Our last chapter concluded with our arrival in Casa Grande, Arizona on Wednesday, February 26th. We are in the Casa Grande RV Resort for two weeks. Our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock came with us from Yuma and are parked just one space down from us. The Babcocks and McKays, with whom we spent the last month in Yuma, headed to other destinations.
Thursday, February 27th Peggy and Jackie had a “spa afternoon” getting pedicures and hair cuts. I stayed home and took care of some chores that needed to be finished. After the girls got back we had happy hour and then dinner at our coach with the four of us. Jackie made her chili relleno casserole and some beans and rice, a really tasty dinner. As you can tell by the photo, our cats have come to accept Peggy and Vernon as family. We chatted until about 8:00 when Peggy and Vernon headed back home and we watched TV until bedtime.
We spent about three hours walking around the tarmac of the airport looking at planes. They had two big WW-II bombers, a twin engine B-25 medium bomber that was restored to pristine condition, and a PB4Y-2 Privateer, the Navy anti-sub patrol version of of the big four engine B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. This one had spent years as a water bomber, but all the red and white paint was stripped off and it was restored to it's original polished aluminum finish. There were also a dozen or so warbirds, mostly 50's model T-34 trainers and three Soviet Yak single engine fighters. Most of the rest of the planes were older private aviation single engine birds, most of them very nicely restored. 
After we got home I had lunch and then Jackie and I went to Walmart for some shopping. We had cocktails with the Bullocks about 5:00 and then went into our coach for dinner on our own where we stayed in the rest of the night.
Saturday, March 1st, two months of the year gone already. We woke up to the end of a night of pretty heavy rain. It started raining just before we went to bed and rained on and off all night. Although the forecast said no more rain, it still looked pretty gloomy when I got up. We had planned to go to one of the nearby parks for the annual chili cook-off, but we decided that with all the rain we had last night it would be a little too wet and muddy. We also figured it would be a little too wet for caching too, so we just decided to stay at home for a leisure day.
About 5:00 we had cocktails with the Bullocks and then a very nice dinner at their coach. Peggy made her penne pasta dish, which is one of my favorites. We had a great dinner and chatted until about 8:00 or so after which we went home and watched TV the rest of the evening.
Sunday, March 2nd, I woke up about 7:30 or so and went out for the Sunday papers. Jackie likes the paper on Sunday morning. After I got home I switched on the heat pump in the front of the coach because it was just a little cool. I am not sure, even now, what the happened, but the heat pump, which is part of the front air conditioning unit, started, but after just a couple of seconds shut down. I then noticed that I had all kinds of electrical bugaboos in the coach. The refrigerator was running on propane, even though we were connected to shore power, and wouldn't switch to electric. I also noticed that even though we were plugged into shore power the inverter was running, powering all the 110 volt outlets from the coach batteries. The battery charger, which normally works when we are plugged into shore power, wasn't on and wouldn't come on. Something was dreadfully wrong. As it stood, we couldn't go for more than a half day or so without draining the house batteries, which would ruin my brand new batteries.
I got out my trusty VOM meter and started doing some troubleshooting as best I could, but I was at a loss as to what it might be. After extensive testing and troubleshooting it appeared that everything seemed to be working OK except for the inverter and the refrigerator. I managed to get in touch with one of the mobile repair guys recommended by the park and he said that he could come out in the early afternoon, after he went to church, to take a look at the problems. While I was waiting I continued my troubleshooting and did some research online regarding the inverter we have.
By the time the repair guy got to the coach I had pretty much determined that, for some unknown reason, I had two unrelated problems, the fridge not working on AC power, and the inverter, which I had determined had gone bad. The service guy confirmed my diagnosis and said the fridge was probably a blown fuse on the control board. He went inside and pulled the cover, replaced the fuse and now the fridge was working right again.
The inverter was another issue. He verified my diagnosis that it was an internal problem in the inverter and he spent a half hour pulling the unit out of the coach and tying the wires together so we would have power. Fortunately for us, he told us that there was a factory authorized service center for our Magnum brand inverter in Gilbert, just thirty miles or so north of Casa Grande, and he thought they would probably be able to get it fixed in one day if I got it up there Monday morning.
