More repairs

Last summer when I got my new awning, I had the mobile service guy check out my step, which was making an awful rattle when it pulled in. He replaced a bracket and tightened things up and it was fine for several months. This summer, it started rattling again. Additionally, my coach water pump had been making a grinding noise when I first turned it on, so I decided it was time to replace it, before it went out while I was somewhere out in the woods.

I've been using 4 Points RV Service for the past few years. It is a mobile service that comes to my house, which is so much nicer than getting my Minnie out of the backyard and taking it into a shop. His prices are competitive as he doesn't have any overhead and only one staff member other than family. He's just the nicest guy, and I'm really happy I found him.

He replaced my water pump (which had a small leak and some calcium buildup) and checked out my step. He said there is a circular gear that turns 180° as the step comes out. The gears were stripped on one side. Instead of replacing the whole gear, he simply took it out and turned it around. So now it is working on the fresh side with the good teeth and moves as smooth as silk. He warned it may only last a couple more years, but since there was no need to replace it right now, it saved me about $200!

So now, I'm ready to do some more camping.

Fall 2024 on the Rim

Dale camps in northern Arizona nearly every summer. and this year was no different. He moved down to one of our favorite free NFS campgrounds - Rim 171 - in June, and following Betty's memorial service, I took my Minnie up to set up camp in the site next to him. It's so nice when we can share a site and I can connect to his Starlink and have free steaming and internet. For the first few days, we just hung out around camp while I got my sea ... er woods ... legs under me.We ventured out for a few drives around the forest, and one day even drove up Hwy 377 almost to Holbrook to check out Jack's Canyon, a dispersed campground he was familiar with. We found the road in to the canyon so rough we almost didn't make it in his Jeep, and did not find any suitable campsites there. But it was a fun outing just the same, and broke up the monotony of sitting in camp.

After about ten days in 171, we moved down Young Road a couple miles to a dispersed campground on an unnamed road. There were lots of open campsites, and we chose one that was back off the road and set up adjacent to each other. Throughout the week, we had frequent rain that made the road and our campsite more and more muddy, but didn't seem to deter the weekend warriors. That weekend, the campground filled up and was so crowded that a group with two rigs and a couple of big tents set up right at the front of our site. Since they were well behaved and we were back far enough, they didn't bother us. 

One day, we drove all the way down Young Road to the town of Young. Dale had been wanting to check it out, and for some reason I had remembered Dad made a couple trips up there to repair equipment when he worked for Oracle Road Rent-All, so felt nostalgic about it. We didn't find much of interest in the little town except an outdoor museum with a few signs about the history, so after getting an ice cream, we headed back home.

I had been having a slow leak in one of my Minnie tires, and one day, Dale took it off and we drove into ShowLow to Discount Tire. They replaced the stem while we went to Walmart, and we were soon on our way back to camp, where Dale put the tire back on. I haven't had any problems since. Thanks, Dale!!

We moved back up to Rim 171 and spent another couple weeks. While we were there, we drove around the forest above Hwy 260 exploring the back roads and dispersed camp areas. Dale's Jeep handled the rough terrain better than my Fit would have, but even then we got in some pretty rugged spots and had to lift our feet to lighten our load.

Horses!

We had been monitoring Richard's health condition and sticking closer to home in case we had to make a run down the mountain. But he stabilized enough that we felt okay moving a little farther north. We checked out a camp area just north of Clint's Well and found a really nice large spot. The campsites were really spread out and not many people were around in the middle of the week. When we drove in, we were welcomed by Willie Nelson, a big beautiful dog belonging to a semi-permanent camper near the entrance. He roamed free some of the time, but was really friendly and gentle (and we were told by the owner that he chased several coyotes away), so we were happy to have him around. 

 

Again, the campground filled up on the weekend, and those campers were not as considerate, racing their ATVs and motorbikes around the forest and even through our site. We had a couple groups camp so close to us, we could hear their conversations. On Monday morning, when the last ones left, they also left behind a smoldering barbecue grill. Just drove away to let nature's elements try to disintegrate it over the next century or so. They obviously had not heard of pack it in, pack it out.

