Fun with Friends in Quartzsite!

The Long Term Visitor Centers are really starting to fill up. With this comes seriously slooooow internet. It is so bad that several of our friends who work out of their rig and rely on the internet have vacated the area. This will continue until after the show.

Along with this influx of people come a number of really cool, unusual and truly bizarre accommodations. I say accommodations as you cannot call some of these rigs. You everything from $500,000 rigs to tiny houses, people living out of van and other living in tents.

Easily over a million dollars of buses in this shot

A couple of tiny homes even dot the landscape

And you even have your tenters.....

The line at the dump stations is also growing. The wait at the peak of the show can be up to 2 hours! If you time it right, you can still get in and out in a few minutes as it seems everyone rushes to the dump and water stations first thing in the morning but in the late afternoon (happy hour/dinner time) you can usually drive right up without a wait.

More new arrivals means more happy hours! Friends Harry and Vicki arrived this week, we celebrated by going to the Desert Bar. For those of you unaware of this bar it is located several miles outside of Parker and several miles down a VERY rough road. The bar is totally off grid and operated solely on propane and sun power. The number of solar panels there is incredible!

Following Harry up the rough and dusty road

One of several solar covered patios

(l-r) Sue, Les, Ray, Deb, Dianne, Steve, Vicki, Harry and Barb

The band played everything from Johnny Cash to Grand Funk

Our most bizarre incident of the week when we were on a wheeler ride with Steve, Dianne, Roger and Cindi. We were giving Roger and Cindi a tour of some of the local attractions; Erdman Mine, Yum-Yum mine, the Indian grinding holes and a couple of stone houses.

Indian Grinding Holes

The Yum-Yum mine goes pretty far back into the hill, probably a few hundred feet. You can see fairly well the first 50 yards or so but after that you need a flashlight.

The entrance to Yum-Yum Mine

Light at the end of the tunnel

A chute deep in the mine

We get in about 100 yards and you cannot see your hand in front of your face without a flashlight and this creature appears on the side of the cave wall!

We don't know exactly what it is/was but think it is a coyote based on the pointy nose. It had either died in the cave or if someone brought it in but seeing that was definitely bizarre!

After that encounter we all decided that we needed a beer and headed to Beer Belly’s for some refreshments and music.

Barb relaxing in the giant chair

then Cindi gave it a try!

Speaking of beer, as many of you know we love to visit breweries but this area of Arizona seems to be devoid of such establishments so instead of driving hours to find one, we brought the brewery to us! We had our first (of what I hope is many) Quartzsite beer tasting. When Barb was at Total Wine and More in Phoenix, she picked up a variety of beers using their Build You Own Six Pack promotion. Now we just had to find someone who appreciated beer...hmmm....The Colibaba's!

So we had then over for this event and tasted a variety of beers.

Deb and Ray stopped by as well rounding out our group and making for an enjoyable evening. Each night we sit outside and wait for the sunset to see what lightshow nature will provide, we are rarely disappointed......

Confessions of a Full Time RV Newbie

What constitutes a Newbie? Someone who is full timing less than one year? Two years? Five years? Meeting Cindi and Roger last week who like us, are starting out with minimal RV’ing experience reminded us of all the mistakes we made our first couple of years. Mistakes that most everyone has probably made over the years but definitely learning experiences. Our motto has always been to learn from our mistakes and never repeat them but more importantly learn from the mistakes of others and never make them yourselves.

With almost three years under our belts now, we have had our share some of which I have confessed to and others up to today have kept to ourselves. Our first mistake and one that we continue see is that you should not trust your GPS 100% of the time, there are times it is just plain wrong. Within our first month on the road it led us down a gravel dead end road in California that resulted in some serious scratches on our brand new rig and our first melt down leaving one of us crying on the side of the road. Then there was the time we were passing through Chicago when the GPS guided us onto the express lane during rush hour. Not a place you want to be with a 40’ rig going 60mph. There have been other examples of when the GPS has tried to lead us astray but now our policy is….if it does not make sense, double check.

