Happy Election Day *** VOTE ***

Well, we finally made it - IT'S ELECTION DAY!  I am a permanent mail-in voter, so I voted weeks ago.  I've been very interested in this election, more so than any other in my adult life.  As I write this we don't have any returns yet.  I'm waiting with crossed fingers and bated breath.  I'm assuming half of our Americans will be happy and half will be upset after we learn the results.  It's a close race.   I hope everyone votes.  :)

We are settled in our campsite.  As usual I've moved all over the site trying to find the best place to put The Palms.  I've been dismantling the rock lined ramp that's in the middle of the campsite. I have no idea what the original intent of this ramp was, but it's in the way - for me.  I've gotten all the rocks out and put them around the site, then I started on the dirt.  I have a small shovel, and Hazel loaned me her pick, so I 've been loosening the dirt, then shoveling it into plastic bags and dumping it into the lower parts of the site.

This photo is after I had already moved a lot of the side rocks and bigger rocks.  They were too big to lift, so I rolled them to other areas.

As great as this site is, it's really uneven - it slopes a great deal toward the wash.  Unless I'm parked right next to the saguaro cactus, the right side of The Palms is way lower than the left, so I decided to drive up onto the ramp.  With the rocks out of the way and the edges picked and shoveled away, I could drive up onto it from any direction.  I tried that, and was still uneven.  If I want to be in the middle of the site, I'm going to be very un-level.

I put all 20 of my leveling blocks onto the ramp, put a large base down and built it up.  A neighbor named Jake saw me working and came over to help.  He guided me onto the top leveling block, and I was even.  But I have to say, that right front tire was so far up on that ramp and the blocks, I didn't like it.  So yesterday I went into town and when I got back I parked in my original spot, close to the cactus and trees.

It is very cozy, and although I have more sun coming into my over-the-couch window, I have great shade cast into the area where chairs are set up - my living room. I'm also closer to the bird feeders and can easily hear the hummers when they fly up to get some nectar.

The living room.

I'm going to continue to dismantle the ramp and spread the dirt around to make the site a little more level and better looking.  It's quite a job.

This is the front of the "living area" where I put my Welcome sign and American flag.

It was super hot yesterday.  Katie and I took a nap from 2:30 to 3:30 yesterday afternoon.  When I woke up it was 97 degrees in The Palms.  I turned on the A/C and we took a walk.  When we got back it was much cooler.  :)

Here are some hummingbird photos from yesterday and today.  I'm going to get a lot of hummer shots this season!

Anna's Hummingbird

I'm not sure what this one is - female Broad Tailed Hummingbird?

Male Black-Chinned Hummingbird.

Female Costa's Hummingbird.

As always, if I have any of these wrong, please leave me a comment - this was the best I could do with my Birds of Arizona book.  Some IDs are kind of iffy.

Saturday's Sunset.  All the sunsets look like this, only the clouds make them different.

WELCOME to our two new Followers!

BJ, who lives with her husband in Oregon, and has a blog -  Joe and Betty's Adventures.   They have a 32 ft 1996 Rexhall Aerbus, which is winterized and in storage for now.  They are currently caring for Joe's 98 year old mom, and are traveling with us - through our blogs for now.  Welcome Joe and Betty!

Welcome also to "Moderate," who is a successful businessman, originally from Minnesota.  He was a Marine and served in Vietnam.  I don't see an RV blog for Moderate, but he does have some politically motivated blogs.  Click on his photo under our "Member" section for those blog links.

Welcome aboard to you all - Katie and I are happy to have you along on our adventures!

That's it for today.  From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday - and don't forget to VOTE!  :)

This campsite is for the birds - and froggs

It took a couple of days, but the birds have found us!  The Anna's Hummingbird below is a good-sized hummer, and he makes a sound when he comes around that is loud and gets my attention.  I found a big old hummingbird feeder in a bush that was obviously left over from last year's campers, snagged it, cleaned it up, filled it with nectar and hung it in one of my trees.  It almost immediately attracted this guy.  I haven't seen him eating yet, but he likes to guard it from the surrounding branches.

