Here and There

Picket Post Falls

“About time to update the blog. When we left it we were over near Superior at Picket Post mountain enjoying that beautiful spot while Brenda was undergoing her Scrambler Therapy treatments in Gold Canyon. They reduce her nerve pain, although they do nothing to deal with the muscle or deeper bone pain. Better than nothing I know. 

We enjoyed our time chilling in the desert there and other than trips to town for those appointments we just hung out. I have never, nor am I going to start to spend a lot of time in my blog, telling you about my morning coffee, I don’t drink it anyway, or the regular things that happen every single day. I like to stick with those things that are of interest to our friends and readers and to tell the truth we are not doing a whole lot of them. I like to throw a few photos that I deem worthy of sharing in here and I apologize if you are a follower of mine on Facebook, they are probably repeats. I find my own journal to satisfy all my cravings to ramble on about my daily mumblings.

Once we pulled out of Picket Post we headed over towards Thunderbird Farms to visit our friends the McMeekins, Trish and Lorrie, and empty out their entry of all our Amazon packages. We also managed to eat a little Mexican at Plaza Bonita as well as a couple of home cooked meals at the McMeekin Hacienda. Thanks for your hospitality Trish and Lorrie, it was great visiting with you and telling a few stories, all the gospel truth I might add. 

After leaving our old haunts we headed for Gila Bend and Holt’s Shell to fuel up, dump our tanks, fill with fresh water and propane before heading over to Quartzsite for the Grand Design Owners Rally in the desert south of town. This was our second appearance at this event, I always find the talks from Grand Design, suppliers and equipment manufacturers to be very informative.

Along the way we had bit the bullet and made the decision to upgrade our battery bank from 4-6V Lead Acid batteries to 4-12V Lithium batteries from Battle Born. They had them shipped to Quartzsite for us to pick up on the 13th. That started a major re-powering program led with the batteries and a new Victron Solar controller MPPT 150/60 and a battery monitor also from Victron, a BMV-712 with a temperature sensor added in. Along the way I upgraded a couple of cables from smaller wires to 2/0 cabling and moving wires to make sure the shunt actually was able to log accurate information. Learned a lot along the way, and got a lot of help from Jim Hinkle, a fellow Grand Design owner, Battle Born Batteries, and the manufacturer of our inverter/charger Go Power. They all had good tips and as of this writing we are on the verge of saying we have a working system. Update: two days of testing with or without the generator all seems to be working as advertised now.

Once we got done with the re-powering and the rally we moved on to our old favourite spot near Bouse with a stop at Satellite Advantage in Quartzsite where we had an upgrade installed in our Winegard dish that enables us to automatically locate the Shaw satellites. They had made some changes over the summer that made older dishes like ours unable to do that. 20 minutes of work, and a pocket full of money and it is all good. Along with that change Shaw was moving channels around amongst their three satellites, one of which has no coverage down here in the sunbelt, and it appears that one of my favourites has been shuffled out of range. Oh well.

Once we got settled in here we headed into Parker to get caught up with our laundry and restock the larder.”

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Life goes On

We pulled out of Ogilby Road and headed north to Blythe, California on Wednesday the 8th, and pointed our rig towards a gathering of Grand Design Coaches south of Quartzsite, Arizona. This was the fourth annual Grand Design Quartzsite Rally, our first, but probably not our last. It was a good time, great food and well organised. There were some great presentations from Bluestar and Battle Born Batteries as well as a Q&A session conducted by a couple of Grand Design roving techs.

Chris and Mike were really informative and Grand Design had sent them along with a couple of other guys, complete with their service trucks and trailers to make sure folks were looked after here. They caught up any recalls that were outstanding and then jumped in and fixed a lot of little things that folks had pointed out. In our case they replaced a couple of problematic wall plugs, and I know they changed furnaces, adjusted slides, etc for the folks around us. Customer service is a core value at Grand Design and this was the proof of the pudding. Thanks a lot guys.

Eventually there were 170 rigs in attendance. The red line is us.

 Those who know our habits know that crowded places are not our natural habitat, but this was a special occasion and well worth the crowd. Still had more space than most campgrounds we have visited.

And off to the East we had this view of the Kofa Mountains

Sun-up

As I said we arrived Wednesday and I left on Monday morning but before I left, Sunday night was a little bonfire. It must have been a hundred feet long and probably 3 feet tall. Almost brought a tear to my eye watching all that carbon being released to the atmosphere and not a carbon tax assessor in sight.

Now that's a bonfire!

Monday morning I went about packing up the rig and headed north to a little spot up near Bouse that we have been to many times in the past.

Attentive readers will notice that "we" arrived in Quartzsite and "I" left on Monday, well I didn't leave Brenda behind to tend that fire, early on Sunday morning I ran her over to Palm Springs and she flew home to get a broken ankle tended to. Although we carry all kinds of insurance to deal with those kind of emergencies here in the USA it seemed as if she would receive better and more timely care back north of the Medicine Line and that is proving to be true. She is hanging out with her sister, Cheryl, and things are progressing swimmingly on that front. Canadian Health Care Rocks.

I found our regular spot here unoccupied and got Dogpound Anywhere set up here to await the results of Brenda's treatment. If she is able to come back we will resume our adventures in the desert, if not the mutts and I might just have to make our way back to the Northern Ranges by ourselves, only time will tell.

Good thing we got here Monday and set up, Tuesday it rained cats and dogs and the washes here were running. We don't have to many neighbours in these parts but one of them is that legendary Wandering Willy and I do believe Tuesday morning I saw him out dipping a line in the crick flowing by our rigs looking for a Sonoran Salmon for dinner.

Today the weather has smartened up and I am enjoying the sound of the local hummingbird population buzzing my feeders and the fresh smell of a desert rainfall.

Sunrise this morning

What's Up

Since my last entry we have just been chilling here along Ogilby Road. The weather has not been the greatest, a little windy, a little cool, but the last couple of days it seems to have turned around and maybe winter along the Mexican border is almost over.

New Years Day we joined our friends from Dease Lake, Bill and Margaret at the Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Bill's birthday, he was a New Years baby way back in the middle of the great depression, so you do the math. That said he looks like he hasn't aged a day since we first met back 10 or 15 years ago.

The next day we had visitors out to rig, Skip and Jean are staying over in the Pilot Knob LTVA and ran over to chew the fat with us and see our new outfit. Hopefully we cross trails with them later in the winter again.

Then it was off to Mexico with Bill and Margaret, while Bill visited his dentist the rest of us wandered the town. Brenda got some puffers for Rebecca, and I got my Sunday go to meeting boots all polished up for Ryan and Lisa's wedding later in March this year. We stopped and grabbed some lunch at a pretty good little restaurant down there and then while the rest of them headed off to grab a spot in the line to cross back over the border I ran back and bought a bushel of shrimp from the Sea of Cortez. Despite Donny's threats the border was still open and we got back on the north side without issue.

Since then we have just hung out here and done the regular stuff like hitting the laundromat and Wally World to restock our larder. We needed to reprovision as we are heading towards Quartzsite tomorrow, we think, to join a group of folks who have rigs similar to ours for a little rally.

I have been hanging out shooting Hummingbirds and the odd sunrise.

A dogfight at the feeder

Tough little guys to catch sitting still

Sunrise over the Cargo Muchacho Mountains

Through the Old West

We pulled up the jacks, slid in the slides and racked the dish and headed out of Las Cruces this morning. We had a closet full of clean clothes and a full tank of fresh water, and bellies full of good food from La Posta down in Mesilla.

Maldito buen Mexicano

It was time to roll on west so we blew that pop stand and headed for the boondocks. We had to wander down I-10 for bit but soon we were off on the Old West Highway (70) running from Lordsburg up towards Safford and onto Superior where we knew a great spot to spend a few days decompressing from our trip across west Texas.

