"All systems are go, and confidence is high...."

6:49 am - Tuesday - April 22nd - Amargosa Valley, NV - 54° F, humidity 27%, wind 3 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were at a Rest Area in Kentucky on our way to Campbellsville, KY to work at Amazon for the first time....

Our somewhat Jello goal was to be on the 'road' leaving TWW by 9 am, and we hit it right on the nose.  We were up at 6 am to finish putting things away.  I had a short list of things I needed to do including, but not limited to securing the patio awning for travel, taking down the pirate flag, securing the market umbrellas inside the trailer, stowing the Starlink, and disconnecting from our Bluetti battery bank for the final time until next winter.  TLE took care of organizing the interior of the Newell for travel to prevent flying objects whilst moving.  Once those things were done it was time to move the Newell and trailer forward so we could drag the large artificial turf piece into the trailer.  By the time I sat down in the driver's seat of the Newell and turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 to begin egress it was exactly, and I mean exactly 9 am.

We decided to have TLE drive the VW out to US-66, and then insert it on the wide shoulder where the north/south arterial ends.  I took a short video of the arterial as we slowly, but surely drove out to US-66.....

.....when you are driving 62 feet of motorhome and trailer on a long, wash boardy road the going is very slow.  I think I hit 10 mph once, or twice, but was typically moving at 6-7 mph.  It took us the better part of an hour to reach US-66, but we made it.  Within minutes we had the VW Beetle inserted, and were on our way west to Kingman, and I-40.  From Kingman we headed north on US-93, a very bumpy road, and not quite as bad northbound as it was southbound back in October.  We reached White Hills, AZ, and the Travel Centers of America fuel station around noon time where we took on just 36.2 gallons of diesel at $3.08/gallon.  We had driven a little over 200 miles since we stopped there back in October to top off our 180 gallon diesel tank.  We hadn't even used a quarter of a tank...not bad.

US-93 north of White Hills is really quite nice, and it was like that all the way through Henderson and Las Vegas.  We had originally thought we might overnight at the Walmart Supercenter in Henderson again like we did in October, but we were there around 1:30 pm, and that was way to early to stop for the day, so we changed up our Jello plan, and continued another 100+ miles to Amargosa Valley, NV.  There is a large fuel station with a large convenience store there, as well as a Rest Area, and a small RV park.  We had noticed it on our way south last October and wanted to check it out....

Lake Mead just before Boulder City, NV

.....traffic through Vegas was only bad for about 3 miles, and began to thin out quickly once we passed I-15, where we transitioned to US-95 northbound....

.....which is divided highway until you are just a few miles from Amargosa Valley.  We just floated down the highway mile after mile.  All I had to do was hang onto the steering wheel, and enjoy the big view out the front windows.

As expected, we arrived at Amargosa Valley around 3 pm, and within 5 minutes were ensconced in a long pull through site for $25 per night....not bad!  For the first time in 6+ months we are plugged into a 50 am pedestal.  It was a little warm at 86° F, so we ran the rear A/C for a couple of hours until it began to cool down....

In all we covered around 265 miles of driving....one of our longer driving days, but it was so pleasant a drive that we didn't mind it at all.  We'll cover another 230+ miles on Tuesday to Bishop, CA in the foothills of the Eastern Sierra, and right on our Mother Road....US-395.  So looking forward to the beautiful drive from Bishop to Carson City, NV!

Thanks for stopping by!

The next adventure.....

 6:14 am - Monday - April 21st - TWW - 44° F, humidity 27%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy skies this morning with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were at Fox Brewery & Pub in Carson City, NV.....

.....the view this morning.....

Looking southeast

This will be my last missive from The Wilson Wilderness for five months.  It has been a very interesting Winter filled with steep learning curves, and many accomplishments.  Sunday was jam packed with crossing 'TO DO' items off the very long 'TO DO' list.....

