Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Campsites”

06 May 2013

This is Winter?

Originally posted 1/10/2013

Having arrived here from the upper Midwest, I can’t exactly whimper about winter here in Quartzsite AZ. But in its own way, it is notable. We’re heading for a short week of nightly lows just below freezing, with highs in the 50s. That’s not particularly good from a camping standpoint. There’s kind of a point of no return on low temperatures. Lows of 40 or more are a non-issue. I light a kerosene lamp overnight to serve as a nightlight and to slightly take the edge off the cold when I awaken. It’s usually 50 or more inside the camper then, and edges upward well after sunrise.

Nightlight? Yes. I’m more at ease with a nightlight, ever since the days when I would travel on business and wake up in the middle of the night in pitch-black darkness, with no clue as to where I was or where the bathroom might be. I found that disconcerting, enough so that I began to pack a nightlight so I could wake up at least having bought a vowel. Because of moonlight here, it  Read more…

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06 May 2013

Gem Show!

Monstrous geode, Dude!

Monstrous geode, Dude!

Originally posted 1/10/2013

The gem show at Quartzsite is heady stuff for anyone who likes to gawk at rocks, gemstones and jewelry. There are people with tents of all sizes hawking everything from barrels of rocks to vases made from solid rock. Some of it is pretty neat, being handmade by the artist. Much of it is things like large pieces of transparent amber imported from around the world. And much of it is simply purchased carved products unpacked from cartons originating in Read more…

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05 May 2013

Packing ‘Em In… Not!

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Originally posted 12/27/2012

The image above shows the most crowded area in my section of the LTVA. Not very impressive so far! I was talking to a couple at the RV watering hole a couple days ago, and the husband was very surprised at the comparatively sparse number of campers this year, at this point in time. It’s been gradually dwindling, but I have to wonder if vendors can afford to show up and pay fees if ain’t nobody here come start of the year. All this is fine for me personally, as it limits the load on the local water supply and waste capacity, and I’m not looking to party hearty or wedge myself into a lot of vendor tents. The core of this thing is the gem and rock shows, and heaps of RV-related vendors round it out a bit.

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05 May 2013

Weird Rain

My camera is aimed out the driver's side office window. Other than a couple of puddles, a suddenly-clean vehicle and 57% humidity, there's no trace of the rain.

My camera is aimed out the driver’s side office window. Other than a couple of puddles, a suddenly-clean vehicle and 57% humidity, there’s no trace of the rain.

Originally Posted 12/14/2012

A surprise to me, it did rain for hours last night. The ground doesn’t absorb much water at all, so the area where I am was crisscrossed with small rivers of water going every which way. About midnight, I could hear the tap, tap, tap of a water drip and got up to try to trace its destination. I wound up removing a bench seat at the dinette, where the fresh water tank resides, and thankfully found that the tapping was water dripping on the plastic lid of its inlet outside the trailer. Whew!

The weather for the next couple of days is expected to mix between sun and clouds with a chance of rain, so I’ll be monitoring my power usage to make sure the solar panels are able to keep up with things. It was a good thing that I went ahead and added those panel straps, since at one point, the wind speed was commendably high. Wind will remain significant for the rest of today.

Now that the panels are tied down, I can appreciate how unobtrusively they work. A newer camper across the way has a couple of solar panels on the roof of his trailer, but still apparently needs to run a generator each morning as soon as he gets up. Good thing I’m not parked close. The other thing I appreciate about this setup is that, during high wind storms, I’m used to having the power flicker or cut out for a few seconds, wreaking havoc with computers, printers, and other electronic gizmos that don’t do well with the sudden loss. So, I sometimes shut them down as a precaution. No need, here. Except for a near-direct hit at the trailer by lightning, the lack of being on the power grid means constant power no matter what. No precautions needed. I was able to enjoy watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas with impunity. Impunity, I say!

 

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05 May 2013

Batten the Hatches!

Look! Clouds! Real Clouds!

Look! Clouds! Real Clouds!

Originally posted 12/13/2012

Well, not really, but it will become real weather. It’s supposed to rain around 4PM today, but the main interest for me is the wind. It’s listed as 15MPH now, with 25MPH around 3PM. That’s notable only because the weather sites consistently underrate wind speed here by 10-15MPH. It’s a pretty stout South wind now, which is a direct blow onto the driver’s side of the camper where the solar panels are mounted (at about a 30-degree angle downward), so I’ll be observing their behavior as the day progresses. At least it prompts me to adjust project priorities and come up with a decent strap-down system in a timely way – not so much for here, but for the real winds that come up during Midwest storms.

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05 May 2013

Big Doin’s at the LTVA!

Originally posted 12/12/2012

Oh my, yes. While you have been imagining my going comatose of boredom out here, this area has been sparkling with activity, in a low-key turtle-crawl sort of way. More campers have been trickling in, in preparation for the numerous shows beginning in January.

I'm halfway down my driveway and, as always, admiring my new home. Sorry. Can't help it.

I’m halfway down my driveway and, as always, admiring my new home. Sorry. Can’t help it.

I heard a buzzing overhead a week ago, as in the straining of an overworked little motor. Stepping outside, I saw two ultralight aircraft soaring past.

Engine wailing, this little craft worked its way through the sky.

Engine wailing, this little craft worked its way through the sky.

Notice the jet and its trail. As is always the case, the more primitive form of transport gives the true sensation of flying high above the ground, while the technological approach insulates one from the wonderment of flight.

Notice the jet and its trail. As is always the case, the more primitive form of transport gives the true sensation of flying high above the ground, while the technological approach insulates one from the wonderment of flight.

And today, a road grader worked the Old Yuma Road, the main dirt pathway through the La Posa West Long Term Visitors Area. That was totally unexpected, and will transform the rock-strewn, diving  Read more…

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04 May 2013
2 Comments

A Gathering of Thanksgiving

Originally posted 11/22/2012

Well, naturally, I took a much-needed nap at 1:40 in the afternoon and woke up at about 3:30. Uh-oh. So much for a little catnap. I was late to the Thanksgiving gathering at Bob Wells’ campsite. Fortunately, the barbecued turkey succeeded wonderfully, and although they were just hitting the desserts by the time I got there, there was plenty enough of the staples for me. What a spread!

They also had pumpkin pie a la mode for one of the desserts. Oh my. Are you sure this is camping? Roughing it?

They also had pumpkin pie a la mode for one of the desserts. Oh my. Are you sure this is camping? Roughing it?

Life is hard out in the desert.

Life is hard out in the desert.

There were just short of a dozen people gathered ’round, mostly vandwellers, mostly full-timers, who were asking me questions about why I decided to pull up stakes and live in a travel trailer full-time. I had it pretty cushy next to this hardy bunch, but the basic motivations still applied. That also prompted them to go on from there and share their own perceptions of this unusual lifestyle. Most people don’t understand it, viewing it as dropping out of normalcy and becoming Read more…

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04 May 2013

Mucho Thrashing, Nada Accomplished

Originally posted 11/21/2012

The almighty solar controllers finally arrived this morning at a UPS Customer Center in Blythe, California, about 23 miles away! They have the customer desk open from 9-10AM each weekday, and that’s it. It’s really a distribution center. My shipment arrived a day later than expected, but it did arrive, and now awaited my tender approach. I got up for the day, emptied the waste tanks into the Tankmin truck-mounted tank, and refilled the fresh water tank in the camper before taking off. I had plenty of time to visit the dump station in another associated camping area, so I took off for there.

Upon arriving, a sign announced that the dump station was closed. I wanted to see what the story was, so I drove the extra 0.8 miles and saw nothing except tape strung across the entrance poles. Back at the check-in shack, the guy there said that the underground tanks had filled, and that the Ranger had been notified and had likely already called a tanker truck to dump it out. It would be serviceable again before the end of the day.

I wasn’t that enthused about hauling a full Tankmin all the way to Blythe and back, mainly because it had clogged before and I wasn’t sure that sloshing it all that way wouldn’t encourage heavier sediment to settle in the hose again, and plug it. I hit what was alleged to be the cheapest commercial dump station in town and my Inner Scotsman kicked in when I saw that the charge would be $12. Hoot mon, I’d r-r-r-risk the trip, aye.

So I tripped on down to Blythe, wondering at the average indicated fuel mileage of 24 MPG. A lot of it was downhill, but still… I was so pleased when the UPS center was before me, and I walked up  Read more…

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04 May 2013

Filth By Any Other Name

Originally posted 11/17/2012

Shortly before I resigned from my labors at what is one of the best-stocked hardware stores around, I went on several shopping sprees in order to modify and repair the travel trailer I planned to reside in. One of those sprees involved selecting a vacuum cleaner. I felt that it would come in handy periodically, whenever the trailer was hooked up to shore power. My past experiences with 12-volt and battery-powered vacs and sweepers have been disappointing, so I wanted a very compact 120-volt AC vac.

In my hurried visits to the Internet, I’d read many complaints about dust when RVing. Considering that I’d be packin’ a record turntable and an iMac with a pretty small cooling air inlet, and considering that the front half of the camper is carpeted (a counter-productive idea if ever there was one, along with velour-like seat fabric), I wanted to be able to at least periodically make a token effort at cleaning the place out. A friend and fellow employee at the store was and is a highly-experienced seasonal camper with a fifth-wheel. I told him about my intended quest against dust with a vac having a  Read more…

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04 May 2013

A Bikearound Day

Originally posted 11/15/2012

Last night I watched How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, one of the half-dozen musicals in existence that I feel is worth watching. I admit, being made in 1967, it bristles with sexist stereotyping. In it, all men are executives or clerks, and all women are either secretaries or gold-diggers. It certainly wasn’t crafted to reflect the realities of even that time mind you, but I don’t think it would have been made in ’77, and certainly not ’87! It was designed to parody its era, and the marked shift in popular culture since that time would make a later release date change its intended emphasis. But even viewed today, as a lampoon of Big Business and with its the over-the-top character portrayals, it sparkles with energy and fun.

On waking up today, I was surprised to see a heavily overcast sky. As of late last night, weather.com had predicted a sunny sky with clouds moving in at about noon. So, I checked accuweather.com, and they seemed to be more reality-based: overcast this morning, but largely clearing by noon. As of 3:30PM, they’re both partially right. It stayed overcast all day without any hint of a break. No surprise that the solar panels are still actively charging the house batteries, but voltage is up, and it simply means that the batteries won’t be nicely “finished off” with a true completed charge routine. Fine in the short run, but you wouldn’t want two straight weeks of it.

I decided to head for the lone pharmacy in town, a tiny back-end to the only medical clinic in town. I wanted to price out Read more…

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