If it's April it's Almost New Mexico, Sorta

Here we are in April.  All the quarterly reports and statements will be flowing in and me without internet soon.  Haha.  Not totally as I will bike 3.5 miles to the Portal Cafe for a milkshake and wifi. Good trade off huh?

Bisbee to Sunny Flat

I thought I would be writing this from Sunny Flat campground in Cave Creek Canyon.  But we are actually at Rusty's RV Ranch in Rodeo, New Mexico for one night, then back to Arizona to Cave Creek for a week or whenever we feel like departing or run out of supplies or fill up the waste tanks whichever comes first.  Hehe.

We didn't leave Bisbee until noon as I was catching up on internet stuff while Sraddha walked and waited for the new Old Bisbee Coffee Roasters freshly (daily) roasted coffee beans.  She got Ethiopian Queen City Harar and Bali.

We stopped at Walmart in Douglas to pick up a couple things like fresh bird seed in anticipation of hanging out our feeders.  By the time we arrived in Sunny Flat, the last spot was just scooped up a few minutes earlier.  Oh well, you snooze,you lose.  Not the end of the world really as we have learned that "sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you". We have magically scored wonderful locations and other times not.  Fortunately we have a fallback plan B.

Rusty's place -  Chiracahua's in Back

We drove back out to Rodeo on New Mexico side of the border and north 4 miles to Rusty's RV Ranch where we initially stayed last year.  Full hookups and beautiful big sky view of the Chiricahua's but a round trip of 25+ miles (=3 gallons of gas = $11 or so...just sayin as my frugality side kicks in).  This was mollified by the good deal Rusty gave us for a one night stay.  She understood we wanted to get into Sunny Flat.  So we parked it, hooked up, settled in and prepared to face the heavy SW winds coming in.  We had mostly tail winds getting here and it wasn't as bad as last year (yet).  Fortunately no dust either although that is projected for today.

This morning, Sraddha drove back out to Sunny flat, scored a campsite for tonight, drove back to Portal Cafe and texted me that we have a spot so now, after I finish writing this, I will button up the RV and head out to the campground.   We don't have internet out there.  Dry camping in one of the most beautiful places in area for $5 per night.

More later in week.

Oh boy. New tires... And shocks.

Oh boy. We pulled into Beaver, Utah off I-15 to get gas and to turn west to Great Basin national park.

We noticed the front tire had a real problem. See pic below.



We had planned to replace the tires this summer anyway and this option was better than getting stuck out in middle of Nevada or hava blowout. So off the tires come. ALL 6 OFTHEM.


Charli has the front tires off here.


Turns out the shocks were bad and making the tires bounce.Plus 7 yr old tires the inside bands were cracked and expanding.



So now we have new shocks and new tires.
A rather expensive day (don't ask) however we are fortunate this didn't happen on the road.

- blessings from the road

Location:UT-160,Beaver,United States

Talk about the ultimate off-road RV.

As we departed early this morning from our little stay north of Albuquerque, I saw this RV sitting in the park. Had to stop and snap a pic.



Wow. Custom built somewhere in USA because I saw a video on them. Don't need a spare jeep with this puppy.

Anyway, we arrived in Socorro about 75 miles south and watching pro football while waiting for photo buddies to arrive from Tucson.

We don't have cable here at our RV spot and antenna doesn't work so watching satellite. We can't receive the network channels because we are out of Sacramento range. We do get the NFL package so watch the games.

HOWEVER, and this is big, if a game is being shown on the Sacramento network channel, it is blocked on the satellite. Thus, we don't get to watch the 49er game. Bummer. Well we can watch it on the redZone channel that bounces around the different games. There are 3 afternoon games so we get to watch some of the 49er game but not all of it. Oh well.

Almost time to go out and photo shoot the Sandhills cranes as they return, at sunset from feeding all day out in the fields, to the pools of water in the refuge.  The best time to photograph them is the hour before dusk which, today, is around 5 PM, so we will head out around 3 or so.  It takes about 25 minutes to get there and set up.  Will have to see where the best place to photograph depending on the wind because the cranes land into the wind.  More later on this whole scene.

