Just enough.......

 6:50 am - Monday - March 7th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 40° F, 61%, wind 2 mph out of the north......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2014 we were watching a Newell House sunset......↴

The winds which began Thursday afternoon finally abated mid morning Sunday, and for the first time since we returned to the Anza Borrego Desert I was able to sit down in my anti gravity chair and observe my Anza Borrego world.....a million dollar view for free......

....TLE and I took two 1.25 mile walks again Sunday, and spent time talking with the burgeoning population here at our small boondock site.  There are now 4 Class A motorhomes here, and 8 people.  The fourth motorhome arrived late afternoon.  None of us is related to the other, or knew each other before arriving here, but there was this immediate connection as there often is with full time nomads...

.....we are all pretty well spread out, and we all come here for the same view, the same quiet solitude, the same love of the outdoors....

.....I always say to anyone who will listen that sharing this nomadic lifestyle with someone besides yourself makes it so much more rewarding.  Sharing it with 7 other people is even more rewarding.

That was our day......a little hiking, a little fellowship, a big million dollar view.  We didn't go anywhere except for the the two walks, and that was just enough for one day in the Anza Borrego Desert.

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Gone with the wind.....

 7:07 am - Sunday - March 6th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 48° F, 43% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE had just begun our full time journey....here we were walking along the beach on South Padre Island, TX.......↴

In my intro to yesterday's blogpost I wrote that the skies were "crystal clear, blue, and sunny", however, that did not last long.  The winds freshened shortly thereafter, and by 10 am clouds were scudding across the sky, and we had winds between 20, and 30 mph the rest of the day.  Combine the wind with the meager forecast of of 61° F, and you get a wind chill temp somewhere in the low 50's.  Any idea I had of a relaxing, balmy day spent reading whilst ensconced in my anti gravity chair were literally 'gone with the wind'.

I did spend time deploying two strings of our solar rope lights, and getting two other strings ready to deploy Sunday, but other than two 1.25 mile walks into the desert that was the extent of my outdoor activity for the day.  Other than walking, TLE spent the entire day inside while we were in camp.

While I was deploying the first two strings of solar rope lights a gentleman, apparently a friend of Brandon and Barb's (our neighbors) driving a large flatbed truck, pulled into the boondock site which we occupy.  He was bringing them fresh water in a large water tank mounted on the back of his truck.  Apparently he has been boondocking a mile, or two away, and was preparing to leave this area on Sunday, and did not want to waste the water in the tank, which was for his personal use, so he drove over to pump some water into their fresh water tank.  As it turned out, he still had another 35 gallons left when he finished with Brandon and Barb, and offered to pump it into our fresh water tank, which we gladly accepted.  After two days we were down to about 130 gallons, and had room for at least 30 gallons (we arrived here with about 135 gallons on Thursday).  When our fresh water tank was filled, I had him pump the rest into one of our 5 gallon fresh water containers, so we are now set with way more fresh water than we will consume in our stay here.....suweet!  By the way, the friend's name is Roger, and he is from Maine.  He comes here every year to spend most of the winter boondocking.  He will now head back to Maine over the next few weeks arriving there in late March, or early April.

Right after Roger left TLE and I changed clothes and drove into town to do a little junking at one of our all time favorite thrift stores.....The Frugal Coyote.  I think we have bought something there every single time we have shopped there, or nearly every time, and Saturday was no exception.  TLE found a pair of shorts, and a pull over, long sleeved hoody, and I found a pair of almost new Ex Officio hiking shorts, an almost new PUMA t-shirt, and a pair of brand new Pearl Azumi bicycle shorts.  The total for all of our treasures was $42.....the Pearl Azumi shorts cost over $40 new, and the Ex Officio hiking shorts the same, not to mention the PUMA t-shirt which would be at least $20-25 new.

From there we headed over to Jilberto's for some tacos (two crispy, shredded beef for moi, and a single shredded chicken one for TLE).  Their tacos are the best, and I've been thinking about them ever since we left Newell House.....

 

Getting our Jilberto's taco fix

.....if you have been feeling bad about how high gas and diesel prices are where you live, the cost of diesel in Borrego Springs, CA is now $6.49, and the cost for premium unleaded (what we use in the VW) is $6.39......

