Week two in the White Mountains

We took a few outings in our second week in the White Mountains. We drove down to Big Lake one day. I remembered little about the area from our family camp trips in the 1960s, but the name Rainbow Campground pinged my memory as where we stayed when we went there. It's a large campgound, and was about 1/3 full. Nothing else about it seemed familiar. We drove over to the marina, and walked around the dock and little camp store. Dale bought us both an ice cream treat.

Another day we drove down to Hawley Lake. The road to the lake was in terrible shape, and so were the campground roads. We stopped in to the little store/cafe on the lake front and asked about campground rates: $9/night for primitive sites, and $26 for full hookups. When we came back to Carnero Lake, we saw a little rainstorm over on the hill.

It did hit our campsite later.

On our way past Sunrise, we popped up the hill to the Lodge, which we had missed on our first drive through. It is being totally remodeled and was closed, of course. If we make it back up to the area in another year, we'll stop in to see what it looks like.

Our time limit was coming to an end in the high country, and it was time to head down the mountain.

Escaping the heat

Week one of my summer 2023 flee from the Valley of the Sun is in the books, and boy am I glad to be out of that oven. With record temperatures hitting 116° for several days in a row, and nary a drop of rain on the horizon, my home sweet home is sizzling. So I loaded up my Minnie and hit the road north to higher elevations and lower temperatures.

Dale was camped in FR171 dispersed campground northeast of Payson, where we spent a rainy week last September. I drove up to join him there, and settled into site 13, across the yard from him. It was a pretty sunny site because Dale needs open skies for his Starlink and 12 solar panels. I was able to find a bit more shade, but still suffered through warm afternoons. There was a little too much wind to put out my brand new awning, so the sun shone directly on my front door. 

After four days there and daily temps climbing into the high 80s, we packed up and headed east to higher elevations in the White Mountains. We were in search of even cooler weather, and we found it. We had to go up to 9280 feet elevation, but there it was! Neither Dale nor I have been to the White Mountains since our childhood, but we both remember Dad liked to camp and fish at Big Lake. We looked for free dispersed camping areas around there, and decided to check out Carnero Lake, about 25 miles north of Big Lake. We figured we could set up near there, then scout out the neighboring forest and see if we found campsites we liked better. 

We have been in a nice spot along FS117 since last Monday and it is suiting us very well. We found a site alongside a meadow with trees on two sides, so Dale parked near the open area, and I tucked into a little grove of pines. The temperatures were in the high 60s when we got here. 

We had rain for the next four afternoons and evenings, so we had to retreat inside each day. It finally let up by Friday, and the sun came out and stayed out. We made a trip into Springerville one day to break up the routine, and had lunch at a wonderful pizza place (Dale’s treat!) and then drove by an auto salvage sculpture yard that I found on my Roadside America app. 

Yesterday, we drove down to Sunrise Lake and ski resort area and drove through a couple campgrounds. From there, we made our way over to Greer, and drove the main road through town. Hard to call it a town, since it’s mostly just cabins, lodges, RV parks, and restaurants. No stores, no gas stations, nor any other businesses. We plan to drive down to Big Lake in a day or two and check out the campgrounds there. We likely won’t stay in a developed campground at the lake, but we like to drive through them and look for amenities. (I will need to dump in a week or so.) 

We gained some neighbors over the weekend, as the working folks escaped the heat for a few days. The mother & father just across from our site came over the first evening to chat for a few minutes. Both Dale & I took note of their handguns on their hips, and politely chatted with them. We have no idea why they need to display their guns in a campground, especially as they had two little girls with them, but we tried to be good neighbors and mind our own business. Hopefully they will be gone today.  

The high altitude is keeping us both a little short of breath, and Dale has suffered with daily headaches. But the nice temperatures and quiet nights make it worthwhile. Hanna and I are enjoying walks each morning and evening either up the road or through the woods. 

We think we will stay here another week until our 14 day limit is up, then maybe head a little closer to the Valley, with upcoming doctor appts in mind. 

Minnie Updates

My Minnie took an adventure without me in June!

