Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:   NOMADS Project, New Hope United Methodist Church

February 16, 2020

Temperature 73 Degrees

We Have A New Theme Song

Back to Driving School

Back Home in Yuma Again

Some Day We May Have Everything Put Away

As suggested by a good friend of ours we now have a new theme song.

I get a funny feelin’ up and down my spine
‘Cause I know that my Elvira’s mine
So I’m singin’

Elvira, Elvira, my heart’s on fire, for Elvira
Giddy Up, Oom Poppa Oom Poppa Mow Mow
Giddy Up, Oom Poppa Oom Poppa Mow Mow
High-o Silver, away.

 I’m singin’

Elvira, Elvira, my heart’s on fire, for Elvira
Giddy Up, Oom Poppa Oom Poppa Mow Mow
Giddy Up, Oom Poppa Oom Poppa Mow Mow
High-o Silver, away.

Elvira, Elvira, my heart’s on fire, for Elvira

Yup, Elvira is now definitely ours.  I must say it sure felt funny leaving Graybeard behind.  I swear I honestly saw a tear on his windshield as I gave him a final hug and thanked him for the many miles that he safely carried us around this great country.  I’m sure he will do the same for my son Paul and his wife Brittany.

It was back to driving school for me on this trip to Yuma.  Driving a diesel is quite a bit different than driving a gasser.  One big difference is the rpm that they each run at.  A diesel is at or below 2000 rpm most of the time.  Indeed, Elvira seems to have a sweet spot of 1800 rpm when doing 63/64 mph.  My Ford usually ran around 2300 rpm unless climbing a hill and then it was up to 4200 rpm or more.  A diesel pusher is much quieter, you can even carry on a conversation in a normal tone, no more yelling back and forth.

The big question I had, though, was do you run the diesel in power or economy mode most of the time.  I learned that you basically put it in economy mode, set the cruise control and let it do it’s thing.   On an incline depending on the engine temperature you disengage the cruise and maybe drop it out of overdrive into 5th or if necessary 4th gear and keep it around 2100 rpm.  So that is what I did and it worked like a charm.  I’m sure when the super duper hills come in the future I’ll be learning a lot more.

All in all it was a great, if not boring,  run from Tucson to Yuma.  The miles just seemed to go by without a sweat.

We did make one important stop on the way out.  We took Elvira to the scales to see if we would need to put her on a diet.  As of now we are about 1100 pounds light on the front and about the same on the back.  With the results in hand I can now adjust tire pressure accordingly.  Next month when we’re at the Escapees park we’ll get her cornered weighed.  That’s the best way to do it.

Due to dental commitments we are back in Yuma.  Even back at the same park we were at the first time.

It’s the park with all the neat lawn decorations, especially all kinds of turtles.

We’re right around the corner from were we first where.  Our site this time is #289 and it is as great as the first site.  It is level, all utilities are right at hand, and since we have our satellite antenna on the roof now we don’t need to worry about where to put Gertrude.

One thing I have to do tomorrow is clean the windshield.  You can’t see it but we got hit by a swarm of something on the way out and the windshield is a mess.

I’m having to learn a whole new setup routine.  Once I get Elvira on site, you dump the air from the air bags, then place your blocks under your jacks and level side to side first, then finally back to back – per Newmar’s recommendation.

Then you shut the engine off and deploy the slides.  You can’t even move the slides unless the engine is off.  That takes some getting used to.

To date several things have already sorted themselves out.  The toilet which refused to hold water is now working perfectly.  I guess the seal just needed some time to swell and/or become flexible again .  The city water fill fitting stopped leaking and is perfectly fine right now.  I put new gas struts on our bed so it would stay up when it was lifted.  I’ll need to pick up a few for the outside locker doors since a few of them are not holding their own.  

Tomorrow I’ll order the kit that will convert our Norcold Never Cold absorption refrigerator to a residential compressor refrigerator.  We’ll run it off an inverter when we’re on the road or at Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome locations.  Oh, and I’m just getting started.  Now, if I could only figure out what switch turns the outside lights on!

Needless to say we still have a few things to put away.

I did get my collection of T-shirts hung up in the wardroom closet.

Barbara taking a well deserved break.  As I said to her, We’re here for a month, we don’t have to do it all in one day.  I can also guarantee you, once we get it all put away, we’ll probably change our minds and start changing things around!

Our first full day in our new LV  on The Road of Retirement has come to a close.  We’re sitting in our recliners with a glass of wine apiece and just enjoying this great life of ours.  There is still so much, much more to do to make Elvira our own.  I’m looking forward to every minute of the transformation.

Thanks for coming along with us today.  We always appreciate your company and your comments.  Catch your tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before

See you on down the road!

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:   NOMADS Project, New Hope United Methodist Church

February 14, 2020

Temperature 71 Degrees

Barbara Has Named Our New Coach

Crunch Time – Moving Out on Sunday

First Change – Exchange Couch for Recliners

I can no longer call our new LV IT, it has a name all its own.  And its name is Elvira.  Barbara’s choice this time.  I don’t know why, neither does she.  She just likes it and that’s alright with me.

Its definitely crunch time.  We were supposed to be on the road today.  However,

we’re still picking up, packing and

moving all our stuff from Graybeard to Elvira.  

All the outside lockers are empty.  The bedroom is 90% done.  The kitchen is 90% done.  It’s down now to all kinds of odds and ends.  Trust me we have a lot of odds and ends.  Unfortunately, to make matters worse neither of us is still feeling completely up to stuff.  Barbara is much worse than me.  She just can’t seem to shake whatever it is that has hold of her.

