Day 52, La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 3

Not a bad night - the low was 46°F while today's high was 67°F. I did my first walk to the 76 gas station for coffee. Same price as last year - $1.20 for my 24 oz mug. It does seem like the walk is getting longer each year!

By the way, for those of you that have not followed my journal before, once I get to Quartzsite things get kind of dull. There isn't a lot to do in Quartzsite, although I do try to get away from the campsite every day.

After breakfast & reading some on line forums & journals, I set up some of the campsite stuff. My plastic 9' X 12' ground cloth is out in front of the door, the weather station on its pole as is the glow ball, I put out a hummingbird feeder which was immediately found by the bees, and an hour later, a hummingbird (a Ruby Throated). I have another humming bird hanging crook that has a hummingbird lighted wind chime.

I still didn't tilt the solar panels. They are keeping up with my usage - They produced 740 watt hours yesterday & 850 watt hours today (or about 56 & 63 amp hours). Part of that goes back into the batteries, and part runs the trailer during daylight hours. I may tilt them anyway, but I want to go for a week or so to be able to compare flat vs tilted panels with the lithium batteries. Tilting made a big difference with my former lead acid batteries, but because the lithium charge so fast, even if I start out down 45 - 50 amp hours, I find them fully charged by 4:00 or so with just the 320 watts on the roof. That may change with a string of cloudy weather.

Around 3:30 I headed to the Dollar Store for a couple of Christmas cards for the granddaughters. Not a lot of choice, but that's Quartzsite I stopped at the Quartzsite General Store for a NY Strip Steak & some cookies, There are 2 grocery stores in Quartzsite; the Roadrunner Market & the General Store. I prefer the General Store for meat, while the Roadrunner Market usually has better produce. On the way back to the campsite I dropped the cards off at the Post Office. Busy as usual.

While I cooked the whole thing, dinner was 1/2 the NY Strip Steak & a salad - I'll make tacos out of the other half tomorrow.

Until Next Time -