Damn Covid, finally found us…

When Covid first made the news and began affecting our lives it was during the winter of 2019. The first impacts were figuring out how to get groceries, how to do our laundry and how to find parks not closing down to newer people.

We managed our way through that winter and again the winter 2020 which was a continuation of 2019. However,the world had gained a bit more information about what precautions we could take to make our lives safer.

Sharon and I, after much reading and research on our own, elected to get vaccinated right away. As a result we got all the follow-up vaccinations since then and the booster recommended for the Omicron variant of Covid just this year.

While we were fully vaccinated we were also aware this didn’t mean we couldn’t catch Covid. However if we did get Covid we were also aware by being vaccinated it was less likely for us to develop severe symptoms which may have required hospitalization.

We are also understanding of others who chose not to get vaccinated because, after all, it is your choice. Up until now we have been evading catching Covid by staying out of crowded enclosed venues preferring to be outside anytime we went out for fun.

Well our time without Covid finally ended this past week. We suspect we caught it at a Mardi Gras party but could also have contracted it somewhere else. Fortunately we realized we were sick early and stayed home not wanting to give even a cold to somebody else.

I felt like I was catching a cold since my nose was running on day 1. The next day I got a deep cough and thought it would be wise to test for Covid. I did, and it was negative. That same day Sharon had a sore throat and the next day she had a bad cough. To be safe we tested her for Covid and hers was positive. So I retested on day three of symptoms and I too tested positive. Sigh… we were both down with Covid.

We went to an urgent care to see what the current advice of doctors was because of our age. Let’s just say we got more politics than medical advice. This is not a political post so whatever your political beliefs are just know we respect them. This of course happened on Sharon’s doctor’s day off.  She messaged him knowing it could take up to three working days for a response.. After much thought and internet research we decided on our own that since we are over 65 we should take Paxlovid.

I was hesitant to do so since there is a lot of unpleasant side effects possible and it is said to be only 51% effective against the latest variants. We quickly embarked on our first day dose and both experienced an immediate lingering bitter after taste. Sharon also developed a rash the next morning. As a result we decided to stop taking Paxlovid. Sharon’s doctor has since been in touch and is supportive of our decisions.

For some comfort food during our sickness I made some red chili pozole.Sharon was especially thankful because her sense of taste (and appetite) had diminished. While we escaped Covid for 3 years, COVID finally caught our asses. We are fortunate so far as we both have what they refer to as "mild" COVID. We will just lay low and stay home until we both test negative…

Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens in AZ

While the weather in Mesa this year hasn’t been as warm as we have experienced in the past, it has not kept us from being active. We haven’t hiked as much as would have liked this year but we are still here for another month or so. We expect this weather to break and normalcy to arrive soon.

In the meantime we have been simply enjoying our resort park. However, we did make time to visit the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. We have visited the garden before and enjoyed it so much we had to return..

As before we went the one day a month when entrance to the park is free. On the second Tuesday of each month access is free for visitors but the requirement is to obtain a ticket online so as to manage the crowd. With parking always free it makes this a fun and frugal day trip.

Upon arrival we spent the better part of an afternoon strolling around the gardens which are nestled amongst the red rocks of the Papago Buttes.There are several loop trails within the campus representing different types of natural gardens. The varieties of cacti are as numerous as anywhere we have ever visited.

It is stated that the garden currently has more than 50,000 plants from more than 4,000 different  taxa. Additionally about one-third of these plants are native to the area, including 379 species, which are rare, threatened or endangered.

The last time we visited several years ago we spent a good deal of time enjoying the variety of butterflies in the butterfly sanctuary. However, to our dismay it was closed until spring this year. Oh well we plan to go again in March and are hopeful it will be open then.

We noticed there were also lots of plants just starting to flower offering small splashes of color here and there.With the backdrop of the red rocks there were plenty of photo ops which of course we took advantage of.

We spent several hours enjoying the plants, butterflies and birds in the gardens. Upon leaving we decided to go to go to Four Peaks Brewing for happy hour in Tempe AZ. . They have some tasty craft brews making for the perfect ending to a great day.

Gilbert Arizona’s Riparian Preserve..

One of our very favorite places to visit when staying in Mesa AZ is the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. The Riparian Preserve was created in 1999 to promote awareness and appreciation of Arizona’s ecology and natural history, mainly desert and riparian environments.

The town of Gilbert made a commitment to re-use 100% of its effluent water and had a vision in 1986. In 1999 they used 110 acres of land in Gilbert to create a riparian basin composed of seven lakes totaling 70 of the 110 acres. The lakes or water recharge basins are filled up on a rotating basis with Gilbert’s treated effluent water and then allowed to percolate into the aquifer where it is stored for future use.

With 4.5 miles of trails within the reserve we love hiking and birdwatching there. Nearly 300 species of birds have been recoded on the preserve since its creation. Sharon and I always take our new binoculars and our old cameras with us to observe and photograph the feathered residents of the preserve.

Since we visit this park a lot you will likely be seeing lots of nature photos on the blog until we leave here in April. With that warning get ready for a ton of photos…

Repairing our Atwood Leveleg Leveler

Before arriving in Arizona we had an issue with one of our levelers on our RV. When we were in Texas we noticed the issue first at a park in Beaumont when the leveler wouldn’t come back up. As readers of this blog may remember I used a machine jack to raise the RV and simply removed the broken Leveleg so we could continue on our planned route.

When we arrived in College Station Texas I disassembled the gear box. After removing the gear box and opening it I didn’t find any sign of damage anywhere. So I regreased all the gears, reassembled it and reset the control board. Next I tested it manually and it worked automatically after that.

We travelled further west before it again gave us trouble upon our arrival here in Mesa AZ. This time the leveler wouldn’t go down. Once again I took off the offending Leveleg to attempt to figure out what might be the issue.

Like before I removed the gear box and after opening it I still couldn’t find any sign of damage. I regreased all the gears and reassembled it one more time to try testing it manually.(You can use a drill with a socket to turn the nut at the end of the motor to manually raise or lower the Leveleg).

While it takes hundreds of revolutions with the drill to move the leg even slightly it was obvious that it was not going to budge up or down. Once again I took the entire leg apart and to get to the lower half of the leg which houses the mechanical screw that moves the RV up or down.  No matter what I tried the screw would not turn it was entirely seized up.

The problem with this is that they no longer make these levelegs or any of the parts needed to repair them. Well desperate times call for desperate measures, so, thinking the leg may have become dry and rusted together I filled the lower half of the leg with oil and let is sit for a week.

I emptied the leg of oil and the screw still wouldn’t turn. So I thought I should cut the leg in half and see what the problem was and then have it welded back together. Before doing so I drove over to consult with a welder who adamantly suggested that this was a bad idea and would not work.

Now my only options were either to replace our whole leveler system or somehow get my broken jack to work. Giving it one more try I simply beat on the lower half of the leg until suddenly it “unseized” the leg. Then I unscrewed the entire leg (which was very dry) and loaded it with packing grease along the entire length of the screw.

I put it all back together and happily we have a working Leveleg system. For how long… who knows. We’ll just have to cross our fingers each and every time we put the levelegs down or up for the foreseeable future.