Rest Stop Lumch

Late post.  this is during second day of travel at rest stop south of Salem, Oregon in Willamette Valley.  we stopped to eat some of the fresh foods brought from home.  Corn from our garden and "Heaven on Toast".  The photos tell it all.

feasting on fresh corn on the cob and broiled figs on toast

Corn on the cob from our garden.  we brought it with us.  Yummy

Take ciabatta, add Dolce (sweet) gorgonzola, then layer with figs.  Broil to crispiness.  this is in fact.."Heaven on toast".

Heaven on Toast

And our view from the lunch table.  Charli on right in case you were wondering...

Home Sweet Home

After 2 months of traveling we are home!

Stayed last night in a KOA west of Lodi near the delta.  So this morning we drove around the delta area looking at various potential campgrounds for future use.  We were aghast that the nearby Brannon Island State Recreational Area is scheduled for closure July 1.   We hope it doesn't happen.

We found one possible RV park with a quiet vibration and one little gem in a county park.  We also discovered that the Hwy 12 exit on I-5 has a great place to refuel, add propane, dump waste and then head out.  It is only less than 3 hours drive (in RV) from home so we figure it will work for future trips.

We arrived home about 5 PM and were greeted with a tree limb across our garage roof.  Seems last weeks storm had its way with the tree but it appears that no damage occurred.  We will get a head start on next winters firewood.

Madrone tree fell on our garage roof.  Whew! Seems it hasn't damaged anything.

One of the big decisions we have to make is where to park Charli when we are home.  Last fall, we parked it down at the end of our road next to the Gaia house, thinking it could be developed into a good  parking space for other RV visitors to the Expanding Light retreat and Ananda Village.  

However, as we further investigated the costs, it seems that we might be better off saving some of this cost by parking Charli next to our garage.  If we widen the side about 3-4 feet with a retaining wall, we could have enough room to extend the slides when needed.  Everything would be nearby.

But could it work?  We needed proof of concept.  Can we back Charli down the hill and past the corner of the garage. Last October we could not have done this due to inexperience but we have been on the road for 3 of the past 5 months and Sraddha has developed a real good sense if directing me as I drive.  I had scoped it out in March when back for work and it seemed it would work.

 We trimmed some tree branches sticking out into the driveway and gave it a go.  After about 20 minutes of back and forth and additional tree limb trimming, we did it.  With room to open the bedroom slide.  So now, we will seriously explore widening the area.  

Stay tuned.

Proof of concept - We shoehorned in Charli next to Garage!

Tehachapi - Rain and snow.

Up this morning early and the sky had cleared out. Rained most of night so ground got a good soaking. Wind still strong and temps cold.

We headed out. 3 miles back to interstate at Yermo where we knew w could find a "decent" gas price for the desert. Filled up and headed west. Fire at was for snow and high winds on tehachapi pass. Sraddha drive over the desert as the winds really threw us around. Some tricky cross winds. Hit us as we circled around Mojave town. The windmills were doing a brisk business.

We stopped at Kramer junction where 395 and 58 cross to ask some eastbound truck drivers about pass conditions. Everyone said the winds were a factor but roads passable with no ice which was our biggest concerne since the temp in the Internet said 32 degrees. Anything above freezing was fine with us. The alternative route through Tejon Pass I-5 was a lot longer and had fog issues.


She pulled over just past Mojave and I hopped into the drivers seat. Started up the grade and found some snow. Fortunately we had waited a whole before heading out so temps were warming up a bit.

We passed Monolith cement factory. (see pic below) and through tehachapi. Beautiful snow covered hills greeted us and the roads, while wet, proved not icy.

As we descended Tehachapi pass and the famous tehachapi loop we saw 6 trains in process of climbing grade. Sraddha grabbed the iPhone camera and got a pic of one of them.

Snow turned to rain and rain dried out as we entered Bakersfield. We drove over to buttonwillow for our favorite salvadoran restaurant and also gassed up. Back in the Valley again.

As I write this fr the passenger seat, we are almost to our Lodi campground destination. Only 100 miles from he. We will relax by the delta tonight and enjoy one more night on the road. Tomorrow we will stop en route to do some shopping and be home leisurely by late afternoon.

More blog posts forthcoming to catch up on some missed spots. Charlie the RV will get a new home after being on the road 5 months. She will be close by and we will begin to consider next adventure.

Approaching Mojave Town.  Snow in the Tehachapi pass area.  Windmills busy.

Monolith Cement Plant near Tehachapi

Eastbound Train near Tehachapi Loop

It Does Rain in Mojave Desert

Departed Zion this morning with sunshine but we knew that was about to change. An unseasonably cold hard storm that directed us to head south over Mojave instead of North through Nevada.

We bucked 30-40 mph headwinds much of the way on I-15. We turned south to go around Vegas through lake mead recreation area but didn't escape the winds.

As we drove past the Nevada/CA border, the winds picked up.  We were in the slow truck lane with flashers turned on indicating less than 35 mph.  Over the pass we go and the rain began.  It continued off and on, mostly on until we reached our destination for the night near Yermo (just east of Barstow).  Calico Ghost Town is a county park in San Bernadino County 3 miles north of interstate in a sheltered canyon.  Having stayed there last November, we figured it would offer respite from the 40+mph gusting winds.  We had called earlier in the morning to reserve a space only to discover when we arrived that it was double booked!  Uh oh.  What to do?

 The rain had termporarily subsided.  We pulled into an unoccupied space (was reserved) and sought out the onsite park ranger.  Meanwhile we discovered we had parked in the middle of a bunch of people here for off roading activities.  They had their souped up jeeps and OHV's and engines running and gunning.  Quite the chaotic atmosphere in stark contrast to our last visit in November.

Ranger Rod called someone to try to track down the problem but all the offices were closed.  He indicated that the D section was available first come first served.  While it had electricity only, it was rocky.  It was getting colder and windier by the minute. I couldn't walk very well due to sprained ankle so we unhooked Mr. Toad and drove off in search of one of these sights suitable for our needs.  Although we can dry camp with no problem, having electrical is handy.  We had water and had drained the waste tanks.  This turned out (as most do) as a blessing because the D section is up in back in a quiet area.  Well, as quiet as the wind would allow.  We scored a sweet location that was pretty level,  easy back-in and setup and voila!.  We cooked up some dinner, watched a little recorded TV. (Diners, Drives, & Drive-ins) and then retired for the night.  The wind howled and swirled above us and the rain pelted us most of the night.

It does rain in the Mojave.  and it gets cold too.  We are now ready to head for the valley.

Looking west at Yermon.  That's Charli and Mr. Toad.  It rained all night

Ominous Clouds in west.  It began to rain as I limped back from snapping this photo

Oh no!! The Slide out broke in open position!

We arrived in our RV camp just outside of Zion National Park gates and scored a spot next to the Virgin River.  First we had to unhook Mr. Toad (no additional name yet) from Charli and found it to be quite difficult on a grade or when they are not parked straight so we walked around the camp to find a level spot.  We should have realized then and there that level spot means different things to different people.

We pulled head into our spot on a hot gusty day.  Had just driven 250 miles from GC through northern Arizona over some beautiful roads in windy conditions and were tired and over heated.  Narrow spot.  How are we going to store Mr. Toad and open the slides?  Pull forward, nope,  move left? nope, move right? nope.  ok, back to pulling as far forward almost touching the BBQ grill which we weren't going to use anyway.  Ok?  lower the automatic levelers.  ALL the way in front and still not level.  Hmm.  ok, almost level.  Let's try sliding out the front slide. 

YIKE!  About 6 inches out I noticed the back end going out fine but the faster and farther than the front end.  In fact, the front end isn't moving at all!  Uh, oh.  Retract.  Back end moves but front doesn't.  Now what do we do?  Ok stop.  retract levelers.  try again.  Nope.  Hmm.  Can I move the RV?  Start engine and yes, it moves.  Good news and bad news.  Meanwhile Sraddha looks at another spot 2 doors upriver and she walks 1/4 mile back to office to check availability.  She comes back and says we can move and it appears a little more level.

