Archive for Uncategorized
May 29, 2007 at 12:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We’re parked for a quick mid-day errand in Flagstaff AZ, but in about two hours we’ll be at the south rim of the Grand Canyon for the next three nights. We may not be able to get online while there, so if the blog doesn’t get updated for a day or two, don’t think we fell into the Colorado River or something. We’ll just be in the cellular abyss.
This weekend we will be buying a used satellite Internet system for backup. We currently get online using a Verizon card, and it works pretty well near populated areas — the same places your cell phone works. But it doesn’t work in the more remote national parks where cell coverage is missing, or any part of Canada and Mexico. Since we have some thoughts about traveling out of the country later this year, I decided to snag the used system while it was available. We’ll activate it later, when we are about cross the border again … although there may be moments when I am tempted to de-activate it and go into vacation mode.
May 28, 2007 at 9:10 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Casino parking is popular among the RV crowd, almost as popular as Wal-Mart. Out west it seems hard to be more than 50 miles from an Indian casino these days, but we’ve never taken advantage of the many casinos that are RV friendly. The only other time was at Sam’s Town Las Vegas, where they have an RV Park.
It’s not that we don’t like casinos, but mostly we’ve found better alternatives, such as quiet parks or scenic areas. In this case there were plenty of commercial campgrounds but since we are just parking, Cliff Castle Casino seemed suitable. The parking turned out to be fine and friendly. I sent in a report to Casino Camper so they could update their website about it.
Our Google Earth location.
We knew about this spot from our visit a year ago. You have to drive right past Cliff Castle Casino to get to Montezuma Castle National Monument. I wonder if the Indian frybread stand is still here?
Rich C is staying only about half an hour away from here, so he dropped by with his friend Sadie for a final visit before we head east. Sadie and Eleanor hit it off right away, finding common interests in a theory that (as far as I can tell) involves eating mass quantities of chocolate and red wine to prevent cancer. They even got online for a few minutes to study the molecular structure of some elements found in chocolate.
I picked this spot for the overnight stop because it was convenient to our route and the casino has family stuff, including bowling, which Emma loves. There’s also a Johnny Rockets restaurant, which is the sort of place we only go as a treat when we are on the road. It helps break up the day of driving and put everyone in the right mood.
At only 3000 feet we haven’t yet escaped the heat. It was in the low 90s all afternoon. But tomorrow will be a different story. Only about 40 miles up the road is Flagstaff, elevation 7000 — an entirely different climate zone. Even though daytime highs will be in the low 80s at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the forecast is for near-freezing temperatures at night. We’ll have to start carrying sweatshirts in the car again.
May 27, 2007 at 10:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Two weeks of nearly straight-out renovation and many thousands of dollars later, we are at a good point to break away. And it is absolutely needed. The relentless joys of renovation are wearing us out.
We could certainly stay here long if we cared to. There have been snags which we could correct, given time. The big one was a shortage of grout. Being a good general contractor, I have been inventorying supplies each night and estimating what we might need the next day. But we did run unexpectedly short of grout, and by the time we saw the problem, it was Sunday of the holiday weekend and there was no hope of getting more. Nobody except the tile store seemed to carry the color we are using, and they were closed.
Oh well. The floor is 95% done. All the slates are laid, and most of the floor is grouted. The rest will have to get done later. We are leaving on schedule, Monday morning. We have reservations at the Grand Canyon which I am NOT going to cancel.
So the “lock-and-leave” house is ready for its first test. The neighbors are alerted, everyone has our contact info, there will be a house watcher coming by, and we’ve verified all the plumbing and electric. The air conditioning is off, the water heater is on “vacation” setting, smoke detectors are working, and a dozen other details have been taken care of. The house can await our return in a few months. No hurry. We’ll be back when the time is right.
May 26, 2007 at 8:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
With another full day of house work behind us, we were looking for something relaxing to do this evening. Our neighbor Carol must have read our minds, because she popped over late in the afternoon to invite us to join her at the park for a Saturday night concert. For a few weeks in the late spring the Arizona Symphonic Winds provide free open air concerts in Morris K Udall Park, and that seemed the perfect thing to do on a balmy Tucson evening.
We stopped off at Nico’s for a few of their huge burritos to go. It’s hard to go far wrong with Mexican food in Tucson, and Nico’s excells at making dinner burritos for short money. With those, a Thermos of ice water, and a few cookies, we had an instant picnic.
