From Boardman RV Park and Marina March 25th 2013

From  Boardman RV Park and Marina March 25th 2013

 (N45 50.731 W119 42.457) El – 228’)

Meanwhile, back in Vegas:

I had thought that a three-day stay at a Casino should merit at least an effort to gamble, so, having an afternoon to waste, I went in to do battle with Sam’s phalanx of people and machines. First I checked out the Craps table but it was moving far too quickly for me to understand the protocol, then a quick look at the Blackjack tables showed me that minimum  bets were too high ($3.00), so I settled for the Blackjack slots. Thinking to get in and get out fast, I put in $20, played for a dollar a game and came out with $21, half an hour later. This made me a winner so, head high, I quit and went home to the trailer to watch TV – such was my gambling experience in Las Vegas.

Even though my departure was next day, I thought it politically correct to try and bring the Doberman next door into my camp. To this end, I invested one of my few remaining Costco dog cookies from the truck door to see if it would respond. Evidently, this dog had never experienced a Costco dog cookie and ignored it for a while. Its owner-lady explained to me that they didn’t have a Costco where they lived so I guess that made sense?

 

From Vegas, it was north along Highway 95  to Tamarack Beach BLM (free) at Walker Lake (N38 44.813 W118 45.805) near Hawthorne in Nevada, an easy trip of about 525 Kms with only moderate headwinds and reasonable fuel mileage on the truck. I stayed 3 nights at Walker because there were reports of very cool nights (18 degrees at Klamath Falls) further north. Not much happens at Walker Lake other than that the odd car came in to use the pit toilet. One night very windy – the weather forecast issued a warning especially for Walker Lake, threatening wind gusts up to 60 mph. This happened and the trailer was rocking and rolling that particular night. Luckily, I wasn’t quite broadside to the wind, but it was still a little worrisome.

From Walker, I had thought to go slowly in easy installments north to the Columbia. However, Klamath Falls still promised temps in the teens, so I kept moving. In the end, 1200 kms later, I arrived at the Columbia River at Biggs Junction. Here I had a little disaster as I whacked a bollard (concrete post) that had been placed about 2 feet out from the fuel island at a Pilot Station, presumably to prevent people like me from hitting the fuel pumps themselves. Whether darkness or just tired eyes from staring at the road for 15 hours contributed, I don’t really know but I heard the crunch and found that I had cut the corner too sharply. The small driver’s side hatch and latch were caved in and there is a dent in the undercarriage, things that I will have to get repaired at some opportune time this summer. For the time being, the trailer was still mobile, so I exited the Pilot and went next door to a different station where they didn’t know me, acting as if nothing had happened. Boardman is about 65 miles east of Biggs on I-84 following the Columbia River upstream along Umatilla Lake, a reservoir created by the John Day Dam lower down the Columbia. The river in this region is actually a series of lakes between dams and never appears to have much current.

 

Being about 11.30 at night when I got to Boardman, I decided not to waken all the campers, so spent the night next door to the RV Park in a large paved lot used by the marina, anglers for their boat trailers and other day-use visitors. There were no signs prohibiting camping, so any of you travelling this path and looking for a cheap overnighter, should feel free to stop at Boardman. The next morning, I checked in to Boardman RV Park and Marina, which doesn’t seem to appear on any maps but is quite an extensive complex of recreational facilities operated by the county.

  Boardman is a favourite stop from previous years with RV sites nestled in amongst large trees and grassy lawns with flocks of geese making riverside walking a slippery proposition. The park offers free WiFi but my own signal was better, so I used that. As most of you know, free camping is my “addiction”, so if one goes to a place where one pays ($19 per night), it needs to be agreeable. Despite the low elevation, nights at Boardman were still cool – in fact, my hose froze at the connection to the trailer one morning, so I had to lay it out on the lawn to thaw.

I shall leave Boardman on Tuesday; stop overnight at the Omak Walmart and get home (with luck) on Wednesday. The plan is to get a few things organized there, and then go out to visit my mother in the 2nd week of April. She will be moving from her house into a residential complex sometime this Spring, whenever a vacancy crops up, so there will be a number of things to help organize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Las Vegas Sam's Town Casino and RV March 18th 2013

 

Of the few people who had ventured out in the desert to find me, nearly all become lost – this largely because they either didn’t follow my GPS instructions or didn’t have a GPS with them, or, in the case of the young Mexican outside my door one morning, they had been walking for three days without food, looking for work as a plumber in the US. All my pipes seem to be functioning so I gave him some bread and water, practiced my Spanish to get details of how he crossed the border and called the US Border Patrol. My new friend had sprained his ankle the day before and needed help. He told me that he had been able to see the white of my trailer in the distance and had homed in on that as a beacon. I asked if he wanted me to call in the Patrol and he agreed. He was hoping that they would feed him before they took him back to the border. Interestingly, he had no idea of exactly where he was going or where to find work but was very certain about one thing – never again!

 

Hugh Richards came to visit and got lost due to my faulty instructions, having mixed up miles and kilometers on the phone. After he ended up in the middle of nowhere, having run into a dead end, we did meet up, had a chat and then parted ways.

 

Strangely, given the frequency of rain this winter, there are very few wildflowers blooming in the desert. Some small flowers are up but I don’t know enough to identify them.

Much of the desert closes to the public on March 15th to give Pronghorn Antelope an opportunity to Fawn (not “spawn” as per a previous note) without prying eyes on them. I suspect that the desert travel prohibition will not affect the several hundred local Border Patrol members who will continue to tear around in their trucks and on ATVs, not to mention using frequent helicopter flights for surveillance, hopefully slowing down so as to minimize the dust cover on fawning animals.

