Are we covered?

WOW!!! We never think this will happen to us… at least we sure hope not!! 

Since we sold our brick and mortar home - we lost some of the coverage we had on our home owner’s policy - it was time to make sure our coverage needs are met completely.  Not only are our needs important, so is the price!! 

Are we getting the best price for the needs?  Soon that question was answered --->>> NOPE!!  

After talking with Progressive Insurance; we decided they offered the best coverage at the right price. They offer a full-timers policy - much like a brick and mortar home policy – such as contents and visitor injured while at our camp site.  And we even got to put a whopping $244 in our pockets!!!  

Now that we have the serious stuff taken care of we will leave you with a little humor……..

RV Emergency    ~ curiosity of the jokeshop.org

A motorhome broke down along the freeway one day, so the driver eased it over onto the shoulder of the busy road. He’d never had an RV travel emergency before so he had to improvise.
He jumped out of his driver side door, walked around his rig and opened the door to the coach itself. Out popped two men in trench coats.
The men stood behind the motorhome and immediately opened up their coats, exposing themselves to the passing traffic. The result was one of the worst pile-ups in the road’s history.
Later, when questioned by an angry highway patrolman why he put two deviates along the side of the road, the RVer replied, “I was broken down, so I just used my emergency flashers!”

Travel safely; protect yourself, and enjoy the journey!

 
 

INVASION Upon The Desert

Us on top of "Q Mountain" over looking town - sea of white is mostly RV tops

This quaint town has a population of 3800 full-time resident, however it starts growing in September when the snowbirds come rolling in.  The winter season (September – April) is when this town really grows with over 2 million visitors.   Well, this last week the desert got invaded when hundreds of people and their rigs took over, it wasn't too bad up to this point.  What’s all the excitement? All this just to partake in the 45^th Annual POW WOW, Rock & Mineral Show (Jan 18-22), The BIG Sport  -RV & Travel Show (Jan 21-29) and the Classic Car Show (Feb 4 & 5), so we will be glad when we get the desert back to ourselves!!  

We didn’t make it to the POW WOW, but we will try to attend the RV & Travel show tomorrow.  Wish us luck….

~Poor Camper ~

This poor man in the center

Now you can barely see him, as he got completely surrounded

 

The poor man that owns this Class C RV had a nice place to himself, where he would sit out and watch cars and people pass by, however got invaded upon by this RV group.  Deb  was curious if he was expecting his company, after speaking with him found out he wasn't, nor did they even speak to him before circling him.   The BLM rules states to allow 15 feet from ones camper – not too sure that happened  here! :(

 

 Time to dump "black tank" and get  fresh water?

Dump Line - about 12 deep, usually 3-4

No more 24 hour service - hopefully we will get it back in a couple of weeks.

There are many of groups that invaded the BLM land, however we got REAL LUCKY as our area is still VERY PEACEFUL! ;)

Good times ~ more around the corner....

Living Off The Grid

Comforts in the "real world"

We were a little spoiled living in a stick and mortar house; large open spaces, unlimited water supply and electricity on demand, - all without much thought … well except how much the monthly bill would be…LOL!!!

The days of nice long showers or bubble baths, washing your cars in the drive way, using a gallon of water to rinse dishes, or turning on the sprinklers to try and keep the grass green. Oh let’s not forget about the TVs, computers, lights, washer & dryer, plus all the other electrical gadgets that we use each day. 

Living in our “can”, is a bit different, as we choose to live without full hook-ups. Now we must think about everything we do, because there are impacts to all of our actions. 

LARGE – UNLIMITED – ON DEMAND, not so much these days! Our living space is <300 square feet, so buying is limited (really, that hasn’t happen yet ;)), space saving becomes a BIG CHALLENGE, and you MUST REALLY love your spouse and dog. =)   Want water? Great!?! Another workout for Jerry; see what we use we must haul in, so he gets his upper body workout about 2-3 per week.  Electricity needs are a bit more complicated, it has to deal with Amperage / Wattage / Batteries – DC / AC…. Thank goodness Jerry paid attention in his math classes, as this is definitely not Deb’s department.  

