Any ideas why after driving the Pk Ave around all week, with 14+ volts going in from alternator, why it would take 5 and a half hours to fully charge the battery?

Maybe I should check for overnight drain downs?

Because the charger your using isn't calibrated correctly?

Why are you manually charging the battery?

Mike I had a previous problem with the fused alt wire, and for a while the battery was not receiving the highest voltages.
Since replacing the ALt wire, it'* been getting around 14-14.5 volts now.
I wanted to use the charger since it has not been done in a while.
A couple of time per year I like to top up the battery manually anyways.
It could be that the C-tek charger also went into de-sulfation mode and started the full charge cycle (which takes longer) don't know for sure....

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Ya I guess I am paranoid that somehow this battery is going to soon crap out on me.
It was a little sluggish starting the car a day ago....
Time for a load test to see what'* really up and check the AM voltage so I can sleep at night LOL...

How old is the battery?

ya I hear that..I think it'* getting close to 3 years now...
Even though I own a 100 amp load tester, I am thinking it'* time for a Midtronics /load & scan too.

Don't bother. Average life is 3-4 years. Constantly putting huge loads on it using load testers only causes to the battery to fail sooner.

If its that old, get a new one. Better safe than sorry.

This is some of the best advice I have heard all day.

Plenty of times something was making me a bit paranoid, and then I touched it, and it blew up. I cleaned up the mess, only to find it was right back where it was to begin with.

I don't think the volts going in matter as much as the amperage, when you are idling at low rpm'* the alternator is not doing much to charge the battery back.
I think it is good to manually top it off once and a while, but the load testing is probably overkill.
I keep a battery maintainer on my battery 24/7, but I do not drive daily, and I have a bit of a parasitic draw that I need to track down, I have put it off for a while, but eventually I'll work on tracking it down, either way I like to keep the charger on there, my current battery is like 2 years old, and it starts just as well as it did when it was new.

My advice, manually top it up from time to time, and not worry about load testing it, when it gets a totally dead cell, and won't hold a charge anymore just replace it.
You have an Optima Yellow Top right?
If so it should last twice as long as traditional batteries.

Here is a good read on those batteries.
How long will my car battery last? | OPTIMABATTERIES

""The key to long battery life, regardless of brand, manufacturer or type, is proper voltage maintenance. Fully-charged, our REDTOP® batteries will measure about 12.6-12.8 volts and our YELLOWTOP batteries will measure about 13.0-13.2 volts. Keep your batteries fully-charged whenever possible and you'll help maximize both their performance and lifespan, however long that might be. - See more at: http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/power-source/how-long-will-my-car-battery-last/#sthash.ZlzN4WGM.dpuf""