 

On March 13th, I had my last milk/Scrabble run to Ajo where, despite a spirited offence, I managed to lose again. By this time, daytime temperatures were rising into the mid 90s (35C) so I decided to depart for cooler climes. First stop on March 14th was Quartzsite for one day. Q. was pretty dead with most vendors either gone or packing up to go. However, we (Steve Wilson and I) toured what was left and returned to our camp on an unattractive piece of ground off Plomosa Road near Highway 95. Next for me was Las Vegas where I called and booked in at Sam’s Club Casino and RV Park. Here, I could plug in to power and run my air conditioner. This trip took about 4 hours via Havasu and Bullhead City along the river (not the fastest route). Sam’s was easy to find using the GPS since it is directly off Boulder Highway at the Henderson end of Vegas.

Sites at Sam’s are very small, so it was quite difficult to squeeze in beside the people on one side (who had a dog pen for their Doberman plus a van and a Motorhome using up far more than their allotted space) and the electrical box on the othe.r Once in place and hooked up though, the air conditioning was bracing after the heat of the past few days. The campground also offers hot showers, cable, sewer hook-up etc. Sam’s is a large casino with lots of facilities, including the buffet. After getting a Player’s card (free), one receives a $5 discount on meals, a sure summons to overindulge.

The next day I took the free shuttle down to the “Strip” (Las Vegas Boulevard), where most of the big hotels and Casinos are located. The first activity was to hop on the Mono-Rail ($5) and go to the southern terminus at MGM Grand – planning to walk from there back to where I had started. Just finding my way out of the maze of parking lots and then this massive casino took the better part of an hour. The “Strip” was jammed with people, many of whom were dressed as leprechauns celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Most of these people had jugs of green beer in hand and were well on their way to being intoxicated. As this was only about 2 in the afternoon, I’m sure the evening atmosphere in town could have been messy. I walked along taking pictures, watched street acrobats jumping over 4 standing people at a single bound and listened to an Elvis impersonator on one corner. The ”Strip” is basically a wide boulevard enclosed by massive hotel/casinos, all at least 20 stories high and each of which has a theme and, in some cases, quite outlandish architecture. The walk from MGM back to Harrahs was quite entertaining and I was glad that I had taken one of my “golf” pills to assist the bad hip in surviving a long hike on pavement.

 

Going back a few weeks in the news, these two items struck my eye in USA Today.

            1. The State of Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery – 148 years late!

            2. Only in the US – A Missouri State legislator proposed legislation that would make it a felony for any fellow legislator to introduce gun-control legislation – imagine living in a place where people of this quality control your government?

 

From Vegas, I think that I shall head up 95 in Western Nevada, then over to Klamath Falls on 97 in Oregon. If the weather looks clear, I might stop over at an Indian Casino Kla-Mo-Ya, just north of Klamath and take a stab at viewing Crater Lake. Two previous attempts to see the lake have failed due to blizzard conditions and zero visibility but one should keep trying. From there it will be up to the Columbia River where I will probably stop a day or two at Boardman County Park and Marina. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Rusty Water Tank (decomissioned) Camp Feb 28th 2013

From Rusty Water Tank (decommissioned) (N32 17.183 W112 51.132)

As my present location is very pleasant and there appears to be little interest in overdue camping enforcement by BLM Rangers, I am staying put for a while. 

In the last couple of weeks, I have been a little more active than usual. Hikes of 4.3 miles and 3.3 miles, plus a couple of 10 mile bike rides have sweated off an ounce or two. These have been in company with Steve Wilson, on his Honda for the rides, with his walking stick for the hikes.

 

Various friends have announced intent to visit the region, though not necessarily my specific campsite here at Rusty Water Tank. The Richards, Hugh and Christine, have returned to Mica Mine Road in company with Dave and Gail Lewis. They are about 6 miles away as the cactus wren flies, longer by road. Darch and Kiki (his lab), along with friends, plan to come and shatter the tranquility of Rusty Water Tank for a few days as well. Dog lovers, though welcome, should probably keep their pets away from my campsite as the cholla cacti are omnipresent and unforgiving to errant (unleashed) pet-paws. Dave and Gail came to visit in the ATV and I went to them in the truck for an afternoon firepit session.

 

Gayle and Don Weyers, along with their semi-pro-scrabble-playing-friend were also slated to visit Rusty Water Tank for a game of boondocking scrabble but a recent severe-weather alert, plus the fact that Gayle’s friend has to catch a plane back to Albuquerque, meant instead that we postponed for a day or two..

Life is still very quiet out in the desert. Other than Border Patrol vehicles going by in the distance, one rarely sees or hears anything (other than the howling of wind at the moment). Of course, coyotes also howl at night, mourning doves coo, owls hoot and cactus wrens chatter, so at least the desert is alive with some noise.

 

The anticipated storm did arrive with significant rain pelting down during the one night and part of a day. When I went to Ajo on a milk run, there was plenty of pooling on roads. I even saw snow in the distance up on some hills to the East. The power went out and flickered back on while I was in Ajo but cell service and Internet were out on arrival back at the trailer (back again at 6.00). Apparently, there are two companies providing power to different sections of Ajo. At some point their lines cross each other, so it was only bad luck that the lines of one fell over on top of the lines of the other. Ajo residents were very upset because there was little information to be found. In retrospect, it turns out that one of the companies has what I consider to be a common sense rule that workers can only work for 15 hours at a stretch. The problem was that the power line issues were almost sorted out when workers downed tools and went home for their mandatory rest. Here in the desert, we who live under solar power happily ignore the problems of those “on the grid”

 

En route to town, I checked various camp sites up and around MM Road. I think that, RWT, if one discounts the abundance of Cholla, is the best. Some of the ones where I could get Internet and cell access were not very level and possibly too rough, even for me, to get to with the trailer.

A week or so ago while Steve and I were sitting on the Astroturf lawn enjoying the sun, along came a Border Patrol Officer on his ATV. He told us that he was tracking a group of Mexicans who weren’t very far away. After he left (driving between 11 o’clock and noon on my carefully-constructed sun dial rocks, we went to check but could see no tracks – maybe he was on a make-work project?

 

February 22nd - Darch arrived with his friends, Richard and Linda, from Whistler/Powell River in tow. He had lost them several times on the way, breezing through amber and red lights and then overshot the turn here at RWT. According to them, they were in the dark as to where to go much of the trip as Darch disappeared into the distance ahead.