This morning I took the feeder down and a bit later, I heard all this loud hummer buzzing and looked out my kitchen window.  Poor guy, he was looking for the feeder, and it was gone. His colors were so vibrant in the sunlight, I grabbed my camera and got a good shot of him.  Look how his beautiful colors are blazing in the sun.

Resident Anna's Hummingbird

 I remember this bird from last year. I think it's a female house finch.

And here they come...  a flock of 11 Gambel's Quail running toward the seed dish.

Pecking at the seeds on the ground.

And they emptied this flat seed holder.  
It's a top to a container, and perfect to put the seed in.

We've had  other visitors too:

 Hazel came by with Fleur and Power a couple of days ago, and we had a nice visit.  The Greyhounds are so well-behaved.

I gave the dogs chew toys, and Katie kept her eyes on Fleur and Power to make sure they weren't trying to get her chew toy.  No, Katie, they have their own.

Hazel brought me a gift - an Amaryllis that should bloom right around Christmas - Thank You, Hazel!

 Christmas Amaryllis - it's nice to have in my kitchen.

Yesterday, in the early evening, Denise arrived in Quartzsite.  She came in right at dusk, and this morning she snagged a great campsite behind me on the other side of the wash.  She's got a beautiful saguaro cactus in her site, and some rock work that a previous camper did.  She and Bennie got all settled today, and I think she plans to stay a while.  Who wouldn't?

Denise and her cup of tea came over last night for a visit.  Bennie, too.

 

Katie and Bennie saying hi.

 Denise's rig parked nearby last night.  The next morning, she moved to a great campsite.

Then this morning I noticed a car near Denise's rig - Geri and Terry were visiting.  Later, they walked over to visit me, too.  It was really nice to see Geri and Terry again.  I met them last year, right before I had to go to San Diego to the hospital, and they were gone when I got back.  I've enjoyed reading Geri's blog during the last year and hoped to see them this year again. After checking out my campsite and walking around with Denise while she was looking for hers, they picked a super site behind me, too, next to Denise.  They went back to the RV park they were in, checked out and now are settled in their new site.  I should have gotten a photo, but didn't - maybe tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they're having electrical issues - Terry worked all afternoon trying to diagnose the problem, but so far no luck.

When we stopped for an overnight at Cabela's last week, I bought a "frogg toggs" pack.  I wasn't sure if it would be blazing hot this month at Quartzsite, but I wanted to be prepared.  I had planned to buy something like this at one of the little businesses here, but thought I'd better snag this while it was right in front of me.

There were a couple of days last week when it got up to 95+ in The Palms.  It honestly wasn't uncomfortable - this dry heat is amazing!  But I didn't know how much the heat was affecting Katie, so I decided to get out the frogg toggs.  I bought the smaller one, it's in the shape of a triangle and cost me $10.99.  It was big enough for me to cut off one side of the triangle; I used that piece to tie around my neck, and used the rest for Katie.  I soaked it in warm water, which the directions said to do first, wrung it out, and soaked it in cool water.  I wrung it out again and tied one around each of us.  They really work!  I didn't think about the heat again, until I was getting too cool and took them off us.  I folded them and put them in the fridge to keep them cool.

And here we are in our frogg toggs: 

I thought this was a great picture of me - love the haircut, I did it myself.   :)

Of course, Katie's hair always looks good.  She didn't mind wearing the toggs, she's such an easy dog.

The clouds turned pink during our beautiful sunset last night.

From Me and Katie, have a great evening, everyone!

Quartzsite boondocking questions answered

I've been asked some questions by commenters about boondocking at Quartzsite.  I'm by no means an expert, this is only my second year camping here, but I've never had so many questions about a single topic at one time, so I'll do the best I can.  If I'm wrong about anything and you RVers with more experience have a better or different answer, please leave a comment for us.

Good morning, everyone!

Following is some general information:

There are RV parks here with hook-ups, but the BLM areas are for boondocking.  You can drive all around the LTVA desert areas (West, North, South and Tyson Wash Camping Areas) and check out what you want for a campsite.  These require a permit, either for the season, or for two weeks.  Or check out the free 14-day limit areas.  

