We're popular!! Us!
We're the "dancers." Everywhere we go now, people talk to us, asking us about our return. And we haven't showered for four days! I was never popular. I don't know how to deal with it. I think I'll be mean about it--where was it when it mattered?
We only had a 30 mile trip from Joshua Tree National Park to our campground. We reconnected with civilization on the way--first a stop at Walmart, then Home Depot, then a grocery store. Talk about a disconnect from the previous four days.
But we found there were some supplies that could help, like a different cutting board and a colander. I had repaired two things on the pickup before we left Whidbey Island--the 12 volt charger and the windshield washer motor--and neither were working now so I bought fuses because I found a fuse that was blown. It didn't help. Vicky had been so proud of me that I could fix things. I wonder what she's thinking now. She's awfully quiet about it.
I also realized that we hardly used the capacity of our two 12 volt car batteries that were in the camper, so perhaps I could rig up a way of using them to recharge our electronic equipment. So I bought what I needed to try that.
Finally, we realized that being a little bit of off-kilter in the camper makes a big difference in comfort. We thought it would be nice to not have a puddle at one end of the sink, and I found that when I got up in the middle of the night to take a walk outside it was disorienting to not have the floor level. So we bought a 2 X 10 to cut up to use to put under the tires for our future camping expeditions.
Plus we needed food.
We found a great grocery store, Stater Brothers, which we call Statler Brothers, that sells food cheaper than anywhere in the PNW. Today we bought 18 cans of refried beans, at $1.25 each. I didn't know we had bought that many, so I had to ask Vicky, who kept dumping them into our cart. Oh well--we go through about four each week. Other than that, we bought only what we needed for a nice meal tonight, spaghetti using spaghetti squash instead of pasta. Vicky worked all afternoon on it, and it was awesome. There is enough for tomorrow's meal--yeah!
We are eating well, which is one of our goals. I had put on a few pounds from the surgery and the holidays, but even with eating to my heart's content, I'm gradually melting those off because of our diet. We haven't eaten out once. That's a big deal to someone who loves Egg McMuffins.
We (Vicky) did laundry, and we (I) filled up our propane tank. I was quite curious about how much propane we burned in our four days, especially since one afternoon and evening the heater was running full time because it was cold and rainy. We used 3 gallons, about $9 worth. Getting the propane into our new tanks was easy-peasy. I was pleased about that, and about how little we used considering we used it for lights, heat, and cooking. Pretty cheap in a small camper.
When we are driving we are spending a lot of money--about $100 per day on gas, and another $40 for an RV park. However, now we are into a different mode because we don't drive very far, and spend several days in national parks. Those park fees are $7.50 per day, because we are eligible for a "Golden Eagle" (aka old folks) pass. (Hey! We paid taxes all of those years, and we aren't part of the 1%--although like everyone else we wish we were even if we do dump on them all of the time).
This means that park fees and propane runs to about $10 per day.
I mentioned that we bought wood at Home Depot so we could make the camper level when we parked. Well, it required a bit of work. Fortunately I had packed my saws-all, so now we are ready for uneven ground.
I also bought what I thought we needed to be able to charge batteries in our phones, ipod, ipad, and cameras. I think I need something from Apple to be able to charge the MacBook, though. I spent part of the afternoon rigging it up, and guess what? It worked! (of course so did the motor for the windshield wiper fluid at first, so stay tuned).
As mentioned, we ran into so many people who recognized us from last Saturday's dance that we considered revising our schedule so we could be here this Saturday for the Rock and Roll Dance. After examining our calendar, though, we realized that we want to be in the Mesa area in about two weeks, and we couldn't plan a good schedule to do that if we stayed around here until Saturday. But we'll be back a week from Saturday for that dance though.
Thus, despite our popularity, we must disappoint the entire campground, plus most of the town of 29 Palms I imagine, and miss this Saturday's dance.
I hate doing that to this town because, guess what? My father told us he was stationed here during WWII when he was in flight training! Reading that from him was deeply meaningful--thinking about him being here as a young man ready to go to war, some 70 years ago, driving on the same streets we are driving on. And here we are now, enjoying all of this, only because of people like him who were willing to do that when it needed to be done.
Tomorrow we are off to the Mojave National Preserve. We will be able to hike, and possibly bike. Our camper is ready. And so are we. We are excited about the next phase of our adventure.
We will be back to Joshua Tree National Park, though. Probably on this road trip, but certainly on others. We have fallen in love with it.
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