After visiting the Goosenecks State Park, Utah, I proceeded on to California’s Anza-Borrego State Park, east of San Diego and just a bit west of the Salton Sea, where I joined fellow boondockers for a month or so, camping without any hookups out in the desert outside the small town of Borrego (Spanish for sheep, as in desert bighorns). We had daily morning campfires with cowboy-style boiled coffee, courtesy of friend Butch Holt, night-time campfires, weekly trips to the local American Legion post for hamburgers, taco’s, or a steak fest, trips to town every Friday for the Farmers Market, once a week for Bingo night, and many other trips in between. Plus, we had another wonderful Thanksgiving repast, although attendance was a bit lower than in previous years.
After Thanksgiving, most of the group relocated to an area in California just a few miles west of Yuma, where they would celebrate Christmas. But I had decided instead to head several miles farther to Ajo, Arizona. I stayed there for three weeks, camping out in the high desert just south of town, pretty much all alone, closest neighbors being about 1/2 mile away, and had a wonderful time riding my bicycle, taking a few pictures, hiking a bit, watching the birds at my feeder, and reading, reading, reading. It was a very relaxing and refreshing time. While there, I was looking at a topographical map of the area, and noticed a rock formation near me that was labeled “Locomotive Rock.”
I didn’t understand why it was called such, as it certainly didn’t look anything like a locomotive. So I Googled "Locomotive Rock Ajo Arizona" and checked out some pictures of the area.
WOW! I grabbed my camera and drove closer to the formation to gain a different perspective. As The Donald would say, “It's Location Location Location!”
The second week of January, I moved to boondock near the Pilot Knob BLM area just west of Yuma, after first stopping in Yuma to get a new brake controller for the truck. My old one, never designed for use with electric-hydralic brakes, had taken to loosing all indications of connection to the trailer, and of brake activation, although I *evidently* still had braking at the trailer, so I had decided it was time to replace it....immediately!
The new controller, explicitly designed for electric-hydralic brake systems, is working great.
We were expecting some high winds the next day, so I elected to stay where I was, rather than trying to pull the trailer in high side winds. Glory! During the worst of the winds, I couldn’t even see Pilot Knob, a small mountain, just a mile or so distant. And the next morning, upon getting up, the first thing to do was to start cleaning around all the wind-side windows where super-fine dust had blown in - and in the truck, too!
After breakfast, I rearranged things, pulled in the slide, hitched up and drove north a couple hours to the town (village) of Bouse, Arizona, where I checked in to the Desert Pueblo RV Park. I chose to stay here for a week, as I had heard on the NOAA weather radio that a severe cold front was due to hit us.
And hit us it did! The temperature was down near 20 degrees for 5 nights straight, but I was able to keep everything from freezing, and kept myself toasty warm except at night when I first crawled into that icy cold bed - I keep the bedroom door closed day and night, as I see no sense in heating an empty room. Much more of these cold temps, and I just might have to alter that practice!
During this period, I kept the electric heater running on Low all night long. But when I would get up in the morning, I’d have to turn it on High, plus start up the Blue Flame (brand) propane heater to get things warmed up FAST!
When I got up the morning of January 17th, however, it was already toasty - the front had passed - Hooray! I heard that the cold spell was the worst on record since back in the 50’s or 60’s. So now I will be able to relocate tomorrow to the boondocking area 6 or 7 miles west of town without worrying about things freezing up.
It’s about time.
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