Solar install is scheduled! :)

I  originally planned to have a solar installation done last August in Oregon, but the company that was highly recommended, AM Solar, was booked pretty far out, and he suggested I live in The Palms for a while before I make the expensive decision to have solar installed.

Now that I've been full-timing for almost six months, I know I definitely want solar. I think I'll be much more comfortable full-timing and boondocking with solar in addition to my generator.  I want to eventually be able to boondock almost exclusively, and I'm finding I REALLY want my TV and computer on pretty much all day. 

So... I have an appointment for next Wednesday here in Glendale, Arizona with Ron at D & R Family R.V.  I've read about this company in blogs of full-timers who are pretty extreme boondockers, and have also had recommendations from Followers.   It's expensive, but I think I'll quickly recoup the cost by having the ability to boondock comfortably a lot more often I do now.

Ron is going to install a catalytic heater for me, too.  I don't have a lot of room for a hard install. I don't want to have it sticking out on a wall, which would narrow the walk ways.  There might be a place or two it will work on a wall, but I think he's going to tether it, and then when I don't need it I can stow it away.  The way Ron described it, the hookup sounds like what Tioga George has in his rig.  We'll decide when I get there next week and he sees the inside of The Palms.

Once these two things are completed, I'll be able to live off the grid in warm weather or cold weather, which has been my plan from the beginning.  I'm glad, though, that I waited to see exactly how I use my rig, and whether or not I really need the solar and heater.

I think those are the last two things on my to-do list.  Oh yeah, the Oxygenics shower head.  But that's a small mod and one I can do myself.

One of the things I love about having my kitchen in the back of The Palms is that anytime I'm in the kitchen I look out the window, and that's where I often see the animals and birds, etc. As long as my kitchen window is clean, I can get some good photos through the glass without disturbing the little critters. That was one of the first things I did when we set up here, my kitchen window was dusty and dirty, and spotted from the rain. The sun was shining on it, and I could hardly see out.  I don't always keep the windows super clean, but I was glad I did this time.  That's how I noticed the birds and ground squirrel at the leaky faucet.

This afternoon I was at the sink and looked out and here's what I saw.  The burros were on the opposite side of where my rig is than the first ones.  They just wander all over the place, there are lots of fingers of water off the lake, so they can feed and water almost anywhere in the campground. I grabbed my camera and went outside and took a ton of photos, these were among the best, the first ones are close-ups as close as I could get the zoom lens:

I was talking to a man and his son, they are down closer to the lake, and they heard the burros braying, so they went over to see them.  He said there were a few, then more came, more braying, and more came until there were 12 or 13 of them.  He said they were really noisy.  I didn't hear them, but my TV was on and I was further away.  Then they started moving along the side of the mountain until they stopped to eat, and that's where I saw them out the window.

Then I zoomed out:

So I'm looking and snapping, and there's movement at the bottom of my camera lens.  I thought there was another burro on the top of the hill on the other side of the lake, and I snapped, and enlarged the screen and here's what I saw:

I zoomed in again to see if it was a baby burro (burrito?):

And saw the coyote.  Once he climbed onto that large rock and his silhouette could be seen, it was obviously not a burro.

Howdy, pardner.

How neat is that?  I heard the coyotes calling last night, and I'm careful to keep Katie close on her leash, but I didn't think I'd ever see one.

Now I want the burros to come up the road and parade past my campsite so I can see them really close.

Speaking of critters, I'm certain my tag-along mouse is gone. I haven't seen or heard him in a long time, and I have no evidence of droppings.  He must have escaped in Las Vegas the same way he entered The Palms.  Maybe he just wanted a ride to Vegas.  Good bye, good luck, good riddance!

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

Lazy day at Pleasant Lake

Katie and I just took it easy today, we took three long walks which felt really good.  Different parks offer different kinds of walks, and this park has good views and terrain for us.  Just enough hills, lots of plants to look at, and Katie loves the burro piles.  That's definitely a new smell for her.  :)

I just paid some bills, watched some TV, played some computer games and took a nap.  What a day.  I love retirement and full-timing.

Some photos from today:

 Our water faucet leaks, and the birds like that.  Can you see the bird drinking?

The move their wings like a hummer and just hang there while they're drinking.

I had fun watching them for quite a while this afternoon.

 Another drinking bird with lots of buddies nearby.

 Pretty birds - almost the same red as the faucet.

 Chipmunks get thirsty, too!

 He can barely reach the dripping faucet.

 Close up of the (I think) chipmunk?

 I love the different shapes and arms on these Saguaro Cactus.

 The Saguaro Cactus are all over the hills, I guess it's a cactus forest?

Another picture of The Palms.

The sunset reflecting on the lake - I can't get a good Eastern sunset photo because there's nothing there to photograph.  Clear sky - it's beautiful, pinks and yellows, the colors keep changing as the sun goes down - but no clouds, no trees, nothing to show except a gorgeous colorful sky.  It's much prettier on the Western side where the colors are reflecting on the lake and clouds.

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

Camping among the Saguaros

Noisy night at the rest stop.  Sounds like a good book title. :)  We slept pretty well in spite of the really noisy big rigs that woke us up during the night.  I think the one next to me must have left early, because I slept like a log between 4:30 and 8:30.

As we were driving along Highway 17 toward Phoenix, I saw a brown State "Camping" sign and turned off toward Lake Pleasant Regional Park in Maricopa County to see what they offered RVers.  We checked in for one night at the park entrance and ended up here in the Desert Tortoise Campground.  After we got set up in our site, I called and extended our stay for a few more days.  There are water and electric hookups, but if I reach the electric plug, I can't reach the water hookup, it's weird, one is at one end of the site, the other at the opposite end.  I'm full-up with water in my tanks, though, so it doesn't matter.  I could also connect my electric extension cord that I have for this kind of site, but it's not worth the trouble.

There are tons of TV channels available with my antenna and Verizon works perfectly here.  The weather is warm and calm, a beautiful day.  This afternoon at 5:00 it was 72 degrees.  I'm loving it!

The landscape here is different than other areas I've camped in. This area has a cactus called Saguaro which is only found in this part of the world.  Some of the Saguaros here are from 150 to 250 years old, per the Ranger.  I've seen photos of them, and now, here they are!

There are also Wild Burros here - when we first drove into our campsite I heard a strange noise and thought it was a cow.  Turns out it was a Burro. I tried to find it with no luck, but later got some photos of burros drinking from the lake below us, and walking around that area.  I'm hoping to see some up close while we're here.

Some photos from the day:

 Our site, nice... lots of privacy, the park is almost empty.

 Barrel Cactus

 Bird on Saguaro Cactus

Lake Pleasant looks pretty low.

The sun is going down

Here are some photos of the burros I saw this afternoon, don't you just love them? 

And the last photos of the day:

I'm glad we took the off-ramp and ended up here - this is a really nice, quiet park and I think we'll like it here.  We've signed on for four days, but might stay longer.

BTW, a reader asked what kind of cold weather setup The Palms has.  This rig is actually prepared for freezing temperatures with an "Arctic Package" (cold weather package) that I turn on with a switch.  It ensures that The Palms won't have any frozen pipes or tanks.  I've used it twice, the last time at Zion where it got down into the 20s while I was there.  If I'm afraid it's going to freeze during the night, I just flip the switch.

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

Snowy in Arizona, visited Sedona

Friday I met up with my cousin, Grant, at Sam's Town buffet for lunch and we had a great visit.  Then I invited him back to The Palms and we continued talking for a few more hours.  He had been up since 4 am and was stifling yawns and I was pretty tired, too, so we called it a day.  It was really nice seeing him again after so long and catching up on each other's lives.

We left Sam's Town RV Park Saturday morning and visited Walmart to do some shopping and headed southeast.  Before I knew it we were in Arizona.  I didn't have a specific destination in mind, but we headed toward Sedona.  

We drove a while, checked out a couple of places to camp but they didn't work for us, and we ended up parking in a level dirt area next to a gas station in Ash Fork, AZ around 6:00.  The employees in the store at the gas station were really nice and told us exactly where to park so we wouldn't be in the midst of the big rigs who would probably be coming and going all night.

There was a huge puddle in the dirt next to us, and when I was putting up our privacy curtain blocking off the truck windshield last night I looked out the front window and there were some cattle right in front of us.  It was so cool, one was drinking out of the puddle; I love it when things like that happen.  I think they had come in from the field adjacent to the gas station property.  I tried to get a photo, but I think it was too dark.

When we woke up this morning we were the only RV parked in that area, but right next to us at the edge of their parking lot were about a dozen big rigs all lined up. Seems they have to stay from 8 to 10 hours, depending on how long they've driven that day according to the woman at the gas station store.  We had a nice conversation, and she suggested a couple of places to go down the road, Indian Casinos, where I can stay three nights at each casino for free.  If I'm in that area, I will definitely check them out.  I'm spending a fortune in gas and I'll take all the free nights I can get!

I got some coffee-to-go at the store and got on the freeway and almost immediately had snow on each side of the road.  There was dense fog, sprinkles and then heavy rain.  Along the side of the freeway were signs warning of icy roads, so I was super careful and drove slower than usual.  Wow.  This is NOT the Arizona I thought we'd be seeing!

I always get pretty excited about snow, but...  I wasn't too happy about driving in those conditions.  The snow had stopped and I didn't see any except on the side of the road and in the forests along the way.

We drove to Sedona and stopped at the Red Rock Ranger Station and got brochures and maps and suggestions from one of the Rangers.  I wanted to be in one of the Vortex's, but it was chilly and damp and foggy and it's quite a hike to get to them, so we stopped in the parking lot of the first one and willed the harmony to come lower and find us.

I drove around a little and took a lot of pictures and then turned back and got onto the highway again.  I had hoped to find somewhere to do some dispersed camping, but felt it was too dreary for boondocking and the Ranger agreed with me. He said the roads and trails would be pretty muddy and even warned me which areas on the map I shouldn't try to drive.

Sedona sure is a pretty area. I'd like to come back this way when the weather is warm and dry, do some boondocking in the forest and a little hiking in the Vortex areas. It would be a great romantic getaway if any of you couples are ever in the area and haven't been here yet.  It's not far off the beaten track.

I pulled off the freeway a couple of times following signs for RV Parks, but they weren't worth a stop, so we kept going.

 Black Canyon - Lake Mead National Recreation Area - taken at aScenic Rest Area

This looks like a photo from a book, doesn't it?

It's 6:00 now, and we are in a rest area. Arizona rest areas allow overnight parking, no camping, but overnights are okay.  It's actually on the sign here.  I made myself a great lunch when we stopped around 2:00, and now I'm having cereal and raspberries for dinner.  As soon as I post this I'm settling in to catch up on your blogs.  :)  We've been on the road a lot the last two days and I wanted to stop early today to give Katie a break so she wouldn't get carsick again.

The sun was out here at the rest area, blue skies overhead, with distant clouds in all directions over the mountains; it was beautiful.  Nothing else to report - we'll be back on the road again in the morning.

A final shot - the sunset reflecting on the clouds across the freeway:

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

We're in Las Vegas, NV

 

As we left Costco's parking lot yesterday it started feeling late to me, so I decided to stay in Las Vegas for the night.  We came out of Mountain Time, which just changed back an hour to Standard Time from Daylight Savings, into Pacific time which is even an hour earlier and my body clock is confused.  That's a three hour difference, right?  Or maybe two.  I'm hungry at 4:00, tired at 8:00, and it's getting darker earlier.  I checked with another Walmart about overnighting, and it's not allowed in Las Vegas, but she recommended Sam's Club RV Park, which was close by, so we drove here and stayed for the night.

After I got us settled in and got Katie comfortable, I walked over to Sam's Club Casino and tried out their dinner buffet.  It was pretty good, not great, but good.  The steak and fish were overcooked, but the salad, potato and desserts were good.  I was really hungry and ate fast and walked back to The Palms where I flaked out in front of the TV.

I have a cousin, Grant, who lives in Las Vegas and I sent him an e-mail to see if he was around and able to meet me for lunch today.  I haven't seen him in years but we talk on the phone from time to time.  He is a Veteran of the Vietnam War - a helicopter pilot - and he's meeting me for lunch at Sam's Town.  Vets get a free lunch there today; that was good timing!   He's playing golf this morning, so we're meeting mid-afternoon.

A few more photos from my trip here from Valley of Fire:

 Cattle were along the side of the road, no fences. 

There were lots of "washes" like the photo above.  It was wide and deep, and the result of running water.  All the washes were dry, but I'm sure there are times they are all full of water running like rivers.

I extended our site here for another night.  It's pretty nice having good Verizon signals and lots of TV channels.  This RV park is right next to Sam's Town Hotel and Casino and a large movie theater complex, right on a main road, but it was quiet last night.

I hate to say this and jink myself, but I didn't hear the mouse last night.  I took the trap and put it away, if I see or hear any signs that it's still here, I'll take it out and put it in front of the couch overnight while Katie is up in bed with me.

From Me and My Dog, have a nice Veterans Day.  Thank you to all the men and women who are currently serving in the military and all the veterans who have served in the past.  Because of you, we are free.  : )