Thursday, June 30, 2016

Life on the Side of a Highway

So we're somewhere between Panguich and Parowan Utah, either the 20 or the 15.  We're camping in a deep pull-off on the side of the highway.  Look at my last post for pictures.  I couldn't take any pictures for this post.  It's been raining off and on all day.

This morning there were men all around the RV in orange 'highway worker' vests picking up trash.  My mom was horrified.  She thought for sure they were going to bang on the door and tell us to get to steppin'.  But they didn't.  All was well, and it's a lot cleaner outside.  There was a lot of junk beside us.  Hopefully the workers don't think we were responsible for it.

As the day wore on have had LOADS of people pulling over here.  We went as close to the barbed wire fence as we could to make sure other people had use of the pull off.  And they have.  Lots of semi-trucks stop here.  They generally pause for a while and then drive off, never leaving the vehicle.  One guy got out to check his load straps.

We've also had a lot of families with kids stopping to stretch their legs, make use of the bushes, or make lunch.  A couple with three daughters in an expensive luxury pick-up truck pulled over and made sandwiches in the back of the truck.

Then it started raining hard.  Thunder was cracking loud in the sky and lightning was flashing all over.  Suddenly the turnoff became a parking lot with three SUVs, one car, at truck, and another truck pulling a horse trailer.  Geez!

My mom and I both know how it went as they were driving by the road.  "Pull over by that camper!"  Yeah...we make a good highway landmark.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Razza Frazza Fricka Frazza :cuss words:

So it's Wednesday, and guess what?  We still don't have our follow car.  It was pushed to Friday.

It seems to me that if your employee destroys someones engine you should be contrite about it.  Put the damn engine in and let us continue on our way.  Don't dick us around for two weeks.  It's human nature to give as little as possible no matter what the circumstances, but I hate it.  I never treat people this way.  I think we should have stayed at the expensive campground, because it would have made them hurry up because they didn't want to pay for the camping fees.  Instead I was nice and got taken advantage of.

Still, Camp Lutherwood was a wonderful experience.  It was beautiful.  There were friendly deer who weren't scared of people.  Ground squirrels and chipmunks all over the place for our cats to stare at.  The camp host was super sweet and helped me on the camping fees.  It was a nice place with nice people.  A bright point in an otherwise repugnant situation.

We left today because the heat wave is over and we have good boondocks around here.  We couldn't have stayed even if we wanted to because the campground is cash only and we ran out of cash.  But that's okay.  We were only there for the heatwave and it's back in the 80s now.

As you know, we desperately need groceries and cat litter.  We didn't want to go back through the Dixie National Forest where we'd be climbing to 10,500 feet and then go shooting down the mountain all the way to Cedar City.  This is what caused our troubles in the first place, when the brakes caught on fire.  Yes, I've learned to down shift, but I still don't like going down such a steep decline in the RV.

We planned to go back to Parowan Gap to the sheep boondock near the petroglyph site.  There was another route there north that would let us avoid the Dixie National Forest.  It would take us through the town of Panguich, which had a grocery store.

So we shimmied the RV into the parking lot of this medium sized market and restored our provisions.  We got enough to get us by for a week, since a lot of stuff was really expensive.  And we got two big tubs of cat litter.  Scrappy is glad that she no longer has to balance on the rim of the litter box to go.

It's really cloudy and parts of the road toward Parowan had puddles.  Not good.  It's 2 miles down a dirt road to get to our boondock, and the boondock itself is in the grass.  Mud + RV = Disaster.

So the plan was to boondock in the petrogylph parking lot, even if we had to take up half the spaces.  We're only going to be here two days, right?

I saw a 'Your Public Lands' sign on the way.  I figured if I could find another boondock before we got there that we should just take it.

And that's what we did.  It's another 'by the side of the highway' boondock like when we were in Pahrump, but it will do for a few days.  It's level.  There's thickly poured stones to prevent us from getting stuck in the mud.  And it's deep enough for us to be a good 30 feet from the road.


I'm not 100% sure this is legal boondock.  The public lands sign was 8 miles before this, but we'll give it a try.

We have satellite for the TV and two bars on the Verizon hotspot with our booster.  We're stocked on provisions, have empty waste tanks, have half a tank of propane, and a full tank of water.  We have all we need for the next four days if need be.  The views, as usual, are gorgeous, which my pictures will prove woefully inefficient to show you.



There's a near constant noise of cars driving by...but that's never bothered me.  (Except when numbnuts honk at us...I srsly don't even...)   I don't know why the sound cars driving by bother a lot of people (including my mother).  I think it's just background noise.  Like ocean waves or something.

What does put me on edge is people pulling over to join us...which has happened twice three times already.  Once again, people can see the camper from far away in both directions.  That lets them know there's a turn-off and gives them enough notice to slow down for it.  So far a couple with three kids pulled over to let their kids play here for a while, and two big rigs truck pulled over for a few  minutes.  I'm expecting more of this.  Whatever.  Hopefully there's no creepy people who will want to harass us.


And so, the adventure continues.  I hope the next time I post I will be telling you that we got the SUV back and it's driving fine.  I just hope they don't end up screwing it up somehow.  We really love that car.

This is my latest ebook if you keep up with my writing.  I had to put out another one fast due to the failure of the last one.  It's the usual smutty stuff I write.

https://www.amazon.com/Confiscated-Bride-BBW-SciFi-Romance-ebook/dp/B01HLO4FRQ
https://www.amazon.com/Confiscated-Bride-BBW-SciFi-Romance-ebook/dp/B01HLO4FRQ

Monday, June 27, 2016

Mission Log

From Somewhere In Utah...

Dearest Reader,
It has been thirteen days since we have been without our follow car.  Today we ate our final ration of sweets, a fun-sized bag of skittles and four gummy fruit slices.  I shall not lie to you reader...the situation is bleak.



As you can see, provisions have dropped to most desperate levels.  It was with great shame that I dredged a tub of chicken livers out from the back of the freezer.  To feed my mother such a poor offering speaks of dark days indeed.  (But with some garlic, cilantro, olive oil, seasoning, and served over toast it should be pretty tasty).

My elderly mother, far frailer than me, fears she shall not have enough Special K cereal to last out the week.  Our precious animals have fared no better.  It is with great shame that I admit...we've run out of cat litter.

Oh, woe is we, to have ascended to such distant mountains with no easy way to drive to a store!  Woe is we who must resort to canned green beans to fill our plates!  Woe are our cats who must contend with stinky litter boxes!

But the mechanic said the car would be ready Wednesday, so we'll be outta here soon.  :)

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Lutherwood Campground, Utah - Worth the Drive

Here is the road next to our boondock near Parowan Gap.  A shepherd was based there to look over a large flock of sheep.  He saw us and didn't bother us.


We're still stuck in Utah due to a botched oil change that destroyed the engine of the SUV.  The SUV isn't done yet.  We stayed at that nice little side boondock near Parowan Gap for one dump cycle, and then moved on.

This morning our water tank was empty and our grey and black tanks were full.  I thought there was a TA Center near the boondock to use as a dump station, but it had closed.  Just like the Staples and numerous other businesses I see around Cedar City.  Not sure what that's about...

That's probably for the best anyway, because while I know you can shower at the TA, I don't know if they provide water for me to fill my tank.

I digress from what I wanted to talk about though.  Right now is a heat wave.  I'm not in the danger zone, per se, but I am in the 97-101 degree zone.  Our max boondocking temp is 94 (Fahrenheit of course, I'm a Celsius-impaired American) and even that is pushing it.  I decided we probably want to wait this out at a campground.

Technically the garage should be paying for this, since we were supposed to be well on the way to Carson City by now.  On the other hand, they don't want to pay for it (I presume) and for me to get them to pay for it I'm going to have to make myself a pain in their asses.  And I would rather just pay for stuff myself and not have stress and conflict in my life.  If I can gamble $100 at a casino without blinking then I should also be able to put $100 towards the 'life with less confrontation' account.

I should be penny-pinching because my book sales plummeted.  I bombed with my foray into Paranormal Romance.  It's so sad...it was such a great book.   Anyway...I'll bounce back, and I have savings for lean times.  I just hope they don't extend more than a month.

The campgrounds around Cedar City are outrageously expensive.  The Koa was $65 a night!  However there are two Passport America parks in range.  The Red Ledge RV park was the first choice because it was less than $15/day with the discount.  I called them twice now and they're always booked.  This is even before I mention I'm using the 50% off program.  A campground as cheap as this is in high demand here.  I couldn't get a spot.

The other Passport America park is Camp Lutherwood, a Lutheran RV park in the mountains.  I considered this the less ideal choice because 1.  Driving the rig up and down mountains stink (see my prior post about brakes on fire).  and 2.  The Passport America discount is only for the first day.  However, they have no hook-up spots for $15 a day, which is the same as the Passport America rate.  At a 7,500 foot elevation (yeah, feet, I'm also metric-impaired) it should be cool enough not to need the A/C even in a heat wave.

Here's one of the gorgeous green mountains around Camp Lutherwood.  We are officially out of the desert.
 As for driving in the mountains I started downshifting gears as I went downhill.  I really hope I'm shifting correctly.  When I crested the mountain I shifted to 3 and then went back to D when I started back up hill.  For a steeper decline I shifted from D to 3 to 2.  And then we had a really steep decline with a sign that warned us of the steep grade ahead.  I shifted from D to 3 to 2 to 1.  I didn't have to use my brakes much to keep at a decent speed.  They didn't catch on fire.

I'm in a full-hook up spot right now at Camp Lutherwood to dump tanks and take on water.  Tomorrow I'll move to a no hook-up spot to save money.
Here we are.  The building is the showerhouse.


I'm glad we ended up here.  It's beautiful.  The camphost is a total sweetheart.  There's wifi and good satellite.  It's cool enough to be comfortable.  The shower room, right next to us, was really nice.  Better than most campgrounds I've been to.  I really just want to stay here until the SUV is done.


Another picture of the RV park.


Speaking of (and yeah, I know I'm meandering a lot with this post) we swung by Cedar City on the way to this campground to restock our groceries.  I stopped at the mechanic which I forgot would be closed on Sunday.  The SUV is safe inside one of their garage bays.  The old engine is out and lying on a wooden skid.  The front hood was removed and on top of the SUV's luggage rack.  Things seem to be well underway.  :)

We're seeing what life would be like without our follow car.  I do like having my mother safe beside me when we're driving.  I don't like having no ability to explore or run errands between moves.  Someone once suggested that I just put in my slides and drive the RV around.  It's just not a good option.

First of all, we're not just putting in the slides to get ready to move.  We have to batten down the hatches.  Everything that can fall, like this computer I'm typing on right now, has to be put somewhere secure.  All the stuff blocking the slides, like the carpet in the kitchen, has to get moved out of the way.  Kitchen stuff.  Bathroom stuff.  It all has to be put where it's not going to fall.  All the windows and skylights have to be closed.  Cat food and water has to be put where it can't spill.  All the stuff on the sofa has to go under the dinette.  The stuff on the dinette has to go into velcroed containers.  The TV has to get latched.  The step to my bed has to be stowed.  Etc. etc.  It's a 20 minute ordeal getting ready for a move--and that's when we're not even hooked up.  (My mom usually does everything the morning of a move while I sleep in.  I write late into the night).

Then using the RV as a car comes with it's own challenges.  Driving to supermarkets or big box stores is usually fine, but what about doctor's appointments?  Or when we're in a town that only has a small market?  Or restaurants?  Or...just about anywhere else that isn't a big box store or supermarket.  I can't take a 31 foot RV into tight spaces.  I will hit someone's car.

But we were able to get into a Smith's Supermarket for groceries and to top off our gas.  I'm on a diet of 1,800 calories per day and have stuck with it by getting off one of my antidepressants that had been spiking my appetite.  I don't know how much I should really talk about my depression on this blog.  I'm not trying to be a bummer, but my brain just doesn't fire on all cylinders like it should.  I'm back on the dosage and antidepressant I was on before my crisis last year.  (When I drove to Mexico to get new medication).  Yeah.  It only helps my symptoms by 50%, but I'd rather be half depressed and under 200 pounds (once again...screw the metric system) than totally chill and too fat to function.  It's give and take in this life.  :(  Hopefully I can keep things under control.

Here's another beautiful green view at the camp.  My craptastic camera does not do the views justice.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Little RV on the Prairie

So.  We're still in Utah.

We're most definitely here against our will.  :sigh:  I've had a day to get over the shock and terror of recent events so I'm just going to summarize here and be done with it:

While at the mechanic in Cedar City we got oil changes on the RV and SUV.  As we were driving out back towards Pioche the SUV's engine seized.  They did not put any oil in it.  I guess the mechanic got distracted and forgot that last part.  :sighs again:

So yes.  The engine in our SUV was destroyed.

They are replacing the engine (without any fight from us, to their credit).  So we are stuck in Utah for another two weeks without our follow car.

Last night they paid for us to stay in a nearby KOA.  I saw that the cost was $68/night and I felt bad, so we moved out of there to boondock.  Yes, I know they screwed up, but they were good with us through mostly the whole repair situation.  Mistakes happen.  They're already paying upwards of $3,000 for a replacement Nissan Armada engine + labor.  I wasn't going to twist the knife by making them pay another $1,000 for us to stay two weeks at that expensive KOA.  Especially when we normally boondock anyway.

I hunted out a boondock that would not require us to travel upwards at a right angle the way it felt like when we were navigating the Dixie National Forest.  We're at Parowan Gap near a petrogylph site.  I guess petrogylphs are pictures carved in the rock by ancient people.  We didn't take pictures of that so let me describe it:  it's a rock with pictures on it carved by ancient people.

Here we are, sans SUV.


We planned on boondocking in the petroglyph site's parking lot.  It was full with a bunch of white vans from Texas for some reason.  There really wasn't any place there to park a 31' RV.  So we drove down a dirt road and found a level area in some grass by a fire pit.  Much more private and remote than the petroglyph parking lot.  It's BLM (Bureau of Land Management) so we can camp free here for up to 14 days.  Rumor has it there's a TA Center nearby where we can do our dumps and take showers (hopefully get water also).


Loneliness and desolation surrounds us.  Here's a tree symbolic of my state of mind.


This is 14 miles from the repair shop so we'll probably just hang out here until we get the car back.  The mechanic asked if we could continue our RV travels for two weeks while they work on the car.  I said no.  We need our follow car.  We're in the boonies and big RVs are not a suitable vehicle for buying groceries and the like.

My mom and I both agree.  We have a great set-up.  We put the RV where we plan to live for a while, and we go exploring with our nimble little SUV.  Since we're two drivers I never have to tow, and the SUV is great.  It's easy for us to drive and...and...

OH GOD MY POOR LITTLE SUV!  HOW COULD THE FORGET TO PUT OIL IN IT!  I LOVE THAT CAR SO MUCH!  THEY DESTROYED MY BABY!!!

Ahem.  Okay.  We're fine.  Everything's fine.

Also...sheep?  Why are there sheep here?  One was shorn so they ain't feral. Free range sheep?

Monday, June 13, 2016

Committed to Boondocking

I write to you still stuck at the RV repair place in Cedar City.  They sent the shop the wrong part to fix our SUV, so it meant another day camping in their crowded parking lot.  The tank levels are good and the solar set-up is successfully sucking sun, the weather is 70s to 80s, so we're essentially fine. 

I mean...it's a free campground, just not a very pleasant one.  Still, within the sanctuary of the RV we have all the comforts of home...cuz it is home.  You wouldn't even know a crowded automotive center lot/use car sales lot is around us unless you looked out the windows.


I've had trouble deciding where to go next.  I want to squeeze the juice out of every life-grape, so I want to have some epic summer travels. I went and looked up festivals I might want to go to so we could aim the RV in that direction.  There was one in Salt Lake at the end of the month, so the idea was to head north in Utah.

My mother has vetoed that idea after this debacle.  I realize I have a few more considerations now:

  • No more mountain climbing.  7,000 feet above sea level is our new max.
  • We need a Verizon signal every where we go.
The first is due to the smoking brakes both our vehicles suffered.  I've researched how to prevent this in the future and I'm pretty sure I can shift to a lower gear to prevent me from having to use the brake as much.  Still...we don't want to climb above 7,000 feet due to risk of severe altitude sickness, especially by my senior citizen mother.

The second thing I thought would no longer be a concern due to my booster.  Ugh.  It's able to get me one more measly bar, and that doesn't cut where signals are weak.  I couldn't get online in Pioche except at non-peak hours.  That was not conducive to my work.  When we were in the Dixie National Forest I couldn't get ANY signal whatsoever.  I don't want to deal with that again.

Utah is mostly tiny towns between Cedar City and Salt Lake.  I will have Verizon problems more than likely if I continue on our planned route.  We've decided to turn around.  We're going back to Nevada.

The current plan is to boondock our way to Carson City where my mother's doctor is.  She has some health issues to address, and I will see if he can treat mine with my weak bronze Obamacare plan also.

We feel comfortable in Nevada.  It's really become a home state to us.  I know my way around Pahrump, Reno, Vegas, and many parts in between.  I think it's fine to return to last year's stomping grounds.

Yes, I want to travel and explore in our RV, but not at the expense of reliable internet or while having to travel to treacherous heights.  I also don't want to be driving the rig in large cities.  I'm playing it safe this summer.  Carson City, Sparks, Virginia City, and Lake Tahoe.  That's our plan of action for now. 

Maybe next year I'll get adventurous again.  I'm not going to push myself out of my comfort zone unless I really want to.  I have nothing to prove to myself.  If I'm happy that's all that matters, and I know I'm usually happy in Nevada.

I want to mention that across the street to this automotive center is a pawn shop and I sold my old hitch and sway bars for $40.  @-@  I'm pretty proud of that.  I'm glad I don't have to lug them around anymore.

If you're interested in my writing, and are okay with smutty yet well-plotted paranormal romance, my new novel came out two days ago:

Mated to the Jaguars: Paranormal M/F/M Menage

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Craziness...and Dixie National Forest

We stayed 8 days at the free campground in Pioche and then planned to go to the Dixie National Forest near Cedar City.

Okay...this area is gorgeous.  Breathtaking.  The mountains were textured walls of rock around us with cedar and pine growing precariously on any smidgen of dirt the roots could find on sheer precipices.  Some mountains were red.  Some were grey with pockholes.  Some were piles of boulders that looked like the Rock Biter from Never Ending Story.  Some were bluish.  Around that were seas of glorious green...

I should have took pictures, because they would have been amazing.  I'm sorry I let you down, but I have a good excuse.

We're going up the mountain road into the forest and climbing...and climbing...and climbing.  I'm not kidding.  It's 20+ miles of a 6% grade upwards.  My mom does not do well with heights.  On one side of us is hugegantic mountain rock wall.  On the other side is a steep (and I mean STEEP) drop into a verdant valley that dives for what has to be MILES downward.  We climbed to the fricking clouds for God's sake!

After huffing and puffing upwards for 20 miles, with nothing but incline ahead of us, I started to fear we would get altitude sickness.  I'm not being overly dramatic, either.  When I pulled over my mother looked green.  At first I thought it was because she'd looked to her right and seen the drop.  Fortunately that's her blind eye and she'd been oblivious to the bottomless pit.  She said she was having trouble breathing.

Well, right as we started the climb was the first camp site.  Small.  Close to the road.  Not very level.  But it seemed a better option than pushing higher.  I said let's go down ten miles and just camp there.  Where we were was too high, and we still have 4 miles to go.

On the way down my mom could see the drop and slowed down to drive extra careful.  I had to slow down too, but the camper wanted to fly down the hill.  So I had to ride on the break to make sure I didn't lose her.

After a while I'm smelling smoke.  Is there a forest fire?

I ask my mom if she smells smoke on the walkie-talkie but the mountains are messing us up.  If we're around a curve from each other she can't hear me.

I passed the campground and pull into a recreation area to turn around.  A white car pulls next to me.

"Your brakes are on fire."

...

...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

My mom pulls next to me wondering why we stopped.  I go to the back of the RV and I smell it. 

Oh my God...what have I done?

My mom says to call a tow truck.  I say we go up the mountain a little and pull into the camp site.  This place we're at is private property (some resort business) and there are signs all around saying no overnight parking.

She says no.  She says her brakes caught fire once and they incinerated away.  In her mind I had no brakes left.

But I knew I had *something* because I'd managed to stop to make the turn. 

We agreed that we would go up to the camp site, get online, and see about what to do.  We just couldn't stay where we were.

So we get there and I open my computer to see if there's mobile RV service that can come up and fix my brakes.

Hey...guess what?  You'll never guess. 

We had no Internet. 

There was no bars on the hotspot.  My mom's phone couldn't get a bar either.  We had no satellite for the TV either.

UGH. 

Well, there was one thing that got a signal...GARMIN!  Yes, my annoying little GPS was able to fight through the mountains.  She told us that there was an RV service center we could go to in Cedar City.

So we spent the night in the campground with the plan to drive into town tomorrow to be able to use Internet again.  (I had work to do). 

