Thursday, January 4, 2018

Turning the Corner, Moving Down the Road, Joining Our Friends

On Wednesday, Jan. 3rd I knew immediately that I had a much better sleep. A few times through the early morning hours I woke from dreams and realized that I had been sleeping soundly with hardly any coughing. Yes! Hand pumps in the air! Last night before crawling into bed, I slathered Vicks on the bottoms of my feet and slipped little lightweight socks on.
This was Clemson looking after me before going to bed on Tuesday night
I believe I had a couple of small bouts of coughing but nothing compared to the previous night and day. I knew I’d turned a corner with this cold. I was up out of bed at 7:30 and directly into the shower. That felt great and being it would be our last one with hook ups for a while, I made it last long and hot. As I got out and dried off, I heard Bill and Clem getting up too.

The sun is making an appearance
And there was a possibility for some clearing
Bill took my lead and had his shower right away too. With them out of the way and our bodies fresh as a daisy (!) we had breakfast. Bill opted for his cereal and I had a couple of pieces of toast and finished off the last of Rob and Pat’s homemade strawberry jam. Yum, maybe when I return their jar, I’ll get a refill! I really shouldn’t be so lazy and just make my own. Anyway, we enjoyed it.

It was time to pack up. Today was moving day. Not far, just 43 miles further west into California PT. Pilot Knob campground is in Winterhaven, Ca but they stay on MT since most of their guests travel back and forth to Yuma, Az. While Bill was in the shower, I did take a walk around the park one last time and it felt great to feel well enough to do that.
I hope someone else picks up where I left off instead of abandoning like I had to

If you remember from Bill’s post at clembillpat.blogspot.ca, he had ordered 2 fuses for our inverter from BlueSea. We knew they would be shipped by Dec. 27th but had no idea of when we’d receive them. The holidays mixed in there added to our concern that maybe they wouldn’t arrive until after we’d left Pilot Knob. I popped in this morning and thank goodness, the box arrived yesterday.

Yay, the parcel arrived just on time!
After saying our goodbyes to Roger and Sue, we were all hooked up and ready to pull out by 10 am. 
Roger and Sue were also getting ready to pull out
We were ready to pull out too
It was weird to leave our site at that time and arrive at our new destination in Holtville LTVA Hot Springs at 9:40 am. It was a nice easy drive, following Suzie in their car who was following George in their coach. 

And we got ourselves a mini convoy
Traffic was quite light this morning so a nice drive
We stopped at the gate and paid our $40 entrance fee for 2 weeks. This would get us into any LTVA up to 14 days so covers us for a time at Quatrzsite as well.


We had a bit of a challenge finding the best spot to park, it seemed quite congested in here, close to the Dryden group. We don’t want to be too close anyway as Bill is always concerned about our generator bothering nearby campers. I have long past stopped worrying about everybody else. There is the likelihood for boon dockers to use their Gennys in the evenings especially. It should be expected that some of us don’t have the quiet Yamaha or Honda brand.

Bill, Suzie and George sign up for 2 week passes
With that in mind and taking into consideration the pots of loose deep sand around some spots, we finally settled at the first spot I’d chosen. We are respectful of others and if we have to run the generator at night, it will always be shut down by 10 pm. I’m curious to see how many others are running Gennys tonight and maybe that will put Bill’s mind at ease. One day we’ll have a quiet generator too.

When the house moves, so does Clemson
He is getting better, not quite so fidgety when we pack up
We got everything set up by 11:30, even our solar panels tilted and the satellite dish set up. By this time, both Bill and I were feeling a bit drained. It has been a hectic morning. 
Bill tilts our panels

All set up
So, we sat and read for a bit and Bill dropped off into a doze. At noon, I was feeling peckish so heated up some chicken with rice soup for lunch.


I like mine with Saltines and then a few crackers on the side with butter and peanut butter. A clementine and some cheese filled the cracks. They just go together for me. Bill had his with a peanut butter and cheese sandwich on the side. Once we got dishes cleaned up I was able to get my post started. I felt that it was time to take a walk.

the road to more campsites goes way back
If we weren't with a group, this is where we'd go
So, Clemson and I set off. I can never call what we do when we take Clemmy out, a walk. It is everything but. As you know, they need to sniff, stop and lift a leg, pop a squat and then repeat, repeat, repeat. It isn’t enjoyable and maybe that is our fault from the very beginning. Not teaching him how to walk properly. Needless to say, we don’t walk for very long and I’m anxious to get back with him.

And the sky never improved BUT it was enough to charge our inverter
When I came back, we settled in our recliners with our books. The afternoon went by smoothly and it was about 4:15 or so when we heard Roland and Lori returning from their bike ride. That meant it must be Happy Hour. Neither of us was up to spending a lot of time sitting around with a group of people, but we didn’t want to be rude either. We took Clemson for a walk over to the gathering and chatted for half hour if that before coming back to start supper.

