Day 133, Sunday, March 1, 2020 - Sunny Flats Forest Service Campground, Portal, AZ

Site 13

As predicted, I'm out of cell service, and won't be updating until I drive 5 miles to a Verizon cell signal or Wednesday when I head east. Not a bad drive on AZ 80. When I arrived at Sunny Flats, there were 3 sites available. I chose #13, one I've been in before. Deep enough that I don't need to unhook the truck, and fairly level, although I did use a pair of Anderson levelers to level side to side. A bit of a slope front & back to the site, in fact rather exciting when setting up.

I used my "One Step" between wheel step on chocks, which have worked well everywhere else, but when I lifted the tongue off the ball, the chock slid on the asphalt surface, the trailer twisted to one side and slid off the pair of Lego blocks I had under the tongue jack. When I went to lift the tongue jack enough to put the ball back under the tongue, it wouldn't go high enough for the ball to clear the tongue. I backed the truck so the edge of the stinger was under the front of the tongue. Careful jacking let me slide 3 loge blocks under the foot, and all was fixed. It would have been interesting if I couldn't catch the lip of the tongue with the stinger - finding another way to lift 500 pounds of tongue weight doesn't sound like fun.

Other than that, set up was simple. Site 13 is a dry site for $10.00 per night with the Senior Pass. A beautiful location and the site is one of the few that both fits the 21 & has a clear view of the sky for the solar panels. I'm glad I came in with a full charge - heavy clouds, windy, and cool at 58°F at 10:00.

I took a walk around the campground & took a few photos, including some of the sites too shallow for an Escape 21. The folks in Site 12, another of my favorites, just left, but I will stay here in #13. Site #12 has a covered picnic table, nice in the heat of the summer or bad weather, but not necessary now.

There is a host this time (None in the Fall stop) that I chatted with for a bit. The trailer next door to him has an open frame construction generator I can hear from my site...

A van from Alaska just pulled in. Small world; they were parked behind me at Whitewater Wash.

It never did warm up much during the day - a high of 60°F for the day. Still lots of wind, a few more RVs into the campground, but as of 2:13PM, site 12 is still empty. I like to take night photos here since it is so far from any bright lights, but with the heavy cloud cover I doubt there will be much chance for good photos tonight.

Dinner was a microwaved Healthy Choice General Tso's Spicy Chicken dinner.

Until Tomorrow -