Thursday, January 23, 2014

Jan. 23, 2014 -- Time to move again.

We spent the last month in Quartzsite, AZ.  Like previous years, we stayed in the BLM’s long-term camping area called La Posa North where we lived without utility hook-ups.

The BLM supplies two sewer dumps and 8 water spigots for campers holding either the two-week ($40) or annual pass ($180). With careful rationing, we can last 6 days between sewer dumping and refilling the water tank on the camper.  We drive two miles south to La Posa South and then in one mile to the Sewer dump/water station.  Most of the time, it is easy.  however, during the Big Tent show, the third week of January, we can end up in line for up to 45 minutes—like we did yesterday.  But, we just bring a book up front and read until our turn “at bat.”  (See the links from last year.)

We handle our electrical needs two ways:  First we have two solar panels (thanks to Don Del Rosario) on the roof installed by AM Solar in Eugene, OR, that keep the two golf-cart batteries charged during the sunny days.  We also use our Honda friend when I need to use the microwave or the Vita Mix.  I even made waffles last Sunday morning with our friendly Honda.

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I can start this little generator with two pulls!  Amazing little machine!!  I love this little guy! 

When I have to charge my smart phone or the computer, we draw from the batteries with 12-volt chargers.  We try to keep the phones charged up in the car, but sometimes I have to use the car charger in the camper—mostly when I have talked toooo long!  The computer is charging when we start the generator—but sometimes that is inconvenient, so we purchased a 12-volt charger for the computers from Amazon several years ago.  It does a great job on both of our computers—Dell Inspiron 1520.

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Larry had rewired a 12-volt plug into the camper years ago—and we use it much more now that when he first installed it.

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The little red heater by Mr. Heater Buddy, is our other life-saver.  The regular heater uses too much electricity to run and would drain our batteries.  Mr. Buddy runs off the canisters and provides about 4-6 hours of heat per canister.  This year the canisters have lasted two days/evenings because it has been so warm.  Other years we burned about one per day.  That still only costs us about $5.50 a day for camping.  Not bad in today’s pricey world.

Yes, I heard what you were thinking—how about carbon monoxide with a heater burning inside the camper?  Besides having an oxygen sensor in Mr. Heater, we run this in the camper:

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See the zero?  That is after the heater and generator—outside the camper, have been running.  The only time the number changes is when I use the camper stove.  Making a pot of coffee can run up to 65 pp “whatevers.” IAs this meter is about 5 years old, I have ordered a new one from Amazon to make sure we operate in the safe zone.  I don’t want an alarm, I want to know what the numbers actually are—so we don’t get up to the number to trigger the alarms.

And this is how we make our daily coffee—which we really enjoy!

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Again, Amazon was the only place where I could find a stainless steel stove-top percolator.

To save cooking time, I purchased a fantastic Pressure Pro pressure cooker from a booth at the Big Tent sale a few years ago.  It was terribly expensive and worth every penny according to Larry when I make him stew!

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Thanks to Costco—we use reduced sodium Better than Than Bullion Soup bases.  With the soup bases and the pressure cooker, we can have soup or stew in about 45-90 minutes.  That makes Larry happy—and anything that puts a smile on his face is fine with me!

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Our Q-time was fun, but Larry has some medical needs that need to be attended to in Antioch, CA.  So, we left Q-town this morning and are headed back to the SF Bay area for a week or two.

If all goes well, we will be able to return to Q for about another 5 or 6 weeks left in the season.  If the skin lesion requires further medical treatment, we may be stuck up there until it is time to head up to Salem, OR.

We are in Needles, CA, for tonight and tomorrow in Bakersfield, CA.  Then on to Tracy, CA for a few days.  I will post more either tomorrow night or when we get to Tracy.  Life on the road is filled with detours—some detours driving the camper—and some detours in our plans.  We just count every day we are able to travel in the RV as a blessing!  So until the next installment, we wish you safe and happy travels.