Fixing A Major Problem

Today was one of those Quartzsite days when the wind produces dust devils which eventually turn into local sand storms. The northern wind made the day rather cold and unpleasant. Days like this happen quite often at Quartzsite while they are very rare in Holtville. There is no doubt that we wouldn't be snowbirds if Quartzsite would be the only alternative. Btw, it also blows a lot in Yuma, AZ.

 I believe I mentioned that we have a leaky kitchen faucet and that said faucet was almost non-accessible. It had grieved me to no end that we hadn't been able to use our water pump. And since there was nothing else to do today, I threw myself into this adventure of fighting down that water faucet.

So with the mood and guts of desperation I decided to make another attempt on it. After a research on Google about how to repair a leaky one-handle faucet, I received a few hints.

I began on the top taking the faucet itself apart, which provided me with a feeling of immediate success. However, the thing needed to come out of its seat and for that I had to deal with the nut, which was screwed against the sink from underneath. This item was placed between the two sink bowls and quite far into the cupboard, its door so small that you can't get your body through it.

I wriggled and turned the faucet to losen the nut which eventually worked. I disconnected the water lines in the cupboard and after hours of hard work, I finally got that nut removed and was able to pull the whole thing out of the sink. VICTORY!

After this battle there is no more option of "repairing" the faucet, but rather do a replacement. Luckily, I got the RV-plumber on the phone and he promised to bring a new faucet and install it tomorrow. My removal of the old equiment has probably saved us an hour of work for tomorrow's installation. Once we have the man here, I will ask him to replace an over pressure valve at the hotwater boiler as well.

So if all this goes well, come Tuesday, we will be heading down the valley towards Yuma and Holtville.

And then....we will relax.

Writing down what happened on this daty

Life In Camp

After our arrival in Quartzsite we both fell into a state of laziness, not in mood to do anything substantial, though we had to go to town for laundry, gas and some necessary grocery shopping. The visit at the gas station turned into a huge surprise. The current advertised price of regular gas is 3:19/gal. But I have a "FUEL REWARDS" card which usually nets a 10-15cts. rebate. Not so today! The rebate was ONE DOLLAR/gal. After filling 30 gallons I left that station with a happy saving of 30 bucks! 

Being back in camp, it was mainly relaxing, taking shorter walks with Dixie and simply "hanging out".

Today, we were expecting some friends to stop by. Yves and Louise are folks we once met in Holtville and have been good friends with. This winter, they will not be around much in Holtville as they will go to Mexico. For us this would mean another 1200 miles (return trip) and we just don't feel for it. Besides, we have a big rig now and roadways in Mexico tend to be narrow.

But I went to town today for some donuts, a few tools and to find an ATM, as the host station only takes cash or cheques. So we got our seasonal permit for 180 bucks, which allows us to stay in any BLM area between September 15 and April 15.

On the way back I found our friends and guided them to our site. We had coffee and the donuts and lots to talk about.

In the afternoon I put up my "fixer hat". Fixed the snap function at our screen door (Mickey Moused it), then I looked at the tail lights of the motorhome as passenger side didn't show a brake light.

After removing the red cover, it appeared that there was no bulb. How come? To find out, I also removed the inner part of the lamp, and lo and behold, there I found a totally dusted-in bulb hanging down behind the whole thing. Somehow the thing had worked its way out of the seat and fallen down. After cleaning the bulb and returning it into its seat we found the bulb working perfectly. So I used the opportunity to remove all dust out of the housing and from the red cover. Then I repeated the same operation on the driver side, which wasn't looking any better.

Things to fix  like this can still be found other places on this rig. Re. the fixing of our kitchen faucet we tried to call the RV-Tech, but it turned out we had to wait until Monday when the guy actually starts working. His phone # indicates he is not a local but runs a business here during winter season only. And his winter season starts Monday. I hope we can get him over here Monday.

Bea did some interior photos after "cleaning up all around".

And that's all for now. 

Enjoy life, it's shorter than most people realize.

Ridin' Into Town

Like a bunch of bad boys....we were ridin' into this western town. Full of miners chasing their luck, red Heads along the curb, lookin' for business, some crappy shacks, dealers where ever you'd look - QUARTZSITE, Arizona. 

There were several of us - big rigs, small rigs, crappy rigs - all headin' the same direction, findin' a spot to put oneself for the night.

Yesss, we made it again into this metropole of half crazy outlandish looking, mostly of advanced age travelers and outright bums.

We set up camp, had our supper, walked the dog and were sittin' outside relishing the warm night. Aah, that's life!

But hey, I promised something yesterday: our continued visit to the moon! 

While meeting for the flight to the moon, I met this colleague who had just returned from an extraterrestrial trip.

After seeing the petrified forest, we went to see the famous Barringer Meteor crater. I have read things about the crater ranging from calling it a 'Tourist trap' (oh no!) to the 'most wonderful experience'. (Yess) The truth: You won't find a more moon-like thing anywhere.

The crater, which is 700ft deep, with a diameter of 0.7miles and circumference of 2.4 miles, is a result of a meteroite impact 50,000 years ago. The creation of the crater took about 10 seconds. And here is the thing: You read about it, you say WOW, but you don't really understand reality, until you stand above the rim, letting your gaze go around the whole thing, taking in the sheer size, the depth of the hole before you. And slowly your mind plays a game - - - you are on the moon and there will be many of those craters all over. The surface is pocknarbed and there is nobody else than you.

Looks like the Barringer Crater, but is on the moon

Have a moonish Halloween!

A Day On The Moon Or?

 I had announced it yesterday. Today was our "Discovery Day", and we moved to the moon - well almost. But you be the judge. But first I have to say that the "moon section" will have to be spread over two postings. Too many pictures were snapped (Bea alone had over 300) while my Cell showed just 32% charge and went empty after a few hours only. (Had forgotten the charger in the rig) So many of the pics here have come from Bea's NIKON. 

Pretty futil to write a caption under every picture. But all of today's images are from the Petrified Forest NAT'L PARK.

Common Ravens were soaring high but also low. A couple of them we could say HELLO to.

Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 346 square miles (900 square kilometers), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962.



The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic Epoch, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century.