Category: United States

Waking up at 8am to 60° feels like the perfect lazy days of summer coming to me, what I’m used to at higher elevation in July and August.  However, in the desert, summer days can climb to 100+° which is way too hot, especially when living in an 8×12 foot camper with no electricity.

So I am, once again, keeping a closer eye on the weather.  Last week’s highs were ideal around 75° with predictions by the end of this week pushing 90°.  Add 5-10° inside the camper.  Can’t do that to Sierra.  So I’m thinking about further north and higher elevation.

Beavertail Cactus

I also need to be thinking of a different way to provide power to my my phone and laptop.  I’ve had a system that mostly works using an inverter off the truck’s powerpoint for a limited amount of time before running the engine for 20-30 minutes.  But the truck batteries won’t keep up with the drain and minimal idle charge.  I’ve had to use the jumper to start the truck a couple times recently.

Taking a drive helps charge the truck batteries but I don’t like or need to go anywhere everyday.  Once a week shopping is almost more than I can handle.  With town only 20 minutes away it seems store runs should be a quick there and back.  Instead chore day feels like a full day of work. Last week that included getting both propane tanks as full as they will, not full, 5 gallons for $10 at B&B pretty much lasts two weeks. North Ranch RV Park to dump tanks, fill ten gallon jugs and drop garbage for $2.50. On to Wickenburg for two pieces of mail I could have lived without, most of the groceries on my list, and two loads of laundry done.

Curve-Billed Thrasher

All you Apple and ‘I’ people can skip this paragraph.  The Windows folks will understand.  Windows 10 on my laptop started warning me when an update was getting ready to happen and I finally figured out how to put it off, at least for a little while.  Right now I have limited time on the computer because I have to keep it charged via the truck.  Whenever there’s an update I have to waste all kinds of time getting settings back and drivers found.  OK, rant over, kind of.

Adjusted a power setting on the laptop that I hope stops that battery from being drained when the computer is off.  At night I shut it down at 93% and in the morning its battery was too dead to start without being plugged in for recharge.  So I went out to start the truck, and no go. I put the jumper on it and no go. I unhook and re-clamp the jumper and yea it starts. It’s only been two days since driving to Wickenburg and back so seems the truck battery should be well charged. Of course I leave it running. I’ve got questions about this whole electrical thing, and need to do more than idle the engine for charge, so I batten down and head to B&B just down the road. The way I understand it is, unlike the house/camper battery, the truck batteries are not meant to drain and recharge like I do. Why don’t I have batteries that will do that? Price? There could be a dead cell in the battery and Napa could check that and replace if necessary, possibly free as it’s a 75 month battery that I bought in Oct.  I left my jumper plugged in at the B&B office as it was getting low.  I really didn’t want to go to Wickenburg again.

Evening Primrose

Stopped at Dollar Store and didn’t buy anything. Headed back to camp but turned around and drove up the Yarnell Hill to the old overlook turnaround and saw Primroses, Asters, Marigolds, and something else blooming behind the barbed wire fence that now blocks both sides of private land where I used to shoot the sunset.  Back down the hill with lots of flowers along the road.

Just closing the gate, not breaking in

I’m getting tired of fighting it. Whatever it is.  Don’t like having to ration my power usage so much. Seems I make enough power from solar to make this work. If I understood all that better.  Yes, I could learn, but have the I-don’t-wannas.  The solar controller doesn’t seem to work any more to tell me the Amp, Watts, and Battery voltage.  I contacted the company and they are sending a new one.

The next day I retrieved the charged jumper from B&B.  Neighbor Jerry, and a couple other guys, were selling fleamarket style along the road so I stopped. Jerry told me there was free food at the fire station where I got oranges, snackbars, mushrooms, cucumber, and tomatoes.  Came back to the market and pulled out my tiny table and put some jewelry on it. Then sat and chatted with Jerry, at a respectful distance, all afternoon. I didn’t sell a thing and didn’t expect to.  98% of the shoppers were grizzly ole men, no offense.  Was a good way to spend the afternoon.

Joann came by the next day and we walked to, and in, the cemetery.

Nice cloud shadows in the afternoon.

And the sun set on another beautiful day.

Then the next day feels the same as yesterday, and all those days before, for way too many months.  Day 48 for me on this 50th Earth Day.  Spent quite a bit of the day reading, some outside when I could get out of the wind.  Although wind helps keep warm temps tolerable I personally find wind aggravating.  Besides, in this part of the desert there is Valley Fever, an infection from coccidioides fungus found in the soil.

Neighbor Jerry brought over fried cactus pad. Kind of slimy like okra but tastes OK.  He used to be a “Mountain Man” in Idaho so understands living off the land.  Good thing, as he’s considering staying here this summer.

Had to jump start the truck two days in a row so felt the need to have the batteries checked out and tested.  Oh boy, another trip to Wickenburg.  Of course, after the 20 minute drive at 60mph they were both fine and up to snuff.  Picked up more unnecessary mail, fuel, and a few groceries then back to my Congress camp for at least a few more days.

With April coming to an end and summer coming to the desert I really do need to think about where I’m headed next.  Still have a May 3rd start date at Bryce, unless that changes again.