Finding Our Someday

Thursday - We stopped at the visitors center near Portage Glacier. I drove by here three years ago when I got off the ferry with the Prius but didn’t stop then. It’s a nice, large visitor center with a good movie and lots of interactive displays. Portage Glacier is the one in the middle and it has receded a lot. Back in the early 80s, it was near where I’m standing. A lot of change.

In the evening, we went to a meetup arranged by an RV YouTube channel Finding Our Someday. We had briefly met them earlier in Tampa but there was quite a crowd then. The couple travel with their two teenage daughters and put out videos every week for years. 

They are now traveling in a beta class C motorhome from trailer RV manufacturer Grand Design. The 25’ RV is surprisingly large enough for their family. They are the middle four in this photo. 

Friday - We headed north before 8am as we needed to get back to Fairbanks to pick up the Jeep at the dealer. The recall was finished on Wednesday morning and they kept the Jeep in their fenced lot until we were able to pick it up today. 

Aspen Crossing, AB

Friday - Last night, we met around a campfire. Probably the first one of the entire summer. This evening, we are going on a dinner train excursion here at the campground. They own several engines and train cars as well as 14 miles of track no longer used by the Canadian railroad. The train runs slowly back and forth along their section of track while dinner is served. 

Below is a time-lapse of one-way of the trip. From the farthest point back to the RV park.

Day 89 - Clermont, FL

Today there was a YouTube meetup at Lakeridge Winery and Vineyards in Clermont, FL. There was something like ten RV channels represented and I have only been following a couple of them. 

This is one of the newer channels @Liz Amazing and I enjoy their open and honest description of their full-time adventure. 

This is @LivinRVision with Michelle and Brian. We had met them last year at Harlingen just after the big freeze. They started in a class A DP and have downsized to a large Airstream which is now for sale. What’s next?

We originally met Mike and Bernie in Benson last year and talked to them often while we were there as they frequented the hot tub about the same time as I did. I didn’t know that they had a YouTube channel. @ Chasenourdreams

This is Tom of @Enjoy the Journey.Net. His wife Cherie wasn’t feeling well. I had met them a few days ago at the RV park when they first arrived. He is the organizer of this meetup. The venue selected was perfect. Plenty of room, sunny day, and outdoors.

We “know” this couple as @Nursing Our Travel Bug as the moderators on several livestreams that we join periodically. Natasha is a travel nurse (the reason for the name) and Bill. 

There were many others. 

BrazenBrits, LivinRVision, EnjoyTheJourney.Life, FIVE2GO, Switch It Up, Liz Amazing, Gander Flight / The RV Entrepreneur Podcast, Nuttin Adventured Nuttin Gained, Traveling Down The Bannisters, Fearless RV Living, Chasenourdreams, DownTheRoadWeGo, Our Epic RV Adventure, Nursing Our Travel Bug, RVenture Awaits, My Bucket List Day & The Ramblin Reardon.

Right now, I’m sitting in the Orlando airport waiting for my flight back to Fairbanks. Here to Seattle to Anchorage to Fairbanks. Arriving tomorrow morning. Ugh.

Day 51, 52, 53 - Lake Texoma, TX - TT

Friday (51) - We are still here at Lake Texoma Thousand Trails and I really don’t have much to complain about. It's nice to at least have somewhere to be during all this uncertainty. Sure, it would've been great to be here without it as their facilities do look pretty nice. Maybe next year. I did hear that TT was only extending people up to April 7th. I wonder what is magical about that date?

It did continue to warm up throughout the afternoon but nowhere near as warm as yesterday. I dug out the Baofeng BF-F8HP and needed to re-download Chirp, an open source tool to program radios, to the MacBook Pro as well as install Python which is used by Chirp. It turns out that there are only three repeaters in the area. But having the NOAA weather broadcasts could be handy.

Here was today’s “project”. Chicken pot pie with chicken made using the sous vide. This may be something many grew up with but it’s new for me. It looks good though Bridget gave me a hard time since there is no bottom crust. Sigh.…

Saturday (52) - Rain and thunderstorm last night but it's nice and cool right now. At 64°F with a light breeze, it is almost perfect weather. One of the neighbors was here for maybe one day then left. Maybe he came by to make sure everything was alright. He was kind of grumpy.

