Sedona again, Slide Rock SP and first boondocking site

I drove to Sedona again and found a section that had a lot of quaint stores to go through so I spent half the day browsing.  Bought a few t-shirts to replace some old ones but not much else.

I continued on 89A until I got to Slide Rock State Park.  This was originally the 43-acre Pendley Homestead.  Frank L. Pendley arrived in the canyon in 1907, acquired the land in 1910 and planted an apple orchard.  He established a unique irrigation system still in use by the park today.  There is a stretch of slippery creek bottom here that the park is named after.  I didn't wade in the creek but there was a short trail along a cliff and through the apple orchard that I walked.

Here are some pictures I took along the trail.

After the trip to Sedona I stuck around home pretty much and did mundane things like washing, grocery shopping and filling my propane tank.  I was about at the end of my stay and the Thousand Trail Campground and preparing for my first week boondocking on National Forest land.

Today I left the campground and drove to a Ford dealership just down the road a bit to get my oil changed on my Born Free.  That just took a little bit of time and I was coming back toward Thousand Trail Road again and my boondocking site across the road.

I found a pretty nice site not too far off the road and settled in. 

I am not really on a slope.  Just didn't have the camera level.

In the picture below, you can see my closest, and only, neighbor.

Another picture of my site.

Hopefully there won't be a lot of people in here on the weekend.

Friday of next week I will be heading back to Thousand Trails to spend a week in a Getaway Cabin which I get free once a year.  That will be a change of pace.  I can park my Born Free next to the cabin and I may be spending more time in it than the cabin.  We shall see.  I will let you know how it works out.

It is getting chillier here.  Only getting up to the low 70's during the day and down near freezing at night.  Feels good during the day and I have my furnace to keep me warm and cozy at night. 

I have much better internet speed here than I had in the campground.  Maybe because I am up on top instead of down in the valley.  I can see what I think are some towers on top of a hill near here so they may be the reason. 

Watching the sun go down while I am snug in my little Born Free.

Life is good.














No neighbors close by.  I can see a motorhome off in the distance.

28 floors

For a total today with the Raptor Hill Trail included I walked 4.56 miles, 28 floors and 11,109 steps.

After all that, I sat in my air chair and relaxed my poor feet for a while.

My Merrell's are getting dusty!

Life is good.

Clear Creek Campground, Cornville and Dead Horse Ranch State Park

I have been doing some driving around just to see what there is to see lately. 

Yesterday I east on 260 past I17 to check out Clear Creek Campground. Not impressed. OK for tent camping, not good for the RV. I wandered around on some gravel roads around there then went to the Verde Ranger Station. A very helpful lady there gave me lots of information on places to check out. I then went home for the day to digest and figure out daily trips.

Today I started early in the morning and drove the road to Cherry (75) so I could check out Powell Springs Campground, a National Forest Service (NFS) campground.  I turned off 260 on to 75 even though the Ranger Lady said to come in from the other end because this way was winding and steep. But I had the Honda CRV and it can handle any road so off I went. The road was in good condition so no problem, so what if the left edge of the road drops straight down a couple of miles. I was hugging the right side and fortunately there was a nice comfortable bank there for me the entire way. Whew, glad I wasn't coming the other way. So anyway, I didn't look to the left so I missed a lot of beautiful scenery. So sue me!  There were no good places to get off the road to take pictures and I didn't really want to see how high up I was so no pictures. Trust me, I was waaay up there!

I finally made it to Powell Springs Campground and it was a pretty nice place with picnic tables at every site and some I could even get my RV into but they were all shaded. Not good for the solar and, of course these were all primitive sites with no hookups. There were pit toilets, not sure about water. Good for tents again but I will pass with the RV. 

Continued out the other end of 75 to 169 and then on to I17 and north to Cornville road. I just wanted to see Cornville. Nice little town but I didn't see any corn. 

Cornville Road comes out on 89A so I turned right to go into Cottonwood and kept going until I got to the turnoff for Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Checked out the campgrounds and they were nice with paved sites and water and electric at the sites.  Cost $25 a night though for the 2 campgrounds with not much shade, $30 for the one with shade. I wish they would have primitive sites for RVs for less money.  Oh well, such is life. 

There are a lot of trails here so I went to the end of Flycatcher Road where there was a parking lot with river access. This is the Verde River.

I was wishing I had my inflatable kayak with me but I left that with my son this summer. 

So I took a hike.

The Raptor Hill Trail went up and up and up. I am not sure which hill was Raptor Hill but it was a beautiful hike. 

This is where I stopped. I only had two bottles of water with me and I had finished one and started on the other so figured it was time to call it a day. It was a total of 3 miles and getting late in the day so I turned around.  I plan on coming back again and spending a whole day here doing some more hiking. I have an annual State Park Pass so I can come as often as I want and it is only a few miles from home.  