We made the first change in Elvira today.

Our recliners have been moved over and put in the place where the couch originally was.  It is a bit tight but we believe we can make it work.  Ideally, one would be best.  But whose recliner is going to go?  Ah, now you see our predicament.

The couch from Elvira is now in Graybeard.  This was probably the most difficult thing we did today.  It’s amazing how heavy that couch is as well as the base units of our recliners.  But with a whole lot of pushing,shoving and dragging the swap was made.  We both sure don’t want to do that again.

Meet Pat.  Not a really good picture of him.  Suffice to say bad picture or not he was a real whiz when it came to setting up our satellite system in Elvira.   As luck would have it the antenna we have on the roof will work with our system.  Seems you need an antenna produced in 2013 or later.  Ours was produced in August of 2013.

Putting the finishing touches on the front system.  As in the past we have both Wallys working.  We have OTA if we want.  We have a DVD player.  We can record shows for later.  We have surround sound as well.  Just like it was in Graybeard.

The back TV is also working and has a good picture.  One more item to cross off the list of  things to be done.

One more day, a precious 24 hours to get it all wrapped up.  In addition we have to get Graybeard ready to make the trip to its new home in Ohio.  We’ll get it done.  Then you can bet your bottom dollar the first week back in Yuma we’re just going to crash.

So that is what has been happening on The Road of Retirement.  We’re struggling a bit right now but this too shall pass.  It always does.  It time I’m sure we’ll look back and laugh about this whole experience.  But not now.  Time to get some shut eye.  Tomorrow is going to be a really busy day.

Thanks for coming along with us on this odd ball journey.  We appreciate your company, your concern and your comments.  Stay tuned much more to come.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before

See you on down the road!

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:   NOMADS Project, New Hope United Methodist Church

February 12, 2020

Temperature 58 Degrees

Now We’ve Both Down and Out

Moving Is On Hold, “IT” Is In Need of Parts

The Work Goes On Without Us

Short, sweet and to the point.  We’re both under the weather.  Honestly, I should have expected it.  When you’re living together in such small place when one gets sick in time the other is sure to also.  Nothing to do but ride it out.

Moving day is once again on hold.  “IT” is still in the garage waiting for a fuel line to arrive.  Unfortunately, it can’t be driven the way it is.  Therefore, we can’t even bring it back here to pack and then take it back over to have the fuel line installed.  We’re both so frustrated.  We have boxes and baskets of stuff all over the place in Graybeard waiting to be moved and can’t do a thing.  Did we make a mistake buying another rig?

Meanwhile the work around the church goes on without us.  An SOS was put out for assistance in clearing the property since if it wasn’t none by Friday the church would be fined heavily.  It’s amazing how many NOMDS in the area have responded.  The work will definitely be done by Friday.

That my friends is the long and short of it on The Road of Retirement.  We’re two frustrated campers at this point in time.  The most frustrating part is there is nothing we can do about the situation.  We’re at the mercy of others to get things done and get us on the road.  UGH.

Thanks for checking in with us.  We always appreciate your company and your comments.  Catch you, hopefully, tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before

See you on down the road!

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:   NOMADS Project, New Hope United Methodist Church

February 10, 2020

Temperature 64 Degrees, Wet and Windy

Preliminary Report Shows “It” Is In Good Condition

Nose Art

We are on the home stretch now, the third and last week of our NOMADS project here at New Hope UMC.  There were just a few things on the punch list today:  finish installing the door sill in the classroom, pick up the last of the piles of thorn bushes and install two LED lights in the Rummage Room.  It was an easy day and we ended up calling it a day by three o’clock in the afternoon.

Barbara says “thanks” to all who took the time to wish her a speedy recovery.  Same to those who also offered her ways to beat this nasty bug using natural, easy to find ingredients.  She is a bit better today but definitely not completely there yet.

The preliminary report on IT is good.  There are no issues with either the front suspension nor the air bag system.  The fuel filters were dumped and they were clean.  The cooling system has been flushed and refilled.  The heater and radiator hoses checked out good.  All engine belts have been replaced.  Engine oil and filter have been changed.  The air filter has been replaced.  A few small items did turn up:  a busted clamp on the muffler and front marker lights that were out.  They are still going through the leveling system and jacks.  On the way down I noticed that if I hit a bump,  sometimes the jacks down alarm would go off.  The gentleman who we bought the rig from told me that this often happened to him.  So what could it be?  Maybe a bad sensor?  Or weak return springs?  We’ll know tomorrow and we’ll have whatever it is repaired.

Time now to go back to

As to that special exhibit, remember I gave you a clue?  The clue being nose.

 

Our visit to Pima Air and Space Museum and the 390th Memorial Museum has now come to an end.  I could have easily spent another day, maybe two just roaming the grounds.  There is so very much to see.  Each plane with a unique story to tell.  If you’ve never been there before it is a fascinating place that deserves to be on your bucket list of places to visit.  You will never regret a minute that you spend there.

Our Monday journey down The Road of Retirement is at an end.  Time now to hunker down inasmuch as we have some nasty weather rolling in.  In all the time we’ve spent here in Arizona so far, this is really something different for us.  We’re supposed to have high winds from the Southwest, thunderstorms and driving rain.  The rain has already begun, gentle right now but sure to pick up.  The skies all around us are pitch black.  Graybeard will see us through.

Thanks again for coming along with us.  We always appreciate your company and your comments.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before

See you on down the road!