Wednesday, March 14, 2018

The 2018 Voyage - So Far


To start with:
In Babylon, during the eleven-day New Year's festival, each spring a priest severed the head of a ram, smeared blood on the temple walls, and threw the carcass into the river so the “scapegoat” could carry away the year’s sins. Now you know.

Part of our excitement in crossing the country was witnessing Skunk love season in North Texas. We saw a roadkill about every 5 miles for two days. Real tough love.

86 octane Regular gas begins to disappear in West Texas. Regular here is 85 octane which usually has 15% corn squeezings which makes KoKo quite ill. So we have to pay for 87/88 octane mid-grade and that's an extra two-bits a gallon. It's always great when the government makes rules that cost people more money for no benefit.

Dead Machinery
The water pump I replaced just before leaving started leaking. So I replaced it with the new spare water pump I ordered. Now I need another spare.

The next day the hot water heater would not ignite. The gas was not being turned on. But it came back to life in a few hours and has not given any more problems. We are haunted.

My CPAP died three days after we left home. Just two months out of warranty. Now I've got to deal with getting a new one. Should be fun. You can not just buy one, you need a script. That keeps the prices at maximum. Plus the supplier is stocked out for a week.

The trip so far
Friday, March 2 - We had lunch at Ezill's Catfish Cabin. I read it was really special. We could only give it a B. Our usual first night stop was at Rosevelt SP half-way between Meridian and Jackson,

Saturday, March 3 - A city park in Quitman, TX. We think this was the first time we have crossed Louisiana with overnighting. Moving fast for us.

Sunday, March 4 - Rest area in St. Joe, TX

Monday, March 5 - Travel Center in Amarillo, TX. 27 degrees

Tuesday, March 6 - Our usual RV park in Albuquerque, NM. 27 degrees again

Wednesday, March 7 - Homolovi SP in Winslow, AZ.  Warmer!

A lunch stop in The Petrified Forest. We traded stories with a ranger. We liked his story about the guy who asked if he was there when it was a forest. Yes, they are among us.




Not my picture, a fellow named Andrew V. Kerns took it.


Thursday, March 8 - Damn fine RV park in Kingman, AZ. Delightful weather - warm and sunny. We had never driven US93 from Kingman to Boulder City. Quite dramatic views as you descend to the Colorado River. It looks like the several valleys around Death Valley, only better.

Friday, March 9 - We reached our destination in the boonies of southern Nevada.  More delightful weather - warm and sunny. The 20-mile road in is heavily patched asphalt with potholes. Good speed is about 20mpg.

Saturday, March 10 - The weather report was for partly cloudy. It was completely overcast all day. Light rain late in the day. We explored a bit but did not try to get to our destination since the clouds made everything gray. We have the parking area to ourselves after the rude folks left who feigned great indigence because we parked with them. 

Sunday, March 11 - Mostly sunny with no haze. Off in the Jeep to see strange rock formations. It took about an hour to get there down one dry wash after another. We did not see a soul all the way until we parked, then another guy appeared. A glance at his gear and I knew he was not an amateur. He said he comes to this place quite often as it's not well known. He thought the overnight rain would fill the depressions in the rocks, making for some interesting compositions. But, there was not enough water. He pointed out some interesting places for us and we left him to his work. I had great difficulty with the light. I needed a drone facing the cliffs, between the sun and rocks. I managed to get a few decent ones, but nothing dramatic. I did not risk staying until the golden hour as I did care to risk a wrong turn getting out in the dark. I had lat/log waypoints, but they were not accurate.

 Out our back window

 The gray clouds added some drama to this exposure

Someone has named this The Control Tower

Monday, March 12 - We tried for over an hour to match the description we had to a trail that leads to a slot canyon. No joy. We headed out and planned to stay at Snow Canyon SP in St. George. I had a mental image of a mostly empty campground. It was full. It's freaking spring break in Utah. We tried a dispersed place a few miles north, but it's now day use only. Back into St. George and paying $45 for an overlook of I15. Really no better choices. We needed water and a dump and we were tired. 


The slot we could not locate

Tuesday, March 13 - We left the city eastbound toward Zion. We parked on a low mesa with a decent view of the gates of Zion. Perfect weather today, but wind, rain, and cooler temps are forecast. We are out of the chaos of the masses and only 4 miles from water and dump, 6 miles from Walmart, and a little farther to Costco and the big box stores. 

We wanted to boondock here before but never did. I don't know why not. Some years back we got a site in Zion, which was OK. Now, it's reservations all year long. Private parks are over $50 and even the state park is $28. Everyone likes Zion. Our closest neighbor is over a hundred yards off to our right and there is no one in front or back of us. 

The reason we wanted to come here is to take an extended look and photograph a bit of the east side of the park. To me, it's the most interesting section. Yes, that means more pictures of red and white "rocks". While we can't do more than walk a bit from the roadway, that will be fine. So one morning when it's not overcast, we will leave here about 8, just after sunrise, (freaking DST), get to the east side and find one of the few pull outs to park. 

Wednesday, March 14 - Dark heavy clouds at daybreak. Wind forecast for the afternoon and evening, followed by light rain. Seems like a good day to veg, use some bandwidth at the library and do a few small projects. And just maybe they will ship my replacement CPAP.

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