Dessert

I said I was going to cook more. This is the first product of the oven. I'd read that RV ovens take a lonooog time to come to temperature, but this was pretty quick. 

Another day here and then a short drive over to Leasburg Dam state park for a couple of days. Water!

 C

Outside Deming, New Mexico

Rockhound State Park. Arrived at noon. All sites with electric were full. So I'm boondocking. No charge cuz I have a NM annual pass. 

It's a more than pleasant quiet place.  My neighbor is from Colorado. He has a giant white fluff ball of a dog named. Moose. 

Gonna be chilly tonight!

Outtahere tomorrow!

I'm almost done packing things and putting them in the rig. Maybe it's just because the weather is so pleasant, but I'm actually enjoying this getting-ready-to-go process. I'm experimenting with sleeping arrangements this trip: the couch isn't long enough for me to stretch out, but since I never sleep that way, perhaps this is worth a shot. The area over the cab is biggest, but climbing up and down is a nuisance. I've been converting the "dinette" into a sleeping area, which is comfortable and doesn't involve climbing around. But it does involve some awkward fiddling with the table and benches.  We'll see.

Headed out ...

I don't think the flowers will look like this just yet ... 

At last.  Headed first for Rockhound State Park near Deming, leaving Tuesday. I only have a week or so right now, so I may just hunker down there for a few days and collect rocks. (They let you!)   There's a couple more NM state parks nearby: one is down near the border: Pancho Villa, and the other I've been to before, City of Rocks.  Pancho Villa looks and sounds pretty unattractive; I guess the major appeal is that it's 3 miles from the border and walking across and back is simple and fast.  City of Rocks is cool!

I have my bright shiny new New Mexico state parks sticker, which means that I can dry camp for "free" at any of the NM parks, and a site with electricity is $4.  These parks are all part of the NM online reservation system, but only a fraction of the RV sites are available through the system.  The rest are all first-come-first-served. I talked to the manager at Rockhound, and he said it's a busy time of year for them. I plan to arrive about mid-day, and in the worst case I'll spend one night in a "dry" site and then move over to one with electricity.  If I want.  It's sunny and warm over there right now, just like it is here in Tucson, so the little solar panel will probably do a good job of keeping the lights on and the electronics humming.

Image lifted from Bucks' web site

The Beast went in to Buck's for an oil change and general pre-trip checkover.  The big bad news is it needs new ball joints before longer trips this summer.

Cost at Buck's will be about $1000, and then an alignment at one of the few places in Tucson that can do alignments for RV's.  Oh, well: what are income tax refunds for, anyway?

It's things like this that make me glad I have a mechanic I trust. I've said it before: these guys have been in business here for years and years.  They have a solid reputation, and I trust that when they say something needs doing, I do it.  This piece of maintenance should help me get more miles on the tires: I'm expecting that a new set of tires will be one of the major expenses in the next couple years. Yeah, ouch!

I've been making lists.  Actually, making up a whole sheaf of departure checklists, so I can avoid forgetting something.  Yeah, right.  Well, it's been a way to amuse myself while I wait for a long enough stretch of free time to get away.

Next bulletin should be from over there.  And I'll tell you what I forgot.

2016!

Looking ahead to 2016:

-- Explore New Mexico.  Get an annual pass to NM state parks. New Mexico is close: I can get to interesting places in a day or two.  It has varied terrain, from desert to mountains. It has a couple of interesting cities. And (gasp!) there's all of Texas just next door.

-- Stay longer in places.  I met a guy from Canada last summer at City of Rocks who was staying there for a couple of weeks, which I think is the maximum stay at a NM state park. He was catching up on his reading and going for walks: he's a murder mystery fan. The shift is to think about this as living, rather than traveling. Last summer I stayed for a couple of says at a resort-style RV park in Moab.  It was pretty nice, but I'm not drawn to swimming pools and playgrounds. All I need is the basics: nice scenery, a level place to park, reasonable quiet and privacy, and electricity. The electricity is optional if there's sun for the solar panel, but it sure makes things simpler.  One of the blogs I read regularly is written by a woman about full-time travel in a biggish Class A with a toad.  They make a point of short travel days... much shorter than I've been doing.

