Monthly Archives: January 2014

Shameless Plugs

I thought I wouldn’t post today. Really nothing new to report and I’m not feeling too creative this morning. Then I thought I should share a couple of things.

First, I want to tell you about the book Donna published this week. She’s wants to get as many copies out as soon as possible and is promoting the book through a free offer. You can download the book for free today through Sunday only.

SOPO V123

I also want to share a few of Mark Fagan’s photos. You can view more of his work at this site or read about Emily and Mark’s adventures here. Click on Mark’s photos below to enlarge.

Fishing

DSC_7127

DSC_7162

You can see the cloud cover that moved in yesterday in the photo above. It was still warm though and the clouds held the warmth overnight. It’s cloudy this morning and I’m hearing rumors of rain in the forecast for tomorrow! This might dampen my plan to pack the trailer tomorrow in advance of our move to Usery Regional Park on Sunday. I want to get into the park and be set up before the Superbowl starts.

Red Sky at Night

Yesterday, Donna biked the loop over Usery Pass, across McDowell and back to the Lower Salt River on Power Road with Emily and Mark Fagan. Emily and Mark are former bicycle racers and just as she expected, they pulled away from her on the 3-mile climb up Usery Pass. After four years of cycling on the flats in Michigan, she’s hoping to improve her climbing abilities.

While they were out bicycling, I loaded up our bed sheets and towels and scootered to the Fluff N Clean Laundromat. While I was out, I filled the gas tank on the scooter. I mentioned getting 67 miles per gallon the last time I filled our Kymco Downtown 300i gas tank. This time I got 74 miles per gallon! I don’t know if it’s a matter of the scooter breaking in or the fact that around here, I ride about 50 miles per hour and don’t sit at many stop lights, but I’m liking the mileage. In San Diego we averaged 60 miles per gallon.

Last evening, Emily and Mark joined us outside our rig to talk and view the sunset. Lana Jansen and her boyfriend, Joel, joined us. Lana was our neighbor when we lived in Mesa. She delivered our mail which had been forwarded to her house. She also allowed us to have some packages sent to her place. We’re waiting to receive the induction cookware we ordered in Quartzsite (the order is delayed), a water filter I ordered for the water purifier in our kitchen and a runner rug that Donna ordered for our living area.

We all sat together outside and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages. It was a good time. I took a photo of the group with my Samsung S4, but unfortunately it came out too grainy to post. I also shot a picture of the sunset.

Another sunset over Red Mountain

Another sunset over Red Mountain

Mark brought a gag that he picked up at a bike show. It kept my bald pate warm! Looks great too!

Who knew hair really keeps the head warm?

Who knew hair really keeps the head warm?

Today, I need to figure out what is drawing our chassis batteries down. Our motorhome is equipped with two 12-volt batteries to supply the starter motor and engine functions with electricity. With the vehicle parked, there should only be a small parasitic load on these batteries. However, I’m finding that these batteries draw down below 12.3 volts daily. This isn’t right. There’s a separate bank of four 6-volt golf cart batteries that power the interior functions of the coach. This bank is wired to supply twelve volts to some of the lights, the water pump and a few other things that operate on 12-volt DC power. It also supplies the inverter which inverts the 12-volt DC into 120 volt AC current. This supplies various outlets, the microwave oven and our TV.

I also want to hike down the Lower Salt River today. Below is a photo Mark Fagan took of last evening’s sunset.

Sunset last evening by Mark Fagan. His exposure shows our little gathering outside our coach

Sunset last evening by Mark Fagan. His exposure shows our little gathering outside our coach.

 

Sharing the View

When you don’t have much to say, there’s always the weather to talk about. The overnight low temperatures have led to chilly mornings the past few days. Yesterday, the coach cooled down below 50 degrees overnight. This morning I recorded 49 degrees. It’s not bad in bed, under a down quilt. We sleep better when it’s cold and we’re covered up.

Yesterday, Donna was up before me (which is unusual). She fired up the furnace. I got out of bed a short time later and started the generator. With the generator running, I shut off the propane furnace and ran the heat pumps. If I’m burning fuel in the generator to charge the batteries, I might as well stop burning propane and use electricity to run the heat pumps. Donna told me about wild animal sounds in the night. I didn’t hear a thing, but apparently there were javelinas or something in the area. Our neighbor heard them too.

The mornings warm quickly once the sun rises over the ridge. With the window shades open, solar heat takes over and I can shut off the heat pumps. We’ve had afternoon temperatures of 80 degrees. By late morning I have the door open and the roof vents open. I deploy the awning to shade the door and windows.

