2021 - 2022 Trip To The Southwest, Day 52

 Saturday, December 11, 2021, La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 3

Last Night's Sunset

While far from the best Quartzsite sunset, I took this with the iPhone's wide angle lens.

Ten degrees cooler than last night; it was 37°F this morning. I decided it would be a great day for biscuits & gravy at the Bad Boy Cafe, a small restaurant about 1/2 way to the 76 gas station. At the traffic light at Kuehn St I looked east & while the building was still there (unlike Darleen's) no cars parked in front. The only time I've seen the front empty except on Tuesdays, when they are closed, so I suspect they are not open. I hope it is just too early, but I'll walk down to check tomorrow. So, on to the 76 station for a mug of coffee, and back to the trailer for a microwaved Jimmy Dean Biscuit & Sausage. Not quite as good as the real thing, but so far, the only Jimmy Dean breakfast meal I like.

Not a cloud in the sky, and the solar panels are putting out 240 watts at 11:30AM. I'm still down enough (67% & -106 amp hours) that I'm considering digging out the portable panel. By dark, the best the rooftop panels would be able to produce would be around half what I needed to get to 100%. So, I dug out the portable. I wanted to harvest as much sun as possible, at least for today, so I didn't assemble the frame I made out of 3/4" PVC tubing. I'll put it together & tie the panel to it once the batteries are full. Right now, the combination of the roof top and portable panels is around 470 watts. With the clear sky & the panels almost perpendicular, that is about as good as it is going to get.

I tried to do some internet forum reading, but both AT&T and Verizon are overloaded to the point where it is a waste of time. AT&T was fine for internet radio this morning at 5:00AM, so I'm pretty sure the slowdown is due to overloaded towers. Maybe it isn't worth fixing for the 6 months of the year that Quartzsite is filled with RVers, but I can't believe they are not getting lots of complaints. Of course you need to have internet access to complain so...

I sat outside in the sun and read for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually, with the medium wind & 59°F temperature, I moved inside the trailer. At 4:00 the batteries were full & the solar controller went into the float mode, just producing enough output to produce the 1.8 amps or so that the trailer regularly uses. 

Dinner was a trip to the Chinese Restaurant for takeout. The best Chinese food in Quartzsite (since it is the only Chinese restaurant). Different from the stuff at home, but then, every Chinese restaurant I've eaten in has different stuff with the same name. You get enough for at least 2 meals for $14.70 with tax. They have an eat in area, however I brought it home. I took a photo of the place on the way out. Usually, when I take photos with my iPhone I put my finger over the lens. This time I just managed to crop out the start of the sign.  

The Chinese Restaurant

Until Tomorrow -