On the shoulder of the hill above camp is a cave. With Darch, there is always a requirement for activity, so we climbed to this cave, to find that it had been inhabited at one time. Signs of a fire pit, along with a spatula and sardine tin were evidence of other climbers, possibly a centuries-old Tohono O’odham Shaman or, more likely, a modern day drug-smuggler’s lookout?

Richard and Linda stayed one night and headed off to see London Bridge at Lake Havasu. Darch stayed an extra day and then went home to Apache Junction. Thoughts of a bike ride were in the air until Darch discovered that his padlock key for the bike chain was MIA, presumably left behind at home. We settled for a fire and BBQ, finally using some of the wood that I have been carting around since Plomosa Road. As an activity, I decided to take a few pics of local varieties of cactus and shrubbery as several of you in the Great White North have been inquiring.

I thought it would be a good idea to buy a few Jalpeños with which to spice up the stewpot. Tastewise, this was quite successful but I did learn that one should avoid rubbing one’s eyes after chopping peppers – the sting is longlasting and painful.

Finally, the other day, I had my first win at Scrabble – a great moment in sport! I was lucky to get most, if not all of the high scoring letters, so skill was likely not a factor.

Temps nowadays 70/40, about perfect for me with cool nights and pleasant days. One of the by-products of warmer daytime temperatures is that a small, quite aggressive variety of bee smells out the water that I carry in the back of the truck. They seem especially partial to the red 10 gallon rubber bladder, possibly because the moisture aroma seeps through the material or maybe just because it’s colourful – I don’t know. In any case, there are afternoons when it receives attention from the “swarm”.

 

Some of you have enquired about the desert vegetation to which I occasionally make reference. I have included a few samples in the attached pictures. Needless to say, all forms of cactus a spiny and sharp. The “jumping” chollas, particularly, go out of their way to leave the mother plant and insert themselves in bike tires, one’s sandals and the odd dog paw.

Photos:

99 Sunset at Rusty Water Tank

87 Teddy Bear Cholla

88 Staghorn/Buckhorn Chollla

90 Chainfruit Cholla

92 Creosote bush

95 Palo Verde tree

106 View from cave over Rusty Water Tank Camp

110 Bees on water bladder

112 Hugh Gail Christine Dave at Mica Mine Road campfire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Gunsight Wash January 24th 2013

January 24th Gunsight Wash Why, Az (N32 14.402 W112 45.371)

Seems a long time since I wrote a few notes on the trip – New Year’s Day, in fact. Since then, several items of note:

 

I have moved from Plomosa Road near Bouse to Gunsight Wash, a BLM camp area 2 miles south of the community of Why, Arizona (approx 4 ½  hours). Here, I have been joined by Ted Webber and his friend Paul from New Mexico, plus John Porter who has been and gone. The BLM is extremely quiet, whether for reasons associated with the economy or possibly because of reports of Mexican Drug Cartel violence are both speculated by those who are in the business of conjecture. In addition to being a good camp area, Gunsight Wash offers excellent cell and 3G Internet connections from a tower located in Why. The mountains west of Ajo have limited cell and Internet access. Ted and I will undertake a reconnaissance one of these days, computers in hand, to test (the waters?) for future camping prospects.

 

Up until last week, I would say that this might have been the coolest start to winter I have spent in the south. With days averaging 50 (10 C), nights frequently below freezing by several degrees, plus strong winds much of the time, this corner of Arizona was colder than home at the Shuswap for a few nights.

 

Two trips to a dentist across the border south of here in Mexico, plus a third tomorrow, will have produced a bridge (puento) of two crowns and two false teeth (dentadura postiza), another crown (corona) and some fillings (rellenos) for $1670.00, a lot of money but considerably less than what I might have paid if I had had the same work done in Canada or the US. Due to the combination of cold temperatures and Mexican heating efficiency, or lack of, the good doctor Valenzuela’s hands were shaking as he drilled my teeth - not confidence inspiring but, he got the job done and will probably be able to afford to buy a new heater in his little border clinic.

 

Two efforts to recoup Scrabble losses of previous years were doomed to failure from the start though a spirited effort won me a close second at the house of my Ajo friends, Don and Gayle Weyers.

 

Every week, a young Mexican comes to the campground with a car full of prawns and flounder from Puerto Penasco (in Baja Mexico, about 3 hours from here on the Sea of Cortez coast). At $17/kilo, I don’t know how the prawns stack up against supermarket prices in Canada but they were very tasty – and delivered to the middle of nowhere. Since the young fellow has only rudimentary math skills, his clients have to work out the price that they are going to pay, once he has weighed out the catch on an old set of scales that need a couple of quick taps to liberate from zero.

In early January, I was checking my MasterCard expenditures on-line and noticed that amounts were off base and that 11 purchases had been made in El-Centro, California to the tune of $1600.00. Since I have been nowhere near El –Centro, I knew this was a scam, called MasterCard and got them to cancel the account. To my relief they agreed to cover any fraudulent costs and sent me a replacement card by UPS to Coyote Howls RV Park in Why. Coyote Howls has been very good in receiving packages for me without much in the way of repayment. In addition to the new card, I also pickled up a bit of door hardware that they had been keeping for me since last winter. The Emergency card took only two days to arrive, so minimal inconvenience to me. How the crooks got my number and managed to incur charges at both a Target Store and an Army Navy is beyond me. I suspect that the problem experienced by Canadian travellers in having to leave their credit cards inside Service Stations because of the lack of a zip code might be suspect here. A number of phone calls to both MasterCard and BMO made a dent in my available TracFone minutes, so I have had to buy another card. At $.10/min TracFones certainly pay for themselves when one compares this with the high average cost of Canadian cell phones when used in the US (from $1.45/min to $.50, depending on individual plans).