The place we were at was beautiful.  If beauty was our priority we would have loved it.  But I need to work.

This morning we went to A-Kicking Tire Truck & Automotive in Cedar City, formerly Desert Automotive and RV Service.  I can't recommend this place enough.  They really took care of.  One of the owners told us to bring in the RV and they'd service it within the hour.

So we drove back up the mountain and I got the RV and brought it there.  I told him to check the SUV's brakes first, because it smelled smokey too.

We needed new rooters.  Our brake pads were fine for another three months, maybe.  I told him him to go ahead and replace them.  As they're doing this they find that a calper melted and cracked.  Okay, so we only had one brake working on one side.  Argh.  We had him change the oil, too, since it was due.  So we're up to $400+ on the SUV and they haven't even looked at the RV yet.

They changed the oil on the RV.  The manual says every 7,500 miles, but it was filthy and needed a change at under 4,000 miles.  I'm guessing we need to change it every time we do the SUV's oil.

Then they looked at the brakes.

They were fine.

@_@  WHAT?

"Your brakes look good.  You can tell they got hot, but they're still in great condition."

WHOOHOO!!!  So it was just the SUV that needed repairs.  We're glad we got that taken care of.  We want our vehicles to last, and for them to run well. 

The shop didn't have the calper we needed replaced.  We're camping in their parking lot until Monday when they get the part in.  It's concrete, noisy, exhaust smelling, with non-stop traffic going by...AND WE LOVE IT!

Because we have Internet again.  ;o;




Friday, June 3, 2016

Pioche Nevada (With the Free RV Park)

Pioche has been a treat for us because we've genuinely never been up this way before.  Pioche is on the way to no where and I can't think of a reason for anyone to want to come up this way unless it's to actually visit Pioche.  (Or you're a Mormon missionary on the way to Elko).

Why should you, the full-time RVer, visit Pioche?  Well, there's a free RV park across the street from the public pool on 4th and Hollywood that gives water, sewer, trash, and shade.  And while you're enjoying that free RV spot there's lots of touristy stuff to do/see in the small town.

Pioche is  a nice little old west defunct mining town of 600 people.

On the one hand you can claim it's like Tonopah because there's derelict buildings from the 1860s here and there.


On the other hand, it's not like Tonopah at all because it's a very nice well-maintained town that feels safe and quaint.  There's not too many eyesores.

As you head up Main Street you see the old Opera House, the old Gem Theater, and the Overland Hotel.  The Overland Hotel has a casino in it and is a tourist destination in and of itself because it's haunted and was featured on the show 'Ghost Adventurers' in 2014.

We didn't know this was the same Overland hotel we saw on that show until we read the flyer after we left.  It wasn't haunted in the casino.  @-@  My mom won $20.


Continuing up Main street (um...that's pretty much the only street with stuff on it) you get to this cafe which is inside one of the original 1860s buildings.






We had some hotdogs there today.  Here's what the inside looks like:






There's a lot of stuff from the 1860s in Pioche because that's when a Paiute Indian showed a Mormon Missionary where a silver mine was in exchange for food and clothes.  The silver mines turned out to be some of the biggest deposits in Nevada.  During the mining boom it was a town of 10,000 people.

There's lots of buildings left from the mining days.  That stone staircase is from the 1860s too.



Mining continued into the 1900s for lead and zinc.  That's when they put in tramways move ore cars.  They're still hanging all over the town.


Here's what they look like up close.



Main Street continues on, with cute touristy shops and stuff.  There were a few other tourists milling around.  A younger couple and an older couple.  So, it's not a crowded tourist destination by any means, but it does draw a smattering of people.



Living here all the time would be rough.  The closest grocery store is 12 miles away, and it's a market, not a super market.  I have no idea where people buy clothes or shoes here.  Thank God for the Internet and online ordering.  If you can't drive the only place to buy groceries is at a tiny gas station store that provides all the necessities.  It even had some expensive meats in a cooler.




 Behind said store is a mountain with a cross on it that my mom insisted I include a picture of.  Enjoy?





Oh, and below us is a yoke for oxen.  It was in the shop of the Overland hotel.  I think I took the picture because I thought it was a wagon tongue and was thinking, 'Hurr hurr, Oregon Trail.'  But I think it's actually a yoke.  So...the yoke was on me.



