January 26, 2014:
Checking out the Onan Generator, the oil and air filter were changed by the RV dealer, the spark plug looks decent, only 46 hours run time on it is not much. I start it up, all seems OK until about a 1/2 hour, then it starts sputtering and dies. Good thing there is a month warranty period, we are going to exercise everything on this RV very well. Also I take a good look underneath the RV, there are some loose wires and loose pipe clamps clamps, but looks relatively good. I'm thinking about getting rid of the spare tire, adding a bike rack to the bumper, possibly insulating the drain tanks and piping and adding another battery. I need to make this rig "boondock ready" to give the bank account a break.
Checking out the Onan Generator, the oil and air filter were changed by the RV dealer, the spark plug looks decent, only 46 hours run time on it is not much. I start it up, all seems OK until about a 1/2 hour, then it starts sputtering and dies. Good thing there is a month warranty period, we are going to exercise everything on this RV very well. Also I take a good look underneath the RV, there are some loose wires and loose pipe clamps clamps, but looks relatively good. I'm thinking about getting rid of the spare tire, adding a bike rack to the bumper, possibly insulating the drain tanks and piping and adding another battery. I need to make this rig "boondock ready" to give the bank account a break.
We have the interior almost livable now, most people use the front area over the truck cab for storage, but I am trying to minimize that. I visualize that area as my "Man Cave" when I need a temporary reprieve from Twinkles.
Tuesday morning and I'm off to a local dentist for an 8 AM appointment, what was I thinking agreeing to an 8 AM appointment, there is no reason to hurry any more ? This dentist was in a hurry though, (to make money) they cleaned my teeth, replace two old fillings, removed an old crown that had issues and put a temporary crown on and then added a temporary crown to a chipped front tooth. I need to return for the permanent crowns and then hopefully I'll done for a while. I have had an overdose of dental treatment this past year.
A great concert at the campground on Tuesday evening with a local legendary blues slide guitar player, Stefan George, accompanied by another Arizona Hall of Fame bass player, Steve Grams. I had seen them previously a couple of times downtown and knew it would be special. It's a big blues week for me as on Saturday I have tickets to see "Hot Tuna" play at the Rialto Theater. Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy of Jefferson Airplane fame started Hot Tuna as an outlet for their love of the blues in the 1969. They have continued the band all these years and are still going strong. Jorma has a great blog, what a fantastic life this guy leads and the blog is required motivational reading.
The Jeep has several "character" dings in it's finish which we are OK with. Twinkles rationalizes that because of this, we don't have to worry about it, like we would if it was a new Jeep. I just say it's a "Jeep" it's supposed to have some battle scars. Today, a passing car kicked up a stone which hit the windshield and put a crack in it. That's the kind of battle scar I could live without !
This RV craziness is really interfering with my hiking and photography playtime. I have missed the last two group campground hikes, so on Thursday it felt good to get out away from the RV issues for a while on a good hike.
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| Happy Hikers |
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| Petroglyphs along the trail |
A craft show at the campground on Friday morning with Twinkles trying to sell some craft supplies to lighten our load. The bad news is that I'm expected to get rid of an equal amount. Downsizing is hard work ! People keep coming up to us asking about our new RV, but when we tell them we got a smaller one, we often get a strange puzzled reaction like, Oh, why did you do that ?
The big event on Saturday in Tucson was "Dillinger Days", to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the capture of public enemy # 1, gangster John Dillinger, and his gang in Tucson in the 1934. They had a reenactment of the fire at the Hotel Congress which lead to their capture, with smoke, ladders and even the original fire truck. Also a play by play account of how the capture happened and a shootout between the gang and the cops.
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| Dillinger Days |
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| Old classic limo on display |
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| Interesting back seat passenger |
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| Restored fire truck that was the one used to rescue Dillinger gang members from the fire at Hotel Congress. It is a American LaFrance built in Elmira, NY |
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| Reenactment of the Hotel fire |
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| Wanted poster |
Saturday nights big event was the "Hot Tuna" and "Leon Russell" concert at the Rialto Theater. It was acoustic Hot Tuna which to me doesn't create enough noise and excitement for the usual concert crowd. Jorma's intricate finger picking guitar to ancient blues songs is lost to most of the concert crowd. They were however in good form and sounded great as ever. Leon Russell's honky tonk piano and full electric band playing a blend of originals and covers was more to the crowds taste.
Sunday I visited the Tucson Transportation museum and wandered around the warehouse district, which is fast becoming an arts district. Also a lunch stop at Barrio Brewing, housed in an old rustic tin building, very cool from the outside, kind of dumpy inside, but the food was good.
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| Tile mural depicting Pasqua Yaqui tribe warrior |
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| Local church in Tucson |
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| Tile mural on South Tucson street corner |
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| Mural in Tucson warehouse district |
Interesting days indeed,
Twinkles and Slick
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