We've reached the age where we now share a large steak
Bill lit the barbecue and I had the steak and potatoes ready to grill. It feels like a nice evening, the wind has died down and the temperature is still resting around 67F at 5 pm PT. Lori has generously offered her unlimited wifi to me to download pictures and post to my blog so it will depend on how dark it gets when I’m ready to publish, whether I walk over to their rv to take advantage. I might wait until morning. But it is a very nice offer to help us save on our data usage for the month.


Just the right amount of food
This has been a good day. We’ve packed up, picked up and moved locations. When you consider we can stay in LTVA’s (long term visitor area) for 2 weeks for $40, that is less than $3/night. 
Now some pictures of our short drive today
The 4 engine train is for you Dad
I’m hoping that I can get into the Hot springs across the highway before we leave this time. We’ll see how it goes. 
The dunes are so interesting

Egypt? Me thinks not!
Tomorrow we have plans to go to El Centro in the morning so hoping we get another good night’s sleep!
And the All American Canal runs along Hwy 8
Supper turned out delicious. I steamed my asparagus inside and Bill grilled the steak, potatoes and his corn on the Weber. We had eaten by 5:45 and dishes were cleaned up by 6:15. We don’t dilly dally after a meal, I guess anxious to get on with the evening and our books.
I was amazed at the number of construction vehicles working on this
secondary E. Ewen Highway (I think it was called)
What a dirty job this driver had!
I prepared my pictures for this blog tonight and now it is morning and I bundled up and walked over to Lori’s rv. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find their router let alone connect so walked back and posted the blog at home. No worries, don’t fret Lori. I’m getting pretty good at posting it quickly now.

Crossing the canal means we are just a hop away from our LTVA
I hope you’ve had a good day and done things that you’ve wanted to do. Thank you for reading today. Feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!

12 comments:

  1. It was a nice short drive and we made it here in good time. Nice to catch up with everyone here again for a few days. and enjoy some more excellent weather and hopefully the hot spring as well.

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    1. let us know when you visit the hot springs, maybe we'll tag along. never done that yet.

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    2. Ok will do maybe tomorrow after noon if weather is good.

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  2. Glad you are settled in safely.
    We stayed at the very back with the sign saying "No camping beyond this point" nearly touching out trailer. You will probably hear the Warthogs flying Maneuvers more then the generators.
    Things are staring to fill in a bit at La Pasa South.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

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    1. thanks. I don't mind the generators as much as the barking dogs. We love the overhead traffic!

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  3. Glad to hear you are both feeling some better . LOL putting Vicks very well of help your cold . My mother and Rob‘s mother swore by putting Vicks on your feet and socks on I’m sure your mother thought the same . Sure was an old wives tale . anyway Hope you enjoy The new area . Nothing like a good steak for supper . Glad you enjoyed the strawberry jam. Rob said to tell you he will gladly fill that jar up .
    Not to worry about your generator I’m sure there will be lots of other noisy ones . Your generator did not disturb us last winter.
    Hugs to Clemson . Keep on feeling better . ��

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    1. thanks buddies!
      I'm sure Mom did that. I know my Dad loved his Vicks and always had a jar handy.
      Thanks Rob, I'll hold you to that one!
      I think you're right about the genny. Clemson returns the hugs.

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  4. Glad you are feeling better. I think the generator thing is more about the time that it runs not that it's running. First thing in the morning or last thing in the evening seems very reasonable to me. Those are common times when most people would have a need to run them. I find it most confusing/annoying when the same people run them at various times throughout the day for short periods at a time or all day long, and they don't appear to be running under load they just seem to be running. Boon dockers expect generators to run, without a doubt, to me it's how they are used, not that they are used.

    I've heard of the vicks on the feet before but not until I'd been down here in the USA.

    Glad the move went well. Enjoy your time there.

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    1. Thanks Deb. I agree totally with you about the generators. So far, we've had good charge in our batteries for our Keurig in the morning and haven't been watching tv at night here. In the Q, we'll definitely have it out and put it to use in the evening.
      We come here mainly because our friends are here, a little too congested for what we normally would choose in a boondocking spot.

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  5. I'm glad you explained that Pilot Knob stays on Arizona time, I was very confused when I read George's blog and he said they gained an hour. Glad to hear you are on the mend.

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    1. Ha ha, yes that would confuse you if you didn't know. :)
      thanks, the cold seems to be behind us now and we're getting ready to slam that door!

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  6. Nothing better than homemade jam especially when someone else makes it! I had an aunt that would send us home from Arkansas every summer with red plum jelly! OMG I can still taste it now! Glad you're on the mend, still take it easy. We drove through the hot springs last year, but was too congested for us, but looks like where you and Bill are not too bad.

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