Some people want the wide open spaces.  That makes it easy to get full solar and when you drive off to dump your tanks and get fresh water, you just drive off, and when you return, you just drive back into your approximate area.  That's what most people seem to do.  Last year there were a few of us up against the wash where we had bushes behind us, but most RVers around where I was were just parked here and there around the area.  Some people moved their rig here and there, some people stayed in the same place, it doesn't matter because there's tons of room.

These photos are from last year when I was at La Posa West:

 The Q on the mountain can easily be seen from La Posa West LTVA.

These are some of the rigs of the group I was parked with. They park in one area together, not too close but still near each other in the same area. They visit in the afternoon and share a campfire in the evenings.

I took this shot to show a representative area - that's The Palms in one of the areas I was in.  There weren't many RVers close to me.

 When I got here I could take landscape shots without any RVs in the distance. After a while, they were all over.

The Palms parked near the wood pile for a group fire pit.

This was after I returned from a period of time in San Diego, and my space was taken by someone else. I left in a hurry and didn't think I'd be back and told the group to take my things and my site if they wanted. 

Some people just park and put out a chair; others build elaborate rock boundaries for their site, ringing the trees and bushes with rocks, building pathways and flat areas with the available rocks in the area.

When I arrived here this year, I wanted to be in the LTVA where the dump site and fresh water faucets are.  This is further from town and if I stay here for the duration, I'm hoping the Big Tent Show traffic won't affect me as much.  It's also easier to get to the "facilities."  I was looking for a campsite near some trees or bushes, so I could hang my bird feeders and hummer food.   I like to nest, have my own area, have rocks defining my space.  I was the middle child and always had to share a bedroom with my little sister - what can I say?

When you check in at the La Posa little brown office buildings that are at the entrance to the four LTVAs in Quartzsite, they will explain things to you, give you the rules and regulations and a map, and sell you a permit for 7 months or 2 weeks.  The map has all the places that are covered under your new permit.

Each of the 4 La Posa LTVA areas have one of these little offices as you drive in.

The permit costs $180 for the season, which is from September 15 through April 15 each year.  If you stay for the whole season, that works out to $25.71 per month, or 85.7 cents per day.   You can also stay for two weeks for $40 ($2.86/day).  There are four La Posa LTVAs, and one has a dump site and  eight fresh water spigots that service all four campgrounds.  Each LTVA has it's own trash dumpsters. 

Other BLM campgrounds in the area are free for two weeks, then you have to move out to another BLM campground that has to be at least, I think, 25 miles away?   I'm not sure how far you have to go, something like that.  These campgrounds have no trash bins, no fresh water, and no dump site.  There are places in town where you can pay for fresh water and to dump, and getting rid of your trash can be done for free at the city refuse area right off highway 95 between the town and Hi Jolly BLM campground.  Some people just stash their trash in business dumpsters around the town. I didn't like doing that when I stayed at Hi Jolly at the end of the season.

Most people arrive in Quartzsite later in the season because September is still way too hot.  Last year I arrived on November 25 and was disappointed that it wasn't warmer.  I thought it would be warm in the Arizona desert, but it does get cool or cold, and breezy or windy or very windy here. So this year it worked out that I arrived earlier because it was getting too cold at Bluewater Lake State Park in northeast New Mexico. It was time to head south and I arrived on October 23, a full month earlier.

Click on this map to get a better view

I am told the weather is different each year, but this is the kind of weather I was looking forward to.  I know it will cool off, but I'm loving the heat.  In the afternoon lately it's been 90 degrees or higher in The Palms, but with my two Fantastic fans, one in the ceiling pulling out the hot air and one plugged into my 12 volt outlet that provides cool air, it's been comfortable.  This heat is so dry it really makes a difference.  The mornings are gorgeous and the nights are cool enough to sleep well.

These are the specific questions:

There was a question about the night skies, and yes, the night skies are beautiful - lots of stars, the moon is super visible and the full moon lights up the desert, but without a good moon, it's really dark.  It's very quiet.

