7:50 am - Wednesday - February 18th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 67%, cloud cover 100%, wind 27 mph out of the south by southwest....snowing as I write with a meager forecast high of 34° F. The view this morning.....
....started snowing around 5 am, and has just intensified as I write. On this date in 2017 TLE and I were boondocking in the Anza Borrego Desert....
....about 8 miles outside of Borrego Springs, CA.
The cloud cover first thing Tuesday morning was pretty heavy, but the forecast was for just 40% cloud cover, so we didn't run the Predator 5000, and just trusted what sun there was would be enough to recharge our batteries, and we were right. By 2 pm both of our battery banks were fully charged via photo voltaic energy only. However, the winds continued to blow ferociously in the 25-30 mph range with gusts into the 50's at times, so we were pretty much housebound all day long. The one good thing about the wind is it dries out the ground pretty quickly, so when we did venture out there was no mud to dodge, as the ground was pretty firm even after all that rain we got Sunday night into Monday morning.
TLE and I spent the better part of the day reading, and enjoying the warm confines of our 1982 Newell Classic diesel pusher. It's amazing to think that we've lived full time in our Newell for 15 years now, and she has really stood up to it well. Most sticks and staples motorhomes do not stand up to full time living very well, and their interiors begin to look a little threadbare after just a few years. We still have the original interior curtains that came with her 44 years ago, the original ZipDee awnings. We have, as you know replaced all the old lighting with LED lighting years ago, and we are on our third floor now. The old CRT TV's have been replaced with modern, flat screen, smart TV's, but we still use the original AC units to cool her interior in the summer. The interior still looks fresh, and inviting. We still have the original Suburban gas furnaces (3), and we use them when living off the grid to heat the interior. We've replaced all the major appliances at least once, except for our Magic Chef stove/oven, which we use almost exclusively when living off grid.
Mechanically, she is in great condition. As you will recall I replaced all 8 air bags, and all four shocks a few years ago by myself. The Detroit Diesel 6v92 350 horsepower diesel engine has around 193,000 miles of faithful service.....90,000 of those miles are since we bought her in 2008. It is supposedly a million mile motor with an in frame rebuild recommended at 500,000 miles....TLE and I won't live long enough for that to happen. When we were shopping for our 'next' motorhome we were looking for something in the 8-10 year old range, but then came across our Newell in a Craigslist ad....she was just 26 years at the time. She became not only our next motorhome, but our last motorhome. If seems as if we have always lived in her, and there is not a day which goes by that one of us doesn't comment on how much we love having her as our home.
We love our vagabond life, and still cannot imagine living in a sticks and bricks home ever again, but I know that day is probably coming, however, for now, and as far as our imagination can project into the future, she is, and will continue to be our home.
Thanks for stopping by!
No comments:
Post a Comment