a dog house on wheels

5 January 2018
Benson, AZ

We have succumbed to the crap weather Benson is having… both of us have colds or maybe the flu and generally feel like the world has turned against us. The Admiral found she can’t lie flat in bed so she’s taken up residence in her recliner along with half the blankets and afghans we own. Plus a red & black scarf wrapped round her head for good measure. I can’t even bring myself to tease her about it. She really is in bad shape and it appears it may have morphed into bronchitis. Again.

A couple of the residents we’ve talked to (keeping a safe distance!) say most of the park has a bad cold. We usually avoid these things by simply keeping our distance from the Club House for special events and entertainment. But this time it came after us. Might as well blame WalMart since I blame them for most things anyway.

When I started this note I had something I wanted to cover but all the intervening months tossed that into the void of not great memory! I’ll just start a new post.

7 Dec 2017
Benson, AZ

It was inevitable. We whined from the first of May thru the first week of December about how hot it was. Now we’re faced with freezing temps (~25° F) tomorrow morning. It’s about to go from sweltering heat to the dead of winter overnight. Ahhh… life in the desert!

Or maybe the rapid transition has to do with Pearl Harbor Day, the anniversary of which we recall today. The Admiral was born in Honolulu, Hawaii just under 4 months before they bombed the the Navy base there. Her dad, Frances (Frank), was in the Navy and was home with the family that morning when the bombing started. He headed back to Pearl Harbor with other sailors from the neighborhood and went to work. This is a photo of his ship, the USS Oglala; USS Oglala has the dubious distinction of being the first Navy ship sunk during the attack of Sunday, 7 Dec 1941. The caption tells part of the tale of its distinguished service with the US Navy from 1906 to 1965!

USS Oglala– Built in 1906 for the passenger service (New York/Boston/Portland) and christened SS Massachusetts, she was renamed a month later as SS Shawmut. In 1917 she was purchased by the US Navy and fitted out to be a mine layer. She was designated CM-4, USS Shawmut. In 1928 she was again renamed to avoid phonetic confusion with USS Chaumont and became the USS Oglala, named after the Oglala tribe of the Lokota Sioux Nation in South Dakota. After capsizing on 7 Dec, Oglala was refloated, repaired & refitted as an engine repair ship and completed the war mostly in the SW Pacific. Decommissioned in Jan 1946, she was mothballed in Siusun Bay till sold for scrap in mid-1965.

Frank survived that day and many more after that, but thanks to him being in the Navy, the Admiral and her mom were sent packing to the mainland. Never mind her family were all born and lived on Maui and Oahu since the late 1800s, Navy logic dictated that all civilian families of Navy personnel be evacuated. When the Admiral turned 6 months old she went from warm sunny days on Oahu to the dead of winter in Utah arriving in sub-zero temps. Vaguely like our transition into winter from the seemingly endless summer of SE Arizona!

You wouldn’t think a nearly new Arctic Fox would be a ‘fixer upper’, but that’s kind of what has happened. I mentioned before that I found the trailer brakes weren’t working. Instead of having them repaired I ordered replacement disc brakes through Performance Trailer Brakes (PTB) in Norman, OK. It took months to get thru their queue, but in early November Dennis Hageman of PTB arrived here in the park to do the work. From when he arrived at the nearby rented site and started working till we pulled back in after the post-installation test ride, it was less than 7 hrs. And that included the time to install after-market equalizers from MORryde. I’m very happy with our experience working with PTB. It was about $2,650 for parts and labor for the brakes plus another $300 for the MORryde SRE4000 equalizers.

So why were the trailer’s drum brakes not working? The axles on our Fox are from AL-KO/Dexter and have been fitted with the Ez-Lube feature. Ez-Lube is basically a system of drilled passages in the axle ends; the ends are machined to carry the wheel bearings and the adjusting nut for setting the bearing pre-load. The drilled passages are intended to duct bearing grease from a Zerk fitting in the center of the axle end out to the wheel bearings. Makes it so any fool can lube a bearing and, sure enough, some fool (no, not your scribe this time!) squeezed enough lubricant into the bearings that it leaked out past the seal into the brake drums.

