Done With Yuma

 

After much worrying on Jim’s part, the flooring installation went quite well. We pulled up carpet on Tuesday and Wednesday, just a couple hours of working each day, and it wasn’t too bad. There were a zillion staples along the edges of the carpet, but because we have the Anniversary Edition of Lazy Daze, ours had an upgraded, very dense carpet. When we ripped it up all those staples pulled right up along with the carpet. The only ones left in the floor were the ones holding the pad, so there were not but a couple dozen to remove, which we were quite happy about. Using a small prying tool, screwdriver, and needle nose pliers we worked them all free. That was the most time consuming part and we were glad the number of staples was small.

Carpet and pad pulled up on one side of the bed.

The foam pad stayed under the staples so it made them a bit easier to spot.

 

As expected, pulling up the carpet revealed a few problems. In the bedroom there was an angled metal strip along the base of the bed, and another one along the bathroom wall. Carpet covered it nicely but vinyl sure wouldn’t. I called the Lazy Daze factory and was told they were there for support of the bed and support of the wall. My inclination was to take them up, but Jim thought we should wait to see what the floor installer thought.

Having heard from other people that we would find bolt heads, we weren’t too surprised. The frame bolts were recessed but in the living room there were three huge bolt heads sticking up from the floor, and they are what holds the propane tank. Jim thought maybe they could be countersunk, but wanted to wait for Kevin, the installer, to see if he had any other ideas.

 

On Thursday morning they were scheduled to start around 8:30. When no one showed up by 9, Jim left to take our sofa seat cushion back to Action to sew in a button that had come out. The installers came a short time later, so I showed them our problem areas. They decided to take out the metal strips in the bedroom and see what we thought. After much pushing on the bed and wall we all decided to leave them off and hope it doesn’t cause any problems. When Jim returned he wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do, but I feel that Lazy Daze tends to use overkill in their construction methods, so hopefully the bed will not move, nor will the wall come down. Guess that remains to be seen when we actually drive down the road the next time!

Here is Kevin (in the gray shirt) and his crew figuring out where to cut the vinyl. I wish I had taken a photo of the piece after they cut it down but forgot. There is a huge amount of waste when installing sheet vinyl in an RV. By the way, fortunately the owners of the property agreed to let us put the cats in their screened porch for the day. They were not happy kitties.

As to the problem with the propane tank bolts, Kevin said he did not feel comfortable trying to countersink them, considering that we were dealing with propane. So we just decided to leave them as is and cut around the heads. Not an ideal solution, but they are under one chair and the table, so not really visible. Besides, we left the seat belts in behind the chairs, which don’t look so great, either.

And now the before and after photos. I didn’t take too many before shots, since the carpet was just too disgusting.

 

It is impressive what they can do with vinyl these days. 

Along the bed they just put a strip of carpet back where the metal piece was, and it looks fine.

 

They had to cut out the vinyl under the table for the bolt head. It was just too high to lay the vinyl over without causing a wrinkle. Luckily we have a cat scratcher under there so it is covered. I am working on coming up with something to cover it with at a later date. They were able to lay the vinyl over the other two bolts, so they are not visible.

 

Of course we still have the carpet in the doghouse area, but that is not an easy thing to replace, so we will just live with it. Instead of a metal strip they just rolled the carpet edge and stapled it down, which is how Lazy Daze did the transitions originally. It’s a nice clean look.

We still have another issue to deal with and that is how to cover the exposed portion of the wheel well in the bedroom that was covered with carpet. The cats had done a number on it so I just removed it. I didn’t want to put carpet on it again, and Kevin said the vinyl would not adhere, so I’m thinking after I get the adhesive off I may just paint it white or find some contact paper that’s a close match to the walls. There is also a strip of adhesive along the bottom of the wall where the metal strip was but we haven’t tried to remove it yet. If it won’t come off we may just put a vinyl molding strip along there.

 

I must say we are thrilled with the job and the floor. Kevin Favreau was the installer, and he worked with Bob’s Flooring in Yuma where we bought the material. He and his crew did a great job. I forgot to mention they put caulk along the junction of the floor and wall, and used white caulk where there was wallpaper, and brown where there was wood. To us it looks much better than molding. I am so happy to be rid of that nasty carpet!

