Places We Have Called Home In 2020

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

January 31, 2020

Temperature 61 Degrees

Pima Air and Space Museum

Ah, decisions, decisions.  Do I fix the leaky toilet?  Or go sightseeing?  Toilet, can’t do without it.  Sightseeing, been too long since we’ve done any.  What to do.  Of course sightseeing won out.  But in the end the toilet also got fixed.  I would call that a win, win.

So we were up and out even before the sun was up.  First stop was for breakfast.  You can’t beat Denny’s Super Slam Breakfast.  For six bucks it’s more than enough food to get you going.

This was our destination, The Pima Air and Space Museum.  This had been on our bucket list since our first visit to Tucson.  It’s only about ten minutes from where we are right now.

There it is, at least one of the many buildings on this vast campus.

This is a map of the grounds.  We have five hangers to visit and hundred’s of exhibits to see outside.

We’re inside and ready to go.  Now, I know what you are probably thinking not more planes.  Didn’t he get enough when he was at Pensacola?  Yes, we have more planes.  And no I never can see enough.  I promise, though, that I’ll just bring you some of the more unusual that are on display here.

This was the LearJet of the 1930’s.  It had a crew of one and could seat an additional four passengers.

It’s amazing to me what some people will get in and fly.

Built but never flown.  I wonder why.  According to the information these small planes were a handful even for a skilled pilot.

A one man helicopter developed for the US Navy and Marine Corp that never went pass the development stage.  It was designed as a vehicle that could be used for observation, a one man assault vehicle, and also something that could be dropped to pilots trapped behind enemy lines.

How about this?  It was presented to the military as a replacement for the parachute.  However, it didn’t fly.  The design consisted of a 20 HP motor strapped to a person’s back powering two counter rotating blades.  The greatest weakness of the design was that the landing gear was the person’s legs.  If they stumbled or fell during take off or landing the blades would turn into millions of lethal splinters as they pounded themselves to bits on the ground.

This was supposed to be the everyman’s airplane but though easy to fly it never quite caught on with the public.

 

Yet another use for the popular Volkswagen engine.

The SR-71 but not the usual type.  This one is a bit different.

This one was originally designed to carry and launch a drone.  Three successful test flights were made, but on the fourth flight the drone crashed into the launch plane.  The drone was then redesigned so that it could be launched by a B-52.

Now how did they start these massive engines?  Glad you asked!

The ever popular and useful Chevy V-8.

Something else I learned about the SR-71 was

they had interchangeable nose cones.

Moving on.

A plane that could not deliver due to repeated structural failures.

Then there was this.  Technically, not an airplane but built from the parts of one.

The driver climbed in, got down on his knees with his face forward and his feet to the back.

Day one of our visit to the Museum is in the books.  We’re going back on Saturday to try and finish up.  There is so much more to see and do.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We had an awesome day at Pima and later in the day the toilet also got fixed.  Well, time to catch some shut eye since we have a busy day ahead of us on Saturday.  Catch you later in the day.

Once again thanks for joining us.  We always enjoy your company and your comments.  Till 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

January 30, 2020

Temperature 57 Degrees

Meet the Team

The First Week Is In The Books

Good Fellowship and Good Food

Ok, I’ve found something more upsetting than getting up and going to work at 7 am.  That is getting up and going to work at 7 am when the temperature outside is 37 degrees!  But wait, it gets worse.  Temperatures are supposed to peak this weekend in the 70’s and then dive by Monday to freezing or below.  Really?  This is snowbird country so give me some warmer weather please.

This is our current team. From the left we have:  Rob and Bonnie; Joe and ‘Debbie; Everett and Elizabeth; Jim and Linda; and the two of us.  Everett and Elizabeth have been our team leaders but they will be leaving on Saturday.  Jim and Linda will step up to the plate and become our new team leaders.  We will then be down to four rigs, two inside the fence and two outside.  All of this is necessary because of the electrical issues that have come to light.  Point of fact, there will be no new projects here until the RV park has been certified safe for all.   That I believe is how it should be.

Remember back to Monday?  This is how the southern block of the church’s property looked.

Since then the team has been hard at working raking out dead grass.

We’ve filled 33 bags of grass for disposal.

We’ve pruned so many thorn trees I’ve lost count.

 

We’ve hauled it all out to the curb for pickup tomorrow.

This is what it looks like today when we called it quits for the week.  It’s amazing how much has been accomplished in just four days.  Of course we are far from finished but we all felt really good about how much we’ve done so far.

Today, lunch was pack a sack day.  A time for food and fellowship.

Tonight was the farewell supper for Everett and Elizabeth at El Merendero.

We arrived at just the right time.  Twenty minutes later and this whole section was full.

Our group.  This was a wonderful place with delicious food and plenty of it.  We spent time swapping RV war stories, sharing NOMAD experiences and so much more.  These times of fellowship are in my opinion what makes being a part of NOMADS so special.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  It was a full day, a fun day, a day of fellowship and good times.  What more could one ask for?  I’ll take as many days like these as I can get, even if the weather is a bit frigid.  You’ll have to excuse me, I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.  Tomorrow is a special sightseeing day for us and I want to be refreshed for it.  So I’ll bid you all a goodnight.

