Very little of the last week or so has gone as planned. Obviously, I didn't intend to stay in a hospital for almost a week - and I feel much better now thanks to the staff at Kingman Regional Medical Center.
We used the money we got from selling my van to buy a car. Lizzy picked out a cute little Mini Cooper for the right price. It needed some help, so we took it to the shop. One day turned into two, two into three - mostly because of parts issues.
Late on Thursday, we finally got the car and headed to UHaul for a tow dolly. When we got there, the heavens opened up and dumped heavy rain all over the place! I mean flash flood rain!
After waiting and hoping the rain would let up, they decided to hook up the tow dolly to the RV to get us moving. By the time we were ready to put the car on the dolly, the rain stopped.
Oh, well... I felt bad for the UHaul people, because at least I had dry clothes in the RV!
We got on the road and headed toward Phoenix, AZ. It was late, and the road was dark. At least my freshly polished headlight lenses and new LED bulbs made it easy to see ahead.
We stopped for the night at a truck stop in Wikieup, AZ. When I first drove through Wikieup 30 years ago, the town had six buildings along US 93 - three on each side. One was a Cafe, two were old school gas stations with two pumps each (no roof over the pumps), a general store, and two other buildings I can't remember. Today, US 93 has been widened to four lanes, and one side of the road looks fairly modern, while the other side looks abandoned.
The 2020 census says Wikieup has a population of 139 people (up from 76), so that gives you an idea of how much more built up the area is!
Since the transfer relay burned up (I mentioned that in an earlier post) we still had no way to safely generate household current. That meant, we were limited to whatever we could run on battery power or the inverter. It was hot out, but we couldn't run the AC. Lizzy set up a fan in the bedroom, and with a couple of windows open, and a roof eject fan running, we did the best we could to stay cool on a hot Arizona night.
When morning came, the sunrise was amazing. We made some coffee and hit the road headed to Mesa, AZ, and our new Transfer Relay. We got to Mesa around 10am, and the temperatures were already over 100 degrees! With the new Transfer Relay in hand, we went to a Petco, so Lizzy could keep the dogs cool while I worked on the RV.
I managed to park the RV so I had shade over the electrical bay, but as the job dragged on, the sun rolled around the sky, and before long, it was cooking me and my tools. I mean everything was hot to the touch!
Wiring in the new Transfer Relay wasn't complicated, but I wish the electrical bay had a few more inches for me to play in. With the Relay finally in, I had Lizzy run the generator. Everything worked as it should, so now we had power again - at least on the generator side.
By now, the heat had gotten me. I almost passed out. I drank TWO large bottles of water and STILL was on the verge of passing out from the sun and heat! I sat on the steps in the RV (which was still hot inside) and Lizzy kept patting me down with cold water, while I drank a third bottle of water.
Another half hour later, and everything was packed up and we were ready to travel again! Lizzy found us a place to stay in Tucson, which had mostly covered RV spaces. I still had some maintenance to catch up on, and not being in direct sunlight would be a refreshing change!
On the way to Tucson, I stopped at a gas station to get gas (the first time in AZ I paid less than $4/gallon), and got a little moving in to ward off blood clots. We made it to Tucson just as the sun set. We had dinner and walked around the RV park with the dogs before bed.
The next day was for maintenance. I needed to find a leak in the water bay, change the oil and air filter in the generator, and replace the "shark fin" on the roof for the black tank exhaust (the old one got broken off by a tree limb).
I got into the water bay to look for the leak and found that the outside shower faucet was on just a little bit. That COULD be the leak, but with so much water in the bottom of the bay, it was hard to see if that was the culprit. I'll know later.
...and then it started to POUR!
These covered RV spots are covered with solar panels. That's cool for the RV park, but the rain still comes under and through the panels - and was it coming DOWN!
Things lightened up by around 5pm - most of the day was shot, but I still got the oil change done on the generator.
Liz went up on the ladder to look at the shark fin, and the old one was glued on - so removing the old one will be a project for later - when I have a better ladder and can actually get on the roof.
So, that catches everyone up on where we are. Liz is painting, and we're both looking for some part time work to keep the money situation stable. Tomorrow we're finally heading to see my dad (yay!). We'll need to find a safe place to stay the night and leave the dogs while we have dinner. My dad made Key Lime Pie, and I'm pretty excited to try it.
That's all for now.
-Scott
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