2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 107

Day 107, Monday, February 2, 2026 - Dome Rock BLM, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 3,500 Miles for the Trip

47°F overnight, 59°F for my morning walk, and at Quartzsite, °83F by noon which was the high for the day since the clouds moved in. At 1:00 it was down to 77°F.

While it cooled off in the early morning, overnight wasn't too bad. The furnace, set at 60°F didn't come on except for a couple of short runs around 6:00AM. I made a loop of the area for my morning walk. Lots of fiberglass trailers here, although there are also many sun blockers of all types scattered amongst us. After breakfast the batteries were at 88%. 

I still have one more reservation to make for my trip home. A new campground, Stony Creek has the strangest reservation system I've run into. When I called a couple of months ago they told me they don't take reservations until February 2nd. When I called today & was told to "Press 1" for reservations it switched me to someone that put me on a reservation call back list. They said they wouldn't get to me until Wednesday because they were still doing callbacks from yesterday. Since they told me that reservations started today I'm confused. Anyhow, I hope to hear from them since the choices in the area are slim.

I finished Brian W. Aldiss's Space, Time & Nathaniel, and started a collection of Joyce Carol Oates - Night, Neon.

I decided to tilt the solar panels. I might have gotten away without tilting them, but around 11:00 I was only seeing 56 watts from the pair of 160 watt panels. It took around 20 minutes to tilt both panels & it went up to 190 watts. When there was a clear section of southern sky they peaked at 250 watts, and eventually switched out of the bulk mode, balanced the battery cells during the absorption stage, then switched to float.

The Tilted Panels

If you look closely, you may notice a 20 pound tank running the grill. I don't know what is up with my 5 pound tank, but it stops producing propane when it is around 1/2 empty. So, it is back in the truck. I'm glad I had room for my extra 20 pound tank; I usually don't carry it unless I bring my propane generator.

While I do like my location, two things I don't like is a generator running all day behind me, and the same trailer & the one next to it have dogs that bark at anything that moves. 

I made a run to town for my bag of kettle corn. It is quite different here in the southwest than at home. I don't know how they get the kernels to be as large as they are, but it makes better kettle corn. I also stopped at the Coyote Market for some deli ribs, green beans & mac & cheese. I've had better, but that was linter (combined lunch & dinner).

Dinner was the afternoon ribs.

Until Next Time -