We have no plans for today. I picked up a frozen turkey something. It turned out to be the front half complete with bones. After it defrosted in the refrigerator for a couple of days, I deboned it and have most of the meat in the sous vide (133°F for 26 hours) and the rest simmering on the stove. Turkey noodle soup I believe. That's actually enough for about 5 days so most of it will be going into the freezer in vacuum sealed bags.

We heard on YouTube that the Orlando TT park had the same policy of extending peoples reservations until April 7th. Then they need to move on. Again, why April 7th?

Saturday evening - Some googling on April 7th brought up a lot of stories of state and county shelter in place decrees that listed April 7th as the end date. Some examples I found were California, New York, and Illinois. I will be surprised if the end date isn’t extended.

Sunday (53) - Bored. Made a video of most of our campsites since I picked up the coach in September. Thousand Trails or Encore is “TT” and Harvest Hosts are “HH”. Just an observation but I don’t think we’ve had to pay for an RV space since the end of January.

Maybe I'll Leave the Studded Tires Installed

Welcome to Spring-time in Alaska. I'm sure there is a Monty-Pythonish song there somewhere. Or at least that seems to be how most people felt about this mornings snow. It isn't that unusual. Back in 2012, it snowed while riding to Anchorage near the middle of May. But short memories must be why we choose to stay in Alaska.

Yesterday, I was in the garage contemplating removing the studs from the Ural tires as well as swapping tires on the Prius. I guess the snow today must mean it's too early and I have a two-week reprieve from that task.

On Sunday, I had a rather odd encounter with another rider. He pulled up next to me on his flat black Harley and after the normal beginning-of-the-riding-season pleasantries, he asked why I had the led lights in the front turn signals flickering. After I said to make it more likely to be seen by other drivers. He then asked, "Why would that be a good thing?". Then the light changed and he took off.  I was sort of at a loss...

Bright Lights and Grey Skies

The electronic flasher came today from Amazon. To install it, I just needed to make three jumpers with male and female spade lugs at each end. These were inserted into the plug on the wiring harness and matched up with the appropriate terminals on the flasher unit. It works great. I then installed the LED bulbs in the front turn signals. I like this one particularly since it has the projector lens on the front making for a very bright turn indicator. After installing them, I figured that I may as well order them for the rear turn signals as well. The flasher works as advertised and maintained the same flashing rate even with the lower amperage LED bulbs.

Since they are LED, I now have the option of connecting them to the Skene Design Photon Blaster electronic module. One cut wire and a splice later, I had the left turn signal connected and tested. The left signal now has that distinctive flicker and really is pretty visible. The right turn signal is a bit more challenging as there is a single wire from the headlight shell, where all of the wiring is located, to the sidecar and is for the front and rear right turn signals. amber parking lights on the rear are not permitted so I will need to run a new wire for just the right-front turn signal. I have not started this task yet.

Update - I ran the wire from the sidecar front turn signal and connected it up to the Skene module. It is a lot brighter than the parking light on the sidecar and the flicker really makes it easy to see.

And, the solar is working. I set the charge controller to do an equalization charge so anytime the array voltage (red line on the first graph) is high enough, the controller will push the battery up to whatever is needed according to the battery temperature. Since the batteries are on the cold side, the equalization voltage is around 15 volts. The current is low as the batteries are fully charged. The only thing drawing power is the CO/propane detector and the Raspberry Pi monitoring the charge controller.

The weather was very dreary today. Not cold (50°F) but overcast. Everything is gloomy and grey. The following video is just a short loop around town and is sped up 8x like the previous couple of videos. I keep thinking of simply adding voice over to the sped up video and make it a vlog. But that seems like a lot more work...

Spring Snow

Friday was windy, overcast and it looked and felt like fall. I had removed the gauntlets from the Ural earlier in the week but was having second thoughts. Maybe a week too soon. By late Friday afternoon, we were getting snow flurries. Nothing like the northern midwest last week but just enough to remind one that we were still in Alaska.