A few months ago, Heather announced their family was planning to rent an RV and take a summer vacation to a couple national parks. I immediately asked if they would be interested in taking my Minnie and Fit, if the calendar worked out. It just sits in my side yard for many months each year, and there was no reason they couldn’t take it. In the next few weeks, we worked out the timing for a short overnight trial run, for both training purposes and also for them to make sure it would suit their needs (size-wise mainly since they would be camping with 4 people.) We drove up to Usery Pass campground just north of Mesa, and I took them through setup, hookup, and dumping processes, and then I drove the Fit back home, leaving them for the overnight experience. They agreed it was a valuable trial and training run, and they eagerly began planning their trip. 

They left home on June 10, and visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then Bryce National Park and Zion National Park, all locations I have been to and love. They returned home on the 16th and declared they think they want to get an RV in their empty nest or retirement years. So I think that means they enjoyed it!

While they were gone, they had to deal with the inconvenience of a couple broken items that I hadn’t gotten around to fixing this year. When they got home, I figured it was time to get them done. The Balches had given me some money to put toward a new awning, so I got that ordered first thing. It was installed on July 5, the day before I was planning to leave for the White Mountains, so perfect timing! 

My pantry latch had broken last fall on my last trip to the Mogollon Rim, and it would fly open and slide out when driving if it was not tied closed.  I came up with the idea of a cupboard latch, and Daryl installed it for me.  It works great to keep the door closed and hold the pantry sliding shelf in place. The last thing was the water hookup valve, which sprang a leak while H&M were on their trip. I ordered a new valve that happened to come while Dale was in town for an appt, and he installed it for me. 

June/July is always when my licenses and insurance come due, and now those are also taken care of for another year. So that’s the current maintenance and repairs that were on my list. As Richard loves to frequently remind me, it’s always something, and owning an RV is not free.

Now it is time to head off on my next adventure. I really wanted to take an RV trip across the country to see Barb Heimel this year, but medical appointments and the high price of gas complicated those plans. So I decided to stick closer to home, and camp in the high country of Arizona this year and hope a longer trip will be more affordable next year. 

See you down the road. 

Mouse!

I did another two week camping trip in my Minnie, driving up to the Rim area on August 21st to spend time with Dale. He had been in a dispersed camp just off Houston Mesa road north of Payson for a couple of weeks, so I joined him there. We set up my solar to give it a whirl. It was putting in amps, but since it had been unplugged for several months, we had no idea how far below 100% it was, but it was well below 14.4 volts. So we just let it charge for as many hours of sunshine as we had.

The ranger came around on Monday to read us the rules (stressing the14 day limit mostly), and we told her we were leaving on Tuesday to move up onto the Rim into the Sitgreaves forest. She seemed satisfied we were not homesteading there and complained to us about "homeless" people who plant their RVs in the forest and spend all their time making a mess.

Our camp near Houston Mesa

We saw blue skies in the early mornings

True to our word, we did move up to the Mogollon Rim on Tuesday morning (the 23rd), after a stop at the Walmart in Payson. Dale had previously camped in FR171 Rim campground just below Willow Springs Lake, so we went back there. His favorite site was taken, so after driving past all 48 other sites, we settled into space 16. The driveway entrances on the majority of the sites were in horrible muddy condition, and ours was no exception. In addition, our site was filled with large (and small) rocks. But it had the most important features, and that was a southern exposure for solar and a northern exposure for Starlink. Plus it was plenty large enough for us both to tuck back in away from the road.

Our rocky, wet campsite

 

Mogollon Rim view

Little white bear in the woods

All that rain brought dozens of mushrooms

The only outings we took was to drive up to Willow Springs Lake and into Heber one day, and into Payson another day. We didn't really need anything, but just did it for a change of scenery. Otherwise, we mostly babysat my solar panel, trying to get my new Lithium Ion battery up to float. It seemed my one solar panel was not going to cut it due to the fact we had so much rain and clouds every day. So midway through the first week, Dale disconnected one set of his own panels and brought them over and hooked them up to my battery. After about five more days, we finally got the battery up to 14.4V, where it settled back down to 13.4, which is technically floating. After that, it floated each day before noon.