Dennis had an interesting explanation of what is going on. It seems the hole from the central passageway exits at a poorly chosen location which allows some lubricant to go between the bearings (that’s a good thing), but also some leaks out at the inside bearing seal (that’s not a good thing). Oops! PTB notified AL-KO/Dexter but there’s been no feedback yet.

Wheel bearings have a lubrication interval of perhaps 30,000 miles whether or not you have the Ez-Lube feature. Ez-Lube is supposed to simplify the lubrication process; in no way does it affect the lubrication interval. However the presence of the Zerk fitting causes owners to feel like they should give it a squirt every once in awhile ‘just in case’. The result is brake damage. Our brakes were probably lubed at the factory, then possibly lubed again when the trailer arrived in La Mesa, AZ. For good measure they may have gotten more grease when we took delivery of the trailer in June 2015 since it had been sitting around for over a year at that point. That’s possibly 3 times the bearings were lubed in either 0 miles or about 1,000 miles, depending on whether or not it arrived in Arizona from Le Grande, Oregon on its own wheels.

I wasn’t planning on the equalizer replacement, but when I looked at what it was I realized it would probably make an improvement in the hard ride our Fox seems to have. Like some other components from MORryde, the SRE4000 involves the generous use of an elastomer (synthetic rubber) which I hope will soften some of the road shocks sent from the axles up thru the leaf springs & shock absorbers into the frame of the trailer. Here’s a YouTube video of what’s going on with the equalizer when moving on a rough road. Btw, the old equalizer was a solid piece of 1/2″ thick steel.

On the plus side, I learned our Fox was delivered with heavy duty spring shackles (1/2″ thick instead of 1/4″ thick) and that the shackle bolts are wet bolts, i.e. they can be lubricated without removing the bolts (yes, another opportunity for over-use of lubricant!).

The Admiral has a green thumb and this past summer she launched into a full scale truck farm. Well, maybe a slight exaggeration but not by a lot. Ever heard of Earth Boxes? We now have 5 of them on roll-around stands plus various and sundry pots and containers that have everything from broccoli, kale and chard to marigolds and geraniums. They’re pretty cool because you add water thru a fill tube into the bottom of the container, then the water wicks up through the soil to the root area. A cover over the top surface (with holes for the plants) minimizes surface evaporation.

The bottom line? Tomatoes were a bust; the greens didn’t really get going till after we got below the 90° F level, but they’re doing pretty good right now. Well… that was before the freeze that’s engulfing us as I type this. Squash was a winner all summer. The broccoli did nothing till about 3 weeks ago- nothing like what you see in the stores but tasty. Basil was the big producer. And the folks at our favorite restaurant (Mi Casa) use it, so she’s had a home for all the excess. She uses it to make an all-veggie pesto for our pasta. Flowers always grow, and so too do the various worms and caterpillars that her Earth Boxes have been nourishing. I can’t believe some of the critters she’s picked off the goodies! This was a very big year for butterflies and I can’t help wonder how many more we might have seen but for the Admiral! 🙂

Annie and Kelly continue to do well. Annie turns 11 on 24 Dec and Kelly does the same on 3 July 2018.

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! 🙂

1 August 2017
Benson

We’re in the midst of monsoons and are finally having some relief from the heat. Yee haw! All it took was 2 days of cooler weather (down into the 80°s) and I started whining when the temps went back into the 90° range.

The instantaneous appearance of color from cactus and other plants blooming has been startling, We have color everywhere. Amazing.

Doctor appointments continue for me and for Kelly (yes, we have different doctors!). She did extremely well with her surgery to remove the basil cell tumor on her chest. Yours truly, however, is struggling a bit. The dermatologist was able to remove the melanoma OK, but the skin graft to fill in the 1/2″ divot in the edge of my ear was a total flop. Now I have to wait for everything to heal and see what he recommends. At the moment I’ve got a piece of basically dead skin attached to my ear. If I understand correctly, the hope is that some tissue will start to regrow under the failed graft, but I don’t know what that means long term.

Oddly, my brother-in-law had the same surgery for a melanoma.

Our Arctic Fox. I’ve contacted Performance Trailer Braking in Norman, OK to schedule replacement of our electric drum brakes with a set of disc brakes from Titan. They have 4 teams traveling around the country that do the install. Actually, one of those teams is stationary in Elkhart, IN for the summer, so they’re down to 3 teams doing installs). There will be at least one 2 team in our area starting in perhaps September.

