Day 53, Thursday, December 22, 2016, La Posa West, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 5

Thursday, December 22, 2016, La Posa West, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 5, 0 Miles, 3,855.7 Miles For the Trip

Dinner last night was cooked inside, one of the few times I did anything but soup on the inside stove.

It rained off & on most of the night, and the morning broke (actually, sighed is a better term) to gray skies with rain & fog. I decided not to walk to town for coffee, but instead drive to Sweet Darlene's for breakfast. Sweet Darlene's is my favorite restaurant for dinner, but I've never been there for breakfast. The bacon & eggs were OK, but very slow in arriving. On the way back to the campground I filled up the Tacoma tank at the local Cheveron gas station, $.05 cheaper than the rest of the stations in Quartzsite.

After breakfast I sat in the trailer reading. While the rain stopped, it is still cloudy, foggy, and too cool to sit outside. I'm not getting much from the solar panels - I'm down by 35 amp hours as of 1:30, and the panels are just breaking even with the basic power use by the trailer. I did start the truck with the trailer plugged into the inverter just to keep breaking even while putting out today's journal. With both the solar panels putting out 2 amps & the converter about 10 amps, I'm getting a little ahead, but running the truck to provide 10 amps of charging is pretty inefficient.

After posting the journal, I'll go back to reading & relaxing for the afternoon. No photos today. Speaking of photos, I just ordered a replacement cable to go between my GPS & cameras. I believe the bad cable was what was causing the D700 to crash, but won't know for sure until I use the replacement GPS for awhile. I don't like the Marrex MX-G20M replacement GPS as much as the Solmeta Pro I usually use because the Marrex is very slow to lock on to the satellites. The Solmeta locks on within half a minute, even if you have traveled aways from the last use. The Marrex usually takes 5-10 minutes.

The replacement cable comes from China, and getting it shipped to General Delivery here at Quartzsite is a problem. The Postal Service doesn't accept UPS & FedEx packages, and while it might be possible to get the shipment done to general delivery as mail, that would take much longer.  Plus, General Delivery at Quartzsite is difficult.  They only open one window, for a couple of hours per day, and shut it down exactly on schedule even if there is a long line waiting.  Sometimes, the line is out the door of the Post Office.

Thankfully, there is a solution - Quiet Times is a store that will accept packages & mail, as long as it is addressed properly. They charge $1.00 for small packages & $2.00 for larger ones. You do have to address it exactly - they give you a card that has the correct address. I used it last year & it worked; we will see how it works with a delivery from China.

That's about it for the day. Dinner will depend on the weather - soup inside or a grilled brat if it isn't raining.

Until Tomorrow -