Saturday morning brought brilliant sunshine but it was still below freezing. The dark pavement was absorbing enough warmth from the sun to melt the snow but there was still a little ice in the shadows. I'm glad that I still hadn't removed the studs from the tires. Or at least the minimal number that I had installed.

I had ordered some LED bulbs to use in the Ural front turn signals and discovered that, for some reason or another, Ural chose to wire the turn signal sockets backwards. Instead of negative on the body of the base, it is wired to the base of the bulb. Time to dig out the soldering iron and shrink tubing again and rewire. But I still wonder why they would do that. My intent is to wire the front turn signals to the Skene module so they would flicker as well possibly improving my forward visibility. The Ural still has an old style flasher module that uses the current to the bulbs to determine the flashing rate. Removing the front bulb from the circuit causes it to flash very fast. On the BMW, I just added resistors to simulate the bulbs but that just consumed amps. The proper way is to change the flasher to an electronic unit which has a constant flash rate no matter what the load. Like many things, it's easier to just order from Amazon than deal with the local auto parts store as they provide parts based on the year/make/model of the vehicle. If you try to explain what you want, they just ask you for the year/make/model again as that is the only way they know to look up parts. There are exceptions but I get tired of trying to find that person. Once the flasher arrives, I’ll rewrite the lights and I’ll need to rewire the flasher as well. I think the one that’s installed has three connections instead of two. The third one would simply be a ground.

Todays Ural task was replacing the battery. The last battery came from Jed's 2015 Ural as it was still installed even after Ural of New England added the automotive battery. We used the stock battery location for a 12volt bus to simplify the addition of accessories. So it was barely 3 years old. The replacement battery came from Walmart. The only difference between their "premium" AGM battery and their regular AGM battery is that the regular one ships dry. You need to add the acid and charge the battery before use. After filling it with acid, I went ahead and installed it on the bike before connecting my smart charger. The smart charger just means that it has multiple charging profiles including one for AGM batteries.

The video below was shot this morning to show off our fresh dusting of snow.

Errands To Run

Today was the day for lots of errands including putting the four golf cart batteries into the RV. The sidecar easily held the four batteries plus the group 24 battery in the plastic case. Over 400 lbs of batteries. I also had tools, cables, hardware, and other things to get the trailer ready to pull out of storage. I could definitely tell that the sidecar was really heavy.

But first, I needed to go to the clinic, then federal building and, naturally, College Coffeehouse. At the RV, step one was to remove the fabric cover. Since the trailer is still surrounded by snow, I left the cover piled up on the roof until it gets pulled towards the front parking lot at the RV shop. Then I can drop it to the ground and stuff it into the back seat of the truck. Today, I wouldn't have been able to get the truck within 100 m of the trailer. The Ural wound through all of the parked rigs easily. I installed the batteries into the front compartment and switched on the DC to the RV and flipped the breakers for the charge controller. A quick check showed the batteries around 60% and the Timetric monitor indicated 15 amps of charge current from the solar panels. A quick check of the trailer showed no evidence of moisture or rodents. The shop will pull the trailer out of its slot tomorrow (Friday morning) and I'll pick it up around noon.

The video is just playing with the GoPro again. Leaving home around 7am heading east into the sun on Farmers Loop Road. It really is nice to see the snow pushed off to the side of the road.

Winter Solstice

According to WeatherUnderground, the sun was "up" for 3 hours and 40 minutes today. In reality, we had snow coming down and dark clouds during our daytime. For the next six months, the days will be getting longer now that it is officially winter. Today's snow was heavy and wet and I almost needed to chain up just to plow our driveway. The most challenging part was just connecting the plow as the truck wanted to slide sideways. And this was just in our driveway. We need some real winter temperatures. It was an almost tropical 29°F today.

Things are pretty quiet around here. Still going to the gym a couple of times per week even if it's just to use the treadmill. I picked up the programming cable for the dual-band HT radio and using a free software package called Chirp, I set up the local repeaters plus the NOAA weather channels. There isn't a lot of activity during the day but enough for me to play around with. Still trying to get familiar with the repeater guidelines. Such as announcing that you're tuned in and listening or how to answer. There is another active ham in the area that has a call sign really similar to mine so I always need to use the phonetic alphabet for the last two letters of my call sign. I'm also starting to learn CW aka morse code as it is still used as the requirements are much more achievable here in Alaska.

