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.

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Stowing......

 8:00 am - Wednesday - January 12th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 44° F, 34% humidity, wind - CALM......cloudy today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2016 we left our first boondock encampment on Rock House Road with our friends Steven, Linda, Mike, Liz, and were dumping our tanks at the ARCO Travel Center in Ocotillo Wells......↴

Left to right:  Mike & Liz' Class A, Steven and Linda's Class A, and our Newell Classic Class A

Ironically, just as we were leaving the Anza Borrego Desert (above picture) on January 12, 2016, and are doing the same thing exactly 6 years to the day this year.  Since were departing our boondock site on Wednesday, January 12th, I spent the better part of Tuesday putting away our stuff, and organizing the trailer for VW insertion.  I stowed the anti gravity chairs, the bicycles, the portable firepit, camp chairs, the tool bags, and the solar lights.  With TLE's help we folded up the artificial turf which we will drag into the trailer Wednesday morning just prior to departure, and VW insertion.  On Wednesday morning I will stow the solar panels, and then we will be ready to roll our wheels once again after almost 2 months off the grid.

We burned the last of our sunset firewood Monday evening when we really had no sunset to speak of.....should have saved it for Tuesday evening when we did have a sunset.....

......by 5 pm we had done everything we needed to do in preparation for departure except stow the solar panels.  We spent the evening reading, and thinking about what is to come.  Wednesday we'll head up to the Parker Strip to spend three days visiting with friends and relatives, then into Arizona we go on Saturday to spend a month on Newell projects.  

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Solutions 'R' Us.....

7:48 am - Tuesday - January 11th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 45° F, 41% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the north......clear, blue skies today (partly cloudy right now) with a forecast high of 73° F.   On this date in 2018 we awoke to snow at Desert View (Grand Canyon).......↴

Monday began with a beautiful sunrise, which, when I pulled back the bedroom curtains to see what was what, forced me to get out of bed, get dressed, and go outside to take some pictures of same.......

.....every morning I tell myself I'm not going to open the curtains too soon, because I don't want to have to get out of bed to take a picture at 6:45 am when it is as cold as it is going to be all day, but I am weak, and curious, so I go against my better judgement and open them....I'm glad I did Monday morning.....😊

We had decided Sunday that we needed to map out all of the circuits (12 in all) to find out what each 20 amp breaker powered.  Below is the 40 year old legend provided by Newell......

.....to say the least, it is vague, and cryptic, and a little inaccurate....for instance, the old legend shows the charger/converter on breaker #12, but it is actually on breaker #9.  Below is the new legend TLE and I created over the course of two hours......

.....it is not yet complete as we still have to verify that circuit #4 also powers the TV cabinet outlets, and the outlet in the through bay, but now we have a better, more accurate legend which shows everything that is powered by each circuit breaker.  As you can see we've added a lot more detail for each breaker.....a number of them power more than one thing such as #2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 12.

So, where do we go from here?  How do we solve this problem, and restore power to the TV cabinet outlets, as well as the outlet in the through bay?  By the way, you will note that circuit #4 also powers the outlet next to my bed stand on the driver side of the coach, which still works even though the other two outlets assigned to #4 (see original legend-TV Cabinet, and through bay) do not.  We're not even sure they are powered by #4 at this point.  Anyway, what is our solution to restore power?

We can't really do anything about it out here in the desert as this project will involve opening up all the wire chases on both sides of the coach, as well as emptying out the TV cabinet to get at both of those outlets, and it may take more than a day, so we're going to wait until we arrive at the home of our friends, Tom and Darlene, where we will have a place to sleep while we tear the coach apart, and run new wire.

So, what is our solution?  Well, first we are going to remove the old Romex line feeding power to the TV cabinet, and then run a new, fresh Romex line from breaker #4 to the front and repower those two outlets.  As for the outlet in the through bay we will remove the rest of the wire from that outlet, and run a short length (about 3') of Romex from the outlet in the Norcold bay to power it, which will move it from breaker #4 to #3....we've used the outlet in the Norcold bay once, or twice over 14 years, so adding the through bay outlet will not put any strain on breaker #3 as the Norcold outlet is the only thing on breaker #3....weird, huh?

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The trouble with troubleshooting.....