Ok, so we carefully back out of space, and move over 2 doors to the other space with the slide still extended.  We level it and it is better but not perfect.  Did I mention we were over heated yet? (body temp only).  We can live with this.  The firdge still works and the bedroom slides out fine.  What to do with "broken slide"? Ah Ha!  when we bought Charli the RV dealer threw in a 1 yr subscription to "Priority Care" an emergency road care service.  We had internet and cell service (not always the case on this trip) so I dialed up the phone number and eventually got a technician on the phone.  We diagnosed the problem which turned out to be a broken pin underneath the front slide.  Sigh. 

 "Can you manually pull in the slide", she asked?  

"How do I do that?" I answered.  

"It might say in the owner's manual", she replied.  

Zounds what a brilliant idea I thought.  We didn't get an owner's manual which the RV dealer promised us so we bugged the Tiffin Manufacturer who finally sent us one.  It arrived while I was visiting home for some work so I cleverly put it in my return luggage.  Open to page 8-4 and there it told me how to manually do it.  Except I was really tired and hot and we could live with the slide partially open today.  So she calmly said she would research someone to come out tomorrow if I preferred (they pay travel costs and I pay labor to repair) or I could do it myself.  The instructions were complicated.  Something about dismantling switches and sensors, etc, so I said, sure,  send someone out.  She said she would call back in the morning with someone who could come out.  "OK" I said.  

Meanwhile, the heat and wind were taking their toll.  The good news is that we remained even minded and cheerful and never got upset with the situation or each other.  We decided to table the whole thing until the next day.  Oh, yes, the water hose leaked a little and we had no extra seal.  We can live with this until the next day also.  However, the kicker was the neighbors with 4 kids from hell, who ran around and yelled and talked until 10:30 that night.  I almost said something but they finally quieted down.  We were both overheated so we decided to go to swimming pool to cool off.  We wanted to go into the river but the bank was too steep and long (good news when it floods though). 

We changed into swim suits and walked the 1/4 mile to the pool.  BRR!.  85 degrees air temp.  about 55 degrees water temp. Turns out they had just filled the swimming pool the day before we arrived.  We both dipped in for a few seconds.  It was ccccoooolllldddd, but did the trick of lowering body temps a bit.  Went back to RV and turned on the AC as interior temp was 91 and climbing.  Normally we don't like to run the AC but it was nice to have this day to both cool off and to filter out noise from the neighbors 12 feet away. 

Next morning we discuss our options. Can we manually retract the slide ourselves thereby saving a bunch of money?  Fortified with 2 cups of tea, I hauled out the manual and re-read the section.  Hmm.  this doesn't look that hard.  Let's crawl underneath and have a look-see.  Yep the bolt shear pin was missing on front end.  Where did it go?  drop off or break?  But I did have a wrench to twist the square rod to move the gear to bring it in. Would it break something if I did this?  Was there a sensor i needed to disengage or would the electric motor jam? I decide to risk it.  Turn turn.  It's moving!  A few more turns of the wrench and it was all the way in!  Woo Hoo! I get a call from RV repair guy about 30 minutes away who can't come out until next day to retract it for us.  and then I can drive it back to his place for repair.  Happily, I told him we got it retracted ourselves and made arrangements to drive it down to St George (one hour one way) next day to be repaired.  Whew.  End of tunnel in site.'

We drive up to the park and take shuttle up the Zion Lodge for breakfast, proud that we got the slide manually retracted. We took a walk because I wasn't feeling that good.  Not bad but just not tip-top-hike-up-a-steep-elevation-just-a-mild-stroll-good.  It had cooled down to low 60's and began to rain with wind so we hopped on shuttle back to visitor center and headed back to RV.  During breakfast we had decided to see if we could fix it ourselves.  We needed a new bolt and locknut.  Sraddha went back to our original spot (recently vacated earlier in morning) and found the old bolt!  Good news.  Now we just need a locknut so she drives down to Hurricane to Ace hardware store and gets one.  She also bought some extra washers for the water hose.  I remained home to rest.