Yesterday, our neighbor from Kansas, Kevin, drove Donna up to Usery Regional Park. He was going that way and offered Donna a ride, saving her the scooter trip in the morning chill. Donna met our friend, Mona from San Diego, there. They hiked up Pass Mountain to Wind Cave. It’s about a 90-minute hike with beautiful views of the valley. You can see all the way to downtown Phoenix from there. After their hike, Mona drove Donna back home.

Mona at Wind Cave

Mona at Wind Cave

Kevin returned to the park before Donna. He came over and asked me where the nearest place to dump waste water and take on fresh water was. I told him of a couple of options. A little while later, he and Barbara pulled their fifth-wheel trailer out of here. I expected them to return after a couple of hours, but we haven’t seen them since then. I don’t think they reached the 14- day limit here, so we may yet see them again.

View from Wind Cave trail - you can see Phoenix spelled out on the mountainside

View from Wind Cave trail – you can see Phoenix spelled out on the mountainside

Meanwhile, new neighbors pulled in. Emily and Mark Fagan set up their fifth-wheel near us. They have a choice spot with a view of Four Peaks right out their door (we see Four Peaks out our windshield). They joined us for dinner last night. Donna made a meatloaf that she served with smashed red potatoes and green peas with mushrooms.

We had an enjoyable meal and much conversation. Mark and Emily are excited about all of the hiking trails and opportunities for photography in the area. They’re both avid photographers. You can see some of their work on this site. Mark shot a beautiful photo of our rig with Red Mountain in the background.

Our Alpine Coach at Phon D Sutton

Our Alpine Coach at Phon D Sutton – courtesy of Mark Fagan

Donna and I watched Shark Tank and another show with Marcus Lemonis (CEO of Camping World and Good Sam Club) helping a business grow (Green Tea Ice Cream). The name of that  show escapes me. We went to bed at 11pm.

Today, I think I’ll go back to the Fluff N Clean Laundromat to wash bedding and towels. Donna is planning to take a bike ride with Emily and Mark. I haven’t ridden much since we left San Diego and don’t feel up to the challenge of Usery Pass right now.

PS – I just learned that Mark has more photos at this site.

 

Burning Fuel

Yesterday was a quiet day at our end of the campground. Phon D Sutton Recreation Area has three paved parking lots. We’re at the end of the last lot – the pavement ends a few hundred feet from our windshield. The second lot has been taken over by an RV singles group (people that are on the road alone or joined the group as singles). That lot is just about full. They have a group leader coordinating activities. We don’t see or hear them from our place though.

Donna went out for a run yesterday as she continues to train for the duathlon in March. I cleaned the windows on the coach. Later I rode to the grocery store. I’ll have to make another run to the store today as I didn’t have enough room for everything yesterday. It seems like I put 20 or 30 miles on the scooter every time I go somewhere. Nothing is close to our location. It’s a good thing the scooter got 67 miles per gallon at the last fill-up.

The other thing that’s burning fuel here is our generator. I’ve been running it for a couple of hours every morning and evening – about four hours total per day. In the morning, I run the heat pumps while the generator tops up the battery bank. During the day, the inverter provides power for laptops, microwave, Vitamix, etc. By evening I need to top up the batteries again.

One of our neighbors here gave us oranges the other day. She has a sister in the area who has orange trees on her property. She has more oranges than she knows what to do with. On Sunday, Dara and Rob gave us tangelos and oranges from their trees. So we have an abundance of fresh citrus fruit and it’s good!

Yesterday afternoon, I went for a hike up a horse trail that Donna told me about. Parts of the trail were very steep and the footing was treacherous in places. Reaching the top of the ridge was worth it though. Here in the desert, you have to watch your step. Things will poke, scratch or bite. I didn’t see anything too dangerous other than the usual prickly flora. I took a few photos of the view and interesting cacti. The photo of the trail doesn’t do it justice – it’s much steeper than it looks.

Horse trial up the ridge - it's much steeper than it looks

Horse trial up the ridge – much steeper than it looks

A thorny barrel cactus

A thorny barrel cactus

Looking east towards Pass Mountain

Looking east toward Pass Mountain

Giant Suguaro

Giant saguaro

A uniquely shaped suguaro

A uniquely shaped saguaro

Last night, Donna cooked shrimp in a cast iron skillet on our new induction cooktop. She pan-fried corned tortillas and made chipotle-tequila shrimp tostadas with lime cream. It was a tasty treat!