Life is good.

My first rattlesnake

Saw my first rattlesnake today. I was walking around the campground and the road went through a dry wash. The area beside the road was a mixture of concrete and rocks to keep the road from washing away I guess. The snake was curled up in a hole right by the road. 

Here is a cropped picture so you can see it better.

It was hot but I was able to get my 10,000 steps in. I have been taking too many car trips lately and I have been neglecting my walking. I need to get back on track. 

Life is good. 

A walking stick

Saw this walking stick in the road the other day.

It looks so fragile. The body was maybe 4 inches long. 

Yesterday I went out for a drive and drove 89A from Cottonwood up through Jerome and beyond. It was a fun drive in my Honda but I think not in my RV. Winding mountainous road but it had lots of small pull offs so I could let faster traffic go by. The scenery was great. Here is a picture taken up past Jerome. 

I came from way down there in the background to the present level in no time at all. 

All in all a fun trip.

Life is good. 

Red Rock State Park and Sedona

Took a drive to Sedona today and saw Red Rock State Park along the way so I stopped in. I bought a yearly pass so I could check out the state parks here. Red Rock is a 286 acre nature preserve and has lots of trails throughout. There is a neat riparian habitat along Oak Creek. There was a Naturalist led hike starting just as I got there so I joined it. Very interesting and informative. Here are a couple of pictures I took along the way.

I was going to go on a different trail afterwards and get more pictures but there were so many people on the trails that I just left. Maybe I will go some other day and go on one of the longer trails where ther may be fewer people. 

I drove through Sedona next. Way too fancy for my pocketbook. I bought some gas there and some groceries at a Natural Grocers Store. Wasn't interested in going through the many shops.  Beautiful scenery though. I needed to get the groceries I bought out of the hot car so I headed home and had a nice green salad for a late lunch. 

Yesterday I cleaned the front of my RV. Almost have it all shined up again. Just a small part of the sunny side left. I wait till the sun goes down each evening and do a small section before it gets dark. Here is what the front looks like. 

My van is shiny and the sun is warm.

Life is good.

Trip Pictures

Here are the pictures from yesterday's trip through the snow.

I want to go on that road someday.  Wonder how it got it's name.

Snowing up ahead.

I spent today cleaning the RV.  I got all the windows washed, the back of the RV and most of one side.  Then it was time for a break.  Maybe I can finish it tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of my site.

These were taken last night after cleaning my Honda and before cleaning my RV.  This is a very quiet park with lots of roads and trails to walk.  The weather is warm during the day and cool at night.

Life is good.

Wind, Rain and Snow

I stayed another day at the Blake Ranch because of high winds yesterday that I did not care to fight. So I spent the day relaxing and taking a day off from my driving. 

I left Blake Ranch at about 9 AM. It was not very windy but it had rained in the early morning. The road was mostly dry so no problem. Everything was going good until I came close to Williams.  I noticed some snow on the hills ahead of me. I was hoping the road would not go that high.  It did.  And then it went higher and higher till there was snow alongside the road. Then it was snowing and the temp on my rear view mirror went to 31 degrees and said "ice". Not good.  Fortunately through all of this the road was just wet and never did get slick. The temp went up to 34 and stayed there for a long time. I turned south on I17 and the road stayed at the same elevation. I only had about 30 more miles until my turnoff for the campground I was going to stay at for three weeks. I figured either I was going to have a cold stay with snow or the road would descend very fast. Then I see a sign that says there will be 4 to 6% downhill grades for the next 18 miles!  Yikes!  It was a piece of cake though as there would be a steep descent then it would level off or go uphill for a bit before the next descent. Using the tow/haul feature on my engine kept me from racing down the hill too fast so I only had to use the brakes a time or two for a few seconds on each downhill section. 

By the time I got to the campground, the temps were reasonable. I am not sure how high but I was able to wash all the white stuff off my car dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. They must have had salt or something on the roads because my poor car was a mess. I could barely see out of my windshield of the car so I had to clean it. Tomorrow I will start on cleaning my RV. 

I took some pictures but the internet connection here is not very good at all so they are not uploading. Tomorrow I will take my laptop to the WiFi spot and get the pictures uploaded.

I have a full hookup site in a nice, quiet park and the weather is warm. 

Life is good.

Hello Arizona

Made it to Arizona today. Shorts and t-shirt weather now but it is going to cool down to a high of 59 and be windy tomorrow. Where I am going though has a high of 77 forecasted so shorts will still be good.

Today was a fast trip along the Interstate for 200+ miles.  Not many places to stop so no pictures.

I decided to stop at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel because it sounded interesting. It's a nice, clean, well run park with large pull-through sites and only costs $25 for a huge, full hookup site. 