The work gets done in your driveway… if you have one. We don’t, so we’ll rent a site for a couple days so there’s no excuse for poor working conditions from working on gravel (yuk!). Estimated cost is about $1,650 for parts plus $1,000 labor. Probably going to get scheduled in October.

One disturbing report I heard was from an owner who said he had a 2 second delay between applying the brakes and when the calipers actuated. I need to get that cleared up, but it appears that it may be as simple as air in the hydraulic lines. Need some answers from the sellers.

30 May 2017
Benson, AZ

It’s gettin’ hot, folks!
It’s the end of May (already?!) and it’s getting hot. It’ll be above 90° F all this week- hot enough we might even touch 100°. And what are we going to do about it? Not a damn thing.

The culprit is yours truly who did a horrible job scheduling appointments. I managed to string things out so there’s something about every week. The Admiral is getting a little pissy about it, but then I guess that’s her job. 🙂

Visitors.
RVing friends visited us in January. David & Becky, who we first met in mid-2010, stopped by SKP Saguaro on their way to a workamping job at Boyce Thompson State Park up near Phoenix. Since they were first-time visitors to the park they got the bargain deal… the park is always looking to make a good first impression!

And with good-first-impressions in mind, we had to take them to our favorite restaurant in southern AZ- Mi Casa here in Benson. It was the first we’ve visited with them since 2012 when they had a workamping job in Branson, MO at the visitor center at Table Rock Dam. That job came with a campsite to die for!

The park had a bunch of visitors in general. Both last year and this we found a *lot* of rigs in dry camping sites. If a visitor arrives without space to accommodate them, they will usually spend a few nites in dry-camping till a site becomes available and they can move to a leased lot that’s in the rental pool.

Lousy planning!
I usually can do a decent job scheduling appointments so that we can be on the road by early May. And with all my whining about not traveling fir 4 years you’d think I would have gotten it right.

Unfortunately the nurse practitioner we have been seeing at San Pedro Family Care decided to retire and we ended up rescheduling. At the insistence of The Admiral’s previous doctor we switched to an MD. San Pedro normally has 2 MDs- Carter and Andrew Mayberry. Unfortunately Carter is on a mission with his church. He’s in South America taking care of about 2,000 people as I understand it. That leaves Andrew buried in patients.

Plus I had a bunch of tests with the heart specialist and the urologist plus the annual trip to the dermatologist plus the dentist. Then I added a trip to the urologist again for a biopsy. And of course wellness checks for the dogs and an echo cardiogram for Kelly. And Celia had to have her mammogram and a bone density scan. And I’m probably leaving out a few. Oh… I have to start seeing a vascular surgeon and he’s got a couple tests he wants run before we leave. Plus Celia had cataract surgery on both eyes plus she was fitted with glasses with a small correction.

And oh by the way, I had to be fitted for hearing aids. Damn! I thought the problem was Celia but once again she was right. I hate it when that happens! If you think you may have a hearing problem I’d strongly suggest looking into COSTCO. Hearing test $0, hearing aids are very reasonable, and they take care of them for as long as they can get parts for $0. The main continuing expense will be a pair of batteries about once per week. I was out of there for $1,600 for a pair that include Bluetooth connectivity. If things get out of adjustment I just make an appointment, step into the test booth, and she calls up my file and reloads the programming via Bluetooth. Plus the devices collect data on how I adjust them and they download that and keep a record of where I normally set things. The technology is amazing!

Anyway, at the moment it looks like sometime in late July we may be able to escape. We may try to get up to the Northwest for awhile. I just hope we start seeing some cooling from the monsoons before we leave.

Lots of fires
Our side of the Dragoons was covered in brush fires following some lightning. Then the other side started burning too (Cochise Stronghold). Now it looks like another substantial burn on the North side of I-10, again on the East side of the Dragoons. Fires in Arizona are certainly not rare, but I sure don’t like having them close like this!

We stopped at Adolpho’s for lunch yesterday and found 10 fire fighters with T-shirts from their homebases that appeared to have cpme from all over the US including Denver, Wind Caverns NP, US Fish & Wildlife Service and so on. They were having lunch before they headed back to the fire line. We understand there are something like 250 fire fighters from all over the state and the US that are working these fires.

More when (if!) we finally get on the road.