2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 127

Day 127, Sunday, February 22, 2026 -Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 4,176.4 Miles for the Trip.

56°F overnight, 65°F for my morning walk, 72°F at noon, and the high for the day was 77°F.

A warm night. The furnace with the thermostat set at 62°F only came on twice during the early morning. The batteries were down to 92% before breakfast. With making a pot of coffee & toasting a bagel, they were at 90%, and by noon at 97%. While my weather app called for cloudy skies, nothing but blue skies so far.

I finished listening to James Lee Burke's The Hadacol Boogie audio book during my morning walk and went back to listening to James Patterson & Bill Clinton's The President is Missing. As to the Kindle, I'm reading What She Saw by Mary Burton. Libby just informed me that Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak book #11, The Singing of the Dead library loan is available, so that will be next.

After lunch I took the trash to the dumpster, then sat outside reading. Annoying flies, but so far they don't bite.

I dug out the Z8 & set up the hummingbird feeder. It took about 3 minutes for a Verdin to find it, and another 20 minutes for a Anna's Hummingbird to find it. Another kind of "bird" flew over while I was sitting outside, which, according to Google AI is a Bell AH-1Z Viper,. I also took a photo of the Superstitions.

Dinner was left over chicken & potato salad.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 126

Day 126, Saturday, February 21, 2026 -Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ - 170 Miles, 4,176.4 Miles for the Trip.

36°F overnight, 62°F by noon while on the road, and the high for the day was 72°F.

A cool night. Rolling up the water hose was not as easy as when it is a bit warmer. I was packed up & hooked up by 10:30 and headed out to the Lost Dutchman State Park. Almost all of the drive was on I 10. Traffic was terrible around Phoenix, as usual. Not a place I'd enjoy living. I listen to KJZZ, the Phoenix NPR news station, and they always announce multiple traffic accidents blocking various lanes during the morning & evening rush hours. I went through a little before 1:00 and it was still a zoo with slowdowns to 20MPH (but no stops) and no accidents.

I'm in site 2, a dry site on asphalt with a picnic table & fire ring with the Superstition Mountains out my back window. I'm here for 3 nights at $25.00 per night plus a $3.20 reservation fee.

After setting up I headed to Fry's grocery store for some supplies, including Grape Zero Gatorade in the large bottles. An interesting store. Almost as big as a Texas HEB, and similar but still missing some stuff. For example, the last HEB I was in had all 6 varieties of Bubba Burgers (no, they are not from Texas - Made in Georgia for a company based in Florida). There was 1 box of standard Bubba Burgers at Fry's. Lots of frozen meals, but missing some of the ones I like. A very long wait at the Deli, most of the time only one person working the counter.

Dinner was a couple of Fry's chicken legs & thighs and a bowl of Egg Potato Salad. Edible, but nothing to write home about.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 125

Day 125, Friday , February 20, 2026 - Quail Run RV Park, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 4,006.4 Miles for the Trip.

46°F overnight, 61°F for my morning walk, 66°F by noon, and the high for the day was 66°F.

A little windy this morning but nothing like Borrego Springs. I am doing a few repairs. My outside thermometer decided to stop working overnight. I cleaned up the battery contacts and is seems to be back to life. I have a cell phone hanger attached to the window frame next to my bed. I don't use the phone for much besides as a source for my radio when listening to internet radio stations. The plastic mount broke around the screws holding it in place. I predrilled a couple of new mounting holes that will do until I get home and put in a replacement. Yes, it is a bit boring here so this is as exciting as it gets!

The Repair

I spent the rest of the day reading. I finished Dana Stabenow's Killing Grounds and started #9 in the Kate Shugak series, Hunter's Moon. 

Dinner was a Farewell for the Season gathering at the clubhouse. Pulled chicken (or pork) sandwich, excellent potato salad, and, for the first time for me, apple baked beans which I loved. Apple pie for dessert. One of the better dinners of the trip.

