Toast!

That’s toast, as in bread with butter and jam!  I bought a toaster this year.  I know this is not a big thing for you folks at home or in RV parks, or even the dreaded ‘generator’ folks, but for me it is a new treat!  In the past, I tried to toast bread on one of those burner-top arrangements, or grilled it in the oven, but it is just not the same.  And I did not have a large enough inverter to run a toaster and refused to fire up my generator for such a thing. But over the last summer I was forced to replace (and upgrade!) my inverter to a 2000W one, which will now power my regular old 110V toaster.  But I only have toast on sunny mornings when I know the amps will be replenished by the sun – for free.

Moving right along … 

The hockey schedule showed that the Leafs were playing in ‘nearby’ Phoenix, and I could not resist the urge to check it out.  I wasn’t sure how many Leaf fans would be there, but I was just turning into the parking lot at Jobing.com Arena when I spotted this licence plate!  There was also a good assortment of Ontario markers and other Canadian vehicles.

And while still outside, I spotted sweaters for Domi, Tucker, Salming, 3 Kessels, 2 Sundins, and a Sittler!

Though I started out in the nosebleed section,  through ‘strategic manoeuvring’ I soon ended up right behind the Leafs bench . And the Leafs came away with a convincing victory.  On the way back, I fuelled up at a truck stop in Buckeye, and for the first time this year, the five 0’s for a zip code didn’t work.  I had to go inside to pay …

I abandoned Wandering Willy where he had joined me along Ogilby road, and moved into Yuma for a few days to visit with relatives and do a bit more shopping.  While I did enjoy the outdoor hot tub, pool, and unlimited hot showers, I can only handle the crowds of people and the close quarters for a couple of days.  So then I headed to Quartzsite – in the middle of the biggest RV gathering on earth, if I may quote Nina at Wheeling It! You might say that is like going from the frying pan into the fire, but when it comes to picking secluded camp spots, I tend to do rather well.  And this time was no exception, as I found the back corner of an almost deserted area with less neighbours than I had over at Ogilby Rd – or Borrego Springs.  Now if only we could do away with those few extremely loud ATV’s that you can hear coming and going from two miles away.  May as well camp beside a NASA launch pad as have one of those idiots around.

So, on my day of arrival, I headed into Q.  Sure enough, traffic was at a virtual standstill on Kuehn, which is near the ‘big tent’, but once I got through that and found parking out in the loose sand of the wash, it was no problem.

When I got into the big tent by mid-afternoon, I found there was lots of room .  None of those traffic jams full of dog strollers so loved by Wandering Willy!

 

After that I navigated with slight difficulty across the interstate to a restaurant that shall remain nameless, but is under big golden arches.  There was not even a line-up to order, though seating options were at a minimum. 

Now that the show is over it looks like rats jumping off a sinking ship as rigs pack up, hook up, and head out in all four directions from here. The big tent is coming down ;-(.

I took advantage of the lull to get my windshield replaced.  It had gotten hit by a shower of rocks on the road to Atlin, BC way back in 2009, on our way back from Alaska and the Yukon.

http://roadtrip-06.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

I found a glass repair shop in Vanderhoof, but as I suspected, the cracks were too big to be repaired. Now it just a case of sitting back and see where the cracks spread to and how far they go before a new windshield is in order.

(Of course, blogger is still so screwed up, this post shows as being in November 2009, when in fact the trip was in August and September.  Just another blogger screw-up.)

The windshield cracks behaved themselves and stayed out of my vision, but it had gotten so pock-marked by sand and gravel that seeing out was not easy when facing the sun.

But five years is a good life for a windshield, especially up north where you can almost expect to lose one every year or so from the rocks they spread on the icy roads.  Guess I haven’t been there for much of that , lately.

A hike up Palm Canyon was in order, and the palms were in sunshine in mid-afternoon.

 

Another day it was out for a drive on the newly discovered (for me) MT&T road.  I think the Bayfield Bunch explored it last month? I didn’t grab a pamphlet or map when entering the Kofa NWR,

 

but was referring to my Benchmarks atlas a bit later to shed some light on some unmarked junctions way out back.  As I pushed it into a seatback pocket, I could tell it was crumpling something in there, so what do you think I pulled out?  Sure enough, it was the exact map and pamphlet that I had Not picked up – from last year, when I had explored the Crystal Hill area with friends John and Lise!  How’s that for good luck and timing!  With the newly found map I was able to navigate even further to where most of the roads turned to trails and were more suited to ATV’s or Jeeps, not GMC’s! Eventually, the route brought us out to Scott well before it joined the very rough road from Crystal hill back to the highway.

 

In case anyone up north thinks we are suffering the frigid conditions in the news for Alabama and Florida, rest assured that cold has not happened here, with everyday being sunny and warm as usual.

Almost forgot to add the required photo of Ms Hailey …