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| Site 77, Jumbo Rocks |
It got cold enough for the furnace last night - down to 41°F. The clouds did clear a bit so I took a couple of photos early enough that the moon was still around the curve of the earth. A bit of the sunset in the images and lots of airplanes; nothing special, but I included a couple.
I think I must have washed off a layer of "protection" with the shower. It wasn't any colder in the trailer overnight, but Monday I on the bed reading in shorts & no blanket, while doing the same last night I got cold enough to put on a long sleeve "T" shirt, a sweater, and full length pajama bottoms, and duck under my old army poncho liner. I don't understand...
No problem getting to Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park. While the ranger at the gate said there shouldn't be a problem finding a site, there were not that many choices. Most of the sites are tent sites with a parking space, and the few that are long enough for both the truck & trailer have RVs in them already. The one I found required quite a bit of jockeying around to get the trailer off the road & leave room for the truck. Of course, after I was set up the person in the site in front of me pulled out, leaving more room to park the trailer. Since I was already set up, I left it where it was.
I'm in site 77, at the far end of the campground for 4 days. $7.50 per night with the senior card for dry camping, and they do mean dry - no water available anywhere in the campground. While I was back at the front of the park paying for the site, someone moved in in front of me with a small trailer. There is just enough room for both of us. There is now a continuous stream of trailers, truck campers, vans & cars circling the one way loop in front of the site. I walked around the campground, and while there are a few back in tent sites with just enough room for one car, the place is pretty much filled. I did see a good sized Class C pull in & park across a bunch of tent site parking spaces - I hope he is planning on paying for 3 sites. He did look old enough that at $7.50 a site it is still less expensive than a single California State Park dry campsite!
I looked for both Verizon & AT&T service at the campsite. No AT&T phone or data, even with an amplifier, and only 1X Verizon service with the amp. 1X doesn't do data, so I will have to drive to the park entrance to post the pages. As you drive along the road through the park, Verizon goes from 4G LTE to nothing. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be pull offs at the places where there is a signal. I am now in town with a good 3G signal.
I checked on the nearest Walmart & Toyota dealer (I'm within 400 miles of my 30,000 mile service) and Matilda, my GPS tells me they are both only 20 miles away in Indigo. If I actually enter the route, it comes out to 85 miles & 1:45 minutes to get there. I don't remember if there is a grocery store in 29 Palms (the town nearest the park). I do remember last year driving to the one the GPS suggested, and finding a house. Actually, I can live with what is in the refrigerator. I think I'll wait on the truck until Quartzsite. There is a Toyota dealer in Lake Havasu City about 85 miles away, and a couple in Phoenix and Yuma.
The normal door side campground photo is kinda boring, but looking out my kitchen window is nice. The afternoon light on the rocks is wonderful, at least it was last time I was here. Today there are fairly heavy clouds covering most of the sky. Might produce a decent sunset, but I don't think I'll be doing and star photos tonight. I did walk around the space behind my site & took a few images using the soft light the clouds produced. Photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.
I'm not sure if I'll get out of the park to post this today, but if not, I'll do it tomorrow.
Dinner will be a Bubba Burger & Chips.
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