Lots more of very little

Boy, it's easy to neglect the blog, even if I'm not doing much of anything else.  But when I checked the camera I'd actually taken a few pics in the past week and a half, so I can use those to jog my memory.

First, finishing off day 3 of the balloon fest:

See, trailer park people even get nice sunrises sometimes!  

Swear he's lookin' at me...

She's standing under the beagle's paw... that was one HUGE balloon! 

He never got airborne Sunday, though - bad left front paw - they just couldn't get it to fill with air.   Of course I have no clue why, and since they couldn't fix it I guess they didn't either.  

Here's the directory from the brochure, in case you want to ID all the balloons from the past couple of days,  Not great quality, sorry.  Let me know if you want the full size originals and I'll email to you.  

We headed out from Lake Havasu City on Monday, bound for Phoenix.  Since the generator's been acting up (works fine for 1/2 hr, then cuts out even though the engine keeps purring) we decided to see it we could get it looked at in Quartzsite, and fortunately Bob the generator guy could fit us in after lunch.  Perfect timing!

That's the culprit: voltage regulator.  Changed it out and gave it a 2.5 hour test run - worked perfectly.  $270 touch; have to work a few days to pay that off but it's well worth it.  

Too late to head to Phoenix, so back up to Plomosa road to park beside the road (that's it on the left) with the other RVs that seem to like ditch-camping.  Oh well, it's just a night.  

So, Tuesday we were off to Phoenix.  A couple nights at the Wild Horse casino (no pics, see previous years).  Unfortunately Wild Horse has turned into a truck parking area now, so we spent a day scouting some other overnight spots northeast, east, and southeast of the city.  Found some potential, but because we wanted good internet and phone, plus proximity to shopping, we were kind of limited this trip.  

One of the locations we checked was where the Barrett-Jackson auction had just finished up.  We didn't clue in until we'd gone past the 4th or 5th tent of cars waiting to be loaded on the trucks.  At the same time there were a bunch of horses and paraphanalia being unloaded for a show the next weekend.  This is probably as close as I'll ever get to Barrett-Jackson, and I'm fine with that.  

After a day of searching, we wound up back at the first place we checked: Lone Butte casino just about 5 or 6 miles from Wild Horse.  Not very convenient for truckers though, so only a couple a night pulled in.  Some long timer RVs here - one guy from Utah's been here off and on since November.  This place replaces Wild Horse as my first choice for free overnight in Phoenix (Mesa actually).  Coordinates are 33.28897 -111.94025 if you want to check it out.  

Two nights at Wild Horse and three nights at Lone Butte - not too much exciting - laundry, shopping, etc.  On Sunday we headed back to Quartzsite to meet up with Don & Kim Philips who were coming down from Laughlin for a day.

Toured the Plomosa Road 14 day area a bit - it's a pretty small area and not much room to get more than 1/2 mile or so off the road (beyond that is posted day use only).  Not my preferred area: even though rigs are pulling out like crazy since the RV show is over I still counted 50 (yeah, fifty) other RVs visible from where we parked (right at the edge of the camping area).  On the plus side, better phone and internet than the Bouse side.

Plomosa road, on the Quartzsite side.  33.76325 -114.18194.  Notice the TV antenna is up... I finally gave in and bought a digital converter box in Phoenix.  With that we could pick up about 25 channels in Phoenix and about 10 here.  STILL nothing on TV worth watching, though.  

Stopped for a refreshment with Don & Kim (thanks Don!) during a warm walk through the Q vendors, after meeting up with them about noon.  There's a couple stories to be told about the late meet, but you won't read them here.  Notice one sensible person's having a coke.  BTW, that thing on the table is a rock that Kim got so attached to she decided to fly it home with her.  

Kim's dinner - nice skinless chicken breast, salad, and raw veggies.  I told her I'd post this so she could prove she's eating sensible.  Sorry for the blurry pic.  

Sunset along Plomosa road.  Ignore the RV: you can't take a scenery shot around here without getting one in the pic somewhere.  

Wendy doesn't take too many pics with the "old" camera but I guess the sight of me doing some work was enough.  No, I'm NOT talking on the great white telephone.   

Out with the old... 

In with the new.  

As you can see from the pics above, today was toilet replacement day.  The seal in the old toilet has been more of a strainer than a seal for the last few weeks so it was either try to find and install a kit for the 20 year old toilet or just put a new one in.  Given my previous history with changing parts in old equipment, I thought maybe this had the best chance of success.  Still had to adapt the plumbing a bit, but managed to get it all in and (so far) leak-free.  And the seal works great.  I passed by the toilets in Phoenix because I knew The Gambler in Quartzsite had a bunch for $125... but when we got down there with the measurements it turns out the only one that would fit and wasn't a hand flush was actually $200.  It IS porcelain, though, so we're getting a little more upscale.

As luck would have it, the black tank announced to us this morning that it was full (don't ask how), so before the change we got to go into Q (RV Pit Stop) and dump and flush (somewhat) the tank.  So it wasn't as odoriferous as it could have been.

While we were in, we of course filled the water tank and also took the opportunity to fill the propane, so, hey, we're good for another few weeks out here.  Especially on propane, since we're not running the furnace anymore.

On a down note, Wendy managed to twist her foot and fall getting down off the couch (where she was retracting the stupid TV antenna before we headed for the dump station), cracking her back on the table as she fell.  So now she'll be hobbling around for a few days with a gimped foot and a sore back.  I tried to convince her that copious amounts of vodka would take the edge off, but she won't believe me.  I'll keep working on her, and maybe we can get an action shot of the new toilet in use (as a telephone) for the blog...

I'll see if I can come up with something a little more exciting for the next report... thanks for stopping by and checking on our ho hum holiday!