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

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;