Day 123, Thursday, February 20, 2020 - Imperial Dam LTVA, CA, Day 3

Stars & Starlink Satellites

It was a warm night so I sat outside and did a couple of star photos. While in the middle of nowhere, Imperial Dam is a bit too bright for good images. Too bad, because the moon is very late rising so all the extra light is from the ground. You need to look at the large versions to see much of anything. The circle was a one hour exposure. In the above image I may have caught a few of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites. There are a bunch of short streaks in the 31 second exposure. I can't think of any other space objects that would have that group signature.  If the detail is not visible in the above photo, you can see them in the large version of the last image on today's LakeshoreImages page.

Tonight won't be a good time for photos of the stars, light clouds are moving in. Still enough sun to fill the batteries, but cloudy. Lots of wind with 18 MPH peaks and 11 MPH average. It is very drying - the humidity is 15%. I usually don't ever get chapped lips, but I dug out a Big Tent freebie - a chapstick from Pahrump, NV this afternoon.

I had a short visit with an Escape 17 owner that follows my journal on his way to Organ Pipe National Monument. A great place, and good for night photos where there usually isn't much spill light. He was here at Imperial Dam for the last couple of months.

More sitting outside ducking the wind. Current book is Contract Null & Void, by Joe Gores. He has an unusual writing style that I thought I recognized - looked in my "read books" database, and discovered that I read his Gone, No Forwarding in 1999.

Dinner was a grilled chicken thigh & spinach cakes.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 122, Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - Imperial Dam LTVA, CA

The Liberry

I was a bit nervous since my nearest neighbor dragged out a open frame (ie, construction) generator, but he never fired it up. So far there has been enough sun that I haven't needed mine, and as a quiet inverter type generator, I hope it won't annoy folks if I have to use it.

A relaxing night - the furnace never started for the first time in months. I discovered an interesting fact - my AT&T iPhone 10, even though is shows no bars, switched to California time. My Verizon iPhone 7+ stayed on Arizona time.

A bit cloudy this morning, but it cleared up by 11:00AM. I drove to the Liberry (that is the way they spell it), an old Airstream that is gutted & filled with shelves. There are liberrians that shelve the books by genre, and author. If you drop off books, they prefer that you don't shelve them, but like a real library, have a drop off shelf. You can borrow or trade up to 6 books at a time.

I took a couple more photos, including the reservoir, the bathroom (with outdoor showers) the "office" and part of the upper campground. Even though the place is called the Imperial Dam LTVA, it is really on the Senator Wash Dam & Reservoir. Imperial Dam is southeast of the LTVA and has a fancy camping resort (Hidden Shores) that is on the Imperial Dam Reservoir. There is suppose to be a nice restaurant there, but I've never been.  Photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Around 2:00 I headed over to the Squaw Lake BLM Campground on the other side of the Senator Wash Reservoir Dam for a shower. Squaw Lake Campground is a paid BLM campground that has paved sites that are essentially a parking lot, some with grills. The big advantage is bathrooms with showers. They use tokens, of which I have 4, since I only had a $5.00 bill when I went for showers 2 years ago. Glad they still use the same ones! 5 minutes for $1.00. They do run for at least 5 minutes with a nice showerhead, and you better plan for lots of rinse time since the water is very soft. Small rooms with a fold down seat in a separate drying area that will have a wet floor after you shower. 2 hooks for clothes & towel. Overall, a C+ rating, however since there is no alternative but the trailer, well worth the $1.00.

Back at the trailer I sat outside in a light breeze (it is almost always windy at Imperial Dam) and 85°F in the shade. Current book is In Times Like These by Nathan Van Coops, a very slow moving SiFi time travel book. I'm a bit addicted to time travel books, so I'll probably finish this, but unless it gets moving, I'm going to skip the next 3 in the series.

Dinner was a steak, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 121, Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - Imperial Dam LTVA, CA

Gravel Pit at Imperial Dam

Well, after a flush yesterday, and a full tank with gray tank cleaner overnight that I dumped in the morning, the smell is gone. It must be blueberry pie remains since that is about the only food stuff that goes down the drain. I wipe everything before washing, but the blueberry pie sticks to the pans well enough that soaking is the only way to clean them. I filled the tank to 1/3, and will add more tank cleaner to slosh around on the trip to Imperial Dam.

I arrived around 11:00, and the trailer still smells normal, so I'm calling it cured, although I do have to find out why it is leaking odor into the closet.

Imperial Dam LTVA is in California since it is on the other side of the Colorado River, but the only way in is through Arizona, they use Arizona time, and your phone will likely lock on to an Arizona tower, so that makes sense. Yuma is the nearest city with large stores.

I'm in my usual area, just above the Gravel Pit Pavilion. It is usually either empty or just a single RV, but today there are about 5 of us in the area. It is large enough that no one is on top of anyone. Lots of sun & 78°F at 2:00.

After setting up I checked the cell coverage. I haven't been here in a couple of years, and in the past Verizon was all you could get at this level. Now both Verizon & AT&T have a signal, but AT&T is near unusable, even with an amplifier - nothing shows on my iPhone 10. AT&T: -116dBm, 1.7MB down & .3MB up. Verizon: -101dBm with an amplifier, 26.5 MB down & 5.2MB up.

I took a short walk, discovered another Escape (a 17) in another part of the camping area that I might wander to tomorrow.

Dinner was a microwaved Healthy Choice Sweet Sesame Chicken meal.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 120, Monday, February 17, 2020 - Split Rail RV Park, Quartzsite, AZ

Site 28

I packed up, said many good byes, then headed south on AZ 95 around 11:00. The plan was to stay at one of the Quartzsite LTVAs for a night, but I have developed an really bad gray tank odor. Since it is vented to the outside, that should not be a problem, however I suspect there is a bad splice in the vent line that goes through one of my clothes closets. The result is the clothes in the closet, and, to a lesser extent, the entire insides of the trailer stink!

I decided to stay in a place that has full hookups so I could flush the tank, then fill it with a bunch of gray tank cleaner, leave it overnight, and drain in the morning, hoping to solve the problem. I'm in site 28, a full hookup site for $25.00.

So, my 78 day streak of dry camping has ground to a halt. Only for a day since I still plan to head to Imperial Dam tomorrow. Since I'm here for the night, I'll also do a couple of loads of laundry. The machines are pretty small, at least compared to those at the Laundromat in town, so it worked out to 3 loads, both wash & dry. Still less expemsive at $1.50 to wash & $.25 per 15 minutes to dry, than the downtown laundromat.

Dinner was a late lunch at the Chinese restaurant. Very empty - much of the Quartzsite crowd had moved on. I even got a parking space at KB Tools!

I'll probably snack on some cheese & crackers later.

Until Tomorrow -

Day 119, Sunday, February 16, 2020 - SARA Rodeo Grounds, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Day 7

Sunday Fireworks

Another warm day, hitting 74°F mid afternoon. Another day of goofing off. After processing & posting last night's fireworks photos, I sat outside, did some reading, talking, and enjoying the sun. I hit the showers around 2:00.

I'll try to quit shooting (although I probably shouldn't use that term around fireworks) early tonight since the show is not as big as last night's, and since I'll be on the road tomorrow morning.

As you can see, I did quit early & put the pages together around 8:30. Lots of "blasts" still going on, but I can watch them out my back window, and I have hundreds of photos of them.  Both last night's & tonight's photos are linked at my 2020 Western Winter Blast page.

Dinner was a BBQ Chicken sandwich, beans & potato salad with Chips & Water. The beans were canned, but the potato salad and the chicken were excellent.

Until Tomorrow -