 

JP, Ted and I went golfing at Ajo one day (9 holes). This is a flat course with gravel areas alongside sparsely covered grass fairways. A good time was had by all – both Ted and John suffered varying degrees of pain from the experience and decided not to go again. Another day, we hiked up Alamo Canyon, about 12 miles South and 2 miles off the highway. Water pools that had existed in previous visits have disappeared and there was evidence of some fairly extreme flooding (last summer) that may have upset the water table in some way? The bike has been more or less dormant, since Ted is a hiker, not biker, and I am getting lazy in my old age.

One day, we went to visit Hugh and Christine, plus Darch, who were all camped on Mica Mine Road West of Ajo. Darch and some friends of his were overnighting and heading home to Apache Junction the next day. Hugh and Christine came to visit us at Gunsight a few days later, then travelled on to Tucson for a couple of weeks.

 

 BLM regulations state that campers may have a 14 day maximum stay on any one site. Because it has been so quiet, the host at Gunsight (Ev, from Nebraska) offers favoured campers an option to stay an additional two weeks. Apparently, campers who complain about the state of affairs at Gunsight are not considered “favourites” and get the boot. Ted and I have our extensions, me presumably because of compassionate dental reasons and Ted because he was pleasant with the host and didn’t complain about anything. The protocol is that campers are encouraged to move sites, so that other campers, who might be desirous of one’s particular location, have the opportunity to move into said position. I have moved about 100’ and Ted has moved into my former spot, so all is well for another two weeks.

 

About a week ago, temperatures suddenly shot up and we have been basking in 80 (26.6 C) degree heat. I decided that this might be a good time to equalize the trailer batteries, a function that I can do manually using a button on the (Morningstar Star 45) solar controller. In theory, this procedure is designed to desulphate the plates, even out inconsistencies between the four batteries and generally improve performance. I don’t know if this actually works but am running up to 15.3 V for several hours over 3 days to satisfy the requirement to do this once every few months.

 

This morning has dawned cloudy with the sound of rain pattering on the roof. When this happens, the desert develops a peculiar but pleasant scent (petrichor?), this mainly due to water falling on plant oils from the creosote bushes that are ever-present in the Sonoran Desert. If it rains hard enough, I may put out my plastic pail and do some laundry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 1st 2013 - Plomosa Road 16.6/1.7

December has moved along, New Year’s Eve has now come and gone; the desert was fairly quiet
with few, if any, distant generator noises (solar makes none) and a good time was had by all until about 11.00 when I went to bed after watching a “Walking Dead” marathon on TV.

Temperatures this week- cool for here at about 50 (10C) by day, plus north winds making the windbreak on the trailer earn it’s money.

The last few nights, temperatures have bottomed out at about 35°outside, 40°indoors, excellent for sleeping but a little frosty for the computer in the mornings.

A few responses noted that I had erred on my duck designations in the last e-mail. To my discredit, I had mentioned mallards and drakes as the males and females of a species. Little did I know, not being very duck-savvy, that drakes are males and female mallards are just ducks, hens or female ducks. I was pleased that only a few of you caught me up on this and trust that everyone actually did know the correct terms.

The Lewises and the Richards camped with me for a while but they have moved elsewhere, Hugh and Christine to Ajo, Dave and Gail, first to an RV Park in Bouse where they could plug in and have heat without using so much propane and today off to Vegas to visit with their son. We had a few campfires and one “chunk”- broil but windy weather made many nights a chilly proposition. To this end, Dave and I went out with the trusty electric chain saw and my new Honda generator to gather a truckload of deadwood. They have gone but much of the firewood remains - reckon, I’ll load it up and cart it to the next destination – likely Why on Jan 7th where I planto meet Ted and some of his friends, plus, possibly, the Obornes and the Richards. With December winds an almost constant factor, the wind break is up and sitting in the lee is usually quite warm.

While Hugh was here, his generator failed due to old gasoline waxing and clogging up the carburetor jets. This was an excellent opportunity for me to have a carb-lesson from Walt who took it apart, flushed it out with carb-cleaner and restored it to its previous glory. I expect that my little Yamaha at home has similar problems and can’t wait to tear it apart next summer, hopefully with the same success that Walt managed to achieve on the Honda – if only I can remember where those bolts went?

Some time ago, I was in touch with Sani-Dental in Algodones by e-mail re: timing and prices for filling the gap in my teeth (info@sanidentalgroup.com – 928 257 1307). I have to wait until 4 months post-extraction to have an implant ($750 + $250 for each crown), so may make a booking for mid-march to do that. A bridge would be the other option, so will wait until I go to get a recommendation. Walt and Susan went to Algodones and visited la Cholla Dental (lacholla@hotmail.com), found it to be very good, clean, modern etc. They had cleanings plus fillings for her and got a price list for other procedures.

In general, work is going to cost about ½ to ⅓ of what things would cost in Canada. Of course, the question of warranty if something goes wrong should be in one’s mind, though, every year, thousands of Canadians and Americans go to Algodones, now humbly advertised as “the dental capital of the world” for dental work, seemingly without problems. To visit Algodones, one drives first to Yuma, then a short hop west and south to Algodones. At the border is a huge paved parking area operated by the local Indian band for $5 per day. People walk across and the hundreds, possibly thousands of dentists, opticians and pharmacies appear within a couple of blocks of the crossing, many with their attendant hawkers exhorting the crowds in from the street.

Some of my idle time has been spent considering purchase of a new TV for the trailer. New LED screens have dropped considerably in price and use about ⅓ the power of older TVs like my present one. However, the more I looked at my old Zenith, the better it seemed to look, plus, I seem to have adequate power, so why rock the boat? That project (and expense) is now on the back burner.

Arizona Snowbowl, located near Flagstaff in the White Mountains, is a ski resort that opens some years and other years not at all, depending on whether there is any snow. Wisely, they installed snowmaking equipment to increase their chances. However, they based their plan on being able to use reclaimed waste water piped in from municipalities 12 miles down the road. Enter the rare-plant-species-issue. This year, and sporadically over the last ten years, the resort is, and has been, embroiled in a lawsuit with the Hopi Indian tribe who have initiated legal action because of uncertainty about the effects of reclaimed water on a particular plant that grows only on nearby peaks at very high elevations. The species in question is a rare form of ragwort known as San Francisco Peaks Groundsel and the courts have to consider whether the reclaimed water, containing “trace amounts of hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids”will adversely impact the plant ? All that stuff affects me just thinking about it but maybe the ragwort is a hardy beast?

