Fulltiming Road Runners

Still no resolution on our electrical issue.  The guy Thom needs to talk too at Zantrax has been gone.  Thom will try to call him again tomorrow.

Marv and Deb were going to leave here today and head for Yuma for a week, but the weather report a couple of days ago was saying rain on Sunday and they didn’t want to tow in the rain  so they will probably leave tomorrow.  They do plan on coming back here for a week, then meandering their way home to Utah.

Chuck ‘n Sue are still here, but will be leaving late this week.  We’re gonna miss them bunches!  Hopefully, they will be back next year.

That will leave Thom and I all alone again.  We don’t mind being just us, we enjoy each other’s company.  We need to start organizing and getting things ready to move to the storage shed or pack up to take to Cemetery Point with us.

Until yesterday afternoon, the weather has been perfect, temps in the low to mid 70’s and light breezes.  Yesterday the wind kicked up with the storm coming in and today it’s been raining all day and is supposed to continue into the night.  The high today is only supposed to get to 58F… pretty chilly compared to what we’ve been getting.

We’ve all heard of Slab City in California and have been curious to see what it’s like.  Last Tuesday Marv ‘n Deb, Chuck ‘n Sue, and Thom ‘n I took the whole day to drive over there and back.  It took 8 hours to drive there, look around a bit, stop and eat our sandwich picnic and drive back home.  I’ve got a lot of pics to share, but first a little background…

Slab City takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap there.   It’s just outside the small town of Niland.  There are no signs giving directions to Slab City so we had to stop at a service station to ask directions.
Snowbirds and even a few year round residents have moved in and set up free camping.  There are NO amenities such as water, sewer/dump station, or electricity, not even a phone.

A little bit before you get to Slab City you see this:

Shortly after you pass “You’re Almost There” you’ll see a huge, very colorful “work of art”.   I have no idea how long the creator, Leonard Knight, has been working on this, but it has to be many years.

A flower hill next to Salvation Mountain.

Just a little beyond Salvation Mountain is the “entrance” to Slab City.

There were RV’s and campsites of all kinds, but when we were there, there was no sign of the newer big rigs people say are in there.  Of course, this was the beginning of March and those people may have left for the season.  We saw a lot of the camo netting being used for shelter.

Some people even turned one of the abandoned bunkers into a “home”.

It looks like some people have a whole bunch of time on their hands.

All of us agreed, this is NOT a place we’d like camp.  Where do these folks with permanant or semi permanant setups dump their rigs?  We’ve heard they dig holes and dump in them.  Many of the rigs out there certainly aren’t movable.  They also just dump their garbage and discards on the ground out there.  You wouldn’t believe the number of flies out there.

They do have their own church.

I took a whole lot more pics, but didn’t want to bore you too much.

Oon the way to Slab City we drove along the Salton Sea.  We pulled into one of the campgrounds to take a look.  There were lots of seagulls and pelicans.  I got a pretty good shot of the California Gull.  Believe me, the Salton Sea is NOT that blue.  The color you’re seeing is the reflection of the sky.  The water is actually a weak coffee brown.

I’ve got several pics of the wild flowers that are opening now, but I think I’ll wait for another day.  This blog is plenty long enough already.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

I don’t know what my problem is with blogging lately, but I sure don’t seem to get it done very often.  Sorry.

Time is really flying now.  March is here in just 2 days.  That means in about 6 weeks we’ll be leaving Quartzsite.  Guess I better start getting things organized and ready to pack up and move north.  We have to leave the LTVA by April 15 which is the end of the season, but we don’t have to be on the job in Utah until May 13.  I don’t know what we’re going to do for a month, but we’ll figure it out.

We still don’t have any answers on our electrical problem.  The guy from Zantrax called Thom and he’s not got much of an idea of what’s going on.  He can’t figure it out.  He’s given Thom a couple of things to check out.  Thom did those today and everything is as it should be.  Thom will be calling him back on Monday.  The Zantrax guy doesn’t know if it will help, but he suggests we get the software upgrade on our inverter and see if that fixes the issues.  Of course we’ll have to pay for the upgrade because we’re no longer under warranty, even though we’ve had issues since we bought the 5th wheel almost 4 years ago.  We don’t know if it’s a wiring issue or an issue with the inverter.  Whatever it is, we think the manufacturer should cover the cost of the fix because they installed the Inverter.  We’ve gone through at least 5 fluorescent light fixtures and more than 2 dozen fluorescent light bulbs in less than 4 years.

Knowing our luck, we’ll probably have to go back to the manufacturers in Indiana to get it fixed and that is around 2200 miles one way from Quartzsite, which will cost around $750 in fuel one way (Figuring $2.99/gal for diesel).  It could be that’s what we’ll be doing that one month before we report to work in Utah.  I hope not… our emergency funds are dwindling.

Speaking of “our luck”, we had to replace the two batteries in our ‘03 Dodge Ram 3500 dually pickup today to the tune of $250.  Actually, we’ve done pretty good… the old batteries lasted 7 years.

On our way to Blythe today to get the batteries I noticed a lot of the flowers alongside the road are opening.  We saw California Poppies, Lupine, Brittle Bush,  Apricot Globe Mallow, Desert Gold (or Desert Sunflower), and most of the Creosote bushes along the road are opening out.  Spring is definitely early and already getting beautiful.

We got a phone call on Thursday from the couple who managed the Monte Cristo Campground in Ogden Canyon last summer (Miles & Gary).  We were their supervisors and  got to know them pretty well.  We talked to them a lot last summer about boondocking in the LTVA in Quartzsite and suggested they give it a try.  They called because they were in the area and wanted to stop by.  They just decided to take a road trip for a week and come down and see what we were so enamored with.  They spent the night, sleeping in their van.  It was so great to see them again and spend a few hours catching up.  They will be back at Monte Cristo this summer to manage it, but we won’t be supervising them this year.

Gary  didn’t say she liked it here, just said it’s certainly interesting.  It would really be fun having them here next year.

We had a cloudy day today with rain this evening, but only a slight chance of rain tomorrow and then sunshine again with temps in the 70’s.  I’m loving it.  The rain is keeping the dust down and flowers popping out and the sun and temps are perfect.

Time for me to get dinner in the oven and us fed.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

We’ve had fantastic weather with highs in the mid 70’s for almost a week, then yesterday Mother Nature decided to  cloud up  and blow a bit cool.  It was actually pretty nice in the afternoon, but evening got cool and cloudy.  We got rain last night which lasted most of the night.  Today was sunny/cloudy with a hefty breeze up to 25 mph.  Most of us stayed in all day, only going out to walk the dogs.  Tonight there is a 30% chance of rain showers and 40% chance tomorrow.  I don’t mind at all, having spent 13 years in Aberdeen, WA with an average rainfall of 98″ per year.  I just love the promise of beauty to come.

This spring is going to be absolutely gorgeous with all the rain we’ve had this winter.  We already have flowers starting to open up.  I was out during a sunny period yesterday afternoon and managed to get a couple of shots of the newly opened California Fagonia and the Fairy Duster.  The Apricot Globe Mallow is budding out and the bushes along the highway are beginning to open, those along the wash will be open within a week.  I’m seeing a few Desert Marigold, Desert Dandelion, and Brittle Bush in bloom, again it’s those along the highways.  There is so much green out here in the desert now.  I can’t wait to see what the newly emerged plants turn into.

We’re still getting new campers signing up out here.  These are the folks who come here out of curiosity because they’ve been told about it by friends and want to check it out, or those who just have a love for the desert and solitude.

Have I mentioned the coyotes are much more “aggressive”  this year?  I don’t mean aggressive towards people, but braver towards coming into our campgrounds and hunting.  We’ve had them right under our windows at 4:30 in the morning yelping and calling out their location.  I wish there were a way to get the word out to those camping here that they really really need to quit throwing leftovers in the washes.  We always mention it to those we sign up, but not a lot of the contact station attendants do much more than sign the people up and give them their receipts.

About our electric problem.  We got a call back from DoubleTree Rv (mfg or our 5th wheel) on Friday.  He said he spoke to Xantrax (mfg of the inverter) and they told him it was a programming problem with the inverter.  Apparently it wasn’t programmed properly, if it was programmed at all.  He told Thom the Xantrax tech would be calling him (we thought it would be Friday) to discuss it with him.  He checked back with us in the afternoon before he went home for the day and we hadn’t heard from Xantrax guy yet, so he said he’d call us back on Monday (tomorrow) to make sure things happened.  We’re still in limbo, but closer to real answers.

Here are the pictures of the two flowers I got yesterday and then it’s good night.

The California Fogonia:

and the Fairy Duster… 2 shots:

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

…I’ve taken so long to write another blog.  Probably because we are trying to play catch-up after our colds knocked us down so hard.  I’m pretty much over it, but Thom is still coughing up flem and generally feeling tired.

We’ve enjoyed having Marv and Deb back and it was fun to spend more time with their friends Rick ‘n Sheree (who left for Parker today).  Our new friends Sue and Chuck are still parked out by us and we’ve enjoyed getting better acquainted.  We just keep meeting more and more people we don’t want to loose touch with.  We sure enjoy and appreciate our lifestyle which allows us to find all these new friends.

The weather here has been just a fraction from being perfect.  It’s been warm (highs in the mid 70’s), a slight breeze during the day, and clear, beautiful, blue skies.  This is supposed to last for at least a week.  The only thing that might make life better is for me to go back, check my tax forms and find I made a mistake and we don’t have to pay, but get money back instead.  (dream on).

Our toilet had another leak… this one leaking fresh water thru the vacuum valve into the toilet.  We had to turn off the water to the toilet until we could get a replacement valve ($50) to put on.  Marv and Thom got that done yesterday.  We’re at the point now where if one more thing goes wrong with the toilet, I’m gonna say “Just replace the whole toilet!”

We bought our 5th wheel in 2006, moved into it in August of ‘06.  We had the manufacturer put fluorescent lights in the ceiling in our bedroom and living room instead of incandescent because they are more efficient energy users.  NOT FOR US!  Right from the beginning the bulbs in the bedroom would blow every few months.  We’re at the point now where none of the 3 fixtures in the bedroom work.  The ballasts have all blown.  Come to find out, we are putting out 14.3 volts straight into the fixtures… they can’t handle that kind of power so blow the bulbs/ballasts.  I don’t understand electricity at all, so I may not be explaining this correctly, but I’ll do the best I can.  When the problem first started a few months after we bought the 5er, the service tech called the manufacturer because he couldn’t find the converter.  He was told there was no converter because we had a Zantrax 3000 inverter.  Today in a conversation with the manufacturer of the trailer, Thom was told all the units they made had a converter in them.  They told us where the converter should be and Marv took a gander… nothing there but a transfer switch.  There electric engineer is supposed to call us tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.  It will be interesting to see what they come up with.  The 5er has been out of warranty for 1-1/2 years, but this issue has been going on since shortly after we bought it.  I have copies of all the work orders.

I’ll be sure and let you know what the outcome is.  Knowing our luck, it will be a couple of thousand $$ out of our pocket to fix the problem.  I guess we’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to make things work (and not blow up) these last 3-1/2 years.

There is a gorgeous campfire going outside, with great friends gathered around it and I’d love to be a part of it.  I’m going to say goodnight and go join Thom, Sue ‘n Chuck, ‘n Marv ‘n Deb!

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

We are still recovering.  Every day it’s a bit better, but we are sure ready for 100%!  Which isn’t here yet.  Between Thom’s snoring and my being breathless, one of us is on the couch in the early morning.  When I can’t catch my breath (swollen nasal passages) I go to the couch so I can rest sitting up.  When Thom is snoring he goes to the couch so I can sleep.  Needless to say, neither of us is getting a full nights sleep on any night.

Whine!  Yup, I’d love a slice of cheese with that.

Because I’ve been wanting to get to Desert Garden’s rock and gem show before all the vendors go home, we decided to spend our energy today wandering down there.  I bought a few slabs to make cabs from.  I was hoping to find some Alexandrite but none to be found.  I did find a slab I’m anxious to work on.  I think I’m going to try to share it with you in photos from slab to finished, polished cab.

After we finished the Desert Gardens Rock ‘n Gem show we headed to our favorite vendor downtown and partook of our favorite snack - deep fried jalapeno cheese curds.

This is a shot of the vendor’s food stand.

and this is a shot of the cheese curds.  The curds and jalapeno are dipped in a tempura batter and then deep fried.  Thom orders the regular order (on the left) and I order the light on peppers (on the right).

ohhh YUM!

Now… if you are in the Quartzsite area and have a desire to try his wares (homemade lemonade is fantastic, corndogs are worth writing home about, and french fries and onion rings compare to the best of ‘em) he’s given us his schedule so we can find him as often as possible until we leave the area.  He’s given us permission to share it with you and if you take advantage of it, you will be very happy.

He’s here in Quartzsite at the food court in the Main Street vendors area in the Food Court (across from Pilot Gas) until President’s Day, February 15th.

-Tuesday, Feb. 16 thru 2o - Lake Havasu City, London Bridge, Mardi Gras
-March 5 - 22 - AVI Casino, Laughlin, NV, Parking Lot Market Place (in Tent, not Yellow cart)
-March 11-14 La Paz County Fair (Vendor Cart)
March 26 - 28 Laughlin Rodeo
-April 10-11 Bull Ride, Laughlin

If you don’t catch these guys here in Q, then be sure to look them up if you are in any of the other areas during the time they are there.  Everyone we’ve led to them come back and thank us.

By the way.  I mentioned the rain we had the other day.  It did come down very hard and very fast for a few minutes, but it did not, as others may have reported, fill the washes and create hazardous conditions on the roads.  Please don’t think Quartzsite’s weather is one extreme or the other.  Sure, Q gets super hot, and super wet, but that’s not the norm, usually it’s moderate according to the season.

Okay… it’s time for me to get my book and chill for a while before I go to bed wondering if it will be me or Thom on the couch tonight.  hehe.  Luckily, the couch is pretty comfortable for me and I can sleep pretty well sitting up with legs stretched out.

Things are going on as usual, except very slowly and in a bit of a fog.  Thom and I are still recovering from our colds.  I’m a step ahead of him, but still am not 100%.

We worked Thursday and Friday.  It’s a good thing they were slow days.  We signed up 11 on Thurs. and 15 on Friday.  That was just enough to keep us from going crazy from boredom and not enough to overwork our befuddled heads and aching bodies.

We needed to get more dog food for Willow and the best price is WalMart so we went to Parker yesterday to get the dog food and some groceries from Safeway and Basha’s.  We had a 60% chance of rain yesterday and it definitely gave us 60% worth.  On our way home from Parker we had a real downpour.  We could barely see 10 ft in front of us even with the wipers going full speed.  Luckily it only lasted a minute or two.  Once again our world is absolutely gorgeous today with the sun shining on all the new washed brush ‘n trees.  As soon as I can breath normally and have a bit of energy, I’m going for a long walk in the desert to the Southeast where the campers aren’t.  It’s lovely out there with ancient Ironwood trees, and I suspect the flowers should be opening again within a week or so.

With many of the campers going home and not many coming in, the BLM has cut back our hours.  The station is still open every day, but instead of being open until 5:00 p.m. we close at 4:00.  It won’t be long until they have us shut down every other day.  When we do that, the days we are closed the station across the street will be open so people can still register.

When you’ve been sick and pretty much out of touch, you don’t have much to report, so I’ll say g’bye and go do 3 days worth of dishes - yuck!

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Thom decided to join me in being sick.  I don’t think I gave it to him though.  He came down with it just 2 days after I did.  I’m definitely getting better… last night for the first time since I got sick I managed to spend the whole night in my bed instead of upright on the couch.  To top it off, I slept almost all night long.

We’ve met a very nice couple from Oregon at the contact station.  We signed them up and did a bit of talking during the signup, inviting them to stop by anytime.  They visited us last week a couple of times.  During our discussions we invited them to come setup in our area and yesterday afternoon they finally moved in.  With us being sick AND having to work today and tomorrow we haven’t had time to spend with them yet, but plan on changing that soon.

We have an issue with the lights in our bedroom and it’s driving me crazy!  We have 3 florescent fixtures on the ceiling in the bedroom.  The first fixture entering the bedroom had to be replaced under warranty the first year we had the trailer.  It still seemed to go thru tubes much more often than any light fixture should.  About 2 months ago the bulbs died again so Thom took the bulbs out of the second fixture (which was working fine) and put them in the first fixture… no workie.  Then he took those bulbs and put them back in the middle fixture… no workie.  What the hell’s going on?  We put brand new tubes in the middle fixture… no workie.  Now we have 2 fixtures that won’t work and the 3rd one we have to tap to get the bulbs to light.  Scarey.  Tonight the 3rd fixture quit working.  Thom put new bulbs in it… you guessed it… no workie.  I guess we need to check the ballasts, but the way things have died, I personally believe (with no electrical knowledge at all) the wiring in the bedroom is all mucked up!

We count on Marv way too much, but maybe he can help us out when he gets back.  He had to go back to Utah to deal with medical/housing issues with his father and will be gone a week or so.

It’s time for me to hit the shower.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

Sore throat, fever, stopped up nose ‘n all.  Sorry I didn’t get a post done yesterday.  It seems this is the season for Judy to get sick.

Do ya think Mari’s germs just sat and incubated for a whole month before they attacked me?  Prolly… She’s a unique person with unique happenings in her life.  Nothing is normal with her.  LOL

While Marv ‘n Deb’s friends, Randy ‘n Char(lene I think), ‘n Deb’s brother Bob ‘n his wife, Susie were here we took a drive to the Desert Bar  The desert bar is a must see (one time) but Thom and I don’t have any desire to to go back.  Click on the words “Desert Bar” to visit their website.  After the Desert Bar we went on to the west side of the Colorado River.   Driving along Hwy 95 south we pass several campgrounds.  The wild burros frequent this area and again I got shots of a couple of them.  This time a Momma ‘n baby (Jenny?).

Four days ago Thom and I decided to go on the first leg of our exploring trip along California hwy 95 north.  We had Bob & Susie with us.  Just outside of Blythe we found a “farmer” who was selling grapefruit for 8/$1 and tangerines 15/$1.  Sue and I both picked up the grapefruit and I grabbed some tangerines.

About 10 - 12 miles outside of Blythe there is a turnoff to the Blythe Intaglios.  I took a couple of photos but the Intaglios are so big you can’t get a decent shot without being at least 30 feet in the air.  By the way, the word Intaglio is the opposite of embossed.

I do have a shot of the gorgeous mountains to the south of the intaglios.   That’s our car in the shot.

Further north I saw a great white Heron on the side of the road.  Thom was kind enuff to stop and stalk the guy so I could take photos.

One more photo… A couple of days ago Deb came over and asked me what I’d do with a hummingbird just sitting on the ground in front of her trailer.  I instantly thought the hummer had whammed a window or a pole of their canopy.  I went over there and picked the hummer up and just cupped it in my hand until it started moving around a bit.  I then put it on the hummer feeder and it flew to Marv’s car.  It was still stunned so I got a few really good shots of it, and then it “woke up” and took off.  I was especially pleased because this hummer was a Costa’s Hummingbird

n I’ve not gotten a good shot of one showing the purple gorget.  This photo shows him still fluffed out with gorget spread out in a threatening manner.  This is his way to appear bigger and a threat even though he was totally out of control.

