman before we decide to stop for the night.  Fort Beale RV has been our choice in the past, and they have a Passport (discounted) opening for us tonight.

The Name of the RV Park harkens back to 1857, when the US military had a Camp here (Camp Beale Springs) that was often referred to as Fort Beale.

The next day saw us on our last leg of our Fall migration.  We were late leaving Kingman because the battery had died in our Chevy Tracker towed vehicle, and unbeknownst to us the smart charger we brought with us and hooked up the night before was not working.  We jump started the car to stir the oil around for the days towing and with that complete, we were on our way.  We have to jog east on I-40 to get to US 93 again (soon to be Interstate  11, remember?).  93 will take us to Wickenburg, AZ where we’ll take US route 60 towards Phoenix and New River.

By early afternoon we were safely ensconced in our RV spot on Ralph and Ann’s 2 acres in New River.

Home is where we park it, and we are home for a while here in sunny New River.

November 19th 2021

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan

At Home in Oregon for the Pandemic

 Like most people, COVID-19 put a kink in our travels for 2020 and 2021.  A lot has happened since our return to Oregon with our fears on high alert in spring of 2020.  That trip had us wondering if state borders would suddenly slam shut, if gas stations and RV parks would close, travel restrictions would maroon us somewhere in between our winter and summer homes.  Luckily, none of that happened, we arrived safe and secure at our Coastal home in April of 2020.  Then, a major change came as we pondered our situation vis-a-vis healthcare and aging in place.  For medical reasons we needed to be much closer to emergency healthcare, and our doctors were all a 3-1/2 hour drive inland from here.

We did a lot of repairs to get our “dream” home ready to sell and started looking in the Rogue Valley along the I-5 corridor.  With my sister’s help we won the bidding war on an older ranch style home just outside of Grants Pass.  The home site had a 1970’s home on 1.5 acres, and included a 24’x 30’pole barn.

And what a war it was!  We saw the house hit the market via a web link to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) the web server that holds housing data for all real estate offices.  I called our agent at 7AM and she arranged a “showing” for us at 9:30 AM that same day.  We were one of 18 offers that were received by the owners that evening.  Of all those, our bid was the one selected!  We all bid over the asking price of $330,000- (some of us way over) and our combination of all cash and no contingencies (other than home inspection)- won out.  Our home at the coast was still in escrow, so my sister stepped in to help with a bridge loan.  

Joan and I had planned to do some extensive remodeling, to modernize and update this 1970 home.  We were perfectly happy to stay in the motorhome on the property while we removed ceilings and walls to brighten and open up the floor plan.  We drew up the floor plan on the computer using a program called Sketchup and this allowed us to experiment with different options

The walls that are shown with squiggles (clouds) around them are walls that we no longer wanted.  Not shown here are the walls around the original small kitchen, which we also eliminated to stretch the kitchen across the whole exterior wall.

These walls in the old kitchen and entry way must come down

We wanted to do most of the work ourselves, and we wanted to have a big kitchen and dining area, large island in kitchen, views to the back yard, and sight lines into the living room.  We also wanted to remove the lowered ceilings everywhere and raise them back up to 8’.  We have no idea why they were all so low, but the original occupant must have liked the “cozy” ? feeling.  Structurally there was no obstacle to taking out the old supports and putting in new drywall ceilings at the top of wall

We worked diligently from July to November of 2020 to get the house finished so we could move in.

We drew some rather rudimentry drawings of what we wanted the kitchen to look like.  Our idea was to have windows between the upper and lower cabinets to let in light and give views to the back yard while sitting at the island or in the dining room.  We shopped online for cabinets in kit form, that we would assemble and install ourselves.

To do the windows this way, meant taking down the existing exterior wall and re-framing it with the new window openings.  That meant building permits and plan review.  We drew up our plans on a free copy of Sketchup and got them approved, with a few corrections.

Assembling the cabinets was easy and a lot of fun

We built the island on a custom base I made and used 36” wall cabinets and a plywood top

Flooring was the last hurdle to moving in, so we spent a week or more installing oak tongue and groove flooring throughout the house.  Joan did the layout and I glued and nailed.

Finally by November 16th 2020, nearly 5 months since we purchased the home, we were ready to move into it for the first time.  Thoroughly modern, new wiring, lighting, some new plumbing, all new paint and decor. 

Now to wait out the pandemic, here in our “new” home and see when traveling became possible again.

Home. 

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan