Changing views.....

7:51 am - Tuesday - April 2nd - Yuma, AZ - 54° F, humidity 77%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were canoeing along the intercoastal water way with our friend Ernie Prociw near Stuart, FL (on the Atlantic coast)......

We were not in a rush to roll our wheels Monday.  We only had about 104 miles to drive, and all day in which to do it, so we were up around 7:30 am taking it easy until around 9 am when we began the final preparations for our departure, which included moving the Newell and trailer forward about 30 feet so we could lower the ramp door on the rear of the trailer, and insert the VW.  By the time we loaded the car, and dumped the last of our trash it was around 9:40 am, and then it was time for goodbyes.....I say 'goodbyes', because I do not know if we will see any of them again.

Whenever we have been sitting in one place for 6 months, as we have done often in the past years, I am also a little antsy on getaway day, hoping that everything will work as it should, and we will have one of those great nomadic days of setting the cruise control, holding onto the steering wheel and enjoying the scenery out our large windshields, and that is exactly how it turned out.

Our first stop of the day was just 17 miles later in Niland where we pulled off the road to briefly check on the Rubber Maid container strapped to the front of the trailer, to be sure it was secure.  Our next stop was about 20 miles later when we stopped at the Pilot Travel Center in Brawley to buy a couple of gallons of drinking water, and another ratcheting cargo strap, which I wanted to use on the Rubber Maid container to make sure it stayed in place, which it was doing, but I wanted to be doubly sure.  We also needed to check the torque on the trailer wheels.  You will recall we recently installed new tires, and torqued all the lug nuts to 90 foot pounds, but you always want to check them again a few times over the next few days of travel to be sure they remain tight.  Since my back was still a little sore TLE volunteered to do the task under my supervision.  She caught on pretty quickly, and within minutes all 24 lug nuts were retorqued to 90 foot pounds...

.....from there it was another 90 minutes to the Love's Travel Center in Yuma, AZ where we took on 90 gallons of diesel at $3.50/gallon using our Open Roads discount card.  The posted per gallon charge was $3.81, so we saved 31 cents a gallon.  On top of that the price at the Pilot Travel Center in Brawley was $5.74/gallon, so we saved $2.24/gallon by fueling up outside of California....a savings of $201.60.  Our total bill for 90 gallons was just over $300, as opposed to the over $500 it would have cost in California....Go Brandon and Newsom!  We now have enough fuel to reach Likely, CA without filling up again, if we so chose, but we like to keep our tank full when sitting for months at a time, so we'll top off the tank in Minden, NV where prices are similar to Arizona prices.

Within 20 minutes we had pulled into the Quechan Casino parking lot on Algodones Road, and parked facing due west....

.....the sun is getting much higher in the sky as we edge towards summer, so I don't think we'll have to tilt the solar panels to maximize charging....we'll see.  We deployed our Starlink, but plugged the modem into the Bluetti Solar Charger as it takes a lot of juice to run that thing.  That way we don't deplete our house batteries beyond what the solar panels can replace during the day.

We had a delightful sunset.....

....followed later in the evening by lightning, thunder, and torrential rain for about an hour.  As I sit here typing this morning there is not a cloud in the sky.

Thanks for stopping by!