Today we went with Marv ‘n Deb to Mexico to pick up prescription drugs ‘n a few things in Yuma.  I felt pretty good this morning heading out… no fever… etc., but by the time we got home I had a fever and felt like crap!  This evening my fever is at 101F ‘n I’m trying to figure out a way to breath with my sinuses all stopped up.  Wish me luck ya’ll!

Sorry this is such a weird disjointed post, maybe next time I’ll be healthy again.

Sorry I’ve not posted in a few days.  Just been busy.  Right now I’m just posting to let ya’ll know we’re fine, have had some very good days and I promise to post a more informative blog by Sunday.

Tonight we went to the Fireball’s concert here in Quartzsite.  Tremendous show!  They are the group that did Sugar Shack and Bottle of Wine.  We’re tired, it’s nearly 10 p.m. and we have to get up early to go to work tomorrow, so I’m not going to rattle on.

As I said I promise to post again by Sunday and share some pics I’ve got from the last few days.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

Another big storm, this one was the worst we’ve ever seen out here.  Actually we had 3 storms in a row, the 3rd one the heavy duty one.  Tuesday night we got 1/4″ of rain from the 2nd storm.  Wednesday we had a respite and then Thursday the big one hit!  Around 2 p.m. we were told to close the contact station and go home.  The winds were fierce and it was pouring.  Our garage managed to stay up, but one of the straps still tore off a corner at the bottom while we were at work.  Marv managed to tie it down so it wouldn’t be further damaged.

After we got home when we’d take Willow out to go potty she didn’t know what to do… her potty spot in the wash north of us was covered with a foot of water.

This is a shot of the wash on the south (back) end of the trailer.  The pic was taken shortly after we got home from work around 2:30 or 3.

The skies just kept getting darker and darker and the wind fiercer.  Marv called a little before 5 p.m. telling us he’d been watching a weather channel either on TV or his computer and there was a tornado to the south of us heading our way.  We all got in our cars, drove out to a more open spot east of our trailers ‘n motorhome and faced into the wind and waited it out.  It was way too dark for us to see anything, but we didn’t get hit by a tornado.  The rocking of the car sure felt like it though.  When the skies to the south of us got a bit lighter and the wind died down  a bit we went back to our trailers.  Deb’s brother’s motorhome is parked so it blocks the wind’s full force from my weather station, and yet, the weather station registered winds at 40 - 45 mph.  I wonder how fast they really were.  According to my weather station we got 3.2 inches of rain in the hour of the tornado scare.  The wash at the back of the trailer (5er) was at least 3 feet higher than in the picture above.  The worst of the storm was over by 5:20 p.m.  but the winds were still very high, so we were rocked to sleep Thursday night.

We’d stowed the internet satellite dish  Wednesday night and didn’t bring it back up until yesterday after work.

The rain had softened the ground at least a foot deep and some of our tie down stakes on the garage pulled out, the shepards crook the bird feeders were on pulled out of the ground from the feeders blowing.  Our Weber Big Q bbq blew over along with our bikes on their stand and one of the ladders.  Because we worked yesterday we haven’t been able to get out and take inventory of any damage, but it looks like it was minimal.  Our BLM Ranger, Clyde, told us yesterday they’ve found at least 6 beautiful Saguaro cactus fallen/blown over.  He and Larry went out late yesterday afternoon to try to get them upright using a back-hoe.

It was quite windy yesterday, but little to no rain and fairly sunny.  Today the skies are a beautiful blue with just a few cottonball clouds, a bit of a breeze (6-8 mph) and cool.  The high temp today is supposed to be below 60F.  As a matter of fact, the highs all week are supposed to be between 55 - 64F.

It’s now time for me to get my dishes done, then get outside to help clean up the wind damage.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.