I’m not sure about dumping sewage, even treated sewage, on the mountains, even though far less treated water was used to irrigate Mexican golf courses where I used to play in days of yore. Back in those times, I smoked, so the caddies (mandatory and presumably out of concern about losing a potential tip) would warn me not to place my cigarette on the ground while executing a shot. In any case, the whole disagreement reminds me of the great “Snowmax”difficulty at Lake Louise wherein Parks Canada denied a permit to use irradiated (dead) bacteria to enhance the quality of the existing snowmaking system. I don’t recall any Indians chaining themselves to bulldozer blades back then as has happened in Arizona but our little controversy had its moment in time and was foiled by a perception of bacteria infecting the slopes.

 

 

 

 

One fine day I went for a hike, so retrieved my boots from the closet where they had been resting for a year. Inside was a fossilized, possibly just desiccated, mouse who had enjoyed the gourmet pleasure of a nice sock and then died in comfort. It’s shell was quite intact and one wonders why this one didn’t escape as many others have?

From Plomosa Road Camp 16.6/1.7 Dec 12th 2012

PS:

Meanwhile, back at the Canadian/US border, I remembered that the US Vegetable Guard lady and I were engaged in conversation about camping in the desert. She asked me if I was a “Boondoggler”, this defined as a breed of people who occupy themselves with insignificant activities being of little use to anyone. Guess that’s not too far off the mark for me, though I prefer being a“Boondocker”.

Also, as a postscript to my stop in Twin Falls, I had no sooner finished with my wire repair and turned the corner when, in the mirror, I spotted my little folding plastic foot-step flying out of the truck box, landing on the highway and being pulverized by a large SUV. Recovery was out of the question but I did replace it with a mini step made of metal and, presumably, less likely to fly, at a Home Depot in Havasu.

Dec 12th - Plomosa Road 16.6/1.7 (N33 53.206 W114 03.169)

Morning back at Pahranagat – not a cloud, so it was almost time to put on shorts for the rest of the winter. A lot of quacking and honking went on at night; the lake was full of many varieties of waterfowl, plus raptors (who weren’t actually in the lake, rather perched in trees searching for prey). This is a great camp spot (free), maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Department as a bird sanctuary.

This year, I only spent one night at Lake Pahranagat as I didn’t have a lot of “resting” to do – also, with the bicycle in its protective bag on the back of the trailer, it would have taken me a few extra minutes to extricate everything just to go for a short ride.

From Pahranagat, it was 64 miles down to I-15 and then another 18 miles into North Las Vegas and the Blue Beacon/Speedco Truck Wash (N36 12.786 W115 07.725). $42 gets one the full treatment, including steam cleaning of the engine. I didn’t realize how much shiny metal existed below the accumulated dirt and grime of the truck’s 12 year lifespan.

From Vegas, it is a short hop to “Terribles” at Searchlight for fuel. On the way, one passes by a giant solar array generating station. I don’t know the wattage but, if that were all on top of my trailer I could light up the whole desert. Aptly named, Terribles may be the worst “service” station encountered anywhere in my travels. Even though the pumps are well situated for trucks and RVs, one has to walk to the cashier indoors, slowly creep forward at the back of a long line of fat children buying Krispy Kream donuts, predict a minimum amount of fuel that one wishes to put on one’s credit card, go out and pump, then return to join the back of another line of equally hefty mothers belonging to the aforementioned children and who must have followed the doughnut truck down from Vegas. The first credit card bill gets ripped up and another is produced to reflect the correct amount. At the pump, there is an option to enter one’s zip code and Canadians, being zip-code deficient, scratch their heads while they attempt to invent a number by exchanging letters and numbers in their Postal code into some American hybrid. That never works for me, so if anyone out there has experienced consistent luck in this matter, please let me know.

From Searchlight, it is mostly downhill on Hwy 95 to the I-40, west of Needles, Ca. In California, cars are allowed to travel at 70 mph, while trucks and trailers, including me, drive at the more sedate pace of 55 mph. What this creates is an accident waiting to happen, particularly on narrow roads with lots of curves and dips because frustrated drivers find themselves blocked by people like me, attempt to pass in an unsafe place once they get exasperated enough and smack into someone doing the same thing from the opposite direction.

Cattail Cove is a pleasant State Park south of Lake Havasu City. There, I found the Richards, Hugh and Christine, plus Lewises (Dave and Gail), along with Ian and Gillian Wright, enjoying the civilized comforts of close-knit camping with power and water. I overnighted with them, heard the tale of woe from H & C who had lost a window to high winds, suffered a water leak in their trailer and, top of the list, lost their Bell satellite TV signal because Bell, without warning, has cancelled all service south of the 49th parallel. If any of you are contemplating travelling with satellite, use Shaw (Star Choice). They seem to have no problems providing service all the way into Mexico.

At Cattail, I was approached by a waddle of ducks (25-30) who came to the trailer to eat stale buns out of my hand. I never realized that ducks are very hostile to each other, particularly when competing for pieces of two-week-old bun. At one stage, two mallards had a drake down on her back and were twisting her neck with their beaks. Feathers flew but, in the end, the poor lady-duck did recover. After that, I favoured the drakes and threw bits to them which they were able to catch in mid-air, jumping up like dogs.

One night of civilization being plenty for me, I moved south about an hour to Bouse with a Parker Safeway stop en route. All preferred sites up my favoured trail had occupants so I moved to another area abut 6 miles away. Here, however, the cell signal was very intermittent. Fortunately, friends Walt and Susan Brugger from Prince George, keeping my best interests at heart, spotted someone moving out of the original site, came to let me know, then moved their VW Beetle onto the spot to claim it for me. The phone seems to work from here and I have a fairly weak Internet signal from the MiFi as well.