We had discussed on What's App ordering a battery charger on Amazon and Richard & Dianna offered to bring it up. I decided not to invest in that right now, but we did invite R&D to come up for a weenie roast picnic lunch with us. They thought a drive up to the pines sounded like a nice (and safe healthy) outing, so came up on Tuesday, the 30th.

Willow Springs Lake

 Daryl & Gisele were driving up to a church family camp in Pinetop for the Labor Day weekend, and since their route came right by our campground, they stopped and chatted for a couple of hours.

One morning I was sitting in my recliner drinking coffee and heard a rustling near my stove. I put my ear over there and traced it to the oven. I opened the door and saw the cutest little gray and white mouse looking out at me from among my frying pans (which I store in there). As cute as he was, I didn't want him in my rig, and commenced efforts to extricate him. I set up an electric rat zapper, first under my sink beside the stove, then after a couple of days of no success, I moved it to the floor of the cab, where I had heard him scuffling about one night. Still no luck. With Dale's help (and me standing by) we removed the frying pans from the oven, but my little house guest was no longer among them. I placed the zapper in the oven for one night anyway. 

This effort lasted until I drove home on Sunday before Labor Day. After getting my rig emptied and prepped for storage, I figured he must have abandoned ship in all that time and activity, but JUST IN CASE, I set the zapper trap on the kitchen floor, went out, and locked the door. Sure enough, three days later, I found him in the trap. 

He never felt a thing. R.I.P.

Poor little guy...

 

New Power Source

 I just realized I never wrote about my new power generating system. I'm not sure how I missed writing about that, because it is a very big improvement that my brother Dale installed for me.

I've complained countless times about my coach batteries; how often I have to replace them, how they don't hold charge, having to monitor the level throughout the day and night, and running the generator to re-charge whenever I'm camped without hookups. I've been wanting to get a Lithium Ion battery for a while, and decided it was time to bite that bullet. Also, as I mentioned in my October 2021 post, I had tried out one of Dale's single solar panels while camping with him and saw how well it delivered enough charge for my daily needs, so I put a solar panel on my Christmas list.

Dale was in town in February for a couple weeks, and I took advantage of that visit to get some help installing my system. I had the new battery and solar panel, and Dale had an old charge controller he was willing to pass on to me since he had recently upgraded his system to the "Tim Taylor Tool Time More Power Argh Argh Argh" set up. So with all the parts I needed, we (HE) got to work. 

It was a little more involved than we had expected since the new battery would not fit in the space under the step where the two lead acid batteries were. We ended up having to put it inside behind the chair, but that necessitated drilling holes through the floor and the wall of the old battery space to run the cables to the coach hookups. In the end, it all went together okay, and it's not really in the way behind the chair. Plus it's easy to reach the disconnect switch there. I disconnect the battery when it's stored for several months to avoid discharging the battery.

The basket of Hanna's toys sits nicely on top

After he got all the connections made to the coach, Trimetric gauge, and the charge controller, we set up the solar panel and checked it out. It worked perfectly! The panel was facing the early afternoon sun and charged the battery full by the end of the day. In fact, I had to run a little fan for several hours the next day to take some of the charge back off the battery before disconnecting it for storage. 

I think the next thing that is going to take more money out of my wallet is a replacement awning, as mine is peeling pretty badly. I did buy a repair kit, but I don't have high hopes it will do a very good job. And I need a tall ladder to work on it, so I'm not sure when I will get to that. But it's not terribly urgent.

I'm anxious to get back out camping. We've had another hot summer, so the cool mountain forests sound lovely. I've had such a busy year with one thing or another on my schedule that I haven't had a spare two weeks to string together a trip up north, but I hope I can rectify that soon.

Let me not forget to say "Thanks a lot, Dale"!!!

New AC

I mentioned in my last post that when Dale and I were camping near Rye, AZ, it was warm enough one afternoon for me to turn on my AC, only to discover it was putting out warm air. Since RV air conditioner units notoriously do not allow adding Freon, I figured I was in for a replacement. The fact my unit is 17 years old, although has many fewer hours on it than that age implies, I wasn't too unhappy over the fact it had worn out.