The concert venue is a grassy amphitheater surrounded by trees. With the warm breeze in the evening I could easily imagine us at a summer concert back in New England. Only the mountains and the lack of mosquitoes are different. We munched our burritos from folding chairs and watched the bats circle overhead while the orchestra played.
Conductor László Veres
Tomorrow is our last day in Tucson. We’ve got a long punch list of things to complete on the house, but if we get an early start (before the heat builds) it should all get done. By tomorrow night, the Airstream will be packed and we’ll be ready to hitch up and go Monday morning. See you on the road!
May 25, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
As the warm weather approaches in Tucson, people all over town are compelled to let me in on a little secret: “It gets hot here.”
This past two weeks, we have had only one day where the temperature did not reach 90 (it was only 89 on Tuesday). Since it is only May, some would call that a clue. The local weather forecasters say the average first day of 100 degrees arrives about May 11 on average (which coincidentally is the average last freeze back in Vermont and thus marks a safe date to plant your vegetables).
Hardly a day goes by without someone spotting our green Vermont license plates and making one of the Two Standard Comments:
1) “You’re a long way from home.”
2) “Ever been here in the summer?”
The latter comment is said with a knowing smile. If we take the bait, the followup is, “It gets hot here.” At first we took this seriously, and would attempt to explain that we’ve been here for a while, and yes, we are aware that it gets hot. But we’ve come to realize that both of the Two Standard Comments are like pickup lines in a bar; They’re just intended to foster conversation.
Sure, a lot of people probably wish we hadn’t considered the possibility that it gets really hot in the desert southwest in the summer. Imagine the fun watching our jaws drop as they explain the realities of 110 degree days — every day — for weeks on end. We might even drop whatever we’re carrying and run screaming to the nearest airport in search of a flight to anywhere other than this scorching land. What fun that would be to watch!
I expect we’ve disappointed a few people. We have explained a dozen times in the past two weeks that we don’t expect to spend any summers here at all. After all, we are Avis Niva, snowbirds (non-retired variety). I’ve stopped mentioning that, too, because it seems to kill the conversation. I think it’s a bit like running away to Florida from New England. You’re expected to stay and do penance with the everyone else. Nobody wants to hear about your winter in the sunshine, and here in Tucson nobody wants to hear about the cool green summers of Vermont.
When we are away from our car, we can generally escape the Two Standard Comments and their variations. But I did get zinged by a guy at Lowe’s last week. I asked a store employee where I could find thermometers. He immediately began leading me to Aisle 37, and along the way, he said, “So when did you move here?”
“Just bought a house last week,” I said. “How did you know?”
He grinned at me. “Nobody here buys thermometers. We don’t want to know how hot it is.”
But just in case you didn’t know, it gets hot here.
May 24, 2007 at 10:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This morning the lead tile installer told me he expected to complete our job on Saturday. Looking at the floor, I think that’s possible, so I booked us the very last site available at the south rim of the Grand Canyon for next week. On Monday at the latest, we will check out of this carport we’ve got the Airstream parked in, and haul up I-17 to the cool higher altitudes of central Arizona.
It’s about time. The house should be ready for an extended absence. All of the neighbors will be watching, some will be parking in our carport while we are gone, and we’ve also got a house watching service to go in every two weeks to take care of things inside. The roof is now rain-tight for monsoon season, the exterior is painted, and the plumbing and electrical issues have been resolved.
But not before I had my own little “Three Stooges” episode. It started when I decided to replace the flushing mechanism of the toilet. Yesterday Jerry the handyman replaced three water valves in the house that either didn’t shut off completely, or which leaked. They all seem to be original 1971 vintage. So today I felt I would complete the task by fixing what I thought was the last item. The toilet sometimes runs endlessly after being flushed, and that’s unconscionable here in the desert. Fortunately, it’s an easy fix.
For those of you who aren’t as handy as I am, here’s how I did it. Step 1: Turn off the water to the toilet. Notice that the shut-off valve seems to be a little sticky. Scratch head, then proceed.
Step 2: Empty the toilet tank of water and disconnect the existing flushing mechanism. Note a sudden rush of water on the floor. This is because the shut-off valve, doesn’t.
Step 3: Attempt to shut the valve again. When that fails, go look for a pan as water continues to flood the bathroom.