So, now, I’m happy; camp is set up; solar panels raised to obtain optimum photons from the sun and the nearest neighbours (Walt and Susan) are 200 metres away.

I shall stay at Plomosa 16.6/1.7 for a while, the length of time could depend on whether the US Department of the Interior still employs rangers to monitor BLM 14-day maximum stay regulations. It has been rumoured that many of these folk have disappeared along with other government employees as part of the Federal Government austerity agenda so perhaps I shall be safe.

I have sent one or two separate e-mails with pictures, so my apologies to the few who got those as there may be repeats. A new Canon camera bought this summer generates photos that are far too large to be e-mailed efficiently with slow Internet connections. Therefore, I will be using the Microsoft “Resize” tool to reduce photos to something under 100 KBs. If anyone out there feels the need to send me a photo, please do the same.

As I have stopped travelling for a while, you will be pleased to know that blog output will grind to a slower pace. Not much happens in the desert so there isn’t much to write about, though when pressed, the challenge of writing about nothing can be somewhat interesting.

 

 

 

From lake Pahranagat Dec 3rd 2013

Dec 3rd – Lake Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge (N37 19.594 W115 08.157 at Entry)

Out the cabin door by 7.30 and headed south for the traditional first night’s stop at Omak Walmart (340 Kms). Time for brunch at the Penticton Denny’s en route. No line-ups at the border. As expected, had to relinquish 3 avocados as they came from Mexico. Parsley and mushrooms passed through, as did all frozen meat.

At first, I was a little concerned with the weather because it was overcast and rainy, a condition that usually leads to snow in the month of December. This trip, the gods have smiled, producing wet but mild weather. Even over the dreaded Blue Mountain Summit in NE Oregon, temps at 4000’ were running close to 45°. There was no snow at roadside, either, a sign that this December is abnormally warm in that part of the world. On the radio, a series of Coastal storms and dire threats of snow followed behind but never materialized.

The first priority at Walmart was to obtain a new TracFone with 450 minutes of airtime as well as get air cards for my Verizon MiFi 2200. These last cost $50 for a GB over 30 days; the TracFone cost $20 plus another $48 for 450 minutes of airtime. Both these devices save me a lot of money over using the equivalent Canadian devices while travelling in the US. For those who care, my US phone number this winter is 1-928-851-5155. Last year, but no longer, TracFone offered a service called the “Good Neighbour” policy that enabl3ed Canadian callers to dial a local number (I chose one in Victoria) that then connected to my phone with no Long Distance charges to the caller. An interesting corollary to this situation is that the company is now owned by Mexicans and Mexican numbers are still considered part of the “Good Neighbor” policy. I have written a scathing letter to TracFone questioning the merits, or lack of, for cancellation of this policy in such a discriminatory manner. Canadians were only “dumped” this past October and my literature that came with the phone still confirms the “Good Neighbour” policy for us, thus creating a false advertising issue for TracFone, an added weapon in my e-mail arsenal.

Refilling the veggie drawer at Walmart, also replenishing lemons for the rum and cokes, pretty well took care of the shopping. In addition, I found and bought a battery charger that will operate at 40/30 and 12 amps DC. Having managed to lose power in the truck battery several times in the last year or two and now, with a new Honda generator (EU 2000i - not that I would consider starting it, except under the most extreme of conditions) to provide backup power if I get many cloudy days in a row, I thought it made sense to have a charger that could refill amp-hours in a hurry and not waste hours on the generator.

Night two, raining cats and dogs, I made it to the Boise Stage Stop (800 Kms).

I had used a special abrasive cleaner at home to clear up the somewhat opaque lenses of my headlights – a huge difference on wet black roads in the rain! The BSS has a large paved parking lot with a dirt area behind. I decided to park at the end of the pavement because I didn’t want too much mud in the trailer. Unfortunately, a lot of trucks also chose to get off the highway later that same night. My two nearest neighbours parked further back in the lot, placing their enormous snouts next to my bedroom and, of course truckers, as everyone knows, keep their motors going all night, regardless of how warm the weather is. It reminded me of the buses at Lake Louise that used to keep their motors on all day, doing everything possible to asphyxiate the kids in the daycare area just below their parking lot. Finally, we had to ask them to move – never figured out why a motor has to run all day, even when cold outside. It seems peculiar to me that one has to run a giant diesel all night to provide a little warmth – or maybe these guys in their trucks were watching TV and needed the power – who knows?

While travelling, I often don’t watch TV, in this case because BSS had free WiFi to amuse me and listening to the surrounding diesels while reading a paper afforded me plenty of entertainment. BSS has an excellent truckers’ restaurant – I enjoyed the liver and onions immensely. On a final note, one might wonder what trucking people think of casual travellers such as me. I have attached a photo to demonstrate how red-necks view tourism in the beautiful State of Idaho!

From BSS, the drive to Jackpot was relatively short and I arrived in plenty of time to shower, do some laundry and catch up on my accounting in the RV Park at Cactus Pete’s Casino. As most of you know, I usually camp on the fringes of society (with the truckers) where “free” is the operative word. Pete’s Park cost only $20 and I got a free shower and WiFi and cable TV into the bargain. Also, I found that I needed to charge up the trailer batteries. Somehow, there had developed a loose or shorted wire leading from the truck to the trailer batteries, with the result that nothing charged for a few days. From the highway back at Twin Falls I had spotted a big sign saying “Repair”and reckoned, correctly as it turned out, that Ryan of Ryan’s Repair could fix my problem. As mentioned, the cats and dogs (rain) prevented the solar panels from doing their job so Pete’s got the nod. The main reason to stop at Cactus Pete’s, however, is the fact that it is a casino and offers wonderful buffet food. Stuffed with scallops and several varieties of fish with roast beef and mash followed by bread pudding on the side, I staggered home to the trailer to watch cable TV (also included). Jackpot was mild at 50° (10C) when I arrived, 27° (-3C) in the morning, so it only took a few minutes of sun to melt the ice on the truck window and I was on my way south.

