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I got chicken and decided to stay here at City of Rocks until Monday. It's cool enough here to boondock. If I couldn't get an electric site at Monticello, I'd be miserable. So I'll wait till the weekend warriors start heading back home. The best electric sites here are taken so I'm in site 1 boondocking and perfectly happy. I had to run the furnace this morning to get the chill out. I'm far enough from my closest neighbor that I even ran the gen set at 5 AM for coffee. This after noon there are day use people all over the place.

Hey Sue & Paul. I just left the Apache Sitgrave forest today. You're late. I came back to Deming today. Got my estimated tax payment in the Post Office and left again. But only got to City of Rocks. It was too late to head for any place further. I'm thinking about heading to Monticello campground of Elephant Butte State park tomorrow. It's a little dangerous to change parks heading into Laborday weekend but very few people know about the Monticello campground up on the north end of Elephant Butte Lake and they have 50 rv sites. I prefer it to the main campground down on the south end. It's hard to keep sending in tax payments when the market is at a 3 year low. Which means I havent earned a cent for the last 3 years but the IRS still demands $1420 every 3 months. Taint fair. Oh well, I'll buy a few more new rigs and then I won't have anything for them to tax me on. The weather has began to cool a bit in Deming. A bunch of my fellow LOWs returned while I was away. I had a little trouble getting back out the gate. Every one wanted to talk. I'll talk their ear off when I get back. I have to be back in October. I have a Doctor's appointment. He'll probably toss me out because I didn't do what he said to do on the last visit. If they all get mad at me I'll not loose another two years running around to all their referals and being told how old I am and I have to expect not being able to do every thing I use to.

Rvclass2008.com

Thanks Stanley, It had me scratching my head for a while. It's spitting rain again today and making a lot of noise with the thunder. The temperature is still in the 60's. I did get a short walk in earlier though. Now I've given up on trying to go sight seeing from here. I'll just get ready to go to Deming in the morning. There is a restaurant here some place called the Rusty Cactus I wanted to try. I tried to find it the other day but ended up at the Sports Bar. Maybe it's out of business. I'll try again next time I'm up this way. They have an impressive menu on their web site.

I'm having trouble with posting. I've posted several times and the forum don't update even if I reboot and load the forum again. If I poke the "More Reply Options" button all the post are shown there including replies to my post but won't show on the normal page 250. If I try to post from that reply box ( more options) I get a QSL error. I get the same results whether I use the park WiFi or my Verizon MyFi. It is also the same weather I use my Androiod tablet or the Mac tablet. So I won't be posting till I get out of this area or rvnetwork gets it fixed.

It posted all the retries from yesterday today. I find you have to use the full editor to make it post. The quick editor just saves the post to lord knows where then post all the saved post at the same time later.

Ditto

It's raining and cold. I have the heat pump turned on and it feels good. A very good day to take a Steve. I was toying with the Idea of starting a blog but decided my post here in the forum were as good a blog as I could do on Blogspot. Besides it is too much work trying to keep a blog interesting. Earlier today I checked the temperatures here and in Deming. There was a 28 degree difference. That's a bunch. And, I only have one more day of this before I have to go back to Deming but only long enough to pick up my tax records. I have no Idea of where I'll wander off to next.

I took a drive up to Show Low AZ yesterday. There are a bunch of singles up there who have bought 1 to 5 acres of land each way out in the boondocks. The only utility is electricity. They haul their water 500 gallons at a time and all have dug septic tanks. They have added other rv sites and invite other singles to come up and stay on the cheap. They have a happy hour every afternoon and plan some type of group activity just about every day. I asked about taxes on their property. $5 a year per acre. Its about 10 to 12 miles from the highway in a maze of county cinder roads. When you ask how to get there they tell DON'T use your GPS it will get you lost for sure. They give you directions to a General Store on the highway and tell you to call them from there and they will come out and guide you in. Then when I left they gave me a map to find my way out again. Before I started back to Eagar 4 of us went out to the Screaming Chicken Bar and Restaurant for lunch. That was an experience also. A good one though. The place was small and had a small dance hall about 16' by 16'. They give dance classes twice a week. Western two step & Waltz and Swing. It made for a rather pleasing day.