 7:16 am - Monday - January 10th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 42° F, 40% humidity, wind - CALM.....partly today with a forecast high of 72° F.  The view this morning is amazing.....↴

.....on this date in 1978 my father, Arthur Ray Hockwald, passed on to the next life at 54 years of age.....he will never be forgotten by me, or our siblings....he was a man's man....an unforgettable character......↴

Arthur Ray, circa 1966

.....I miss you dad....every single day....I hope you are proud of me.  Also, on this date in 1985 our beautiful daughter Sharon was born......Happy Birthday Bunny!.....↴

Sharon on her wedding day

Sunday was a continuation of Saturday's electrical troubleshooting efforts.  Right after I finished post my daily blog post I began by opening up several of the numerous wire chase access points in the coach so I could begin to trace the circuit from the breaker box....

....these panels are found around ceiling level on both sides of the coach, and are packed with hundreds of 12 volt wires, and a dozen Romex lines....one for each of our 12 AC circuits.  Four long screws hold each panel in place.....these are just two of the many panels, most of which are found inside closets, or cupboards, and they are two of the more easily accessible access points.  The first picture is of the bathroom access point (I neglected to take a picture when it was removed showing all the wires) where I began my efforts.  My intent was to (while the coach was powered up) to find the Romex line which serves the TV cabinet outlets....easier said than done!

Let me digress here for just a moment.  Two years ago I rewired the circuit which powers our Progressive Dynamics charger/converter to add an ON/OFF switch so I didn't have to manually pull the plug on the charger/converter to disconnect it when I power on the inverter (I wrote about that here).  At that time I discovered that some of the dozen circuits were miss labeled as to what was on each circuit.  The legend indicated the charger/converter was on circuit 12, but I found out it was actually circuit 9.  Some of them are correct, but I knew I needed to go through all 12 circuits to find out which were incorrect, and correct them. 

All of the preceding brings me to Sunday....since the Romex line which feeds the main outlet in the TV cabinet is on the right side of the coach (right front, upper corner) I figured I would start searching for it in the wire chase on the right side of the coach.  When testing each of the 4 Romex lines in the wire chase at the bathroom access point none of them was for circuit #4, which the legend indicates is the TV cabinet outlets circuit...wait, what?  In addition, one of the 4 Romex lines seemed to be for the 'Microwave' outlet, which is on the left side of the coach.....why would they run the circuit for the microwave circuit on the right side?  By the way we no longer have a microwave, and we now plug in our Breville toaster oven at that outlet.  

When half the circuits are labeled incorrectly you get a little frustrated, to say the least, not to mention the wasted time involved.  At that point it was getting on toward noon time, and I decided to stop what I was doing until I could go through all of the outlets, and create a new legend with accurate information......I think we'll do that Monday.

We'll be leaving our wonderful Anza Borrego Desert boondock site on Wednesday to roll our wheels and find new views and adventures....soon we will be back in Wittmann, AZ beginning some projects on the Newell, including running a new line to the TV cabinet outlet.  At any rate, I'll begin putting stuff away on Monday, including organizing the trailer for VW insertion Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Making an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.....

 7:24 am - Sunday - January 9th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 42° F, 43% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast......mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2013 we were having lunch with good friend Ernie Prociw (pronounced Procie) who drove over to Cedar Key, FL from Stuart, FL to visit us.....↴

.....we've courtesy parked in his driveway twice over the years....he has a 30 amp receptacle awaiting our return.....😊.  The view this morning.......↴

Beautiful sunrise on the eastern horizon

On Friday, after we returned from dumping our tanks I plugged in my pancake air compressor to inject air into the new sight tube I installed on the black tank to clear a blockage.  While that worked, another problem developed with the electrical system in the Newell.  I had plugged the compressor into an electrical outlet inside the through bay.  To power up the coach for this endeavor I turned on the big Kohler 7.5 kw propane generator to provide AC power to the compressor.  After I finished clearing the 'plug' in the sight tube I discovered I had lost power to that outlet, as well as the outlet in the TV compartment over the driver seat.  Actually, at the time, and well into late Saturday evening I thought I had lost power to the entire right side of the coach as the volt meter for that side of the coach was reading zero.

I immediately began trouble shooting the problem by making sure both breakers on the generator were in the 'ON' position, and they were.  Then I switched the coach over to the inverter, and the problem persisted.  I then plugged the coach into the Honda generator with no change.  From there I made sure both 50 amp blades on the male end of the shore power cord were getting power, and they were.  Next I checked where the shore power cord connects to the coach wiring, and was still getting power on both legs.  At that point it was getting dark do I deferred any additional trouble shooting to Saturday.