I hate taking Minnie out of my back yard to drive it to a service center, leave it for an unknown length of time, get a ride home and back, then bring Minnie back home and put it back in the yard. When a Google search turned up a mobile RV service company with excellent Google score and reviews, I decided to call him.

Juan from 4 Points RV Service came out later that week, checked out the AC, confirmed it was the compressor and that the whole unit would need to be replaced. I had been checking on Amazon for ACs and asked him if he would install one that I bought myself. He said he would, but I would only get the Amazon 1 year warranty, and if I got one from him, he would give me a 2 year warranty. He quoted me a price on the new unit and it was very much in line with Amazon's pricing, and he had one in town. Winner! 

He scheduled the replacement for one week later, arrived with the new unit and carried it up the ladder to my roof. After doing the installation, we checked out the temperature of the air coming out of the vents and it registered a chilly 55°. I'm really happy to have things in working order again, and very happy to have found a qualified mobile service to do future repairs for me. It sure was nice not to have to get Minnie out of the back yard.

I'm planning to get out camping with Dale in a few weeks in northern Arizona. With the exorbitant cost of gas right now ($6.00/gal!!) I won't be going very far this summer. Hopefully next year, the prices will be more reasonable and I'll take a longer camping trip. I've really missed being able to RV travel around the country.

Repairs ... again!

It's a misconception to think if you own an RV, it's going to be a free, or even economical, means of travel. They cost money, a lot can go wrong, and repairs and maintenance can be expensive. I've sure had my share of those expenses. Part of the problem is the amount of time it sits in storage in the Arizona heat, part of it is my inexperience or ignorance, part is general wear and tear, and part is just plain bad luck. 

Take for instance when I took it into Walmart to have the oil changed. You might say it was my fault for not warning the pit crew that the end was long with a short wheel base, and to be careful when pulling it out of the bay so they didn't turn too sharp and bang up the back corner. Or you might say it was just bad luck. But yes, they did bang up the back corner, so then I had matching banged up back corners. We won't dwell on who banged up the opposite side earlier. Let's just move along. 

Fortunately, Walmart paid to repair the damage they had done, and it was probably cheaper to have both corners fixed at once, so I saved a little on my portion of the bill, too. I ordered the parts online and took it into Arizona RV Service to do the install and body work. 

I also had a "clunking" noise in the back end that I wanted diagnosed and repaired. The downside was it took eight weeks for them to diagnose a damaged bushing in the slide, order the parts for it and complete all the service! Luckily, I didn't have any big trips planned, other than wishing I could spend a few weeks in the New Mexico State Parks with Dale. 

I finally got it back in late August only to discover that my coach batteries were on their last legs. I decided it is probably time to buy a Lithium Ion battery and end all this battery trouble. At some point, I will add a solar panel to complete the worry free power delivery system.

After getting back from my September trip to Boise for Megan's wedding, I made a snap decision to load up my rig and drive up to the Mogollon Rim and join Dale for a week or so of cooler weather and getting re-acclimated to RVing. He was camped in a large spot on the rim near Woods Canyon, and I set up beside him. It commenced raining shortly after I got there, and continued for 2 1/2 more days until we finally packed up and drove down to a dispersed site near Rye. 

Mud puddles!

 It was much warmer there, possibly even a little too warm each afternoon. That lead to me turning on my A/C one day, only to discover it wasn't putting out any cool air. Richard says RV air conditioners are not built to add freon, and I likely need to replace it. Another big expense! ...sigh...

While we were in Rye, Dale set up his extra solar panel and small charge controller on my batteries, and it worked beautifully, delivering plenty of power to keep my dying batteries charged. It was enough to make me decide I'll be investing in a solar panel of my own the same time I replace the battery with a Li-Ion one. 

After another week in the Rye area making S'mores and chasing cows out of our campsite, I made my way back down the mountain and put Minnie back in the side yard. RVing is not free, but they say travel is the only thing you spend money on that makes you richer.

Ran out of chocolate bars, so tried peanut butter. Not bad!