The Rillito Farmer's Market

We rode up to the Rillito Farmer's Market this morning.  First we had a nosh at a Starbucks on River.  It was a very pleasant nosh.  There is outdoor seating on fake grass.  We were able to get a table with enough chairs so it was good.
Then it was on to the farmer's market.

It was somewhat underwhelming.  There were three sustainable growers of meat there but the vegetable selection was not great.  Jamie reports that the Thursday market in south Tucson is way better for vegetables.
However, there was Emu oil, for your squeaking emus.

Sprouts of many sorts.

I love Christmas cacti.

We did encounter Sven the knife sharpener.  He was sort of a pain in the butt to talk to, what with his ear plugs in and the fact that he wouldn't stop reading his book.  We were trying to determine where he would be next Saturday and it was like pulling teeth to get the information out of him.  Some people maybe should not deal with the public.

 

It was a beautiful, albeit windy, day in the Old Pueblo.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are grateful for the fact that the bike path between Ajo and Silverbell is finally being paved.  This is the Silverbell end and there is pavement there.  Yay!  This section of trail will connect with the trail that runs up behind the RV park.  The official opening will not be until May, apparently they have 10,00 trees that need to be planted in the park.  But as soon as the paving is done, we can ride it on weekends.

This is the Santa Cruz river, which is still being regraded.  Huge piles are dirt are being pushed hither and yon.  They need a web site so that the citizens can understand what is being done.

Speaking of mysterious projects.  We saw this concrete truck in the river a week or so ago.  They're pouring concrete into a round form around a very large man hole cover, and then around the form.  Don was out the other day when they were working on it and asked what it was for.  This is the low point of the entire water system in Tucson.  If work needs to be done in the water mains, the work crews can enter here and go fix what needs to be fixed.  As of today, they've covered the whole thing with dirt.

We did a ride with Don and Jamie today.  It was good, it was a new ride for us.  We went up the trail, and rode east on Orange Grove.  As many times as we have driven Orange Grove, I have never noticed how uphill it is.  After surmounting Orange Grove, we were rewarded with the descent on Campbell.  Starbucks at the UofA Main Gate was closed today; bad for us, good for them.  By the time we arrived home, the wind was up.

Later we went out to dinner with Don and Jamie at Sher e Punjab.  I love this restaurant.  In keeping with the tradition of Thanksgiving, we ate too much until we could not breathe.  Here are Don and Jamie on their side of the table when they could still breathe.

Tomorrow another ride will be required to work off the damage of dinner.

Remove and Replace of the Appliance and Other Stuff

Oy!  Yesterday was a day!  A day and a half kind of day.  As you recall, the over the range microwave/convection oven finally died and stayed dead.  If we so much as plugged it in, it flipped the breaker, immediately.  We ordered a new one from Home Depot (free shipping).  Yesterday we took the bus and the appliance to Premier Motorcoach Services. After our last experience with them, we swore hell would freeze over before we went back.  Our issue with them was shop loading.  We had about 3 days of work which took them eight days.  They would request the RV to be on site at 8:30, and at 11:00 we would drive by and see it hadn't been moved into the shop.  Over all, the work was OK, but their inefficiency totally soured us on them.  However, we knew that they could install the appliance as they had done so before.
After the broken appliance was removed, it was discovered that the back of a cabinet over the microwave prevented the use of the nut set.  That's the silver circle at the back of the microwave. So they drilled through the bottom of the cabinet with a self tapping screw. That's not the way it should have been done.  Erik, the owner, was fairly upset with this.

The back of the cabinet had to be removed but was not going easily.  Here they are using a circular saw to try to make a portal to see how the wood was attached.

Now they are using a small reciprocating saw to try to remove the back of the cabinet.

That's part of the slide behind the cabinet back.  That wood piece is 1/2 inch plywood that was stapled every half inch all the way around.  Thus insuring that it would be difficult to remove, and that no present or future microwaves could be properly installed.  What the heck was Beaver thinking?

We had to take a little time out to go appreciate some nature.  We spent the day in the bus, so our presence would be a reminder that we're full timers, and this task really needed to be completed in one day.  I think if you're not around, it's easy to push your work to the back of the line.  It is, however, incredibly stressful watching them brute force part of your home out.

Eventually holes for the nut set were drilled in the proper place (for the first time in the life of the bus), the proper mounting brackets were used and the thing was installed.  It weighs 72 pounds and was just a bear to get in there.

The bottom set of screws were also a bear. 

There has been a total sea change at Premier.  Everyone there is new, except for the owners.  I'm more favorably inclined towards them these days.  I will say they do one of the best TV installs I've ever seen. 

To make things even better, the ice maker froze up (see what I did there?) while we were at Premier.  Upon arriving at home, we had to defrost the freezer, including the ice bergs that were stuck in the icemaker.
And then, and then, the breaker for the circuit that runs the laptops, phone chargers, wifi modem, TV, satellite receiver and satellite antenna started flipping. If there is anything that pushes me over the edge, it is random electronic weirdness because I'm helpless in the face of electronics that aren't working.  Using the random permutation theory of debugging, we removed the easiest component to change out - the power strip.  We've had it forever, and perhaps it was the problem.  So far the breaker is not popping, so one hopes we have solved the problem.

So that was our day in the glamorous lifestyle that is full time RVing in a Class A.

Lunch at Tohono Chul

Yesterday I had lunch with Toni who writes Sailing Down the Road. We went to the tea room at Tohono Chul.  It was just delightful.  Toni travels with her cat, Sigh Me, in a Roadtrek.  It's a great vehicle.  She can park it anywhere.  The interior is like a little boat.  Lunch was good, the conversation was better.
Tohono Chul is a botanical garden in Tucson.  These are tiny little stone crops that have bloomed.  I did not know they did that.  They are happy succulents.

A horse statue surrounded by cactus.

After walking through the park for awhile, we sat on a bench and watched butterflies landing on some flowering bushes.  It was a perfect day in the gardens.  Thank you Toni!

Hiking and Riding and the New Appliance

"Winter" is still good here.  We just can not believe what the rest of the country is enduring climate wise.  It's interesting that right after the weather heads said there would be no polar vortex this year, there was. 
There has been hiking.  The local trails are chewed up some from the two tropical storms that went through at the end of August.  A lot of rubble was washed down onto the trails, it's like walking on ball bearings downhill.

The saguaros are looking happy.

Today we rode our bikes out Mission Road to the bridge.  It's a pleasant ride now that the road is paved.  It used to be full of giant pot holes.  Going out is a consistent grade up, and going back is a great descent.  In the picture we have Dave, Jim and Don.  Dave and Don are from Manitoba.

Here we have the view from the bridge.  Those are mine tailings out in the distance.  They go for miles.

This is the cactus in front of Dave's park model.  It's an enormous thing.  Several times frost has made the paddles fall off, but it comes back with vigor.

The over the range microwave/convection oven arrived today.  Jim and I were able to get it in the bus with some difficulty.  I can't believe how heavy that thing is.  We're having it installed at Premier.  They're not our favorite shop, but they installed the last one without dropping it on the cook top, so that's a pretty good record.  As I recall, two very large guys were required to put it up there.
Five pairs of hiking shoes arrived from Zappos.  Four of them are going back for sure.  I hate my feet, truly I do.
In other news, the south end of the Santa Cruz trail is being repaved, which is good.  It was getting pretty rough.  Progress on the new section between Ajo and Silverbell appears to have stalled.  If they ever finish that, we'll be able to get on the trail without having to ride on the road.  That will improve life.
That's it maties, this is all I have to report.

A Fabulous Sunset

 Clouds rolled in today, giving us a fantastic sunset.