Clay, Our Hero of the Day

It's moving day.... Yay!

This morning we readied ourselves to leave Quartzsite, Brad was doing the outside stuff and I had most of the inside stuff already done so I drove in to Quartzsite to see about getting our package from the USPS before we left. No such luck.. but I did run into the guy who organizes our mail. He was there picking up a parcel from 2 days ago he tells me... just as I suspected.

Well fine, I guess it will just have to be forwarded and back to the rig I go. The rig is gone.. where - Oh, he must have gone to dump the tanks I thought and sure enough, I found Brad at the water refill station. Having already dumped the tanks.

He connected Deuce (the new Jeep) to the RV for the 1st time and that went very well, but...
We had no lights on the Jeep. WTH! So we tow it over to RV Lifestyles but they were almost too busy to even talk and couldn't get us in until Tuesday. Brad says,"Let's go talk to the guys at Discount Solar, they know their stuff." That is what we did.

All tied together as one married couple...

I went in and talked to Mike who advised that Clay (the electric specialist) was tied up with a job but when he cleared up he would take a look at our toad lights. Great! Now please take note that this is not what their business is about, they are Solar guy but they really helped us out today. Great Customer Service! Thank you so much guys.

Within I'd say, 45 min Clay was there fiddling and checking and doing whatever it is Clay does and within half an hour we had lights. In the end it was a loose connection. Whew! I asked to take a picture of him for the blog.

Hero of the Day - Clay

(1:30pm) Finally able to leave Quartzsite we hit the highway (95N), we weren't even out of the town limits when an email came in advising that we had mail! So we turned around and went and picked it up. What a morning.

With that we were off, heading to places unknown and adventures beyond our wildest dreams... Otherwise known as we got out of Dodge. Unfortunately, due to the late hour of our departure from Quartzsite we knew we would not make it to our anticipated destination during daylight hours. So I went online to find out what our other options were...

Just north of Quartzsite on Hwy 95

But by 4pm we were both tired and decided to stop at the BLM land just north of Lake Havasu. Already we have spoken to 3 different RVers (one was a couple so a total of 4 people) and we weren't here 30 min. Unlike our experience further south where we spent 3 weeks without speaking to a soul. We are closer than appropriate to a neighbouring RV but I talked to her about it prior to settling in.

The Infamous Hand (left)

Sunset view out our front door, Beautiful pink sky reflecting off the other RV's.

There are not a lot of flat spots here and we're only here for the one night so she said it would be fine. Debbie her name is and their cute puppy with white eyes is Toby, but I don't remember her husband's name but I think it started with a B (I know, I'm terrible). Very nice American couple that Brad would have loved visiting with since they are both of Military backgrounds and History buffs to boot. Unfortunately, Brad wasn't feeling very well so he stayed in the RV. Hopefully in the morning he will feel better and we can all have a chin wag before we pull out.

Made it to Quartzsite

Good morning, we arrived in Quartzsite yesterday, we paid our $180 to cover us until April, and I explained we had never been here before so they were gracious enough to explain how it all worked. The most important point is not to leave Robbie unattended for even a moment as the coyotes here are apparently big and smart.

We went down the highway to dump our tanks and load up with fresh water, drove to town for some spirits and reflectix and then returned to La Posa West to find our 14 day home.

Got a really nice spot which offers us some sun protection although if we had the trees on the other side, we'd have more, a thought for another day. For right now, we just want to relax and unwind from the chaos of driving for the last 7 weeks. The bonus here is that we can move whenever we want to a different spot within this camp or a different camp altogether as there are 7 within this system.

I didn't notice until this morning but we are situated between the big Q on the hill and the highway, almost a direct line of sight... we have an awesome view out our main window of said Q.

Its damn hot here during the day and damn cold at night. Well, in fairness to the night, we did have the Maxx fan running half the night. Today we might just wander across to the rig in the above picture and see what their story is. If they are up to being sociable that is.

We have to lose some weight, remember that printer... and some other stuff, anyone know if I can just put it all in the provided dumpsters?

I contacted our mobile internet provider last night because my iPhone says I've used 13.8G this period but their website said 4.2G... which to follow? I was told to follow the website. Bonus! So I got to watch a few YouTube videos which I have been avoiding because of our data cap. Spending that 2 weeks in Osoyoos campgrounds saved a lot of data... given the cost of data....

Now that I'm thinking about it...
    Data costs (when not in campgrounds) Avg: $7/day
    Dumping and Fresh water costs (when on the move) Avg: $3/day

Nope, doesn't make up for the campground sardine feeling at all at an Avg: $30/day

Boondocking: Priceless

Take note: that data cost is based on what we think we'll use but we don't know yet and may reduce it later.

Quartzsite or bust

So yesterday I wrote about disillusionment... we're not quite disillusioned yet, it was just a hard day. Believe me when I tell you that you will be the second to know.

So remember the $7G of solar His Lordship just bought for the RV?

Well... I was just reading online and granted it was written 2 years ago but he talks about campgrounds in Quartzsite for $200US/mo! Well if I'd known that was a thing.... like seriously, other than bingo and potlucks what possible reason could there be to live so 'without' when there is a campground just up the road for $200US/mo?!

I sure hope I figure that out because when His Lordship asks me I better have a good explanation for all this solar!!!!

Regardless, we arrived in Lake Havasu BLM country and have found us a spot. Don't think we'll stay here for any serious amount of time although it is beautiful here and we did just arrive but the 'friendly vibe' seems to be missing.

Robbie gets his good looks from MY side of the family ;)

We were driving past it yesterday so we made a quick detour and drove by The Hoover Dam. Didn't park as the crowds were insane but we got to see it and from the height of our RV we had a good view without fighting the crowds. Just as well we didn't stop because we only arrived here about an hour before dark. Have to get used to the time variances of darkness, its been weird driving down as one day the time zone is 6pm dark and the next its 7pm.

In any event, we are off to Quartzsite today so if anyone reading this is already there or planning to arrive soon send us a message. It sure gets boring out here without anyone else to harass - I mean ... nevermind. LOL

We have made a few friends along the way already and expect most of them to arrive in Quartzsite area in November sometime but my birthday is in 3 days so hopefully we'll meet some people down that way by then that we can atleast have a drink with. We're hardly the 'party' type but more a 'quiet drink' type. Though I'm sure Vickie will argue that point in the comments section below. :)

Once again, Brad took the pictures while I was driving. Can't wait to get to the LTVA today, we are almost out of fresh water. What parks will allow unregistered guests to access their stuff want an arm and a leg. The Chevron north of here was kind enough to provide us with a doohicky that I just used like a tapper on their water/air thingy and we got some but we're still reading 1/3 and we tapped it to restart it several times. The hose is just a trinkle really so we'd have been there all day.... and already our grey is showing 2/3. We haven't particularly been conserving because we're driving all day so we haven't been worrying about it, just stop and dump along the way.

About 2 hours to Quartzsite my gizmo tells me... now to get beautified.

Thanks for reading everyone, it is surprising to me how many people are reading this. It was originally intended to keep family in the loop and to know we were okay so:
Thank you to all who read and Kisses to those who comment!