Today’s the day that Dylan was
telling me about...it’s his and Clayton’s birthday! A big 5 years old! Since we usually aren’t available for the
kids/grandkiddos birthdays Kim and I usually make a video of us singing happy
birthday. If nothing else it’s usually good for a laugh. Anyway we waited until we reached our
Quartzsite destination before recording their song this year.
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When we left Payson this morning
it was sunny, in the low 40s, with little wind.
Our route was almost all downhill to some degree until we reached the
Phoenix area. We were watching the temperature go up as we were coming down the
mountain...saw it top out at 70o.
Roasty, toasty warm in the cab of the truck.
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We modified our plans somewhat
from when we left our driveway. We have
reservations in Picacho starting March 1st....left the snow earlier
this year with the intention to try a few days of dry camping (a.k.a. boondocking)
in Quartzsite before heading back to Picacho. We're still heading to Quartzsite; it’s just that boondocking (rustic camping/no facilities) might be put on the back burner. I’m typing this as we’re rolling westward and
we’re still discussing our options. No
absolute decisions made yet but if we don’t boondock this time, I’m sure there
will be other opportunities.
Last spring we bought a 26 ft.
toy hauler for the sole purpose of having a less bohemian camping experience
yet still be able to haul the bikes.
Goodbye bike trailer with the bucket in the corner. 😏 Anyway, in theory it should be as easy as
securing the couches out of the way and loading the bikes...tie down rings are
already in place. The reality of it is
that one bike was no problem but two bikes was a tighter fit and had to be
worked like a puzzle. Once Kim figured
out the best placement, the front wheel chocks were attached to boards which were
then cut to fit snugly in their respective places. Both boards can be removed after the bikes
are removed. But in order to make both
bikes fit, Kim had to remove the trunk and saddlebags from his bike. Saddlebags were easy peasy to remove...trunk not
so much. Due to taking our time getting
out here we’ll only have 4 days in Quartzsite before moving on to Picacho.
Because it’s heavy and was kind
of a pain to remove the first time, Kim isn’t looking forward to putting the
trunk on today and taking it off in 3 days. I asked why he even had to put the
trunk on since the backrest isn’t needed until my mom gets here and then that’s
only if she wants to ride. Couldn’t it
be left off until then? For back rest
purposes, no, the trunk doesn’t need to go on but to be legal it does need to
be on...Flame’s license plate is mounted on the trunk. Well,
that’s an inconvenient design flaw. So it’s apparent the on again, off
again thing will need to happen regardless of where we stay.
We used the trailer several times
last summer but they were short stints where we didn’t spend much time in or
around it and we didn’t have the bikes on board. What that means is that we haven’t yet
established a routine of setting up life in this trailer in general, let alone
with the bikes. They have to come out
first before anything else can be done and that’s usually Kim’s job. With the bike trailer we had it down
pat...each of knew exactly what our jobs were for making it a home and then
making it back into a bike trailer.
Shouldn’t be too tough to figure out but I have a feeling it’ll be more
work on Kim’s part than it will on mine.
This’ll be our first major camping experience with this trailer and
we’ll have to work out all the ‘bugs’ we encounter....a campground
just might be the best place to do that.
Dry camping would be a new
experience all the way around and not knowing the layout of the area makes it
feel a little more intimidating. There
are designated areas and then there’s just open desert where we’ve seen people
camping. We wouldn’t want to be taking
the bikes through a bunch of sand to get to the road so there’s that to
consider when finding a location. And it makes no sense to unload and set up
camp in a campground for one night then load everything back up to move onto
boondocking for 3 nights. Set up once and take down once. So we’ll check out the lay of the land, both
literally and figuratively, when we get there.
(Typing this out has helped me process the situation...it’s like talking
to myself and is enabling me to be okay with whatever we decide...meaning I
won’t pout if we don’t boondock.😊 )
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Well, we certainly encountered
some ‘bugs’ while setting up camp. Decided to head to the campground we stayed in
a couple of years ago...B-10 RV Park. Quartzsite still has a good population of
RVs in and around town; this campground is located on the main drag but is
sparsely populated right now...just the way we like it. The bikes came out okay...their
batteries are dead but that’s fixable.
Then Kim went up front to lower the trailer jack; he called to me to
come see what happened: The jack is down but at a slight angle, not straight as
it should be. When I asked how that
happened, Kim said, “It happened because the previous owner was a
jack-ass.” Okay, that answers that! Kim explained how the guy didn’t like where
it was so he moved it but that made it ride lower...apparently it caught the
road on one of the many bumps we hit and canted slightly backwards.
One of my super powers is getting
anxious about mechanical things that don’t behave when we’re far from home and one
of Kim’s super powers is figuring out how to fix said mechanical things. He rigged up a fix for the trailer jack but
it’s only temporary. Still more work to be done to make it a permanent fix. Then he started hooking up the water, electric
and dump hose. Everything was going good
until I heard a weird noise and noticed water on the bathroom floor...toilet was
leaking. Quick go out and turn off the water! Kim started poking around to see what the
problem might be and at an appropriate moment I said, “What do you think about
getting something to eat and then coming back to problem solve?” That’s a great idea! And off we went
in search of food.
Over a very late lunch/early
supper we talked about what might be the issue and stopped at an RV parts store
on the way back to camp to buy a part.
Hopefully this fixes the problem....if not we’ll just be using the camp
bathroom. Next year we’ll have to
winterize a little differently.
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I just heard Flame roar to life
so there’s one battery charged...now to get Zeus going. And, while putting the trunk back on took
both of us lining things up on either side of the bike, it didn’t seem to be too
difficult. Kim was able to secure it in
place while I braced it and then he hooked up all the electrical
connections. We can do this!
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Zeus was a little more stubborn
than Flame but I just heard him come to life also. So we’re good to go on the bikes, we’ve got a
functional toilet and the trailer is stabilized. Life is good!
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Baking
the Pie Town apple pie we’ve had stashed in the freezer is just the perfect way
to check out the performance of the oven. ~~ Forty-five minutes
later a homemade apple pie is ready to eat. Now we know the oven works, too. Life is really good! 😋
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| Wednesday's route |
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