Heading East

 

Well....  after 18 days at the shack, we loaded up and are now on our way east headed for our rendevous with the Queen Mary2 scheduled for April 30.

Arriving back in Tucson, we had that short window to complete a number of pre-trip chores, get packed, and back on the road.

First on the list was a Doodle wash and wax.

Both of the dogs were in dire need of some TLC.

A Woolly Bear Lucy needing a bath and haircut

And Gracie after a bath and cut - sporting her Cunard Coat

While out for our winter travels, you might remember that one of the retraction springs on my hydraulic leveling Jacks had broken and I jury rigged it with bungee cords.

Now that the correct springs were back in stock, I had a set of 4. (2 each per front jack) delivered and decided to get that job off of the to-do list.

First thing however was I needed to make some ramps to drive the front of the bus up on so as to raise it up a bit and give me some safe working space,   I could do the job without them, but if something was to happen, like a sudden loss of air pressure, the airbags on the bus could deflate and the weight of the bus would settle down onto me.   Not a happy thought.   Safety first.

I picked up some 2x12 planks at Lowes in Yuma and cut them down in various lengths to make ramps that would raise the front of the bus about 6 3/4" - just enough to give me the needed safety margin.

Ramps to raise the bus

Those now done - it was time to tackle the springs.   These are very strong springs and you cannot pull them by hand.   So I stretched them using cargo straps.   One attached to the truck trailer hitch, and the other to the bus trailer hitch.   I had Kate slowly pull forward while the spring was stretched out longer.

New spring needing to be stretched longer so it can be put in place

Then I placed about a dozen wooden shims in the spaces between the stretched coils.

This allowed me to then back up the pickup and release the tension on the springs while leaving the spring still stretched about 3" or so longer.   Just enough to allow we to hook them up to the attachment points under the bus.

Springs stretched between bus and truck with shims put in place

Here I am working under the bus with the front tires up on the ramps.

And here is a set of springs installed on the driver side jack.

I can now start the jack system and lower the jack which will stretch out the spring and all the wooden shims will fall out.    Then when the jacks retract - they will go all the way up but still be under about 3" of spring tension.

Jack all the way retracted but with shims still in place

That job went pretty smoothly and in about 90 minutes I had installed all 4 front springs.

While at the shack, I also installed a new 43" TV in the bus.    I had installed one about a year ago and decided at that time to go the budget route....  Bad Move!    

We have never been real pleased with that TV so finally I bit the bullet and got a Samsung QLED TV like we have in the house.   Just smaller.    The difference is night and day.

It took a bit of modifications to get it to mount correctly, but it only took a few hours and we are both very pleased with the new system.

Soon, all of our tasks complete,  it was time to hit the road.    We packed our suitcases for the trip and I loaded them into the truck.

Locked & Loaded

Hooked up and ready to go.

We left Weds morning April 5.   First stop was in Las Cruces, NM about 4.5 hrs east.   I never did get a photo there, but we stayed at the Hacienda RV Resort.  It's sort of our go-to first night stop for eastbound routes.

Our second night - Thursday - was at the Valley of Fires BLM campground in Carrizozo, NM.

It is only about 2.5 hrs from Las Cruces, but I've been wanting to take Kate here so we made a late departure from Las Cruces.

Valley of fires is a campground on a ridge that over looks a lava flow from an eruption that took place about 6,000 years ago.   The lava flow is over 20 miles long.

Our stay here was marred by some very strong winds (30 mph with gusts in the 40's)

Being very exposed it was a cool night with some rocking and rolling.

Site 17 at Valley of Fires

Our campsite was up high and fully exposed to the northeast winds.

We enjoyed a nice New Mexico Sunset from our perch on the ridge.

We only stayed one night and then continued Friday morning, heading Northeast on US 54, hooking up with I40 east in Santa Rosa and eventually settled into the Oasis RV Park in Amarillo for the night.   It was an easy 4.5hr day.

Again - I had no pictures of Oasis, but its a decent place.  Nothing special.  It used to be a really nice park.   We've stayed here a bunch over the years and I see it going downhill steadily as it seems the ownership does not invest any of the $$'s back into the upkeep of the property.   I will start looking for an alternative for our stays in Amarillo.

Now Saturday is the big change day...   

It is where we go from the brown wind swept, wide open endless skies of the West,  to the green, tree-filled world of the east.   

For those of you who live in the east - this might not make sense, but when you spend your time in the west you know its a really different world.   The change from the wide open skies of the west to east is quite dramatic and always a treat.   The transition between the two worlds on I-40 seems to be the most dramatic of the east/west routes.

Our next stop was about 8.5 hrs east.    A favorite of ours - its an Army Corps of Engineers campground on the Arkansas River called Aux Arc Park.

We've stayed here about a half dozen times or more on our back and forths.   It was here last year that I blew out my newly repaired knee and had to cancel our plans.   Our hope is that we make it out of here on Tuesday.   We are staying 3 nights and as I write its Easter Sunday - our second night.

Site F13 in Aux Arc

We love the Army Corps Parks.  They are always on water, and usually have electric and water hookups.  With our geezer pass we get to stay for about $10/night.

Its a green world indeed

So within the space of about 2 hours, we quickly left the west behind and once again immersed ourselves in the green world of the east.   It will be in this green world where we will now spend the next 7 months till we eventually work our way back west in November.

