And... we have an awning!!!!

We were a little concerned/disappointed that no one came to get Gracie first thing on Friday morning, 

... well... not *everyone* was concerned... Miss Kitty was working on her tan in the driver's seat...

but they took Gracie in before noon (at which time Miss Kitty was locked into the bedroom to her great frustration) and the technician started work on the awning installation:

Chris starts work on the supports

We headed out for lunch -- got takeout from Ono Hawaiian BBQ -- Kalua Pork with Cabbage - YUM!

One support arm installed... progress seems to be slow...

Later in the afternoon, 3 technicians were working on it.

Looks like things are moving along...

Wow, there's an awning on there!

We got Gracie back about 6pm in the "camping" area... there's an awning on her now!

There it is deployed!

Wow - it is really high!

This is the first time I've seen Gracie with an awning (she has been awning-less since October, 2019 when the original awning was torn off in a wind gust near Cheyenne, Wyoming, when Carl was driving through with his daughter and grand-daughters). 

A picture of the awning in October, 2019, after the hardware had been ripped off by the wind, but before Carl and his daughter cut the fabric off.

We have some adjustments that we want to make to it -- we'd like for it to be not quite so high, but not sure whether we can adjust it much given that it needs to clear the slide and now the slide topper too. We honestly don't know how much we will use the awning - there are so many stories about folks leaving them deployed on a calm day and a storm blows in and rips it off - so we know never to leave the rig with the awning deployed. Even when you are right there, sometimes a micro-burst of wind can come through and damage the awning...

We were so glad to get this completed! Even though it was pretty late in the day, we headed out to Venture Out, arriving and getting parked by about 8pm. Note to self: do NOT come back to Venture Out after dark if you can avoid it! Getting the rig in the spot with flashlights is challenging! But, it is good to be back "home", at least for a short time.

Thursday to Cave Creek

We were hopeful that the part needed might come in on Thursday, but figured it probably would not come in soon enough to have any meaningful work done. We knew that NIRVC had keys to be able to access the rig if they were able to work on it, and decided to head over to another community near Phoenix for part of the day - Cave Creek.

Carl checked and there was an Oregano's in Cave Creek. We had gotten take-out pizza from Oregano's in Tucson back in December and decided to try eating in this time!

 

Who would have thought that a motorcycle would be a decorative item in a restaurant?

 

Or that pictures would be mounted on the ceiling as decoration?

Lunch pan pizza and...

... meatball sandwich.

Carl and I were talking about our Fitbits and how much they inform us about our health. But he said that he wasn't all that pleased with how they are helping with weight loss (i.e. the weight loss isn't going well)... I asked him what he would like for it to do -- a shock to his wrist when it heard him order a meatball sandwich, or an alarm that would sound and prevent him from entering the restaurant? Regardless, lunch was delicious!

 

Then we went to a shopping area to see what we could see...

"Recycled Soup Can Luminaries"

Candle shop

 

We also drove around some neighborhoods, and enjoyed our day... 

 

When we got back to NIRVC, some parts had come in... the technician who will be working on Gracie thinks he will be able to work with what he has to get the awning installed... it is now Friday morning, and Gracie is in the shop... might we have an awning by the end of the day? We will see!

No Awning.... yet....

Our service advisor let us know on Wednesday that they did not have all the parts needed to install the awning, but that they did need to install an additional part on the slide topper, an anti-billow device. Evidently that piece will prevent the topper from unfurling in the wind as we go down the highway.

 

The part that sticks up at the top turns with the roller. It will, if the roller starts moving when the slide is in, contact the coach and not allow the roller to turn any further. When the slide comes out, the part moves away from the side of the coach and the roller can turn freely.

While Gracie was in the shop getting the flapper stopper installed, the hunt was still on for the missing parts...

There are two sets of support arms, both the "new" style and the "old" style. We think that the plan is to use the "new" style of arms which needs a new style of supports.

The controller is here too.

The thing that is missing is the standoff on the side and the curved piece, that allows the arms of the awning to attach to the side of the coach and be able to go above the slide outs and mount to the curve of the roof. This is a picture from another coach that is in for service.

This is a view from the other end of the awning on the other coach. (I asked Carl if he thought that we could just "lift" those couple of pieces from the other coach... but he thought the other owner might notice...)

