Author: The Buchanans Rolling Down The Road

What can be said, about a crusty old curmudgeon, with no fixed address … not much I guess.

Day 2316

Monday February 5th 2024

Dear Journal:

We woke this morning on BLM land just off of Plamosa Road about six miles north of Quartzsite. It was dark when we pulled in last night I knew there was a van parked just a hundred feet to our left, but no one can run a generator at night on BLM land so it was a quiet night. The occasional vehicle on Plamosa Road but we were far enough from AZ-95 that there was little or no road noise. We slept well, and as much as the forecast is for rain the sunrise this morning reminded me why I love the Arizona desert. We had just pulled in and parked, no jacks so no leveling, we closed the privacy curtain but nothing else, no slide just one easy quiet night. The news this morning showed a major weather event still moving our way, which we knew but had reservations so would just make the best of it.

Some fresh perked coffee and yes even on a driving morning there was a wee Irish blessing in my cup this morning, again a light breakfast this morning as we catch up on the news and get to see the next few days forecast, before we carefully back Thunder out of our boondocking spot, Again we are travelling light today with no towed, I will stop and get some diesel fuel in Quartzsite this morning, we noticed some good prices last night when we turned off of the Interstate.

Refueling was a pain in the butt this morning the fuel stop was a branch of the Pilot fuel company, they were understaffed, and the staff there was poor at best, when fueling it is often necessary to prepay for fuel it means walking in to the cashier, having the pump turned on with a preset amount and walking back out to the pump to actually do the fueling. But today I did as normal but found the pump quit after a few gallons, so I walked back in, and stood in line again to have the cashier tell me to “try it again“, no explanation, no sorry just arrogance, so I walked back out to find the pump working, just a couple of words would have been so much nicer!

Refueled and California bound, Quartzsite is located less than twenty miles from the state line, and of course there is an agriculture check station immediately over the state line. I’m not sure what actually they are checking for at these agriculture stops, every vehicle has to stop. We have never been asked a question in six years of travel, so it appears to me to be a “make work project” just another government waste from our point of view.

As we roll along Interstate I-10 we start to gently gain elevation as we climb up toward the Joshua Tree National Park before driving down into the bowl that is home to Palm Springs which is below sea level. This area of California is covered with lots of springs some cold others hot, the campground we are going to has many pools of hot spring water with various temperatures. Our arrival instructions from the campground just happen to match the route that Navi had planned out and we pulled into the campground at noon. There was an issue with the gate code keypad but someone helped us out with entering a code into a lower pad, we followed an orange line as instructed to the office where we were assigned a campsite.

The journey to our site from the office while short in distance but had two very sharp turns for a forty foot long coach, and neither could be made without becoming multipoint turns, once turns are more than 90º it becomes a task of epic portion. The site was tight and not the ezeist to maneuver around a palm tree in the front corner but once backing into the site the site was level. I plugged in the power but did not bother with either the water or sewer hookups as they were not handy at all.

Now you may be wondering why have we picked an RV resort in Caliante Springs California? Well there is a reason for our choice, this is where Mary & Julie have rented a park model for their winter snowbird getaway, and because they have lived in the Palm Springs area, they have offered to tour us around the area to see some of the sites. You may notice a little blue sky in the cloud cover, I’m sorry to report it never got any closer or bigger but we made the best of the weather.

We were only parked a few moments before Mary & Julie found us, their park model is on the other side of the park, but they have a rental car and have graciously offered to not only guide us around Palm Spring but to be our Uber as well. The decision was made to take in the tourist spots in downtown Palm Spring this afternoon and then a late lunch at one of Julies favorite restaurants, I found out later it was all about the margaritas. The decor of the restaurant was amazing, and while light rain kept many people away we wandered the main street and seen a number of tourist spots. What we had not planned on was some of the low lying roads being closed because of water, like many desert cities they just can not handle big rain storms because they nornally don’t get large quantities of rain. We made it back to the coach just at dark and we arranged to go over to Mary & Julies place after we had a chance to clean up and settle in to our new site.

Mary actually drove over to pick us up from our site because it was raining, but it is a short walk between our sites, Their unit is a one bedroom in the rear, with a kitchen in the middle and a table and chairs in the front, it has a covered porch which has been closed in and made into a living room. It is a small unit for a park model and it is showing its age, but comfortable enough as a winter snowbird get away, there is a par three golf course that weaves its way through the campground, lot of amenities, and located a few miles from stores and restaurants. We enjoyed some snacks, some wine and some great company, there was discussion of tomorrows adventure, and while we eliminated some because of the rain and the cloud cover, before we headed back to our coach a plan was made the Miss Laurie would cook omelets in the morning at Mary & Julies.

