2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 46

Day 46, Wednesday, December 3, 2025 - La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ, Day 4 - 0 Miles, 3,449.7 Miles for the Trip

Another cool morning at 48°F. Still, few clouds so it warmed up quickly. 50°F for my morning walk & 61°F by 11:00. 

I read moat of the morning after breakfast, then gathered my clothes for a trip to the laundry. I went to the Kofa Laundromat which I prefer to the 16th St laundromat. $2.00 to wash in a standard top loading machine (they do have a few large load front loaders) and 8 minutes per $.25 to dry. For my three washer loads in 2 large dryers it took 40 minutes to dry on high. 

I finished Terra Incognita by Connie Willis, and started Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler while waiting for my clothes to dry.

The plan was to grill a chicken thigh, but by the time I got home from doing laundry the predicted 30MPH wind gusts were happening. It is suppose to be less windy tomorrow so I'll wait on the chicken until then.

Dinner was a Lean Cuisne Sesame Chicken Bowl.

Until Next Time - 

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 44

Day 44, Monday, December 1, 2025 - La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 3,449.7 Miles for the Trip

A warm night, only going down to 61°F. It was 63°F and windy when I went for my walk. I wore shorts & a "T" shirt - should have stayed with the long pants and a long sleeved shirt. 

Around 10:30 the big Class A pulled out of site 10 & I moved in, my shortest move of the trip. I have a much better view out the back window - while there are a few RVs between me & the Colorado River, I can see quite a bit of it. 

While I usually do photos of other things, I did take a selfie of me with & mostly without beard:

Before

After

After lunch I headed to Walmart. Busy, as usual with a 10 minute wait at the check out. Still can't find grape Gatorade Zero in the half liter bottles, but the rest of my list went well.

Back at the trailer I read for a bit. Can't seem to get into Robert Galbraith's (J. K. Rowling) The Hallmarked Man, but I waited so long that I feel like I should finish it. I enjoyed most of the other Cormoran Strike novels, so I'm not sure why this one isn't working. I finished listening to First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston and started listening to Evil Eye by Joyce Carol Oates.

Starting today and for the next two months, the daily price for my site works out to $14.00. Lots of lawn since it is a corner site, but unfortunately, it is on the wrong side of the trailer. Still, it is a nice large site with a picnic table that already has a cover. I checked the propane tanks and my project for tomorrow it to get the empty one filled.

Site 10

Dinner was an Amy's Enchilada Bowl.

Until Next Time - 

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 43

Day 43, Sunday, November 30, 2025 - La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ - 204.7 Miles, 3,449.7 Miles for the Trip

Not as cold in Apache Junction at 40°F this morning, but the furnace ran enough to pull the batteries down to 32% or -222 amp hours according to the Victron battery monitor, the lowest they have been since they were installed. By the time I reached Parker they were back to 52%, and with the converter connected to a pedestal, up to 62% by dinner.

I packed up the trailer and headed out to Parker, AZ. One of the reasons I made a 2 day reservation (well, I thought I made a 2 day reservation) was to avoid driving on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Actually, the traffic wasn't too bad. Of course I 10 through Phoenix was busy, but no stop & go and it settled to comfortable driving after the I 10 got down from 7 lanes to 2. I got a call from my son - the hot water is back on. 

I stopped at the Safeway in Parker for a couple of things, then headed to the park. I checked in and am in site 74 for the night which is a pull through across from site 10 where I'll move to tomorrow. Water & electric on gravel with 2 picnic tables, both on the wrong side of the trailer. Level enough to work without lifts or unhooking. $38.50 for the night. The average cost will be far less per night when I move to site 10.

Site 74

I went for a walk since I had skipped my usual morning one. The Roadrunner bar & cafe is open and much improved over what it was the last time I saw it open (it was closed the last time I was here). 

Back at the trailer I made my usual Sunday phone calls, and shaved off my beard.  Well, not completely off, but buzzed to a #3 with my trimmer.  It had reached a length that, rather than getting longer, just curled more & more and felt like a Brillo pad on my chin.  

Dinner was a P. F. Chang's Chicken Lo Mein bowl.

Until Next Time - 

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 42

Day 42, Saturday, November 29, 2025 - Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ - 269.1 Miles, 3,245 Miles for the Trip

36°F at 6:00AM. After breakfast I packed up the trailer and headed out. For some reason my GPS wanted me on I 10 through Tucson, all the way to the edge of Phoenix, then back 20 miles to Apache Junction. In the past I switched to AZ 79 at Tucson & I should have this time. An extra 50 miles or so, and lots of stop & go on I 10 between Tucson & Phoenix. 

A big surprise when I got here. I somehow reserved December 29 & 30 rather than November 29 & 30. So, no reservation. Lucky, they had one open site that I'd fit in. I'm in site 112 for one night. A dry site on asphalt with a picnic table & fire ring/grill. $35.00 for one night. A 1 1/2" lift to the passenger side & 1" lift to the tongue to level the trailer. The site is labled as 43' deep; my combined length is 43' but I still have 4' behind the trailer so they seem to be conservative on their site lengths.

Site 112

I called La Paz County Park (where I'm staying December 1 - February 28) and asked if I could get into my site one day early or if they had an empty site for a night. Unfortunately, someone is in site 10 until the 1st, but they found another site so at least I'll have a place to stay.

My site here is in a pretty location - the Superstition mountains behind the trailer and the moon rising above them.

After setting up I headed for the showers. The nearest building is quite a walk, but at least the showers are inside. One of the other buildings has showers on the back side of the bathrooms and the doors on most of them are broken from being blown by the wind. 2 showers, 1 disabled. I used the regular shower. A 2" medium pressure shower head with plenty of adjustable hot water. Large shower stall with a small soap dish. The drying area is smaller than the shower, but has a bench & 2 hooks. There is a shower curtain between the two areas, but the entire drying area floor still gets wet. Very dark, and while I didn't need it today with the 70°F outside temperature, it looks like it would be cold later in the winter. Overall, a B-.

I checked the speed of AT&T - 65.46Mbps down & 11.50Mbps up. 

By the time I got back to the trailer & finished setting up it was time for dinner which was Tabatchnick Vegetarian Chili.

While there was a nice sunset, it is in the wrong direction, since the Superstitions are to the East of the park. I did get a nice warm photo of the mountain:

I'll try for some star photos. If I get anything worthwhile, I'll post them with tomorrow's journal.

Until Next Time - 

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 41

Day 41, Friday, November 28, 2025 - Whitewater Draw, McNeal, AZ, Day 3 - 0 Miles, 2,975.9 Miles for the Trip

I got a call at 7:30AM from my son - the hot water at the house is out AGAIN. I really need to find a better solution for making hot water than the Amtrol BoilerMate. While it does provide plentiful even temperature hot water, I've had to replace the zone valve that feeds it 3 times in the last 6 years. Maybe I should find something other than the Taco Heat Motor zone valve, although the same ones that control the two heating zones in the house have worked for over 30 years.

A little warmer last night at 40°F. After breakfast I did my part for Black Friday & ordered my granddaughter's birthday (Asher) and Christmas presents for both. 

Very busy lower parking lot including a large class A RV. I'm the only one overnighting in the RV overnight loop, but since the lower lot looks filled, day trippers have started parking here. 

Light clouds are letting enough sun on the solar panels to bring up the batteries from 39% this morning to 45% by 11:00AM. It sure would be nice to tilt the panels to increase the output, but I can only tilt them to the rear of the trailer & I'm not parked with the back of the trailer to the south. Because of the low path of the sun, this time of the year flat panels are at their least output. I'm only getting 150 watts out of 320 watts worth of panels. 

For those that have not seen Goat heads, here is an example:

Around 1:00 I went for my morning walk, taking the Z8 with my old 80-400 Nikkor zoom. While much heavier than the 28-400, I feel it is a bit sharper. In any case, here are 4 more Sandhill Crane images. I also found part of the pond that has some white geese that I'm guessing are Snow Geese.

Up to 79°F in the trailer with the MAXX fan running, and 74°F outside. The batteries are up to 52%. The camping loop got crowded. There are now 5 of us in the circle. I'm not even the smallest!

I decided to try for the incoming mass of birds. While not as massive as the first night, there were quite a few.

As usual, many more images at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Dinner was a Healthy Choice Chicken Alfredo.

Until Next Time -