Toward the end of our time there, Richard was back in the hospital and I decided to head home to give Dianna support, since Daryl had upcoming travel plans. Dale and I said our temporary good-byes, and I headed south.

By the way, I had stocked up on all kinds of mouse deterrents before heading up to the woods. After my experience last fall, I didn't want a repeat of multiple mice every day. I bought a second zapper trap, and several peppermint packets. I set one of the zappers in my engine each night and the second one in the cab, and strew the peppermint packets all along the console and in the oven and a couple of drawers. I had a mouse nearly every morning in the engine zapper, but never saw evidence of one inside my rig this time. I have bought some owl decoys that I plan to take with me in the future and place them around my rig and under the hood, hoping to scare them away. I will not let those little buggers win!

It's all good

 

In my last post, I described the problems I had with Minnie when I got home from the Mogollon Rim. The flat tire, the empty gas tank, and the electrical systems down were very concerning. I ignored the problems for a few weeks, but the next time Dale was in town, he went out and did a little problem solving.

He got underneath Minnie and inspected the gas tank as much as he could, and didn't find any holes or even what looked like a leak. Then he tackled the electrical issues, starting with the solar charge controller. He thought that was a logical place to start, so he pulled it out of the bin where it is mounted and checked it over. He found what looked like some shorted wires and followed them to a burned out fuse on the coach. We could not find a replacement in town, so I ordered one from Amazon. After it arrived and he put it in, the electrical system came right back up, and the gas gauge read half full! Hallelujah! 

He also discovered there was a big slash in my tire, so we were pretty sure I had had a blow out. Since it was one of my dual tires, I slowly and carefully drove to Discount Tire, and they replaced the blown tire, which was still under warranty.

He's a little concerned about what caused the fuse to blow, so he hasn't re-hooked up the charge controller yet until he checks it out to make sure it's in good working order. (He had knee replacement surgery the day after putting in the fuse, so hasn't had the time to get back to my little problems. 😉) Once we verify that's okay, I should be good to go. If I have to replace that, it's only a few hundred dollars. A tow to an RV service bay to repair (or replace) a leaking gas tank and check out the electrical system could have ended up costing thousands. I love having brothers who are not only good mechanics, but also willing to help out their little sister. I'm blessed!

I have a big Mediterranean cruise coming up this spring so I probably won't be taking any camping trips before then, so Minnie is sitting in the side yard for now. She doesn't mind though. 😏

Eventful end to Summer 2023 camp trip

The second week in our campsite on the Rim, I discovered mouse droppings in Minnie. I got out my electric rodent zapper and caught one the next morning. Just in case he wasn't a solo RVer, I reset the zapper. Since I found more droppings in multiple locations, Dale brought over his zapper and I set both of them, moving them around each day. Meanwhile, Dale & I went on a hunt for small openings where they might be getting in. We stuffed steel wool in three different holes we found, though not being certain any of them were open to the outside. Over the next few days, I caught three more mice, then I had a quiet night with no activity and no mice in the traps, so thought I might have gotten them all. On Tuesday evening, as I sat reading in my recliner, I heard the zapper on the engine console go off. Sure enough, there was a mouse in it. I tossed it out the front door and re-baited and reset the trap. Fifteen minutes later, I heard it go off again. After the third one an hour later, I knew there was some super highway into my rig that the whole mountain mouse community had discovered. I crawled in bed with my covers up to my chin, but didn't sleep well. Each time I heard the zapper, I would get up & toss the dead mouse out the door and reset the trap. By morning, there was a pile of five mice plus another one scratching in my oven, and I decided to pack up and head home.

No, not this mouse. This mouse would have been welcome!

I pulled up in front of my house at noon. After unhitching the Fit, Minnie wouldn't start. I tried jumping it with the Fit, but got nothing. Daryl was out and about and I called to ask him to stop by on his way home to double check my jumper cable connections. He started to reconnect them, but told me to first try the key one more time. Sure enough, Minnie started right up. I pulled it around and up the driveway into the back yard, when Daryl noticed one of my back (dual) tires was flat. I remembered either hitting a bump or pothole, or something hitting me as I came through Mesa. Just then, I noticed my gas gauge was also reading empty. It had been over half full just a few miles out of Mesa. I was then very concerned something had put a hole in my gas tank.

