Dry camping

What should I talk about after our first week?  Looking back on the past 6 days, I guess I should mention the very long cold nights we encountered while camping without electric hookups at Catalina State Park.  It was so pleasant during the day with temps being around 75 and cloudless blue skies.  But when the sun goes down it is a matter of minutes before the cooling starts.  We were always in the trailer for the night by 6:30.  That first night I thought we could get through the night without any heat.  At 1 AM we woke freezing and I fired up the catalytic heater (for the first time while camping).  We were kind of scared of it at first but by Friday morning it was our new best friend!

The next morning I expected the sun to rise early and bring an end to the cold.  Wrong, it was 8:25 before the first rays got over the mountains.

We hiked that day (Wednesday) and I have already posted those pictures.  That night I was so irritated that my laptop's battery was depleted and I could not tinker with the photos that I had shot that day.

Thursday we rode our bikes around the campground and took inventory of egg campers there.  We saw one 1995 Casita from Colorado, one 2007 Scamp from Alaska and one Escape.  Then we rode our bikes to Best Buy (not too far) and I bought an inverter that was supposed to be able to power up my laptop.  It didn't.  But it did work on the MiFi that was also depleted.  I decided that we needed to keep it as we plan to do a lot of dry camping.

Friday morning my husband took a very bad fall over a rock next to the dumpster.  He fell on his cheekbone messing up his face quite nicely.  Luckily there was a former EMT camped across the street who decided that nothing was broken.  I cooked and broke camp that morning.

We have been in Scottsdale for the past two nights enjoying the marvels of electricity.  Our plans are to head east tomorrow toward the Tonto National Forest.  There's no internet coverage there with my Virgin Mobile MiFi so I am not sure how long I can handle being offline.

Here's picture of our current home.

Saying Goodbye

I did not realize how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to our cats. When the time came to load them up and take them to their new temporary home,  we almost changed our minds.  We discussed taking them and, again, the fear of them getting out of the trailer was too great!
So here we are 291 miles from home and the trauma of leaving, not just the cats but our home, friends and family, is beginning to fade.  Hello to Meridian MS!  It is 5:30 AM, 30 degrees at the Bonita Lakes RV Park.  My husband is sleeping and our new TV is thankfully off and I am snuggled into my seat with wool socks and a blanket tucked around me.
We have questioned this quest to the desert.  Why are we going  somewhere that's cold at night?  Florida has always been our winter destination.  We have decided that this is a trial and we will see; this maybe our one and only winter Arizona trip.  Our ultimate destination is the Quartzsite Casita gathering during the middle of February and meeting some of our Casita friends.  Our plans today include dewinterizing, I hope we don't regret it but we are heading south, going an extra distance just to get away from the cold.  Austin is the plan for New Year's Eve.





Most of this post and the pictures were taken with my samsung tablet.  Still experimenting....I don't like the pictures but not enough to redo.  The Virgin mobile MIFI did great in the car (but we are still east of the Mississippi) although my speed has slowed considerably.

Still getting ready

We are still trying to balance Christmas and packing!  This morning I am cooking a turkey, blogging, and trying to discern what's next on the getting ready list.   Next is the internet access.

After spending countless hours last week looking at Verizon and trying to figure a way I could justify getting their service, the Virgin Mobile MIFI is still not installed.  I have been told that Sprint will have limited service once we get into west Texas but the prepaid usage is limited on Verizon and the device cost is astronomical.  I refuse to be back under a contract.

We are both fighting colds.  I figure that it is the stress of leaving as we rarely get sick.  As much as we want to be free and flit around the country, a part of us hates the leaving.  I felt sad yesterday as I watched a cardinal  pecking away at his suet.  Soon there will be no suet from us!

Once we get Christmas Eve and Day finished, we will become more focused on the trip and the mixed feelings will be replaced by joy!
Merry Christmas to everyone!