Boondocking
The exciting part of heading out to Arizona is that my brother and sister-in-law will be joining us for part of it. They are now fulltiming too in their 37' Grand Design trailer. They are heading to Florida by way of I-10. It was amazingly dry our 6 weeks in Placerville compared to last year when heavy rains/snow kept us from departing until March. So when our last couple of days called for rain, we headed out to the Placerville Fairgrounds so we'd be on pavement.
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| Our rig on the left, my brother's on the right. |
This gave us time to finish up last minute jobs including a thorough flushing of the black tank and replacement of the cracked gray tank. Unfortunately this is where things went wrong. If you're squeamish of a little blood then skip the next 2 pictures. While Steve was cleaning out the black tank at the dump station, he stood up and cut his face on a sharp piece of metal on a badly designed dump set-up that was just put in.
Once we got the bleeding to stop I knew he would be needing stitches as the gashes were deep. I was more concerned about the cut that was so very close to his eye. We would be leaving in the morning and I was worried about damage to his eye or infection. Turns out Steve was very lucky and his eye was ok. Seven stitches later to his eye and nose and we were back home for a late dinner with Steve and Diane.
We had the gray tank replaced due to a large crack. We had noticed some leaking in the underbelly a couple of times over the last few months but couldn't figure it out. While Steve had more time to look into it in Placerville, he found that there was a crack on the top of the gray tank along the side. We had James of Kamper Kulture come out to replace it. It was covered under our warranty with a $100 deductible. Thankfully he was able to order it and get it in before we left. With the holidays we weren't too sure.
You can see the rather large crack along the left side in the left picture. The new tank is on the right. While he was doing the work he had reattached with screws a heater hose that was slipping off. Very nice guy. If you are in the Placerville area we highly recommend xx mobile services.
Since the underbelly was down, Steve replaced the seal in the black valve which had been developing a slow leak. Again.
We drove about 7 hours south to overnight at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster.
Seems many had the same idea as the campground was full so we boondocked across the street in a large lot. We left a little later so that my brother could rest up as it seems he was getting that nasty flu that keeps going around. As we drove he felt worse and worse. After a lunch stop he was in so much pain he needed to go to an Urgent Care. Diane had never pulled the trailer but got a crash course driving through San Bernardino. She did great! We waited for quite a while as everyone else was there with probably the same flu. They wanted him to go to the nearest ER so we went ahead to Quartzsite as we needed to get to our boondocking spot south of there on King Rd before it got dark. They got him his medication and he was feeling much better. They spent the night at a rest stop and joined us in the afternoon.
My brother's rig on the left and us on the right.
We had some nice fires and relaxed most of the time.
I was up early one morning and there were low clouds hanging over the mountains.
I liked the view of the clouds looking through a dormant Ocotillo plant.
One day we took them for a quick drive through Quartzsite so they could get a feel for what it was all about. We drove through the town then the LTVA area where we will be staying next. Many of our RV friends will be there. For dinner we met up with Steve & Dianne and Ruth & Dale for pizza at Silly Al's.
Me, Steve, Steve, Diane, Dianne, Steve (what's up with all the Steve's and Diane's?!), Ruth & Dale.
Great tasty, pizza. Both pics by Steve & Dianne.
We enjoyed a few gorgeous sunsets.
As the sun heads down it turns the KofA's a brilliant red color.
They just glow with reds, oranges and pinks.
We found a couple of geocaches just before the sun set and headed back to camp for dinner.
On their last day we went to the Castle Dome Museum which we had not seen yet.
Me, Steve, Diane and my brother Steve.
One of the old bars with pretty stained glass.
The "Steve's" enjoying a (fake) beer.
The Dentist Office.
Aw, how cute. Is that a SMILE, Steve?
The wooden cross was off of one of the last grave markers.
Fun with hats.
A pretty close up of the otherwise "ugly" Cholla. Stay away from these buggers!
After they left we took a ride down some of the dirt road and walked around.
I walked up a hill to see what a shiny object was. Turned out to be an old mylar balloon. I brought it back down to throw away.
Came upon this hiking around.
We'll have a couple of more days by ourselves, then on to Quartzsite.
