It's so close. We are getting read to leave and the anticipation is building. Today will be the last day we see grandma for a while. She will be greatly missed and we loved our time here with her. Our lunch is spent with her and the final goodbyes are said.  A few last packages are grabbed from the house and then it's back home to start packing up. One of the packages delivered was a set of new thermostats for the RV water heater. A few days ago it decided to overheat and send the water heater into a fault code. This is where owner's manuals come in so handy. Just open it up and scroll down to the troubleshooting section.

Above you will see the pics of the water heater from the outside. It's rusty from that leak I already fixed and I think that also had something to do with this problem. An astute eye will notice the shiny new brass valve is directly located over a few electrical wires. Those wires go to a thermostat which controls the water heater temp.
Quick work gets made of the existing parts and things get stripped out in just a couple of minutes. The rubber foam is a mess with the adhesive residue remaining. A little WD-40 (which was made by NASA to displace water for the APOLLO missions; attempt #40) does a pretty good job of cleaning adhesive. That gets followed up with some Goo Gone (invented 1984 by American products to remove grease) and then a light soapy rag.

With the repair completed my attention turns back to Penny. Her tires have covers that need to be cleaned. The reason for this is to stop the rubber from getting blasted by UV rays. This will cause the tires to wear out faster than anything else. RV's rarely ever wear out the tread.

Clouds roll in and the night starts to chill. Goodyear is forecasted for rain tonight. The drizzle is a welcome relief after 29 days of straight up sunshine. One thing is for absolute certain, we will miss the amazing sunsets in the desert.

Today will be the last work day at grandmas. On the way there we swing by a UPS location to return some amazon stuff. While Katie is inside I spot this incredibly stupid car parked next to me. I should have gotten out and taken a better picture, but this will have to work for now. It's a late model Mitsubishi Eclipse with an anime vinyl decal on it. 

The kitchen only has a couple of more outlets that need to get replaced and today is the day. They get replaced in quick fashion. Lucky for me some jerk wired all the kitchen outlets with #10 wire. That means it is thick enough to handle enough power to run a stove. It also means the wires are a real pain in the butt to bend and get into place. 

Thick wires are no match for my tool bag. Outlets are getting installed whether the house wants them or not. 

Have you ever had a problem with technology? Katie is trying to apply for a job and it requires flash player. My Chromebook doesn't have an operating system so that's out. Katie's tablet is a droid and there isn't any flash downloads available from the app store. The last option is the laptop we have with Windows 10 on it. I hate that piece of crap. It's cumbersome and difficult to use. After some work and finagling I get the laptop to work for what she needed.

A few hours go by as the afternoon dwindles on. I ask Eli if he wants to go for a walk. Below is his answer.

Easy way to end an easy day. Maybe tomorrow we'll do something exciting.

We are down to just the last couple of bits at grandma's. Today will be a big day for Katie. Her hatred for painting doors has come full circle. The newly installed front door gets ripped off the hinges and laid out in the backyard for it's first coat of paint. A single stage Rust-Oleum will seal the outside facade against the mighty Arizona sun.

While the paint is drying I go about my business and tidy up the cabinets with the handle installation. It's easy going as the sharp new drill bits make a hole without destroying the laminate finish. Then it's off to install a couple of more outlets and light switches.

The day winds down into the late afternoon. We stuck around a bit later than usual so that we could give the door paint enough time to set. Cautiously the door gets hinged back to the frame to avoid damaging the new paint. It will be a full week until it cures to maximum hardness. 

Ah yes, another exciting book came in. This one is quite a bit older but still holds some information that I will be able to use. The end goal is simple: build a cheap car which looks slow that is stupid fast. 

We get home and I settle in for some reading. The first few pages are all about the basics and then we get into the real fun stuff. Algebraic equations will lead me to the path of building a motor that can handle some forced induction. Finally, all the crap I was forced to learn in high school has paid off. This will be the first time in my adult life I've ever needed to understand this stuff.

Some reading material that I picked out a few days ago has finally arrived. We have a very advantageous situation and we should be utilizing it. In my free time I'll start to do some more learnin' about things that matter to me. I'm already looking forward to settling down and owning another house. Houses come with garages, and garages get filled with cars to work on.

The book of dreams gets put to the side so we can finish up a few lingering items at grandmas's house. Her cabinets that were previously installed still don't have any handles on them. 

