Out of Borrego.....

8:05 am (Arizona time) - Thursday - January 13th - Parker Strip, CA - 42° F, 38% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2013 we were enjoying yet another beautiful Cedar Key sunset......↴

Wednesday was departure day from our beloved Anza Borrego Desert boondock site after 6 weeks, and 1 day....in all, counting our stay at Ocotillo Wells  we boondocked for 7 consecutive weeks...our longest boondock stint to date.  We loved every minute of it!  We love being off the grid, but you know something?  Being off the grid for 7 weeks generates a greater appreciation for shore power, city water, and septic.  When you live off the grid it takes a lot of thought, and conservation.  You can't just leave lights on at night, or during the day without a purpose.  You can't run the water until you get hot water because that wastes water.  You have to make use of other people's restrooms as much as possible.  You can't watch TV for hours at a time at night, or you run your batteries down so far the solar may not be able to get your batteries back to 100%, or even 90%.

All that being said, there are sacrifices one must make when boondocking, but the rewards far exceed those superficial sacrifices.  The reward of night skies devoid of ambient light, and stars so plentiful you wonder where they go when you are in a city.  The reward of nights so quiet your ears ring for the first few days.  The reward of undisturbed sleep.  The reward of stunning sunrises and sunsets. The reward of time sitting by the fire talking to your spouse about serious things, and silly things, or just life.  The reward of just living in the moment with no distractions, with no other people....it's like you and your wife are the last human beings on earth, and it's just the two of you against whatever comes.  The reward of getting lost in a book for hours at a time as the sun arches slowly across the desert sky from east to west, day after day.  The reward of endless naps in your anti gravity chair.  The reward of just sitting outside looking at the amazing view before you.  I could go on, but it would take me hours to list all the rewards.

At any rate our goal was to be on the road between 9 and 10 am, and we were!  We merged onto eastbound S-22 around 9:30 am heading back down the hill to Salton City where we would take on almost 40 gallons of propane at the Travel Center at $3.99/gallon (BIG OUCH!!!).  We were back on the road by 10:15 am heading for the Parker Strip on the California side of the Colorado River just below Parker Dam.  The distance was just over 200 miles, one of our longer driving days in some time.  As we headed mostly southeast we passed through Imperial Sand Dunes, aka: Glamis....

.....and through the Chocolate Mountains.....

.....our elevation dropped as low as 170' below sea level, and rose to about 1,000' above sea level at one point, but over all it was an enjoyable drive over roads we have not driven previously.  We were aiming to arrive at Echo Lodge Resort between 2 and 3 pm California time, but as we found out upon arrival at almost exactly 2:30 pm California time, Echo Lodge Resort is on Arizona time, so we lost an hour, and really arrived at 3:30 pm.....doh!...

....we were able to snag one of their last available sites for 3 nights....a long back in site.  Our good friend Steve, who spends the winter here each year in his 1982 Newell Classic (the sister coach to ours.....one serial number apart) did not think I could back the trailer and coach into the site a the same time, and neither did many of our neighbors, but with TLE's exceptional directional skills we were able to do just that without harming any children, or small animals....lol.

We'll be here for three days, and with Steve's help hope to find where the short is in circuit #4 of our electrical system.  Then, it is on to Wittmann, AZ.

Thanks for stopping by!

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