"When should you get there to get a good campsite?  How long do you plan to stay?"   Since I missed all of January due to unscheduled surgery in California, I don't know how bad (crowded) it gets in January, but if you arrive before the Big Tent Show is scheduled, I'd guess you'll be fine.  The earlier the better, of course, to get the best choices, but there are thousands of acres of desert, and there's no way it will fill up.

Other than San Diego for Christmas, I'll be somewhere in the LTVA system until it gets too hot next spring.  That's one of the great things about full-timing - I can leave whenever and wherever I want.  Or not.  :)

"How do you keep your site when you run into town to do your shopping?"  I have things out - chairs, a table, bird feeders, a mat by my entry door, etc.  It's obvious someone is occupying this space.  From what I understand, it's pretty safe to leave things out.  Nothing I have out is that expensive - if I were to loose it all it would be easily replaced.  Last year I was surrounded by friendly Rvers and this year I'm alone, so we'll see if my things are all still here at the end of the season.  I expect they will be.

Per the BLM LTVA rules, you are allowed to leave your site for five days maximum.  If you need to be gone longer than that, you need to get permission from an authorized BLM officer.  When I go to San Diego for Christmas I may be gone for 6 or 7 days; if so, I'll have to get permission, otherwise I'll only be gone 5 days.  If I was camping with a group like last year, I wouldn't worry about it, but being on my own this season, it's something I need to think about so I don't lose my campsite.

"If someone "creates" a site like that, do they get upset if someone else takes it the next year?" Campsites here are first come, first served.  If someone creates a great campsite and they want to use it again the next year, they'd better get here early, or chances are itll be taken when they get here.  I'd suspect, though, that some of the people who spend a lot of time creating a special space are doing it partly because they enjoy it.  They will probably make another great site this year, but in a different location.

As a side note - a little gossip here - one caveat to that is:  when I was at the Imperial Dam LTVA, down at the Quail Hill Campground - the one that had the wild burros - I was told the same RVers had been boondocking there for years and years and they "expected" their sites to be available when they arrived.  I got there late in the season this spring and most of the people were gone, but if I go back this year, there were a couple of sites I liked, including the one I chose, that had "belonged" to people who had either died or didn't travel anymore.  I was told by my neighbor that it would be okay to take either of those. I didn't argue with him, but...

That's not the way it's supposed to be. All the areas are first come, first served, but you just might have a silent fight on your hands if you show up early and take a nice site that is designated as "taken." Or maybe not so silent.  I think that would be a real pain, and I don't know how I would resolve it. There was a turf war at Quail Hill last fall and the Ranger was involved, but when I got there in May, the original holder of the site was still complaining about the ursurper, who was still there, too.  I'm sure it cast a pall on the entire campground, and is the only reason I might not return there this year.  :(

"How do you know how big you can make your site?"    The rules state you must have at least 15 feet between RVs.  This is for safety reasons, and most people want a lot more space than that.  Since I wasn't here during the "Big Tent" event, I don't now how close they all were during that time.  I was told in advance to put out my rock boundaries to keep people from getting too close in January while the Big Tent was going on.

"Are there any rules?"  Yes there are rules - they give you the rules when you purchase your permit, and there are "supplemental rules" on line.  There's nothing that isn't for a good purpose, though.  I had no problem at all with the rules.  They are basically to protect the desert and other campers.

"Can you put up any kind of a fence or enclosure? Your site looks wonderful. I would hate to have someone move in a few feet away."  You can put up fences, some people have tented areas; but they can't be "permanent." Some have gated areas for their dogs that easily put up and taken down.

And yes, I would hate it, too, if someone moved in a few feet away.  In fact, I'd ask them to move, because they have to be at least 15 feet away.  And...  I have my rock boundaries out, so I doubt anyone would get that cozy.

"How do you know if you are in a site or a roadway and how do you keep from getting blocked in by other rigs?"   The roadways through the desert are obvious - in fact they are numbered by small signs stuck into the ground that are 2 or 3 feet high and probably 3 or 4 feet wide.  They aren't very obvious, but once you notice them, they are easier to pick out.