There's a bunch of cemeteries in Pioche.  A catholic one, a masonic one, and an old west one.  Here's the one from the 1860s.  Boothill Cemetery.


 Here's one of the graves.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

A FREE RV Park?!

Let's catch up! 

When we last visited with Searching Fulltime I was in my mom's pastor's yard boondocking in Pahrump.  We stayed there for two dump cycles or so and then moved into the Preferred RV Resort for three days.  It went from 85 degrees to over 100 degrees, so we couldn't boondock for the last three days we stayed in Pahrump.  We had wanted to move on, but suddenly our elusive doctors (mom's PCP and my psychiatrist) got appointments for us on the last few days, so we had to stay extra.

Here's one of the meals I make in the RV.  This is a Veggie Cheese Omelet
Here's how we do yogurt.  Vanilla yogurt from a tub, strawberry jam, and cut up apricots from our host's yard


We didn't get a kitten.  Our rational outweighed emotion.  The full-time RVing life is rough on our cats, and our house is small.  We already have three cats.  That's our max.  Besides that we would need to spay or neuter them and get their shots and yadda yadda yadda.  Just wasn't in the cards.

This guy seriously pulled at the heartstrings, tho.  Always ran up to us when we visited and would cry until she was snuggled.


Preferred RV Resort is a top notch park, very quiet, and satisfactory.  We stayed there for $16/night with Passport America.  We did our dump/water/shower/trash/laundry routine then stuck around to finish up our appointments. 

While we were in Pahrump we got Scrappy and Sultan lion shaves at our favorite groomer.  They're so much happier now.  Seriously, since we don't give them AC all the time this is a necessity.

22yo Sultan is not long for this world.  The groomer was extra gentle with him, and he likes to be groomed, unlike most cats.  As long as he doesn't seem in pain, continues eating and grooming, and continues to try to escape outside, we will keep him alive.  It's just a matter of time though.  I love him, and his death is going to really hit me hard.

Long Haired Scrappy gets extra frisky and happy after a grooming.  She's not suited to desert living, and shaves are mandatory for her. She goes from lethargic and whiny to a happy little monkey-cat every summer when she gets shaved.
Cat #3, Precious, is a young short hair who manages the heat fine and has heart attacks when we stand up near her.  She can't handle a trip to the groomer.

On the way out of Pahrump we had to fill up on propane again.  So according to this blog we go 15 days to a tank of propane.

Okay, so now it's June and we need to get the heck out of Dodge.  It was time to climb to a better climate.  I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out where to go.  California was out and we already did Reno/Sparks/Carson City. 



So North is the plan, but straight North is out since that’s Reno, and Northwest is out since that’s California.  So…Utah?  That was the thought, but St. George is the next stop from Pahrump and it’s just as hot as Pahrump.

I ended up going to Pioche Nevada.  It’s North East from Pahrump and the forecast said it would be in the 80s there.  But…even better than that…



THERE’S A FREE RV PARK!

I’m like…seriously?  That’s so awesome.  It’s a little park (RV park, not a city park) with ten spots that provide water and sewer.  That’s sweet!  We have our solar panels for electric, so we have everything we need…FOR FREE!  On top of that there’s showers across the street.  

Here we are.  Only three other campers here since it's in the middle of nowhere...but it's a high elevation so nice cool weather.  Plus we've got loads of greenery and scenery!

I couldn't get close to the sewer hole due to a boulder so I tied my short 'for dump stations' red sewer hose to my long smelly 'only use it if the other one can't reach' sewer hose and managed to get a connection.  :)


We’re going to stay the seven days here.  The views are great, even though it’s a little blink-and-you-miss-it town.  We stocked up on groceries in Pahrump.  This should be a nice quiet seven days to finish my latest novel and unwind from all the human interaction that happened in Pahrump.

Here's a public pool where it's said we'll be allowed to shower across the street from us.  ^-^
The view behind us is stunning, and this picture will not do it justice.  
  You know, the Borax Bill Motorcross also gives free RV spots with water and sewer to whomever wants them for a certain amount of time.  This actually isn't the first 'free' RV park we've been too...but at Borax Bills we actually boondocked away from the free RV spots cuz it was quieter.  I'm wondering now why we drove all the way to the dump station every time we needed to dump instead of getting into one of those free empty spots.  We always had to stop at that RV park when we dumped for water anyway and the dump station was 4 miles away.  I wonder why...?