Sunday: (01/20) Relaxing morning. We’re only able to register for one day at a time so the first order of business was to re-register for tonight. Our beautiful skies are less so today. It’s hazy or light foggy today. Granola for breakfast. Lunch at Blast Pizza in SLO. We browsed around downtown SLO after lunch. Much of the afternoon was back at camp. When we returned, we had several new neighbors and many of the boyscout tents were gone. Unfortunately, it was mostly cloudy during the eclipse with just an occasional view. We had soup for dinner. We got to see the eclipse of the moon occasionally between clouds.
Monday: (01/21) Up early and prepared to roll. We drove down to SLO separately to drop the Jeep off and Cole Jeep to have the Start/Stop feature looked at and get an oil change. We decided to take the RV and leave camp because we couldn’t re-register for our pot early enough to assure we’d make our appointment. As it was we were there an hour early. After i checked it in we all had showers in the RV and had breakfast. Then a little walk and shopping. About noon we headed back down to the park and registered for our site again. Then off to Von’s market for a soup lunch. I received a call about 1400 that the car would be ready by 1500. They didn’t find any errors with the start/stop function but found information that replacing the voltage sensor has helped. Lets hope it dos so we can get the reduced fuel consumption it can provide. Sounds like it could fix it. This shop is so much better than the shop in San Jose. They actually think and then do something. We filed up the Jeep and RV gas at Costco on our way back to camp. Lou prepared stir fried veggies and chicken for dinner.
Tuesday: (01/22) I prepared pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We rolled away from camp after showers but tinkered mailing packages and shopping and didn’t hit the road until almost 1300. Nice weather. We had cheese and summer sausage for lunch on the road. We stopped early because we would not have time to go all the way across LA to a place we could camp until late in the evening. And I was drowsy, so we stopped in Carpinteria in a nice beach side campsite. We took a walk along the bluffs. Dinner at Rincon Brewery. I enjoyed a really good fish and chips. Dawn had lamb sliders and Lou a cobb salad. All excellent. ****
Wednesday: (01/23) Last night, while we could use the generator and microwave, Lou had thawed some wieners and cut them up as well as steaming some onions. I grilled that mixture and added some eggs for breakfast. We were on the road by 0830. Traffic was nice except for a couple of short backups and a longer backup approaching the highway 101/405 junction. All in all we zipped across the top of LA stopping for lunch in Fontana. About 1300 we headed off again stopping 30 miles East of Indio at the Southern entrance to Joshua Tree NP. We have camped here in this BLM property before and enjoyed it. Lots of fellow campers, some of them may be unwilling though. They had some rain here and the “roads” had som washouts. Some of the campers may be stuck behind washouts waiting for the BLM crews to come back to work after the government shutdown. We’ll be off tomorrow to Quartzsite. We stopped a bit early again tonight so we wouldn’t be arriving in Quartzsite after dark.
Thursday: (01/24) Granola for breakfast. We were on the road by 0800. We stopped in Blythe to do some last minute shopping. We arrived in Quartzsite, Arizona before noon. We did a little looking for an RV park with cheap rates. None to be had in town due to the RV show this week. We settled on the free BLM camping just East of town. Nice site fairly close to town with a few tree, and lots of fellow campers. We had lunch at the Grubstake bar of fish and chips. Then it was time to visit the big top tent RV show. A lot to see and of interest in the tent. We finished our first go round just before 1700 as they were closing. We had $1 burgers and curly fries that we picked up before heading back to camp.
Friday: (01/25) Nice weather. After leftovers meatloaf, curly fries and wiener omelet for breakfast, I replaced the batteries in the TPMS (tire pressure monitor system) sensors. They all worked well after that. Then we headed off to the RV show and vendor tents. I picked up more batteries for the Jeep tire sensors as well as spare batteries for my TPMS, and a valve stem adapter. I wanted to try to figure a way to get pass through sensors for the front tires on the RV but, unfortunately the adapter I bought and everything I see won’t help so the non pass thru sensors remain. They were intended for the JEEP so I returned to the vendor and bought two more non pass thru sensors so I have four for the Jeep, as well as a signal repeater for the TPMS. Everything almost works without the repeater. When the jeep is crosswise behind the RV the far side sensors don’t report to the monitor so I’ll install the repeater tomorrow. I also replaced the indicator lamp for the water pump in the bathroom. Nice to finally have that working. Should help reduce our leaving the water pump on after use. I also looked around a little and bought replacement bungee loops for the tow bar. A late lunch from Randy’s of an italian sausage with grilled onions and a butter pecan shake. The shops start closing about 1630. We returned home to relax before I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.
