A full waste tank requires immediate attention!
I hitch the Casita to the Perfect Tow Vehicle and drive us over to Caballo Lake State Park in search of a dump station. We find one at Appaloosa Campground where we camped previously. Before dumping, I take photos of the pretty view.
The colors have not been softened by the camera. This is how Caballo Mountain and Caballo Lake look in early December.
Imagine such a lowly task in this magnificent setting!
Appaloosa Campground on the lake side of the dam is elevated, allowing a good view of the lake.
I decide to camp on the other side of the dam in Riverside Campground.
Although it doesn’t look like it in this photo, I park the Perfect Tow Vehicle away from tree branches. I don’t want anything falling on my new solar collector.
The forecast is for more snow, possibly more wind, too.
The lower elevation and surrounding embankments at Riverside give some protection from the wind. I park the Casita and unhitch. The crew and I drive up to the self-pay station and deposit a check for $8 (two nights). We keep on going out of the campground, get on I-25 and make the short trip north to Truth or Consequences.
I need to go to Walmart.
I’m thinking I need a battery for my dead computer, but Walmart doesn’t have it. As I’m scooting around the store loading my cart with provisions, I bump into Chuck and Geri!
Later, out in the parking lot, I call Bill and Kathy as previously arranged.
Bill wants to explain a device he’s going to fabricate that will help make tilting the solar panel more manageable for me. See, Bill envisions my little fingers losing a grip on the panel as I’m putting the pins in the support bars, resulting in the lovely, brand-new, solar collector crashing down on the roof. When he’s really wound up, he sees me losing my balance while trying to raise the panel, causing me to fall backwards off the ladder, scaring the daylights out of the crew and incapacitating myself forever.
Bill and Kathy tell me to stay put in the Walmart parking lot.
In a few minutes they pull up in their Jeep. The first thing Bill does is check my laptop. He plugs the laptop power cord into the inverter inside the PTV and it starts charging the laptop. Last night the laptop would not charge at all. It died and stayed dead. Now it’s charging! Hooray! No need to buy a battery!
Bill takes some measurements off the solar panel, Kathy hands me a piece of pumpkin pie wrapped on a paper plate, and we all decide to meet at my campsite in the morning. Bill will make the device today and install it tomorrow.
See why the crew and I can’t get out of New Mexico?
Friends keep doing good things for us!
rvsue
Yes, I am, in many ways.
I agree withJools…..I am so grateful to all your friends who have been taking care of you. Pray for you and the crew every night and have added “and all her rving friends” At first I pictured you out there in the desert all alone, needing help and here we are in Mississippi. I do sleep better knowing you have such good friends.
Hug the crew for me and a BIG HUG to you, Dear Sister
I love you much
Pauline
Hi, Pauline!
Now I know why everything seems to be going my way! You’ve been praying for me!
A big hug back at you . . . I love you, too.
what amazing pictures. one day when I retire my dream is the same, motor home, a bike, good camera, lap top, cell phone, of course an ipad to. and away I go to log my adventures. keep living the dream for us, until we can join you on the highway. You are truly blessed to have such good people in your life, I hope some day I am as lucky.. keep posting
Set your heart and mind on the goal and make it happen!
PS sorry forgot have to bring my cats and my rat ha ha… and what ever animals i acquire till then.
Just be careful not to get too many animals and find yourself in the position I was in . . .having to find a home for and say goodbye to a dog I didn’t have room for (See posts about Janie in May and July archives,)
New Mexico seems to be a very friendly place!
Yes, Cathie, it is! I really like New Mexico. I guess that’s pretty obvious.
Oh, there’s crime, drunk drivers, the usual problems . . . The places I frequent, mostly campgrounds, draw people who are looking to enjoy themselves, not make trouble. And people in campgrounds, I’ve found, are very helpful and friendly.
Have not posted in a while! My dream to travel like you seems to be farther and farther away. But I will continue to hope for it by following your lead! Glad you and the crew are safe and have your friends. God Bless you through this holiday season! <
Hello, Patti!
It’s nice to hear from you again. I’m sorry to hear your dream seems farther away. Continue to hope and continue to plan! Even if all you can do is take tiny baby steps toward your goal, each step does bring you closer. I must have told that to myself a million times over the years leading up to my vagabond life.
Best wishes to you . . .
Listen to Bill. I’m glad he’s thinking of challenges and solutions especially regarding your safety and that of your equipment. It would definitely put a damper on your life if either of the scenarios he’s concerned about happened. I think I would just leave the solar flat until a situation occurred where I really NEEDED to tilt it. But in all honesty, more from laziness than safety. 🙂
I hear ya,’ Reine!
Obviously you are living RIGHT to have such great people thinking of you and helping you out. Pie and technical design, who could ask for more. I love the great people who have come into your life just when you need them. Synchronicity at its VERY best!!
Sherry
http://www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com
what happens if you ever get stuck in hail with the PTV?
Have a wonderful Monday.
Hi, Francy!
First, I hope and pray my good fortune continues and I never face that situation. If I do, I wrap the panel with a thick blanket or cover it with something like a piece of cardboard, and continue praying.
Happy Monday to you, too!
Sue,
I don’t remember if you read the Technomadia blog or not, but she has a post up on WordPress.
She is a computer geek so should know what she is talking about.
http://www.technomadia.com/2011/11/new-stuff-at-technomadia-com/
Bill Kelleher
Thanks, Bill!
I do check in on them from time to time. I’m sure the day will come when I tackle the job of reorganizing my blog, and they have a lot of info about that.
One of these days I’m going to find a great place to take a panoramic photo of the PTV and Casita together to make my own, personal and unique, header. One of these days . . . .
Great seeing you at WallyWorld. Don’t forget RV antifreeze of some type down shower trap!
Chuck
Hi, Chuck!
I bought a big jug of antifreeze at Walmart. It doesn’t say how much to put down the drain. Do I pour all of it in? Should I put some down the toilet, too? Or does the black tank produce (ahem) its own heat? What about the fresh water tank? Help, anybody?
Chuck says to pour about 1/2 cup down the shower trap, nothing in toilet. He also says to keep the heater on and all your cupboard doors open.
Hi, Sue and crew
Well, I just got caught up again on your last 4 blogs.
I really enjoy the pics you include with your witty, insightful commentary.
I had my first chili rellenos in a Mexican joint in San Diego …around 1978. Order them just about every place I find them. That and huevo rancheros for breakfast are my favorite Southwest fare.
Now that you have joined the solar society, you can claim to be “going green”.
I just read something funny I’ll share:
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Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”
The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
She was right —
our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator or elevator in every store and office building.
We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn’t have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in
conservation from a smartass young person.
Remember: Don’t make old people mad. We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off.
Thanks, Bob!
And for fun, children ran around outside instead of playing with electronic toys in a climate-controlled house . . .
We got a misty snow shower happening right now. 10:40 am and 24 degrees in Truth or Consequences! The snow is sticking and even though it’s a fine mist, it’s coming down pretty fast. Bill might not be able to install the new solar gizmo if the snow and cold won’t let up! Good Luck to you with this project!