Spending A Day

So we woke up to another beautiful day here in the desert.

Nothing special going on, except that we awaited a phone call from our mobile RV Tech "Miguel". 

Until then we piled into the van and went shopping in Yuma.

There is a Walmart along Ave B with 24St. It has the benefit of offering shaded parking spaces, which is what we appreciate for the sake of Dixie waiting in the van until our return.

Initially I hadn't much on my shopping agenda, but as there also is Bea, our shopping got somewhat more than initially planned. So passing the till we forked over just short of $150. Now, that included a new frying pan, eyedrops for Bea, a few extension rods to put behind the door of our fridge to prevent things from falling out after opening the door, 2 small gas containers for outside cooking stove, and some items for Bea's painting hobby. Afterwards we still had to get a 35lbs. bag of dog food from a TSC store. 

Lunch in the rig was next and an hour later we got the call from Miguel. We agreed that it would be best if he came out here tomorrow morning to do the job.

Evening is settling in

So that suggests a return to Holtville early afternoon. 

Bea has been spending countless hours doing her paintings and I am really impressed by the results. It is a wonderful thing to do and she is using both Acrylic and water color. Next we need to get some frames and find places on the wall for them.

The artist at work

After only one day here at "Pilot Knob" I am already feeling home-sick for our site at the Holtville Hot Springs.

And you might be wondering alltogether what is "Pilot Knob" and what's the history around here. So below you can read about it.

Pilot Knob (also, Avie Quah-la-Altwa, Ha-bee-co-la-la, and San Pablo) is a peak in Imperial County, California. Pilot Knob is located 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Ogilby, It rises to an elevation of 876 feet (267 m). Pilot Knob is a rocky landform, geologically a Volcanic plug, west of Yuma, Arizona–Winterhaven, California; it is connected to the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, the central portion of the mountains being about 7 miles (11 km) north. Pilot Knob was named for its prominence as a landmark for riverboat traffic in the 19th-20th centuries on the Colorado River which borders Winterhaven–Yuma. Pilot Knob is an Area of Critical Environmental Concern administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

Pilot Knob description

Separated from the center of the Cargo Muchacho Mountains by 7 mi, the volcanic landform is at the base of alluvial fans. Pilot Knob has a height of 897 feet (273 m), and the entire mountain block is about 2 x 2 mi. The mountain has a rock quarry on its north side, visible from Interstate 8.

The Bureau of Land Management administers the Pilot Knob Long Term Visitor Area campground at the base of Pilot Knob.

History

When Juan Bautista de Anza sighted the peak in 1774 he named it Cerro de San Pablo. The Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission was located 8 miles (13 km) to the east.[ During the California Gold Rush, Pilot Knob was the landmark on the Southern Emigrant Trail for what was called Emigrant Crossing, the center crossing of three major crossings of the Colorado River in the vicinity of what is now Yuma, Arizona. The Butterfield Overland Mail located its Pilot Knob Station, near the river and the Knob in 1858.

And here we are (almost) at the end of this posting - except I still have a little goodie for you. That is if you are NOT a Trump supporter. Enjoy!

Total Failure Or Can We Get It Done?

One of the "discoveries" we made with our motorhome was that it did not have a functioning brake controller. The selling company in Colorado had assured us that it would have this installed, but they mixed it up with a brake controller for flat-towing. Those won't work for a trailer. Once we showed up with a trailer they should have told us to get one for trailer use installed. But I have to chalk that up to ignorance, despite that the main business of that company was selling trailers.

Ignorance seems to be a problem with other companies too.

Today we had an appointment in Yuma to finally get that brake controller installed. 

For that reason we had already driven yesterday to another LTVA (Pilot Knob) near Yuma , for the time for our appointment was 9am. Of course, we were on-site at 8:30am. Yet, everything was still locked up and nobody around. That didn't change when the clock struck 9am either. 45 Minutes later a black Jaguar showed up. It was the owner of "Just-For-Towing LLC".

I gave her 10 more minutes to get organized before I stepped into her small office. Other than she was mumbling about having to pick up some tax papers, no explanation for her delay was given, and she was quite in the blank about why I was there, so I had to explain it to her. As she found a schedule paper for the day she started to show signs of remembrance. After signing off on the dotted line I left her the key for the motorhome and we took off to Mittry Lake, where we spent 3hours enjoying the scenery. 

We also met a lot of interesting passer-bys we chatted with.

Eventually we got a call from the shop. It turned out to be a huge disappointment as they "could not find out how to install the controller". Apparently a tech had spent one hour in the coach and then given up without doing anything.

We couldn't believe it! We were told that they weren't really an RV place. (But they knew we would be coming with our 40ft rig) Though when we returned to pick up the rig, they were working on 2 other motorhomes. 

Go figure!

When retrieving the key, the woman gave me a phone number to call. Obviously a guy who had knowledge enough to fix our order.

So with our mood in the basement we took off. We decided to return to Pilot Knob LTVA in case we would find another company to get the job done.

