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Mark Hahn Havasu 300

The 10th Annual Mark Hahn Havasu 300 took place today on the Crazy Horse Campground beach.

Basically, a bazillion jet skis raced around Lake Havasu for 300 miles — 10 miles per lake lap. Several hours of racing so it’s called an endurance race.

The campground seniors were looking forward to this race with great fear and loathing. It promised to disturb our nirvana with loud noise and young people.

Actually it turned out to be fun because of loud noise and young people.

We have no idea who won, but here’s a short video of the day which started at 7:00 am . . .

Meet the Jacobs E-Brake

Last October when we stopped to have our Cummins diesel engine serviced at Cummins Rocky Mountain Service Center, the service techs told us that part of our exhaust brake was almost rusted out.

What’s an exhaust brake?

Basically, it’s a device that works by essentially sticking a potato up the exhaust pipe. The purpose: to slow down the motorhome without using the air brakes. An exhaust brake is very handy going down steep mountain roads because instead of using the brakes continuously (and getting getting them too hot), you can just flip a switch to enable the exhaust brake.

Anyway, we’ve scheduled a visit to a service center in Lake Havasu this March to replace the rusted pipe. I’ve been dreading this because I have no idea how long it will take — will the service center order the right part? How much will it cost? Where will we stay during the repair?

So I thought I’d take a look at our engine brake and see if I could determine what was needed to fix it.

Voila! Today I pulled off the engine cover (which is in our RV bedroom), took a photo of the engine brake, and called Spartan Chassis, the manufacturer of our Newmar’s chassis. I gave them the VIN number of our RV, sent them a photo I took of our engine brake, and a few minutes later ordered the part ($160 delivered) I needed (hopefully).

The part should arrive next Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Here are some photos I took . . .

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Voltage Boost + Wash & Wax

VOLTAGE BOOST

I mentioned this before . . . the voltage coming into our RV would drop so low at times that our electrical management system would disconnect the power to protect our electrical appliances.

Not a good situation.

So we invested in a voltage regulator (or “auto former”) which basically boosts incoming voltage whenever it gets too low. It has worked like a charm the past week. Some photos . . .

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WASH & WAX

We had our RV washed and waxed today because I don’t want to do it . . .

Wash & Wax by Arizona Reflections

The Guys @ Work

Hang Gliding!

If you have followed our blog this Winter, then you have probably seen photos and some movies of the “Lake Havasu Air Force”. These are several guys in powered ultralights who fly around Lake Havasu. Fun to watch when they buzz the beach.

One of these ultralights, the pontoon-equipped one, landed on our beach today and offered rides to the gathered crowd ($99 for 30 minutes).

Jan and I jumped on it. I went first and then Jan.

I was able to bring a movie camera along and took several minutes of video while flying — along with some footage I shot onshore when Jan went up. Between the shore and in-flight movies, here’s a 3-minute flick of our two flights today. It was great!

The first campground we fly over is Crazy Horse.

By the way — the guy with the helmet is the pilot Joe Lorenzen, a former Alaskan who resettled in Lake Havasu eight years ago.

And now this . . .

In our Day in the Life post, we forgot to include two, really essential items — daily Mail Call and the Honey Wagon:

When the Orange Flag is out, mail is in.

Before Tom knew the “secret” orange flag signal, he made the faux pas of asking for the mail before the flag had been raised. He got the mail, but also a cranky talking to.

The Honey Wagon stops by the non-sewer equipped sites twice a week. In S&B terms (“Sticks and Bricks” — those of you who live in regular houses), that amounts to normal bathroom use but showering every other day in the RV. There are campground showers, but we really like using our RV’s shower.

The Honey Wagon in Draining Mode