So, here is our trip map so far.     After here we head to western Tennessee for 2 nights, then to eastern Tenn near Gatlinburg for 2 more, and slowly we will work our way to upstate NY where, in 12 days we will arrive at a state park, and make our final preparations to board the QM2 and begin the main event.

Stay tuned!

Senator Wash - Winters end

Its hard to believe that its been over a month since our last post from Quartzsite.  Time has a way of slipping by even when you are not running at high speed.   And now we are sitting here staring at the end of another winter season.   The snowbird flocks are starting to migrate, and so we shall as well.

Our migration will now take us to the east coast and onboard the Queen Mary2 for a summer in the UK and Ireland.  But that is still a few weeks hence, so let me bring you up to date as to what we've been doing.

A big change in Quartzsite this season seemed to be that a large part of the Geezer population seemed to start dispersing prior to the end of the show.   By a few days past the shows end, we had seen a large decrease in the local population and we were enjoying our nice slice of the desert in relative peace and privacy,

Unknown to us however, that was not to last....

About 5 days after shows end, a few older RV's of all types began congregating just to our east in the spot where the Montana circle had been.   The group grew - slowly at first - but then the pace of growth took a turn.

One afternoon this green converted vehicle with a ladder sticking out of its roof started to drive up and down all the fairways between washes.   He was blasting rock & roll music as he drove around.

Driving by us, he entertained us with a very loud rendition of Grand Funk Railroads "Closer to Home" (I'm your Captain).   His speakers were quite good, and I must say I enjoyed the tunes but started to worry that if this continued into the late night it could be less enjoyable.

I'm your Captain

It seemed as if he was the Pied Piper of the group because as he drove about, more and more vans, school busses, panel trucks, and other types of RV's  descended upon the stretch of desert to our east.    At first we were simply a far outlying eastern suburb of the group, but as the days passed, we started to be incorporated more into the edges of their growing encampment.

looking east towards the group at first

It seemed to be a race between how fast thier group would grow vs our upcoming departure date.

Talking to some of the group, we found out that they belonged to a group called "Van Aid".  Simply a large get together of like minded folks who would meet to help each other learn about how fix, improve, and maintain their campers, and to learn tips and tricks about the lifestyle.   They ranged in age from very young to very old.    Seemed to be more of a hippy leaning group, and they were very nice and quiet at night so I found it all to be fine and rather interesting.    I would just perfer to have a bit more room between us and them

The group expands closer

Finally, a couple of weeks after the show ended, our group began to break up.    K & B went to Organ Pipe, R&M to Tucson, and eventually Rob, Pat, and us went down to Yuma.

Ron & Maxine depart thru the "Camp"

While in Q I installed a Reverse Osmosis system for our drinking water.

I know it looks like something out of "Breaking Bad" but Water White I am not.    This is to finely filter water down to the molecular level giving us the cleanest most pure drinking water possible.

Installed under the sink.   The 4 gal storage tank is anchored to the wall and valves let me select from a number of options for both the distillate (clean water) and brine (waste water)

I can send the distillate to the bus fresh water tank or to the under sink storage tank.   I can send the brine to the fresh water tank, the grey holding tank, or overboard.   It all depends on where I am and if I have an external water supply or am dry camping.

A separate faucet (on the left below) provides the RO water for our use.

After leaving Q we went down to Yuma for a week and stayed in the Fortuna de Oro RV Park.   This allowed me to wash/wax the bus and rent a rug shampooer to give the bus a long overdue freshening up.

Soon, we were all back in the desert.   This time back at Senator Wash/Imperial Dam Long-Term Visitor area just across the border in California.

Being next to the Imperial Dam Complex on the Colorado River, there is a fair amount of water nearby and some Riparian areas in the LTVA

The 4 of us with the Senator Wash Lake behind us.

We were able to secure a pretty nice spot in the "Murphy Flats" area.

While here - the stormy season continued and we had several rain and dust storms.   Days of cool, wet, and/or very windy weather.

Dust storm in Yuma

One morning while Rob and I were walking about, we found a better spot over in the Northwest section of the LTVA where the cell service is stronger so we made a move to our new home.

Our site in The Hermans Horsepath area.

One night I made a Rack of Lamb for Kate and I.  Roughing it in the desert!

Some rock art

Ron and Maxine, finished with their visits to Tucson and Scottsdale, returned to spend some more time with us before they headed for home.   If you look over our shoulders you can see the dark clouds of the next storm approaching.

The next storm was a bigger one with a fair amount of rain.   The normally dry washes all flooded.   While hard to see in the photo below - the rain is creating rivers of muddy water flowing down the hillsides into the wash below our site.

When the skies cleared, the boys and I took a ride in my truck on some of the dirt roads and went down to the bottom of senator wash to check out the riparian areas and the lake

Senator Wash Lake from down below

Finally it was time again to say adios to Ron & Maxine.    Theyv'e had enough of us and are headed for home.

And head for home is what we will do next too.    We have a lot to get done in the next couple of weeks.   Kates Irish Citizenship was approved so we need to get her passport paperwork done and submitted, Dogs washed for the trip, clothes packed etc.   Before you know it - our next post will be from somewhere back in the bus headed east.    Fingers crossed that this time we really make it onboard.

See you then.