Rousted.....

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

6:49 am - PDST - Friday - 52º F, 43% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south southeast.....completely calm where we are......

....I was up early Thursday as I often am on getaway days thinking about what needed to be done to be moving to our next view by 9 am.  

It occurred to me that I forgot to mention in my blog post for Wednesday that when we were sitting outside with our friends that night saying our 'until next times' two security guard vehicles suddenly appeared.  As a matter of context since we arrived Saturday we have seen security guard vehicles patrolling the extended stay parking lot on an hourly basis.....not once had any of them stopped to talk with us, or question our presence.  In the 5 years we have been traveling full time we have only been rousted a couple of times previously.  We always ask permission to overnight in any parking lot, and we actually asked permission twice this time....the first time we discussed parking and staying in our RV with a nice lady in the group sales department that was handling our college reunion, and was advised it was okay....the second time was the day we arrived (last Saturday)....we went to the registration desk and once again explained our purpose for being there, and made sure we were parked in the correct area.  We were told we were, and when I asked specifically if we needed anything in writing, or some sort of permit the lady replied "No, and anywhere on the property is okay".  So, I wrote that to write this......the security guy leans out his vehicle window and asks who owns the RV, and I stand up identifying myself.....he then says "Are any of you staying at the hotel?", and I reply that everyone else there is except for me and TLE, and I proceed to tell him that we had permission to not only park there, but to stay in our RV during the reunion.  He asks "Who gave you permission?", and I advised him of the two people with whom we had spoken.  The then advises that we are not allowed to sleep in our "vehicle", only to park it there.  I then advised him "No problem, we are leaving tomorrow morning anyway".  Thursday morning as I was getting ready to leave TLE found a notice on the front of the coach that we were in violation of their rules, but the printed rules did not prohibit specifically 'sleeping in your vehicle'......he hand wrote that on the notice......hmmmmm.  At any rate, no harm no foul......we won't be back there again anyway, right?  What's the old adage?  "Better to apologize than ask permission"....well, we did ask permission and had to apologize anyway......lol!

Since we had pulled out every single camp chair we have Wednesday night for our late night 'until next time' session, so I had to put them all away Thursday morning before we could roll....nonetheless, we were on the road and proceeding west on Decatur towards US-95 by 8:58 am!  We only had 86 miles to drive Thursday as our immediate destination was Pahrump where we planned to spend at least one night at the local Elks Lodge #2796 where they ask for a $10 donation per night to use 30 amps of electricity and fresh water.....they do have a dump station, which we will need before we head to Death Valley.

We arrived at the Elks Lodge around 11 am, found a spot (site 20) and backed in......perfect!  I walked inside and gave our $10 donation, and then we began to get set up for 2 days.....

Nice view of the valley

.....so, you might be wondering, why didn't we go directly to Death Valley as we had originally intended?  Well, they are getting their first hot spell with temps in the mid to high 90's through Monday......although there are some hookups in Death Valley they are all reserved.  No way I'm going to Death Valley with those temps and no electrical hookup to run the A/C.....of course, we could run the big generator, but that would be a lot of propane over 4 days.  We opted, instead, to spend 2 days in Pahrump to shop, and get some laundry done, then move back over to Tecopa Hot Springs (hookups once again) for two more days (Saturday and Sunday), soak some more, then head into Death Valley on Monday when the temps begin to decline back into the 70's and 80's making it much more hospitable for us.  We'll still have 3-4 days in Death Valley before we head back to SoCal for a week.

After getting set up we drove directly down the street to the local Walmart to pick up a few things, and were back at the coach by 12:30......since we are facing directly west we are getting sun on both sides of the coach during the day, and as a result we have, for the first time in a long time, deployed every single awning including the patio awning.  I spent the rest of the afternoon, and into the evening watching the first round of the NCAA March Madness tournament.....sweet!

We were treated to a beautiful Pahrump sunset........

......thanks for stopping by!

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