Nothing Ever Seems To Go Right.

I must have the luck of the “7 snotty orphans”because if it involves me,it’s rarely an easily solvable problem.And such was the case yesterday morning when I arrived at the RV Repair shop in Quartzsite. I arrived just as the sun was rising at 7am local time.6am to me,I refuse to change.I was instructed to back up to the bay opening where I waited half and hour for one of the RV Techs to arrive.

This nice fellow got started,not knowing what was in store for him.He disconnected the gas and pilot assy,then tried to remove the faulty control valve,but it wouldn't budge.It was threaded in tight.Nothing would make it move.Finally it just sheared off, leaving a stub to get a pipe wrench on, at an awkward angle.

Now there were 2 Tech’s with a pipe wrench and a long bar.The whole tank was trying to turn.Finally a small bit of movement and success,and out it came.

The boss told me before hand that an exact replacement valve is no longer available and a newer style retro-fit would be installed.Well this didn't work out either as there was no way the recommended replacement would fit properly,in fact it would stick out so far as to make it impossible to close the door properly.And trying to hook up the gas line a near impossibility…….So guess what comes next….Yup!..A new tank.Well, it was my suggestion as I could see this was getting time consuming.

The price of a new tank was just over $300,about the same as the awning fabric had cost.

Here he is pulling the remainder of the tank out.He must of loved me hovering over him through all of this.No pictures of the gaping hole and the water that got into my storage compartment around the tank,soaking a blanket that was there.

Finally the new tank installed.

While all this was going on,the tech was telling me about the owners of this place.That they are heavy into the dune-buggy business also,in fact hundreds of thousands of dollars worth.I noticed there seemed to be just as much action with the buggies as there were with the RV’s.

Then there were two.

I finally got out of there after 3 hours,and just under $500. poorer.I see the new Notebook that I wanted to buy,slowly slipping away as the repairs to the old Trail-lite keep mounting.I think the old girl is trying to pay me back for dragging her up that rough 900 mile,round trip of gravel and dust,called the Dempster Highway, last July in the Yukon.

I’m now parked at Pilot Knob LTVA near Yuma.This must be about the 20th time that I’ve been parked here over the years,and although its a barren spot,I’ve always taken a liking to it with its proximity to Yuma.I don't like the dusty 14 day free spot down the road,and would rather pay the 40 bucks for two weeks and have the use of the garbage and the little bit of security that the hosts provide.And you don't have clowns with their ATV’s screaming through kicking up dust.

It was well into the 80’s when I arrived just before noon yesterday,and no cooling breeze.And on top of that I found that I couldn't get any water out of the hot tap.So with much frustration,experimentation and wasting of precious water,found one of the bypass valves was in the wrong position.

Something’s still not right as the pump takes 3 times as long to build up pressure and shut off,than it did before.Something for my little brain to work on during my stay here.As if I needed it.

MY GOOGLE LOCATION

Quartzsite Arizona

Yesterday morning I got a nice early start just as the sun was coming over the hill which in this neck of the woods is 6am.Actually the time zone is right is right here,but I prefer staying on pacific time as long as possible,so it doesn’t screw up my TV watching schedule.I did this all last year and it worked well for me.

  Here are 2 of my new neighbors that arrived across from me on Sunday.Dig the fancy Volvo truck pulling this triple axel rig…Nice!He even had a fancy Datastorm satellite automatic dish on his roof for both Internet and TV.

It was a nice day for travel as I stopped at the dump station at Overton Beach Marina.In this part of the world,its nice to have a dump station all to yourself with no line-ups to contend with,as I was able to take my time and be thorough,picking up some fresh water too.Its pretty good drinking water.

I stayed on 95 entering California,then at Needles,kept on 95 rather than going down through Havasu on the Arizona side.By the time I reached the junction of highway 62 that goes over to Parker Arizona,I was falling asleep at the wheel.Being that it was just a little after 11am,stopped for a refreshing nap and a bite to eat.