Step 4: Since there are no pans in the house, find a stack of empty 5-gallon paint buckets outside. Try to separate one from the stack. When that fails, call for help.
Step 5: With an assistant, pull apart the buckets. You’ll discover that one has an inch of white paint in it, which will be dispersed around the area as the buckets suddenly fly apart.
Step 6: Call for help from wife. Ask her to clean up the paint before it dries while you deal with the impending flood.
Step 7: Realizing that the buckets won’t fit under the source of the flowing water in the bathroom, try to shut off water to the entire house. You’ll note that the house shutoff works, but when the valve is closed, large quantities of water come spewing out of the shutoff valve.
Step 8: At this point the cell phone will begin to ring. Tell the caller, “I’m having a toilet emergency!” and hang up, leaving him to wonder exactly what you mean.
Step 9: Call handyman. Tell him, “Get over here and replace every !@#$* valve in this house now!”
Step 10: Talk to tiler, who at this point needs several gallons of water to make more mortar, but can’t because the water to the house is turned off.
Step 11: Write a check to the handyman.
Step 12: Make a note for tomorrow: “Replace toilet flush mechanism.” Rinse and repeat.
Fortunately, as my friend Adam noted, the good part of this episode is that we have now replaced nearly every water valve in the house. It will be nice to start off ownership with known good parts, so we can be sure that when we shut something off, it will stay off. Our goal was to button up the house and we’ve done that. The rest can get done when we get back from a summer of travel in the Airstream.
May 23, 2007 at 8:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We are getting closer to escape! Today we had the floor tile team arriving at 6 a.m., the handyman at 9 a.m., the painter at 10 a.m., the gas plumber at 2:30 p.m., and the drywall guys at 4:30 p.m. Three projects completed, two estimates received. An average day lately.
We got lucky again with the painter. He was recommended by our neighbor across the street, and turned out to be a great find. He had a free man today, and after we accepted his price for repainting the trim on the back of the house and the concrete block wall that borders our back yard, we had a painter working on site in less than an hour.
The block wall wasn’t on our “to do” list but it was quick and relatively inexpensive to get done. The cement-gray wall made our back yard look like a prison yard. We picked a friendly green and in 30 minutes it was done. Later, when we put some cacti and bushes in front of it, it will hopefully be less of an eyesore.
While I was in the back yard digging out buried drainage holes in the block wall, a neighbor came running over to announce that a rather large snake was roaming near our front yard. It turned out to be a Bull Snake, about four feet long and very pretty.
This snake likes to mimic the Diamondback Rattlesnake. The markings are vaguely like a Diamondback, and he demonstrated his ability to shake his tale to make a rattler-like sound (although he doesn’t actually have rattles). When confronted, the snake also hissed quite a bit, and coiled up like a rattler.
The snake wandered over to our neighbor Carol’s house and eventually found a nice hiding spot by sliding under her utility room door, which didn’t make her too happy. Carol says she’s never seen a snake in the neighborhood in many years of living here, so it was just lucky we saw this one. She called the Fire Department and Animal Control to see if they’d remove it. They will do that with venomous snakes, but the Bull Snake is harmless.
Fortunately the housepainter is a fan of reptiles and he captured it easily with a trash-picking tool and a 5-gallon paint bucket. He, another neighbor, and Eleanor relocated it to a more appropriate spot without harm done.
The tile team made a lot of progress too. The tile is, as we expected, making the existing white walls look like hell. We’ll deal with that this fall, by adding some color to the interior walls.
I estimate about 70% of the square footage is already down. But the more time-consuming tile cutting and grouting are still to be done. We are looking good for tile completion by Sunday, which means we can head out on Monday.
That’s if we don’t collapse first. The workload has been incredible for Eleanor and I, between logistics, problem solving, juggling contractors, and managing our usual duties (the magazine and Emma). We fall into bed at 9 p.m. every night and wake up at 6 a.m. (I never thought we’d do that. Are we that old?)
On Thursday I hope to be free enough from overseeing contractors to develop our “escape plan”. It’s getting into high season for the national parks in northern Arizona and southern Utah, so there are a few logistical considerations. With an hour or two to consider and browse the park websites, I should be able to work out the plan.
No matter what we do, I think our first few days on the road will be very mellow, because we’re going to be in recovery mode. Fortunately, the Airstream is the perfect vehicle for that. Can’t wait!
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