My Trails

In the place where I’m parked there are several pretty, young ladies all around me. Someone said I should try to hook up with one of them, but I’m afraid I would have better luck winning the billion dollar Power Ball lottery than that ever happening. However, if I was to win the lottery, it might not be too difficult to find one that would have me.

I’m still at the RTR hanging out until after the big tent show. I have attended some of the seminars here at the gathering, and while I can say that I have not learned anything new, it is fun to go and listen anyway. Today’s talk was on going to Algodones for dental, vision, and medicines, and it is good to hear people talk about positive experiences while there. I probably will attend the talk by a BLM Ranger tomorrow and one about boondocking on Friday. The Big Tent show starts Saturday and I will head south to Yuma after that.

I guess everyone knows that my refrigerator stopped working. My options were to drive back to Phoenix and try to get it fixed, go without a fridge, or figure out a temporary fix. I decided to buy a small portable compressor fridge that would let me get by for a while and also be a backup in case this happens again. My luck with this gas refrigerator has not been good.

Yesterday, while running to town to pick up the new fridge at a store that accepts Amazon deliveries, I lost the ramp to my motorcycle loader. If you change your routine while packing up, you will undoubtedly forget something. I left the motorcycle here when I went to town and forgot to tighten the clamps that hold the ramp on. I drove up and down the road twice once I realized it was gone but to no avail. This morning I walked past the neighbors camp and there it was laying by his trailer. I guess he thought finders keepers.

I think one reason the people camping out here have so many dogs is for warmth at night. With the clear, cloudless sky, it gets down close to freezing every night and I’ve heard some say they have to snuggle with their dogs. Once the sun breaks over the hill, though, it warms up fast. By noon or sometimes earlier I can get out on the motorcycle for trips into town. All this sun is giving me good charge with my solar, too.

These van dwellers bring back a lot of memories of my time traveling in a van. Life was sometimes simpler then, and I could go places and do things I can’t in my class C, but I wouldn’t want to go back to stooping over all the time, not being able to take a shower, and digging cat-holes in the woods. I guess I’ve gotten soft.

and more Signs

Quartzsite has been pretty dull for a week now. The weather for the last four days has been rainy and cold and the desert empty of boondocking RV’S. Yesterday, many more rigs started filling the area where I was camped. I found myself trapped between a group advertising themselves as Solo SKP’s and another with a sign that said Christian Fellowship. I’m sure both groups were nice and they would willingly take me in, but I didn’t feel like I belonged to either one.

I was ready for a change of scenery anyway so I packed up and headed south of town to a gathering known by the name RTR or Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. If you have a $500,000 motorhome, this is probably not the place you want to be. 90% of the people here live in a van and enjoy a simple life of off grid existance.

I was surprised at how many young people there are here. The majority are retired but quite a few working age couples and singles have found that not having a house and the lifestyle that goes along with it has given them the freedom to travel and be happy on a lot less income. Some have Internet business, some work part time at places like Amazon, and some camp host or work for the Forest Service.

I didn’t write this to debate their lifestyle or even judge what they do, and I suppose why I drove in here was more curiosity than anything else. So far most of the people I have met are very nice, not at all what you would think of when you hear the word “Tramp” in their title.

The one bad note I have to report is a dead refrigerator. I’m not sure what I will do to remedy that problem. The best report is sunshine all day today and forecast to stay that way for several days to come. I will try to get a picture of the sea of camper vans in this area to post later.

Q

I’m parked on a lonely stretch of desert, just off Plomosa Road, nine miles north of Quartzsite AZ. There are a few RVs about but nothing like I have seen before. It is still early for the influx of snowbirds that come here for the mega reunion and event know as the big RV tent show. I expect the area where I’m camped to fill up in the next two weeks.

The weather has been cool so today was my first trip into town. On my way I explored Hi Jolly campground and road down 95 to check out the LTVA south of town. Each area was filled with many more rigs scattered about than here on Plomosa rd. It seems like people want to be close to town and those places fill up a lot quicker.

My new batteries are doing a good job. They run my electronics, pump, and furnace with plenty of power and hold up well overnight. It is very overcast today so I will see if my solar can bring them back up to full charge.

My propane will probably be the first supply I will have to replenish. With all the cold nights lately, I let my furnace kick on if it gets down to 50 degrees in Minnie. During the day my catalytic heater does a nice job of keeping me warm but I never use it at night.

That’s about it. If I do anything I’ll let you know.

Rugged

Fish Creek

Yesterday I rode Honda up the Apache Trail. The road is paved for the first few miles and then becomes dirt just past a tourist settlement called Tortilla Flats. Along with hairpins turns and steep sections, the dirt surface is filled with potholes, ruts, and washboard ripples. It is a road suited more to motorcycles, jeeps and 4 wheel drive vehicles than cars, and Honda handled the drive without problem.

I turned around before I made it all the way to Roosevelt Lake. It was getting late and I mainly wanted to sample the road anyway. Someday I will ride all the way through.

Cave

After four months of touring the northwest, I will return to the Phoenix area in a few days. I have seen a lot of beautiful country and enjoyed the rambling lifestyle that has become the trails of my retirement. People ask me what part of the country is my favorite and I have to say it is the next place down the road. Sometimes it is hard for me to remember all the places I’ve been. In fact, I have to go back and read my blog to remember what I did.

San Luis Reservoir

Central California is dry as a bone and flat as a pancake. If they don’t get rain soon, It wouldn’t take much to turn it into another dust bowl. Below Sacramento on Interstate 5, I felt like I was driving through Kansas. On my map I noticed a National Park that I haven’t been to before and decided to make it the last attraction on my journey.

Situated below San Jose in the foothills of the Coastal Range is Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles sit right on the San Andreas fault line. It was formed by molten rocks and lava that spewed out between the plates in the Earth millions of years ago and eroded to form towering spires of rock.

I asked Carrie Esau to go see the park with me and we had fun hiking, biking, scrambling through two caves, and enjoying the Ranger led campfire talk at night. I say campfire but there is actually no fires allowed in this park or just about any park in the northwest.

I am at Quartzsite tonight. It is still pretty hot in Arizona but I’m hoping for some nice temperatures soon.