Welcome to the post formerly known as Viva Las Vegas. We spent last work week at Lake Meade and visited the strip one evening. It was amazing and disappointing at the same time. I’ve never been to Vegas before so my expectations were set by movies. I was expecting flashy lights, cheap drinks, cheap food, and excited people winning a jackpot here and there. They have lights, but mostly it is screens like any other city, the one drink I had was $22 for an old fashioned, dinner was $100 and I never saw anyone win once in any casino we walked through. So it did not meet expectations at all, but it was still cool and I enjoyed it.

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On another evening we checked out Hoover dam which was actually amazing. We spent a couple hours walking around and wished we had come early enough for a tour. It was a different era when this beast was built.

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We spent a lot of time toward the end of the week reading the news and weather reports to determine if fires would keep us from the beach. There were twenty active fires with reports of flames jumping up to a mile ahead of the main burn making containment nearly impossible. Smoke was visible from space and the safe bet would be to divert, but we took the gamble and drove to the beach. We did go through some smoke on the way here, but it was the right call. Air is clear, with sun, seventy degree days, and amazing sunsets. We really love the ocean.

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We are staying about a hundred yards from the beach and enjoying the sound of the surf at night. I think I get the most consistent good sleep when I can hear the surf.

May peace find you.

I missed a week and feel a little overwhelmed with covering everything in one blog entry. The time involved switchbacks into the mountains, a rattlesnake, old friends, hiking, Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale, Joshua trees, Boulder City, Lake Meade, Vegas, a React conference, and more. So I guess, start at the beginning.

We stayed in Catalina for another work week and just loved it. I don’t think I would want to be there in the heat of the summer, but Tucson is a lovely area to visit. We did more of the local hikes and explored the camp paths very well. Shanti and I ran into a rattlesnake just after sunset. Not sure if Shanti saw the snake first or vice versa, but I know I didn’t make first visual contact. Shanti was far closer to the snake than I would have liked when I heard the rattle.

Adrenaline is amazing. I had the dog back beside me in record time. I think my reaction alerted the dog to the severity of the situation as she then avoided the snake even more thoroughly than I did. I thought I was recording a video to go below this paragraph as we carefully skirted the snakes claimed territory, but somehow I failed to click record. Adrenaline may not be so amazing for pressing tiny buttons on phone screens.

Kendra and I sat out and watched the sunset on the mountains with dinner, except one night. That night I got off work early and we drove up into those mountains. The pictures really don’t do them justice. We drove an hour and a half and were only three fourths of the way to the top of Mount Lemmon. Well worth the drive, though I was glad it was in the Honda instead of the Winnebago. Pictures really don’t do the experience justice, but I have some below anyway.

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Next stop, Phoenix to visit with friends. This time we surfed their driveway for two nights, mooched power, and had a new mattress delivered to their house. To top it all off they accepted our old mattress, and re-homed it with someone who needed it! Talk about taking advantage of friends huh? Feel a little guilty, but the mattress is life changing and the visit was top shelf. Got in a great hike, shopped and ate in Old Town Scottsdale then returned for old fashioned whiskey drinks and sharing of new music.

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The next leg of our journey was an interesting mix. We traveled through some beautiful country, which included my first view of Joshua trees but the estimated travel time was only an hour and a half. There wasn’t a direct shot to Vegas so the roads were windy, bumpy, windy, and apparently contained a bubble in time. That is the only explanation I have for how long it felt driving only an hour and a half.

Lake Meade has been a surprise. It came up in old movies all the time, but it is much prettier in person than I anticipated. Rugged mountains all around the pretty blue waters.

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Then off to my first professional conference in twenty years. A co-worker, and friend, talked me into the React conference to get us excited for upcoming development at work. Two long days of talks later I think we both came away excited. The conference was a little more pep rally and a little less informative than we hoped, but still worth it. Loved the diversity of the people we met from all over the world. Being a Facebook product I think the global community of the language is as big a deal to them as the language itself.

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Next we visit with another old friend, visit Hoover Dam, and spend a work week on the lake before heading for the ocean.

May peace find you.

We arrived in Tucson to put the finishing touches on RV upgrades and repairs. When our levelers were broken last winter, getting them repaired was an absolute debacle that left us with a strong distrust of RV dealerships and a great love of whiskey. That adventure ended at La Mesa in Tucson Arizona where we finally had a good experience. They got us right in, communicated clearly, and had everything fixed by lunchtime at no expense. We came back with a laundry list of upgrades and repairs we were sure would take a couple days to accomplish, so we settled into an Airbnb for three nights and dropped off our home.

I have to admit I was nervous about my new batteries. They absolutely must not be run empty, but even without solar they shouldn’t run dry in two days unless someone did something stupid like turn on the air.

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If you have read my previous posts you may be anticipating harm to my shiny new batteries, but nay nay. La Mesa completed all the repairs in a single day, they ran to Mercedes and Lowes to purchase parts, and my batteries were at 71% when we picked her up. We will return here winter of 20-21 for yearly work. Maybe add that new awning that rolls itself in when it is windy.

Finally we take our bone weary selves to Catalina State Park for ten straight days of no plans beyond the work day. My first weekend without movement, or major tasks, since before selling the house. I still had some tasks to accomplish, including a haircut and a dog wash, but I feel more rested than I have in months.