All of my electrical system seems to be down. and my brothers suggested the empty gas gauge might be a result of that instead of really empty. Now I'm thinking I might have had a blowout on the tire, and the electrical outage is a separate issue, possibly related to mice chewing wires. I sure hope that's the case or it could be a big expense, not to mention the complication of getting it into a shop to be repaired. It would likely have to be towed. Since I don't have any camping trips planned in the next few months, I'll wait until it's a bit cooler to start making some calls.

Meanwhile, I slept soundly last night in my cool block house, and I'm glad to be home. It was a fun camping trip (up until that last night!) but I'll be ready to hit the road again as soon as Minnie is healed up.

Two weeks on the Mogollon Rim

After exhausting our 14 day camping limit in the White Mountains, we moved back down to the Rim campground and back into the same space we had occupied two weeks earlier. I positioned my Minnie so I'd get afternoon shade this time instead of the bright sun shining in my front door. 

 

Dale had an eye appointment on Monday the 31st, and we drove down to Mesa together in my Fit. We stopped at Daryl's to pick up some Amazon deliveries, then I dropped Dale at the doctor's office. While he was getting his injection, I filled up our one gallon water jugs, did a load of laundry, and took a nice long shower at home. After picking up Dale from his appointment, we turned back north and chugged back up the mountain. We made a quick stop at the Safeway in Payson (we had to take turns going in to shop so we could leave the car AC running for Hanna), then back out to our camp.

One of the Amazon items we picked up while in town was this little portable propane fire pit. We love to make S'mores in the evenings, but the Stage 1 fire restrictions in the forests prohibited us making a campfire. This little pit is far from a real log burning campfire, but it did provide warmth and ambience, and worked surprisingly well at roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. We managed to make our way through several packs of graham crackers, half a bag of large marshmallows, and dozens of chocolate bars.😂 Plus we had chili dogs two nights.

What do you think it means that one of us skewers our dogs vertically and the other one crosswise?

Chili cheese dog!

One day we heard helicopters flying overhead, but couldn't see any evidence of a fire. So we got in the car and drove up toward Willow Springs Lake. We still didn't see any smoke, but there was evidence of some firefighter activity to the northwest, so we stood there watching for a few minutes. Soon we heard a helicopter coming over the trees, and this happened while we watched.

 

Since there was nothing more to see, we headed back to our camp, and then noticed a couple forest service fire trucks in the parking lot of the Mogollon Rim Visitor's Center, so we pulled in beside them to ask where the fire was. They said it was just a few miles away on the reservation. We asked about potential fire danger to our campground area, and they said it seemed unlikely. We drove back to our campsite more relaxed.

 Another day, we drove up to Rim 9350 dispersed campground where we stayed a couple years ago. The roads were a little better than before, and about a third of the campsites were filled. The most disappointing thing we saw was many of the trees had been cut down, and many more were marked for removal. We pulled into our favorite site to walk around, and saw that the majority of the trees were destined for the lumber mill. In speaking to a docent in the Visitor's Center a couple days later, she told us the lumber had been sold. While we can understand managing the forest, especially during drought and high fire season, cutting over half the trees in one campground seemed extreme.

Most of the trees in this site will be cut down.

You can see the orange ring designating removal

We had a lot of thunderstorms both in the White Mountains and on the Rim. Hanna never used to be bothered by thunder, but as she has grown older, she's gotten more and more nervous of the big booms. During one evening storm we heard a big crack, and she ran over under the chair. 

For the most part, we stayed close to camp and just enjoyed the cooler weather and quiet days. Hanna and I walked up and down the dirt road a couple times a day, and took note of the constant in and out of campers. With 50 spaces in Rim 171 Campground, there seemed to be plenty of room for everyone.

Lazy days of summer

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.