It's an easy task that doesn't take much time. Measure, then measure, then measure once more. Now step back and admire the work because I forgot my drill bits at home. Dammit.

Tibbs is running around the house like a meth addict on a fresh high. It's 7am and the RV park is still silent. I wonder if I can get outside and beat on some Jeep parts before anyone notices. Slowly, I climb out of bed and look out the window. Yeah... let's do this.

A few quick and hard wraps with a hammer pops the u-joint out of it's driveshaft home. The bearings are still in decent shape but the trunion and cap have worn down enough to make some slop. Then it's the same process in reverse and the new u-joint gets put back in. Once bolted up we are ready to head out for today's adventure.

Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe Arizona offers free tours of their process on Saturdays. The brew pub is located in the oldest poured concrete structure in Arizona. Built in 1892, this old creamery and ice house retains much of it's charm. The bare concrete walls and steel beams are all original. Most of the wood trusses appear to be original along with a few single pane windows.

Our tour guide for the day starts pouring samples from cans.... which is odd. This is our fourth brewery tour and the first one that didn't give samples out of the tap. To be fair the other three were Budweiser (St. Louis/ Houston) and Miller-Coors. 

Our tour guide takes us aimlessly through the brew process and rooms. He is knowledgeable in the process, but lacks fluidity in the lecture. The facts just kind of drone on and on with no real rhyme or reason to the process. Below you will see special edition beers aging in old whiskey barrel casks.

Halfway through the tour I'm standing around staring at the floors and walls of the building. This place is a mess. I have 15 years of food and pharmaceutical manufacturing experience under my belt and I know what to look for. The floors and equipment do in fact appear to be clean. It's the final execution from the last shift worked that is ridiculous. The tour takes us in between tanks where guests have to step over hoses. Pallets are on edge and boxes are not put away. This place is a slip/fall hazard just waiting to happen.

Look at this jumbled pile of crap. I don't want to hear that they have nowhere else to go with it. If that is the area you must use, then organize and store it on shelving and hooks. And that paint.... ugh.

The end of the tour takes us into a small bottling room for the special editions. Here our guide points at the wall and talks about what other businesses where here over the years and how they took plaster down to find this beautiful old brick wall. What you can't see is that the wall has flaking paint. Actually, a lot of rooms were in a state of disrepair due to paint. That's not historic, it's called being lazy. I sure hope the boss of this place gets his act together and cleans this place up.  It is at a tipping point of either being something special... or getting them a 483 from the FDA.

Problems never stop coming up in an RV. Penny is a 13 years old and she is starting to show her age. The water heater has slowly dripped from the pressure relief valve since we left St. Louis. Mineral deposits and rapid heat/cool cycles lead the seal to stop sealing. A huge benefit of being parked in one spot for this long is the ability to order parts. This special sized water relief valve was delivered for the paltry sum of $12. Nice.

Now it's off for our morning walk. This time we are going to shake it up a little bit more than usual. Eli has really been showing his age lately. Last week he busted out of grandma's house while we were gone and galloped through the neighborhood. He has had a limp that followed him from that day. The old man just can't do that stuff anymore but he doesn't know it. We leave gray face at home and hit the streets for a long walk. Our goal is to rack up 4 miles first thing this morning. 

Our first find of the day is this jug of pee. Maybe it's not pee, but it looks like pee to me.

This is the overpass for Cotton Lane. Get it? Why they felt the need to spend tax payers dollars on frivolous concrete work escapes me. Looks nice though.

We trundle forward and get further into this side of Goodyear. I turn left and take us north through a small park that lines a subdivision.

The little park marked the halfway point of our quest. An abrupt turn back south will take us back home to face the rest of the day. I sit down for about 30 seconds and the boredom swoons over me. Hmmm.... what to do. I know Shirley still has the shakes. I guess I can crawl underneath and start looking at things I can't fix here.

Uh, that's not supposed to do that. A u-joint on a vehicle shouldn't move around. Shirley isn't your typical car. She is a 30 year old design that has been at the foothills of glaciers and pounded through sand drifts outside death valley. The part is an easy fix, but fixing it an the RV park is frowned upon. This is supposed to be a nice place with no garbage. I'd be "that guy" outside beating on his old jeep with a hammer which is not good. That kind of behavior could very likely lead to a polite invitation for us to leave.