Where to turn around......

Pulling into a new campground can be intense no matter how long you have been on the road. Three things we have learned about pulling into a campground….1) Never pull in hungry. The anxiety level of most RV’ers is highest when pulling into a campground and finding a site. Barb and I have a pretty good system for pulling into a site but it can be intense and there is always a crowd who loves to watch the drama unfold should things go wrong. Pulling in hungry just adds to the stress and shortens the fuse to a meltdown. Now if it is even close to lunch or dinner we will pull over and eat before entering the campground. 2) Never pull in after dark. For obvious reasons this is not a good idea and we have never intentionally planned a trip where we pull in after dark. If we are driving somewhere until dark we will usually plan the nights stop for a Walmart or Cabela’s and plan a midmorning arrival to our destination campground. 3) Just because you can does not mean you should. Even when everything is going right you can get yourself into trouble. On more than one occasion we have been assigned a campsite the office said would be no problem to pull into. But maneuvering a 40’ rig within inches of a poorly placed rock or low hanging branch has caused more than one intense moment. In the beginning I would be stubborn and say, “I can get in there” and in each case we made it in. But just because you can does not mean you should….. we will now go back to the office and ask for a different site if we find it too tight.

This is what happens when you try to squeeze in tight spots

Some of our most disgusting incidents involved emptying the black tank. Being newbies we had never used a blueboy before. Did you know you have to open the vent before you take the cap off the hose when emptying the blueboy? Well, if you don’t, the resulting pressure creates a fountain of poo when you take the cap off and let me tell you, a fountain of poo is no good.

Did you know that when you are filling the blueboy you have to watch it carefully and shut off the valve on the RV when the blueboy is close to full? Do you know what happens when you don’t? Your blueboy is full, the hose is full, the pipe on the rig is full with no place for it to go….result, more poo everywhere. No happy hours at our rig that week!

But by far the most disgusting incident involves the first time we used a macerator pump. There are three hose connections; an in, an out and one I later learned was the fresh water rinse. Let me tell you, if you hook them up wrong…..let’s just say you don’t want to ever do that because the result is…..you guessed it, a poo shower followed by undressing outside your rig and throwing all your clothes, shoes included right into the nearest dumpster (after showering (twice) and getting dressed).

Our scariest incident occurred as we were driving west for the first time. We were just outside of Laramie Wyoming when we drove into a snowstorm that progressively got worse. To the point where we were in whiteout conditions and the rear end was slipping going up the Happy Jack Pass. Never again will we drive into a snowstorm again!

Never again!

On one occasion our fridge stopped working. No problem we bought this really fancy extended warranty that covers “everything” so we make an appointment at an authorized dealer to get it fixed. Several hours later it was fixed and we were presented with a $90 invoice for a fuse. Needless to say the extended warranty does not cover blown fuses. To be fair, I did check the fuses in the rig but did not know there was an inline fuse behind a panel on the fridge. Lesson learned.

One mistake that was narrowly missed but for the grace of Barb. We were at our daughter’s house and getting ready to leave. I got the rig ready to roll and told Barb she was good to go and I was going to take the jeep to the storage area where she was going to pick me up. ½ way there I realized that I did not put the dish down. Our 13’ clearance now became something closer to 17”. With no phone and no way to contact her I am panicking as I am passing under bridges that would clearly rip the roof wide open on our rig. I turn around somehow trying to think of how I was going to stop her. When I finally did see her coming down the road the dish was down! She said she saw it at the last second as she was getting into the truck. Whew!

These are just a few examples of mistakes we have made and in comparison to others we have seen or heard about they are minor in comparison. We have had friends forget to put in their awning and drive away or leaving the awning out in high wind both resulting in the awning being torn off. We know someone who ripped the roof off their rig due to low clearance and two people whose 5^th wheels drop on their beds of their truck due to not being securely fastened and of course the dreaded putting gas into a diesel truck. I now touch the word diesel on the pump twice before starting the pump.

Looking back, most of these happened within our first year on the road. Does that mean we are getting older and wiser or just lucky?

Happy Hour Week at Quartzsite!

One of the things we love about this lifestyle and especially Quartzsite is all the new people you meet.  We have met more new people this week than we have in a long time. At least I think they are new people……..with the multiple blows to the head last week I am not sure if I am meeting them for the first time or we have been friends forever!

I think we went to someone’s rig for happy hour every night this week. If this keeps us we are going to have to make another run into Phoenix to Total Wine and Liquor! The first people we met Roger and Cindi, first timers to Quartzsite who had contacted us through RVillage and had some questions on the logistics of Quartzsite. They are a great couple who are new to FT’ing. They have two dogs, a quad and love geocaching, we found we had a lot in common with them and we shared stories and experiences laughing at all the similar mistakes we each made starting out FT’ing.

We also met their friends Jim and Brenda who are seasoned FT’ers of over 14 years. Both couples have Momentum Toy Haulers which are really handy when traveling with toys. Jim and Brenda’s has a large garage and a deck while Roger and Cindi’s is a new design with a tuck under garage which fits one side by side.

We really liked this design and had it been on the market when we bought ours we just might have bought this instead.

The next night we were invited over to happy hour at fellow FT’ers/bloggers Rick and Kathy. They had been following our blog for quite a while and when we were finally in the same area, it was time to meet up! They are a great couple from Winsor Ontario who are new to FT’ing but have been PT’ing for quite a while. Rick is quite the handy guy and has been busying installing solar to their new rig and making other modifications.  Unfortunately it was dark and we were unable to get a picture….next time!

The next night was back over to Cindi and Roger’s who had organized a get-together on RVillage for anyone that was in the area that wanted to come. About a dozen couples showed up. The interesting thing about events like this is that you have quite the variety of people attend. Steve and Dianne were in attendance as well, we met some great people and made plans to do some riding and geocaching with Roger and Cindi in the near future.

Just when you think the fun is over it continues! We had another happy hour the following night over at Steve and Dianne’s welcoming some more friends of ours that came in over the past few days. Les and Sue who we had met last year and caught up with in Homer Alaska again this past summer as well as Donna and Allen, and Deb and Ray who we had also met last year. We also met Susan and Guy who we have been Facebook friends with for quite a while but this was our first time meeting in person.

Daisy and Dakota even attended!

(l-r Dale, Sue, Les, Steve and Allan

Susan, Donna, Nancy and Ruth

Steve, Allan, Ray, Deb and Steve C

We also got out of the quads one afternoon going on a 50 mile trip with Steve, Dianne, Bob, Sue, Earl and Allison. We went to Crystal Hill down in the Kofa area. The area is known for the crystals you can find on the hillside. We did a little rockhounding for about an hour and Barb was able to find several small crystals. This was the first long ride for Dakota and she did great! She rode in the back for the most part but every once in a while she would sneak up to the front seat with the rest of us which made for some tight riding!

The view from a tower hill

A working windmill provides water to the wildlife

Lunch stop at Crystal Hill

A couple shards of crystal Barb found

The weather finally started turning a little nicer with highs in the upper 60’s and I was able to get up on the roof to start resealing the edges of the roof line. Over time the sealant will develop cracks and deteriorate. I noticed a couple spots last month when I was tilting the panels so I figured it was time to put a little added protection on the joints. Let me tell you that Eternabond tape is some sticky stuff, once it touches something it does not want to let go and if it touches itself, forget about it. I got about ¼ of it done the first day and will slowly complete the rest as weather permits.

One of the corners that was giving us problems

The Big Show starts in a couple weeks and the desert is really starting to fill up. We have more friends showing up over the next week or so and I am sure there will be plenty of happy hours to greet them!

Caught  this guy trying to sneak by the rig one morning

New Year's Resolutions......

Although she didn’t tell me I figured out Barb’s New Year’s resolution. To try and kill me……In the last week she has tried  not once but twice! Both involved head trauma, both could have been passed off as “accidents” and both were initiated by her. The first attempt occurred as I was outside organizing the belly of the rig. She was inside and called me so I stick my head in the door, am talking to her when BAM! I am struck on the head by a heavy object. I go down holding my head and looking at my hands for blood. Luckily I there wasn’t any but it certainly hurt like hell! Once I was able to get to my feet again I look inside the rig to see the wooden plaque that hangs above our door on the ground. It has decided to fall of the wall at the very moment I stuck my head in and bonk me square on the top of my head! Accident? I don’t think so……

Imagine that hunk of wood dropping from 7' and hitting you on the head!

Fast forward an hour…. I have recovered and have a nice lump on my head when Barb asked me if we have room under the bed to fit some stuff. So being the dutiful and wonderful husband I am I dropped everything to comply with her request. Our bed lifts up but the gas struts that hold up the bed are not strong enough to hold it up. No problem we have fishing rods in 4’ aluminum tubes under the bed so I use one of those to prop it up. I am under there organizing stuff to fit what she wants to put in there when she walks in and “accidently” kicks the tube holding up the bed causing the bed to crash into my head and pinned me there momentarily until she lifted it up to see if I was still alive. Does she express concern? Does she apologize? No, she laughs! An evil maniacal laugh!

Reenactment for visual purposes only.... 

So my friends, this could very well be my last post. If I do meet my demise in the near future, it has been a good run and please have them thoroughly investigate! For my part, my resolution is to be a better husband than I was last year.....hopefully it will work and she will keep me around!

We rang in the New Year “New York Style” meaning we watched the ball drop in New York and called it a night. We woke up about 1:30am, (1:34 to be exact) to high winds and a torrential downpour. The awning was bouncing around a little so I went out and secured it. After the initial surge the wind died but the rain continued until about 6am. We awoke to the sound of running water and it took a minute to figure out what it was, we now had a river in our backyard! Amazing how a couple hours of rain can change the landscape!

What the wash normally looks like

The morning after the rain

With all the rain came a lot of indoor time and it appears as though Dakota and Daisy have fully bonded, I am not sure they could get much closer!

They both have their paws crossed like little ladies

The New Year’s wind also blew in the Colibaba’s from British Columbia. They stayed up there to spend Christmas with their kids but were ready to head south to escape the cold weather. Barb and Ruth planned a happy hour for their arrival, it is great to have them here!

Steve, Dianne, Ruth and Dale

Bring on the Happy Hours!

Christmas in Quartzsite!

Christmas arrived with clearing skies and a day full of sunshine! We had been running the generator on and off the past 4 days due to lack of solar power so the sun was a welcome sight. Christmas is a time that most people get together with friends and family and the ever dreaded…. Christmas Drama… crying kids, in-laws or families that just cannot get along, everyone has experienced it. You would think we would be exempt from drama, after all it was just the 4 of us out in the middle of the desert…..Wrong! When you have a 2 year old lab, they think the world revolves around them so when we laid out Daisy and Dakota’s stockings filled with dog treats and toys Dakota wanted it all. Once all the gifts were unwrapped Dakota decided that she did not want to share becoming very possessive taking each of the toys one by one into the back corner of her crate and laying in there protecting them!

After all the antagonizing about it for several weeks I got Barb an Instant Pot! (Hey, that is what she asked for) So we are now part of the Instant Pot Club, I think we were the last members for many of our friends who got one in the last year and absolutely love them! Barb got me a training collar, I am still uncertain if it is really for me or for Dakota. After 31 years you would think she would know better than try to teach me new tricks.

