Heading Out on the Road Again

We're finally getting the Twink out on the road and heading off to Picacho Peak for the 4 Corners Unit's New Years Rally. We'll be heading out tomorrow afternoon and returning late Saturday as I need to work on Sunday. Really looking forward to seeing everyone again so stay tuned for some pictures. Its been toooo long.

New Regulator

Today I was finally able to pick up a new regulator and get it installed. Also had a leaky pigtail so I replaced that as well. Now the other one is leaking so off to the RV store again tomorrow. Sure was nice to sit in the trailer and fix a cup of coffee.

Regulator Issue

With a houseful of folks expected for Thanksgiving dinner and cooking a turkey and a ham, we needed to use a second oven. Never fear, the TradeWind to the rescue. The ham was precooked so we just needed a way to heat it up. After preheating the oven and the ham put in, I went out after about 20 minutes to check on it. Once I stepped inside the trailer, I heard a loud swoooooosh sound start up. I couldn't tell what it was. I thought maybe a water pipe broke. No, that wasn't it, no water anywhere and the pump would have come on. I went outside to check the propane pigtails and couldn't see anything out of place. I held my hand around different areas of the hoses and fitting and there it was. The regulator blew where the front and back are stamped together. Not anything you could see with the naked eye but it was really shooting out of there. This regulator is only 7 or so years old and I would expect one to last longer than this. Glad this happened when it did and I was around to find the problem. I'll need to replace as soon as I can.

A New Throne

It is an absolute must to have a comfortable and functioning throne while away from home. When the old one's plastic base broke, something needed to be done. After considerable research on porcelain toilets, I decided on the Low Profile Sealand Traveller. Since the commode sits atop the black tank, a regular height one would have been too tall. Now we can take care of business in style. Installation was easy, so easy, I wish everything was this easy. No, no pictures. Who wants to see pictures of a toilet anyway? Its kind of a personal thing.

Scout Truck in Miniature

Well, its finally done. The last bit of trim has been glued on and its finally complete. I still am devising the glass covered display/base so there is still a bit to do. Here are a few pictures but the display will remain a secret until its complete.

The top photo is a recreation of one of PeeWee's photos while he was on the African Caravan. Some of you will recognize the shot.

Just Too Hot

It's been awhile since I last posted. Not much going on here in central Arizona other than the temp's are up. Suppose to be 108 today and 112 by the weekend. The TradeWind is all set to head for cooler climates with a new Sealand Traveller LoProfile toilet and the faulty IntelliPower has been switched out with a Zantrax XADC 60 amp charger. The trout up north are calling but we just can't seem to get away right now. Its just to hot to go out in the early morning, sit in the trailer and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Smokin' BBQ Ribs Time

I can't take all of the credit for this as both Frank and Marcus have posted about their barbecue endeavors on their blogs in the past month. I just had to post mine although I'm not nearly as involved as they are. I DO have a few secret ingredients from the garden that I'll share though.


I created a rib rub of ingredients that included brown sugar, ground pepper, cinnamon, chili pepper, a few sprinkles of different seasonings and a little something from the garden that just set it off perfectly, gives it that little kick. We sun-dried some of our chili's from the garden, ground them up with a coffee grinder and then added this to the rib rub.


After these had set for about four hours in the fridge, I put filtered-water soaked apple chips above the burner on the small camp grill and set it to high. Once this was really smoking and starting to smell just right, I turned down the burner to low and added the ribs. These smoked and cooked for about an hour and a half and were turned every half hour.


Oh the sweet smell of smoking barbecue. I could hardly wait until they were done so I occupied myself with preparing the farmer's market sweet corn and the sourdough bread. A little melted butter was added to the sourdough and then lightly sprinkled with garlic powder and wrapped up in aluminum foil and put on the grill. The water for the corn was seasoned and brought to a boil. the two cobs were added and allowed to simmer.


We got so involved, we forgot to slice up some of today's bounty from the garden. We have been harvesting tomatoes like crazy this past week and this morning's were no different. We like to slice them and have them with mozzarella and balsamic vinegar. Guess we'll have them tomorrow with lunch.


Dinner was fantastic and I want to thank Marcus and Frank for spurring me on. After reading their posts about their BBQ earlier this week, I just had to give it a shot.