.....Charles and Phyllis headed back to Phoenix around 10 am, and then it was time to begin to disconnect the Newell from the sewer, Bluetti battery bank, Starlink, propane, and water.  To do all that we first needed to dump our black tank, and refill our fresh water tank.  Once that was done I disconnected the black ABS sewer line, then turned my attention to disconnecting from the large 120 gallon propane tank, which has been our lifeline for 5 months now.  It was actually easier than I thought.  Next I reconnected to our 60 gallon propane tank, which is still about 1/2 full.  Once that was done I disconnected from the Bluetti battery bank, the Starlink, and the Predator 5000.  Then the fun began....time to move the Newell for the first time in 3 months, and then drop the American Trailer on the hitch for the first time in 6 months.  Our goal was to be hooked up to the trailer before 12 pm....we made it by 11:48 am....not bad....

.....I then reconnected the coach to the Bluetti battery bank for one more day, moved the Predator over to the coach for one more day, and set up the Starlink again.  And then it was time for a golf break.  I really didn't want to spend the heat of the day working outside, so TLE and I took a 3 hour break to watch the final round of the RBC Heritage tournament played on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.  Justin Thomas was the ultimate winner after a 1 hole playoff.  Good to see him back in the winners circle after almost three years (his last victory was the PGA back in 2022).  Then it was back to work.

By the end of the day, just before 7 pm, we had stowed all the small artificial turf pieces, and will stow the large one in the trailer once we pull the trailer out of its site where it has been for 6 months.  TLE took charge of packing the through bay, while I moved the Jeep battery to the battery room to hook it to a trickle charger for the next 5 months.  Having less to stow this time around really made the job easy.  We've still got a short list of 5, or 6 things to do first thing Monday, but we should roll our wheels by 9 am.  

For the first time since we arrived back in October TLE and I took our showers in the house.  When we finally sat down around 7:45 pm we were both dead tired, and looking forward to a good night's sleep before we head out on our next adventure.  It will be good to be back on the road.

As I write those typical bittersweet feelings are floating around in my head.  We really love it here, but we also love Likely Place Golf and RV, and are looking forward to our 4th summer there.  Hard to believe it has been that long since we arrived there for our first summer back in 2022.  We want to thank all of you for continuing to follow along as our nomadic lives continue to evolve.  Now, for the next week, or so we will slowly make our way back north to LPG&RVR!

Thanks for stopping by!

And the Jello jiggled......

 6:21 am - Sunday - April 20th - TWW - 37° F, humidity 37%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were at Noccalula Falls, AL.....

.....we were on our way north to see my sister, Jill, in Chelsea, Michigan and stopped in at this cool campground with these falls in Northern Alabama.....we just made it up on the fly and stopped there for the night.

When last I left off I was heading out to begin the final push to put the final things away, and be ready to roll Sunday morning, but then the Jello jiggled.  We had really wanted to be here when the fencing went up around the greenhouse, but we hadn't gotten to that on Friday.  When I was walking over to the battery room around 8 am I saw Charles out by the greenhouse unraveling the 100' roll of welded fencing near the north gate to begin installing it.  Right then and there I decided we should stay one more day, and leave Monday instead.   When I got back to the Newell I told TLE, and she said she was hoping I would change my mind.

Anyway, I got dressed quickly.....well, quickly for me....and headed back to the greenhouse to help Charles install the 6 foot high welded fencing.  By 11 am we had all but 30' of the fencing installed, but needed to make a run to Dawn's to buy 8 dozen eggs (4 for us, and 4 for Charles and Phyllis).  We consume anywhere from 1/2 a dozen to a dozen eggs per week....just depends, and since these eggs are unwashed they will last several weeks, especially if you refrigerate them.  

I took a break for about 30 minutes before all of us got in Charles' Ford pickup to drive over to Dawn's around 11:50 am.  It takes a little longer in the truck than the Yamaha Rhino, but the Rhino only holds two people.  We always enjoy talking with Dawn as she always has the latest news about the area.  From Dawn's we drove over to Tom Driver's home to see his property.  You will remember he is the guy who built our property, whom we me last week when he dropped in for a visit.  His property is less than a mile from us as the crow flies.  He moved from our property to the current property back in 2010, and built it from scratch, just like TWW.  We were all quite impressed with what has done there, and has really developed it into a very nice place with numerous outbuildings, and a great solar system.  He has 70 acres in all.  He will be checking in on our property, periodically, while we are gone.

