Back to Congress

After camping south of Quartzsite for several weeks and shooting January’s full wolf moon, followed by a gorgeous Kofa sunrise, I drove back to Congress on Wednesday.

Monday was a gorgeous day with mostly clear skies allowing for visible moon rise over the Kofa Mountains.  Of course, I took way too many photos.  But good thing as about half of them are totally out of focus.

I used the tripod to remove my own personal shake of the camera.  But dim sky with low light is still a struggle for me.  Good thing I can practice every month.

Would have been better if folks had joined me, but there will be another chance for February’s Geogypsy Journey, Sharing the Kofa Light 14-18.

Might have been hard for the Journey folks to leave the next day because of the gorgeous sunrise.

I had the camper door open by 10am with ideal temperature and little wind.  Cloud shapes created patches of light and shadow all day.

And sunset was no slouch either.

Wednesday morning I pulled out of camp in time to see the moon dropping towards the Chocolate Mountains.

Quartzsite is geared up with possibly thousands of RVs parked nearby on the desert public lands.  The RV Show Big Tent opened Saturday filled with every gadget you didn’t know you need.  I didn’t need anything.

Could you wear these?

On the way back to Congress I went to Wickenburg for a Thrift store fix, groceries, and lunch.

I rejoined Joann’s camp looking up at the Weaver Mountains.  I used to live at the top, in Yarnell, “where the desert breeze meets the mountain air”.  It’s at least 10° warmer in Congress.  Mutual friend Mary stopped by towing her little trailer on the way to Ajo, Arizona.  I forgot to take pictures.  As the sun went down the wind picked up rocking me to sleep.

In the morning, clouds obscured the Weaver Mountains.  A brutal northern wind lasted all morning along with intermittent rain.  At least it wasn’t the inch of snow Prescott got 45 miles north.  Though I was giving second thoughts to coming back to Congress.  Of course the stormy skies were wonderful to photograph with obvious high winds blowing the virga about.

Around sunset I noticed that the solar charger controller had gone into a fault error message and there wasn’t enough power for even one 12v light.  I prayed the fridge would continue to light as needed with power.  I read with a headlamp and used a small battery operated light I keep for emergencies.  Google was very little help and the manufacturer’s website indicated my controller model had been discontinued.  Hmmmm, maybe for good reason.

Leaving Wickenburg

Approaching camp in the rain looking at Weaver Mts

Still no power the next morning so I checked with my handyman and after trouble shooting under his phone directions everything pointed at a bad battery.  I wasn’t overly surprised considering the battery is five years old.  It’s also huge, heavy, and I can’t get it out of the compartment or lift it.  I had to solve this problem that day or wait past Sunday when nothing would be open and the ice cream melted.  I called an auto parts store in nearby Wickenburg and they had a comparable battery.  Then turned out they didn’t.  However the second parts store I called did.  So I drove to the other side of town.  They tested my battery and the reading came back “DEAD!”  I had to play the helpless woman card to get them to take the old out and put the new in.  But I disconnected and reconnected the panel voltage + wire on the controller in between that process.  And voila, everything worked.  So while in town I fueled the truck at $3.84/gal diesel and filled propane at $3.99/gal.  I was feeling so good about solving the solar problem I treated myself at vendor stands buying a huge bag of Kettle Corn and a jar each of home-made Prickly Pear Cactus, and Mesquite jelly. (Home-made jellies are a weakness of mine.)  Then a quick lunch before heading back to Congress under dubious skies.

By Sunday afternoon the solar controller was once again showing a fault error.  This error “Heat Sink over temperature” reads Greek to me with no charging going on.  Then it would show working, and then not working with no readout.  I had enough power in the new battery to give light for the evening, and kept the fridge lit.

Same problem the next day.  Well, it just so happens I have a new in the box controller, so I carefully disconnected the four wires, making sure nothing touched each other, and connected them to the new controller in reverse sequence.  And guess what it worked!  Now I just have to enlarge the hole in the wall a bit to mount the new one.

I’m sure this battery and controller problem could have been taken care of in Quartzsite near my last camp as well.  But without coming back to Congress, I wouldn’t have been camping with my friend Joann.  At least until I move on again.