 

Late yesterday afternoon Kim and Debbie stopped by to check out the floor, since they are still hanging around the Yuma area, too. We went out for pizza and beer, and some much needed laughs after a couple of stressful weeks.

Kim, Jim, me and Debbie.

 

This morning we headed back to Algodones for my last dental appointment. Dr. Hernandez finished the root canal and put in a permanent filling. He said everything looked great, there was no sign of infection, he found no other canals that were missed, and said time will tell if the tooth settles down and quits bothering me. I am just happy to be finished and am hoping for the best.

Looks like we can finally get out of Yuma!

Another Job Finished

 

As of 10 yesterday morning there was no sign of the painters so we decided to head out for a bike ride. When we returned a couple hours later they were hard at work. After we finished lunch there was a knock on our door to tell us they were unable to match the burgundy paint, although we gave them a small bottle of old touch-up paint and the color code from Lazy Daze. It sure would have been nice if they had waited to do the prep before finding out the paint didn’t match. At that point there was nothing to do but paint with the wrong color and see what it looked like.

As it turned out it was pretty close, but what really surprised us is that the paint they used is metallic, but the original paint is not. It’s really only visible under direct sunlight, but still. It does look much better than it did before, and the fake black windows look great. We would definitely not recommend Dave’s Auto Detailing for painting, although a couple people recommended them to us.

Here are the before and afters.

    

 The left side had several cracks in the end cap, so they filled in and repainted that side, too. At least we have matching mismatches, and from a distance it looks great.

 

And now just for fun, here are some photos of things we’ve seen on our walks around the Yuma Foothills. I’ve always wondered who buys some of the strange lawn ornaments we’ve seen in garden shops, and we found them here in Yuma.

 

 

But on the other hand we’ve also seen plenty of lovely homes and landscaping. It’s quite an interesting mixture.

Muggins Mountains Wilderness

 

While searching for new places to hike around Yuma I came across Muggins Mountains Wilderness area, 7,700 acres of rugged, rocky terrain managed by the BLM and located about 25 miles east of town. I read about a 5 mile loop hike around Muggins Peak so we decided to go check it out. You can also do a 4 mile round trip hike up to the peak but it was a hot day and we decided to take the easy route around the base..

 

The dirt road to the parking area is about a mile long and in fairly good shape. It continues on another quarter mile to more parking but it was deeply rutted in places so we parked and walked to the wash from the first area. On Saturday there were only a few cars in both lots.

A couple in a truck pulled in and parked next to us as we were getting ready, and it turned out the man worked for the BLM. They were the only other people we saw on the trail, and we were happy to keep them in our sights since we had a bit of trouble finding our way a few times. He told us to just keep Muggins Peak to our right the whole time and we should be fine.

Our landmark.

The first part of the trail drops into Muggins wash and was very scenic.

 

It even took us through a very short slot canyon with a bit of rock scrambling.

After a couple miles the trail comes out of the wash but we missed the turn. Luckily BLM guy was behind us and we saw where they went up so we turned back. From there it’s a more visible trail up along a ridge and through the hills until coming back into Muggins wash.

When we passed this going up the wash we had no idea it marked the loop trail, but this is where we came out.

BLM guy told us they see big horn sheep frequently, and pointed out the most common area for them to hang out. He also said they aren’t afraid and will come up to you because people feed them. We saw no sheep, and this was our big wildlife sighting for the day. What great camouflage. If he hadn’t moved we would have never seen him.

Our loop turned out to be just under 6 miles and a nice moderate hike. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for somewhere to hike near Yuma. If you want to do an easier, shorter hike, it would be worth doing just an out and back in the wash as far as you like. As always with these areas, there were cairns and trails going off everywhere, so our Backcountry Navigator app on the phones (and the BLM employee) helped us find our way. It is desolate and little used land. Sure wouldn’t want to get lost out there.

Headway

 

We finally made a dent in our to-do list this week, although not without some frustration. The painters were scheduled to come Tuesday but did not show and we did not hear from them. In their defense it did rain Monday so we expected them to be behind but a phone call would have been a nice gesture. Jim called them late Tuesday and he said they would be here Wednesday. Jim told him we were taking the motor home in on Thursday for service, and asked if it would be okay to drive it if they painted the previous day. He said no problem.

