Peoria, AZ
Since Geri's ankle was really getting worse, we ended up cutting our visit in Santa Barbara County short by a day, and made it home on Saturday instead of the Sunday plan.
We're pretty sure this is a "gout incident", but the pain and swelling has been getting progressively worse over the past couple of days. We had planned to attend a wine tasting on Friday afternoon, but I called and was able to cancel that. And the RV Park gave us a credit for our next stay for the unused day (I thought we might have to forfeit that), so we packed up and hit the road early in the afternoon. After a quick stop in Santa Paula for fuel, we were soon wending our way along I-210 north of Los Angeles. A little bit of Friday afternoon traffic slowed us up, and we knew we wouldn't make it all the way to Phoenix. Our friends Wayne and Eva had recommended the Elks Lodge in Indio as an option, but it was getting late so we pulled out back of the Morongo Casino just east of Palm Springs for the night. we've stayed there before and once again had no issues using it for a quick overnight boondocking spot.
Up early, we were on our way just as the rain showers were trying to make their way out of the LA basin and into the desert. With a nice rainbow in the rear view and a fantastic sunrise in front of us, we were quickly back on I-10, climbing the long grade east of Indio, and rolling into Arizona. By early afternoon, we were in Phoenix and after a quick stop at the Flying J Truck Stop to top off the fuel tank for storage, we were back at our place in Peoria.
Since we had all day today to do our unloading, we knew we simply needed to deal with essentials yesterday. I turned on the gas and the water first. No problem on the former, but the water, well, no joy. It turns out that the gate valve that serves as a main was stripped in the threads. It turned fine, just wouldn't open. So, being home less than 30 minutes, I was off to Home Depot for a replacement. Of course, you have to buy a whole new valve; no parts available. Back home, I jury-rigged a tool to close the underground valve out by the meter, installed the new gate in the existing valve, and we soon had water running. At some point, I'll replace the gate valve with a ball valve for more reliable operation, but not now I also had a couple of drips where the cold water enters the hot water heater, so I tightened them up as well.
We were well-prepared for an evening arrival, having pre-planned dinner of Mexican Sheppard's Pie, so we simply moved a few things from the coach: dinner, DirecTV boxes, PCs, and "morning stuff". We soon had the TVs working and the cable Internet wasn't far behind (I'd called a few days earlier to make sure it was "on".
Today, we basically spent the day unloading the coach. After all these years, we have it pretty well figured out. Start at the front, leave cupboards open once they're dealt with, and dump all the laundry in a space where Geri can tackle it in batches over the next few days. We finished up with the refrigerator/freezer, since the house units had cooled sufficiently, and were high-fiving our completion just about 3:00 PM.
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