First time in Kansas

I a definitely teaching an art class at the rally so I have to stock up my supplies. Hobby Lobby here I come!

Moving further East and still on I70 took us up. And I mean up too! Over 11,000 ft at one point with many miles of 8% and steeper grades. The rig was down in 1^st gear, flat out at 4500 rpm going 30mph. Still the old girl made it and didn't overheat or anything dramatic.

Yep a tunnel at 11,158'

We had a couple of nights in Golden Colorado where we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum. This is definitely worth a stop. Look up their schedule to get a ride on a real steam train. Their workshops are interesting as they restore both the rolling stock and the actual engines in their Roundhouse.

Colorado Railroad Museum

You don't see many of these around!

We also found a nest of Elks Lodges. There were 3 withing about 15 miles of the campground we were staying at. We found out too late that one of them has camping facilities that aren't listed in the RV directory. We visited the Golden Lodge first but they had a power outage and told us to try the Lakewood Lodge which is famous for a big stained glass window they rescued from Denver Lodge 17 when it was being redeveloped. Along with seeing the window we lucked into their Boche Ball league. They have about 5 Boche lanes and 60 active players. Better yet they have the grill going outside and a nice shaded area to sit and eat burger and hot dogs. No guessing where we ate dinner that night!

Finally we found ourselves in Kansas. It's the first time for us and we get to add another state to the list at the side of the blog. I had found a campground called High Plains CG right off I70 near Oakley KS. It was shown as having “Captain Jack's Pub” on site. It turns out that “Captain Jack” and his wife who own the CG were from Hampton VA. Not only that but they served Chesapeake Bay seafood! We had their Maryland Crab Cakes made with Old Bay seasoning. It took us back to our 25 years around Baltimore and Annapolis MD. Very pleasant.

Barbara saved a buffalo from being killed by an illegal hunter right outside the Buffalo Bill Culture Center. What are the odds! Very brave Barbara.

Barbara saves the Buffalo

Buffalo Bill has several museums across the country. We visited the one in Cody WY a couple of years back. It turns out that Buffalo Bill was very much a product of his own ego and of several dime novels written by Ned Buntline. The same gentleman invented Wild Bill Hickock who's name wasn't William or even Hickock! It's apt than that this center is in Oakley KS. Which has nothing whatever to do with Annie Oakley, and the

Buffalo Bill Culture Center has nothing much about him, mainly because he never came here! It does mention that his legend was formed “In the area” which considering the size of the Prairie here about is a pretty broad description!

Street art in Dodge City.

We also stopped in Wichita for a couple of nights, one of which was spent watching huge thunderstorms circle around us and hearing reports of tornado's forming and softball size hail. Luckily none of it came near us. Also luckily we posted on Facebook that we were in the area and our good friends Marty and Peggy sent us a message that they were in the area too so we went stayed an extra night and caught up on their news.

L-R Me Marty, Peggy and Barbara

Time to go, Escapades is calling.

To make up for that we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista and naturally caught up on all our old friends and neighbors in town. Days of partying turned int nights of partying. The diet went completely out of the window.

After so much fun with great friends and ex neighbors it felt strange to be heading out again. Towing the Miata got a little less stressful every day, but I still had Barbara peering out of the rear window as we pulled away to check the wheels weren't locked!

Hitched up and ready to travel

We are starting our summer of travel for 2018.

First we had decided to try and get together with our Aussie friends Mike and Lynne who were currently around Moab UT having a great time exploring all the tremendous National Parks nearby. Zion, Canyon Lands to name but two. They were heading West slowly and we were heading North East. It looked like we could meet up in Utah somewhere.

We posted on FaceBook that we were stopping in Parker Arizona and suddenly Paul and Karen our friends from Sundance in Casa Grande were on our doorstep. What a nice surprise. We chatted for an hour then went our separate ways.

We stopped in one of my favorite places “Valley of Fire State Park” North of Vegas. I have always promised Barbara I'd bring her here and we had 2 great days exploring this spectacular spot. We even hiked the Petroglyph Trail and felt the spirit of the ancient people in that special canyon.