All of this is the product of me being out of wack with my sleep patterns,where I’m in bed asleep by 8pm and up about 2-3am.I find 6 to 7 hours fine,its just that I always seem to be on Eastern time.Its something that started on my first snowbird trip years ago.But it does find me sleepy after a few hours on the road.I find a 15 minute doze at a rest area usually does the trick for the rest of the day.

I arrived at this 14 day free BLM boondocking spot about 3 pm.This, after stopping at a large RV repair shop in the western outskirts of Quartzsite,called,”RV Lifestyles.”The boss man said he could fix my H.W.Tank in the morning and to come around at 7am today,that’s 6 my time,which means rustling my buns outta the sack by 4:30.He directed me to this boondocking spot which is just down the road.

I share this place with only 2 other rigs,although there may be more over the rise.Sorry for the lack of photos to space out this blog entry.But I must show this next one though.

ALL TOGETHER NOW… spell….M…I..C..K..E..Y……M..O..U..S..E…Sing along now……Mickey Mouse,Mickey Mouse….I wonder if that old TV show is still around.

Reminds me of a little game Marlene and I used to play as we drove through saguaro country,trying to put a caption on all the odd looking shapes that we would find in the Saguaro Cactus.Just a little competition to see who could come up with the most humorous caption. This one by the way is just outside my door.

Hopefully I’ll be in Yuma before noon today as its only about 85 miles further down the road.I will set-up there for a few days and get some things done before heading to Ole Mex.

Oh! And one final thing on my continuing saga of “will the debit card work at the gas pump this time?”My stop for gas at Searchlight Nevada was my first Chevron stop of the trip,and they require a ZIP,rather than a PIN.I only had 3 in front of me at the Slurpee line up this time.The lady says that all Chevrons require a zip code.They are my gas station of choice,but not on the rest of this trip.I’ll continue to use them at home because I can use my debit card there.

I didn’t try to use the Sumas Washington zip,where the card was issued, because it didn't work one other time,but may try that again because I’ve found that the debit card is also used as a credit card at many of the pumps,requiring no number.in fact Visa is written on the card along with the word debit.The saga continues,somehow,somewhere,I’ll figure this out.

“Overton Beach Marina”….The Beach Resort That Once Was.

I guess its a sign of the times when a very popular resort and marina turns into a dry desert.Once the largest and most popular marina on lake Mead with full hookup campground,and a store and boat rental,also the largest boat launch on Lake Mead.

Look at this big beautiful boat launch ending in a field with a stream in the distance.That whole green area was once the lake,now its away off to the right several miles away. This shot of the ranger station and store all closed up.(only half the building showing in this shot.) An abandoned houseboat sits high and dry.

A more distant shot taken from the dump station,which is still in operation, and a good drinking water supply is available also.I’ll be taking a visit to this spot when I head out later this morning.

Now we travel north a few miles to where I’m boondocking,and 100 yards from where my trailer is parked,I look over the top of this plateau and see just how much the lake has receded all the way up to the town of Overton.

  Such a shame, Will it ever come back? Maybe if we see Noah building an Arc.(these 3 scenes can be seen through my trailer windows.)

I’m going to insert a little commercial here.I’m so impressed with this little Wal-mart special Tracfone,that has saved my bacon several times in the past week.

  It gets to sit Royally on a nice pillow for it’s( Photo Op).Its a Motorola W260g and it came in a bonus pack that includes unlimited double minutes for the life of the phone,plus accessories.2 chargers,one 12volt and one 120v.Hands free headset.And all for $14.88.

You can buy “minutes” cards or renew minutes on- line or by phone.I found the latter 2 to be difficult with my Canadian MasterCard for some reason,so just went back to the store and bought another card.You can call anywhere in the world,but can only use this phone in the U.S. A great thing to reactivate every time we head south.