 

Some roads are better than others, and you can also drive on areas that aren't obvious roads to get to a place you want for your campsite.  During the rain last year, the dip in the road to one of the camping areas was full of water, so we all drove behind the dumpster toward our area, then got on the first available road on the way.  That area behind the dumpsters became a little road, too.

You can't really get blocked in by other rigs, unless you were backed up to a wash or a tree and someone parked directly in front of you.  That wouldn't happen unless they were tryingto block you in.  That would be pretty scary and I'd be calling 911 and honking my horn for sure.  Don't worry about being blocked in - you'll see when you get here that it just can't happen.  :)

I think that answers all the questions.  If you have more, feel free to ask.  Trust me, boondocking here, especially with adequate solar panels, is much easier than I thought it would be, even last year when I wasn't doing everything right.  You won't know if you like Quartzsite boondocking until you get here and try it, but there are so many people who come here every season, and I'm sure it's not just because it's inexpensive.  It's also because it's a wonderful way to spend the winter.

This is a link to the site that explains all the Arizona/California BLM Long Term Visitor Area Permit rules and regulations. http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/recreation/camping.html

Information specific to Quartzsite:  http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/recreation/camping/LTVA/laposa.html

And a big Welcome to our two new followers:

Evelyn, who did have a blog named Travels of Evelyn and Steve, but when I clicked on the link, I got the message that the blog had been removed.  However, this is what Evelyn has in the "about me" section:  "We have been traveling full time in our little RV since Nov 2009. April 2011 we shipped the RV to Europe and plan to see as much as possible over the next year."  Evelyn, did you see a lot of Europe?  Let me know if you have a current blog, and I'll update this post and put in the link.  UPDATE:  Evelyn's new blog, which has all the posts from Travels of Evelyn and Steve, is:  Wanderlets.  Check it out!

Welcome also to w6pea, who isn't showing a blog or any other information.  w6pea, if you have a blog, please let me know and I'll give it a mention, too.

Thanks to you both for following along with me and Katie - welcome aboard!  :)

Setting sun reflected on the opposite mountains. Sometimes this Eastern view is prettier than the actual sunset.

Last night around 6:30 Katie and I took our last quick walk before she went to bed, and it was gorgeous outside.  The full moon was rising, it was cooling down, calm and quiet.

Last night's full moon over The Palms.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

More photos of our new site - we love it.

We're happily settled in and nesting.  The last few days I've been arranging and re-arranging our yard and it's really nice to look out the window, near and far.

Yesterday Katie and I went into town to do the laundry and grocery shopping.  Both good jobs to have behind us for a couple of weeks, but it was nice to go into Quartzsite again and see that everything is still the same as last year.

On the way back we stopped and visited Hazel and the Greyhounds.  It was good to see Fleur and Power doing very well together. Fleur is a friendly dog and loves attention, but she's very cool about it.  She will put her head against my leg, and that's her way of asking for attention from me.  I always feel complimented when a dog like Fleur seeks my attention.

Power is more active in his attention seeking.  He's just 18 months old and super friendly.  As soon as we walked up to the fenced in area in front of Hazel's motor home, Power was right there. When I sat down, he was right there asking to be petted.  Then he went over to the rug where Fleur was laying and joined her.  He has a squeaky toy that he plays with which I think is cute.  He might be a really big dog, but he still acts like a puppy.  Fleur is a lady, and Power is a little boy. I think he's going to be a really good addition to their family.

Yesterday I saw the first quail in our site, but when Katie barked, it left.  I also saw the first hummingbird at the feeder I hung yesterday.  It was in and out so quickly - I've seen it three times now - but I can't get the camera focused fast enough.  I'm sure I'll get a good shot one of these days.  I had fun watching the antics of the quail, rabbits and squirrels in my campsite last year. I hope I have some interesting critters here, too.

I've been talking lots of photos of the area and The Palms, and here are some of them.

View out my kitchen window - all the way to the mountains.

