My week out

My membership at Emerald Cove RV Resort lets me stay free for two weeks. Then I either need to leave for a week or pay $95 to stay. This time I decided to leave.

First I went up north of Lake Havasu City to the BLM’s Craggy Wash area to join Doug & Toni there. The plan was Toni, who has a sewing machine on board, would hem my curtains. I also suggested that I would buy groceries if she would cook and she agreed to that plan, too.

So now my curtains are no longer unraveling in the wind.

And feed me she certainly did. The first night we had roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, steamed carrots, and ice cream. The second night we had ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, hand-cut French fries, and pumpkin pie. Toni asked if I wanted salad with that but I decided I’d rather eat more ribs. The third night we had lasagna, Caesar salad,  garlic/cheese toast, and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. And I brought home leftovers every night so I am still eating well. I do miss the good conversations that went with the food when I was with them, though.

The morning I was scheduled to leave their rig developed an electrical problem. It let some smoke out. And we all know nothing works once you let the smoke out. So Toni brought two laptops to my rig to charge them and do her email stuff. That meant I didn’t leave quite as early as I might have otherwise. Which is a good thing.

Because just as Toni was finishing up, Doug came over with his binoculars wanting to know if we wanted to look. This is what we saw:

You’ll have to click to enlarge them. Then look along the ridge line in the center.

See them? Big horn sheep.

And those white rocks in the grassy area below them? Are also sheep. Although we couldn’t tell that until the rocks suddenly grew legs when they stood up.

When I left Craggy Wash it was to go south for a better internet connection so I could do upgrades. You already know how that turned. out.

But, it was also so I could test some new theories about how to make my systems last longer when boondocking.

One of the Escapee members recently posted information about making his battery charges last longer by turning off his refrigerator at night when no one is opening the door. It saved a lot of power without loosing a lot of cool so I wanted to try that. It works! I no longer have to go driving every other day to charge my batteries! Yay!

The other thing I wanted to try was making my black tank not fill up so fast. This part is not for the squeamish so if that’s you stop reading now. It’s also going to be way to much informations for some people so if you don’t want to read about bodily functions you should also stop now. OK, I warned you. I’ll use all caps to tell you when it’s safe to return.

The new rule is: put nothing down the toilet that was not first processed by your body except plain water. Yup. No paper. It goes into a zip top bag which gets put in the trash. Yuck, right? I had a hard time getting my mind around the concept. But, people put wet disposable diapers in the trash all the time. And people put dirty baby wipes in the trash all the time. And women put used feminine hygiene products in the trash all the time. How is used toilet paper different? There are countries in our world where it is customary to put the paper in a waste basket and they would be appalled if you put it down the toilet–which is basically a hole in the ground. So, I’m training myself to not put paper down the toilet. I don’t always remember. But I greatly extended the length of time I can go without having to dump my black tank so I will keep working on this.

OK, YOU CAN COME BACK NOW.

But you might not want to read all the comments this time, either.

The other thing I am doing on my week out is watching TV. No, I didn’t buy a TV. I watch on my computer. But, Dave figured out how to get Downton Abbey from PBS.org. So, I don’t have to wait until it comes out on Netflix to catch up with the rest of you. I’ve only watched the first three episodes of this season so far, though, so I may stay here another day or two to finish since I have a good connection speed here. Besides, there are going to be major wind gusts the next couple of days so I don’t really want to be driving then anyway. And I still have leftovers from Toni’s cooking to eat.

And nothing says I have to back to Emerald Cove right away now that my week out is up. Now that I know how to make my RV let me stay out here in the desert a little longer.

TTYL,

Linda