Sunday, December 20, 2020

Moving West

 This morning at 8 o'clock, Yuma was on the floor barking for me to get up.  I guess my night is over.  He was a little confused when he stepped outside and couldn't see his friend Tom's place up the road.   

Yuma had his breakfast and I had my crackers made and when I was on my second cup of coffee we decided to walk up to our neighbors place and have a last visit together in Ajo.  We chatted and Deb asked me to come for Christmas dinner this Friday.  I said I would hunt them down for a free dinner. πŸ˜ƒ

Yuma next to his buddy!

Got his cracker and now bored and wants to go home.

The end of our Ajo adventure is near at hand
Left their place at 11 o'clock with the hopes of getting on the road by noon.  And sure enough, we were waving goodbye at exactly noon.


I made a stop at Belly Acres to dump tanks and to take on 100 gallons of water, I hope.  The reason I hope, is because the last time I took on water in Tucson it didn't go so well.  I was at the Fairground RV Park and as I was leaving I filled the tank to 100 gallons and when it hit the overflow I turned off the water and waited for the overflow to stop.  It stopped after dumping 50 gallons of water on the ground.  What a bummer!πŸ˜–  Must have been a fluke, so like a dummy I turned the water back on again and it did the same thing!  100 gallons on the ground now.

I decided to worry about the problem later and left with 50 gallons instead of the 100.  When I was in Ajo I talked with Tom and he went through his procedures for filling his tank and there were a few steps I hadn't done with my filling.  That evening, I pulled out the RV manual and read the part about filling the fresh water tank.  I found that after filling, you should turn off the water AND then turn off the fill with city water knob too.  I missed that step!

So, when it started overflowing the back pressure pushed out the water until the level was even--50 gallons!  I should read the manual more oftenπŸ‘²

It was noon when we left Belly Acres heading 40 miles north towards Gila Bend on hwy 85 to connect to I-8.

Asked me if I was an American citizen and sent me on my way.

Before hitting that mountain I turn West on I-8.

It was 112 miles to Yuma.  The road was excellent and mostly flat.  I tried the cruise control and it works great on flat land and small hills.

It's flat

Stopped at one rest area to give Yuma a break and then another stop for diesel.  I didn't want to get it in Yuma because it's crowded.   Before we knew it we were going through the Fortuna Foothills and down into the Colorado River Valley.

Fortuna Foothills.

There's Yuma down there.

Soon I was at the RV Connections.


It was 5 o'clock when we arrived.  Decided to call the nearest Walmart and see if they would let me stay the night and the young lady checked and said it was okay.  First time I ever called to check.πŸ‘†  Only 5 miles down the road and I need lots of groceries anyway.

Drove over and spent a good hour getting $160 worth of groceries and then by this time it was nearly 7 o'clock and past time to make dinner.  Didn't want to pull the grill out in their parking lot so I made a great ham sandwich (my standby) for dinner with chips and dip.

I was eating away about 8 o'clock when I got a knock at the door.  It was security telling me I couldn't stay overnight.  I guess the city has an ordinance preventing overnight camping in the city limits.  Glad they didn't wait till midnight to tell me.πŸ‘¨  Well, after dinner I drove back over to RV Connections and hopefully I'm left alone for the night.

I'm finishing my blog at 10 o'clock now and it is time to hit the sack.  See you later.

14 comments:

  1. Glad you made it to Yuma. Yuma will miss Tom and his Graham cracker in the morning. Very nice of Tom and Deb is ask you over for Christmas. Hope you get your new batteries installed with no problems.

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  2. Thanks Dolly. I hope so too. It will be nice to have full solar power and the batteries to hold that power.

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  3. Yup they have an ordinance ... you cannot stay anywhere in Yuma except at an RV park. I'm surprised the Walmart gal didn't know that. I have to admit having new batteries on my rig was exciting. Especially with your solar setup!

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    1. Oh well. There are many boondocking places around Yuma. I have a couple hundred watt solar panels and an inverter that I keep as a spare. If we meet up I can let you try them out and you can see if you like this boondocking life at all without investing money. πŸ˜€

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  4. Wow that was quite the story about the water! At least now you know! Too bad about Walmart, hopefully you had a good night once you moved. How nice to go to Tom and Deb's for Christmas dinner :) Hope all goes well today!

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    1. Thanks Shirley. Excited about getting the batteries. There normally is no need to stay in town with all the boondocking places outside of Yuma. I'm ready for Xmas dinner. πŸ˜€

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  5. Doug I read your blog every winter. When we were not strapped to our doctor's in Tucson we stayed at our daughter's place in Yuma. Point being always saw RV's parked at Walmart. We all spend our money there. What a shame.
    Go and enjoy yourself this winter with the White Lion. Be thankful we can boondock.

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    1. Thanks Vicdon. Yuma is changing. Glad you are tagging along. You're right. There are lots of boondocking places outside Yuma πŸ˜€

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  6. Glad you had a safe trip and will see Tom and Deb for Christmas.
    Walmart's policy allows overnight parking but Municipal Bylaws over-ride those policies.
    Like Deming lots of Campgrounds feel they are loosing money because people stay in parking lots. Some people seldom stay in Parks and ruin it for others. Parking at an RV Dealership waiting for service is the perfect alternative.
    Good Luck on your new Batteries.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Getting more common every year with the western towns and cities. Not a big problem but a nuisance. Shop was the perfect place for the night.

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  7. Just think, you won't have to get up in the morning and drive through the Yuma traffic to get to where your going because you are already there. I too would say......El Perfecto:))

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    1. I'm glad it all worked out. Had no problems and was Johnny on the spot at 8:30 when they opened. :)

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  8. It's just a "poor me" world now days. People cry and complain about us RVers not spending our money at their parks and opting for parking lots. They forget, we pay thousands for our Rv's to have a kitchen, bath and bedroom so we do not have to be exposed to the germs of a hotel room, or the theft of the hotel/motels workers when they clean the room halfbuff. Then the RV Park owners complain and cry about us because we don't want to spend $30 to $50 a night to pull in and park and sleep. It's crazy, and because of those stupid city policies, I just drive on to the next town and mark the town/city as not RV friendly and I don't bother going back spend my money in a place RVer's are not well accepted. It pretty much goes both ways, and the parks are getting a wee bit greedy. All this is my own personal humble opinion of course.

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    1. MCA, I'm afraid I have to agree with you. RV Parks keep raising their prices to the point you may as well drive and stay at a motel. Just hope we don't lose our rest areas and BLM land :)

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