Everything in the coach was now working as it should, except that the house batteries were not charging. So we took a ride down to Walmart and I got a battery charger, hooked it up to the house batteries and now we were OK for a few days. The service call was $125, which I thought was pretty good considering I had the guy out on a Sunday afternoon.
Jackie was going to cook dinner tonight, but with the electrical problems we decided we probably shouldn't run the microwave for a long period of time, so we decided to go out to eat. We went to a local Mexican place called Eva's, which we had been to before. The service was OK, but the food was mediocre at best, such that we probably won't go back again. After dinner we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.
Monday, March 3rd, I called the repair place for the inverter at 8:30 and explained the problem and my diagnostics. He told me that, based on what I described and tested, it was probably a blown AC board inside the inverter. He told me he had parts on hand and that if I got it to him before lunch he could have it done by closing time. This worked out pretty well as we had been planning to go to Costco up in the same area anyway. Actually, we had planned to go yesterday, but that didn't work out.
We left the coach about 10:00 and by 11:00 I had the inverter in the shop for repairs. We drove back to the Costco and met Peggy and Vernon, who had driven up in their own car. We had planned to ride together, but we weren't sure when the inverter would be finished and they had to be back by mid-afternoon to take their dog out. We all got in our car and went out to do some geocaching in the area. We cached for a little over an hour and got six new finds. After caching we went to a PF Chang's for a late lunch. The food was wonderful, as was the service. We have never had a bad meal at a PF Chang's.
While we had been caching the shop called and said my inverter would be fixed by 2:00 or so and that they closed at 3:00. Because it was already 2:00 when we got done with lunch, we drove back to the shop to pick up the inverter and dropped Peggy and Vernon off at Costco so they could shop and then go back in their own car. The inverter repair was just under $450, which seems high, but not when you consider that a new replacement inverter would have been about $1,300. Once we had the inverter in hand we went back to Costco and did our own shopping and then drove back to the RV park in Casa Grande.
We got back to the park right at 5:00 and I decided to wait until morning to install the inverter. Everything in the coach was working OK, so there was no need to rush to put it in. I was OK with putting it back in myself, but I wanted to take my time and didn't want to be rushed by darkness. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon, but because of the late lunch didn't do any dinner. We just relaxed after a stressful couple of days and watched TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, March 4th, I was out installing the repaired inverter by mid-morning and within 90 minutes it was in and everything was working as it was supposed to again. Yea! After lunch we went to the laundromat and did a couple weeks worth of dirty clothes. Once laundry was done we did a quick Walmart run so I could take the battery charger back. It worked OK, but it wasn't exactly what I needed and I didn't need to waste money on something that might not do the job in the future.
About 5:30 or so we left the RV park, with the Bullocks, and drove downtown to the monthly street fair and car show. It was a very small fair, only a couple dozen booths, but all of the little shops downtown were open as well, so there was enough to keep us busy for a couple hours. They did have a smallish car show with some pretty neat street rods and restored 60's and 70's stuff. After the car show we stopped at a Whataburger downtown for a hamburger. Whataburger has been an Arizona staple since I was in high school and it was always one of my favorite fast food burgers. I haven't had one in years and Jackie, Peggy and Vernon had never tried one. Dinner was simple but good. After dinner we went back to the park and watched TV the rest of the night.
Wednesday morning we left the park around 10:30 with the Bullocks and went to do some local geocaching. By 12:30 we had 16 new finds with no DNFs. We stopped at a little taco stand for a light lunch, then went to a couple of stores before heading home by mid-afternoon. That night we had a BBQ, with Peggy, Vernon and Jackie cooking some lamb chops and I had a nice cut of steak. I don't care for lamb, but my steak was wonderful. After Peggy and Vernon went home we relaxed until bedtime.
Thursday, March 6th was a stay at home day. Both Jackie and I got a lot of little to-do things crossed off our lists. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and then Peggy served a dinner of beef enchilada casserole. Dinner was very good and we chatted until about 8:00 when we went back to our coach for the night.