Chipotle shrimp tostadas

Chipotle-tequila shrimp tostadas

Donna was up early today. She went to Usery Park to meet up with friends. They are hiking the trail up to the Wind Cave on Pass Mountain. I’ll finish the grocery shopping. Later, our friends Mark and Emily Fagan will join us with their fifth-wheel trailer. We’ll have new neighbors! You can read their interesting story and view beautiful photography at their site.

 

 

 

 

 

Fluff N Clean

We stayed busy yesterday. After I posted to the blog, Donna went for a challenging bike ride. Every bike ride from here is challenging. It’s an incline leaving our site and then from the Bush Highway you climb Kong Hill up Power Road or you climb over Usery Pass where the summit is 2,115 feet. Yesterday, Donna chose to go up Kong and made a 26-mile loop.

I showered and gathered up our laundry. When we’re dry camped, we don’t use our washing machine. It  uses too much water. As I was getting ready to leave, I was pleasantly surprised to see Mark and Emily Fagan park their truck alongside our rig. Mark and Emily are full-timers that blog at http://roadslesstraveled.us/. We met them in San Diego after Donna connected with Emily online. We hope they join us here at the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area with their fifth wheel trailer. We had a short visit and I gave them the grand tour of our new home.

I split the laundry load between a backpack and a cloth tote bag that I hung between my knees on the scooter. I rode to the Laundromat at the corner of Power Road and Main Street, about 11 miles from here. What was I thinking? It’s Sunday and the Laundromat was busy! Sometimes I forget what day of the week it is. It was a good thing the the Fluff N Clean Laundromat has lots of machines.

View from Kong Hill - look for the river

View from Kong Hill – look for the river

By the time I came back from the Laundromat, Donna had completed her bike ride and showered. She told me we would have more visitors. Her friend, Dara and her husband Ron Schulenberg, paid us a visit. Donna and Dara used to bike together when we lived here. After we visited for a while, Donna, Dara and Ron went for a hike along the river. I didn’t join them because I had one more chore on my agenda. Our scooter has been a dusty mess since we were in Quartzsite. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I rode to a self-serve car wash and power-washed the scooter. They had a soft water rinse to avoid water spots and the scooter looks good again.

Ron and Dara by the Salt River

Ron and Dara by the Salt River

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but last Friday, on the way back from Apache Junction, we made a stop in our old neighborhood. We visited our old neighbor and friend, Lana Jansen. Lana is letting us use her address to receive our mail and some items we ordered while we were in Quartzsite. She had our new induction cooktop already.

Cast iron skillet on the induction cooktop

Cast iron skillet on the induction cooktop

Last night, Donna tried out the induction cooktop for the first time. She put some oil in her Lodge* cast iron skillet, placed it on the cooktop and set the heat to medium (five on a scale of 10). She was preparing crab cakes. A couple of minutes later, the pan began smoking as the oil was getting too hot! There will be a learning curve with induction cooking – but the crab cakes came out fine.

Crab cake with sweet potato and green beans

Crab cake with sweet potato and green beans

Today, I want to scratch a couple more items off of my “to do” list and hike up a trail Donna told me about.

 

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

 

Head Knocker

Donna had a great day yesterday. She had no particular plan – nothing that absolutely had to happen. She went out for what ended up as a 5-mile run. She ran on the horse trails up to and over a ridge and back down by the river. She had a lot of fun exploring the area. Then she took an afternoon nap. She said it was a perfect day.

I had a mission to complete. Our kitchen faucet needed to be replaced. I rode the scooter over Usery Pass. I remembered seeing faucets for sale at Gene’s RV in Apache Junction. I didn’t look too closely when we were there on Thursday. I didn’t know at the time that I would need a new one.

House on the top of a hill near Usery Pass

House on the top of a hill near Usery Pass

The selection of kitchen faucets at Gene’s RV wasn’t what I was looking for. I ended up going to Home Depot where I found a Delta Grant* kitchen faucet. It’s a single handle with a single pillar base. It has a removable head that switches from streaming water to spraying. I also bought a plumber’s basin wrench, thinking this may make the job go easier.

On the way back from Home Depot i stopped at a roadside park where Power Road becomes Bush Highway and snapped a picture of Red Mountain.

Red Mountain across the Salt River

Red Mountain across the Salt River

When I got home, I got busy with the replacement project. The old faucet was a Moen. Looking underneath the sink, I couldn’t understand how it was attached. The faucet has a 1-3/8 inch pipe coming through the countertop that serves as a mount. The pipe is also the conduit for the hot and cold copper supply tubes and the flexible sprayer tubes. All of these tubes are packed fairly tight in the pipe.