To Lake Pahranagat, (570 Kms), skies were mostly sunny with some fog, no wind and an elevation drop of a couple of thousand feet. Mileage was the best ever (it always is on this leg) at 12.71 MPH (US gallons). Loading up fresh water in Alamo, I drained the trailer anti-freeze into the holding tank and can now brush my remaining teeth – forgot to mention, I had two teeth pulled back on Vancouver Island but have yet to fill the gap – maybe in Mexico? Pahranagat is quite empty, so I had my pick of sites. A Fish and Wildlife photographer happened along and took a picture of the trailer for some brochure they plan to create, promoting the campground (needless to say, there will be no gap-toothed faces in anyone’s brochure). Tomorrow, on through Vegas to Havasu, possibly will meet up with Lewises and Richards at Cattail Cove State Park, south of the city.

From Wain Road North Saanich Feb 24th 2012‏

John Worrall (jmworrall@hotmail.com)

24/02/2012

To: charlesblocke@aol.com, rick@werner.ca, sbrugger@shaw.ca, bharvey@xplornet.com, twebber18@hotmail.com, carolinemiege@gmail.com, darchoborne@hotmail.com, medidart@telusplanet.net, wilsondl@telus.net, ap_worrall@hotmail.com, bjmckendrick@shaw.ca, louiselocke@aol.com, gillian.wright196@gmail.com, tbwenger@gmail.com, bruce.bleakney@gmail.com, tappenkid@gmail.com, awalsh@uvic.ca, carpenter.trav@yahoo.ca, prhine@telus.net, asquin.david@gmail.com, david@bastionranch.com, jmworrall@hotmail.com, mulholland@cogeco.ca, chrisperren@hotmail.com, neil.mckendrick@shaw.ca, game1@cciwireless.ca, remora3712@shaw.ca, write2heathera@hotmail.com, topkick@telus.net, djeffrey@skircr.com, terryellott@yahoo.ca, josereineking@yahoo.ca, jimleb@telus.net, gjpercy@hotmail.com, bert.hollingshead@telus.net, ajo.gayle@gmail.com, susan.is@telus.net, dbforer2@primus.ca, jshea@skircr.com, catoborne@shaw.ca, spreader@ebtech.net, sbhoney@telus.net, louis-marc@telus.net, macdonad@telusplanet.net, mountainmamabw@gmail.com, lmichaud@telus.net, hugh.landerkin@gmail.com, rick.l.crosby@gmail.com, jherman@telusplanet.net, georgecreid@telus.net, rtouche@telus.net, don_asquin@hotmail.com, hugh.christine@gmail.com, donandbetty@shaw.ca, mhanstke@gmail.com, jeanettenicholls@shaw.ca, mlalt@shaw.ca, askofteby@gmail.com, bmoffat@goshen.ca, relliott@pei.sympatico.ca, tim_susan@hotmail.com, petznick@telus.net

From:	John Worrall (jmworrall@hotmail.com)You moved this message to its current location.
Sent:	February-24-12 10:17:36 AM
To:	charlesblocke@aol.com; rick@werner.ca; sbrugger@shaw.ca; bharvey@xplornet.com; twebber18@hotmail.com; carolinemiege@gmail.com; darchoborne@hotmail.com; medidart@telusplanet.net; wilsondl@telus.net; ap_worrall@hotmail.com; bjmckendrick@shaw.ca; louiselocke@aol.com; gillian.wright196@gmail.com; tbwenger@gmail.com; bruce.bleakney@gmail.com; tappenkid@gmail.com; awalsh@uvic.ca; carpenter.trav@yahoo.ca; prhine@telus.net; asquin.david@gmail.com; david@bastionranch.com; jmworrall@hotmail.com; mulholland@cogeco.ca; chrisperren@hotmail.com; neil.mckendrick@shaw.ca; game1@cciwireless.ca; remora3712@shaw.ca; write2heathera@hotmail.com; topkick@telus.net; djeffrey@skircr.com; terryellott@yahoo.ca; josereineking@yahoo.ca; jimleb@telus.net; gjpercy@hotmail.com; bert.hollingshead@telus.net; ajo.gayle@gmail.com; susan.is@telus.net; dbforer2@primus.ca; jshea@skircr.com; catoborne@shaw.ca; spreader@ebtech.net; sbhoney@telus.net; louis-marc@telus.net; macdonad@telusplanet.net; mountainmamabw@gmail.com; lmichaud@telus.net; hugh.landerkin@gmail.com; rick.l.crosby@gmail.com; jherman@telusplanet.net; georgecreid@telus.net; rtouche@telus.net; don_asquin@hotmail.com; hugh.christine@gmail.com; donandbetty@shaw.ca; mhanstke@gmail.com; jeanettenicholls@shaw.ca; mlalt@shaw.ca; askofteby@gmail.com; bmoffat@goshen.ca; relliott@pei.sympatico.ca; tim_susan@hotmail.com; petznick@telus.net

At the time of my last groupmail, I was located at Gunsight Wash BLM, near Why, not far from the Mexican border in Southern Arizona. This note comes to you from North Saanich, BC, where I sit in my mother’s house.

She has fallen ill, so I have returned to see what I can do to help and will remain here for an indefinite time.

Meanwhile, back in the desert:

My nearest neighbour at Gunsight Wash was from Keremeos and had camped in Mexico for years. Last year, as the story goes, he discovered that he was on a “kidnapping”list. The manager at the Campground where he was staying was involved in “shady business” (drugs) and had friends in the kidnap industry who threatened him. My new friend seems a little strange so, perhaps, there was a gap in communications? As his nearest neighbour, the thought occurs that I might also be on the backup “kidnap list” – what happens if the kidnappers arrive and he is “out”?

Meanwhile, the weather was mostly sunny with temps 75/45 on average. The Percys (Gerry and Heather) and I went golfing at Ajo on Feb 9^th. The course appeared a bit greener than I remember it being a year ago at Christmas but still consists of a strip of grass (50 yds average?) running straight between areas of desert gravel. Local rules allow balls to be placed on the nearest grassy spot, though I noted local hardliners hitting off the gravel – presumably this keeps the Ajo-Used-Golf-Club businesses thriving? Roadrunner birds were noticeable absent this year whereas they were frequent spectators to our bad golf a year ago.