I finally got around to installing the cables for the four golf cart batteries from the trailer. I then used the "smart charger" to do an equalization. With the garage temperature at about 40°F, that meant a charging voltage of around 15.6 VDC. The "smart charger" is designed for a 60 amp-hour battery and not the 430 amp-hour bank. But it eventually got it done though it took a few days. I then topped up the water in all of the cells again. None of the cells were very low (i.e. no plates showing) but between all four batteries, I added around 48oz of distilled water.

I'm finally done with the IPv6 video and it is now uploading to YouTube. I have it embedded below though I should warn you that the production value is modest, the target audience is pretty small, and it's almost 3 hours long.

Up the Elliot Hwy to Globe Creek

On Friday afternoon, I went to Globe Creek Camp which is located on the Elliot Highway north of Fairbanks. It was 33°F and sleeting when going over Wickersham Dome but otherwise, a nice ride. I did opt to dig out the heated liner and gloves for the first time. I'm still using the old First Gear riding gear but have received a tracking number from Aerostich. I'm looking forward to getting the Roadcrafter Light back. This is the first snow of the year for me.

I did attach the GoPro to the sidecar and filmed a time-lapse. I couldn't figure out any good places to stop for a picture on the way out as the weather was overcast and foggy. The lens ended up getting covered with snow on the trip out so here is the footage from the return trip. I left when the temperature started to drop again. The Ural started easily and I even used the kick starter partly to make sure I reassembled it properly a few weeks back.

PBC #6 and Cold Weather Fun

How about this, a non-RV post! It actually has a little bit of moto content.

This was somewhere between a "just because" and "why not" video. Only a couple of km around the subdivision. It was just a pretty afternoon, I felt like I had to get out for a short ride. 2WD got a lot of use as there were still some really slick areas with loose snow. Anyway, it made for some nice scenery. Once on the main road, you can see the ice fog. It was pretty heavy in town. Ice fog is crystals of ice forming on smoke particles so it is really unhealthy to breath in. But there are some in town who believe that they have the "right" to burn wood.

The first video is Bridget throwing a cup of hot water into the air when it's this cold.

Polar Bear Challenge Video

BBBC #16

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

16. Stupid, weird, or silly thing you did today, on purpose or accidentally.

Today, I attached a camera to the front of the sidecar, pushed the BMW out of the garage and rode 51 miles. And the only reason was to make a 4 minute video to post on the Polar Bear Challenge website. Pretty silly if you ask me. And possibly stupid and weird depending on who you ask. Not only that, I went through the same routine 60 other times since December 1st. But today (02-15-2016) is the last day that videos can be submitted so you don't have to put up with any more for quite a while.

BBBC #15

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

15. Describe your dinner (you can share a pic, too).

Today (Sunday), it's breakfast for dinner. Not an uncommon thing around this house though it is not a favorite of everyone. But, since I'm making it and cleaning up, I get to choose. Isn't that the way it works?

Yesterday's dinner was a little different. I just made spaghetti. My way. So the pasta was whole wheat and there were green beans, cauliflower and carrots in the red sauce. I've gotten complaints about both the whole wheat pasta and the evil vegetables from my son. This time I made a spaghetti pie. I mixed an egg with some of the pasta and layered the bottom and sides of a baking dish with it. Baked it for a bit to make the "crust". I then mixed the rest of the pasta with the sauce and layered it onto the "crust" with ricotta and parmesan cheese kind of like lasagna. Baked it in the oven topping it with mozzarella for the last five minutes. Now all of the evil veggies are buried and the whole wheat pasta is somewhat hidden. No comments from my son but he ate quite a bit of it and has some in labeled containers in the fridge for his lunch this week.

And just to add a bit of moto content, here is PBC #60! Apparently, I can submit another one tomorrow this is the next to the last one (Really!),

BBBC #14

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

14. Image of someone that you love (pets count as people, but I promise not to share a dog pic!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

The next to the last PBC video.