Our service advisor came out later in the morning to let us know that their parts department guy had found the needed parts in Dallas and in another (unnamed) location, and that he was ordering them to be sent from both places and that they should arrive on Thursday (today). Might this resolve our awning installation issue? We can only hope!

Slide topper!

One of the two things that we wanted to get accomplished here at National Indoor RV Center was to get a slide topper installed on the large passenger-side slide. Theoretically, if we had the awning, it could be used to cover that slide, but, the reality is that we don't really want to have the awning out all the time that the slide might be out, and the months without the awning have shown us that we need a slide topper to keep stuff (rain, leaves, debris) off the top of the slide.

On Tuesday, they took Gracie into the shop. 

Gracie heading out from the "campground" on her way to the shop

Our service advisor, Skip, kept us informed during the day... they were looking to assemble all of the parts needed for the slide topper and finally thought that they had found all of them.

At one point, in the afternoon, Skip took Carl back to where Chris was working on installation of the slide topper.

A picture of the service area -- better setup than what the Lewisville shop has... but they were finishing a new service building in Lewisville when we were last there, so it may be improving too.

Gracie outside in the campground with the slide out and the topper covering the slide.

The slide out and the topper deployed

The slide and slide topper retracted

Another view of the slide and topper retracted

We have the slide topper installed -- Hurrah!

 

 

We were anticipating that they would be coming to get Gracie early to start working on the awning... we had everything closed up and were waiting in the Jeep. Carl decided to wash the solar panels as a ruse to get them to come to get the rig (if we weren't ready for them, surely they would come!).

So, will we get an awning installed on Wednesday or not?

Goodbye Cottonwood, Hello Surprise!

Monday was the day for us to leave Cottonwood, but, we had heard that the Remote Control airplane flyers met at the field on Monday and Friday at 9am, so decided to go over and see what they were doing before we packed up to leave.

There were three guys up there when we arrived at about 9am -- this was the first one we saw take off.

When his plane landed, even though it was not a hard landing, the right landing gear broke. This is the "examining" table - also the rack on which they test out all the controls before they start flying their plane. They determined what needed to be reinforced and one of the other guys offered to take the plane back home with him to make repairs.

A couple of the other planes. Carl was surprised to see that they are mostly made of styrofoam. He had built a plane many years ago out of balsa wood and fabric.

Another ready to take off

A takeoff:

 

Carl over at the runway with the pilot

A landing:

This pilot was the gentleman we met who told us about their gatherings on Monday and Friday. He is a Ham Radio operator and his rig was parked across from where Gracie was parked.

After watching for a little while, we packed up and left the campground on our way to Surprise. We went out to eat with Wayne and Nancy and enjoyed seeing them.

Sunset from our walk in Surprise

Looking back at National Indoor RV from our walk -- hopefully we'll get the long-awaited awning installed on Tuesday!

Around the campground

On Saturday, we decided to visit Alcantara Winery -- their entrance was right next to the entrance of the RV campground where we were staying. 

There was a nice "backyard" area with tables that had umbrellas to help provide shade from the sun...

There was an entertainer who was playing and singing (to the right under the wine colored umbrella) -- and a cute little girl who danced for a few of the songs!

Our glasses of wine. We decided not to do a tasting but rather to tell the server what kind of wine we usually drink and let them recommend. We didn't mention that we normally drink box wine from Walmart... but just "Moscato", and she indicated a Reisling for me (because I like the sweeter wines) and a Rose' (though we're not certain which one) for Carl (because he wanted a drier wine). Both of us decided we prefer what we're used to... but we're not sure whether that's because we're used to it, or whether it is because we really prefer the flavor!

Sunday was our last full day in Cottonwood -- since it was predicted to get up to 90F, we decided to get a walk in early. Carl suggested that we walk the length of the campground -- which is not only pretty long, but also an elevation change.

On our way down, I took a picture down toward the winery that we visited on Saturday. The hill that is in the center and closer is terraced and has grape vines growing on it. The green area to the left with the building and a red roof is, I think, the owner's home.

It turned out that down through the campground and back was a 3 mile walk, and 300' elevation change down and back. It is a little tougher because the uphill was at the end (all downhill to begin with), but we made it!

We then got to join our church family in Irving for Easter services, and spent a quiet day the rest of the day.

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen Indeed!

My brother sent me a link to a story, "Push-ups" that I thought I would share today:  http://www.christinyou.net/pages/pushups.html 

I think you may find it challenging!