 

Our RV electrical system needs to supply power for cooking, recreation, communication, creature comforts, and other domestic needs when the engine isn’t running, which is a TALL order to fill. Our “house” electrical system comprises both DC (battery supplied – 12v lights, water pump, furnace, etc) and AC (household current – tv, laptop, microwave, small appliances, hair dryer, etc.) appliance. When boondocking; all these appliances are powered by our batteries, either directly through DC outlet or on-board gas generator. However, using the generator has its draw backs – noisy and pricy. Okay, so if you don’t want to use the generator, what other options do we have? There are only three options: gas(stay as we are), wind, or solar. Staying with our current method is running about $150/month and requires a gas station to be close by. Wind, must have sustain winds at 20 mph or better to produce enough power. Solar, the sun is your best friend, and produces the most power.

Jerry had to decided what amps and watts were being used daily, then was there anything we could change to help reduce the usage. We decided it would be wise to replace our light bulbs to LED and TV, which we didn’t realize we purchased a LCD/LED TV this past summer. Of course Jerry received a lot of advice from all the seasoned veterans on what would be best, but most of it was for larger rigs and very expensive. We needed something that would fit our needs and not spend our life savings. We don’t have a lot of real estate on the roof, remember we only live in about 300 sq ft, so where would we put batteries and how could we do solar without mounting them on the roof of the RV? 

After looking at all the options, Jerry decided to go with a portable 120w solar panel to charge our one battery. After sharing the ideal with a couple of friends, they too decided to get them the same panels. Jerry and Ed hopped into Ed’s truck and took a road trip to Surprise, AZ (about a 2 hour drive each way), to save the taxes (10% in AZ) plus shipping on the three panels.  We were so excited to get the solar hooked-up and get away from running the generator so much.  All set now….

Nope, quickly we realized that one solar panel and one battery was not really going to help much, so we decided to go a little deeper.  Jerry made a phone call to order yet another 120w solar panel with four AGM batteries, since Deb was willing to give up some space under the couch to house the new batteries.   ROAD TRIP – our friends Jim & Barb are always ready for a road trip, so we asked them if they would like to go along and we take their truck (as the toy, wouldn’t like this type of road trip) – of course we would pay for the fuel.   They were game, and we had a FUN FILLED DAY in the Phoenix area shopping and purchasing other thing to modify our rigs (more on that later). 

Batteries all hooked-up

Now, the batteries are installed, solar is out and batteries charging, and inverter hooked up (Jerry purchased before leaving), we are all setup – ready live off the grid.   So we though – now the inverter isn’t working!  

Stay tune – maybe the third time will be the charm!

Merry Christmas To All

The holiday's are a time to spend with family and friends, reflect back on memories, play games, watch football and of course eat, eat, eat and then take a nap. :)  However, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way, so you improvise and do the next best thing, which is exactly what we had to do this year.


You see; we are sitting in the middle of the desert outside Quartzsite, AZ so it would be a long drive back to Texas or Oklahoma to be with our families.  And of course, our families couldn't get out to us either, so we meet several of our new desert friends at Blue Water Casino in Parker, AZ to feast on the all you can eat buffet.  Although we didn't gamble, Jerry did find a nice shirt to purchase for his bride. Sorry no pictures, maybe at a later time.


Once back to the rig, it was time for a nap - at least for Jerry, as Deb and Max played outside.  Actually Max decided to catch a little lizard and oh well, you can imagine the rest. Later in the afternoon, we decided to take a walk and let Max run a little down the wash, as we usually like to do each evening, however this turned out a bit different this time.  Deb twisted her ankle coming out of the wash, and of course we were still about an 1/4 of a mile from home. She was a good sport and was determine to walk home instead of letting Jerry go get the truck.

One fat ankle, guess that will slow her down a bit

It has been a great day, as we are blessed to be healthy, be surrounded with good people, wake up to many text and e-mails, and a chance to talk to most of our family members.

So we will leave you with a few Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect.