26 August 2017
Benson

We’re winding down on August and now have a clear idea what summer is like in Benson: it sucks!

May was pretty hot which means temps in the 90s every day with a few days of 100°F or higher. Then came June where we would actually look forward to the high-90s for a little relief from being over 100°F nearly every day. As I recall, the worst was about 109°F (Tucson hit 113°F that day). Both AC units were running continuously.

Early July brought the start of the monsoons and we usually stayed below 100°F but with higher humidity. To our enormous relief, our fears of finding humidity like we experienced in the Chesapeake in June 2001 didn’t materialize… AZ is just too dry to replicate that nightmare.

August has been more of the same with T-storms from the monsoons getting infrequent, and when we do have one we get less than 0.1″ of moisture (there’s a reason they refer to “getting a little moisture” here in the Southwest instead of “getting a little rain”!). There’s still a little moisture here and there, but nothing like the 5″+ of rain we had in July.

Getting old(er). I believe I mentioned back in May I was tested and fitted for hearing aids at COSTCO. I think I already said the price seemed a bargain compared to what I recall they wanted back when my mother was wearing them. At first it was a novelty and I had fun playing with the app. But it has finally sunk in that I miss them if for some reason I’m not wearing them. Yikes! That really registers high on my Old Farts Whine Meter! It seems I still say “Huh?” a lot, but not as much.

Along with finding I really like wearing my hearing aids, I’m also finding it takes a lot longer to heal than it used to. Back in June the dermatologist took a biopsy from my ear and found it was a melanoma. I already mentioned I had 2 more sessions with him where he did a second biopsy, then later a skin graft which ‘failed to take’. After a 9 day break to heal a little he removed what he called a bolster (kind of a stiffener to keep the surgery site from flexing) and said he’d see me in October for a regular 6 month check. I figured I was going to be making a bi-weekly trip to Sierra Vista but that’s not the case.

So now Celia keeps replacing the dressing 2x daily and I’ve gotten down to a 2″ x 3″ band-aid and the remaining scab is almost gone. She suggested I can call it a war injury but frankly it looks more like a desert rat gnawed a bit off my right ear. Hope he got sick from the high fat diet.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I look forward to sleeping on my right side again!

Trailer brakes. The latest estimated schedule still looks like October, but that’s  vague as Performance Trailer Brakes hasn’t yet asked for $$$.

In the meantime I crawled under the Arctic Fox to take a photo of the axle ID tags as requested by the installers. Both axles are from AL-KO (now owned by Dexter) and are each 5,200 lb. capacity axles.

Unfortunately I also noticed that grease has leaked from each bearing and dripped into the brake drum and then down onto the tire. So the reason I have no trailer brakes is not because they need adjusting but that the brake linings are saturated with lubricant. The axles have an easy-lube feature that allows adding grease without removing the drum. Looks like too much grease was pumped into the bearings. Easy to do since there’s no visual check for what you’re doing.

We had hoped to go somewhere in September for a couple weeks, but it makes no sense to replace the brake linings only to throw them away a month later. So it looks like our late summer trip is going to happen in the fall.

Our new RAM truck. So far I’m very happy with the 2016 RAM 2500 we bought just after Thanksgiving last year. Once we see how things go with the RAM pulling the Arctic Fox, we can make some decisions about adding more fuel to the truck (maybe a replacement tank from Transfer Flow in California) and installing some solar panels plus controller, inverter, and some AGM batteries (probably AM Solar up in Oregon).

The only significant issue with the truck is that we weren’t aware of the optional pneumatic truck leveling system that RAM offers. That would have been a must if I’d been aware of it. Plus I really didn’t want the 4-wheel drive. Realistically we needed to have ordered the truck new, but at this point we aren’t about to change trucks again. There is an option to have an after-market truck leveling system installed. We’ll see how it goes when we finally get everything on the road this fall and if need be we can pursue that.

Oh BTW… Our neighbors up the street, Chuck & Dee Dupuis, sold their smaller 5th wheel they used for summer travel when going back to New Mexico. Chuck is 92 and Dee is probably close plus Dee has been having a lot of back trouble after a surgery that didn’t go as hoped. Once their smaller 5th wheel was gone I figured they had “hung up the keys”. Not so fast, Mr. B

Chuck & Dee still have their 2001 Dodge Ram pickup which has the 5.9L Cummins diesel. A couple weeks ago I heard the rumble of a diesel coming up our street and stuck me head out the door to see who the stranger was since ours is the only diesel truck I’ve seen move all summer here on the North side of the park. What should I see but Chuck driving up the street with a new (to them) Okanagan truck camper. Looks like they’re still active RVers after all. Way to go Chuck!! You’re my hero! 🙂