Kevin’s package did come in, and he is now ready to practice some astrophotography. It is a bit complicated due to the full moon tonight though! The High Chaparral RV park was definitely not the place to do it either, so he will be trying it in Quartzsite soon.
On our way to Tucson, we took a stop at the Pinal Airport, one of the big airplane graveyards. You can’t get right up to the planes, but you can get pretty close.
Small jets are obviously not in demandThere were lots and lots of these decommissioned American Airlines affiliate jetsObviously the airport was a WW II facility with this tower“Reduce, reuse, recycle” comes to mind seeing this fuselage repurposed into a shopSome of the salvage has gone farther than others
While Kevin was impatiently waiting for his tracking board he was also keeping busy making a cool doohickey for the MH. Our model has a very inconvenient screen door latch. It is set quite low so I can’t reach it without going up (from the outside) or down (from the inside) a couple of steps. Awkward with lots of stuff in your hands. So he made a new latch that is higher but connects to the original. Ignore the dirt on the door – we had a windstorm!
The new latch applied to the door
Detail of how it fits on the doorHow it is usedSpring loaded depressing the original latch
I am quite impressed! It works marvelously.
Yesterday we left Casa Grande to go back to Quartzsite for a week. We had made another Amazon order, setting the pickup for Parker, AZ. There was a dreadful windstorm forecast, so we left at 9:00, arriving at Hi Jolly BLM area at 1:00, just as the wind gusts were getting fierce. We basically just stayed put inside until the wind died down in the early evening. Then we opened the windows and let the cats enjoy the light breeze that remained. We haven’t ever stayed here before, since we normally stay in one of the Long Term Visitor Areas (LTVAs) that charge $40/2 weeks but provide access to water and a dump station. Since we are basically just marking time until we can get into Death Valley, we didn’t need that this time.
In general our boondocking setup is working great. We use a lot of electricity with a residential refrigerator, satellite TV system, and heater fan, but an hour of generator and the solar recharge it pretty well most days. Our fresh water (90 gallons) and waste tanks (50 gallons black, 70 gallons gray) can easily accommodate a full week. We hope to leave here on Monday, but we might need to stay until Tuesday for yet another Amazon delivery.
We arrived at our campsite in Quartzsite, AZ after a 4 hour drive from Organ Pipe. We stay with a group of friends from an online forum, RVForum.net. As our seventh trip here with them, we don’t go running around as much as we did the first few years. There is a lot more just relaxing, talking by the fire, and doing hobbies. I have the sewing machine out, and I am trying to work on a Drunkard’s Path quilt made with 4” blocks. I am finding it much, much harder than the 7” block version I did a few months back! I also go my sewing machine adjusted so the needle bar was exactly in the hole of the needle plate, but the tiny adjustment has thrown off some of my measurements. I will get used to it, but it is a bit of a struggle. I did cut a bunch of triangles, and I sewed those without a problem. It is always nice to have “mindless sewing” available, something I can just enjoy instead of fussing around.
Kevin discovered why our generator wasn’t charging the new LiFePO4 batteries very quickly. Turns out there was a switch that limited it to 30 amps, and once that was updated we started getting 90 amps charging. That makes the entire process so much faster. We have had quite a few cloudy days here, and the solar just can’t keep up between the clouds, low sun angle, and shorter days. Our 900 watts of panels are flat mounted, and they don’t get more than 300 watts some of the time, and mostly less than that this time of year. That only gets us 18-20 amps from the solar.
Kevin put up our weather station, and I just love knowing the outside temp and humidity. We will eventually get the wind sensor working, but right now the mounting pole moves in the bracket. Kevin is 3D printing a clamp for it now. Hopefully that will correct the pole rotation.
I don’t have many pictures right now, but here is the last picture from Organ Pipe showing the motorhome and our campsite.
Note the generator access panel open on the front. We heard rumors of pack rats, so we kept all the hoods open to discourage them.
I also have a beautiful sunset picture from Quartzsite.
This shows not only the pretty colors, but also how people spread out here in the BLM area. We are in the southwestern Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) at La Posa Tyson Wash. It is the least crowded of the four LTVAs, being about 3 miles from town. It is still an easy bike ride though, and I prefer the space. Kevin went to town twice, searching for bolts and a new sunscreen for the awning since he somehow managed to crush the zipper pull on the old one. I am staying at the camper, away from the crowds. He is good about wearing a KN95 mask, so he is as safe as a triple vaxed person can be.
My husband is an engineer in his soul, and he discovered 3D printing during COVID. I have been meaning to show the goodies he has printed for the motorhome. He has printed even more for the house, but those are more standard. These are almost all unique and built from custom computer aided design models he created. He uses FreeCAD now, but he previously used TinkerCAD. Note he uses PETG fiber for the items in the motorhomes. During storage on a hot day the more common PLA deforms from heat. He started with an Ender 3 printer, but he also has GEEETech 3 color printer.
Starting from the front of the motorhome, driver side.
On the driver’s side one of the first things he made was a holder for my phone and a pen. Then he added the eye glass holder. Recently he added an on/off switch and holder for the USB items around the dash such as the dash cam and the driver GPS. He added the screw holes to match the purchased switch. Note the passenger does the real navigation in our rig so the driver GPS is just for situational awareness and is an older model.
Combo phone and pen holder next to a switch to turn off USB devices. An eyeglass holder has my reading glasses in it.
Here is the charger and some cord wraps. Note everything is custom sized to fit the commercial hardware. All the items stay put by sliding a small attached “blade” between the wall and the dash.
