Learning to relax for longer periods

The last three days have been the longest so far on this trip that I've not done much riding/driving.  Simply relaxing and doing chores around the campsite.  Perhaps there's hope for me after all.

Tuesday, December 7

Pearl Harbor Day.  Spent most of it listening to part of a podcast series detailing the Japanese during the period before, leading up to the Pearl Harbor Attack and their campaigns after the attack.

Not much else got done by me except for capturing this sunrise, a fiery red sunrise for a very bloody date in American history.

Wednesday, December 8

Another colorful sunrise today:

Thanks to the new ladder, I was able to easily reach the Jayco logo sticker in the upper left corner of the rear panel of the VRRV.  It was very faded and cracked from sun exposure and age.  Took a while since I didn't have a box cutter blade but just using my multitool's knife, was able to scrape most of it off.  The rest was glue remnant that came off with available cleaning supplies.

Thursday, December 9

Decided to check out the "Rambo Mural".  Yeah, the name caught my eye when I was perusing the east side of the Bowie Business 10 Loop.  I wanted to also check out this Chevron "Travel Center" for supplies.

The mural is painted on the side of the gas station's convenience store.  Not sure why its there, didn't ask.

After getting some gas and nothing else, I drove back towards the center of Bowie and got three packages sent by Amazon vendors to the general delivery box at the post office.

It was here where I was informed by the postal employee that because the vendors used UPS instead of USPS to send the packages, she could have refused delivery.  Why?  Because USPS wasn't the carrier and by accepting them she was taking on the liability for safe keeping of the packages.  Because I'd picked up a box from Martha previously, she recalled my name and had accepted the packages but she wanted me to make sure I knew that other post offices might refuse future packages if USPS wasn't used!

Too bad Amazon doesn't let you specify which carrier to use eh?  

Returning to camp, I got these views of Indian Bread Rocks:

Below closeup is of the extreme right of the picture above

The tall pointy rock in the middle is the backside of the Moai

I'd designated as Moai Point, my VRRv is on the other side.

The two major accomplishments today was the removal of the Jayco logo sticker, also faded and cracked, from the front upper right corner (as you face the front of the VRRV).  Again, the new ladder made accessing this sticker easier than hanging over the side while laying on top of the roof!

Oh, and I also remounted into new holes, the screws used on one of the supports that help hold up the fresh water tank.

Around 4PM, I decided to check out the "mini mart" in Bowie, near Apache Pass Road.  I'd seen cars parked outside it before and instead of driving the 34 miles to Willcox, I stopped to see what they had.

The actually had three of the grocery items I needed!  It's a really small little store, living up to its name of mini mart.  But, it's only 7 miles from camp!

Returning to the campsite, I smelled hot coolant when I got out of the Sammy.  Hmmm.  I checked under the hood and there was coolant coming out of the upper radiator hose!  Yep, I'd been watching it for a while since it had bulges where the clamps where located.  It finally gave way this afternoon:

I had bought and been carrying a replacement hose since the summer trip to Arkansas so was able to replace it with no issues.  Topped off the coolant and went for a test drive, all is well.

Sunset today was a non-event as thick clouds have moved in, the weather is supposed to be colder tomorrow with some rain apparently.  Still, the sun did briefly illuminate the distant mountains to the north nicely:

Next time, I'll try to climb to a higher observation point among the rocks

I believe this is Turtle Mountain