My wife has suffered with Migraines for more than a decade. The last two or three years she has become very proactive about it, working with a headache center. It has been a painful process of trying therapy after therapy. At the end of three years she takes a monthly shot and has pills she can take twice a week symptomatically. The problem is she actually has migraines at least twice a week still. Being a strong researcher, she began reading. I linked the book if you want details, but the short story is diet change. For eating purposes it isn’t extreme, cutting out a few things like soy, onions, citrus and glutamates (MSG or savory flavorings). I’ve been rocking on my Blackstone griddle learning new dishes that are absolutely mouth watering. I think we are actually having better meals on the new diet and I am gaining skill daily with the griddle. The horror of the diet is no caffeine. Not even decaffeinated coffee or chocolate. And no liquor, not even whiskey. *shiver* There was an anticipated rebound headache that lasted days, but at day four things are looking better. We had a lovely hike toward the base of the mountains this morning.

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May peace find you.

There are several terms used for sleeping in an RV without any type of plugins. If you are in a rest area, Walmart parking lot, or a campsite with no power we refer to that as dry camping. If you park on a city street and try to make it look like no one is inside that is stealth camping. If you visit friends we call that driveway surfing, though that often comes with a plugin because friends kick much ass. By far and away the best version is when you get out away from civilization and that is called “boondocking”.

After getting our solar installed we went directly to boondocking. In the mountains just outside of Flagstaff are public lands. They are part of the Coconino National Forest, an area that allows people to park for up to fourteen days. It was a gorgeous area with decent sized pine trees and nice walking.

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After three nights here, we had run the generator one time just to top off the batteries before night. We adjusted the location of Torta to maximize sunlight and didn’t need the generator again. Also after three nights there we had found the place will no longer be allowing free camping after this year and we found a lot of people had trashed the general area. Because of this we decided to move down near Sedona for the remainder of the week. That is in the same forest, but a very different environment. What a great decision that was.

Since the drive was barely over an hour Kendra took the Honda to scout ahead and the pets and I took the main highway while she took a more direct but curvier route. After pulling the car behind me for so long it was a pleasure to drive without it. The drive from Flagstaff is gorgeous and over eighteen miles downhill with four to six percent grades. This led to the best gas mileage we have seen so far, over nineteen miles per gallon.

We arrived at the dirt road leading back into the free camping areas with an hour until sunset. Kendra had researched and found a spot five point seven miles in called “Nolan Tank” that was especially nice. She took the Honda ahead and I drove Torta. This was a dirt road with a lot of the surface described as “washboard” and other areas described as “big ass rocks coming up out of the ground”. It took well over an hour, but it was worth it. It was about five miles as the crow flies from the nearest power line. There is a level of peace that you find that far from civilization that you cannot get any other way.

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We left early on Saturday to go see friends in Phoenix on our way to Tucson for general RV maintenance. We found a slightly shorter route out. A couple sections were even rougher than the way in, but I managed to get this short video in the best section of road. It was slow going, but the views were amazing!

We intend to spend a full two weeks in the Tucson area to give ourselves a break. We have been moving fast and keeping busy for a really long time. I think I may nap one entire day.

May peace find you.

For the first time in our travels, I had a complete tourist geek out. When I was old enough to drive my best friend and I would listen to music far louder than we should have. One of our favorites was The Eagles Greatest Hits. I don’t even have a guess how many times it was played on repeat, but I know it was enough that the tape began to warp from overuse.

Torta spent the week at Homolovi State Park just outside of Winslow Arizona. When we went in to have dinner one evening I had to stop and get my picture taken “Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona”. They had a flatbed Ford parked in front of the sign. It is surprising how much joy I have from such a silly happenstance. If you look at the reflection in the glass behind me you can catch the front of the flatbed Ford.

It was a lovely relaxing week hiking the ruins, and catching the local tourist attractions. Meteor Crater was close by, so we cruised over to get selfies with a giant hole in the ground. This part of Arizona is certainly worth spending a week at.

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Friday we pulled up stakes and moved an hour into Flagstaff where we finally installed solar. We moved ourselves and the pets into an AirBNB on my lunch break, then I finished the workday at a tiny desk with a stool. My back does not care for trying to work from a stool!

As soon as the workday was over we moved Torta a mile to the installation location and met Luis, who was amazing. Friday night he took measurements and began working on a board for the components. Saturday morning we hit the ground running. Luis had me drilling holes and attaching brackets to the solar panels while he continued on wiring the components.

When I completed that we went out and pulled Torta apart figuring out how to run wires where needed. I learned a lot about the RV, I drilled holes, I cut holes, and I twisted my body into shapes I didn’t think possible to pull wires through sections of the vehicle. We hoped the thirty plus mile per hour winds would drop off, but no luck. We had to stand on top of the vehicle holding large flat panels while trying not to get blown off or damage my shiny new powergrid.

Just before 7 PM on Sunday Luis informed me he had no more tasks I could do so I took my sore body back to get some sleep. Just before 11 PM he wrote that the entire system up and running. It was so exciting I made an actual squee sound.

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Next week, we try out the solar in the mountains near Flagstaff, then visit friends on the way to Tuscon.

May peace find you.