Old West Highway somewhere southeast of Safford

The Old West Highway is a two lane lightly traveled road that traverses some pretty nice country between Lordsburg and Globe crossing the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation along the way. Most of our drive today was done under cloudy skies and even the odd rain shower and even though rain is not one of our favourite weather patterns, it was hard not to think of the smiles on the faces of all the cowmen along this highway as that rain nourished the landscape.

We are in a familiar spot near Picket Post mountain and will spend a few days here before moving on further west. Where, who knows, like all RV'ers our plans are written on jello and other than a few folks we want to connect with along the way we don't really have any plan other than to enjoy the winter here south of the snow line.

A panoramic view from our spot

 This two pictures give you an idea of the view from our lawn chairs and probably a good idea of why we keep returning. Till next time, stay tuned.

Now that's Solitude

River Walking

We have enjoyed a week with our old friends Deb and Rod Kendall, ate at some great restaurants, told a lot of stories and re-lived some good times we have had in the past. We had a great Country Fried Steak at the 54 Street Grill & Bar, probably the best we have ever eaten. Everyone else had leftovers to take home, but I must have got a small portion cause my plate looked like I had licked it clean by the time we were leaving. Almost had to order another one just so I would have a doggy bag.

Last night we headed off to San Antonio's big attraction the Riverwalk to have a look around and once again fill our bellies. It is always nice to enjoy a stroll along this tourist spot in downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio Riverwalk

All good things have to come to an end and today we bid farewell to Rod and Deb and hit the road. We had a plan to scout out a new boondocking site we had heard about over on the Gulf of Mexico. This spot called Magnolia Beach has a beach hard enough for the biggest of rigs to find a waterfront spot. Although it looks like we are pretty near in the water we are probably 20-30 feet away and about 3 feet above the sea level when we got here. For the first time in our RVing life I consulted the tide tables and it seems like tomorrow at 4:19AM will be high tide and it should only be about a foot higher than it is right now so we should be OK.

Magnolia Beach

But just in case anything happens this lady is passing by and can probably throw us a rope. Stay tuned.

The Linda Taylor

Texas Road Trip

We left Las Cruces to begin our journey across the "vast wasteland" of West Texas, it is beautiful in its own stark way, stunning vistas, and the best part, not many folks cluttering up the landscape. As we moved farther east we started seeing lots of oil patch activity, every RV park jammed full of working folks rigs and every service companies yard with a few rigs set up there. Rumours has it they can even get pipelines built in this country without it being a ten year process doomed to failure.

We got to Ozona, Texas and tried to get into the local RV Parks but as I said they were jammed full of working stiffs so we headed just east of town to the Circle Bar Truck Stop. We found a spot there away over in a corner, out of the way and got set up. The place was empty when we arrived but by the middle of the night we were joined by about 50 purring Cats, all keeping their drivers warm while they slept away the night. Brenda had a hard time sleeping but my old camp habits kicked in and I slept like a baby. If I just had of had a few guys slamming doors it would have been perfect. Not many places have 50 odd white noise machines to help you drift off.

We got going yesterday morning and headed for our penultimate destination, the Blazing Star RV Park in San Antonio, where we are going to spend a week or so visiting with our friends Deb and Rod Kendall. They have come by Dogpound North a couple of times on their triennial visits to the Salmon streams of Alaska so it was time we returned the pleasure. We spent the afternoon chewing the fat and then headed out to one of their favourite Mexican restaurants in the area, Las Palapas Alamo Ranch, for some good Mexican food. Always good breaking bread with old friends, and even better if you can score a whole bag of bunuelos on the way out of the restaurant. But now it is time for me to wander off and find myself a feed of Huevos Rancheros or maybe just another couple of the bunuelos. Stay tuned.

Migrating

Last week we finished up all our doctor and dentist appointments. Brenda is sporting new choppers and the implants are working great or so it is reported. Over the last week we had been hauling stuff out to the RV, loading things we needed and unloading things we didn't. Wednesday was the big move day for Brenda's clothes and the remainders of our fridge stuff.

