My Trails

Lots of stuff!

This is the first time I have needed shade since arriving in Yuma two weeks ago. The temperature this afternoon hit 80. I love it! Give me 80 degrees over 60 degrees any day.

I rode to Yuma this morning to pick up some supplies. My refrigerator has been cooling good since the problem a week ago, and I though I would pick up some ice cream to really give it a test. I’m still a little gun shy of the trouble maker, so I’m not brave enough to load it to the gills yet.

I have been using my tanker trailer to fetch water. It follows along behind my motorcycle like there is nothing there. I see a lot of people pulling blue boy tanks behind their car, and the little plastic wheels only work at 5mph or less. I pull my bike trailer at 20mph with no problem. The tank is actually made for sewage transport and I get some funny looks when I pull it up to the water station. I have never used it to haul anything but water, and I suppose I should camouflage it with a blanket or something so as not to alarm spectators.

Yesterday I hiked one of the slot-canyons west of the LTVA. Each year the canyon changes slightly due to a fresh supply of eroding water cascading down the wash. It seemed to me the final vertical wall and boulder were much harder to get over than they were the last time I was here. I’m not sure if the wall was higher because of eroding, or it just seemed like it because I’m getting older. I’m going with erosion.

Because I have a good supply of water I do some laundry by hand. I’m not about to wash everything by hand, but doing a few things now and then stretches the interval between laundromat visits. It’s also nice to wash in hot water. Propane is available a mile down the road, and even though it is more expensive than it is in Yuma, the proximity makes it the better bargain.

I found an ingenious method to wash clothes. I fill a tub with socks and underwear, add a little soap, agitate with my hands, soak and then agitate more, and then wring them out and throw in the shower stall. Then I take a soapless shower and stomp around on the clothes – kind of like you would make wine from a tub of grapes – until they and I are rinsed.

I can feel the call of a date shake becoming very powerful. If it were not for the fact I had ice cream in my pack I would have stopped this morning on my way back. I think I may have to make a special trip!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2016 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Adventure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.