Benson, AZ - TT

Tuesday - Went into town this morning to pick up a new pair of gloves at Tractor Supply. And, just like every time I go to Tractor Supply, I end up walking through the entire store even though I'm not looking for anything. Fortunately, I didn't end up purchasing anything else. The old pair were so full of oil, that my hands were greasy just from putting them on. They went into the trash. I did wander around the park a bit as I noticed that this barrel cactus was blooming. It is very green here in Arizona from their monsoon season. Lots of rain. I was told that it'll probably be pretty dry until November.

Both of these cacti are on the way to the pool. Somewhere I've been heading twice a day, in the early afternoon and again in the evening. The pool here at the Benson Encore park really is a favorite. I'm leading a test session this morning and, from talking to the candidate, it should be pretty quick.

It’s 11am and I’m at the pool. At 91°F and with a light breeze, it’s hard to complain about the weather. 

Wednesday - Led a session this morning and signed up to lead another one in the afternoon. The afternoon candidate was a no-show so his test fee is treated like a donation to the radio club. I was told that this was the sixth time he either didn't show up or rescheduled. 

For dinner, I went to Dickey’s for barbecue. I had the beef burnt ends, brisket, creamed spinach, and okra. And some of their spicy sauce. A delicious end to my stay in Benson. Tomorrow, I head for an RV park on the northeast side of Tucson. But for now, heading to the pool!

Benson, AZ - TT

Saturday - I got an early start this morning since I wanted to change the wiring on the fan to high speed. Yesterday, there is a long grade coming into Benson from Wilcox. The temperature did keep rising and topped out at 222°F but I never had to back off the throttle. The ambient temperature was pretty hot in the high 80s (°F). Leaving Benson towards Tucson, the grade continues so it'll be a good test for the fan on high speed. That will be on Thursday.

After the morning test session, I went for a walk and covered a couple of miles before it started feeling a bit too hot. After my walk, I cooled off in the pool. Definitely a nice perk of this RV park. Doing a load of laundry and preparing beef and tomatoes for dinner. The beef has been in the freezer since San Antonio and the tomatoes needed to be used. It came out pretty good, especially with the addition of Koren chili sauce.

Sunday - Today started out as a nice, relaxing day. I got an early start on washing the Jeep. It's been about 6 weeks and over 1000 miles behind the RV. The RV park charges $10 for the extra water so I'm going to make sure everything on the Jeep gets thoroughly washed. When I was almost done, I noticed that the driver's front tire looked a little low. I started the Jeep and the TPMS reported 25psi. So I got to dig out the jack and lug wrenches to switch out to the full-size spare.

It looks like I picked up a roofing nail somewhere and based on the wear on the nail head, pretty recently. I guess tomorrow's project is to look for a tire shop to repair. Or, I could pick up a plug kit since this is a pretty straightforward repair. Nail punctures in the tread are the easiest. This highlights the need to try and find the TPMS sensors I bought last summer. I haven't been able to find them but I'm pretty sure I brought them down with me last Fall.

So, off to the pool to cool off after working this morning. And time to finally make some coffee.

Monday - I was up at 4am today just on the chance that the Artemis 1 actually launched (it was scrubbed). The next attempt is on Friday. Since I was up early, I went ahead and headed for Discount Tire in Tucson. They repaired the tire for free using both a plug and a patch inside the tire. Then they rebalanced the tire. And, it was free! A way of generating goodwill. I will definitely remember Discount Tire.

I stopped for groceries in Benson on the way back then started to get ready for the afternoon test session. Since no one signed up to lead, I went ahead as I seem to have enough bandwidth.

Benson, AZ - TT

Friday - A short travel day from the HH to the TT Encore park in Benson, AZ. I forgot about the time change as Arizona is MST and New Mexico is MDT so I’m sitting in a rest area just past the AZ border. I’m planning to fill up in Wilcox, AZ, just so the fuel tank is near full. The generator has been getting quite a bit of use while traveling to run the roof A/C units. In the rest areas, the trucks are either running their engines or auxiliary generators for the same reason. 

I arrived at the TT/Encore park around 1pm and they put my in a corner spot with the view out the front windshield looking northeast out over the valley. It’s 91°F right now but the overnight low is supposed to be 67°F. Pretty nice after the triple digit and high humidity for the last month or so.

The pool and hot tub are one of the best features of this park. I think we’ve stayed here four or five times over the years. After I arrived at the pool, I realized that the test session I had signed up for was about to start. Messed up by the time zone change again. 

Passed this guy on the way back from the pool this evening…

Deming, NM - HH

Thursday - Today was a 400 mile travel day which included going through El Paso. Lots of construction, narrow lanes, no shoulders, lots of traffic. Plus, it was bumper to bumper leaving Midland this morning. Not rush hour but a semi truck accident sometime last night. The 20amp fuse I added to the fan circuit blew sometime this morning. I guess I needed a 30 amp mini blade fuse which are green. I went to Auto Zone after arriving at the HH as it was just a few miles up the street in town, and picked one up. The fan control module came with a fuse installed on the ground wire. I added one to the positive wire where I attached it to the positive terminal for the grid heater in case there is a short between the terminal and the fan. There’s about 9’ of 10AWG wire between those two points. 

On todays drive there were some grades and I could tell when the electric fan had stopped working from the water temperature. We’ll see how it does tomorrow. I still have it set to low speed.

Tonight, I’m lot docking at a winery in Deming, NM, which is a Harvest Host. We’ve stayed here at least three times before so it’s familiar. I knew that there was plenty of space. With the nice breeze, I don’t even need to run the A/C and generator. 

Diesel has been getting more expensive as I head west. Today’s fillup was in Van Horn, TX.