Thursday we woke up early, finished loading and then got hooked up and headed south. We had no destination in mind but were just playing it by ear. We stopped in Nanton for breakfast and a good visit with our old friend Van Greig, before continuing on towards the border. A few questions at the border, where are you going, how long are you staying, how much money do you have with you, are you sure that is enough to last the winter, and we were headed south out of Sweetgrass, Montana. We decided because it was cold we would overnight at Dick's RV Park in Great Falls and continue in the morning. Just yesterday I was reading a Technomadia Facebook post about the new Verizon pre-paid jet pack. It is a truly unlimited device and is only throttled if you get in a crowded area, not our usual habitat, so I ran out and signed us up. It is about $65-$70 dollars a month, considerably less than the $220/month that Telus charges us for only 40GB. Hope it works out, but so far it is doing yeoman's duty here onboard Dogpound Anywhere (DPA).

Friday we were up early and on the road before the sun brightened our journey up the Missouri River valley and then south to those flatlands of southern Idaho. We hit Salt Lake City right at rush hour and a little construction caused some slow going for a while. We holed up for the night at Cabela's in Lehi, it was a little warmer there in Utah. Sadly Cabela's big parking lot that used to harbour a few RV's has been taken over by a new building and it looks like that is coming to an end. Luckily I spotted the construction superintendent and convinced him that we would be decent security for the night so we had one last night in this familiar stopping place.

Again, we were on the road before daylight and headed for the desert. I always look forward to the slide down the hill from the high desert of Southern Utah and through the Virgin River Gorge to the Mohave Desert surrounding Las Vegas. Usually there is a dramatic temperature increase as you make that journey but this year it was only 10F degrees difference. Still warmer is good. We made it to Wikiup and stayed at Dazzo's campground, the campground was ok for what we wanted, to water up and flush out some antifreeze, but it was not Brenda's cup of tea. BUT, the restaurant, was great, the wait staff a little ranchey, but the food was second to none.

Sunday we slept in, till sun-up, topped those tanks that needed topping, flushed the rest and then headed down the road again. We stopped by our friends, K&T's place for a short visit and swapped a few lies before heading on to our final destination for this part of the journey here at Picket Post. This mountain is one of our favourite spots to hole up when we are in the Phoenix area.

Picket Post Mountain

We had scheduled some Scrambler Therapy (Calmare) for Brenda and her CRPS, on Monday but as we were pulling into the parking lot the doc called and had to delay it till tomorrow. She is booked for three days of therapy so hopefully that will push her nerve pain away for awhile.

With our therapy session cancelled we headed over to Walmart for some supplies, and then back to camp for the day. A long way from home you will never guess who came to our camp for a visit.

Libby

Ken and Verna Pohl, along with Vic and Marilou, stopped in for a couple of days riding here on their way to the South Pohl.

I'll leave you with one last pic of our rig in front of the mountain.

Dogpound Anywhere (DPA)

Speaking of Flying Time

Holy Smokes, our last post was way back in early March and we were still hanging just north of Las Vegas. As I mentioned then we were heading north the next day and that is exactly what we did, the first night we stayed in an old favourite spot enjoying the hospitality of the Shoshone Bannock folks near Fort Hall, Idaho. The next day we stopped for groceries in Helena and then headed for the border and stayed at the little campground just on the south side of Milk River, Alberta. The border crossing was uneventful and we just cruised right through it.

The next day we headed for Dogpound North early, so that we arrived home on the frost. That probably helped a little but there was a pile of snow and we had a tough day of it getting our big rig off the road and parked. We were stuck a couple of times and luckily our old dually was behind us so we were able to get ourselves extracted from the snow banks. Lots of snow here this spring.

We had a little snow around these parts

But it does make for pretty pictures

 As I said before the old John Deere was not doing well so I had a neighbour who has a small contracting firm come up and move enough snow around to enable us to get the rig hooked back up and taken in to get some warranty work done on it near the end of March. The snow lasted well into April so we just hunkered down and stayed warm. Well, that and I resumed swimming, a few days a week.

May came and went, Brenda and her girls headed to Vegas on the long weekend for a little girl time and then towards the end of the month we ran up to Alliance to an old friends daughters graduation. It was a great time, although hard to believe that Jessika is all grown up now.

