Day 63, La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 14

Only down to the 40's overnight. I went for a walk (not for coffee) this morning at 45°F, and wore a coat - without the sun my photo vest wasn't warm enough to be comfortable. I am still amazed how powerful the sun is, even early in the day. With fairly heavy clouds, 45°F feels like it!

After breakfast I did some reading, eventually sticking my head outside the trailer to discover it was warmer out than it. The Escape is well insulated for a fiberglass trailer, and while it warms up quickly in the sun, with clouds, it holds the overnight cool.

It got up to 70° by 2:30, so I spent some time outside reading, and making phone calls to friends back in the frozen east. Two new RVs moved into the neighborhood - a trailer that was here last year, and some friends of theirs in a Class C motorhome.

I made a run to Dorthy and Toto's Ice Cream Shoppe and Kettle Corn for a bag of kettle corn. I love the stuff, and the kettle corn available back east is not the same stuff as here in the southwest. I also took an empty propane tank for a refill - the last one lasted 11 days, reflecting the cold nights last week.

On the way back I checked with the Quartzsite General Store for a roast. While they didn't have anything that looked good for dry roasting, they did have some nice pot roasts (chuck roast). The butcher cut me a 1.3 pound chunk and it is on the stove with potatoes, carrots, onions & tomatoes as I type. I started it outside on the butane stove, but the wind kicked up around 4:00 and kept blowing out the low flame so I had to move inside.

There was never enough sun for the solar controller to kick into the absorption stage, let alone floating, so I'm still down 92% and -18 amp hours by dinner time. Let's hope there is more sun tomorrow to fill the batteries back up. Still, even now I have 162 amp hours available, so no real problems.

So, dinner was pot roast & vegetables.

Until Next Time -