Well, if you are still reading, we got back underneath and with a lot of effort, jiggling and turning, were able to put the bolt back through the rods connecting to the motor, tighten down the new locknut and extend the slide to full position!  Victory!  I called back the RV repair guy to tell him we would not be making a trip to St. George.  

We are staying here a couple more days.  That is another story.

Our view out the front window of Charli encamped just outside Zion Park

Breakfast view from Zion Lodge!  Is there a better breakfast place?  Veggie omelet good too!

Storm clouds incoming north of our camp!

We officially name our motor home

Since the beginning last September of this travel blog, I have referred to our motor home as "the RV" or "our RV" or "the motorhome", etc. No real name, just a description. I had asked Sraddha to think about a name and nothing appeared.

Recently I started calling the RV "Charlie", thinking it was cute to say "Travels with Charlie". Now Sraddha like Sanskrit names as is known in Ananda Village where Sanskrit nomenclature is found everywhere and many people have spiritual names of sanskrit origin. However we just didn't seem to come up with one fr the RV, hence "Charlie".

This morning, as we drove eaat away from The Grand Canyon through. Navajo country en route to Zion, Sraddha hit upon the name: "Charming Highway Lila" or "Charli" for short! (Lila means "play of God" in Sanskrit). So now we have our AKC registered name and our nickname. "Charli"

By the way, Charli is a she.

Now we are still working on a durable name for the jeep. Mr. Toad doesn't quite cut the mustard. Stay tuned.

Mr Toad and the Dump

Up early this morning. Break camp and pout by 8AM. There ate advantages to
RV over tent camping. Takes about 15 minutes to get going. Of course last night we spent 30 minutes putting away the outdoor mats and chairs etc, which we set up for extended stays.

At the RV dump station ready to dump and hookup

First order of business is to hit the dump station on the way out. When camped we take showers, wash dishes use the potty for liquid wastes so draining is something we need to do every 5-7 days depending on our usage. We rinse out the hoses We had spent 5 nights at Catalina so everything ok now. See picture.

Wow,  I just lost half the blog post.  thank you google.  no way to revert back and I accidentally deleted it.  sigh.






Lessee, where was I?  Not sure so will wing it.  As you can see by photos we are poised at RV dump station.  As I release the black and grey fluids, Sraddha is also connecting up Mr. Toad to the back of the RV.  Takes about 10 minutes.

Our toad hookup.  takes only 10 minutes to connect and disconnect

The hose from the waste tanks is held down by a rock as we wouldn't want any spillage.  There is a water hose to wash things down if needed.  It is also used to rinse out the effluent hose after release.  Oh, yes, in case you wanted to know,  I wear those disposable surgical gloves that we buy at Costco.  Works great!

Dump hose out to relieve fluids. Easy Peasy!

Trains Trains Trains!

BNSF Eastbound near Daggett, CA 

Hadn't realized how busy the train tracks are in Barstow area.

Saturday morning we were set to meet the UP steam train where the UP and BNSF tracks split at Daggett, Ca. W

UP eastbound near Daggett, CA

We thought we would get there early, find a good spot and wait.

Old Garage in Daggett, CA

However, the steam train was 2 hrs late and the biting cold wind was blowing hard. Over those two hours we saw almost 15 trains! Patience paid off

UP Steam near Dagget, CA

UP steam train finally showed up with our friends which we chauffeured over to their hotel and off to Peggy sue's diner for a late lunch. Also ran into another friend from Los Angeles area who joined us. Fun time visiting, however we were way late departing Daggett around 3 PM with sunset at 4:45.

This was one of those decision times: Do we head 100 miles out to Mojave reserve to camp at a high altitude (4,00 ft) as originally planned or do we head over to Amboy crater (700 ft) and boondock for the night? Being the ever prudent (ha ha) souls we are, Amboy crater was the decision.

As we drove along I-40, I couldn't help wondering if we made the right decision. Arriving near dusk, we were greeted by a cute little dog and a very big sky.

Very quiet! A couple other motor homes and no one else. Plus the price was right! (free).  oh yes, here is a pic of the sunset I snapped with iphone. Turns out not so quiet some of the time when a BNSF train rolls nearby.

Sunset from Amboy Crater, California