Thursday, January 19, 2017

Day 81, Thursday, January 19, 2017, La Posa West, Quartzsite AZ, Day 24

Ascending Hot Air Balloon
Thursday, January 19, 2017, La Posa West, Quartzsite AZ, Day 24, 0 Miles, 3,991.7 Miles For the Trip

A little after dark I took a few photos of the stars since I don't expect to see them for a few nights (rain & clouds predicted). The last image includes a rising hot air balloon. They sell them in a couple of places here at Quartzsite. They consist of a paper or plastic balloon with a "burner" on a wire frame below the balloon. The user lights it & it drifts into the sky. 

Unfortunately, they eventually the heat source goes out & it fall to earth, sometimes on a RV. Even worse, sometimes the balloon catches on fire & they fall to earth with the heater still flaming. They are outlawed in some areas, but evidently, not here at Quartzsite. There are times during the show that you can see a dozen of them in the air at once. Pretty, but dangerous. At least the desert doesn't have a lot of flammable ground cover, but you get nervous when you find one of the metal frames next to your trailer.

After breakfast I made a run to town for propane & to pick up my package at Quiet Times. Arizona/US 95 (they split at Main Street) was busy enough that a left turn, even with a turn arrow, took two or three cycles of the light. Only one ahead of me waiting for propane, and the small parking area at Quiet Times was empty. Not so for the streets! While there are not as many arrivals today as yesterday, it is still packed.

Back at the campsite I spent most of the day in the trailer ducking the rain. Right now it is trying to clear, but there are enough clouds that I'm only getting 1.8 amps of charging from my solar panels. On a clear day it would be around 15. I probably won't have the batteries back to full by the end of the day. I'm posting this early to use the solar panels to power the laptop as much as possible.

I'm not sure what I'll have for dinner - a sandwich inside if the weather doesn't clear, a grilled chicken patty if it does.

Until Tomorrow -

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