After several e-mails and phone calls to Telus about the phone problems, Telus phoned me on the new TracFone and offered reparation in the form of a $180 credit for my sufferings. They have also “upped” my data allowance from 1Gb to 5 Gbs for the same price. For next year, I shall see what can be done to put my Telus account on Vacation Interrupt for the winter while I use the more economical American services.

Feb 11^th, went for a ride around the BLM perimeter fence-line (14 miles). Not much evidence of illegal hikers, though there were a few black-painted water bottles– black so as not to reflect light and therefore less easily spotted by Border Patrols.

Feb 15^th– went in for a lunch and scrabble session at Don and Gayle Weyers’ house. The usual results – a resounding couple of losses with little to redeem myself except one “bingo”.

Based on my several protesting e-mails, a TracFone agent called. The quality of the his phone was pathetic and cut out three times before he got a good line. Even then, his English was heavily accented, he failed to understand that my main point in sending the e-mails was to comment on TracFone’s questionable Customer Service and ended up wasting an addition 40 minutes of my airtime with no real result. In the end, he contacted a supervisor who allowed as how I should get 120 minutes compensation, about the amount that TracFone has wasted. Anyway, that’s something, but I shall still keep e-mailing until I get someone who can respond in English and stop calling me “Mr John Worrall”

For the trip home, I got away from Gunsight about 11.00, since I had to “break” camp (+/- 2 hours) and made it as far as Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA. (N33 43.485 W116 11.735) I was actually looking for a Walmart, had found one on the GPS and decided that I might as well go a little further when I spotted the Casino with lots of RVs parked there. Various luminaries, including Willie Nelson, Frankie Avalon (no longer very luminous), Peter Frampton and others, headline the stage show on different Saturdays. The place was quite crowded – I couldn’t even get in to the dinner buffet without fighting a huge line-up, so went home to the trailer for Tuna salad. They have a whole parking lot designated for RVs, there is no charge, no check-in and, according to a neighbour, no maximum stay.

Day 1 started out pretty well with a following (as most are) tailwind much of the way to Quartzsite. From here, however, the headwind to Indio/Coachella was ferocious.

Day 2, from Indio, the freeways and Emily (my GPS) took me close to the heart of Los Angeles where traffic was thick but kept moving. I think I must have driven the better part of 150 kms in LA or parts of it, before exiting into the mountains north. Some of my reasoning for following the Interstates was a misplaced conception that I would be remaining near sea level and therefore not wasting fuel and speed on some tortuous (“tortugal”?)climb through the mountains. As it happens, I still climbed, lost speed and wasted fuel on a different ascent that ended at 4300’. Once down to lower elevations, easy cruising up central California to the Los Banos’ Walmart (not a Super Centre) N37 03.309 W120 52.820, a stop from last year. Nothing exciting about the Walmart except that it was a familiar place to park after the stresses of Los Angeles freeway traffic.

The next day took me out of California and over the Siskiyou Summit north of Redding. This mountainous stretch extends for at least 75 miles and is known for occasional heavy snowfalls. Temps were warm, however, and any precip. was in the form of rain - not a problem until dark when heavy rain, combined with spray from semi-trucks driving faster than my 55 mph dropped visibility to nil and made keeping the trailer between the lines a difficult and probably dangerous task. About 7:00, up showed Canyonville in the form of a brightly-lit 4-Feathers Casino sign, so I pulled in, got guided to my free paved spot by a security truck and spent a peaceful night. The buffet was not available but the restaurant provided sustenance for weary travellers.

From 4-Feathers Casino (N42 56.393 W123 17.053 approx ) to the north was very scenic down canyons with lots of flooding water and trees for a while, then a broad valley and flat, fuel efficient trucking for many miles. Portland, I navigated without issue, crossing over several bridges spanning the Columbia River – and then came Seattle.

Somehow, in Seattle, because there were accidents and delays on the freeway ahead, I was “detoured” by Emily (the GPS) to the east and then north again on smaller roads (522, 9, 2). This took a while, mostly in the dark but, eventually, I rejoined I - 5. A similar situation occurred as had happened the night before. I wanted to get close to the border but knew I wouldn’t make it all the way, so kept on going, again in heavy rain, until, miraculously; another casino appeared out of the dark. This one was the Tulalip Casino (N48 05.338 W122 11.536) in, none other than Tulalip, WA, near Marysville. As Casinos go, this was the best one yet. Again, paved parking at no charge, though one has to check in with Security – rivers of rain bucketing their way down to storm drains gave temptation to stroll around in gumboots. As an alternative, my spare golf umbrella came in handy for the wet slog from parking lot to casino entrance. My luck was in. Not only was the seafood buffet in full swing but it, (Tuesday) was seniors’ night with a 15% discount bestowed on those who qualify. To say that this was a feast would be an understatement. My Canada Food Guide friends from last year would have been dismayed by the sheer volume of oysters, prawns, crablegs, chowder and scallops that one senior could scarf down but – how often does one have this opportunity? Any twinge of conscience disappeared quickly, particularly when I got an e-mail from a friend inquiring as to whether the Indians were making any money off me (all casinos are operated by Indian Tribes, except in Nevada where the mafia hold sway) –thinking about gambling, of course, a habit that I just don’t seem to be able to acquire. Maybe it’s the noise and smoke but losing coins at an alarming rate and being laughed at by a machine is almost as bad as driving on wet roads at night. This casino was only 75 miles from the Canadian border, so I made it to Peace Arch RV Park in Surrey where the trailer is now stored for a month or more.

I am camped in my mother’s basement as she has taken ill and is spending a few days in the Saanich Peninsula Hospital. Hopefully, she will be discharged soon and I can get her home to tell her that casino food is vastly superior to hospital fare (just what she wants to hear). I plan to stay at least until the beginning of April and then play it by ear, depending on how mother is doing.