Dinner is cooking in my crock pot and the sun is shining.

Life is good. 

Long and straight roads

Traveled through Nevada and into California today.  Drove I80 from Winnemucca, NV to highway 95.  Took 95 south to 360 which I took over to highway 6 and south to Bishop, CA where I am staying for the night.

The roads were so straight, I would forget how to steer by the time I came to a curve.  My GPS was not warning me of sharp curves because it died.  The plug broke and left part of itself in the cigarette lighter.  Not sure how to get it all out without electrocuting myself so I will leave that until I figure out how to do it.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the roads and hills along the way.

I am finally far enough south where it is time to think about getting my shorts out and putting the jeans away again.

Life is good.

On the road again

Made good time yesterday and stopped in Winnemucca, NV.  I spent the night in a Walmart parking lot where it was quiet once the store closed. 

Saw a sign outside of Bend, OR that said:  "Beetle cleaned skulls".  Don't think I want one.

It was an easy drive yesterday. A few passes but they were only around 5000 feet so they were not bad. Otherwise it was mostly flat and straight. My Rand McNally GPS was a little confused. I would be driving along and looking at a stretch of highway going straight for miles and it would pipe up and say "Warning, sharp curve ahead!".  I think it was just bored and wanted to remind me it was still there.

Life is good. 

Goodbye Springfield

After getting a few questions answered and picking up a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter, I said goodbye to all the wonderful folks at AM Solar. 

I headed out 58 and over Willamette Pass to 97. It had snowed last night on the hill as the locals call it but I was assured I would have no problem.   There was some snow on the side of the road and in the trees but none on the road.

The pass is at 5128 feet and this picture is at a little lower elevation. 

After coming back down off the hill, I arrived in sunny Eastern Oregon.  I am staying in this area for a couple days to dry things out.  I will dump my tanks and fill with fresh water before heading out so I should be good for a while and can camp anywhere. 

It is cold here!  Today was a high of 49 and a low of 31. Tomorrow's forecast is for 58/26.  Brr.  Sunny though.

Life is good.

Batteries

Here are some more pictures. I can't show everything because there is some stuff mounted above the batteries where multiple wires are combined so there is just one positive wire coming to the battery. 

I believe I am going to head east this morning to central Oregon so I can dry out. 

Life is good. 

Solar up and running

My solar installation was finished this afternoon.  During the walk through at about 3:30 PM on a grey and raining afternoon I was getting 2.7 amps from the panels.  According to the installer this means all four panels were working very well.  Hopefully tomorrow there will be some sunshine.

This is all I can see of the solar inside the RV.

 

 This is the remote that shows everything that is happening with system.  The charge controller is in the cabinet behind the remote in a "hidden" compartment behind a fake wall Born Free put in to hide some wiring.  So I didn't lose any cabinet space at all.

I also had AM Solar install a 12V outlet with a heavy wire directly under the cabinet with the controller in.

Here is how it all fits together.

I didn't take a picture of the batteries today so I went out in the dark and snapped a few.  They didn't turn out so good but here is one of them.  Tomorrow I will try to get some better pictures.

The thing on the left with the yellow on is a battery cut off switch.  It all looks nice and neat.

In a day or two I will head for Arizona where it will be warmer and drier.

Life is good.

Panels installed!

The four panels are installed. Everything is complete down to the batteries.  Tomorrow they will remove the old batteries and the sliding tray and put the AGM batteries in on their sides.

Here is what my roof looks like now.

The panels will tilt up if I want to angle them to the sun or clean under them. 

Looks good to me.

Solar install

I have been sitting on the Oregon coast for the last couple months enjoying the ocean and not updating my blog.

Spent some time driving the back roads,

and walking on the beach,

hiking on trails,

and dog sitting my son's dog.

Max is a wonderful dog.  Very well behaved and it was a pleasure having him in my life for 2 weeks.  He was a perfect gentleman on our many walks, adjusting his stride to mine and not dragging me around which I greatly appreciated.  I greatly appreciate the training my son and his wife have done to make him the great dog he is.

      Solar install!

Yesterday I left the beach and headed to Eugene, OR to have my solar installed at AM Solar .  They have a wonderful reputation for doing a great job putting solar on RVs.  This morning I pulled up at their facility and they talked me through what I wanted and what they could do.  After giving me an estimate for my install, they started putting it together.

Two of my four 100 watt panels are on in this picture.  The other two are going behind that neat blue lift thing.  I am also getting 2 AGM Lifeline GPL-6CT batteries with a total of 300AH.  Should give me plenty of power.  I will have the Blue Sky IPN PRO remote meter  to monitor the system.  The charge controller is a Solar Boost 2512iX-HV MPPT.  Can't wait to check it all out.  Now I just need to find some sun!

Life is good.