What a Day!

I woke early this morning which was fine because I went to bed early last night. Everything outside was wet but the rain had stopped. So I cleaned house, packed everything up, said my goodbyes, and headed out.

About an hour from Phoenix, I stopped to call my brothers who live in Phoenix. I don’t like to give them much warning I am coming because then they try to do too much to get ready for me. The result is they make themselves too sick to visit.

Apparently they got rid of their land line phone since I last visited but I had a cell number so I called that. Got voice mail. I left a message and said I’d call again when I got into town.

No one got the voice mail. I had offered to take them both to lunch but that didn’t work. The oldest has been waiting since October for the VA to schedule his knee surgery and they called him last week to say it would be this week. In Houston, Texas. So he’s on a van trip going the opposite direction to that I just came. The brother I talked to said he’s too sick to drive. His powered wheel chair won’t go into my van. My van won’t fit in his parking space. So swapping my van for his with the lift was not possible. But we had a nice chat on the phone.

Then I headed to Trader Joe’s to buy some of  their heat & eat food. Having that on hand makes boondocking much easier. Bur first, I took a short nap in their parking lot. I love having my bed with me everywhere.

Then it was time to buy fuel. I hate buying fuel. I tried Flying J again. Nope. too high a percentage of bio-fuel; I should just give up on them. So I did a search for Valero which has become my vendor of choice. Found one just a mile back down the road. Except it’s no longer a Valero so I didn’t turn in. Now I’m going the wrong way so I turned into a neighborhood intending to go around the block. Except there are no blocks. The street curves back and forth through the neighborhood. But it eventually comes out on a side road that lets me get back to the main street I was on earlier.

So I headed back to a Shell station I had passed that had diesel to see if theirs was bio- or not. Oops, wrong pump. Need to be over there. Then an incoming driver decided we should play dodge-em. Made me cut a corner too sharply. Broke the cover off my electrical connector. I hope I can still plug in. Finally get to the right pump and can’t make my card work. Pump says, “See cashier.” So I go inside and he can’t make my card work there either. Maybe because I gave him my Flying J discount card instead of my credit card? So I give him the right card and he rings up $40 worth of diesel. Back to the pump which pumps exactly $40 worth. As that is finishing a guy came out of the store to tell me I left my credit card in there. Back into the store to get my card. Finally back on the road again.

I have lots of entries in my GPS for potential places to camp tonight. I don’t feel like doing any of them. So, I just head west on I-10 until I get tired and hungry. Pull into a rest area and have another short nap then supper. Decide I don’t want to sleep there so head on west.

So, now I am in Quartzsite but it is too dark to find the people I came here to meet. I just park on some BLM land to wait for tomorrow. Then I have to decide whether to go look for the people here or head on to a park where I can get mail. I need to order a new cover for my electrical connection. And I need to get the license plates for this vehicle before my temporary permit expires on the 28th. Dave has the plates but I need to park somewhere long enough for him to send them.

As one of my internet friends would say, “What a to do.”

I don’t like having days like today. But they sure do make for easy blog writing.

TTYL,

Linda