2018 "Snowbirds" Stuck Without a Truck

We got back from Hawaii to snow and ice.  Like last year we couldn't walk outside without some sort of traction devices (yaktraks) on our shoes.  There was over an inch of ice on my driveway.  Like previous years I abandoned the main driveway as I needed it to push snow into.  Mona's place was no better.  Just about every morning her neighbors and herself had to get out and shovel snow out of their driveways to the road before the snowplow came by.  

So it was with great pleasure that we loaded up the truck and trailer and headed south.  Wouldn't you know that it was very cold the whole way down to Arizona.  Each night it dropped into the 20's.  I pretty much froze every night.

Our first week was spent camping in the desert outside of Quartzsite Arizona at the annual amateur radio event called Quartzfest.  It's where a bunch of Amateurs Radio Operators get together for seminars and other amateur radio related activities.  It has been a few years since I've attended.  I couldn't believe how much the event has grown.  This year there were over 850 Amateurs in attendance!   One of the activities is the annual "Burning Ham Bonfire".  We are giving the Burning Man folks just a little competition.  And ours is free as compared to the $1000 or so it takes to attend Burning Man.

One of the days after Quartzfest we went for a hike up  a valley to where some palm trees were located.  I've never hiked a trail before that came to such an abrupt end.  It was really odd.

 After a week or so camping at Quartzsite we went down to Imperial Dam Campground just north of Yuma.  It's a great spot to be if you like to kayak.  Because of the Dam, the Colorado River has backed up and formed something like a delta area with narrow waterways in the reeds.  If you know where it is at, there is a small beach up one of the waterways.  Mona and I decide to have lunch there on one of our kayak outings.  If you paddle up the waterway to where you think it ends, there is an small "tunnel of love" type opening onto the main Colorado River.  You can then just drift down the river back to the campground.  

There is a date farm not far from the campground.  One afternoon we went to get some date milkshakes.  On our way back the truck suddenly started to overheat to the point where we had to turn the engine off or risk some serious damage to the engine.  I was hoping that maybe just a fan belt broke.  Upon looking at the engine, the belts were OK.  When I opened the top of the coolant reservoir, there was an eruption of oil out the top.  It turns out that the oil cooler on the diesel engine failed.  When it failed it started to pump oil into all of the cooling channels and parts of the engine.  It took over two weeks for the Ford dealer to replace the cooler and flush all the engine parts.  Fortunately I had bought the extended warentee with the truck so most, but not all, of the costs were covered, including a rental car.  The other fortunate thing was that we were camped at a great spot that had bathrooms with hot showers so we didn't have to worry about running out of water or overfilling our waste water tanks.

  

There also are some pretty good desert hikes in the area.  On one we came across this burro family.

This year was the 100th Anniversary of the Yuma Proving Ground.  The Proving Ground boarders the campground.  We met up there with my Son-in-Laws father, Ralph, who also snowbirds in the area in the town of Welton.  He likes to golf and there are several courses in Welton.  We also met up with him for dinner on Valentine's Day after which he treated us to a Valentine's Day dance at the resort where he stays.

While we were stuck in the campground I got a few projects done on the trailer.  Here is the inverted I installed.

On night we were treated to a concert put on by some of the other campers in the campground.  They were exceptionally good, especially the guatarist.  Here we were, stuck in this small campground and one night there was live music.  Not bad.  I also was able to attend another amateur radio event in Yuma while Mona did a movie marathon.   We met up with some amateur radio friends for the event's big dinner and raffle prize awards.  They give away more things, much of which is high value, I mean thousands of dolars, than any other event that I'm aware of.  Out table didn't win anything but it sure was fun dreaming about it.

After about two weeks of no truck I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get the truck back.  Everytime I'd call the usual response was that after continuing flushes, there still was oil in the  engine's coolant.