I took a slightly longer walk this morning trying to speed up the acclamation a bit. I didn't get to breathless so I guess I'm getting use to it. The neighbor man saw me out strolling around in the yard this morning and came over and introduced himself. I could see he was interested in the Navion so invited him to take a look inside. He was very impressed. I didn't tell him all the things I'm not happy with. Oh well, it makes a good conversation starter. It's threatening to really blow up a storm thunder and lightning is very close but no rain as yet. When that Florida gang get down there they will experience lightning like no other place on earth. It really snaps, crackles and pops down there.

Sunday is always a slow one. I took my walk this morning. It was a slow one to. I'm not used to this altitude yet. I unhooked and went into Springerville to the Hardware and got some quick connects for my water hoses. Then came back via Eagar and stopped at a Sports Bar for lunch. Both these towns are packed with out of towners gearing up for the big 4 wheeler rally they are having next week. There are as many 4 wheelers on the road as cars. I guess this place has a lot of good trails to ride. It sure is popular with the 4 wheeler folks. Coming home I dropped one wheel into a pot hole turning out of a drive. It really shook thing up from side to side. When I got home and used the bathroom I noticed it didn't belch gas when I flushed. Maybe I shook something loose. However that is only one time. I'm not saying it won't belch twice the next time, I'm not going to do anything else about that problem until I get back to Deming and run a fish cable down the vent and see if it enters the tank.

I put black tape over the flash on my phone camera so the picture of the tank would be clearer and guess what there is no pipe at all coming through the grommet it is supposed to come through. That probable means that the pipe is just sitting on top of the tank and there probably is NOT a hole for it to come through. I don't know how in the heck one could correct that without dropping the tank, cutting a hole adding a short extention to the pipe and hoping you could hit the hole with the pipe when you put the tank back on. I'll run a fish tape down the vent pipe and take another picture to see if I can see the tape coming through the grommet.

I thought I had the black tank issue solved BUT..... I drilled a 3/4" hole in the side of the tank up near the top right where the vent pipe should be inside the tank. I fished through the hole for the pipe sweeping back and forth but struck nothing. So I held the camera lens on my phone tight to the hole and I could see the place above where the pipe came through the top of the tank. It only extended into the tank about 3/4th of an inch. That means it was installed correctly. I went inside and flushed the john. The first couple of flushes it didn't belch gas. So I figured the pipe was clogged somewhere. And the tank was venting through the hole I just drilled. A wine bottle cork is just the right size to plug the hole for driving down the road so I left the hole open and went inside to polish off the wine that was still in the bottle to get the cork. But the first time I used the John and flushed, it belched gas again all be it not as bad as it was. Jimmy ran a fish cable down that vent all the way to the tank and didn't find any blockage. I did notice that the john doesn't sit directly over the tank. There is a double 90 degree offset from the john to where it enters the tank but I don't see how that could cause the problem. So now I'm back to square one and have no Idea how to fix it. If the vent pipe is open and the pipe doesn't protrude too far into the tank, why does the gas come out through the john instead of up the vent pipe???

Only one problem. My printer is in Deming also. Oh well, it's down hill most of the way. LOL PLUS. My tax service made out the forms when they did last years taxes. I banged my head on the wall so much for forgetting to bring the form that I can't remember for how much and which IRS office it is supposed to go to. Maybe I should pad my walls!?

