Saturday, February 3, 2024 - Dome Rock, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 3 - 0 Miles, 3,452.3 Miles for the trip
A cold morning for my walk - around 44°F. Walking at Quartzsite is a bit more difficult than at La Paz County Park. Most of the roads at La Paz are either paved or smoothed gravel or dirt. Here all the "roads" are dirt with lots of rocks, both large & small in the middle of them. You need to keep an eye where you are stepping. A few years back I tripped on a rock & did in my wrist badly enough that I need physical therapy when I got back to Oswego. It doesn't help that the glaucoma in my left eye cuts down my peripheral vision.
With the clear skies, it warmed up substantially by 1:00 - it is now 61°F and feels even warmer in the sun. I made my rounds for a couple of photographs in a "T" shirt (well, I also wore pants).
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| The Musical Clam |
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| Happy Campers |
More at the 2024 Quartzsite Gathering Page.
There is a car/tent camper in the lower section of the area that has what looks like a month's worth of garbage bags in a pile. I sure hope he takes them all when he leaves. They don't really enforce the 14 day limit here - I see folks that have been in Dome Rock all winter.
I did my good deed for the day checking a Casita and Renogy portable panel with a charging problem. The two companies have different ideas of what the polarity of an SAE connector should be. Used my multimeter to check positives & negatives and the were not the same. I reversed the wires coming out of the solar controller and everything is now working fine.
Since I'm at 99% full on my batteries and still putting 12.25 amps into them, I decided it is a good time to charge my 120V stuff such as my toothbrush & Nikon camera battery. While they don't take all that much, the inverter wastes a couple of amps any time it is on. Right now the solar controller is putting out 16.5 amps, and since the batteries are taking in 12.25, that means I'm using 4.25 amps for everything else. The background stuff in the trailer takes up 1 1/2 amps, so the extras the inverter is using for itself and a couple of chargers is 2.75 amps. Again, not all that much, but I might as well make use of the sun when it is shining.
I also had Ramen Noodles for lunch and the hot pot draws 50 amps (at 12V) for 5 minutes, so that uses up a couple of amp hours. The batteries were back to full by 4:15.
I'm now a happy man. I made a run to town, stopped for my 14 day permit, and bought a bag of Kettle Corn. The kettle corn from the stand across from Silly Al's pizza is not as good as what I got from the boy scouts still warm & straight from the kettle, but it is a close second, and beats anything I've found back east. I've waited the entire trip for the chance to buy a bag. Like everything else, the price has gone up - $14.00 for a large bag. When I started many years ago it was $8.00.
I also stopped at the Coyote Market for a chicken quarter and decided to pick up some pre cooked ribs for tonight's dinner. While they looked OK, I've had much better. In fact, I think the only worse ones were the ones I cooked on the Weber Q grill. Since the Weber Q only has one burner that covers the entire surface, there is no indirect heating, essential for ribs. I tried it anyway, keeping the temperature around 200°F, and they were slightly more tender than rocks.
So, dinner was early - barbecued ribs & mac & Cheese.
Until Tomorrow -
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