I searched online and found Moen faucet replacement instructions. It turns out that along with all the tubing in the pipe, there’s a threaded stud with a nut holding the pipe against a mounting plate. I would’ve taken a few pictures, but it was so tight in the cabinet under the sink, I didn’t try. I pulled the copper supply lines and bent them away from each other. I finally found the stud, which is hollow and serves double duty as the supply for the sprayer.

First I had to remove the sprayer hose. This wasn’t so easy. The basin wrench I bought was no help. After a bit of trial and error, banging my head against the counter and basin along with a few choice words, I found a way to get a 15mm open ended wrench on the sprayer nut. Once I removed the sprayer hose, I could see where the nut holding the stud against the mounting plate was. Of course, over time, the stud corroded and removing this nut was no fun at all. I have bumps and sore spots on my head today from hitting it repeatedly against the basin and cabinet shelf. Perseverance paid off and I finally had the Moen faucet out.

When I read various instructions on the Moen faucet online, they all agreed on one thing. Removing an old Moen faucet is the hardest part. This is true. Installing the new Delta faucet was straightforward. The mounting system they use is much more sensible. But I hit another snag. The Delta supply tubes are PEX with 3/8″ compression fittings. The PEX supply line fittings in our coach are 1/2″ pipe thread.

I got back on the scooter and made the 8-mile (each way) trip to Ace Hardware. After searching through various plumbing fittings, I found 1/2″ pipe to  3/8″ compression adapters. Woo-hoo. Home free now. The adapters worked perfectly and the installation was complete in no time. I would estimate the time spent removing the old faucet was over an hour. Installing the new one took 15 minutes (plus the time to go find the adapters).

New Delta faucet

New Delta faucet

Once that project was complete, Donna and I took a short walk along the river. I snapped a couple of photos. We came back to the coach and sat outside in our new director’s chairs. I enjoyed a cold beer. I was feeling a little beat up from working under the kitchen sink.

View to the north - look closely and you'll see the fountain in Fountain Hills

View to the north – look closely and you’ll see the fountain in Fountain Hills

Giant suguaro - this one is probably over 100 years old

Giant saguaro

The camp host stopped by and we chatted while we watched the sunset.

high, thin clouds make a spectacular sunset

High, thin clouds make a spectacular sunset

A trip to the laundromat is on my agenda today. We don’t use our washing machine while we’re dry camped.

 

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

 

 

 

Wild Horses

My last post was written while we were having the coach serviced. One thing I didn’t mention in that post was the wildlife we’ve seen here in the Tonto National Forest. On Thursday evening, I saw a wild horse walking along the Salt River.  On Friday morning, as we were driving out of the recreation area, Donna spotted five wild horses near the road. Our neighbors told us the horses occasionally come right through the parking lot at the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area.

Driving up Usery Pass, we saw a dead javelina on the side of the road. I’ve seen these animals in this area before. Although most people think these are wild pigs, they’re actually members of the peccary family. A peccary is a hoofed mammal originally from South America.

Last evening, just before dark, herons flew into a stand of trees by the river next to our site. This desert is full of wildlife!

Another type of wildlife showed up later last night. Four carloads of what I would guess are college age kids parked near us and walked down to the river. They didn’t disturb us. This morning their cars are still here so they must have brought sleeping bags or maybe even tents. I looked at the passes hung in their cars – they aren’t valid. They haven’t entered the date and time of arrival – they probably use the same six dollar pass over and over until they get caught.

On Thursday, I wrote about dropping the trailer and locking it up while we had the coach serviced. When we returned, we hitched up the trailer and moved to the eastern lot of the recreational area. This lot has a better view and Donna’s T-Mobile service is great here which was not the case just a few hundred yards away where we were parked before. On Friday morning, we dropped and locked the trailer again. This time we had to go back to the dealer and have the toilet seal replaced.

We also had the house batteries replaced. When we bought the coach, the deal was to include new batteries. They installed two new 12-volt chassis batteries before we took delivery. They told us that the four 6-volt house (coach) batteries tested good. This turned out to be wrong. The house batteries wouldn’t hold a charge. They were good to their word though – they replaced them at no charge to us. After their guy, Tim, installed the batteries, I looked them over. I told Tim we had a problem. We had one mismatched battery – one of the batteries in the bank of four was an 8-volt battery!

He pulled the mismatched battery and had a correct one delivered. We charged the battery bank while he removed and repaired the toilet.