I'm in Eagar, AZ now. The ride up the hill was beautiful. The Navion averaged 17.1 MPG going from 4300 feet elevation to nearly 9000 the back down to 7000 feet. That I like. I'll be staying here for a week. I'll have to cut this trip short and go back to Deming prior to 15 sept. It just dawned on me that I have to submit my quarterly Estimated Tax payment prior to that date. And naturally I forgot to bring the 1040ES form with me. (banging head against wall) I won't put my trailer back in service while there. I'll just pick up the form write the check and stop at the post office on the way back out of town. It sure is lucky that this rig gets good fuel mileage. It's 1PM and only 72 degrees with bright sun. The bad news is they have been having really bad thunder storms every after noon. That I won't like but will accept over the 100 plus degrees I've been contending with in Deming. This sure is beautiful country. Mountains, meadows, streams and rivers, many small lakes and lots of wild game to watch. I saw a few wild turkey on my way here. Didn't see any elk but there was lots of evidence they are here in number. I stopped at Luna Lake Forest Service campground on the way here. They had Bear Warnings posted all over the place.

Steve there is a section of that vent pipe that jogs over at a 45 degree angle then goes up again. It's incased in the inside wall board which is glued in place. It would really mess it up if I tried to open it up. For now I'm just going to drill a hole in the side of the black tank 2 or 3 inches from the top. When I find an extention shaft for drill bits I drill on through the vent pipe then plug the hole in the tank again. For now the hole in the tank will keep the tank from building up gas pressure so it won't stink up the place. While I'm driving I'll put a plug in the hole to keep it from squirting doo doo every time the tank sloshes. Tonight I'm in Silver City NM. In the Morning I'll leave for Eagar, AZ.

The altitude of Grand Canyon Village is just shy of 7000 feet. It stays pretty cool in summer and is heavily forested with ponderosa pine. You'll love it. I used to have the Janitor Supply Contract for the village and school and went up there to service the contract every Wednesday from Flagstaff. Thanks for the good wishes about the Navion.

I had been noticing that the black tank had an oder problem but didn't give it much thought. I figured the previous owner had used chemicals and it would take a while to wash them out so the rid-X could build a colony of arobic bacteria. Last night I noticed that every time I flushed a big bubble of gas would come up out of the tank before the water went down. That could only mean the vent was either clogged or the vent pipe was down too far into the tank and the tank content was effectively closing it off. So this morning I went back to Deming (AGAIN???) I had Jimmy run a flexable cable down the vent pipe. It went unimpeded all the way to the tank bottom. That tank is about 18 inches deep. That means some worker on the assembly line was too lazy to cut the pipe to the right length and just crammed the whole length down into the tank. The tank isn't even showing 1/3 full on the sea level gage. Jimmy has a flexable shaft camera. When I get back from this trip we will take a look inside that tank through the drain valve. I'll bet the pipe goes all the way to the bottom. We can get at the side of the tank through the basement door where the LP fill valve is located. The only thing I can think of to fix the problem without tearing the coach appart is to cut a small slot in the side of the tank near the top were the vent pipe enters. Reach through that slot with a saws-all to cut the pipe then repair the slit with plastic weld. Then fish the sawed off piece out the hole after taking the drain valve off. Then reinstalling the drain valve. That will cost because of the time used and possibly a new drain valve. I'm beginning to see why it was traded in with only 4000 miles on it. I also discovered that you have to take the wheel covers completely off to find the valve stem to check the tires. I think my opinion of German engineers has just when through a big change. Oh Well, I'm going to head for Eagar AZ tomorrow and try to enjoy the trip anyway.

Keep your kids off the street, that old man is loose. I emptied the frig, defrosted it, and moved every thing into the Navion. Then payed the electric bill on both my sites and said bye bye. I didn't get done till after 5 PM so only drove up to City of Rocks. My favorite electric site was taken so I'm boondocking. Tomorrow I'll figure out where I'm going but the most logical place is Eagar, AZ. I don't plan on staying at any one place very long but just bounce from place to place. After Eagar, I'll probably come back into NM up on I-40 and state park hop until October or until I get an appointment to have that vent gearbox installed. I over did it a bit today trying to get the trailer ready to shut down and close up so will probably just rest tomorrow.

