Spring in AZ and NM

I started researching the possibility of using WiFi as one solution to our connectivity issue. To borrow a phrase from a friend, I file it all in the "Over My Head" directory at the moment.

One of the funnier items I read was at Ecademy.

Toss and stow today. The toss part seems absolutely necessary since we are uncharacteristically full to the brim. Sitting in near-permanence has given us a bad case of pack rat

Stow is the normal procedure before moving to a new location. Everything has to be in it's secure location before travel..

Yesterday, after we packed up and blew Casa Grande, we ended up in Apache Junction (near Phoenix) having new house batteries installed. The house batteries are what run the lights, etc. when we are not hooked up to power. The old ones were not holding a charge longer than an hour. So we had them replaced plus had two additional ones installed. Last night we drove up to Lost Dutchman State Park - no hookups- so are giving them a good testing. Will worked 3 hours last night without needing to recharge them and I am up at 5 am (!!) this morning and they still are going strong. We have an inverter to plug the computers into for 110v.

As I was filling the water tank before bugging out yesterday morning, I happened to notice the tires. We will be looking into purchasing new ones today. This has been one very expensive month! Perhaps Dancer was listening in when I mentioned putting some money into the savings account. They do that, you know.

We have decided to stay here at Lost Dutchman State Park for 3 more nights. It is a beautiful view, where ever you look.

We think we will be here 'til about Wednesday and then head up toward Sedona AZ. Eventually we will get to New Mexico!

Wandered through Sedona and surrounding area today. Sedona is quite an experience. More New Age Stuff in a few square blocks than I could imagine possible.

The Red Rock area surrounding is spectacular but the area is not easy to find a place to stop for pictures so I don't know if we got much that really shows it to advantage.

It ended up being a long day on the road... wrong turns here and there to find a place to stay the night ended us up Dead Horse State Park near Cottonwood AZ (about 30 miles south of Flagstaff) after dark.

The view of the town at night from our hill was lovely!

We are in Sante Fe, New Mexico for a week.

Just beginning to be spring here. The trees are barely budding. It is so different to see actual trees after being in the Sonoran Desert all winter. And Sante Fe is fairly high elevation, too, so it is cool and sunny.

The RV park we are in is actually in town, so I can take the city bus around for my exploring. I'll try to get William out and about once or twice :) He is looking forward to getting some work done while we sit here for awhile.

The first thing I must accomplish, however, is getting the laundry done!

Yesterday was just one of those days all around. Woke up to no water coming from any of the hot water faucets. Since neither of us has ever repaired a water heater before, we found someone to do the repairs. A one way valve had gone bad. Cost: $98. We had planned to leave Sante Fe so we did, after the hot water was flowing again.

We headed north up into the mountains to Espanola. The description of the park sound nice but when we got here.... well we are here for the weekend but no more.

Our major problem in choosing parks is that we have to be within cell phone range in order to connect to the 'net. That is a problem unless we are in a metropolitan area. And sometimes I just want to sit on top of a mountain. (Besides, a cell phone internet connection is unbelievably slow.)

So after rejecting this park as a long term stopping place and looking at the options within cell phone range, we decided to take the plunge and get the satellite dish for internet connection. It's a major investment but we will have the fastest internet connection, about anywhere we want to be! Even on top of a mountain!

We are east of Albuquerque tonight in a campground called The Turquoise Trail. In the Sandia mountains near a National forest, the mountains are lovely and it is sunny and cool. There are, however, lots of people.

Today, we talked to the people who sell the satellite system we want and have begun the preliminaries. It could take 2-3 weeks before it is installed. Once it is installed we can do lots of boondocking (camping in the boonies) where the cellphone doesn't reach but still have email. I'm ready!

I realized today that it has been windy since we have been in New Mexico. I wonder if this is the norm.

We are making plans for boondocking (camping in areas without water, electric or sewer hookups) with the satelitte dish system. We are so looking forward to this. I think it is going to make a major difference in our quality of life. It certainly will afford us more freedom of movement so we can see more of the country.

When we are boondocking, we will be totally self contained, having only the water we carry in our clean water tank and haul out in the grey and black water tanks. Electricity comes from the deep cycle batteries which can be recharged via the generator. Someday we might want to invest in solar panels.

Because we are limited by water and holding tank capacity, the fun is to find creative ways to conserve so we don't have to move the rig so often to dump the tanks and take on fresh water. One very nice perk is that we must cut way down on the dishes that must be washed. Makes me a happy camper :)