Friday, March 7th, we were on the road about 11:00 headed for the Phoenix area to visit my daughter Tye and her family in Glendale. It was about a 60 mile drive, but it only took a little over an hour because it was freeway all the way. We stopped at an In and Out for a quick lunch and then a Target to pick up a little gift for my great grandson Terrel. He was the biggest reason for our trip today.
My oldest granddaughter Crystal, who is now 27, hooked up with a guy about 7 years ago that was a real jerk from a big family of jerks. The guy was black, but that's not the reason I didn't like him, he is just not a nice guy. They got married and Crystal had a baby girl, my first great grand child, named Kirsten. At that time Crystal and Tyrel were living in San Antonio, Texas, where his parents had a place. We were passing through San Antonio that summer and I called Crystal and asked if we could visit to see Kirsten. She told me that Tyrel wouldn't allow anyone to visit, not even her mom, Tye. Not too long after that Tyrel's parents took Kirsten away from Crystal and Tyrel, saying they didn't think they were good parents, and they got legal custody. I have never seen anything but pictures of Kirsten. I think Tye has seen her once or twice, but not recently. 
A couple years later they had a boy, named Terrel. They were able to keep this one and they moved back to the Phoenix area, so Tye got to see him from time to time. We saw him once when he was a baby about 18 months or so. A couple weeks ago Tye let me know that Tyrel had kicked Crystal and Terrel out and that they were living with her now in Glendale. Since we were going to be fairly close in Casa Grande I told her we would make a point of coming up and visiting while we were in the area.
Terrel is now five, almost six years old and is a very cute kid with a great personality. Crystal seems to be doing OK too, although with her is is hard to tell for sure because she is very withdrawn and introverted, always has been. We spent all afternoon visiting with Tye, Crystal, Terrel, and the rest of the family. Tye's husband Frank was there, as well as his two sons from a previous marriage and Jordan, my youngest grand daughter from Frank and Tye. Quite a mixed bag of family, but that's how things are now days.
Saturday, March 8th, we left the RV park about 10:30 or so with Peggy and Vernon to go out and do some geocaching. The first thing I noticed when we got in the car was that the A/C was not blowing cold air when I started it. This has been a continual problem with this car since we bought it in 2009. On average the A/C quits, always due to failure of the condenser coil, about every 11 months. If the problem this time is the condenser again, it will be the sixth one we have had put in. I was planning on waiting until later in the week and taking it to the dealership in Cottonwood, because we are leaving here on Wednesday morning. However, after I checked my records I noticed the the last time I had it fixed we were here in Casa Grande and the dealership here was the one that did the repairs. I also noticed that it failed just two days short of exactly a year ago. I figured that if I wanted to make a claim that it was covered as a parts warranty of one year, I needed to get it into the dealership on Monday morning to document that I brought it in PRIOR to the one year warranty, by only two days.
Since it wasn't too hot, we just continued with our caching with the windows rolled down. In a couple of hours we were able to get nine new finds, along with one DNF. After caching we drove to the mall where the girls went to a couple of stores for some things. We then stopped at a taco stand for a quick, light lunch. Jackie had put in a crock pot full of pork country ribs for dinner and we didn't want to spoil our appetite. After our quick lunch we went back home and did some chores for the rest of the afternoon.
We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00 and then had dinner at our house. The country ribs turned out great and we had a wonderful dinner with friends again. We chatted for a little while and about 8:00 Peggy and Vernon went back to their coach and we watched TV until bed.
Sunday, March 9th, I got Jackie's Sunday paper for her and we read the paper and waited for my brother Ken and his wife Susan to come over. They live in Goodyear, Arizona, about an hours drive northwest of Casa Grande and they had told us they would come down today for a visit. We always enjoy time with them and like to cache with them because, like Peggy and Vernon, we are the one's who got them interested in caching. Ken is my youngest brother, 20 years younger than I. In fact, he is only about five months older than my oldest daughter, Tye.
