A Royal Flush of a day

When you have two homes, even when one is a trailer, you multiply your household problems by two. That includes plumbing, which as some of you know is my least favorite household chore.

New trailer potty

Ever since we bought the trailer in 2008 we have had minor issues with the small commode in our little bathroom. Trailer toilets work on a gravity system by which you hold down a foot pedal that opens a small ball valve in the bottom of the bowl and water pours down flushing it.

Over the years the ball has stubbornly stuck open, then closed and often required a screw driver to either open or close it. Last week it bit the dust and I simply pried it open and began looking for a fix.

An RV repairman lives in the resort six months a year and I picked up his card at a show they were having here a month or so ago. So I called Richard and he stopped by and convinced me I would be better off replacing the toilet rather than trying yet another fix.

So while I was working out Saturday at the fitness center, Richard called and said he was in possession of our new potty and could he please come over and put it in as soon as possible as he had another major repair to do at 9:30 a.m.

I broke off my workout and headed back to the trailer where I locked Joan in the bedroom and waited just a few minutes for Richard to show up.

Some of the beautiful rocks on the road to Mt. Lemmon

In less than 20 minutes we had a new toilet and one that is two inches higher than the old one which works for us. Hopefully we now have a few problem free, flushful years ahead of us.

With the plumbing done, we got cleaned up for an adventure we have been waiting to do since we arrived here.

A motor trip to the summit of Mt. Lemmon has been on our “to do” list, but bad weather, heavy snow caused us to delay actually going there – until today.

Interestingly the mountain is named for a woman - botanist Sarah Plummer Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with Native American guides by mule and foot in 1881 – and houses a popular winter ski resort.

Several mountain ranges in the distrance

The temperature when we left the Tucson floor was 73. The 25-mile drive to the top of the mountain takes about an hour and the temperature had fallen to 42 by the time we arrived at the top.

We had hoped to visit the University of Arizona observatory at the top, but I think most of the UA folks were home watching Arizona playing Harvard today so the gate on the road to the observatory was closed and locked when we got there.

On the way up we watched in wonder as a solid line of very fit bicyclists rode up the mountain. The elevation at the bottom is about 3,000-feet and by the time you get to the top you are just a tad over 9,000-feet, so it is quite a job.

Note the summit temperature

I talked to a couple women who made it to the top (and they were shivering) and they asked me to take their photo to prove they actually made it. Of course I did with their camera. The one woman said it “was the first and last time I’ll ever do this.”

With the observatory out of the question we headed back to the little town of Summerhaven, which is the small town that exists at the top of the mountain. We had planned to eat at the restaurant there, but it was 1:30 p.m. and there simply was not three or four hours of activities to keep us busy until dinner time.

We looked through a couple gift shops, one which had been destroyed in a 2003 forest fire that burned more than 300 buildings and homes on the summit. More than 100 of the structures have been rebuilt but you can still see the evidence of the fire everywhere.

Snowy Mt. Lemmon in the background

The lady who owned a small gift shop had hundreds of thousands of decorative beads that were burned in the fire and she has kept some of the melted plastic from the fire as a sort of natural art work. Some of it was very beautiful.

I bought one of the beads that had been recovered after the fire. When the gift shop was redone the concrete employees sprinkled the beads into the curing concrete which has an interesting effect when you walk on it.

With our brief shopping done we started down the mountain. About a mile into our trip down a bicyclist was riding directly in the middle of my lane at a speed about 10 mph under the speed limit. There is a small bike lane on the right side and plenty of signs urging everyone to share the road, but this guy wasn’t sharing anything.

You can see the after effects of the 2003 fire

At about the time I was ready to give him a tap of the horn I noticed a sheriff’s car behind me with his red lights and sirens on, so I pulled into a parking turnout along the road. The sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind the bicyclist and pulled him over.

As we passed the bicyclist was getting a pretty stern lecture from the deputy so I didn’t have to do anything, but marvel that sometimes there is a cop around when you need one.

I don’t know if he got a ticket or not, but hope he learned his lesson. I was remarkably patient with the whole thing and was just glad the deputy was there to sort out rude bicyclist.

That sharing the road thing goes both ways, you know.

Cool rock formation on the windy mountain road

Once down off the mountain we stopped at a local sports bar to check on the basketball games – Michigan and Michigan State both won today and moved on to the next NCAA round – and to check on the Arizona versus Harvard game, which was all Arizona.

For dinner we stopped at Mimi’s Restaurant and I had a fish fry and Joan had a Butternut Squash filled Ravioli and Shrimp dinner.

We came home and entertained ourselves flushing our new toilet.