First thing Saturday morning (after posting my blog) I opened up my closet and began to test the circuits on the main breaker box with my multi meter.  I found that both the red and black wires were hot going into the main 60 amp duplex breaker (60 amps on both sides), and then tested each of the 12 individual breakers and was getting power to ALL  of them....now how can that be if I have no power on the right side of the coach?  I was baffled, and so was my good friend Steve Ward, who owns the sister Newell coach to ours.....his serial number is one digit before ours.  He is an expert on all things electrical, and was helping me over the phone from his winter locale on the Colorado River (about 200 miles from here).  My mistake was in assuming that everything was dead on the right side of the coach.  We all know what happens when one 'ASSUMES', right?

Finally, around 5 pm it occurred to me that I had never really tested all the outlets on the right side of the coach, so I proceeded to do so.  Well, what do you know?  They were all working EXCEPT for one in the through bay, and the TV cabinet.  The sensor wire which powers the volt meter for the right side of the coach is wired into that outlet.....doh!  So now everything makes sense.  It appears both the outlet in the through bay, and the TV compartment are daisy chained together, which means I only need to check one circuit to find the short.  The short is somewhere between the breaker (#4) which controls that circuit, and the TV compartment receptacle, and more than likely where the line which goes to the through bay receptacle is spliced into circuit #4....I just have to find the short, and repair it.....that will be the fun part, which begins Sunday morning.  At least I know now what I am looking for, and how to fix it.

The rest of Saturday was kind of a blur as I spent a lot of time both working the problem, and thinking about it.  Steve was a great help in focusing me on each step of the trouble shooting process, and encouraging me.  Ultimately I was my own worst enemy for assuming facts not in evidence.  Once I stopped assuming things became much clearer.  Lesson learned.....I hope...lol!

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Humpty Dumpty......

7:44 am - Saturday - January 8th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 48° F, 63% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the west......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 70° F.   On this date in 2016 we received a dusting of snow on the local mountains at our boondock site near Borrego Springs....picture courtesy Steven Dempsey (copyright).......↴

Friday marked 3 weeks since we last dumped our tanks, and we were around ¾'s full, so we headed over to Palm Canyon Campground in Borrego Springs around 10 am to do the deed.  We'll only be here another week at the most, and probably could have made it to next Friday, but what else have we go to do, right?  It's been a while since we did a real thorough flushing of our black tank so we kept flushing it until another RV pulled in behind us.  By the time we arrived back at our boondock site it was after 11:30 am.  TLE expertly guided me as I backed into our site getting me right next to the artificial turf in one try.  It took me another 30 minutes to reattach the mirror covers, redeploy the window awnings on the driver side, and redeploy the solar lights.  

I lounged outside in one of the anti gravity chairs reading, and taking a couple of naps the rest of the afternoon enjoying the clear, blue skies, and gentle breezes wafting through our boondock site.  We talked about having a sunset fire, but the wind freshened out of the east a little making it undesirable, so we remained inside reading for much of the evening.....

.....I did, however, record the sunset we received, and it was the perfect ending to another boondock day.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Doctor, doctor.....

 7:46 am - Friday - January 7th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 40° F, 50% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72° F....idyllic!  On this date in 2019 we met up with good friends Roscoe and Geni in Georgia......↴ 

We do not.....I repeat.....do not like to get up when it is still dark, but if we wanted to keep our 9 am dental appointments in Los Algodones we had to be up by 4:30 am, and on the road by 5:30 am (PST) to arrive at the Mexican border by 7:30 am (PST), otherwise known as 8:30 am Arizona time.  We usually make early appointments at our dentist, because the later in the day your appointment is the longer you will wait in the waiting room.....it is the same for all dentists and doctors....early appointments mean you will be seen pretty close to your appointment time......later appointments, not so much.

We were actually up at 4:20 am, and within 70 minutes we were cruising east on S-22 to its intersection with US-86, which would take us southwest to I-8.  Since there was no time to type my latest missive I deferred that task until later in the day.  TLE took some pictures of the sun as it rose......

US-86

US-111 - Getting closer

I-8 - Sunrise!

.....just as we merged onto I-8 eastbound around 6:50 am the sun broke over the eastern horizon, and we were only 40 minutes from the border at Los Algodones, Mexico, and true to form we arrived at the border parking lot just before 7:30 am (PST), which meant it was 8:30 am Arizona time.  The walk from the border parking lot to Dr. Eva Urena's dental office is 4 blocks, and takes just over 10 minutes....we arrived around 8:45 am, and I was sitting in the 'chair' by 9 am having my annual checkup, and then getting my pearly whites cleaned to an even better 'pearly white'.  TLE was in the chair within minutes of me, and by 9:45 am we both had been given a 'clean bill of health', had paid our $90 'bill' via PayPal, and were on our way walking back to the border checkpoint to cross back into California.  

