Day 198, Monday, February 18 , 2019 - Buckskin Mountain State Park, AZ

An Early Burst From Last Night

Monday, February 18 , 2019 - Buckskin Mountain State Park, AZ - 31.5 Miles, 8,208.3 Miles for the Trip

A short drive today. I first stopped at La Paz County Park, hoping for a water & electric site, but all they had were dry sites. I backtracked a couple of miles to Buckskin Mountain State Park, and again, all that was available for 2 days was dry sites, I'm in site 83, a dry site right on the Colorado River, not too far from the bathrooms. A very tight site, particularly if someone is parked in the trailer only parking in front of the sites. There are larger trailers in the adjacent sites, but they must have had clear spaces next to them to get into the site. I had to level side to side as well as a long dip for the front of the trailer; almost the extent of the tongue jack. At $35.00 per night for a dry site (as much as $43.00 per night for full hookups), it appears that Arizona is trying to compete with California on trying for the highest prices! Still, a pretty site, although instead of listening to loud generators like we did at the rodeo grounds, here it is loud boats flying by on the river. At least I suspect they will quit at dark. At the rodeo grounds there was a guy with a construction generator (say LOUD) that started it at 11:00PM, and ran it for a couple of hours.

After making a temporary set up, somewhat hurried since the guy next to me was leaving & couldn't get out of his site until I dropped my truck, I re hooked the trailer & got it in a good position. A site photo is at today's LakeshoreImages page.

After setting up I headed back to the River Island Market & Gas for propane. While I probably could have made it to Quartzsite where the propane is only $2.30 per gallon, I decided not to take the chance (dry camping requires propane to run the refrigerator as well as the stove & furnace), I paid $2.79 a gallon plus tax for the fill up.

If you use your cell phone for a watch, it gets interesting. The campground seems to be on California time for phones. I do remember a 911 call a few years ago from the park that connected me to a California call center. In any case, I shut off automatic time zones and manually set my phone to Phoenix time so I wouldn't be getting me eye drop alarms an hour late.

Dinner was a turkey Bubba burger & asparagus.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 197, Sunday, February 17 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 7

The SARA Rodeo Grounds

Sunday, February 17 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 7 - 0 Miles, 8,176.8 Miles for the Trip

The photos here are running at least a day behind, because it is too late in the day after the fireworks end for me to put together a page. It goes together the next day.  There are more at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Actually, this entire page is a day late, at least for the post here at Blogger.  Sorry!

A somewhat cool, but sunny morning at 44°F. The furnace ran quite a bit between 2:00AM & 8:00AM. I went to the Sea Scots pancake breakfast. It was good, and included good pancakes, sausage, coffee & juice. Not bad for $5.00!

Most of the fiberglass group left today, although there are still 2 Escape 21's here for tonight's show.

I did register for next year's Western Winter Blast. It looks like it will be the week after the Dome Rock fiberglass rally like it was this year.

Dinner was chicken sandwiches, provided by the rodeo grounds.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 196, Saturday, February 16 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 6

Friday Fireworks

Saturday, February 16 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 6 - 0 Miles, 8,176.8 Miles for the Trip

A quiet, sunny day spent hanging around the trailer. I did my usual walk around the campground, and found that the Airstream crowd lives well. In the middle of their group was an outside bar!

Last night we headed up to the next level, parked ourselves along the front wall in a space that didn't have an RV in it. Not a bad location for the photos. They started well before dark. For what ever reason, a column of salutes started on the right end of the main area, and continued for at least 40 minutes. Pretty impressive for at least the first 15 minutes, then you wonder if it is ever going to stop.

As it got darker, the airbursts started to show. I took a bunch of photos, and started a page just for the event. I'll add to it over the weekend.

Dinner was chicken & tri tip barbecue, provided by the rodeo grounds.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 195, Friday, February 15 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 5

Rainy Fireworks

Friday, February 15 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 5 - 0 Miles, 8,176.8 Miles for the Trip

While there were some fireworks last night (the first of 4 days worth), it was during light rain, so there are not too many photos. Most of them have the "wiggles" since I couldn't put the camera on a tripod, but had to handhold so I could tip the camera lens down to keep the raindrops off of it. It is evident that they don't mind shooting off fireworks in the rain, but watching & photographing them is difficult! Still, I did get a few, which can be seen at today's LakeshoreImages page.

I ended up making a couple of trips to town. The first was to ask for a paper prescription for the new eye drops that the doctor at Barnet Dulaney Perkins Eye Center gave me a sample. I checked with my prescription plan & the drops are a tier 3, which is the most expensive with a copay of $30.00 for a 30 day supply, but that is still much cheaper than the over the counter price at $303.76. I'm sure glad I have a prescription plan - just my eye drops alone would run close to $700.00 per month without it. Anyhow, they were not sure they could get a paper prescription to me before I left Lake Havasu since the doctor was off today (and the weekend). Just as I got back to the rodeo grounds, a voice mail told me the paper prescription was ready, so back to town.

Other than driving around Lake Havasu, the day was spent relaxing & reading. The day was/is partially cloudy, and I started out at -50 amp hours, but by 3:30, the solar panels have got that down to -11 amp hours.

Dinner will be chicken tacos, provided by the rodeo grounds.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 194, Thursday, February 14 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 4

Thursday, February 14 , 2019 -SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 4 - 0 Miles, 8,176.8 Miles for the Trip

Happy Valentine's Day!

Another quiet, boring day. It rained most of the night, and all day long. Nothing heavy, but my rain gauge shows 1", enough that flash flooding is predicted for the area. No flooding here at the rodeo grounds, although many parts of the roads & walkways are muddy. At 4:00, I'm still down 35 amp hours from full. The heavy clouds only let an amp or two through to the panels. This is one of the few times I wish I had a small generator. I can hear them running all over the grounds. I did see a 900 watt propane (no gas) Ryobe generator that looked interesting - I'll have to think about it...

Dinner will be a chicken pot pie cooked in the oven.

Until Tomorrow -