Leaving Lake Alamo

March 4th, 2022 Friday

Well the week is over and we got to see a lot of burro's while here and heard a lot of them baying at night, the week was pretty awesome but pretty hot also with temperatures near 90 for several days but the day we left in the morning the clouds were coming in and it was cool. We were packed up and hooked up with the jeep the night before so we just needed to do the necessary stuff before we left.

So unfortunately after we left I needed to go to the ER in Wickenburg, it was just an ongoing pain I finally had to have checked out. It started back on about February 2nd when were were at Trona Pinnacles, I was walking jess just on the outskirts of the parking lot in the desert in the evening and stepped in a small depression with my left foot. This just goes to show how in tune your body normally is when walking, it assumes that when you step and put your foot down something will be there  and your muscles prepare for the impact at an expected level, well I stepped in this depression and it was not where my foot intended it would be so it jammed my hip up. It is like when you are going to jump off of a step your foot and leg prepare for the impact and cushion the blow with muscles to absorb the energy. Now imagine just jumping off that step with no intention of absorbing it! I have done this before and while painful it generally heals itself in 2-3 weeks. That process was doing well and feeling good and then one night I tripped on a lawn chair on our deck and twisted that hip enough that it started all over. Once at Alamo it was becoming more of a nuisance and by Friday just sitting  or putting weight on that leg was painful. Laying down was fine but once getting up was not, coughing or Sneezing was the worse and it just wasn't letting up so after we got back we drove 75 miles to Wickenburg hospital to the ER. Thinking that may be better than the one in Parker which is closer but the stories of long wait times we opted for Wickenburg. WELL that may or may not have been the best choice. We waited 3-1/2 hours just to get me back to the room and another 3 before we got out. They did a CT scan and said there didnt appear to be any damage to discs and it is just muscle damage. So a shot for pain and a script for Prednisone and Naproxen for pain was the result. Today Saturday it is a bit better but I am doing more laying in bed to try and let it get some relief. Makes me realize what Deanna goes through every day. :(

Alamo Lake Arizona

March 2nd, 2022

Happy birthday to  my brother, he turns 70 today. 

We are camping for 5 days here and its weird to see a lake in the middle of a desert. There lies a ghost town at the bottom of this lake which back in the early 1900’s was just a river till they dammed it up and flooded the region. The donkeys were just left and have flurished on their own here and in just a couple of days we have seen at least 30 if not more although some may be the same ones just moving around during the day. The lake is at a depth of about 80 feet. I guess you can scuba dive down to see it if you want. There is also some pretty neat views each day of F35 Raptor jet fighters dog fighting and using flares as weapons I guess. 

Solar Day

February 20th, 2022 

Sunday 72º

Several requests the last couple days for help on solar. Barb wanted to know what charger for her lithium batteries, Randy wanted to know if his batteries were connected right, Kurtze bought a solar charger to charge her battery from the panel I mounted last week, Carol wanted to add a second Lithium 100 amp hour battery to the one she already has. This has consumed my free time for a couple days and I enjoy every minute of it. Then a while ago Deb wanted me to look at her's cause she kept tripping a breaker. Her's was simply breakered to close to the actual amperage, she had a 30 amp breaker and needs a 40 amp.

Carol has also made the decision to add 2 more 100 watt solar panels to her van which would give her a total of 400.

Friday, we made the steps for the couple on the other side of the park. It was a fun project that Steve helped me with, no plans just design on site and make fit. The price of lumber is incredibly stupid right now and the closest place for us to buy lumber is in Blyth California at an Ace store. WOW. I bought 1) 2x12, 3) 2x6's and 4) 2x4's, 2 small packs of screws and it came to $175!

PS, painting wasnt my part of the deal, they painted the lumber and said they would finish painting the cuts after it was finished .

Future trip

 February 16th, 2022

Temp 64º

Today consisted of running to Blyth California to pick up lumber to build the steps for the couple here in the park, man California prices are ridiculous, a 2x12x8' is $30! Plus to top it off California has a Lumber Tax! Anyway got the lumber and will work on that project this friday.

Went to the dollar store to refill the supplies, the dollar store we go to is in a town called Salome which is about 20 miles away, it is better than going to the town of Quartzsite which is still pretty flooded with people.

Anyway the purpose of this post is our next planned trip which is to a State Park called Alamo Lake, actually a pretty good size lake at about 3 miles long and about a mile at its widest point across. Must be a pretty popular lake, we reserved Sunday through Thursday night and it was pretty filled up. The sites we found which is 4 together is as close to the lake as we can get. So our previous travelers were Carol and Steve and Cindy and ourselves. This time we are taking a friend Kurtze with us. The reservations are for February 27th to March 3rd. So thats about 10 days from now. :)

In a Day

February 15th, 2022

Temp 76º today but windy up to 40 mph 

So some probably wonder, you are retired what do you do all day just watch tv or something? 

