New Mexico Rest Area

About mile marker 53 eastbound on Interstate 10 in New Mexico is this little gem of a rest area.

The sign says up to 24 hours stay. The smaller cropped off sign says, "Beware of Rattlesnakes".

There are two roads that lead to the camp spots and each have a large "turn-a-round" at the end. As you can see, we picked a spot over 100 yards from the restrooms. The interstate is about the same distance.

We parked so our slides would extend away from the road.

Each spot has a "lighted" three sided building covering the picnic table. We thought it couldn't get any better,

until we were treated with this magnificent sunset.

All for free........thanks to Johnny and Jenn of http://freecampsites.net/usa/ .

Big Boulders

These large boulders were at a rest area in southwest Arizona on I-10. The large rocks starting appearing a few miles before the rest area and strangely they completely stopped within 1/4 mile after reentering I-10.

The Best Bedder of Women Ever !!

"The Best Bedder of Women Ever" , now that is a bold statement for a man of my advanced age but I have a plaque that proclaims it to be so.

As Paul Harvey would say, "Now the rest of the story".

Seems a couple of the ladies at the RTR were in need of my special knowledge and I indeed "bedded" both of them and I can say they both were totally satisfied when I was finished.

The Rubber Tramp Rendezvous is heavily attended by people that belong to the Vandwellers Yahoo group and two of the ladies wanted platform beds added to their vans and I performed that job for them.

As a token of the work, I was presented with the above plaque on our last night and I will display it proudly.

I stayed busy at the RTR and can say the pleasure was all mine. One can feel a little useless after retiring.

RTR second post

I walked up Dome Mountain part way and took a photo of our tribe. Since a large number of attendees are in vans, some are out sightseeing when this was taken.

Just to the right off screen is Ann's rig. I thought I had her in the frame, sorry Ann (hope I spelled your name right).















Up higher I started seeing these Arizona Barrel Cacti, they are a stark color contrast to the rest of the desert plants.

Stunningly beautiful as I could not take just one picture.

Well worth the hike to see these plants that I had never seen up close.

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

It is just awesome to be here at the RTR and I can't think of another place I would rather be at this time.

This is a photo of just a few of the many rigs that are attending. We are spread out enough that getting a picture is difficult but close enough that we are a group.

Bob Wells, http://www.cheaprvliving.com/ , on the right is the organizer and Randy, http://mobilecodgers.blogspot.com/ , on the left are two blogs that I have been following for years.

We gathered for a spaghetti dinner and bull chip session. The food was great and the fellowship heart warming.

So many of these folks have blogs that I visit that I feel I am among long time friends.

A more versified group would be hard to find but we are gathered here enjoying what we have in common.

Almost Quartzsite

We arrived for the RTR a little early and found a spot and settled in. We are a few miles from Quartzsite and the crowds, but close enough to go see what se want to see.

This is the dome mountain that guided us in.

Just about dusk we were treated with a gorgeous full moon. Bright stars and the full moon made walking after dark very easy.

I spent an hour or so standing around a group campfire running my mouth.

Our camp spot taken from just over the ridge.

We picked a spot so the wind would hit the front side of the trailer and the awning over the slides would be protected. This also means any dust from the road will be carried away from us when the wind is blowing.

You can see the trucks on Interstate 10 that is probably over a mile away.

We are so happy to be camping in this beautiful area and getting to meet some of the folks I have followed on the internet for years. Really looking forward to the next few days.

Great Verizon air-card coverage but our AT&T phone coverage is limited.

Laughlin Car Show

About a hundred car attended the car show and I just took a few photos.

Roadsters are always my favorites.

Even "rat rods"

Nice T-Bucket for sale.

I really likes this 1934 Ford three window coupe. It has a fiberglass body and fenders with a metal hood. Very predictable, small block Chevy and turbo 350 transmission.

This 1911 Cadillac was the star of the show.

Read the small sign, "This is NOT a restored auto, It is ALL ORIGINAL".

Outstanding example of early an American engine.

All and all it was a nice little car show.

New Inverter

Our new inverter is a Power Bright 2300watt modified sinewave, http://www.powerbright.com/pw2300-12.html .
















This is a photo of the rear of the inverter. As with all my photos, you can click to enlarge. Inverters are pretty straight forward and very easy to install. The red lug is for the positive (+) 12 volt battery cable, the black lug is for the negative (-) 12 volt battery cable, and the small silver stud on the lower right is for a 8 gauge ground wire chassis. Use the four slotted holes to secure the unit.

















The front view shown with the remote to turn it on and off. The transmitter plugs in (shown close to position), secure it and you are ready to use the key-chain bob.

It has two 120 volt plugs. I will use one plug to power our tv, satelite receiver, freezer, and laptops. By doing this I will still have a full 15 amps for the other wire. The other will be used to power the rest of the camper.

The wire for the first plug was already installed as we have been powering it with the smaller inverter that died. I ran a 15 amp extension cord (nicely hidden) to the rear and will attach the regular rv power cord to it. All the camper plugs will be hot but of course only 15 amps will be available to use.

It will power anything in the camper except the air conditioners but we can only use one large (coffee pot, microwave, etc.) appliance at a time.

I can not accidentally hook to shore power and blow the inverter because the power cord will have to be disconnected from inverter to hook to campground power.

I will put switch on the camper converter so it can be turned off when using the inverter. Don't want the converter trying to charge the batteries as it will produce a negative power gain.

I also ran a cord to the generator to run our 55 amp battery charger. When boondocking the inverter will supply our household needs and the generator will supply the charge to the batteries.

One Year Today

Our one year anniversary of being on the road. January 4, 2011 http://1948model.blogspot.com/2011/01/finally-on-road.html

Running the numbers for the year.

Driven................21,615
Towed..................9,215

Diesel...........$5,025.38...1508.007 gallons..average 14.33mpg

Propane..........$304.02

Nights.....................361
Dry camped............141
Camp fees.....$3158.04
Gen-gas...........$413.50
________________
Total...............$3571.54......for an average of $9.89 a night.
These camping numbers are under $10 a night thanks to a nice long stay
in family members yard. (Thanks Steve and Beverly).

Right place, right time

Yes we are still in Laughlin, Nv. because our inverter died and we are waiting on a new one. It was suppose to be here last week but we are still waiting.

We have been dry camping in Riverside Casino free rv parking lot for over six weeks and thought we would have been long gone by now.

The free rv parking lot is being used for a charity car show for a few days and we were asked to move. Actually we were in one of the few spots that could have stayed but we would not be able to leave until the car show was over.

Riverside Casino could have just asked everyone to leave (after all this is free parking) but for those of us that had registered (as opposed to just parking), we were given a week free camping in their campground across the street with full hookups.

Since we are fulltimers with plans set in jello, we will stay the full week even if our inverter comes in before then.