I put out the hummingbird feeder and a few seed feeders yesterday for the quail, rabbits and squirrels.

Whoever was here last year did a beautiful job putting rocks around the site, the trees and bushes, made pathways and sitting areas, etc.  It was move-in ready and looks really nice. 

Thank you, whoever you are.

Photo taken during our walk of the whole campsite area.

Our view out the front window.  The sun sets to the left of this photo.

I just love it here before all the rest of the RVers arrive.  It's so beautiful and quiet.  Only occasional traffic going by. I'm sure by the time all the snowbirds get here, I'll be ready for more company in the area, but I'm sure enjoying this time before everyone arrives.

Katie and I have been walking more and more.  I can't believe how easy it is to walk - in the higher elevations of New Mexico and Colorado it took me a long time to acclimate.  It was hard to walk much, and I woke up at night out of breath.  Here - well, we can walk forever and I sleep all night long.  It's nice not to have to think about breathing.  I know that sounds weird, but that is how it was when we were in the higher elevations.  Next spring I'm going to move north more slowly.

This year I flew across Arizona from California to New Mexico in a 24 hour period.  I left Palm Springs after finally getting the results of a medical test and picking up an Rx at 3 in the afternoon, drove 192 miles in 3.5 hours in the blazing heat, spent the night in a gas station parking lot in Lake Havasu, AZ, and drove the final 391 miles in 5.5 hours, ending up near Bluewater Lake State Park  in Gallup, NM, arriving in the early afternoon.  The first leg I averaged 59 mph and the second leg was 71 mph. Crazy.

That was a long, hot drive in a short time, but I was so anxious to get there, and the long, straight, well paved highway was easy to drive.  Almost no traffic.  I decided to overnight in the Gallup Walmart so I would be fresh in the morning going into Bluewater Lake State Park.  When I got there, I felt like I did arriving in Quartzsite this week.   Sooooo happy to be there.

Palm Springs has an elevation of 440' and Gallup, NM is 6468', so we gained over 6,000 feet in 24 hours.  I didn't realize that you're supposed to ascend slowly.  Altitude sickness usually starts at around 6500 feet, so I was a bit lower than that. It took  me months to acclimate to the 6000+ altitude, and I'm sure it affected Katie, too. I didn't have any of the usual symptions, just couldn't seem to get enough oxygen sometimes. As long as I took it easy, I was fine, but until I was at Bluewater for  a while, I couldn't walk much. When we went to Storrie Lake and came back to Bluewater Lake, I experienced some shortness of breath again, until we left to head south.

Next spring we're going to head over to lower New Mexico and stay at the State Parks in the southern part of the state, and move slowly north.  I think that's a better plan and I'll be able to enjoy more walking and hiking at the parks.  And maybe not gain 6 pounds.

I weighed myself yesterday morning, and found I've gained 6 pounds over the summer.  I'm hoping the additional walking we can do here will help to take that extra weight off.  Walking, and maybe not eating as many jelly beans!

I also discovered yesterday that I get great TV reception at this location.  And I can easily stream the programs I miss and Hulu movies.  It's been a long time since I could do all that.  I'm as happy as a clam.

From Me and Katie, Have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Moose sighting on the way to Quartzsite!

Isn't he a beauty?

I wish this photo was really taken in the wild!

The prettiest moose I've ever seen - at Cabela's!  I couldn't believe I was able to take photos of such beautiful animals, right there in front of me as if we were in the forest.  They had lots of different animals, some high up on the mountains, others in the water, ducks flying overhead, little squirrels and beavers, many, many animals that looked alive in their habitats.  I've never been in a Cabela's before, but I had heard about the store. They sure do have a good inventory of outdoor things.  The only thing I bought was one of those neck scarves that you soak in water and put around your neck to stay cool in hot weather. I plan to buy another smaller one here at Quartzsite for Katie.

As I posted last time, I stopped at D & R Family RV in Glendale, AZ on my way to Quartzsite to take care of a short list of items I needed done.  Here is my new LP valve:

So now I can shut the propane off to the Wave 3 connector unless I'm using it.