A few of the folks who were there to celebrate Jessika's Grad.

The snow eventually left and summer came.

June came and went in a flash, only one thing of note I guess. Those of you who have seen us over the last year or so know that we were pulling a Road Warrior toyhauler and after we sold our Dogpound South spot it became our winter home. Brenda found it an uncomfortable rig for her and I won't bore you with its shortcomings so we started looking at another camper for this upcoming winter. Late in June we closed a deal on a Grand Design 384GK so we now have a new home to move south when the time comes.

New Rig Grand Design Solitude 384GK

We have had a busy July, beginning with the long weekend when Brenda's Sister/Friend Cheryl and one of her daughters came and camped at Dogpound North for the weekend. That was followed by a visit from some of our Arizona riding friends who had been touring the Rockies, riding and camping. There were four living quarters trailers with 3 mules, 5 horses, a miniature donkey, a mini horse, 7 dogs, 3 cats and 7 folks. We enjoyed visiting with them and took the opportunity to show them a little bit of our part of Alberta, both Peyto Lake and Lake Louise, must sees for first time visitors to Canada and Dogpound North. Then we had the Bryden kids campout, an annual gathering of Becky and Lacey's cousins and a few others. That had, I think 7 campers, with 14 adults and 10 or so kids, so our population here at Dogpound North has consistently been higher than downtown Dogpound itself.

Brenda has been troubled with a spinal issue that flares up her CRPS and her doctor sent her for Cortisone shots hoping to get some relief. Not successful.

We decided we needed to get our new rig out and give it a little shakedown so we headed west to Preachers Point to try it out. It was pretty busy out there, busier than I have ever seen it before, but I guess it is mid-summer and the week before a long weekend to boot so probably no surprise to others.

Just a little down the road from Preachers Point

For August I spent a couple of days helping get our hay put up but that is all the excitement we have had so far.

Time is flying by, here it is mid September and I thought I should get this entry up to date, our new rig is in the shop, getting a few things fixed. That is pretty common with new outfits, whatever the brand, it seems like you need to spend the first year ironing out all the bugs. This time it is getting a few things that were identified on the walk through completed. And one that we found on our shakedown cruise. With about 500 kilometers on it I noticed the braking action was not what it should be. Normally on our truck, trailer brakes run at around 7.0 to 7.5 on the controller, that gives us as much braking effect as we can get without locking up the wheels on the pavement. On our return from Preachers Point I had to crank it up to 10.5 or 11.0 to get any braking at all, and even then it was nowhere near where I like it to be. This is not an uncommon issue on these rigs it appears that the seals occasionally let grease through and it coats the brake drums and shoes. Kind of defeats the purpose of applying the brakes. Grand Design is looking after it for us, but strangely they are sending the shoes and backing plates all the way from Indiana, guess they think that here in Alberta we are a remote and lonely place. I never like having the rig in the shop for extended visits but we aren't using it, nor were we planning to so this is a good time. I am sure they are working on it diligently though, as they know I am not a patient customer.

It has been a pretty smokey summer here at DPN what with most of British Columbia being on fire and us being downwind. It seems like we have not seen much blue sky around these parts although until a week or two ago it was warm enough. We could sure use a little moisture though, our hay is all in but it would sure help next year.

Early on in this many month long journal entry I mentioned that our old John Deere was feeling poorly, well, the diagnosis is she is dead, needs basically a new engine and John Deere tells me they are obsolete. Hard to believe that they don't stock 50-60 year old engines. That led us on a search for a new engine here and we found that down the road in the form of an International 1086. It is a much bigger tractor than the old 4020 much more horsepower although I am not sure we needed anymore. It does have a cab and I am sure Matt will find that and it's accompanying heater a bonus on his road clearing and horse feeding chores this winter. It is a little taller though and doesn't fit in our barn, but so far we have been keeping it in the Quonset Hut and hopefully with a little rearranging we will still be able to fit everything under cover.

Our new Cornbinder