Today is storm day, as I watched the weather last night on television it starts to make more sense why the excitement over a rain storm. The normal rain fall to this point in the year is near 7 inches but so far they have only had 3.1 inches, so the area is in need of the rain. Our forecast for today Tuesday high of 76 low of 62, chance of rain 40% at 10 o’clock this morning and gradually increasing to 100% by 10 o’clock tonight.

As I write this it 6 o’clock in the morning, temperature is 62 or 15 degrees the humidity is 22% and we have a 70% chance of rain. The problem with rain in the desert or even moreover the mountains, they do not absorb any of the moisture so it just runs off, about the same as it would off of asphalt, and the desert is so dry that can not get the benefit of the moisture, and it ends up rushing down the deep cuts through the desert called washes. We have not experienced the fury of a wash after a heavy rain but have seen the results and have been told about the power by those that have.

Well it’s 6:30 Tuesday evening and still no rain here, it has been pushed off till overnight, it is raining in Phoenix, and is major news. It has been 53 days since it rained last so to say it is needed is kind of an understatement, we have put most things away and are ready for the storm to hit, it has not been a good solar day and we are running our generator as I finish this blog. Today was just a catch-up day for me, bringing some of our paper work up to date, checking on the exchange rates and preparing for a couple of major purchases.

Day 777

It’s Monday morning at 5:30, temperature is 13 or 58 degrees, forecast is a high of 28 or 84 and low tonight of 17 or 61, the three day rain storm has been downgraded to two and the daytime highs will be in the high teens or high sixties. I watched too much sports yesterday, but we always seem to be busy or traveling on Sundays so it was kind of nice to enjoy the warmth and watch some sports, I still seem to battle with the time change but we are working hard at getting it straightened out, this in bed at 9 and up before 6 needs at least an hour of adjustment. One of the things that has always seemed strange to me was how short the days are even this far south, sunset is 5:30 and sunrise is after 7 so our days are only a little more than 10 hours of sunshine and the UV index today is 0, I know when we were in Arizona two years ago, over the winter it was almost impossible to get burnt by the sun.

On Sunday we brought in 289 amp/hours of solar power, which is great, again we hit 100% recharge of our battery bank, and again we depleted our batteries below 70% overnight. The majority of the draw is in the evening while we enjoy some television before turning in, and our biggest issue is the voltage, so many items are voltage sensitive as I plan our upgrades as compared to our needs.

Well we drove to Arizona to go kayaking, well not just to go kayaking but we we are, Lake Havasu was created by the installation of a damm at the town of Parker, this was finished in 1938, it was done to create a reservoir to provide water for a couple of aqueducts. The reservoir is about 26 miles long but only 3 miles wide, the lake covers 19,300 acres and is only 35 feet deep on average, and has a maximum of 90 feet at the deepest point. Lake Havasu City has worked at becoming a tourist destination by moving the London Bridge to the town, and developing a whole collection of attractions, the moving of the bridge was an amazing feat but is still just a tourist attraction although it is the only access to the island which is home to a number of RV parks and multiple resorts. There is lots of boating in the area, way too much boat traffic (and this is a Monday in November), and way too many noisy boats for our liking, would definitely recommend stopping to see the attractions but everything seem overpriced for what you are getting.

Day 776