Ah, the solitude. The campers nearest me left this morning, one to go home I presume, the other to another more distant spot from me.
I checked this evening and there's only two other campers besides myself and the camp host. No one close by.
Let's see, I'd discovered yesterday that the "soaking pits" or hot tubs that use the hot spring water discovered decades ago here were back in operation. They'd been closed the first and the next few times I was here due to Covid-19 you see.
So, I woke, donned bathing suit, bathrobe and jacket and drove the Sammy the short distance to the cement pits that were filled with water now. One seemed empty when I got there, but the second one was full of warm water!
I soaked in it till about 7:50 AM, thinking the water really wasn't that hot, just blood warm perhaps. Then, water started coming out of a pipe in the pit's wall and it was hotter! Pretty soon the water temperature had increased but still, wasn't uncomfortably hot. It being 37 degrees Fahrenheit at the time, it felt really nice.
I lounged in the water till about 8:50 AM or so. By then, the sun's rays had heated things up enough that it was no longer an enjoyable feel to be in the water; I was actually starting to sweat a bit. So it was back to the VRRV for a late breakfast!
Oh, the whole time I was there, only one other guy showed up and he went to the first pit that had by then filled up.
Minor chores occupied the rest of the day, some more reading for enjoyment, some listening to music and finally some cleaning of the VRRV's interior.
I really liked the performance of the new 100 Watt Solar Panel from Harbor Freight. Due to the vegetation around me, I'd put it up on the roof. I'd hesitated before since that's how I'd ended up damaging one of the four 25 watt panels that I used before.
So, to prevent this from happening while taking it down or putting it up on the roof; I added a handle to the panel and tested lifting/lowering it from the roof, no problem!
I had, at first, just laid the panel down on top of the roof. I confirmed though, what RichardM had told me, that the more perpendicular the panel is to the sun's ray's, the more power you get. So the plan now, when on the roof, is to use the built-in legs to prop it up at an angle.
You can, per RichardM, just mount the panel(s) laying down, add at least 30% more panel capacity in the form of additional panels, and make up for the fact that laying down, it's the best angle sometimes.
So far, one panel, is doing great in terms of not only charging my electronics but running the fridge's electrical bits AND charging up the house battery sufficiently.
Below is a pic to show how I use a strap/hook to pull up and lower the panel from/to the ground safely. I'm thinking perhaps the strap can be used to secure the panel when camping in windy conditions.
More cleaning, reading, music in the afternoon. Some spots like the sills of the windows had become quite dirty from all the dust in my camping!
Here's view of the campsite, I found it quite nice. You can see why putting the solar panel on the roof was the easiest choice.
The plan is to displace to a different BLM campground closer to the Apache National Forest and the cool rock formations I saw while transiting AZ Highway 78. A detour through Safford to dump tanks, take on water and hopefully fill up the propane tank as I'm down to 1/4 now.
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