We were back by 2:30 pm, and had just an hour before dinner, so Charles and I got busy installing the last 30' of fencing.  I figured it would take about an hour, and it did.  I can't express adequately how happy it makes me to see this project so close to completion....

Putting the finishing touches on the final section of fencing

.....in all we installed around 120' of the 150'  of fencing Charles bought.  It took us around 4 hours beginning to end, and was easier than I thought it was going to be.

While we were finishing with the fence, the girls whipped up some burritos and stuffed bell peppers for dinner chased with adequate quantities of Margaritas....

I even got Charles to smile....lol!

.....we also had hot queso and fresh Pico de Gallo with taco chips for our appetizer.  

It's been a long, profitable winter here at TWW, but now it is time to change our view for the next 5 months before we return to new adventures and accomplishments here at The Wilson Wilderness.  Living here has been a life changing experience for TLE and I.  We love being active, and this place certainly provides the opportunity for a lot of creative activity.  We've got a lot of plans for the property....you can do a lot with 40 acres!

Thanks for stopping by!

The tail of two gates.....

 6:47 am - Saturday - April 19th - TWW  - 36° F, humidity 58%, wind 7 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE were visiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C......

Spirit of St. Louis - Charles Lindbergh

Wright Brothers

Installing the welded wire 6' fencing around the greenhouse could not be done until we hung the gates, and we could not hang the gates until all of the 4" x 4" x 10' poles had been set in cement.  All of the post holes were dug to a depth of 2 feet.  We were able to get 3 of those posts set on Thursday, and we got the final two set Friday morning.  Once that was done we began to hang the gates.  That was really the easy part of the job, surprisingly....

At the South Gate

The south gate sans homo sapiens

Charles bought the hardware to make the gates online, and Matt, the handyman, built them to Charles' specifications.....they are 6' tall x 4' wide, and built out of reclaimed redwood fencing

Looking at the north gate from the water tower

....it was extremely windy all day Friday, something we were not expecting.  Along with the wind came the cooler temperatures we've been expecting all week.  I don't think it got much above 50° F until early afternoon.  The gates, as you can see, came out quite nicely.

While we were in the middle of setting the 4th post we realized we were not going to have enough cement, so Charles and Phyllis drove into Seligman to buy some more post cement.  While they were gone TLE and I moved the two large 8d batteries to the battery room where they will reside this summer plugged into battery tenders.  Then we retrieved some fiberglass insulation to insulate the shed against the elements (heat and cold).  We've been meaning to do this for some time, and finally got it done.  Just as we were finishing the installation Charles and Phyllis returned so we rejoined them to finish setting the posts, and hanging the gates.

By the time we finished hanging the final gate it was after 2 pm, and we had all had it with the wind, so we called it a day, and put away the tools we had been using.  We had dinner around 3:30 pm, which consisted of waffles, and scrambled eggs.....

.....topped with powdered sugar and Maple syrup, and chased with a little sparkling wine.  A nice ending to a very productive day.  

TLE and I have a lot to do Saturday to be ready to haul anchor Sunday morning, and it's time we go to it.....thanks for stopping by!

We have hot water in the house!

     7:13 am - Friday - April 18th - TWW - 44° F, humidity 59%, wind 9 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were walking around the National Mall in Washington D.C.....

Smithsonian

Lincoln Memorial - Up Close↗ and from a distance↙

The Washington Memorial was having work done

Capitol Building

....one of our favorite places to 'visit'.

It was too windy to do any painting (Charles brought us 2 more gallons of the paint to finish off the lower parts of the greenhouse), so we began our day digging two more post holes.  One hole was difficult to dig because of the caliche rock, but the second hole had very little caliche.  Later in the ay we set 3 of the 4" x 4" x 10' poles in concrete.  Two of those poles will have gates hung on them.  Once the gates are hung (Friday) we can set the remaining two posts in concrete the proper distance from the gates....

Two of the corner posts

The glass door to the greenhouse has never shut properly so I used an oscillating cutting tool to trim the wood on the threshold so it would shut flush with the frame and threshold.  With TLE's help, and advice it took about an hour to get it trimmed so the door closed and opened without rubbing on the wood threshold....

....as you will recall Matt was here Wednesday to fix a few leaks in the pump room.  He asked us to wait 24 hours before pressurizing the system.  Unfortunately, when we pressurized it late Thursday morning there was still one leak.....DOH!  Since Matt was back in Phoenix Charles and I decided to attempt to fix the remaining leak ourselves.  It took us a while, but utilizing two 75+ year old brains we got it done, and now the plumbing system is pressurized, and for the first time in years, there is HOT water in the house!  YAY!  Phyllis can now use her new dishwasher!

Since we are leaving I spent time pouring STA-BIL into the fuel tanks of the Champion Generator, the 1969 Chevrolet C-50 truck, the Jeep CJ-5, the Honda EU2000i, as well as the fuel containers.  I don't need to pour any STA-BIL into the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator as we've been running it off propane all winter.  The one time I used gasoline I let it run out of gas, so there is no gas in the system.  That's one of the benefits of a propane generator.  On Saturday we'll remove the battery from the Jeep and hook it up to a battery maintainer along with the two large 8d batteries I removed from the Newell house battery bay, and the small battery we use to pump water from our IBC water tote.  Charles will start the truck and run it around the property once a month while we're gone.

TLE prepared Chicken Alfredo for dinner, and it is possible, it is her finest effort to date.....

.....we sat down to eat around 3:45 pm, and were we ever tired!  After dinner I went home an took a hot shower, then took a 45 minute nap.  Once I had the nap I began to revive.  

On Friday we'll hang those new gates, and begin to install the new 6' welded wire fencing around the greenhouse.  Friday will be our last official workday here at TWW.  We'll spend Saturday taking down our site, and hooking the Newell up to the trailer for our Sunday departure.  That will be a long, tiring day for sure.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sister coach workday.....

 6:44 am - Thursday - April 17th - TWW  - 46° F, humidity 56%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 64° F, and winds into the 20's later this morning.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were exploring Natural Bridges National Monument near Blanding, UT.....

Charles and Phyllis arrived around 9:45 am with Matt (handyman who works for Charles) in tow.  His job would be to fix the leaks in the pump room, so we can repressurize the water system here at TWW.  As you know, we've had to turn off the water pump as one of the fittings feeding water out of the pump to the house began to leak profusely, so Matt's arrival to fix that leak was very, very welcome!

While Charles and Phyllis unpacked for their five day stay (they'll be here until after we leave Sunday) TLE watered the our 'crops' (potatoes and onions), and I began to work on the the air leaks in Phyllis' 1982 Newell Classic.  Ever since she bought it back in October it has not been holding air for more than a few hours before the pressure gauges went to zero.  I suspected some of the connections on the leveling valves were leaking air, so I bought a 'leak sniffer'  a while back to use to find out which ones needed tightening......

.....you put on those headphones, and with the help of the sniffer you can locate, and hear even small leaks pretty easily.  Frankly, it worked better than I thought it would.  The big surprise was that virtually every single one of the brass fittings needed tightening......

.....it took me the better part of 90 minutes to go through  tightening all of the brass fittings n the rear, and front six packs (six leveling valves in back, and in front), and then don the 'leak sniffer' again to see if I was successful, and I was.  When we retired for the evening around 6 pm the air pressure gauges on the dashboard of Phyllis' Newell still showing PSI of around 120.  I'll check them again in the morning to see if the air pressure held overnight.

I also installed a Starlink cable which runs from the electrical bay, through the engine compartment and into the driver side bedroom hanging closet so when Charles and Phyllis use the Newell this summer they can bring along their Starlink.  The installation is the same as I did for our Starlink cable, so it didn't take me too long to drill the necessary holes to run the cable, then zip tie it into place.

I'm not sure if I wrote about this previously, but I was under the impression that Phyllis' Newell did not have an oil reservoir like ours, but I was sure it did, sol I did some more investigating.  Apparently some sound deadening material had fallen from the ceiling of the driver side engine bay completely covering the 4 gallon oil reservoir.  Once I discovered that I removed the material, then cleaned up the reservoir, plus replaced the clear site tube as the old one was so old you could not longer see through it.  It appears that the prior owner was not using the reservoir.

By the time I finished with that final task I was very filthy, and it was after 3 pm, so I headed inside to take a hot shower, and relax before dinner.  Charles and Phyllis were gone to the water station for the second time since they arrived Wednesday as it was time to refill the 2,500 gallon tank we use to water the orchard, plus the water tower (two 2,500 gallon tanks, stacked one upon the other) needed refilling, especially the lower tank which we use to refill our IBC water tote, plus watering our crops.  Anyway, we didn't eat until well after 4 pm.

In the interim Matt was able to fix all of the leaks, plus reconnect the water line which runs out to the greenhouse from the pump room, so we will have pressurized water out there, at last.  He'll reconnect the electrical outlet out there, too, on his next visit.  Matt has two dogs at home which do not travel well, so he headed back to Phoenix around 2 pm in the Ford Expedition as we will not need it until next Winter.  

Thursday we will begin to install the 6' fencing around the greenhouse, as well as two wood (redwood) gates Charles bought, so there will be more post hole digging, and fence work in the near future. We'll have to move the two IBC water totes into position before we install the fencing so the water catchment system can finally be installed!  Things are happening quickly at TWW!

Thanks for stopping by!

Final organization.....

 7:07 am - Wednesday - April 16th - TWW - 55° F, humidity 31%, wind 8 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were saying our 'until next times' to Steven and Linda Dempsey.....

....who came to visit us for a couple of nights at Goosenecks State Park (Southern Utah near Mexican Hat).  A great time was had by all.

Tuesday was completely dedicated to getting our American Trailer ready for VW Beetle insertion.  Whenever I begin the final trailer organization it always seems so impossible that I can change it from a workshop to a car hauler in less than a day.  I just begin with one small thing at a time, and within a few hours of concerted effort it looks like this....

....at the beginning of the day I had two 4' tables with nothing but tools on the right side in the picture above.  By the end of the day all of that stuff was stowed at the front the trailer in the picture below.....

.....we've got a few more things to stow up there, but they will wait until Saturday so I can still have access to my work bench.  During the day I also continued to move some things into the garage, which we will not be taking with us to LPG&RVR, and moving others back to the trailer such as our heated hose, which we'll need for two, or three weeks in May, as well as our suitcases (we'll be flying up to Montana in late June to visit my sister Hilary and her husband, Bob).  All in all we're leaving around a thousand pounds of rarely used stuff we had acquired over our 13 years on the road that we normally carry with us as we had no place to leave it.....now we do.  On our most recent trip south from Likely to Seligman it became way too obvious that we had way TOO MUCH STUFF, and need to either get rid of the excess, or find a place to store it.

That was the some total of what I did Tuesday.  TLE also busied herself with her work inside the Newell getting everything ready for travel, and she helped me more than few time moving heavy stuff.  

Around 15 years ago I installed gas shocks under our bed to enable us to raise the bed platform up to access the storage area underneath without using a stick to prop it up.  When they were new they easily lifted the bed platform, and were rated at 100 pounds each of lifting power.  They worked well for all this time, but this winter they began to struggle to raise, and then hold the bed platform, so I bought some new ones off Amazon that are rated at 125 pounds, and installed them Monday.  Now, all you have to do is begin to lift the bed platform and the shocks take over, and hold it up without effort....

Thanks for stopping by!