There’s always something when you have a house that rolls down the road. Last night, while cleaning the coach, Donna saw water drip in the cabinet under the faucet. I got under there with a flashlight and tightened the fittings. A few minutes later, another drop fell. I looked again and discovered that it’s coming from the copper piping that’s part of the faucet. I think I’ll have to replace the whole thing. The only other option would be to silver solder the pipe, but I think that may be more work than it’s worth.

I rode the scooter over to Ace Hardware and looked at the faucets they had. I also picked up some 3M Command adhesive strips that Donna wanted for hanging some art. The Red, White and Brew restaurant/pub was by the hardware store, so I stopped in for a beer. I sat with my old friends, Mike Hall and John Huff. Mike offered us courtesy parking at his place anytime we want. He has a large workshop behind the house with a large RV gate. He also has a dump station, water and electricity! At some point, we’ll surely take him up on the offer.

Last night we invited our neighbors, Kevin and Barbara, for snacks and cocktails. They’re from Kansas, Kevin works with heavy equipment moving dirt. His work takes him through Kansas and Nebraska. They live in their fifth wheel trailer, going wherever his work takes him in the summer. They spend the winter months in Arizona, mostly dry camping.

Today, I’ll scooter over to Apache Junction and look at more faucets. I need to repair the leak today. Meanwhile, we leaving the water pump turned off unless we need water and we’re catching the drip in a cup.

Down By the River

Yesterday we pulled out of Quartzsite. It was fun for a few days, but it became tiresome. We drove west a couple of miles to access I-10 east at the Dome Rock exit. This avoided the traffic mess in Quartzsite.

We stopped in  Buckeye and topped up the fuel tank with 40 gallons of fuel. The price was good. The Chevron station with truck and RV lanes at exit 114 was selling diesel fuel @ $3.56/gallon. While we were stopped, Donna made lunch. We ate before resuming our route back to Mesa. The drive was uneventful – this coach handles like a dream.

Donna was able to work on her laptop as we rolled down the road. We set up a tray table in front of her seat and it worked out great. She looked at options for camping near Mesa. We decided to camp in the Tonto National Forest near the Salt River. Donna called the ranger station for information. She found out that our National Parks inter-agency pass would allow us to buy the National Forest access permit for half price. We could dry camp in the camping areas for three dollars per day! The ranger told Donna where to buy the pass. We stopped at a gas station at the corner of Main and Ellsworth – right on our route – and bought a pass for one day so we could check it out.

We went to the Phon D Sutton recreational area, just south of Bush Highway between Power Road and Usery Road. RVs can set up in the parking lots from November to April. There is a 14-day limit. Then you have to leave the Tonto National Forest for 16 days before you can return to stay at any of the park’s recreation areas.

Our spot last night

Our spot last night

We met the camp host and a few other friendly people camping there.

View from our doorstep

View from our doorstep

This morning, I dropped the trailer and left it locked up in the campground. We drove the coach to Apache Junction where I had an appointment to change the oil and filters in the engine and the generator. Although the dealer that sold us the coach said the oil was recently changed, he was a little vague about it. Diesel engine oil turns black soon after an oil change, so it’s hard to tell if it’s freshly changed or not. Oil and filter service on a big Cummins diesel isn’t cheap – it takes more than six gallons of oil! I could have pulled an oil sample and sent it for analysis, but I’d rather change the oil and have a baseline to work from.

Once that’s done, we’ll buy more daily access passes and spend the next 10 days or so down by the Salt River.

 

 

 

Low Voltage

The weather here in Quartzsite has been ideal. Overnight, the temperature drops to the low 50s or high 40s. The daytime warms quickly and the thermometer hits the mid to upper 70s in the afternoon. A breeze out of the north picks up as the day warms, but I wouldn’t call it windy.

Yesterday, Donna continued working on formatting her Kindle book for publication. I spent the morning cleaning and treating the rubber slide-out seals. I used a three-step process. Each step employs a treated cloth wipe. The first two wipes are special cleaners and surface preparation. The third wipe contains Krytox, a fluorocarbon lubricant. This treatment keeps the seals pliable and allows the slides to move over the seals smoothly.

After lunch, Donna wanted to go into town and look around. We scootered over the I-10 overpass to Main Street. I stopped at an RV lot set up by Orange County RV (from California) which had six or seven high-end RVs for sale. We took off our shoes and entered a Liberty Coach built on a Prevost chassis. This million-dollar-plus coach was a treat. I took a couple of interior photos, but the pictures don’t do it justice. The wood work and trimmings are unbelievable. The walls were suede trimmed with tooled leather. The floor was Travertine tile.