From there we drove into Yuma to get fuel (way cheaper than California), and then headed for home arriving back at the Newell around noon time (PST) after a brief stop at the Dollar General in Salton City to buy some TP.  We could not have asked for a more perfectly uneventful day.  Everything went as planned, and neither Mr. Jello, nor Mr. Murphy made an appearance.

As might be expected, we spent the afternoon relaxing, reading, and for me at least one nap before heading outside to another sunset fire.  We hung around the firepit until almost 6 pm enjoying the re-emergence of the stars, and moon from their daily slumber before heading in for the night.  We watched a Hallmark movie, and I was in bed by 9 pm, and didn't get up until almost 7 am this morning....that certainly made up for getting up before dark Thursday morning.

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What a hellhole......

4:10 pm - Thursday - January 6th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 71° F, 21% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the south......clear, blue skies today, and the high was 74° F.  On this date in 2016 we hiked down to Clark 'Dry' Lake Bed for the first time.  It had been a wet winter, and there was actually water in the 'dry' lake bed.......↴

Steven Dempsey in the foreground

For those of you who wondered why I haven't posted my daily blog until late afternoon we were up at 4:20 am this morning, and on the road by 5:30 am to arrive at the Mexican Border by 7:30 am Pacific time (8:30 am Arizona time).  Our appointment  times are based on Arizona time, and were at 9 am (moi), and 9:30 am (TLE) respectively.

Wednesday it was time for another hike.  We got going around 11:30 am, and were at the trailhead for Hellhole Canyon.  I'm surprised the name didn't scare us away...lol.  From the trailhead it is reputed to be 2.5 miles to the water falls, so round trip would make it 5 miles even.  We could have begun our hike from the Visitors Center, but that would have made it a 7 mile hike, and 5 seemed just about right to us......

......the grade was slightly more inclined than the Palm Canyon trail we did a while back, but it was steady, and pretty straight until the last half mile.  As we were entering that final half mile we met some hikers coming back down the hill who playfully warned us the easy part was over.....initially we thought they were kidding, but they were not.  The final half mile, had we hiked the entirety of it, involved a lot ups and downs, and some bouldering.....not one of TLE's favorite activities.  When we got about one tenth of a mile from the 'water falls' we stopped.....we could see where the water falls would have been 'falling' if they had been 'falling', but they were dry, so we didn't see any point, especially TLE, in covering the final tenth.  We took a short break to eat a snack, and hydrate, then began our way back down the trail......

......we ended up covering the round trip hike in just under two hours of total walking time having covered 4.82 miles in all.....

.....averaging 2.5 mph over 825' elevation gain, and burned around 866 caloric units.  As you can see, the trail was mostly straight up the canyon.  Within minutes of returning to our car we were parking in front of Big Horn Fudge Company to get some ice cream for a hike well done.....

.....after another stop at Center Market we were on our way home, arriving there around 3 pm.  While we did not have a sunset fire, there was certainly a sunset worthy of a fire......

.....since we had to be on the road by 5:30 am Thursday morning to drive down to Los Algodones, Mexico for our annual dental appointments we decided to forego the fire, and get to bed early.

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More visitors.....

 7:30 am - Wednesday - January 5th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 37° F (much warmer this morning!), 35% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.....above 69° for the first time in a long time!  On this date in 2017 we were enjoying a rare rain storm sweep across the Anza Borrego Desert to our boondock site off Rock House Road......↴

Since we arrived at our Anza Borrego boondock site on November 29th we have had zero visitors, and then suddenly on January 3rd and 4th we have back to back visitors.  Tuesday our former managers at Romona Oaks RV Resort, Rich and Marnie Aaron, dropped by for a few hours to visit.  We last saw them in March of last year when we were passing through Yuma, AZ on our way to our annual dental checkups in Los Algodones.  This will be the 4th time we have met up with them on the road since we left RORVR back in late January of 2020.  Up until they arrived shortly after 11:30 am we were not sure it would be warm enough to sit outside, but it turned out that we could, comfortably, sit outside, and we did for almost two and one half hours talking non-stop.......

We always take a picture with each of us putting one foot forward, and then an usie.....