We had to take the chairs in Wednesday morning and run a couple other errands, and of course the painters were still not here when we got back in the early afternoon, and did not show at all on Wednesday. When we got to Action with the chairs, the manager, in his broken English, said they didn’t have time to work on them. It was another very uncomfortable conversation, and I finally had to point to the sticky note on his calendar with our name, phone number, etc., and said we were leaving the chairs because he scheduled us to bring them in on Wednesday. This is while I’m having to wrestle with Jim not to take the chairs back to the car and leave. Finally he promised us they would be ready Friday afternoon, and Jim said he was coming to get them one way or another. The good news is they were finished yesterday morning, so time will tell whether this foam collapses like the stuff they put in last year. They also added some reinforcement to the bottom and it looks and feels like they did an excellent job, so one mission accomplished.

We had an 8 o’clock appointment at Alexander Ford on Thursday and they got started right away on our long list of inspection and maintenance items. Brake flush, cooling flush, differential service, fuel filter, transmission flush, replace the serpentine belt and radiator hoses, inspect brakes, steering, wheel bearings, etc. We were out of there by 12:30, after spending just over $1,000. Considering we’ve owned this Lazy Daze for 7 1/2 years it has previously only been in the shop for tires and a transmission flush, so now it should be good to go for a long while. Jim has always done his own oil changes, since it is so inconvenient to take “our house” into the shop.

One other little improvement we made this week was installing two of these Add-A-Drawers under our table. Should have done this a long time ago. Now if I can just get Jim to put the remotes back in…

We finally got a call from the painter on Thursday afternoon, asking if we would be home on Friday after 2. They did not say but we suspect they came by when we were gone Thursday morning. Finally at 4:30 yesterday one guy showed up and did the prep work. Two others came by at 5:30, but then they all left before telling us if they would be back on Saturday or Monday. Doesn’t really matter, but it sure would be nice to keep your customers in the loop. Our neighbors told us we need to get used to the way things are done in Yuma. When someone says tomorrow, you have to ask them “which tomorrow”?

So once the painting is done all we have left is the floor next week and my dentist appointment, plus a few other little things we’ve been putting off. It feels good to cross things off our list.

Of course we have still managed to get in a little hiking and biking. The Yuma East Wetlands Trail downtown along the Colorado River.

 

 

North Fortuna Wash trails. This is another rugged, scenic area with trails and ATV roads going everywhere.

 

Looks like we can relax for a few days before we start ripping out our carpet. Stay tuned…

A Climb to Jester’s Peak

 

Last year while in the Yuma area we hiked up the very popular Telegraph Pass, a steep climb up a mostly paved trail. We can actually see it from our lot here in the Foothills but the trail is on the north side of I-8 and we are on the south side.

Luckily we have access to miles of BLM land and trails to the Gila Mountains less than two blocks away. Through a friend we met Manny, a neighbor down the street who is an avid hiker and road cyclist, and he invited us to tag along on one of his regular trails for a hike up to Jester’s Peak at an elevation of 1,900’, pretty high by Yuma standards.

Rain was in the forecast so the skies didn’t make for great photos but our destination is the flag at the top of Jester’s Peak, which you can barely see here.

Manny said it would take about an hour to climb to the top, but that didn’t factor in just getting to the trail, which was a couple miles away. You can actually drive to the trail head on a rough Jeep road to make it just a 1.4 mile hike to the flag, but starting from home we ended up doing just under 7 miles round trip in a little over 4 hours. It also didn’t factor in stopping to chat and catch our breath on the steep parts.

It’s hard to talk and go uphill at the same time.

Not sure we would have found our way if Manny hadn’t been guiding us. The trail just disappeared at times among the rocks as we got closer to the top.

There were several places where I was doubting whether or not I would get back down, since much of the trail is right along the edge, steep, and covered in small rocks that tend to make a foot easily slide out from under you. As it turned out it wasn’t as bad going back down as we thought it might be, and the reward, the views, was well worth it. Even on a dreary day.

  

Jim and Manny check out the geocache and memorial.

 

Proof.

You can see our trail snaking through the rocky hills.

Many of the beavertail cacti were blooming, and after the rain we got overnight more color should be coming out in the desert soon. We’ve never timed it right in the past but we’re hoping to get lucky and see more flowers this year.

Manny offered to take us on another hike to an airplane wreckage site before we leave the area, which sounds interesting. Yuma just keeps growing on us, although doing laundry here is about as bad as in Quartzsite.