The Biden administrations current fossil fuel policy in action....the gift that keeps on 'giving'

......we got a text from our friends Rich and Marnie Aaron, that the price of diesel at the Chevron in Yuma where we paid $4.07/gallon on Thursday is now up to $5.08/gallon as of Saturday.....a $1.01 higher per gallon than Thursday.....LGB!  When we filled our Newell tank on Thursday it saved $151!  When we filled up our VW tank last Wednesday that saved us $20 on just 10 gallons of gas!  Thank goodness we will only have to 'pay the rent' one more time in early April before we arrive at our summer job, and we should only need about 80-90 gallons, then, to top off our tank (Gardnerville, NV is just over 500 miles from our current location).

We were home around 1:30 pm where the winds continued to rage for the rest of the day, and all through the night.  As I write this morning the winds have abated significantly, and are currently around 2 mph.....a much more civilized wind.

I took a long nap after lunch, then, without the pleasure of TLE's company (she hates walking in the wind), I took my second 1.25 mile walk of the day.  We spent the evening reading, and were in bed by 9:15 pm.  It starts getting light here in the Anza Borrego Desert before 6 am, so we are going to bed earlier, of course.

We continue to be asymptomatic to the Wuhan flu, and have never stopped being so since January 0f 2020.  Living in rural America, if you are able, is the best inoculation against the Wuhan Flu, and there are no side effects, plus no boosters are needed.  Since we were here 6 weeks ago businesses are no longer requiring masks, and very few employees of the businesses are wearing masks, either.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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Timeless......

 6:54 am - Saturday - March 5th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 54° F, 46% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 61° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were lunching at a restaurant along the 'River Walk' in San Antonio, TX......↴

I had my window, and curtains open all night Thursday night, and into Friday morning.  The sweet fragrance of sage brush could be sensed all night long, and combined with gentle breezes wafting through the open window made for a very pleasant sleep.  Other than the gentle wind occasionally tugging at the window awning, it was totally still, and without sound.  There was no ambient light to pierce the inky blackness.....I could not see my hand in front of my face.  This nighttime solitude is one of the many things I love about the Anza Borrego Desert.  There seems to be a timelessness woven into the fabric of our existence here......  

.....when we complete our sojourn here we will have spent 3 out of the last 4.5 months at this boondock site since Thanksgiving....our longest time spent boondocking in years.

While TLE made our morning coffee I went up on the roof to clean our four solar panels.  They were pretty dirty after 6 weeks at Newell House collecting dust.  They will work without cleaning them, but they will work much more efficiently if they are clean.  By the time I was back inside the coffee was ready....

....the sun is coming up about an hour earlier than it did when we left back on January 12th, and that means we are getting a positive charge about an hour earlier than we did back then.  We only lost 8% of our 100% charge overnight, and by 12:15 pm we were back to 100%.  Having all four solar panels tilted now does make a big difference.  It was especially notable that it was partly cloudy all day, and we did not have direct sunlight on the panels for much of that time.

After I finished my latest blog entry TLE and I removed the VW from the trailer, then moved the Newell forward about 10 feet, pulled out the turf, and began to set up our 'lido deck'......

.....I then spent time inside the trailer opening up my workbench, and moving my tool bags back to the table for easier access.  We wanted to have a fire, but the forecast winds arrived mid afternoon, causing us to delay that plan for a couple of days.  As I write the winds are still blowing, and will continue through Saturday night, and into Sunday morning.

We did manage to get in one 1.25 mile round trip walk out toward Clark Dry Lake Bed, and back, but the winds, in the afternoon made another walk undesirable.  On Saturday I'll deploy the solar lights, move the bikes from their stowed position to the back of the trailer interior to make it easier to access the workbench.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we watched the final episode of '1883' Friday night.  What a great  limited series it was.  The acting, writing, and character development were superb.  As harsh as life was portrayed in this series, it was 100 times more difficult, and harsh in person.  If you don't shed more than a few tears during the final two episodes I would be surprised.  The loss of life, and daily hardships crossing the Great Plains, and going north through Wyoming, and Montana was startling, and sobering.  Those folks who braved those conditions to get to Oregon were a special breed of folks.   

Thanks for stopping by!

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Do you believe in magic?

 8:12 am - Friday - March 4th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 59° F, 45% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the west....partly cloudy today with a chance of rain, and a forecast high of 68° F.  The view about 7 am this morning.......↴

Only one other RV here

.....back in the beautiful, mystical, glorious Anza Borrego Desert!  On this date in 2013 we were takingr  a sunset flight with friend Elliott Walsh who lives with his wife Ann on the coast of Georgia in a 'fly in' neighborhood.....↴

Click on picture to enlarge.....inside the red circle is our Newell and trailer

I was out of bed around 6:45 am Thursday in anticipation of departure day.  We wanted to be on the road heading for the Anza Borrego Desert between 8 and 9 am.  All I had to do was clean the front windshield (forgot to do that Wednesday), put away the tool bag table (forgot to do that Wednesday night), and unplug.  By 8:20 am we were ready to roll, and saying our 'until next times' to Tom, Darlene and Wade.  We will miss them, and we will miss Newell House, and all the things which come from being there, but it is time to scratch the 'hitch itch' and return to our beloved boondocking site in the Anza Borrego Desert for another month.

We rolled though the gate at exactly 8:30 am, and were on our way to our first scheduled stop of the day......Safeway's Fuel Station on Bell Road and the 303 loop to take on 130+ gallons of diesel. Thursday, March 3rd, was the first time we have filled our diesel tank since October 21st in Minden, NV (we did add 58 gallons in Parker, AZ on January 15th to get us this far). The price at Safeway on Tuesday was $3.75/gallon for diesel.  On Wednesday it had risen to $3.86/gallon, and when we arrived Thursday around 9 am it had gone up again to $3.99/gallon......24 cents in less than 3 days.....Let's Go Brandon!  I asked TLE to give the cashier $600 in cash as I believed it would take somewhere between $500 and $600 to fill our tank.  She returned a few minutes later advising he would only sell us $200 worth of diesel....wait, what?  I've never run into that before.....well, whatever.  It just meant we would have to stop again before we crossed back into California to top off our tank.  $200 gave us just a tad over 50 gallons of #2 diesel, and filled our 180 gallon tank to the 1/2 mark on the fuel gauge.  Within 20 minutes we were on our way once again heading south on the 303 loop to pick up west bound I-10 to Highway 85, which would take us south to I-8.

The drive to Yuma was uneventful and mostly windless, just as we like travel to be, until we were about 15 miles from Yuma where we picked up a cross wind from the east after we crossed the last range of mountains separating us from Yuma.  Yuma is the last place to get diesel before you cross the California border, so we exited I-8 at Fortuna Road and found diesel for "just" $4.07/gallon at the local Chevron.....across the street at Flying J and Speedway diesel was selling for $4.69/gallon, so we were grateful for the $4.07/gallon.  We gave the cashier the final $400, and began to pump diesel.  When the pumped clicked off at $400 we were full, and now had enough diesel to get us back into Nevada (Gardnerville, NV) where we will top off our tank for the final 200 miles to Likely Place RV and Golf Resort, and our summer job sometime in early April....right now diesel is going for $3.59/gallon there....who knows where it will be in 4 weeks, right?

Once we had finished the fueling process it was time to make a decision.  Do we continue on to Anza Borrego, or spend the night at the Quechan Casino?  I was feeling pretty good, and it was not even noon time yet, so we decided to pound out the final 122 miles.  By this point the winds out of the east had abated, and the rest of our drive was great.

We arrived at the Salton City Travel center at the intersection of Highway 86, and S-22 (Marina Drive), and took a 30 minute break while we went inside to buy a (for me) Mocha Frappuccino, and for TLE a vanilla ice coffee.  That was just the 'pick me up' I needed for final 20 miles west to our boondocking site.

Since there are no reservations for boondocking sites we never know until we are about 1/2 mile away if our preferred spot is available, but as we topped the last rise between us and the site we could see our site was vacant, and there was just one other RV there, the same one that was there when we left back on January 12th....YAY for us!

By this time it was around 2:40 pm, and we had about 3 hours of daylight left.  Normally we would have pulled the VW out of the trailer, along with the artificial turf, and dropped the trailer before pulling forward about 6 feet, but were both tired, so we just parked.  I had the solar panels tilted within an hour, and TLE had the interior ready for occupancy, so I just went inside, sat in my recliner and heaved a sigh of relief....the long 310 mile day was over, and we were back in our beloved Anza Borrego Desert boondock site for the next 3+ weeks.....

.....feels like we never left!  On Friday we'll spend a few hours setting up the 'lido deck' complete with a couple of anti gravity chairs, and soak in the beauty that is the Anza Borrego Desert.

'Do you believe in magic by the Lovin' Spoonful

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Thursday, or Friday?

7:20 am - Thursday - March 3rd - Newell House, AZ -  54° F, 36% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east....partly cloudy today with a forecast high here in Wittmann, AZ of 84° F.  On this date in 2018 we were having dinner at the Arizona Room at the Grand Canyon with Roscoe and Geni whom we first met in Yellowstone while working at the General Store......↴

TLE and I have been debating all week whether we should leave on Thursday, or Friday.  Friday appealed as the heatwave would be over then with temps falling back into the 60's, but Friday will also be very windy across the whole route we will be traveling to Borrego Springs.  The wind thing finally decided it for us as it will not be windy at all on Thursday.  We'll get an early start to avoid the heat of the day, and may drive all the way to Borrego Springs to avoid any wind, or we may overnight at the Quechan Casino, and brave the winds Friday for the last 112 miles back to our beloved Anza Borrego Desert boondock site.

Since we had now decided to leave Thursday, and it was now Wednesday I got back to organizing the trailer for turf and VW insertion after our first 1.25 mile walk of the day.  Things went smoothly, and by 10:30 am I was done, and things were ready.

I haven't had a haircut since January 22nd, so around 11:45 am we headed into the Supercuts in Surprise where I had a 12:15 pm appointment.  After that we drove one more exit down Highway 303 to do one last shopping, and top of the VW fuel tank before we head back to expensive California. As it was we paid $4.39/gallon for Premium.  The only comfort is the cost near Borrego Springs is almost $6.  We were back home a little after 2 pm.

Since we have been in a mini heatwave all week we've been taking our second 1.25 mile walk around 6 pm (after dinner) when it is cooler.  Just for kicks I went out and took a picture of the path we have worn in the sand over the past 5 weeks....see those two separate foot paths?....

.....that's the way it looks around the entire perimeter of the Newell House property.

We had one last dinner with Tom, Darlene and Wade Wednesday evening, then headed out for our last 1.25 mile walk around Newell House.  Once that was completed we took down the sun shade, stowed the patio awning, picked up all the rope lights, then backed the Newell up to drop the trailer onto the hitch.  While that was in progress TLE snapped a picture of our last sunset this year.......

.....by 7:30 pm we had stowed the artificial turf, and inserted the VW into the trailer.  TLE did one last load of wash so everything is clean before we begin our 3+ sojourn in the Anza Borrego Desert.  Following the completion of that task I dumped our black tank, and disconnected the water and sewer lines so all that is left to do before we haul anchor is unhook our 50 amp cord.

We've had a wonderful, very productive time here at Newell House.  I've been able to get things done here I would not have been able to do on my own anywhere else.  We've saved over $2,000 in labor costs, and spent a lot of time with our good friends in the process.  Add to that our weight loss, and it had been a very busy 6+ weeks. Returning to Newell House each year is one of the constants in our nomadic life, and when we leave it feels like we are leaving home all over again. We will return....we always do, but the 'until next times' are always a tad painful, and a little bittersweet.

We roll our wheels in less than an hour.....thanks for stopping by!

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That really capped it off!

 7:44 am - Wednesday - March 2nd - Newell House, AZ - 49° F, 38% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2014 I was recovering from a double hernia operation....I weighed around 187....the last time I weighed under 190......I still have those jeans, and I will fit them once again in the very near future......↴

We will be departing Newell House in a few days, and so began the inevitable reorganizing of the trailer on Tuesday in anticipation of VW insertion.  It was destined to be a warm day with a forecast high of 82° F, so we took our first 1.25 mile walk of the day around 8:45 am enabling me to get as much done in the trailer as possible before it became too warm.  As I often say 'warm' is a relative term.....when it's been in the mid to high 60's for weeks on end it feels warm when it gets into the 80's.  I am sure there will be days this summer when we will look back fondly upon 82° F, but for now it feels too warm.....lol.

By 12 noon I had gotten a lot done, and was pretty confident I would be able to finish the organizing by Wednesday......

All 3 bikes are stowed....

.....along with the bench grinder, and Workmate table

.....all that remained to do Tuesday was to install the new Gates radiator cap when it arrived.  This is the wonder of Amazon when you live close to the big city.....you can order stuff at 5 pm Monday, and it arrives at your location within 24 hours.  Of course, there was s a little worry wandering around in the back of my mind.....I wasn't sure if I ordered the correct size.  It's a lot like trying to buy shoes online.....it's a crapshoot whether, or not you ordered the shoe in the correct size, and width for that particular brand.  I prefer to by my shoes, and radiator caps in person.....lol.

But, alas, my worry, as is oft the case, was misplaced.....the new radiator cap arrived around 4:30 pm, and within minutes I had installed it and confirmed I did, indeed, order the correct one.  Apparently, the type of radiator cap I need is called a 'standard' size cap, and that is what I received.....the only variable in these 'standard' caps is the pressure rating......

The Gates box....item # 31527

Installed

.....all that remains now is to fire up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92, and see if there are any leaks when the system is under pressure.  I'm not sure what the pressure is, or should be, but this radiator cap is rated at 13 psi, which is the pressure at which it begins to vent.

We avoided turning on the A/C Tuesday, which makes me happy.  I really don't like living in air conditioning, but when it is needed I will gladly employ it to reduce my suffering.  That reminds me, I need to check the filters on our two A/C units to get ready for summer.  Speaking of summer I checked the average temperatures for Likely, CA in the summer time, and they run from the low 70's to high 80's, with a few days in the 90's....we shall see what we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy birthday to our girl!

7:45 am - Tuesday - March 1st - Newell House, AZ - 50° F, 31% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies once again, and a forecast high for today of 82° F.  On this date in 2008 TLE and I took ownership of our 1982 Newell Classic......↴

....what we did not know on March 1, 2008 was that our 1982 Newell was delivered to its first owner, Leonard Law of Cherry Hills, CO on March 1, 1982.  Leonard, ironically, was a lawyer.  He owned, and cared for our baby from 1982 to 2004.  We have now owned our Newell for 14 years, and put some 73,000 miles on her odometer since that day.  The picture above was taken from the Craigslist ad in February of that year.  You can see why we were immediately captivated by her appearance.  

Monday was to be the final day of the Thermostat Project.  This was the day I would pour the some 6-7 gallons of coolant back into the radiator, and hope there were no leaks.  Pouring 7 gallons of coolant into the top of the radiator is a slow process.  If you pour too fast the coolant will splash out of the opening to the radiator down to the ground.  Holding a gallon over your head for the 3-5 minutes it takes to empty the gallon jug each time begins to take its toll after the 3rd gallon, and my poor, old, sore shoulders did not like it one single bit.  In all it took me about an hour to top off the radiator.  After each gallon was poured I would look inside the engine bay to see if there were any leaks.  After pouring the 5th gallon I began to see a little 'weeping' of coolant through the gasket, but after torqueing the bolts another 1/2 turn it stopped.  It turns out the proper number of foot pounds needed to secure those bolts is around 40, not the 75 I was told.

As I was getting ready to twist on the radiator cap I noticed the rubber gasket had tear in it, and upon further examination the entire gasket appeared to be much the worse for wear.  I think that cap is about 13 years old (I replaced it shortly after buying the Newell).  At any rate, this is a pressurized system.  The radiator cap is designed for 12 psi of pressure, but if there is a tear in the gasket that will reduce the pressure, and could result in the engine running hotter than normal.  In my efforts to diagnose why the engine was running hotter than normal I completely forgot to check the radiator cap......

I'm not sure if the tear (top) is big enough to affect the psi, but it also looks misshapen, and that cannot be good, either.

.....I had intended to take the Newell out for a test drive to get her up to temperature, but with the discovery of the faulty radiator cap gasket I had to get that replaced first.  I took a drive into Wickenburg where there is an O'Reilly's and a Napa hoping they would have my cap in stock.  When I replaced this cap in 2009 I just went to the local Pep Boys in Ontario, CA and they had it in stock.  I was not so fortunate this time.  Neither store had anything resembling this cap in stock, nor did they know where to get one, so after making a quick stop at the local Ace Hardware store to pickup a couple of things I headed home.

After returning home I got online and checked Amazon to see if they had what I needed, and I found this cap made by Gates for $6......

 

......it appears to have the same dimensions as my current one, and looks exactly the same, so I placed the order, and should receive it March 1st....one day delivery!  If it isn't the correct size, I'll have to go to plan B which would be to make a new rubber gasket for the current cap.

Once that was done I took a long afternoon nap, and then a long, hot shower.  After spending parts of three days installing that new thermostat I was tired, especially since I spent all those hours on the south side of the coach in the direct Arizona sunlight.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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