Ken and Susan got to the coach about 10:00, a little earlier than expected. However, Jackie finished her shower and got dressed and by 10:30 or so we were ready to go caching. Ken and Susan went with us in our car and Peggy and Vernon trailed along in their car. We were caching in the farm country to the east of Casa Grande, so there wasn't any traffic to deal with. We had a great time caching and by about 1:30 we had 18 new finds with no DNFs. We all decided it was time for a late lunch/early dinner, so we drove back into town to Macayo's Mexican restaurant. Macayo's is an Arizona staple, having been around since the mid-40's, and we have eaten at their places for years. The food is usually always good. This time, for whatever reason, the service was terrible. The waitress was very friendly, but everything was super slow. It wasn't because they were busy, there were only a couple other tables occupied in the place. We must have hit the period between shifts or something. It took 20 minutes to get our drinks to us and there was no one in the bar. The food was good, as usual, but I was really disappointed with the service.
After lunch we did two more caches because everyone wanted to end with an even 20 finds. After that we went back to the coach. We talked with Ken and Susan for a couple more hours, having a great visit. They finally decided they needed to head for home abut 8:00 so we bid goodbye. It is possible they may come up for another day visit when we are up in Camp Verde, north of Phoenix. After Ken and Susan left we watched TV for a while, then went to bed.
Monday, March 10th, I got up early and took the car into the local Jeep dealer to have the A/C looked at. Since I didn't have an appointment I had to drop the car off because they couldn't get right on it. Vernon came down and picked me up and took me back to the park. Jackie was having a bout with allergies, so we decided that this would be a good day to just stay home and relax.
The dealership called me about 2:30 and said they had diagnosed the problem and it was, indeed, a leak in the condenser coil – again. The service guy told me that he couldn't get the part for three to five days, so he documented everything for me and said I should contact the dealer in Cottonwood, our next stop. Vernon drove me down and I picked up the car and took it back home. It does appear that it will be covered under warranty since it was less than a year old, but it is still a pain in the butt. We just stayed in all day nursing Jackie back to feeling good. We had dinner on our own and watched TV until bed.
Tuesday, March 11th, we left the coach after lunch with Peggy and Vernon out for a last day of caching here in the Casa Grande area. Tomorrow we leave for Camp Verde. We headed east towards the town of Florence because Peggy wanted to see the very pretty crested saguaro cactus that we found last year when we were out here caching with Ken and Susan. Crested saguaros are very rare and very symmetrical one's, like the one we going to see, are even more rare. Peggy has always had an interest in saguaros and we wanted to let her see this one. No one is exactly sure what causes the crest to form, but they think it's just a genetic thing, like a birth defect.
We got to the cactus in about 40 minutes, took some pictures and let Peggy and Vernon find the geocache that was hidden nearby. We had already gotten it last year. After seeing the crested saguaro we did some more caching in the immediate area. We found a total of nine caches before deciding to head back home. We were back in the RV park about 3:30 and I spent the next hour putting things away and getting ready for tomorrow's travels. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon about 5:00 and by 6:30 we were in the house for the night. The Bullocks were having some of their leftovers and Jackie and I had BLTs. We watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, March 12th, another moving day. We were packed up and ready for travel by 10:00, as were the Bullocks. They are also heading for Camp Verde today, another two weeks together. Because we are still having the problem with our Jeep's transfer case Jackie had to drive again. The trip was just under 140 miles, nearly all of it Interstate. However, it took us right through the heart of Phoenix from southeast to north. We were hoping that going through town in the middle of a weekday we wouldn't have much traffic.
As it turned out the traffic was moderate with no slowdowns or surprises. The trip was still stressful, any trip through a large city is, but we made it out of town in one piece and arrived in Camp Verde, at the Western Horizon's park, about 12:30. Peggy and Vernon pulled into the resort just a few minutes behind us. We got adjoining sites and got the rigs parked and spent some time in the afternoon getting setup. We will be here for two weeks.
About 5:00 we had cocktails outside and about 7:00 we BBQed some steaks and had dinner in our coach. We had a great dinner and talked until Peggy and Vernon went home around 8:30. Our arrival at Camp Verde marks a good place to put this chapter online. Until the next episode, remember the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” See ya.