Valley of Fire gets it's name from the vivid red sandstone formations

Hauntingly beautiful Petroglyphs

Prickly Pear cactus in bloom

Lost City Museum in Overton Nevada I feel a painting coming on!

When we first started this trip back in 2015 one of the early stops we made was in Panguich UT. For sentimental reasons we stopped there again before driving the stunning UT 12 thru the Dixie National Forest and Bryce National Park. If you drive this road don't expect to make fast time. If the breath taking views aren't enough to slow you down then the 8, 9 and 10% grades should! Twisting and climbing we crossed the snowline and crested the highest point at 9400'.

9400' and above the snowline on Utah route 12.

Mike and Lynne were dry camping on BLM land but the entrance was too rocky for the Miata to get into that spot and we picked a little campground called Sand Creek based on the RV Campground Review app. It was quite expensive for what it was but it's a popular place so we took what we could get. Mike steered me to another app that gives the location of BLM spots on a map iOverlander might be our “Go To” now for that kind of camping, it's really easy to use.

We had a great couple of days and nights catching up with all their news and their trip down to Baja Mexico. A nice dinner at Rim Rock Hotel and Restaurant followed by a beer or so at our rig with a trip into the Capitol Reef NP to round things out. It's funny how you can make friends so easily when you're RV'ing, and we just love these guys.

Barbara, Lynne and I in Torrey Utah

Capitol Reef NP Scenic Route

Sunday Farmers Market with a band in Torrey

More Aussie's! Turned out these ones were from the same city as Mike and Lynne

On we went, breaking our “No Interstates” rule to drive 100 miles up I70 to Grand Junction Colorado. Happily the Elks Lodge was open on Sunday and we were welcomed and given bowls of the soup somebody had thoughtfully provided. It turned out that the Exalted Ruler was an artist too and we were soon chatting away and showing pictures of our work to each other.

We were told to go visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River while we are in the area so we elected to stay 2 nights and do some exploring.

The Escapades Rally is at the end of this month and we are trying to hook up with one of the groups we are associated with to camp together. It's more fun if we are in the same area and cuts down on how far we have to walk to “Happy Hour”!!

I am definitely teaching an art class there now, so I have to stock up my supplies. Hobby Lobby here I come!

San Diego again.

Did I mention that we are getting SERIOUSLY frustrated with this!!

Finally we got a call to pick up the Miata from the body shop. We had moved from the SKP KOFA park to the “Q” casino intending to head off to San Diego if the shop gave us one more excuse. I had called Geico again and their rep had made some more threatening calls, plus I called Gerber's corporate office and told them what I thought about their Casa Grande shop and what I intended to post online to every site that had reviews for body shops if I didn't get the car back immediately.

Suddenly it got done! A miracle. When we collected it they knocked $200 off the bill for “Inconvenience”.

Barb and I jumped into the Fiesta and drove to Casa Grande picked up the Mazda, dropped the Fiesta in a covered storage facility and drove back to Yuma. That took the whole day and we planned to leave the next morning.

All fixed up.

It seems like we must have run over somebody's black cat lately as as soon as the Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) was turned on it started beeping for low pressure on the 2 outside rear tires. Worse we were dry camping and had no power to plug the compressor into. My anxiety disorder just went off the wall. I had to try and calm down so I could work on a plan to get out of this mess.

When I got calm again I realized we could start the generator which we'd been running for the last coupe of days to run the AC. Of course the geny decided that it wasn't going to cooperate and wouldn't start.

A TPMS sensor, this screws on in place of the valve cap.

More calming down had me remember that we'd bought a rechargeable portable compressor just to save having to get the big one out to top up the airbags in the suspension. That little thing said it was capable of 120 psi. Time to find out!

Well a welcome surprise, that little thing did it! It took a long time but it got those tires up to 100 psi even though it wasn't fully charged from the last time I used it!

Rear wheel with the hub cap removed. The hose at the bottom is one of the valve stem extensions.

When I'd finished I tried the geny again and it started! Talk about timing!

Two metal valve extensions, this is what was leaking slowly.