I called the number I had been given, and it turned out to be a mobile RV tech. He sounded knowledgeable, but the best part was that he might even be able to get it done tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. His price wasn't too bad so we made a deal. Maybe, if this works out our trip to Yuma wasn't all wasted anyway, besides we had also taken the opportunity to fill up our diesel tank with over 80gal. Diesel prices are easily $1.50 cheaper/gal than in California, which works out to $120 saved.

While we were parked here yesterday, we enjoyed a mighty fine desert sunset. 

And here are wide open spaces to enjoy hiking or just walking the dog. Not far from here, is the Mexican border. On a clear day one can make out the ugly border fence cutting through the desert.

Yes, folks, this is what happened today, so we just hang out here at least one more day.

A Real Treasure In Yuma

A few errands were getting us to Yuma again. And while we are rarely hanging out in the city, yesterday we made an exception.

White River Beach

It is still strange that we never discovered this during our many visits here, but there is a beautiful public park along the Colorado River. Called the West Wetlands Park, the non-pretentious sign to the park can easily be overlooked.

Bea studying information signs

Keep your eyes on the right curbside as you drive down on West 1.Street. You are crossing a low-key residential area before you'll see the entrance to the park. Then get out and wander down to the boat launch. There is a beautiful white-sand beach and the waters of the Colorado, are slowly moving along towards it's border crossing with Mexico in Algodones. Here the river is carrying a lot less water than what you might have seen in places farther to the north. Even as close to Yuma as at Picacho Recreation area, the river is much, much wider. The reason for the reduced water is, of course, the water needed for irrigation of the thousands of acres of vegetable producing fields around Yuma. The waters are then led into the American Canal, running along the Mexican border all the way into the Imperial Valley where another thousands of acres are irrigated with it.

From the boat launch a beautiful trail leads along the river. Huge old cottonwood trees and big Mesquite, some of them in full bloom make for a very delightful walk.

Canopies are providing space for a sit-down in their shade, and we were sorry we hadn't any lunch package with us. Being a Thursday, there weren't many people on the trail, but dog-walking seemed to be the thing. We heard birds singing in the trees and shrubs, but just imagine how wonderful that would be real early in the morning.

We were getting close to noon and the sun was getting hot, so we had to get back to the car where we had water for Dixie and ourselves. 

Ducks resting by the water

Next time you are in Yuma, check it out. Once on the trail, you will forget about the loud hustle of this ever-growing city.

Honey Mesquite in bloom

Yellow Elder

One Project Finished, What Else Are We Doing

I have never been so busy than this winter when being down south.

One of the longer lasting projects was updating all valances in the coach. The 20-year-old ones with their baroc-style tussels hanging from the center wasn't quite to our taste. 

So we had purchased fabrics, some thin foam padding and the necessary tools.

Finally, one-by-one I finished all the valances in the coach.

The result is very nice as it gives off a much more updated and modern impression when entering the rig.

I have also continued changing the cabinet doors from being hinged on top to being hinged at the bottom. However, I had to order more latches, so there are still 2 more cabinet doors to fix.

Bea has taken to her artwork and developed quite an impressive way to work with her acrylic colors. Or what do you think about her latest piece?

A few weeks ago we visited fellow campers at the Valley of Names. While being there, they served us great food from their smoker BBQ. Those hamburgers were just delicious.

Indeed they were so nice that we went ahead and ordered a smoker BBQ for ourselves.

I found it at Walmart and ordered it online. It's called "PIT BOSS" and, as so many other items these days, is manufactored in China. It's great for hot-smoking of meat and fish, but one can also bake a cake or pie and it is even great for regular BBQing.

It needs to be connected to 120V AC, and since it barely uses electric power it is great for boondocking, as it can run on the power generated by solar panels and inverted to 120V. In fact, the only power it needs is igniting the wood pellets and turning the auger which transports the pellets into the burn chamber. Temperature ranges fom 180F (smoking) to 500F. 

Our first try was a nice pork loin, which first got smoked then finished at around 220F. The result was mouth-watering.

Next I baked chocolate cookies on it, and also those turned out great. The latest was some steaks which we devoured today. This thing is worth every penny!

The Pit Boss weighs about 40lbs and has 2 side handles for moving it around. Walmart sells it at $227 plus tax. Great investment as it is even cheaper than a Weber BBQ.

And what about the weather? Not a drop of rain since we left home on October 19. But January was a bit cooler than we remember from previous years. Some cold wind from the north made being outside in the shade a tad too cold. But now we have February and temps are rising quickly. We topped out at 27C today and expect 30C tomorrow. A heat wave which will last until Saturday when we will be at around 24C again.

Concluding this posting, I also have a little surprise. I have mentioned it earlier, but here it is again: A cactus was planted by friends around 20 years ago. It is the only cactus around here. Last spring I took too little pieces of it with us home and we got it into regular potting soil. They started growing faster than I had expected. When we returned to the desert in October we took one of the off-springs and brought it back to the desert. I planted it beside its parent cactus and kept watering both the big one and the little one. And what can I say, both are doing really well, looking fresh and green and are sprouting more arms.