The day after Christmas we had our first visitor! Our friend Kevin from Wisconsin was in Phoenix visiting his parents for Christmas and drove out to spend a couple days with us. We went jeeping the first afternoon heading out in the desert just west of the airport. I had a general idea of where we were heading hoping to come out on the Marble Mine Rd. After 3 hours we were still jeeping along with no road in sight. When a group of 4 wheelers approached us from the opposite direction we stopped and asked them if we were on the right track. “Yup just take the next right and it will wind towards the mine”. Perfect, we were ready to get out of the desert and head back for a beer. 30 minutes later still no sight of the mine or the road when we run across another group of 4 wheelers coming our way. We ask them about the mine or the mine road and they say that there is nothing out there but desert but they are headed back to town. So we turn around and follow them. Well we were within ½ mile of the mine and zigged when we should have zagged after taking the next right. Moral of the story bring a map or GPS when out in the desert!

That night we went to Heaven’s Kitchen BBQ for ribs! We had been there last year when he visited and that was the one request he had when he was here. It did not disappoint!

Those of you who know us know we like it really cold in our house. Always have and it is not uncommon for us to see our breath in the morning when we get out of bed. When we lived in a house we always turned the heat up to “company heat” whenever someone came over. But we would not need to do that for our tough guy buddy Kevin right? But even so, we turned the heat up to 50 and just to make sure he did not get cold we gave him two blankets. After inflating the bed and tucking him in we retreated to our bedroom, closed the door opened two windows and went to bed. During the night we heard the furnace kick on twice so we figured Kevin was nice and toasty in his bed. Imagine our surprise when we woke up the next morning with him wearing everything he brought on standing over the heat register with a blanket around him shivering like he was freezing! He later told us that his house is usually set between 70 and 75 and he likes it really warm! Well, that is one way to insure he was not going to spend another night!

The next day after going to Grub Stake for lunch we went back to rig to have a few beers and fly the drone. Kevin had never flown a drone before and actually flew it further away from the rig than I ever have flying it over 5,000 feet away……straight to the clothing optional section! Luckily it was a cooler afternoon so there were not anyone wandering around outside but even still….my apologies to the good folks over there, sometime you just cannot control your friends!

Kevin flying the drone over the clothing optional section!

Yesterday we had a lunch date with our friends Dale and Ruth who had recently returned from a trip to Cancun. And bonus…. It was my birthday! Ruth prepared a great meal of tri-tip tacos, those combined with a few beverages and great conversation made for a great afternoon! Unfortunately it started raining so we had to cut it a little short. Then to top it off we got a flat tire driving the mile and a ½ back from their place. Luckily it was one of the rear duallys and we limped it home on the one good tire rather than change it in the rain and mud.

Tazzy turned her head at the last second

What cat do you know that has her own chair?

Barb showered me with gifts; a hat, a shirt, a new tackle box and a new reel case so I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my new tackle box moving items from one the old box to the new one. The evening was topped off with a great dinner of king crab legs and lobster! There are pros and cons to having your birthday so close to Christmas. The con is that growing up you constantly hear “this is a combo Christmas/birthday present” but on the positive side some of my favorite foods are on sale as it is the day before New Year’s Eve! We were able to pick up some king crab at $14/lb and a couple of small lobster tails for $4 each which Barb cooked in her new Instant Pot….totally delicious!

Tomorrow is the start of the new year ending one of the most adventurous years of our lives. I cannot even start to tell you what the highlights were, there were just too many.  Our Alaska trip was absolutely incredible, the fishing, the scenery and the new friends we met along the way. Looking at our Travel Map, we started our year and ended our year here in Quartzsite. As a matter of fact we are within a couple hundred yards of where we parked last year. It has been a great year filled with memories and friendships that will probably last a lifetime…..

Bring on 2017 and let the adventure continue!  

The girls found another geocache!

Quiet Week in the Desert

What a difference a week can make! This is going to sound weak to many but it went from highs in the mid 70’s with lows in the 50’s to windy with highs in the 50’s and lows in the upper 20’s/low 30’s. It is interesting to see the diversity of how people dress around here and you can certainly tell where people come from. You see everything from people in down coats, hats and gloves to people in shorts and t-shirts all out and about at the same time!

Aside from our normal water, waste water, line dancing (Barb) and laundry routine, we had a quiet week. With the weather being like it was we stayed inside much of the time. I did manage to repair the blue boy with some JB Weld, hopefully we won’t have any more leaks. Between the rain, wind and dust storms the rig got a nice layer of dirt on it but with the help of the California Duster we bought last year it was back shiny in no time.

Dakota had a rough week. We got her spayed this week. Could you imagine going through a heat cycle and having pups in a 5^th wheel? One of the challenges of being a pet owner on the road is finding reliable veterinary services. Barb jumped on the internet and used Yelp and Google Reviews to quickly determined there was nothing locally that we wanted to entrust Dakota to. She did find a reliable vet in Yuma but they wanted to do a pre-exam several days in advance of the surgery meaning an additional 180 mile round trip. So she went on to Phoenix where she found a reasonable ($115) vet who got good reviews. So she set up the surgery along with a microchipping ($35). After the surgery, they also got us for an additional $25 "abnormally large uterus fee" who knew.....

This worked out well as she wanted to go to Phoenix to do some Christmas shopping anyway. So 5am Tuesday morning they were off to Phoenix. I don’t know all where she went but I did see a Cabela’s bag in the truck when she returned! She also had a liquor box full of booze from TotalWine and More. Although the liquor prices in Parker and Quartzsite are not horrible a bottle of Apothic wine was 6.97 at Total Wine, $2 cheaper than around here and a 1.75 bottle of Captain Morgan was $4 cheaper at 19.99.

Dakota was traumatized and sore but is now quietly recovering here in the rig. We just have to keep her quiet for 7-10 days and the stiches dissolve.

Daisy, with her sister out of commission and cold and windy outside, cuddled up with a blanket and a book......

Looks like another....."You will pay for this" look

Dakota recovering from the anesthesia

Speaking of Dakota, we finally came up with a middle name for her! We were looking for something that was a natural, like…Daisy Mae. It came to us by “accident” but it is the perfect middle name for her. She is such a clumsy klutz. The other day while standing by the front door she got startled, jumped up the stairs and slammed into the door again tumbling over backwards. Barb said, “Good thing we did not name her Grace” It was at that moment we knew we had the perfect middle name for her!

That’s it for this week…….To all our friends, family and blog readers, Merry Christmas!  We really miss the friends and family time we traditionally attended this time of year, one of the downsides of this lifestyle. But know we are thinking of you and wish you nothing but the best……

Merry Christmas Everyone!

What is There to do in Quartzsite?

One of the most frequent complaints about spending the winter in the desert outside of Quartzsite is that there is nothing to do other than to sit out in the desert and watch that days go by. And there are days we are happy just doing that. There is nothing wrong with the occasional day of just sitting in your lawn chair reading a book and taking the dogs for the occasional walk.

That said, there is plenty to do in the area! If you are into geocaching there are literally thousands of caches in the area. There are both strings of caches as well as more scattered single caches everywhere. If you get on a string, it is nothing to hit 15 or more caches in an hour. We typically take our 4 wheeler when geocaching as it makes all but the most remote caches accessible it is also much quicker when traveling the rougher desert roads.

A wedding bell cache

This only shows a portion of the caches in the Quartzsite area

No 4 wheeler? No problem, there are still thousands of caches at are accessible by Jeep, truck or even a car.

Speaking of 4 wheelers there is always the 4 wheeler adventures back into the hills to explore abandoned mines, vistas and other attractions. Since we got our new tires we have been on several rides and although Dakota is not running to the 4 wheeler wanting to go for a ride, she is not running the other way either.

Adding Slime helps with the countless cactus thorns that will puncture your tires

You never know what you will run across in the desert....a pet cemetery!

One of our many walks in the desert

Hiking trails abound everywhere, we have not hit the trails yet this year but we did get our share in last year. I am sure it won’t be long before we hit the Palms Canyon hike that we did several times last year!

