Category: Uncategorized

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

Jeri, Toni, Doug, Terry, my vacant chair.

Hot beef sandwiches with several sides and chocolate cake.

Here we are sitting under Toni & Doug’s awning. Jeri & Terry are parked right behind them. I am beside Jeri & Terry. And now Lee is just down the row from us.

Tonight’s dinner is spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. Probably ice cream for desert.

I don’t know if it is a good or bad thing to be parked right next to friends. I just know I am enjoying it.

TTYL,

Linda

When I pulled into the Walmart in Benson, Arizona, I saw this Leisure Travel RV parked nearby.

Because it looked like one we used to own I was, of course, curious about it but I was too tired to inquire. Then the next morning, as I was finally uncovering my windows I saw a fellow checking out my rig. So we visited. This is Dennis, owner of that LT.

We visited a couple of times during the morning. Each time we each taught the other something else about this lifestyle. We both went away with URLs to check out.

When I stopped here I had not planned to stay through the day but you know those comments about man’s plans.

Judie & Gary live about an hour south of here. Judie is one of my internet friends and she had expressed an interest in seeing my Sportsmobile. So when I realized how close I was to her I contacted her. They were interested enough to be willing to drive to me. So I hung around waiting for them.

In the meantime I found out Mike & Julie are parked in an RV park here in town and wanted to know if I wanted to get together while here. So I told them I was at the Walmart. I figured since I was staying another day I would give them a call later to see if they wanted to meet for supper.

Then our daughter, the truck driver, called. She would be passing through Benson about 1:00. Did I want to meet up? Of course I do. See my daughter? Absolutely.

So about 11:30 Judie and Gary came and we visited.

When they left I took a quick nap in preparation for a long chat with my daughter. Who didn’t arrive on schedule. It turned out the load she was picking up wasn’t ready. So we thought she’d be here about 3:00 instead. At 2:30 they finished loading her truck. OK, she’ll be here about 5:00. A little after 6:00 she finally arrived. And we talked and talked until bedtime. Then she went to sleep in her truck and I went to sleep in my van. This morning she came back. About 7:30 am. But I was actually up and doing computer stuff although I was still wearing pajamas. She had made three trips into Walmart and on the last one she locked herself out of the truck. It would take about 45 minutes for the fixit guy to arrive. So we talked some more.

I took her picture, too, but she said she didn’t want it posted on the internet. She authorized this one. 🙂

So, she finally got into her truck and left. I am finally dressed, fed, and almost packed up. My batteries are getting very low so I need to start driving to recharge them. But, I never did get to see Mike & Julie.

Such is life on visiting day.

TTYL,

Linda

No, not zombies.

Internet access.

They’re not everywhere, you know. Or maybe you don’t know.

Those of you who live in big cities never have to wonder if you will be able to access your data or not. For those of us who live on the road there is “Coverage?” available for the iPhone and iPad.

The couple known as Technomadia live in an RV so they know what we want. (Check them out at http://www.technomadia.com) And being technomads they develop an app to do it and then sell it through Apple’s App Store. Coverage? is the one that tells me at a quick glance whether or not an area I am about to move into will have a signal for me.

At least they try to tell me. Their data can only be as good as that supplied by the data vendors: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, & T-Mobile. As we all know, when it comes to data the phrase is GIGO, which stands for “garbage in, garbage out”. In this case it is Verizon’s garbage.

Verizon said I would have no signal in Brady, Texas, where I planned to spend the night but it would be back in Eldorado where I planned to stop for lunch the next day. Wrong. When I stopped in Brady I had enough phone signal to be able to call Walmart to get permission to park there overnight. I didn’t try the data because it looked like I was roaming so didn’t want to risk it. The next day, in Eldorado, I had no signal at all. I did get in a nice nap there, though.

So, by the time I got to Fort Stockton I had been two days without internet. Driving helped fill in that time but I knew I things in my on-line world must be getting backlogged. So I checked into an RV park for two nights. That let me catch up on all my internet stuff as well as do housekeeping chores like tending to my tanks: dumping and filling as the case may be.

Because having your black tank fill up puts you into another type of dead zone.

TTYL,

Linda

Yes, stopping not shopping. Although I do that, too.

One of the reasons I like to shop at Walmart is that they are RV friendly. You are even welcome to stay overnight in their parking lot unless local ordinance forbids it.

In addition to that many of them have oversized van handicapped parking spots. In these spots you park parallel to the driving lanes instead of nose in. They have extra width and length so those of us traveling with personal mobility devices have room to unload them to use in the store. My van fits in those spots. But, so do compact cars. Whose drivers have no idea how nice it would be if they didn’t take those spots unless they had absolutely no other option. They just see them as easy in-easy out. Which they are.

For me, those spots are close enough to the doors that I can walk inside, then use one of the store’s carts to do my shopping. I can buy a lot more stuff using their carts than I can using my Scoot. My basket is not so big.

If I have to park in the back forty, I unload and ride my Scoot into the store. If I work it very carefully I can buy about $75 worth of groceries per trip on my Scoot. Nowadays, that’s not many groceries when you let your supplies get down to four meals worth. So it takes lots of trips on my Scoot to restock.

But shopping that way is tiring.

So what I am now doing is taking my Scoot in and buying about three bags worth of groceries. I do it by stacking two bags between my feet and filling my basket. Then I haul that out to my RV where I eat a meal or take a nap or drive on down the road to the next Walmart. Where I buy another three bags of groceries.

I figure about the time I get my fridge and pantry restocked I will luck into one of the good spots and have to decide how much more I should really buy.

Right now, though, it easy to tell my GPS where I want to stop next: the next Walmart down the road.

TTYL,

Linda