Yesterday we chose to drive Renee’s rental car to Sedona and back, a trip of about 250 miles. Our plan was to get an early start, take the scenic route and have lunch in Sedona. Return via Interstate 17 and Montezuma Well and Montezuma Castle National Monuments. Here is the story of the trip from three different points of view. Read More
Author Archives: Gary
Sedona-Three Tales
April 17, 2011
Trial Fit:
April 10, 2011
Today I reached a significant milestone in the design and construction of the new bicycle. I put the major components together this afternoon for a trial fit. There is a photograph of the new bicycle on the blog. The components are the wheels with tires, the front fork, the main frame with a small front sub frame and the rear suspension frame its Fox Vanilla Shock and one seat. Read More
Man vs. “The Machine:”
April 1, 2011
The technician led the man down the long hallway. She had a pleasant smile on her face. The man followed with stoic resolution. He had been warned that a monster machine waited at the end of the hallway. They arrived in the control room for “The Machine.” Read More
Arizona Springtime
March 28, 2011
We are in the middle portion of Arizona, about an hour northwest of Phoenix. The weather has been improving daily here in the Sonoran Desert. High temperature today was 78 degrees after a low last night of 42 degrees. It makes it up to 65 by about 11 am. That is how long I had to wait to do some painting. Each day we get in an hour of walking before the temperature gets too warm. As soon as the sun sets, however, it starts getting cool quickly. Read More
Rage Over a Lost Penny
February 11, 2011
I guess I know about how Beethoven felt when he wrote the piano rondo, (“Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio in G major, Op. 129”, better known as “Rage over a Lost Penny”.) I have been making little doo-dahs for the new bicycle. I needed a dozen or so braze-on binder bosses and a dozen or so water bottle bosses. What I have been doing on the cold mornings is to get in my trailer with the electric heater. I set up the Smithy Lathe with a steel rod and start turning out bosses. Today I was finishing up some water bottle bosses. They are three eights of an inch in diameter necked down to nine thirty-seconds. They are about five sixteenths of an inch long and are drilled and tapped for a five millimeter bolt. I whack it off with the hack saw and dress it up a bit with a file. It takes me about fifteen minutes to create each one. Read More
First Frame Cut
February 2, 2011
We now have the coach cleaned up so it is time to get down to the business of building the new bicycle. I have been picking away around the edges for 20 months now. I have the wheels built, one and a half seats built and a bit of the rear suspension built. I have been toting all of the component parts around in the trailer for almost 12,000 miles. I have drawn and redrawn the plans a half dozen times to incorporate the latest ideas or eliminate some interference or another. It is time to fish or cut bait. Read More
Something New
January 29, 2011
In six years of travels we have never leased a lot for a whole month and stayed put. Oh yes we have stayed in one area for a month or longer, but always in places that limited our stay. We would have to move every couple weeks to go to the dump station, or to reset the clock. These locations always are close to our children’s families homes in Hillsboro, OR or Gilroy, CA. Read More
Hot Bluegrass:
January 17, 2011
Hooray! We finally found the warm weather in Blythe California. We just finished up a week of Bluegrass, pickin’ & grinnin’ and renewing old friendships. The warm weather filled in late in the week just in time for the festival. We were treated to dawn to dusk sunshine and temperatures in the seventies.
The only fly in the ointment is that I am still fighting off the lingering effects of a cold from December. The only real problem is when I try to sing I irritate my throat and suffer a setback. I can’t sit around a campfire with a guitar in my hand and not sing. So each night I promise myself I would only sing a little; yah, right…
Tonight we are getting the water tank filled back up and tomorrow we will head out into the Quartzsite desert for an Alpine Coach rally. There will be something like a hundred motor homes like ours camped together under the stars. We all get together and swap ideas on how to maintain our coaches. The company went bankrupt a couple years ago, so we no longer have a source for parts and advice.
People are starting to complain that I haven’t had a blog out in a while. The problem is I promised myself and you folks, that I wouldn’t put out a trip chronicle. I would only write when something exciting happens, like blowing up a tire or cleaning all the antenna of the top of the coach. Well I must be getting the hang of this RVing because things have gotten downright boring: Besides boring is a lot easier on the pocket book.
The exciting part is every year we have more and more friends to look up at these functions and lots of adventures to review around the campfire. Can you believe that we have been at this for over six years now?
For now we will wish all of you get to have some of this warm dry weather too, and good health to all of you.
With love, Gary and Judy
- Blythe Bluegrass Festival Colors
2010 in Review:
January 1, 2011
Here is a very brief summary of our 2010 travels. We have been traveling in Arcturus, our 2001 Alpine motor home since 2004. That is going on seven years now. 2010 is the lightest year of travels yet. We drove just over 6,000 miles, about half our normal rate.
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Frazier Lake Airport
December 4, 2010
Here is a story about one of the most unique airports I have ever seen. It is about five miles out of Gilroy, California where we have been staying for the past month. I have been volunteering again this fall at the Wings of History Air Museum. One of my fellow volunteers suggested that we should visit the Frazier Lake Airport open house this weekend.