We returned to the coach but we were not long out of bed it had been a busy day with lots of adventures, and as much as we hated to eliminate some outside excursions, we can’t change what mother nature offers, and we have already seen many new things. And while tomorrows adventures are coming together, I was amazed at hoe much this area had to offer, looking forward to tomorrow already.

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Day 2315

Sunday February 4th 2024

Dear Journal:

It is a warm Sunday in February and we are busy in the admission booth, like real busy as both Laurie and I are pumping people through the line as quickly as possible, this would not normally be anything but great news, but we have another adventure planned for this week and it starts this afternoon. I’m hopping to be able to close out my ticket booth drawer by 3:00, then I will head back to Thunder, disconnect, and prepare to head out for our next adventure. If everything goes well I will pull Thunder into the Arboretum main parking lot and pick up Miss Laurie a few moments after 4:00 and we will be heading west.

Now you may be wondering where would we are going at four o’clock in the afternoon, as we have always avoided driving in the evening and especially after dark. In fact we have only driven Thunder three times in the dark and every time I have regretted that decision so what the hell was I thinking this time?

Well to be very honest this seemed like the best option to avoid stressing over a six hour drive. We are heading west into California, to Calente Springs RV resort, we have a three night reservation there to enjoy some of the California sights just north of Palm Springs. To get up early Monday morning and battle through Phoenix rush hour traffic did not sound like any fun. So we decided to try the Sunday afternoon traffic instead and our plan is to drive west on Interstate I-10 to the Quartzsite area and then just boondock over night and continue our drive into California on Monday morning. The Quartzsite area will be close to the halfway point of our journey, and we can have a nice leisurely morning and be at our reservation by noon for check in.

So lets talk about night driving. I have not enjoyed the last two night driving experiences in Thunder, in fact all our night time experiences have been unplanned and a result of some sort of circumstance that was beyond our control. November 2017 in Texas we had lost a hydraulic line and were getting a repair done that would make us late for a campground reservation in New Mexico, so I drove on Interstate I-10 in the dark to make up some lost time, at that time I was concerned how poor Thunder’s headlamps were, and said we would just avoid any night time driving. And we did avoid any night driving until September 2022 on Vancouver Island when we had been held up again at a repair shop making us late for a campground reservation two hours north of us on the Trans Canada Highway, we decided to drive at night to get to our campsite but Thunder’s headlamps were even worse than I had remembered, making this an hour long scary drive, again I said never again. But then just a couple of months later in Mexico our caravan ended up driving in the dark to get to a camping area after our original planned stop was full, it was now that I decided that I had to fix this headlamp issue once and for all.

When we made it back to Arizona in early 2023 I did the research needed to find the cause of the bad headlamps, and I discovered it was not a quick easy solution, but it was one that I could fix. First issue was that the tungsten head lamp bulbs were not getting high enough voltage, a common Beaver Motor Coach issue, the length of the power feed, the size of the cable, and a low voltage output alternator located about forty feet away from the bulb. Solutions were a new larger gauge power line, or a power relay on the existing wire, or replace the tungsten bulbs with high output LED headlight bulbs. I picked the LED bulbs as the lower voltage would not have any visual effect on them, so an Amazon order was placed and I moved on to the next part of the issue.

The second issue was that the plastic headlamp lenses were turning yellow, caused by oxidation from time and the sun, the headlamps were from a 1997 Ford product and replacement headlamps were going to be hard to locate and would be expensive and looked like a real bugger to change, so I decided to try sanding the surface of plastic lenses on the old headlamps. This process is inexpensive and other than some time and elbow grease should produce nice clear lenses again, so another Amazon order was placed for a sanding kit that will work with my power drill even saving me some elbow grease. The kit arrives and I sanded and polished the lenses till they were crystal clear, when the new LED bulbs land and I install them after having to order a couple of new lock rings, one of the old ones broke and the extra few bucks to make sure the LED bulbs were secure seemed a minor expense.

So now I have done all this work and while I’m sure they will be better, I had not driven at night with the new bulbs and newly polished lenses so tonight will be the deciding factor, I will either have an enjoyable drive west on Interstate I-10 or I will have over an hour of driving through hell, as we find also have to find our way out into the desert at Quartzsite. And the answer is the new bulbs and the polished headlamp lenses were a wonderful improvement. the visibility was sooooo much better, the light was white instead of yellow and as much as we are not planning to drive an night again, at least we know we can.

We took the ramp off of I-10 into Quartzsite, then turned north on AZ-95 and drove to Plamosa Road where we just took the first open boondocking spot just a few feet from the road, it is just an overnight spot and we will be gone in the morning. We found a level spot, closed the front curtain, Miss Laurie made us some dinner and we watched television until turning into bed just before ten o’clock.

Blog 510