The Blueboy Blues

 

The  All-American Canal, irrigating the veggie fields of the Imperial Valley.

Camping in the desert means that you will have to be very self-confident and self-reliant. If you like to enjoy modern conveniences with endlessly running water and power from the energy company like you have at home, but still like to travel, you better not camp in the desert, but go to a full-service RV-Park with neighbours left and right of your rig. (You will never feel lonely there) We would never do that, because we just don't like it. Yes, we did try it - for shorter periods and in areas where our "Boondocking" alternative was not available. So if you are one of the people who camp "wild", (boondocking) than you would know about the Blueboy, a rolling wastewater tank, most of them in blue plastic (hence the name) You connect it by way of sewer hose to your RV. But then the adventure really starts. If you are in the desert you normally have no dump station near by,  After finding the nearest dump station you gotta figure out just how to move it there. You have a pickup? OK, be prepared to use a macerator pump to get the fluid to the level of your truck bed. The other possibility is that you use a hitch-mounted carrier. If it is low enough you can place the empty Blueboy on the carrier, then fill it.  If not, go back to the pump alternative. If you don't have a Blueboy or don't want to use it, you gotta move your entire rig to the dump station. We used to do that for years, but last summer I got a Blueboy from a neighbour. So we want to use it. The van's hitch receiver just begs about getting a carrier attached to it. So today, I was off to town and got myself inside a Harbor Freight store. They had a variety of carriers, some real fancy ones with an attached ramp to it, so you could roll something heavy onto it. (fex. a Blueboy) But they were large and heavy and I was thinking that would cause a problem the day we would go home. Where to put such a large heavy thing?? Besides, they were quite pricey. Finally, my inspections resulted in finding a small steel carrier without a ramp, and it had an angle to the receiver which could be mounted upside down, so it wouldn't be very high off the ground. And the price tag said $59.00 which I was delighted about. Weight limit was 300 pounds - more than enough for my use. So I ended up with purchasing that thing. The lose parts came in a handy cardboard box so I had to mount it first. Easy peasy, when you got all your tools with you. 

But I had to do another couple of stops in town. ALDI opened at 9am and I was the first customer inside, I was bound to find German Christmas specials, which I got successful with. 

Butter - Almond Christmas Stollen and "Pepper Nuts"

But they didn't have my favorite breakfast rolls, so next stop was at Wallyworld for rolls, bread and some dinner items. Being me and very forgetful, I remembered that Bea had given me a list with things she needed. Of course, that came to me when I was back in the parking lot. I decided to try yet another food store, and it was the Mexican Cardenas I ventured into next. Years ago I had been in there and the store sure hadn't lost any of its Mexican style. The aisle signs were in Spanish, which would sure pose a challenge to me. Yet, I found what I was after and got outa there again. Now, Bea would be so happy with me having remembered everything she had on her list. See, the problem I have is that all the product in a store gets me so side-tracked. Instead of looking for dinner items or a single condiment, I can be carried away by hanging out in the pastry department or in the candy aisle. The beer and wine shelves can also take considerable time to pass along. 

The weather was beautiful today and on my way to camp I stopped on the bridge to shoot a picture of the canal.