NEWS FLASH!  The year-long issue of my electrical problems has been solved!  Turns out, I've been running my refrigerator/freezer off my inverter when I'm not on shore power.  That's 30 amps.

Since I was spending the night in Ron's shop lot last night, I mentioned to my neighbors that I was going to have my generator running (some of the people are plugged in, but I'm not) for the Presidential Debates. I wanted to warn them because we are all so close together.  They were sweet and said not to worry about it at all. Ron overheard this and said, why are you running your generator?  I told him my solar/batteries numbers would be too low and he said, no, leave the generator off.  If you can't run your TV until 10:00 PM after your batteries being completely full today, there's something wrong with the batteries and we'll return them while they are still under warranty.

He said he'd check them in the morning and then we'll see.  I didn't realize I could run the TV that late on only my solar inverter.  Nice!  I'm even more happy that I stopped here on my way to Quartzsite!  :)

So, the next morning I told Ron that within three+ hours my batteries were at zero.  He checked my batteries and they were good, and after more checking and discussing, he figured out that when I'm not hooked up to shore power, I've been running my 30 amp refrigerator/freezer off the inverter.

All this time, for the last year, I thought the fridge was off if the red light above it was off.  When Ron left for the evening, he noticed the red light on over the fridge, and pushed the button to put the fridge on propane for me, and not realizing what I was doing, I pushed the button again so the light was on, taking it off propane.  The fridge was using the inverter all night.  When it brought the batteries down close to zero, the inverter alarm went off, and I turned the inverter button off.  But the fridge is on the inverter line, and was still drawing power from it as long as it was not on propane.

Ron explained to me that when the red light is on that means I'm running it off electricity, the generator, or the inverter.  If there is no shore power and my generator is off, the inverter has been keeping the fridge going.  "Propane power = red light off outside, light on inside the fridge." Now I know why my batteries have been going down faster than they should.  I wondered why people working on my rig always turned OFF the fridge!  Turns out, they were putting it on propane.  Then I pushed the button and put it on inverter power.  For a year.  Wow.

It's amazing all the things I'm still learning - important things!  I guess when I have room in my brain for more stuff, it just spills in.  My brain chews up the knowledge, spreads it around until I've got it, then opens a new door for more stuff.  You guys who have been RVing for many years - you must know so many things that you take for granted that those of us who are newer on the road still have no clue about. 

WE'RE IN QUARTZSITE!

I was really surprised at how excited I was to be back. I was thinking, as I was driving along the 10, about where I was going, the kind of site I was going to look for, etc. And also thinking about how, last year when I made this same trip for the first time, I was totally clueless. I had no idea how this Quartzsite thing worked, what it would look like, where I'd find a site, etc., as I was driving along with my brand new solar panels and Wave 3 catalytic heater.  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing last year, but determined to "do it."  This year as I was driving toward Quartzsite I was just happy and excited to get here.

We have a great campsite in the La Posa South LTVA. It has some large creosote trees and a large saguaro right outside the door, and also a tall one behind us:

 I took this last night when the moon was rising.   Can you see the Saguaro Cactus in the middle of the Palo Verde trees? 

 This morning I moved The Palms for better solar orientation.

I can also look out my window and see my campsite turned this way.

These are the sunset shots I took last night.  As I zoomed in and moved my camera slightly to the right, I got entirely different views of the sunset.  It was a gorgeous Welcome to Quartzsite! sunset for our first night here.

WELCOME to our two newest Followers:

Maryjane Warren lives in Chino Valley, AZ, and her photo shows her with a beautiful Greyhound. I'm sure Maryjane came over to Me and My Dog from Hazel's blog.  Maryjane, you don't show any information about a blog or RVing interest, but as a fellow dog lover, WELCOME!  Katie and I are happy you are following along with us.

Dawn King also appears to be a dog person, too. Her photo is of a beautiful dog, and I'm guessing Dawn is following us through her visits at Class A Greyhounds...RVing with the big dogs! also. Dawn, welcome to Me and My Dog, we're happy to have you  aboard!

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)