I like the way it constantly lets you know how much time you have left.Yesterday I put it on charge and all of a sudden an hour later I hear this funny little chime coming from the phone telling me the charge was complete.

I don't particularly like phones and have never travelled south with one before,but this past week, having it sure made life a lot easier for this old dog.

I guess its time to pack up and leave.Yesterday I was surrounded by 3 newcomers,all parking within a hundred yards of me.I guess I’m spoiled,having the place to myself for a week.Tonight will be either Quartzsite or Yuma.Gotta get that hot water tank fixed.

“Roger’s Spring”… A Little Side Of The Road Discovery.

While driving back from Las Vegas the other day along the North Shore Drive highway,I came across a nice little natural spring just off the highway,so I stopped to investigate.By the way that black dot on the hillside is a cave.

           Here is the outflow stream running from the pond at a good clip,so I assume that its a fairly active spring.It’s classed as a warm spring,which is anything under 104 degrees and at about 90 degrees,this was a good one for the tropical fish that were introduced some years ago.And they seem to have adapted very well.

Its a little difficult to get a zoomed shot of a moving fish but here are a few attempts.

The source of this water is unknown.The theory is that much of it comes from the north around Ely,Nevada,200 miles away,and as this ground water flows south through the carbonate rocks,it finds faults along the way and travels these faults,and eventually due to underground changes at the lower elevations,raises to the surface. The water discharge along this ground fault is approximately 1000 gallons a minute.

It has a colorful history,as back in 1903,some industrious men tried to dig a channel to divert the water to farmland a distance away,but it kept soaking into the ground.They finally at great expense lined it with cement.As the men were undertaking this project,they drank the water,but found that it acted as a natural laxative,so they named it Slim Creek.

Here’s a shot from above,showing lake Mead in the distance.I stole the photo off the net.Too lazy to climb the hill.

So tomorrow I leave this place and head further south to Yuma.I need to get my hot water tank fixed and making another appointment and dragging the trailer back to Camping World doesn't appeal to me at this point.I may stop at Quartzsite and see if I can get it done.If not I’ll get it done in Yuma.

I did make a 3rd trip to Vegas on Friday and bought a new thermocouple(pilot assy) but that didn't solve the problem,so the only thing left after checking the jet for obstructions, is the gas valve itself,as its a simple basic system with no electrics.The gas valve needs a special tool for removal,I know because I had it done 4 years ago,also in Yuma.Well the trip back to Vegas wasn’t a total waste,as I picked up another 60 minute phone card at Wal-Mart,and then had my first junk food fix of the trip at Taco Bell.

Yesterday was the first day on this trip that I just relaxed and vegitated in the warm sun.With the hot water tank on the fritz,the dirty dishes are piling high and I’m getting ripe……Heat up a kettle you say?…….What kettle!…..Just kidding folks.

Thursdays Follies…Changing My Satellite Assignment.

It was supposed to be a simple procedure and I was well prepared,getting advice ahead of time from many others in the know,who had done this many times,as I hadn't done this before.

I like to have all my ducks in a row,that's why I dealt with my awning problem one day and getting the truck serviced on another.So…Thursday was the day I picked to get my Satellite Internet system changed to a different satellite assignment that can be used in Mexico. First,I sent a PDF copy of the request form to Galaxy Broadband in Toronto,via e-mail at 5am,which would be 8am their time,then I waited,had my nice big breakfast of bacon and eggs and fried potatoes with a little cole slaw on the side.(I rarely do this)I’m a cereal guy. 

Just setting the scene.

By 9:30 a.m,I noticed the system light on my modem had gone off.(there are 5 lights that must be on if its working properly)so I knew that they had decommissioned me as per my request.Time for Willy to get down to business and start the registration installer procedure for the new satellite, from a program on my computer.It all went according to plan until it asked for my pin number.I put it in and it was rejected as incorrect….Hmmmm…Well,thank goodness for my cheap Tracfone,still with 160 minutes left on it.I got straight through to a nice young lady who checked and found that they had somehow given me 2 pin numbers during my sign-up process,but only told me one of them.So we tried the other and it worked.Thanking her I hung up and carried on and completed the process.