LOL, no, today I moved a solar panel on my enclosed trailer to the opposite side of the trailer because I moved the trailer to the lot behind us and since the solar panel which powers the fan inside the trailer is tilted to the optimum angle to the sun was now facing north it needed moved to face south again. Not a big job and only took an hour and that included reversing the covers over the vents so the rain doesn't blow into the openings. Now granted by the time I started on this it was late morning, up at about 7am, had breakfast, surfed the net for a while and then had to walk Jess. so then Jess eats her lunch around 11 and I walk her around the park and when I get back our lunch is about ready. Today just happened to be Shepards pie and it was delicious :)

After lunch I cleaned the bathroom for Deanna since it is now important that I help around the rv. After that I went and got a materials list to build a set of stairs for some people here on their deck. After that it just so happened they were replacing the well pump for the park so naturally I had to stop and inspect what was going on there, the well is 470' feet and 225' of water and all the pipe had to be pulled out of the well to get to the pump. 

Earlier I went to look at a lady's 5th wheel that she had broken a leaf spring on the passenger side, I got her dimensions on the springs and she went and picked up the parts. An hour later I get my buddy Steve to come give me a hand and we proceed to remove the old springs on the axles. It has 2 axles but only 1 set of springs broke but I replaced the spring pack on both axles on that side. Wasn't a bad job but took a few hours to get the U Bolts off and the eye bolts out on the spring ends, all this is quite rusted stuff since the RV is a 2002. The spring that broke had 4 leaf's and 2 had previously broke off and probably years ago! She probably hit a bad bump and it broke the last 2. We finally got that project finished and it was time for Jess to eat dinner and once again a walk was required! In the meantime  UPS showed up and delivered a new tow bar I ordered, well that had to have the connector ends swapped over to the new bar. That was a pretty quick job though. That finished the day since the sun sets about 6:20 now so it's time to call it a day, tomorrow is another adventure! 

And that my friends is a pretty typical day and seldom ever boring, although some days includes some fun stuff like desert riding!

Coopers Hawk

February 13th,2022

Sometimes you just cant make this stuff up. Here we have a Coopers Hawk apparently protesting that his picturw isnt on the sign coming into the park!

Back at Gateway Ranch

 February 10th, 2022

Trip log 102 miles total trip 1079 miles

Trip cost, approximately $550 fuel, camping was $138, total $688

Its Thursday and we arrived back at Gateway,  this was an awesome trip that we shared with friends and really looking forward to our next outing.

Overnight stop

 February 9th, 2022

Trip log 182 miles total so far 977

We stopped in Lake Havasu, Az for the night to boondock before heading home. Nothing special here and it is windy. I did cook some awesome smash burgers for dinner though :)

Valley of Fire Day 2

February 8th, 2022

Exploring today was on tap, we started at looking at some petrified logs not to far from our campground they dated back to and estimated 150 million years! Then we headed to the visitors center to get some firewood for tonight our last night here. After looking at the displays of history and animals we headed to the White Domes it is called which are actually just huge rocks that are whitish compared to the red rock of the canyon here. Down the trail which is 1.25 miles long round trip is a slot canyon that is pretty cool both in appearance but also quite a bit cooler than the outside air. The trip down to the canyon is pretty steep at 180’ drop, coming back up was a little easier on the loop back. After that we headed to see a rock called Elephant rock which if it is the one we found it was a poor excuse to call it elephant rock, when we were hiking the White Dome trail I came across one that is way more elephant like. Also on the way to White Domes, we came across a bighorn sheep wondering in the road.

Leaving White Domes we stopped by some Stone Cabins that were built back in 1935 by Civilian Conservation Corps and behind those were a whole rock face of Petroglyphs. In fact there are several places here to look at Petroglyphs all quite interesting.

As the day wound down and we headed back to camp I was going to show Deanna the other side of the campground which is a road that winds through the mountains, well the other end is a one way which actually worked out very well since I just drove a bit past the entrance to turn around and when I started I had right ahead of me 5 Bighorn rams! Got some really great shots of them. So on this trip Deanna got to see well over a dozen Bighorn which she had been hoping to see back at our winter home in the desert but they are pretty elusive and never know where they will be found. This trip to Valley of Fire cured that problem! 

To end the evening we sat by a campfire and talked about all the great sites and campsites we shared, from the Borrego sculptures to the Anza Desert Canyons and camping on the edge to the Trona Pinnacles and 5 miles of horrible road to Death Valley and a frightening time of overheating the brakes do to such a long steep downhill run into Death Valley which by the way was probably appropriately named and then finishing the planned trip to here at Valley of Fire, none of us could pick the best place we stayed since each spot had such great qualities in different aspects, none were better than the others but each had something special and the most special was spending it with friends and traveling together and having so much fun. This is just one of may future planned trips. We are already contemplating a trip back here to the Valley for a little stay and then on the the Great Basin monument and then the Great Basin National park but before that we are planning about a week at an Arizona State Park called Alamo which is only about 50 miles from us. Stay tuned and follow along!