I spent 15 minutes playing with the steering lock on the Miata to figure out what position it had to be in to NOT lock the steering. Seems it has to be in the “accessory” position. We hooked up and set off, or we did after I got the parking brake on the rig to release! It decided to pay hard to get and I had to press on the parking brake pedal as I pulled the release handle to get it to release.

Finally we got going but only after we made a few sharp turns and got out to check the Miata wheels hadn't locked!! Driving on I8 isn't too fascinating, 100 miles of dead straight road thru the barren desert. I was driving with one eye on the rear view camera looking for smoke coming out of the Miata or other drivers flashing their headlights to signal some new disaster. Barbara made a couple of trips back to look out the rear window too! Fortunately nothing happened. We made a stop near El Centro and I checked the temperatures of every tire on the rig and the car, lifted the hood and checked under there. Everything was just fine and I started to calm down a little.

By the time we'd climbed from below sea level in El Centro over the mountains at 4200' and down the other side into San Diego I was almost a happy guy again. There is still a problem with the 2 outside rear tires on the rig loosing pressure over a couple of days, and the Miata has rubber valve stems which I don't think are suitable for use with the TPMS sensors so I will have to get those sorted before we leave San Diego but I am hopeful that we are putting our series of problems behind us at last.

Writing this latest post has also been therapeutic. It helps me get over the anxiety that has been dogging me for the last month. I'm quite impressed with how I've been able to get it under control and I'm 1000% better than I was 4 years back when it first hit me. So thanks for letting me share my story with you.

There was plenty more frustration dealing with AT&T trying to straighten out the mess that Directv Now had left my account in. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't wish Directv Now on my worst enemy and it took 2 days, endless phone calls and hours (literally) on hold before I just canceled it and walked away.

To make up for that we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista and naturally caught up on all our old friends and neighbors in town. Days of partying turned into nights of partying. The diet went completely out of the window.

Chula Vista Elks RV park.

I redid the valve extensions on the rear wheels and I hope now the TPMS will work without alarms. Unfortunately when I looked at the valve stems on the Miata they are rubber not metal and I'm not sure they will be safe to hang the TPMS monitors on!!

This one piece valve stem extender is what I hope will fix the problem.

Wintertime Paintings and Drawings

I fill my time during our winter break by catching up on all the artwork that has been building up in my head during the summer. I am always taking photographs which can be the basis of some of my art. I also paint live in the open, which the art world calls "Plein Air" and at an "Open Studio" with live models to draw and paint, known as "Life" painting.

Once settled in for the winter I start looking around for the local art groups. Last season it was the Leesburg Art Association, Winter Garden Art Association and a little informal group I started in Holiday Travel RV Park. This winter it's the Sundance RV Park art group, Casa Grande Art Association, Intercommunity Art and Crafts and Arizona Plein Air Painters who have grabbed my time.

Here's a sample of some of the drawings and paintings I've managed to do with all these other fine artists. 

Watercolor Plein Air Picacho Peak

Watercolor Plein Air View from Picacho Peak

Pencil on paper

Pencil on paper

Watercolor from photograph

Oil and acrylic on canvas from photograph

Watercolor Plein Air 

Watercolor Plein Air 

Oil on canvas from photograph

Oil on canvas fromphotograph

Watercolor from the same photograph

Watercolor Life painting on cheap paper! 

The figure paintings were done quickly on non watercolor paper, that's why they are wrinkly!!

Colored pencil on paper from photograph

Watercolor Life painting

Watercolor Life painting

Pencil sketch Life Open Studio

Watercolor Life painting

Pencil from photographs

(Incidentally this gentleman was my high school art teacher and he also taught me to fly!)

Watercolor from photograph

Colored pencil from photograph

Oil on canvas from photograph

Oil on canvas from photograph.

Casa Grande let go of us, please!

All this bodes well for next year as I should be able to pick up where I left off and get stuck straight in.

The plan was to leave Casa Grande April 1^st and head over to Yuma then down to Mexico for new glasses and teeth cleaning.

Being NON planners has been a point of pride for us, so it was no surprise when our plan backfired big time!

I recently bought a used Mazda to tow behind the rig and spent some time and money adapting it for towing.

We had a practice tow around Casa Grande to fill up the rig and check everything was working properly. We're so glad we did that before we hit the road properly because I messed up setting the steering lock and we dragged it with the wheels locked at an angle without realizing it after a sharp turn out of the gas station after filling up.

The nice shiny car got torn up when the tire exploded.

I have to say that I WASN'T happy. All my insecurities and my anxiety disorder came rushing back. I had a couple of bad days and couldn't talk about it. Luckily I remembered my previous episodes and started meditation. That helped me over the hump and although it still hurts, I can talk about it. I have to state that this was MY FAULT, I didn't check things and ignored some things I should have noticed.

So we had an unplanned couple of weeks in Casa Grande waiting for the car to get repaired, but some good things came out of it. We did a few more jobs around the rig like cleaning the headlight lenses which were pretty fogged up and installing a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) so hopefully we'll get some warnings of problems before they get really bad.  http://www.minderresearch.com/tireminder/

The TPMS turned into a major job when we realized the short valve stems fitted when we got new tires last fall wouldn't suit and we had to go to a local tire place and have the wheels removed to fix it.

But I got to go to more art classes, and better yet we were around for the cactus in the park blooming. They were really pretty and we spent a couple of evenings wandering around with a camera looking for them. I started 3 paintings of them, I'll have to try and get them finished before we leave.

More bad things seemed to be waiting in the wings however and the rear AC unit refused to function just before we pulled out. Of course nobody was available to fix it when we needed to get it done. We can only run 1 at a time on shore power anyway so at least we have the front one to keep us cool.

We were so tired of things going wrong we said the heck with it. We needed to get new glasses and have our teeth cleaned. There's a little border town in Mexico called Algedones where the “Full Timer” population go for those kind of things. It;s right next to Yuma, which is convenient for us as we can stay at the SKP's KOFA RV park.

Casa Grande didn't want to let us go just yet and gremlins hit the new TPMS system with 2 tires suddenly losing pressure after holding fine for 2 days. Furious working, cursing and wrench throwing had the tires holding air (I hoped) and me covered in a nice mixture of sweat and fine dust (We had a big dust storm thru here last week!).

We had swapped the ends of the tow bar to suit the Miata, so of course they didn't fit the Fiesta! We were so determined to leave that Barbara drove the Fiesta behind the rig for the 170 miles to Yuma.

I know. You probably spotted something. We're in Yuma with the rig and the Fiesta. We can't tow the Fiesta anymore and the Miata is still in the shop in Casa Grande. How is that going to work??

Well we're so mad about things going wrong and delays in the repair of the Miata that we just left. When they call us about the Miata we'll just drive the Fiesta back to Casa Grande and put it in storage there pending the outcome of the law suit against Ford. Then we'll drive the Miata back to Yuma and carry on from there.

Another thorn in our side has been waiting on the new California lawyer to get the Lemon Law filing done. We've been expecting it to settle at any moment. That dream just got dashed as they now tell us that it will take much longer due to them suing for damages as well as the Lemon Law settlement. So the Fiesta will get stored until November then we'll have 2 cars again next winter pending the finalization of the suit.

Did I mention that we are getting SERIOUSLY frustrated with this!!

It will be April soon

We bumped into one of the Photo Club Members during the Casa Grande Art Associations annual “Studio Tour” and he asked if I was interested in going on a Jeep ride out to an old abandoned mine. I was in like a flash and had a great time. Thanks Darren.

Every year the winter suddenly ends when we realize it's going to be a couple of weeks until we move on again. This winter is no exception and the “3 weeks to go” panic is upon us!

The big project has been to get our “New to Us” car (a Mazda MX-5 which everyone in the US calls a Miata even though Mazda has dropped that name).

New to us Mazda MX-5

When you want to tow a car “Flat” or “4 down” you have to make some modifications to it. Flat or 4 down means that it sits on it's own 2 wheels and you pull it behind your motorhome. You have to ensure that it can be towed that way, FMCA publish a list of what vehicles can be towed by model year, and under what conditions. Some need the battery disconnected. Others have to be towed on a “dolly”. Some can only be towed if they are completely off the road on a trailer. 