If exploring the desert is not your thing, there are plenty of things to do in town. It seems like there is something to do every day of the week and even more on the weekends. The QIA  Activity Center has something going on all the time. Spanish classes, line dancing, exercise classes and of course the ever popular bingo just to name a few.

QIA Activity Calendar

Click to Enlarge

Barb has been going to line dancing classes the past two Wednesday for 2 hours, She said the classes are a lot of fun with about 30 participants. There are several levels from beginning to level 4. Right now she is going to beginner but is considering level 2.

If none of that excites you there is also plenty to do and see with just a short drive. Yuma, Parker and Lake Havasu and even Algodones Mexico are all within 90 minutes. We spent a day in Parker this week running errands; grocery shopping, hitting the ATV and automotive store and even a movie. ($6 on Tuesdays). We saw Office Christmas Party as we were in the mood for comedy. We had low expectation but this movie was actually hilarious and it was not crowded at all. Something that I am sure will change as the season progresses. 

We are making good progress on our project list crossing off the tires on the 4 wheeler, brakes on the jeep, the detailing outside of the truck and completing the wax job on the rig.

Install new brake pads on truck
Install new brake pads on Jeep
Install new fuel filter on truck
Change differential fluid on truck
Detail truck inside and out
Get new tires for the 4 wheeler
Change oil in 4 wheeler
Repack Bearing on rig
Seal RV Roof
Replace sun roof on rig
Wash and wax rig
Buff out scratches on rig
Put up our adventure stickers from the last several months
Fishing reel maintenance

It seems like every time we complete one item on the list we add two. Waxing requires you to touch every square inch of the rig which led to more projects; while waxing the skirting on the passenger side I noticed a pencil sized hole in the aluminum skirting. Upon closer inspection I saw that there was a piece of angle iron coming off the frame that was touching the aluminum and eventually rubbed a hole through it. It was very tight under there and the only way to get to it was to use a hacksaw blade with my hands and cut 1/8” off the corner of the angle iron so it was no longer touching the aluminum. Next step figure out how to fix the hole.....Very bad design!

You can see how the angle iron would rub the side when going down the road

Hole from the outside

It won't rub anymore!

Add on project #2…..The front of the rig nearest the ground really takes a beating from rocks and gravel. Last year I replaced the rubber edging and painted it with Flex Seal, well much of the paint had come off the rubber edging so I taped it off and gave it another coat.

Before......

....After

 #3…..Then while changing the brakes in the Jeep one of the lug bolts had some thread damage and broke when trying to force the lug nut over it. This required me to take the rotor off to get the broken lug bolt out and wouldn’t you know the axle nut was froze too so I had to go buy a 36mm socket and a breaker bar but we eventually got it done.

One of these lugs does not look like the others......

But our most memorable event of the week occurred when I emptying our sewage into our Blue Boy. Until our friends Red and Pam get here with their macerator pump we either have to hook the rig and drive it over to the dump station or we have to use our Blue Boy and take it to the dump station 42 gallons at a time. Before I go any further, I know many of you are hoping that this story ends with me covered in poo, I am sorry to say I remained poo free.

Everything was going well, I got the Blue Boy filled to capacity hooked it up to the 4 wheeler and started the slow trek to the dump station. As I was driving along I would glance back to make sure everything was going well until one time I looked back and saw a wet line behind the Blue Boy I stopped to look and saw a pea size hole (pun intended) in the hose and was leaking as I went down the road. We saw a couple of Blue Boy catastrophes last year and evidently it was my turn. Well at least I did not lose the whole load in the middle of the road like one guy last year! I jumped back on the 4 wheeler and beat feet to the dump station with a trail of pee following me. Guess, I have another new project!

Temps in Quartzsite this week

Temps in Douglas, North Dakota this week!

We have been watching the crazy weather across the country and are glad we are camped out in this warm little corner of Arizona as opposed to our farm friends in North Dakota!

So as you can see there is plenty to do in the area and we did not even get into the Big Event and all the Jeeping trails. But even with all that if you find yourself getting bored look us up, I bet there is a project that you can help with!