Saturday: (01/26) Lou made sausage gravy with biscuits for breakfast. I dropped Lou and Dawn off at Tyson Wells for them to continue their browsing. I drove on to the two big Solar shops in town looking at batteries. I then visited the Big Tent to see i they had the Battle Born Lithium batteries I’m looking for. They didn’t. All the stock at he couple of vendors that had had them was gone. In addition, I need GC2 (tall golf cart) batteries. Everyone only has the standard short long type. I also need to be sure the terminals are somewhat like my current installation so I don’t need to replace cables and also because the GC2 batteries barely fit anyway. No luck with finding batteries so I guess I’ll have to live with the current batteries for a while.I finished up the TPMS repeater installation. All tires are now reading well, including the toad. I had a pistachio milkshake and leftover pancakes for lunch. We had an early dinner at the Mountain Quail Restaurant where Lou and Dawn shared prime rib and I had shrimp. A visit to the old General Store market which has become Coyote Fresh Market. About the same, a good small market.
Sunday: (01/27) I prepared smoked pork chops with leftover french fries, baked potato and eggs for breakfast. We made a run up to the disposal transfer station to get rid of our garbage for our first task. Then I dropped Lou and Dawn off to continue their looking at the vendors. I made a final walk through the big top vendor tent at the RV show. I talked with the Battle Born Battery representative and discovered the battery I was considering will fit if sat on it’s side. Orientation doesn’t matter. I returned to the RV for a final fit check and then returned to the tent to order two batteries. Lithium batteries are not cheap but the show discount does help a tiny bit. I’ll pick them up at FedEx in Yuma in a couple of days. Then I was free to start looking at other stuff. I had a milkshake for a snack then met Lou and Dawn for lunch. After lunch I examined all the vendors on the west end of main street. We relaxed at home after 1600 until dinner of roast chicken, cauliflower and baked potatoes.
Monday: (01/28) A day unintended. Nice weather. We prepared to roll. I fixed pancakes and we had it with Lou’s apple nut dessert from last night. When I tried to bring in the slides the day fell apart. The slides, jacks and steps were not moving. It seems like the control that enables them when the engine is running isn’t working. I fiddled all day trying to get it to work. We called a service tech but he was only a maybe for today. To top this, our black tank was full to the brim. We intended to dump on our way out of town this morning so we were in a pickle. Lou and Dawn went out to get a 5 gallon bucket john. As the sun was going down Lou and I ventured over to one of our neighbors that is in an identical motorhome. He had some electrical drawings that I couldn’t find in my information. Maybe tomorrow it will work or I can’t more intelligently troubleshoot it. This happened once before on our first outing to the pinnacles just after we bought it. It fixed itself and hasn’t bothered us since, until now. For dinner, we went to Silly Al’s Pizza.
Tuesday: (01/29) Lou made leftover smoked pork chops and French fries with eggs for breakfast. I did some more research online and troubleshooting the RV problem wit hth inop steps, slides and jacks. While I had checked the status of the two main circuit breakers early on, today I actually toggled them off and on. While thy have flags that should indicate their status, the one that was tripped, didn’t. Everything started working. I called the service tech, that I had confirmed would actually be arriving late this morning, and told him we didn’t need him after all. Saved a bill and learned a lesson, or two. We headed off from camp to get LPG, Gas, dump our tanks and get water about 1030. While I was doing the utility work, Lou and Dawn did some last minute shopping and checked with a shop about Dawn’s metal detector operation. After cereal for lunch, we hit the road toward Yuma arriving a little after 1500. We checked in at the BLM lot off Hwy 95, 10 miles East of Yuma next to the VFW hall. Nice and close to town so we can get our batteries and install them near parts. After setting up, we headed off to a couple of thrift stores then dinner at EAT Chinese Buffet, one of my favorite eating establishments.
Our BLM campsite in Yuma. A nice sunset highlighted mountain range.
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