See previous post 

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-little-flat-green-thing-in-road.html

The particular model of MX-5 we have is supposed to be one that CANNOT be flat towed per Mazda. I have however been talking with a gentleman who has been towing his for 6 years and 50,000 miles without any damage, and he knows several other people who also tow them.

This of course is AT OUR OWN RISK. If we break it we will have to pay to fix it. This may see crazy but there are several other vehicles listed as not towable by the manufacturer but actually can be. Stick shift Mini's come to mind, and we've met several people who have towed them many 10's of thousand miles without problems.

So I'm taking a chance.

We bought a used tow bar for the motorhome last winter in Alabama and it came with the majority of the parts needed for the car too. I was almost going to tell the seller to keep the car side of it as it was a different make than we had on the Fiesta, but she didn't want it and I threw it in the storage area and forgot about it.

The first thing we needed was some way of attaching the car to the tow bar on the motorhome.

The Fiesta was fitted with a Blue Ox system, which is quick, light, easy to use and secure.

There are a few manufacturers of towing systems, the biggest I think being Blue Ox and Roadmaster. The motorhome originally came with a Roadmaster towbar and the company who set the Fiesta up changed out the end fittings to Blue Ox ones to suit the car. We've been very happy with the Blue Ox setup.

We found that only Roadmaster sold a tow bracket for this model MX-5, which unfortunately we couldn't get Blue Ox adapters for, so we were stuck with the somewhat clunky Roadmaster connectors.

I ordered the bracket and a wiring adapter kit from Etrailer.com and they shipped them free and FAST!

I considered trying to fit it myself as the only mechanical change was drilling out 4 existing holes to 1/2” diameter. The problems were that the campground doesn't allow car repairs on site, and the work requires removing and replacing the whole nose of the car to get at the area the bracket mounts to.

I decided to leave the work to Whitaker Auto around the corner from the park, who did great work on the motorhome this winter.

The parts I bought from Etrailer where just the parts on the car. Roadmaster's system requires a series of plates, bars and pins on the outside of the car to provide the link to the tow bar on the motorhome. We were so lucky, the parts we bought in Alabama and didn't want back then fitted right on the MX-5. All we needed was a pin that cost $20.

Modern cars are full of computers. Those computers can be damaged by stray voltages and connecting directly to the existing brake, turn and running lights creates those stray voltages. The answer is and electrical device called a diode which lets electricity flow in 1 direction only. The wiring kit came with special diode setups which allow the brake lights on the car to function as both brake and turn signal lights and the running lights to come on with the motorhome lights when towed. When not plugged in to the motorhome they function as designed.

That basically is the whole setup.

Now knowledgeable RV'ers will yell “Foul! You need a braking system for the car”.

There is a problem. The law requires trailers over a set weight to be equipped with a braking system with a “Break away” feature to stop the trailer in case it gets detached from the tow vehicle. A car isn't a trailer. If you tow a car behind another car, you aren't obliged to link the braking system of the 2 vehicles. That's the problem, and there is a LOT of discussion about it. We fitted the Fiesta with such a system at great cost. 

In Canada a couple of years ago (thru my own fault), I towed the car with the brakes partially on and did $4000 damage. 

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2016/08/prince-edward-island-and-car-trouble.html

We've never used it since and never found a need for it.

So, I decided not to fit the brake system at this time.

Scott and Suzanne who we've known since our first Escapees Rally and just before we all went full time, sent us a message that they were going to be near Phoenix on their way west. A few phone calls and we were all sitting around in the Elks Lodge followed by dinner out. It was so good hearing about their adventures and sharing ours.

Somehow the Art scene has burst wide open in the final 2 weeks here. Tuesdays is the Inter Community Art and Craft group, Wednesday is Life Drawing, Thursday the Sundance RV art group, now I have discovered a “Plein Air” painting group who go to different venues on Saturdays and paints outdoors! The rest of the week I have to draw and paint on my own!

Picacho Peak

Across the valley

All this bodes well for next year as I should be able to pick up where I left off and get stuck straight in.

Works in Progress!!