Liberty Coach interior - tooled leather trim

Liberty Coach interior – tooled leather trim

Liberty Coach interior

Liberty Coach interior

We walked through a few more coaches, a Tiffin Zephyr, a Country Coach built on a Prevost chassis and a few others. A couple of the Prevost-based coaches were over the top – almost gaudy. Checking out the Tiffin Zephyr, Monaco Dynasty and Holiday Rambler Navigator, Donna remarked that she was happy with our Alpine Coach and felt that the quality was right up there with these coaches.

We rode through town, then crossed I-10 to the marketplace on the south side near the big tent. The marketplace was like a carnival midway at a fair. It was filled with vendors and food sellers (mostly fried foods). After sampling some jerky at a vendor table, we bought bought sea salt and black pepper jerky, cranberry-jalapeno jerky and black label ale jerky.

Quartzsite marketplace

Quartzsite marketplace

We returned to our site by 3pm. The Dish Network installer was supposed to come out between 3:30 and 4pm. He called a little past 4pm and I gave him directions. To my surprise, he drove straight to our coach in the middle of a desert filled with thousands of coaches.

He went to work quickly. He had the dome programmed and the receiver connected in no time. Then we hit a snag. The dish in the satellite dome wouldn’t find and lock on to the correct satellites. I suggested firing up the generator to make sure we didn’t have low voltage coming from the inverter. He didn’t think that was an issue and continued to work through diagnostic steps.

After 30 minutes or so, he said he thought I had a bad motherboard on the dome. Then he said, “Why don’t you fire up the generator, just to cover all of the bases.” I started the generator. A few minutes later the dome was locked onto satellites 110, 119 and 129, just like it should. These electronic devices are sensitive to voltage! I’d had the inverter running most of the day – that’s why I suggested starting the generator in the first place.

Last night we watched a few episodes of Modern Family in high definition. I’m liking this!

Today, we’ve decided it’s time to move on. Experiencing the big Quartzsite show in the desert was a worthwhile experience, but I’ve had my fill. This many people in the desert creates some stress. Most people have their sand toys and I’m tired of dealing with all the dust they kick up. We’ll kick the tires and light the fires this morning and head back to Mesa.

 

Bumper-to-Bumper

Yesterday was a work day for Donna. She stayed in the coach and worked on a Kindle book she’s publishing. After breakfast, I went back to the big tent to sign up for Dish Network. I didn’t expect the tent to be as crowded as it was over the weekend. I was wrong. It was more crowded than ever. It took me about 15 minutes to make my way to the RV Connection booth located about 3/4 of the way down the tent. If I had known how crowded it was, I would have walked around the tent and entered from the rear.

The woman I spoke to the day before, Chris, set me up with a Dish Network account. Someone will come to our motorhome out here in the desert this afternoon and hook up the satellite receiver.

I stopped at another vendor outside of the tent. We looked at camp chairs on Saturday and decided to buy large, heavy duty director’s chairs that have a small folding table on the side. I spent some time looking at them and thinking of how to get them home on the scooter. I went for it. I bought two chairs and carried them out to the scooter. A little ingenuity with bungee cords had them securely fastened on the back.

Folding chairs strapped to the scooter

Folding chairs strapped to the scooter

This free, dispersed camping around Quartzsite is getting expensive. I have to stop going to the big tent!

Later, I rode to town to buy drinking water. The traffic was crazy. Crossing the overpass to get into town was a bumper-to-bumper affair. Once I made it to the main drag in Quartzsite, I rode north to the grocery store. The southbound traffic was backed up for more than half a mile. I don’t know the reason for this, other than there are more vehicles in town than the intersections can support. After I picked up a case of drinking water, I took an alternate route back. It didn’t help, every way out of town was backed up.

Donna took a break from her work and went for a hike in the hills. She found a cave in the hill south of us. She climbed up a trail and had a great view of the desert. Too bad I can’t get the pictures she took on her cell phone to download to my laptop. There’s some setting that blocks me from accessing the photos. And she can’t send them to me because she only has Edge service rather than her normal 4G.

I explored a little on the scooter. I think when we leave, we’ll go west on Dome Rock Road a couple of miles to the I-10 on-ramp, then head east on I-10. That way we’ll avoid the madness in Quartzsite.

Today I’ll explore a little more while Donna works. I don’t know how much longer we’ll stay here. I’m starting to get the hitch itch.