BBBC #13

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

13. Share a photo of your motorcycle (or car) taken on the same day you write your post.

Given the current state of the Ural (in pieces), the spare bike is what I'm using these days. The picture was taken at the Large Animal Research Station aka LARS, located on Yankovich Rd north of the university. I was just wandering around enjoying the beautiful, sunny day and remembered that I needed to take a picture of the bike somewhere. LARS happened to be just ahead. No muskox were hanging around along the fence to be included in the picture.

This is the current state of the "other bike" and you may notice that one critical component seems to be missing. This may be a good time to actually clean the bike. I hope it doesn't fall apart when the additional structural integrity provided by hardened mud is removed. It's also a good time to finally get some things actually working like the horn. I installed the air horn before I left for my long trip and couldn't get it to work reliably. I figured that I'd just mess with it later. Maybe now qualifies as "later".

Here is the next PBC video. After this, only two more to go...

PBC #58

BBBC #12

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

12. What event are you currently looking most forward to?

Oh, this is easy. I'm looking forward to all of these pieces to be back on the Ural and no longer on the workbench. The "event" will be the Ural leaving the garage under its own power. Thursday morning, Jed came by to give me a hand removing the engine and transmission. Starting with the battery cables we disconnected all of the wiring, removed the air cleaner, carbs, starter, alternator, rear wheel, final drive, shift levers, rear brake switch, clutch cable, crash bar and possibly a few more things.

We then managed to wiggle the engine from the frame. All of this was done without removing the sidecar like I had done last winter while replacing the bad lifter. We then started engine disassembly. The transmission came off easily with only one bolt and a couple of nuts.

The left head and cylinder came off easily though the use of very poor quality snap rings, the piston had a ridge built up preventing the wrist pins from easily sliding out. The right cylinder wouldn't easily break loose from the engine. I had to get a "dead blow" mallet which is a plastic hammer with a couple of pounds of steel BB's that move inside of the head. With a pry bar to provide some preload, it came free.

Here is the view of the clutch. Bruce from Ketchikan is bringing up some specialized Ural tools to remove the clutch and flywheel. I need to pick up some metric allen wrenches for the 3/8" ratchet to break some of these bolts free. I believe that thread lock was used on the clutch bolts and Raceway used some on the front timing cover. None of the bolts would budge. I'll get some Mapp gas to provide heat on the bolts to melt the thread lock compound.

So, not strictly an "event" but close enough in my book.

We are having some wonderful weather. Here I'm stopped at the Ballaine Lake turnout. I have to be careful of where I'm stopped as the Beemer has neither reverse or a parking brake. It seems to be running okay but it needs some maintenance. But pretty reliable for a 33 year old motorcycle. Now time for some Ibuprofen...

And here are a couple more PBC videos. Only three more days before the PBC is over.

BBBC #10

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

10. A story you love to tell.

And here I thought yesterday's topic was difficult.

Image from wisegeek.com

That's kind of what my mind felt like with this topic. Then a thought came to me as I sat in the living room of our home. It's a very short story.

I moved to Alaska in 1982 and arrived mid-August. My brother had given me a phone number to call of some good friends. I called from Delta Junction and heard that my sister-in-law was there and my brother was flying in that evening. Not to welcome me to the Last Frontier but to see his new daughter. And to fly his plane back to their home in southwest Alaska. I was given directions with some aspects of the directions unlike what I was used to having grown up in Southern California. Back then, there were no house numbers and only the major streets seemed to have names. The directions were to go to 5.5 mile Farmers Loop Rd, turn and count houses. The way you knew you were at the right place was the color and what was in the driveway. The house I'm sitting in is the same one where I was welcomed to upon my arrival in Fairbanks.

Not very exciting but it's a story I enjoy telling.

Oh yeah, the next PBC video.

PBC #55

BBBC #9

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

9. Favorite shoes.

Huh? There is such thing as "favorite shoes"? Who would've thunk? Not me. All I can think of are the motorcycle boots that I picked up in Salem, OR, last July while the Ural was in the shop. I can't think of anything else that would fit the BBBC topic.