After dinner I headed for the showers, 3 stalls plus a disabled one. The unusual thing - they were pay showers, $.25 per 2 minutes. At $62.20 per night I expected free showers, That said, they were large, had adjustable temperature (although it needed to be all the way on hot) a shower head that had 4 different types of spray and a mostly dry drying area separated by a 1/2" lip and a shower curtain, with a chair for a bench & 4 hooks. I would have made it with three quarters, but it took an extra quarter to rinse because the water is soft. All in all $1.00 for the shower. Overall, I'd have to say a B- that would have been a B+ if they were free. 

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 124

Day 124, Thursday, February 19, 2026 - Quail Run RV Park, Quartzsite, AZ - 179.7 Miles, 4,006.4 Miles for the Trip.

46°F overnight, 63°F by noon (on the road), and the high for the day was 68°F.

Just a normal amount of wind overnight. I dumped the tanks, but was not able to wash out the hose as much as I would have liked - the park water was shut down due to a leak. 

A mix of 2 & 4 lane roads with about 30 miles on I 10. I was going to stay at Dome Rock, but decided that I wanted to do laundry, shower, etc so I headed to town & a Quartzsite RV park. They sure are not cheap. $62.20 per night for full hookups on a large gravel corner site with a concrete pad. Level side to side & I had to drop the tongue 2".  No picnic table or fire ring.

Site 56

After setting up I did laundry at the park - $2.50 for both wash & dry with carts, a folding table, and comfortable chairs. 

By the time I was finished, it was dinner time. I decided to go to the Mountain Quail Cafe, had a shrimp dinner & iced tea for $21.89 plus tip.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 123

Day 123, Wednesday, February 18, 2026 - Borrego Springs Desert State Park, Borrego Springs, CA, Day 3 - 0 Miles, 3,826.7 Miles for the Trip.

48°F overnight, too windy for my morning walk, 69°F by noon and for my late walk, and the high for the day was 69°F.

I only thought it was windy yesterday. This morning the trailer was rocking the worse I've felt since I started trailer camping. A Winnebago next to me had its roof stripped, a bunch of palm trees lost their dead palms (one into my trailer, and one that covered a truck further down the row) and it took 5 helpers to close up an A frame trailer that partially collapsed. 

My weather app said a peak of 75MPH for gusts, and it felt like it. Lost power around 9:30AM, and the wind started calming down around 10:30AM although there are still gusts that rock the trailer. Once it died down I checked the outsides of the trailer. I lost one wheel chock, but later found it. We are suppose to get high gusts until around 4:00 but right now the sun is out and it is dead calm. I can hear chain saws in the distance and the power is still out. Some folks are running their generators. The folks across from me were planning to do a test run of powering their trailer by solar alone with no hookups. They got their chance!

A ranger stopped by and mentioned that power was out for the entire park as well as most of Borrego Springs. That was reassuring since while the power was out in my trailer (well, at 19V AC), the lights were still on in the bathrooms. I discovered that they are solar powered. Lots of wind damage around town including buckling of the ranger's garage door at home. I'm running on solar & the inverter. I went for my morning walk at 12:30 and took a few photos of the stripped palm fonds.

Last night I finished reading Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series #7 Breakup, and started #8, Killing Grounds. Some of her books are available at my Kindle Unlimited for $0.00, and others at the NYPL, but a few are only available as Kindle editions for $15.00 each. I'll skip those. The paperback versions from Amazon are running from around $20.00 to as much as $95.00.

I tried to set the time on my laptop. Both my iPhones, one on AT&T & the other on Verizon have no problem believing I'm in California & the Pacific time zone, but my laptop insists I'm in Phoenix, AZ (Mountain Time). The only way I can get it to switch to the Pacific Time Zone is to shut off automatic & manually enter the correct hour. I'll have to do that again tomorrow when I'm back in Mountain Time. I will have to do the same with both of my temperature monitors. While they do show the correct time to the second (they shut off the display at 2:00AM and "talk" to a time server) they don't know where I am, so they need to be told the time zone. The laptop is suppose to know where I am but evidently, doesn't. I give up. I switched it to the correct time on manual settings, and 10 minutes it changed from Phoenix to Cupertino, CA, but decided it was 12:20 instead of the actual time of 1:20. This is while the time setting was on manual.

The electricity came back at 3:20.

Dinner was a Boston Market Chicken Pot Pie.

Until Next Time -