Now it was time to re-point to the new satellite and get a strong enough signal to pass what's called a cross-polarization.This went without a hitch…Boy! Just like shooting fish in a barrel,I thought……NOT!

 

Something was wrong,I passed with flying colors but still couldn’t get on line.Even a forced range didn't work so back to my handy dandy Tracfone..(Boy!what a wise decision to buy that).This time I got a fellow named Jerome at Galaxy and we started what turned out to be a 4 hour folly of trial and error where he had me on one line and a tech from Hughes on the other line for the better part of 2 of those 4 hours .The other 2 hours was him going through things with Hughes while I waited for him to call me back.We tried every transponder available on Satmex 5 and got erratic pass/fails on the cross/pol and even when I could get a solid pass,it still wouldn't connect me.

  Finally he says that they have an unknown transponder that's used for problem occasions,and we started the process for the umpteenth time,he also suggested that I bypass my router to make sure we have no weak points.And finally we have success.Jerome admitted to me after that he was probably more relieved than I was to see this come to a conclusion.So he had me load up lots of on-line pages,and to send him an e-mail etc,and everything worked fine.After hanging up,I looked and now had 19 minutes left on the phone.

So I reconnect my router(Linksys) and start surfing….OH OH!I’m off line again….What the heck is going on? So again I bypass it and everything is ok…So, was some of my problem the router all along?maybe,but my computer was reading the modem through all of this and the router is the only link.And the crazy thing next was that I couldn't get into the router,it wouldn't accept any known password,so I reset it to factory specs,and still couldn't get in.

By this time I was in agony because I had stubbed my toe the day before and re stubbed it during the running in and out of the trailer to re position the dish.So gave up and went to bed frustrated and sore,but not before sending off an e-mail for some help from Barb Nolley in Yuma who had set up this router for me 2 years ago.

2 ibuprofen and a good nights sleep fixed the sore toe and refreshed the old brain as I got up early yesterday,determined to do something about that damn router(I like doing my morning computing from a warm bed,not sitting at the dinette).A reply was waiting from Barb,she said that with Vista she has found that sometimes instead of a password just type in “admin,”in both places,and that worked,I got in and reconfigured it with a new wep key(all this didn't go easy but I finally got it done.) So time to wash up and have breaky…..Oh no!..No hot water.Cant get the hot water tank to re light.This tale of woe is to be continued.

In these last 2 photos,you can see more parking space across the badland.The photo above is a long view of the same shot.You can just barley see the rigs on the ridge.All these shots were taken from within several feet of my trailer.Its all flat table land above badlands and I was told its an old staging area for heavy equipment when they built the nearby Hoover Dam.

Its been hot since arriving here,always in the 80’s with no breeze,making it just a wee bit too warm for me.The night time temps are staying close to 60,which is pretty good for the high desert this time of the year.

Trekking Back To Vegas

The Silver Bullet needs its 2nd service.With just over 17,000km’s/10,000 miles in 6 months,I’ve been really racking up the mileage,so its back to Vegas for the 2nd day in a row.I didn't want to try and do both the awning and the truck service on the same day,especially dragging the trailer around,so I decided that I would rather endure the 140 mile round trip twice.This time taking the Lake Mead Parkway route since I now have my 5 day permit.It does save 30 minutes.Again I cant say how much I appreciate having my Garmin GPS to take me right to these places,allowing me to only concentrate on traffic and not directions.Thank you Miss Garmin.

I stopped on the hill coming into Henderson to take this shot of the Las Vegas skyline through the usual brown haze that this city produces.That is only part of the skyline as its strung out so far that if I tried to get it all in,you wouldn't see anything in the photo.So I used some zoom.

Findley Toyota is a huge new complex in the eastern outskirts in a quiet traffic area.This shot only shows half of the building.Inside was like a big shopping mall,spacious and busy.

Here are the service bays,just spotless.I just had to drive up to one of the bay entrances and they handled me there with the paperwork,then after chatting with the service guy about the merits of the Tundra(he has one too,and pulls a trailer)he sent me to the main showroom lounge where I watched Cnn on one of the many big screen TV’s.The place even had a commercial lunch/coffee bar for the customers.

In this photo, on the far right inside, is another lounge for waiting while your vehicle gets serviced.That's where I was supposed to come and wait after going for a coffee.So to make a long story short,I waited longer than I needed to,as the truck was ready and sitting back in the parking lot and I’m still watching Wolf Blitzer.

I cant get over how big and spotless this place is,and it didn't seem too busy in the service area.I guess its because its for Toyota’s.(He says with tongue in cheek).

On the way back to camp I made a few stops of interest that I will feature in another blog entry. And lastly….Today I make my request for a satellite assignment change for my trip into Mexico.I’ve not done this before,so if I disappear for awhile,it will be because I ran into problems.

My little Home On The Hill.I’m getting To Like It.

Forgive the grainy photos please,yesterday was a busy day and by the time I got the camera out,it was getting dark.The photo above was taken just as it was getting dark,but with a little help from Picasa,was able to put some light and color to them.The next three photos were completely black before I worked them through the photo program.

This is the beautiful moonrise taken as it rose above the peak in the first photo above.

Yesterday I had a 1 o'clock appointment at Camping World in Henderson,so gave myself 2 hours to travel the approximately 75 miles of windy twisty roads from the Lake Mead area here,down the I-15 for most of the distance,then into Vegas past the Nellis AF Base,and along Nellis Boulevard,then back up the Boulder Highway to Camping World.Pheuuuuuu! I hit most of the greens on Nellis,but Boulder highway’s lights got me into trouble.I now know just how good my Tundra’s brakes are,as I was distracted for a second and didn’t see the red light that I was approaching at a good clip.I don't know if it was just the hot pavement,but the screech was deafening as all 8 wheels ground to a halt just in front of the walk line.

I made it just 2 minutes under the wire to my appointed time,not that it mattered because they were running late.By 1:30 I drove the trailer into one of the large bays, and they had the awning off in minutes and on the floor,making the exchange to the new fabric.Two young Mexican Americans,who seemed to know what they were doing,had it all completed and reinstalled by 2:00.The total cost including renewing my membership for 2 years,was $330.A far cry from the $1500.this past June for the whole assembly. installed.I really expected to pay a lot more to get this mess resolved.So at least I got my awning back.Hoooray!

The drive back took only 1hour and 15 minutes as I took the Boulder Parkway,but I had to buy a $5.00 entry sticker for the park in order to go home that way.Its good for 5 days,so will use it today when I go back into town to get the Tundra serviced at the Toyota dealership.It was sure good to finally get back to camp yesterday and shed myself of the trailer,as it hasn’t been unhooked from the truck since leaving home.

Yesterday morning my next door neighbor,parked about 300 yards away,stopped by to say hello and fill me in on where to go for water and where to dump and get rid of the garbage.All things that are important to know when boondocking a strange area.You know,I’m getting to like this place,and I might stay awhile,at least until the temperatures here on the high desert start to cool down.I think Yuma would be just a little too hot right now.And I’m slowly recouping the awning cost because my camping fee’s so far and into the near future is 0.And like Al of The Bayfield Bunch says,I’m not an RV park kinda person.Boondocking the dusty desert isn't everybody’s cup of tea,but its mine.

  A grainy after dark shot of the lights of Overton just below this bluff that I’m parked on.

One last point,take a look at friend kathy’s blog featuring my home area and all the eagles that are now arriving. http://birdingbyshantz.blogspot.com/ I’m getting homesick already.