-- Fix more real meals. What I've been doing is more like picnicking.  I always forget that the Beast has an oven. I could bake things. Make casseroles.  If there's electricity or I feel OK with using the generator there's the microwave. I almost always have the time; I have a fully-functioning kitchen.  I do need to rethink outdoor cooking: the little gas BBQ unit I bought is seriously underpowered.

-- Examine my fears of towing.  The Hyundai is small enough to be towed without straining the Beast, although I can think of routes (the Salt River canyon comes to mind) where I'd be slowed down to a noisy, expensive crawl.  And the thought of driving through, say, Albuquerque traffic with a vehicle in tow is pretty damn scary.  A tow rig is a serious investment, so it's not something I can do casually.  I think this also involves figuring out better visibility, particularly on the passenger side. Having a vehicle to explore while leaving the rig parked elsewhere is an attractive idea.

-- If I can find some experienced people to show me how it's done, I'd like to explore into Mexico.  The reading materials I've found about how to travel there are confusing and contradictory.  I'd like someone to take me by the hand and show me how to deal with legalities and customs. This time of year, it's the only warm place I can get to easily.  The crowds of Quartzite and vicinity do not appeal to me, but maybe it's not as bad as I think.

-- I'd like to make up some checklists so I don't forget to do things before, during, and after trips.  More than a year ago, I pretty much know what works for me.  Writing it down to refer to as I go would help, and that's a project I can do here while waiting for weather and opportunity to get on the road.  Maybe a binder of these, and laminate them so they last from trip to trip.

I'll just leave this right here ...

This is a satellite photo of the Venture Out RV resort in Mesa, Arizona.

It has everything.  About $900 a month in the winter.  Not my "RV lifestyle" but I see the appeal.   The image was used as album art by Modest Mouse.

Winter

Good thing I didn't follow through on the idea of going over to New Mexico between  Christmas and New Years.  Blizzard over there!

Back home, I'm about done with my "insurance" project of preparing for the necessity of changing a tire on the road.  My latest project has had to do with winter storage and travel.  It's not Minnesota, but it seems like a good idea to do some degree of cold-proofing the Beast when it's stored here in Tucson. I want to be able to freeze-proof the rig quickly, and put it back in service easily when I want to hit the road.  Here's what makes sense.

• Turn off water pump.
• Drain the fresh-water storage tank.
• Drain the hot water heater unless it was already empty. 
• Put the hot water heater plumbing in "bypass" mode.
• Connect air compressor to external water input using a "blow out" adapter. Limit air pressure to 25-30 psi.
• One by one, open faucets and let the air pressure force water out of the lines: kitchen, bathroom sink, bathtub/shower, external "shower." 
• Drain holding tanks.
• Pour a cup or so of RV antifreeze (non-toxic; pink) into each drain for the P-traps.  Pour a larger amount into one drain so it goes through the trap into the grey holding tank. Pour some antifreeze into the black tank via the toilet, mostly to keep the seals from drying out.

That sounds elaborate, I grant you.  It involves a short trip to the nearby (free) dump station.  And the drain on the fresh water tank is currently painfully slow: it uses a very small-diameter rubber tube.  If the tank was full it would take well over an hour (I did this last year). So:  I'm going to ask the good folks at Merrigan's to put in a larger-diameter drain pipe.

To undo all this, I need to put some water in the fresh water tank: enough for washing and flushing and that's all.  Then I turn the pump on and "burp" the various water lines.  I may or may not put the water heater back on line.

Once I get the routines down, and assuming I can drain the fresh water tank in a more reasonable time, I'm guessing each of these procedures will take about an hour.  Maybe less.

I actually enjoy figuring things like this out!