.....it always amazes how you can instantly hit it off with someone at first meeting, and that was the way it was with both Rich, and Marnie when we drove down to Ramona to meet them before accepting the job at Ramona Oaks RV Resort back in April of 2019.  I worked outdoors for Rich 5 days per week for 9 months, and we became good friends.  Elaine and I have both said multiple times that we would be happy to work for them again anytime, anywhere.  The time passed rapidly, and suddenly it was 2 pm, and time to bid them adieu until next time.

TLE prepared some broccoli/beef stir fry for dinner with a side of white rice that as far as I am concerned was restaurant quality.  When we were in COSTCO last week we picked up a bottle of Saki, which I had forgotten about until she brought me a bottle of heated Saki for dinner....what did I tell you?  Restaurant quality!....

We found this Saki set a few years ago in a thrift store

....I was reading book when TLE announced it was time for me to put up my table.  The food was so good I don't think I read another paragraph until I was finished with dinner....lol!

We had a cloudless sunset fire Tuesday night, and stayed out longer than usual marveling at the amazing starlit sky.....I wish I had a camera good enough to capture what we see each cloudless night....it is amazing!.....

.....Mr. Moon is waxing again as we head into our last week here in the Anza Borrego Desert....thanks for stopping by!

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A visitor.....

 7:10 am - Tuesday - January 4th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 31° F (5° warmer than yesterday morning), 37% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2016 we arrived at Rock House Road (Anza Borrego Desert) for our first time.....we were with Steven, Linda, Michael and Liz.....↴

Monday, just at dawn, it was 26° F....the coldest morning yet.  Thankfully, that will be the coldest it gets here before we leave in a little over a week.....

....we'll have one more low of 38° Tuesday night, and then it's all 40's from there, as well as 70's for the highs.

We received a text from our daughter, Meredith, Sunday afternoon asking if we would like her to come out and visit with us Monday afternoon to which we replied in the affirmative.  We suggested she arrive around noon so we could give her a tour of the metal sculptures in Galleta Meadows, and then have a late lunch at Jilbertos Taco Shop in Borrego Springs.  It is a good two and one half hour drive each way from where she lives, so she began her drive around 9:30 am, arriving around 12:10 pm after an uneventful drive.  Within minutes we were on our way to Galleta Meadows, and the large sand serpent, which is our favorite.....

Meredith checking out the sand serpent

.....I didn't take pictures of all the sculptures we visited, as I photographed them all a few years ago.......just after visiting this 'bird of prey' sculpture we saw an actual, living bird of prey on a post near the 'bird of prey' sculpture.....

Bird of prey sculpture

A living bird of prey

......I do not know what kind of hawk this is, but if you know, please drop me a comment.  

I neglected to takes pictures of our time at Jilbertos, but rest assured, the food was great as always.  We were back home by 2 pm, and after another hour of great conversation we bid Meredith adieu, sending her on her way home with many wishes for safe travel home.  It made us happy she was willing to drive over 5 hours round trip to spend a few hours with us.

We had planned to have another sunset fire, but after that big lunch I settled in for a long eventide nap, and then spent much of the evening reading before heading off to dreamland around 9:30 pm.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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A day of firsts.....

 7:07 am - Monday - January 3rd - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 26° F (coldes night so far), 44% humidity, wind - CALM....crystal clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were in Inverness, FL having dinner with good friends Richard and Rhonda (Rhonda is taking the picture)....has it been 3 years already?.....↴

We enjoyed our first cloudless day of 2022 Sunday, and NO wind, another first.  Our batteries were back to 100% by 10:30 am.  Unfortunately the high temp for the day was only 57° F, and that was not reached until after 2 pm.  I tried to spend time in the trailer working on a few projects, but it was just too cold to remain there for more than 10 minutes at a time.

I did manage, late afternoon, to dig a hole into which I dumped five weeks of accumulated ashes from our portable fire pit.  The bush next to which I dug the hole will benefit for a long time to come from those ashes.   And for the first time in a long time TLE asked me to burn some meat on our Sea-B-Que......a very tender London Broil she purchased at Fred Meyers in Newport, OR back in September.  We ate around 4 pm, and were outside by 4:30 enjoying our first sunset fire since 'last year'....lol......

.....there were marsh mellows to roast....our first since we arrived here......

.....a nice afterglow, yard lights, a cigar, a couple fingers of single malt, and a little Frank Sinatra courtesy Siriusly Sinatra just made it even better.....

.....as the fire burned down, and the cold evening air began to overpower the dwindling heat it was generating we gathered our things, and headed inside for the night.  And thus concludes another delightful day in the Anza Borrego Desert....the third day of 2022 is in the books.

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