Still at Quartzsite

Wednesday, November 5

I spent some of the morning unbending parts of the CRV's underside cover which had gotten slightly hung up on a rock.  My fault, I was moving the car around the new campsite and not paying attention as I should have been. Oh well, a replacement panel is in the car's future once I get back home.   The underside covers did their job and nothing was damaged.

I also went and refilled two of my six gallon spare water cans.  The accumulator tubing issue the RV experienced this past Saturday had almost drained the fresh water tank before I caught it   I missed turning the pump off prior to driving.

One of the more unusual campsites:

I also got rid of a bag of trash after getting water.  Services such as water, trash and RV dump remain available in spite of the current government shutdown.  There's no one at the fee station to pay the $40 for 14 day fee to in this Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA).  I tried several times to pay for the permit via rec.gov but it wouldn't let me enter a start date and so, wouldn't process the permit..  Oh Well.

This matches what I encountered in the Death Valley NP.  No entrance fees being collected.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the campsite, finishing yet another audiobook and enjoying the new site and it's solitude. 

Wednesday sunset it was pretty good: 

Thursday, November 6

Still here near Quartzite, the warm and only hot for a couple of hours during the day weather and the relative solitude of the campsite have me thinking about staying on through the weekend. 

Today's sunrise:

No chores, no repairs, just relaxing along with a short ride down some rather ho-hum dirt trails.

Friday, November 7

This morning I drove the CRV to check out nearby Dome Rock aka Sugarloaf Peak.  Its located on BLM and there's lots of open spots for dispersed camping here as well.

I parked near the base of the hill and walked the mile or so up the trail to the carved out platform near the top.  You can see the "platform" at the end of the trail.

The trail was very eroded and the BLM had apparently recently laid down a fresh layer up rocks, ankle turner size rocks, and the going was slow in order to prevent a fall. 

I was only beginning to build up a sweat by the time I reach the platform so not too bad of a hike.

The views from the flat area carved out of the hill, the altitude gain was only 200 feet.

I got back down fine, just had to go slow to make sure the ankle turners didn't get me.

I next drove into town on a fruitless search for a a spatula (melted the one I got recently) and sugar cubes for my morning coffee.  Gassed up the CRV for $2.82 a gallon which was nice.

Upon returning to the LTVA, I stopped at the fee office and confirmed that no fees are being taken due to the give shutdown:

I plan on being here through the weekend and then head over to the Buenos Aires NWR for a few days I think.