I sneak under the jeep as night falls and crack a couple of bolts loose. The driveshaft comes out easily and I get a good look at how difficult this will be to do without any real tools. It looks doable. Katie gets her goodbye kiss and I saddle up on T-Dub for a ride to the parts store. Upon my return the driveshaft gets sprayed down with penetrating oil to sit overnight. We'll beat on it with a hammer tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will be quick and quiet.

No matter what we are doing or where we are I can't help but to think about really stupid stuff. It's a disease really. I inherited it from my dad's side of the family. Your mind just never stops wandering. Case in point: A majority of the houses and buildings down here have tile roofs. I had never seen these growing up and sure as heck have never installed one. Makes me wonder..... what does it weigh? Where do they make them? How long do they last? How do you install? The questions keep tumbling into my mind as I'm standing in front of a house staring at the roof like an idiot. This day in age I'm able to pop open my phone and find out anything I want to know. Technology is amazing.

I'll stop the ramblings about tile roofs and we'll roll straight into the main event. It's thanksgiving here in Arizona and the air has a chill. Clouds block out the sun on what is a rare occasion and the temperatures are still in the lower 60's. The Adams family football game is about to get underway. There's a 20 minute hold up once we realize nobody brought a ball. Yep, it's gonna be that kind of game.

The family clan and friends run around for an hour and call it good. After that we kill some time at grandma's and I take a few minutes to shower some stank off. Then it's off to Katie's aunt and uncles house for what is supposed to be a big Thanksgiving. When they say big they mean it. A total of 37 people show up from around the neighborhood. There are 4 turkeys, 2 hams, and more side dishes than you can shake a stick at. Everybody grabs a fork full of something and passes it to the right. Coolers are filled with frosty beverages and there is even Dos Equis on tap. This is Thanksgiving done right.

During all the chaos of preparing I spot a car tucked behind a fence next to the house. If you are not a car person go ahead and stop reading now. The next blurb of letters underneath the picture will be mostly gibberish nonsense.

Quick Specs:
1979 Mustang Indy Pace Car Edition
First year of the Fox Body
5.0 2 valve with a C4 automatic, factory rated at 140hp
53,000 original miles
Front and rear TRX sway bars
Recaro Seats

Total pace car production was 10,748 units. They could be had with the 2.3L turbo 4 cylinder or the 5.0 v8 with either auto or a stick. This car is one of the 2,106 v8 automatics that were made. Katie's grandpa had bought this new from the dealership in Hales Corners Wisconsin and driven it for a number of years. Then when one of his sons graduated from high school he gave the car to him. From there it cruised the streets of Milwaukee before ultimately making it's way down to Phoenix. It's been sitting in this fenced prison for a number of years now. Hopefully it will once again roam the streets as a ferocious Fox Body Stang.

Another day another morning walk. We need to hit our goal of 5 miles a day and the sooner we do it the better. This is the view of the back of our park from the street. It is the closest sidewalk that we have and we like the smooth pavement opposed to the gravel shoulder sometimes.

Katie and I sit around the RV for the rest of the day and catch up on some simple chores. Katie ops to work on hemming some of her pants up from recent goodwill purchases. She's got no problem wasting a day away doing next to nothing.

I'm forced to basically give the RV a sponge bath. The RV park charges $25 for "water usage" if you want to wash your rig on site. It's really just a deterrent to keep people from getting bored and washing their rig once a week. I skirted around this by wiping a section down with soapy water, then wiping it down with a clean water sponge. One of the security guys who cruises around saw what I was doing and slowed down to catch a look. No hose... no problem. It's the kind of situation where you are better to ask for forgiveness than permission. All turned out OK and Penny got a much needed bath. It only took me 4 hours. Now what to do with the rest of the day...

Nothing quite like a romp on the motorcycle to bring a smile to my face. Work at grandma's is starting to run on the lean side. Most of the things she needed done have already been accomplished. There's a couple of things left to do but we still want to enjoy Phoenix to the fullest. A ride on the motorcycle to go hang up some curtains is the best of both worlds. T-Dub clicks off 500 miles on the way. Another milestone.

Katie picked out the curtains and now she gets to hang them up. We stick around long enough for a delicious lunch and head out on our way.

I wanted to stop at Cycle Gear and start looking at some cold weather jackets for the bike. Preparation to ride in the cold Houston winters is going to require a jacket of some sort. The prices here are way out of our range. Maybe if we had jobs it would be fine, but it's a much harder justification when you are just burning through the bank account. I will keep looking through thrift stores in order to save us some cash. Even though we are at an RV resort for the month, we are still living life on the road.