Well, I've got every thing done I can do here so will leave again tomorrow. I can't get everything from the freezer in this trailer into the Navion Freezer. So, I have two choices, just go to City of Rocks a few days until I use enough to make room for the rest or put the excess from the freezer into the frig and hope I can use it before it runs through the cracks onto the floor. Or maybe just toss it in the first place. Decisions decisions decisions. One way or the other I'm leaving. One of my cowgirls has reservations up in Eagar, AZ that she is not going to use, she has already paid half of the weeks rent. She told me if I wanted to use it she would call them and tell them that I would honor the reservation instead of her and all I'd have to pay is the other half. Sounds like a deal but I will offer to give her the other half so she won't be loosing her deposit. Then from there I may go over to Show Low. I have a few friends that have bought property over there for summer residents. They all added extra rv sites and invite all LOWs to come over and check them out. I've been meaning to go there for several years but always end up somewhere else.

Back in Deming. I couldn't find sheets that really fit those narrow beds in the Navion so I making some by cutting a King size sheets down the middle and rehemming the cut edge. They come out just the right size for the narrow beds. I'm debating about not waiting for the gear box for the Vent/Skylight to come and taking off for the hills. I'll have to make sure I've taken all the food out of the trailer and cleaned the frig if I do. That's too long to chance just leaving the frig turned on. I'll also turn the power off and draw the slide in if it will still work. That sounds like work???? I may run over to Holiday World just to let them know I'm not a Happy Camper with thier slowness. If I had ordered the part myself from Winnebago it would have been here over night. I guess that's what I get for getting a Winnebego from a dealer who isn't an official Winnebego dealer.

Sorry Jeff, that tree was in one of those areas that have been hit with the forest fires. Besides when I bought the Navion I must have trimmed it to aggressively. It wilted and died shortly after. Plenty of clouds today which is keeping the temperature down. That suits me fine I've taken 3 walks today. Yesterday shortly after I got here we had a good rain that lasted about an hour. That helped too. This park isn't full but close to it. I enjoy watching all the week Enders. They bring every thing they own, set it up then the next day take it all down again to pack it for the trip home. And man the size of the camp fires they build. Makes one wonder if they should call the fire department or just evacuate the area. I've decided to go back to Deming in the morning to regroup for the next trip to lord knows where. Maybe Eager AZ. It's not really a good time to go there. They are having some kind of big 4 wheeler rally there soon but I don't know exactly when. I may not be able to find an RV Park to stay in.

I'm over at Caballo State Park just south of Truth or Consequences tonight. This morning I drove back to Deming from City of Rocks to pick up a package that the tracking number said was delivered. I was in Deming for about 3 hours and decided to come over here for the weekend. I'm at the riverside campground below the dam. It's no cooler here than it is in Deming but I've always liked this campground. And, it is a change in scenery. No word yet about the parts to fix the vent/skylight. But if they do call it's not far from here. If they don't call tomorrow I think I'll go back to City of rocks Sunday. Or, take off for Eagar, AZ and if they call while there just make an appointment to have it installed after I enjoy a couple of weeks of cool. I've figured a way to make the vent latch and I don't need it unless I boondocks so it's not important until the weather cools enough to boondocks.

I sat outside this evening enjoying the stars when I saw what looked like a meteor of fireball status but was moving slower than I would expect for any visitor from outer space. It may have been a piece of space junk like a rocket engine or fuel tank. It was sure pretty what ever it was. I probably won't be able to star gaze much more on this trip. The weather man is promising cloudy skies and the moon is setting later each night, oh well I've enjoyed the evenings I have been able to see the stars. I'll go back to Deming Friday morning. I have a package coming that should be there according to the tracking number. I may go to Caballo Lake after I retrieve that. Still no word on the gear box for the power vent/sky light.

The navion now sports a shinny new SD license plate. Hooray. Only one thing to go now and that's the new gear box for the power vent/skylight. Tomorrow morning Jimmy will install some heavy duty stabilizers on the rear of the frame. That won't take long. Then I think I'll use the rest of the day to get ready to leave and go somewhere fairly close so when they call and say they have the gear box I can make a mad dash to Las Cruces to get it installed. The sad thing about this is now that I can finally get out of Deming the weather here usually cools to the low 80's in the 1st week of September. That's only two weeks away. But I'm going to leave anyway and do some state Park hopping just to be doing something different.