I don't have a favorite brake shoe. Some refer to motorcycle tires as "shoes".  My favorite tire brand seems to be Heidenau. The K60 and K28 for the Beemer.  And K37 and K28 for the Ural. The K28 and K37 being made for sidecar use. The K60 is a great dual sport tire. I just put the studded K60 as the pusher on the Beemer and will be adding studs to the K60 front tire. Then I should be able to start riding the Beemer and the PBC rides may continue for a couple of days.

Speaking of Ural, this morning (Monday) Jed brought his truck and trailer by and we hauled the Ural to Delta to see Mickey (formerly of Mickey's Muffler in Anchorage). He listened to the bike and the new noise it was making and decided that it is internal, deep inside the engine and not knocking. Possibly the rear cam bearing. The only solution is to tear down the engine. He said that I should have no problem tearing it down and removing the crank and the cam.

The only specialized tools are the one to take apart the clutch, remove the flywheel and pull the timing gear off of the front of the crankshaft. BruceW from Ketchikan will be arriving in Fairbanks on Tuesday afternoon and will be bringing the tools to remove the clutch and flywheel. He needed them last year to replace the rear main seal and clutch on his Ural last year. The tool to pull the timing gear is readily available. So I will be removing the engine and tearing it down later this week.

This posted accidently for a couple of hours on the 8th until I fixed the scheduled post date.

And since I got the Beemer set up again for winter riding, here is another PBC video. Only a few more days to go...

PBC #54

BBBC #4

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

4. Misused and/or mispronounced word or words that make you CRAZY.

Crazy is kind of a extreme emotion and I can't think of any mispronounced word or phrase used by anyone that would be so bothersome that I'd give it much thought at all. If I can figure out their intent, that's probably good enough for me. I can think of some derogatory or racial slurs that bother me but they are not in the misused or mispronounced category.

And now for my last PBC video, #53.

BBBC #3

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

3. Today

I guess this is going to be "A Day In the Life Of" type post. Anything more would require someone with an imagination.

8:30am: The status of PBC video #52 switches from "private" to "public" which enables the "Share" option. This was originally recorded on Monday evening.

8:45am: I get the shortened URL off of the YouTube site for the PBC #52 video. I log into the PolarBearChallenge website to add a new video. I copy part of the YouTube description, the shortened URL and submit the video. I then do the same thing on the SovietSteeds.com website under the forum category "Rides". After all, I may as well get some additional mileage out of the video.

Usually, I then get ready to leave the house and ride for about 45 minutes or so to record the next PBC video but I think I'm done riding for a while. The Ural is not doing well and will be trailered down to the dealer in Delta Junction next Monday so Mickey can have a look and a listen. I heard a new sound from the engine yesterday and drained the oil and pulled the valve covers to have a look. I buttoned it back up so I can try and make a recording of the sound. I think it sounds like something rubbing while rotating. Pulling the clutch doesn't change the sound and though it could be my imagination, but I think I can hear a knock.

In the picture of the valve cover, you can see some of the aluminum shavings. By itself, I wouldn't be too concerned as there aren't chunks and there was very little steel on the drain plug magnet. It's the noise that has me concerned.

9:00 am: Outside in the garage rotating the engine by hand to check for anything unusual. I recorded the sound and spent a couple of minutes making this short video for your enjoyment. I added the still photos of the aluminum shavings in the oil drain pan and valve covers as YouTube doesn't seem to accept audio only files.

10:00 am: Headed for College Coffeehouse at the intersection of University Ave and College Rd. This has become a more regular thing since retiring. Before, I would stop by a couple of times per week.

Today, the others there were George, Sandra and Paul. Not too many of the "regulars".

12:00 pm: Today, being Wednesday, it's time for #MotoChat on Twitter. Today's topic is "Winter Motorcycle Dreams". If you have a Twitter account, feel free to join in. I kept on forgetting until I set a calendar reminder.

1:00 pm: Ran multiple errands (after I took off the plow). Then worked on this post.

2:20 pm: Peeled potatoes for a salad to take to a potluck dinner this evening.

2:30 pm: Walked the dogs.

2:45: Posted this blog post. I'll update later in case anything actually interesting happens.

Exciting day...