5C's Que Pasa

I was up at 5:30AM as my mind was in overload.  Only a low of 58F so that was an improvement.  Lost yet another pound when I weighed in today for the first time since we left Kelowna.  Hmm, must be all that shopping, lots of exercise for sure but not like my friend Suzanne is getting in Utah.  Now that girl has stamina and tons of courage.

The rain showers eased off and stopped overnight but then we were treated to an eerie foggy morning on the BLM lands.

Colin usually strums the guitar while I play the keys on the computer but today Carmeh decided to get amorous.

She was very lovey dovey all day. When Colin was driving she was with me wanting to cuddle. Who says that dogs don't have moods? We think it is a sign that her eye is getting better.

We were off at 9:00AM so we would be back in Parker for our 10AM RV repair appointment.  GRR  👿 Over an hour later they finally started to replace the one part.  Turns out that the other part, the one we paid for last April had not yet arrived.  Colin suspects that the part was never even ordered.  So 2  1/2 hours later we left after a 30 minute job was done.  The owner very nicely did not charge us for the part nor the labor.  I think he felt rather bad about the entire situation.  Colin plans to order the part that we really do need from Spartan and have these people install it in April.

Last April when they repaired the RV A/C, a part was missing, so they simply wired the fan to the A/C to keep running rather than shut down and then start up again. Worse case scenario the fan will burn out. Hopefully we will get it wired properly before that happens. Don't they say that the third time is the charm?

Then we were heading back to Quartzsite and to Love’s where we had to get the new tire lug nuts re torqued to make the warranty effective.  One of the tires was down 2 lbs and they wanted to charge us $27.00 to fill it.  Colin said that we had just paid $2800.00 to purchase four tires and if one was low surely they should fill it for free and so they did.  Back onto the road.  It was now 1:20PM and it seemed that we had just been driving the same stretch of highway back and forth.  Time to put some miles on.  Found really cheap diesel at exit 44 on I10 @ 3.19/gal.  Too bad we were full.

We stopped just south of Gila Bend at a Passport America Park tucked in behind the Shell station  just off of exit 118 on I8.  Great little place with full hook ups for $11.99 plus tax.

Very clean, very cute with lots of interesting tidbits.

We were here a full hour dealing with a variety of professionals on Magic Jack via our inverter before putting the slides out and plugging in. Looks like things are coming together before we cross into Mexico.

We did manage a good family walk and while I did the dinner dishes Colin gave the girls another walk.  They just don’t get enough walking time while we are on the road but we only did 202 miles today so they got some quality time.

Here is the question of the day?  How many dogs are in this photo?

Mystery shot.

At 6:00PM last night it was 68F, the warmest we have been to date.  I actually got into shorts but kept my long sleeved top on  😮

Well work of course.  Sorting things out, moving things around and just simply doing chores and some cleaning.  One thing was to set up the satellite dish as we haven’t used it since Wednesday AM last Nov. 26th.  We wanted to reconnect with the signal to be sure we had not lost it.  I wonder if with the new upgraded Shaw system that the signal won’t die out after being disconnected over a period of time.  Of course there was the learning curve of which buttons to push to find out the set up screen. It all worked out in the end.  Shame we had to take it down this morning.  We won’t set it up again until we reach the Isla.

Part of our TV connection is at the back of the girls toy box. They girls sure had fun becoming reacquainted with toys they haven't seen since last spring. They had another set of toys back home 🙁

We also spent a lot of time online as we are working on some important personal business which is time sensitive.  Perfect that we were parked for the day.  The thing we did not do was go for many walks.  Too cold at 64F, the max temp of the day.  I am still in long pants and long sleeves. We had rain showers off and on all day and through the night.  Hopefully we are done with the moisture as the system is heading East.

We are having to watch the girls very carefully when outside as there is a family of coyotes living in the wash and they have been spotted roaming amongst the RVs. We still let them off leash but keep them at our side. So good that they listen to us.

There is an unpleasant smell in the air here, sort of like a burnt electrical odor. Even with the rain it is not going away. You have to try and not take a deep breath as it makes you cough and it permeates the RV if the door or window is open. Colin describes it as an acidic electrical power station odor.

Does anyone know what the cause of the odor might be due to.  Between the cold, the rain and the odor this has not been a good stop.  The low level clouds have certainly had an affect on the solar panels and every now and then we have to run the generator.  Always a good time to heat the kettle at the same time.  We were running the generator when this RV pulled up almost right in front of us.  I had hoped that the sound would move then on.

No, they stayed and sure enough they ran their generator 24/7. We only run ours for 15 minutes here and there.

Thanks for the suggestions of fingerless gloves for Dad, my brother is going to find some today, I hope!  Also one of my friends on the Isla came up with the idea of those little packets that you can squeeze and it emits some heat.  Usually used for skiers and winter outdoor types, in their mitts and boots.

Time to pack up and get a move on.  We have that appointment for the RV work this morning.  We have decided to pack it all up ( can’t stand the smell ) and then move on to not quite sure where tonight.  We hope to be a few hours behind this rain system.

We left our BLM camping area near Lake Havasu about 8:30AM yesterday morning with temps in the low 60’s.

We usually don't have anyone else camped close to us in this area, but we heard nothing and saw no one.

I have never seen a tent here before. They look well set up. I wonder if this is their permanent home.

About a dozen RV's scrunched together in this section.

These wagons are towable, very unique RV set up. Love the front porch idea.

Back to Walmart for more things that I absolutely need for the Isla including more white lights to decorate our site with.  I was rushing through my list as we had planned to meet friends Libby ( whom I graduated with from nursing school way back in 1973 ) and Skip at our RV at a certain time.  Well they were early and I was late getting out of the store.  I had a Chatty Cathy at the till and she just kept going on and on so finally I started to just bag my own groceries.

We had a lovely short visit and off they went to do their errands and of course I still had more shopping to do.

Yes those are grey skies overhead and it was too cool to stay outside and visit for any length of time. In fact it did not get over 65F all day.   After a quick meal of eggs and toast I was off to JC Penny.  I was looking for a particular top and found 5 choices within 5 minutes, all on sale.  It is a good thing that we had an agenda for the day or I could have easily spent a fortune totally revamping my wardrobe.  Great choice of clothing for 50% off.  Maybe in the spring.  Again a long line to checkout with another Chatty Cathy.

We drove on to Parker where I picked up the last ( well not quite, one more quick shop before we cross the border ) items I needed from Safeway.  We always refill our 5 gallon water container here.  Before I made it back to the RV it rained, not much but enough to get everything wet.  By the way the wine purchases have ceased and I have reached my limit for this winter.  I have no idea how the RV seems to absorb all these cases of vino blanco.

Next stop was to the brother’s shop of the fellow who repaired our RV A/C last April.  Why to the brother you might ask?  Well we can’t find the guy we paid to do the work and that left us with a part missing which he was going to order and install for us this trip south.  I mean we had already for everything including the missing part.  So through the local Chamber of Commerce we were given Fidel’s ( the brother ) phone number.  He told us he would look after us at his shop and that he had the part.  Well after an hour of  just sitting there, it turns out that he does not have the part but he also noticed that a solenoid ignition switch is badly corroded and would likely cause more problems down the road if not changed.  So now we have to go back tomorrow for both parts to be installed.  We were supposed to have 2 full days here in Q to recharge our personal batteries and get ready to cross the Mexican border.  I am tired from all of that shopping.  Good thing that when we get to Mazatlan I seldom leave the Isla.  Certainly not several times per week like most of Rvers.

After seeing Fidel we had to fill with propane and diesel.  We took a full 10 gallons of propane  which shows how much we have been running the furnace to keep warm.  Diesel was the lowest we have seen this trip at $3.59 per gallon.  The lowest I have seen gas for is $2.75 per gallon.   Prices here are a bit higher than what George is finding along his travels.  He found gas the other day for $2.39/gallon.

Finally, finally we pulled into the BLM area in Quartzsite  off exit 112. Even the camp host was off duty.  Yet another full day.  We managed to get set up and have a short walk before dark.  It was 64F outside at 6:30PM, not my usual sitting outside for happy hour weather.  We also listened to the pitter patter of rain all night.  It felt colder than 58F this morning.  I guess it was the dark gloomy clouds.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of what happened or will happen today.

What a day?  We did what had to be done but it zapped us of our energy.  Awoke  yesterday AM in Vegas ( Monday ) to not too bad temps ( honestly I forgot to write it down and now I have no idea ).  The day started at 6AM.

Because of Carmeh’s eye problem I called and recalled as we were traveling, about 7 vets in the Lake Havasu City area ( LHC ).  Finally after several calls and back & forth we scored an appt. at 3:45 PM in LHC.  This was great as it was the vet we really wanted to see based on a friend’s recommendation.

However before that we had an appointment, actually really, a first come, first serve with Love’s just off of I40 to the turn onto HWY 95 to Lake Havasu City.  This is where we had our front two RV tires changed last spring.  Now it was time to change the back four. Colin had pre called in the tires we would need so that they would be on hand for us this week.  Sadly we had to vacate the RV into an old office.  However it did have electric and so we  brought the computer with us as well as the girls and their beds, toys and water dish.  Caeli was not impressed and kept vocalizing her concerns.  Since I have been away in Edmonton she talks all daylong, it can get on your nerves after a while depending what she is saying.  Yesterday it was a strong vocalization of not wanting to be cooped up in a tiny freezing cold room.  The new tires are of a slightly smaller diameter with a wider width giving us a safer load base.  Think cases of wine  😉

The supposed 90 minute time involved to do the change actually was closer to 3.5 hours plus  🙄  This made us dangerously close to missing the vet appt.

The two guys working on the RV had trouble getting the tires off due to the low wheel well.

Colin is always supervising when something is being done to his RV so when the guys started to put jacks under the body to lift the RV he said no as he did not want to damage the body. Instead he came up with the solution of putting 1 of our jack pads under the front jack and the other 3 under the back jack thus giving the guys the space they needed to get the job done. Then he reversed sides for the other two tires. Good thing he was on the spot.

We did manage to get to the vet in the nick of time,  Fortunately we knew where we were headed and were aware of the parking situation.  Sadly it turns out that Carmeh has an acute eye abrasion.  She was treated immediately plus I was given what she needs to recover over the next 7 days.  We have no idea of how it happened as we have pretty much just been driving south in the RV.  The vet said it could have happened from anything, even a piece of dust.  Sadly she has been pain these past few days but now with eye ointment for corneal repair as well as another antibiotic ointment plus Metacam for pain she will be on the mend.  He says we should see improvement within 3 to 4 days. Between the tires and the vet we saw our balance of funds go way way down.

By then it was time to figure what to do next.  I still had some shopping for Mexico do to in this area so we decided to head to the BLM land just north of LHC, called Craggy Wash.  It was fairly crowded and our usual site midway back had 2 other RVs there but it was getting dark soon so we unhooked and with many back and forth turns in the narrow gulch we were able to turn around so that we could park.  Usually we hook up the car right away but left it for the morning.  The terrain here has changed due to the torrential rains the area has has over the months.  The usually flat area is not so flat and we need to go down a bit of a bump to leave this morning.  We will then re hook.  The days are so much shorter at this time of year with dark encroaching shortly after five PM.

The area is generally overcast with highs of only 70F.  I wore a jacket most of yesterday. Usually we are very hot at this time of year.  That arctic air is slowly making it’s way south.  However we are not complaining with temps of -13C / 8F in Kelowna and -15C / 5F in Edmonton which is a warmup from -37C / -34F form 3 days ago.  Now that was cold and I am so thankful to not have experienced that.

Had a good long chat with my Dad last night and he seems to be slightly improving.  No coughing and able to breathe better.  He even went for two tiny walks yesterday.  His only complaint is that he is cold and the staff are refusing to fill his hot water bottle due to liability issues.  However the family can, but they aren’t there that much so his hands are icy cold which radiates the cold to the rest of his body.  He already wears a sweater with two shawls on top plus two afghans over his knees to try and keep warm.  Not much else I can so from here.

Woke up to 32F/0C in Ely, Nevada.  Nothing was frozen.  I have to say that it was warmer this past week  that it was the end of October doing the same route last year and in previous years.  You just never know what Mother Nature is going to deliver.

Sadly we have a problem with Carmeh, her right eye is almost shut.  Same dog, same eye and same problem a year ago.  FYI Gail, I am using the same antibiotic eye gel we used last October but will have her checked out by a vet in Lake Havasu tomorrow.  She must have injured it or got something in it in the RV as she has not been outside much at all.

Today was our wine shopping day in Las Vegas.  In the excitement of it all I neglected to take photos.  I promise to share photos down the road of me consuming said purchases  😮

Tonight we are at another Camping World and it seems that once again we are no longer allowed to stay overnight.  Well we are staying.  Apparently we have been illegal the last 2 years also but no one told us.  It seems that the folks living in the homes 2 streets away complain about the noise.  No worries, we are stealth campers.

A short 278 mile day. A very nice and smooth road but extremely boring.

Colin has managed to conceal 16 cases of vino in the belly of our beast.  Now you know why I brought US cash into the states.  It is long gone  😥

At 8:30 PM we have 68.6F outside but it is supposed to go down to 44F later.  No matter we will be snug as we all cuddle together.

Not too far before Vegas, perhaps 80 miles there some interesting rock formations.

Very interesting area.

Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.