I wish this photo was really taken in the wild!
The prettiest moose I've ever seen - at Cabela's! I couldn't believe I was able to take photos of such beautiful animals, right there in front of me as if we were in the forest. They had lots of different animals, some high up on the mountains, others in the water, ducks flying overhead, little squirrels and beavers, many, many animals that looked alive in their habitats. I've never been in a Cabela's before, but I had heard about the store. They sure do have a good inventory of outdoor things. The only thing I bought was one of those neck scarves that you soak in water and put around your neck to stay cool in hot weather. I plan to buy another smaller one here at Quartzsite for Katie.
As I posted last time, I stopped at D & R Family RV in Glendale, AZ on my way to Quartzsite to take care of a short list of items I needed done. Here is my new LP valve:
So now I can shut the propane off to the Wave 3 connector unless I'm using it.
NEWS FLASH! The year-long issue of my electrical problems has been solved! Turns out, I've been running my refrigerator/freezer off my inverter when I'm not on shore power. That's 30 amps.
Since I was spending the night in Ron's shop lot last night, I mentioned to my neighbors that I was going to have my generator running (some of the people are plugged in, but I'm not) for the Presidential Debates. I wanted to warn them because we are all so close together. They were sweet and said not to worry about it at all. Ron overheard this and said, why are you running your generator? I told him my solar/batteries numbers would be too low and he said, no, leave the generator off. If you can't run your TV until 10:00 PM after your batteries being completely full today, there's something wrong with the batteries and we'll return them while they are still under warranty.
He said he'd check them in the morning and then we'll see. I didn't realize I could run the TV that late on only my solar inverter. Nice! I'm even more happy that I stopped here on my way to Quartzsite! :)
So, the next morning I told Ron that within three+ hours my batteries were at zero. He checked my batteries and they were good, and after more checking and discussing, he figured out that when I'm not hooked up to shore power, I've been running my 30 amp refrigerator/freezer off the inverter.
All this time, for the last year, I thought the fridge was off if the red light above it was off. When Ron left for the evening, he noticed the red light on over the fridge, and pushed the button to put the fridge on propane for me, and not realizing what I was doing, I pushed the button again so the light was on, taking it off propane. The fridge was using the inverter all night. When it brought the batteries down close to zero, the inverter alarm went off, and I turned the inverter button off. But the fridge is on the inverter line, and was still drawing power from it as long as it was not on propane.
Ron explained to me that when the red light is on that means I'm running it off electricity, the generator, or the inverter. If there is no shore power and my generator is off, the inverter has been keeping the fridge going. "Propane power = red light off outside, light on inside the fridge." Now I know why my batteries have been going down faster than they should. I wondered why people working on my rig always turned OFF the fridge! Turns out, they were putting it on propane. Then I pushed the button and put it on inverter power. For a year. Wow.
It's amazing all the things I'm still learning - important things! I guess when I have room in my brain for more stuff, it just spills in. My brain chews up the knowledge, spreads it around until I've got it, then opens a new door for more stuff. You guys who have been RVing for many years - you must know so many things that you take for granted that those of us who are newer on the road still have no clue about.
WE'RE IN QUARTZSITE!
I was really surprised at how excited I was to be back. I was thinking, as I was driving along the 10, about where I was going, the kind of site I was going to look for, etc. And also thinking about how, last year when I made this same trip for the first time, I was totally clueless. I had no idea how this Quartzsite thing worked, what it would look like, where I'd find a site, etc., as I was driving along with my brand new solar panels and Wave 3 catalytic heater. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing last year, but determined to "do it." This year as I was driving toward Quartzsite I was just happy and excited to get here.
We have a great campsite in the La Posa South LTVA. It has some large creosote trees and a large saguaro right outside the door, and also a tall one behind us:
I took this last night when the moon was rising. Can you see the Saguaro Cactus in the middle of the Palo Verde trees?
This morning I moved The Palms for better solar orientation.
I can also look out my window and see my campsite turned this way.
These are the sunset shots I took last night. As I zoomed in and moved my camera slightly to the right, I got entirely different views of the sunset. It was a gorgeous Welcome to Quartzsite! sunset for our first night here.
WELCOME to our two newest Followers:
Maryjane Warren lives in Chino Valley, AZ, and her photo shows her with a beautiful Greyhound. I'm sure Maryjane came over to Me and My Dog from Hazel's blog. Maryjane, you don't show any information about a blog or RVing interest, but as a fellow dog lover, WELCOME! Katie and I are happy you are following along with us.
Dawn King also appears to be a dog person, too. Her photo is of a beautiful dog, and I'm guessing Dawn is following us through her visits at Class A Greyhounds...RVing with the big dogs! also. Dawn, welcome to Me and My Dog, we're happy to have you aboard!
From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone! :)