Holder for USB and miscellaneous chargersA better view of the two cord wraps
A cup holder with straight sides replaced the ridiculously short one that came with our Tiffin. We like straight instead of shaped cup holders because they fit more of our travel mugs.
Cup holder with straight sides
Moving to the passenger side, the first item made was, again, a phone holder. Then he added a sunglasses holder and a chapstick/floss holder.
Holder for passenger phone, glasses, and lip balm
This gives a top view of the GPS holder on the passenger side. It is based on a commercial screw on base. Note it sits in the window groove for stability.
Holder for passenger GPS (Garmin 890)
The TPMS has its own holder of course. It also sits in the window groove.
Holds TPMS control head
Our rig has a small drawer that is pretty useless by itself. Kevin printed this little insert to hold a travel mug, his wallet, a couple of checkbooks, and some miscellaneous documents.
Insert for small cockpit drawer to hold cup and papers
We have now moved out of the cockpit and to the living quarters. Kevin’s watch was always getting bumped off the charger by the cat, so he made a little holder to keep it more stable.
Holds watch for charging
i love Janet Sadlack’ss RV microwave/convection cookbooks, but they are small and we’re always getting misplaced. Here is a spot for those plus a few other small cookbooks. It is glued to a holder for a power distribution center.
Holder for small cookbooks and USB outlet
The wall here is rather cool in cold weather, so I wanted a quilted wall hanging to block some of the cold. I had quilted this wonderful Stonehenge Fabrics panel a few years back, and I think it fits well. While the wood is attached with screws to the backside of the cabinet, the quilt is mounted on a rod made removable with the printed black end cap.
Holds wall quilt to keep cold out
Here is the end cap close up. The quilt holder rod is made removable by the screw.
End of the quilt holder
Moving more to the kitchen is this magnetic cover to go over the ridiculously bright microwave control panel. It was the test item on Kevin’s 3 color printer when he bought it.
Cover for microwave control panel
I am generally happy with my utensil caddy, but there wasn’t much room for tall items like the spatula. Kevin printed the side car and glued it to the purchased caddy.
An add-on for my utensil caddy to support tall items
There is only one item in the bathroom, a small holder for the translucent box. The holder has clips that slide on the purchased soap dish attached with command adhesive strips. You can also see the wonderful soap my friend makes at Wild Waters Soapery in Salt Lake City.
Holder in bathroom
Back to the bedroom. The electronic control panel made by Spyder is distracting in the night, so Kevin made a cover that slips over it at night.
Cover for Spyder panel in bedroom
Remember I mentioned earlier the cat knocks things off? It happens in the bedroom too, so Kevin made a holder for his phone charger that positions the phone for contact charging.
Holds iPhone securely on charger
While we don’t watch the bedroom TV often, we needed a way to control the controls. This holds the one for the Dish and the TV itself.
Holds bedroom controls
I think that is everything! He’s been busy, and the Ender 3 printer is ready to go with us on our trips. It lives in the cabinets underneath the table in the kitchen area while traveling. When in use it sits on the bathroom dresser.
Since the last post got so long with just seeing things, I decided to add another post about travel and some other things.
We ended up taking a couple of short trips to a nearby county park for to be closer to Kevin’s cataract surgeon. Squaw Creek Park in Linn County, Iowa is one of our favorites. First, it has nice facilities (a FHU section with reservations and a W/E section with no reservations), and second, it is close to two of our kids. We end up doing a reasonable amount of our medical specialty work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa because we know the doctors there. It is about an hour from our house though, so we head to the campground if any overnights are needed. We stayed there in early October and mid-October for 5 days each time, just enjoying the weather and seeing family (outdoors and distanced of course).
We also ended up taking another trip to Red Bay. The slide topper on our big living room slide tore where it was attached to the roof, and the minor fix Kevin made just wasn’t going to last. While we could probably have found someone closer, we had lots of recommendations for a specific firm in Red Bay, so off we went. Of course it could have been just an excuse to get out of the state a bit too, as my oldest son laughed about. We did get gorgeous upgraded slide toppers on all four sides. We decided on a dark red Sunbrella fabric that matches the motorhome very well and which is much tougher than the original vinyl. I thought I had pictures, but I can’t find them. Too bad, because the color is amazing.
Kevin has spent all kinds of time doing things in the motorhome. He managed to fix the roller blind on the driver side with a free part from the blind manufacturer. Tiffin only wanted to sell the entire assembly for some $300!
Just replaced the black end
He mostly has been busy making all kinds of 3D printed parts for organization, mostly at home. This is just a small sample. Every holder on the pegboard was printed.
Plus some Christmas things.
We didn’t put up a Christmas tree this year, just our 10’ long Christmas village. This little display fit right in. It is actually cuter than it looks since my camera isn’t great with white in bright light.
As for Thanksgiving, I was able to cook loads – roast turkey, pies, and stuffing. Kevin smoked a couple of turkeys that mostly went into the freezer in smaller portions. I then delivered to my daughter’s family (they just moved into a new house the weekend before!) and my son who is single. I delivered two portions to him because a workmate was also by themselves this season. We are having a virtual Christmas this year too, though I am not supplying food. Presents are being distributed today, and we are having a Zoom opening later today.
As for future travel, we have been back and forth for months trying to decide if we are traveling to Arizona. We just decided to do so a couple of days ago. Our original plan was to leave on 28 or 29 December, but a storm is rolling into the Midwest then. We now plan to leave on Sunday, the 27th. We will get to central Kansas somewhere on Sunday then head to Oklahoma City a few days where I have family. I am crossing my fingers we stay out of the snow belt, but if it happens, we will just stay put another day or two.