Thanks for joining us again today.  We always appreciate your company and comments.  Have a good nights sleep and we’ll 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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

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

January 29, 2020

Temperature 61 Degrees

Correct Me If I’m Wrong, But I Am In Arizona, Right?

A Solution of Sorts to our Electrical Problem

Making Progress

Potluck Supper

Unless I’m mistaken I believe I am in Arizona.  Moreover I believe Arizona is in the Southwest part of the country.  Furthermore, this is supposed to be a winter haven for those seeking escape from colder Northern climates.  Given all that, then why in the world when I woke this morning was the temperature at 37 degrees!  This is getting ridiculous.

We have a solution to our electrical problems.  The solution is to reduce the size of the team and thus the number of rigs needing power.  There are in essence two parts to where we park.  Let’s call them A and B.  A which is outside the fence can accommodate two rigs at 30 amps.  B can accommodate 2 rigs at 50 amps.  This place was never wired for 7 rigs all drawing 50 amps.  With me so far?  Two rigs have left so far.  One from A and one from B.  We volunteered to move from B to A.  Then one more team member volunteered to leave B this Friday.  So now we have two rigs in A and we’ll be left with two rigs in B.  A temporary solution until a complete rewire can be done.

Moving on.

Remember the little tractor that couldn’t?  It is now the little tractor that can.  We put a new tire on it, replaced the bad battery, and then installed new mower blades.  We now have a real work horse.

Rob also went out and purchased a proper brush wacker for the team to use.

In terms of our landscape project.

tree pruning continues.

So does brush pickup.

This is the challenge before all of us, the thorns.   They are on all the trees we are pruning.  You learn very quickly not to grab hold of a branch without first looking for where they are.  Believe me they can do some major damage to your hand, arm, leg whatever part of you comes in contact with them.

Come evening we were invited by the Church’s Pastor

to a hymn sing and

and pot luck supper at the church.

Our team to the left and church members to the right.

The church’s pastor and his wife enjoying the supper.

Our day on The Road of Retirement is at an end.  We are now resettled outside the fence and the heater is on.  The temperature is once again dropping rather quickly.  We have already put extra blankets on the bed.  We have our warm PJ’s on and all is well with the world.  It will warm up, I hope and rather quickly.  Yet, what goes up I have found also goes down rather quickly in these parts.  Still, we both agree we would have no problem someday calling this part of the country our permanent home. Not, however, for a rather long time.

Thanks for joining us today.  We always enjoy having you travel with us.  We also like hearing from you – your comments, questions and suggestions.  Till 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

January 28, 2020

Temperature 67 Degrees

Electrical Troubles in RV Land

The Project Almost Comes to a Halt

A Week From This Friday

This morning we all received a rude awakening – no electric.  Which would not have been a problem had the temperature not been 39 degrees.  So much for the heat pump.  Well, not quite.  Time to fire up the generator which came alive without an issue.  We had heat again.  But what was going on?  The problem turned out to be serious enough that this project was almost stopped.

First, though, a brief run down of our morning.

The team in charge of cleaning the perimeter of the church has already made some great progress.

This was supposed to be the answer to all the brush.  We dragged it out from where it had been sleeping for the last two years.  After a bit of Sea Foam, a squirt of WD 40 in the carb and we managed to coax it to life.

Meet the little tractor that can’t.  The one front tire constantly goes flat.  The battery always requires a jump from my Bolt.  Unfortunately, like much of the equipment around none of it has received any TLC for a long, long time.

Eventually, I managed to haul the shredder behind the tractor to where it was needed.  Only to find that it was not really up to the task of chipping the brush and limbs that we needed it to.  Par for the course sad to say.

I bet if I pound the steak with this I can really make it tender!

Regarding our electrical problem.

The team came together later to here the bad news.  In a nutshell as I understand it the problem is this:  the electric from the church to the RV park comes over in the equivalent of a drinking straw; but the seven rigs in the park need electric from a fire hose.  The net result is not only did the fuse blow but some wires actually burnt up in the fuse box.  The bottom line is we now have to run everything on propane and we can no longer run our heat pump.   To further help relieve the problem, two members of the team are pulling out tomorrow for other projects in other locations.  That brings us down to five rigs.  We should be able to manage with the five.  As for us we’re moving to another location on the lot where we can run our generator.  The remainder of our time here is going to be a bit dicey for sure.

On the home front we have a tentative date of  February 7th to pick up our new LV.  Between now and then we will be boxing up everything in Graybeard in preparation for the move.  Once Graybeard is empty he will go in to covered storage about a mile from where we are now.  I’m working on a route for my son Paul to take Graybeard home.  I’ll probably be driving home with him then flying back from Columbus to Yuma.  So much to do and so little time to do it.  I’m glad we’ll have a month or more to just kick back at the Escapees park in Congress after this is all over.

We’ve come to the end of another day on The Road of Retirement.  Some work was accomplished around the church.  We’re adapting so that we can stay and complete our commitment here at the church.  Now if the weather would just cooperate and warm up a bit all would be fine.  It is what it is.

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!