VACATION - Another fine day at The Slabs and Peaches’ Birthday!

You know you are on vacation when you wake up and don’t even know what day it is.  You have to check the date on your cell phone or computer to kinda figure it out?  Today’s post is about Friday, March 11. 

Again, another day where we wake up to 60+ degrees, and it warms up to over 90.  All blue sky and sunshine. I guess that song is right?  “It Never Rains in Southern California”  As I type this, the sun is coming up over the mountains and the sky is all dazzling pinks and blues with slight streaks of white faint wispy clouds, that will burn off by 8 am.

And to answer IM Vayne’s question yesterday, yes it’s very warm here, and yes, Steve was helping Seann figure out the hoses and fittings to add a catalytic heater to his camper. See, Seann is one of those unfortunate guys like us, who live in the north.  Land of Snow and Ice and Cold.  He is from Saskatchewan and on his way home, he will be needing heat.  He wanted to revamp his camper from the noisy inefficient LP furnace to a more economical way of heating that does not drain the batteries. So he decided to reroute some LP lines and install an Olympian Wave 8 catalytic heater like ours.  We also have to use ours during the nights and mornings when we camp all spring, summer and fall in Wisconsin too.  We can’t all live in Southern California all of the time, right?

Steve is also helping Mary and Rich install new batteries on their motorhome on Saturday.  They picked up six new ones and will be all set for more boondocking on their solar and batteries.  They run their satellite system with internet access for the close friends and neighbors to borrow when needed. So keeping it going all the time can be a chore if you end up running the generator time and again to recharge.  Their other batteries were getting tired and needed to be updated. 

We hopped in the Tracker and took a little ride into town.  I forgot to pack Steveio’s nice cooking rack for his salmon, which lets us flip the filet over when grilling it.  We were hoping to find one at the hardware store, but no luck.  Back to tinfoil and only cooking it from one side, I guess.  

We saw a street side vendor with citrus, so Steve went to see if he could buy a half a bag.  The spanish went something like “mucho grande libre”   Which we infer as to mean there was a lot more pounds in the bag than just the 8 on the side he kept pointing too.  Steve wanted only about half a bag, but ended up buying the whole bag!  LOL … it was only $5 so we brought it home.  There isn’t enough room in our fridge for 10+ pounds of oranges, so we “shared the wealth” and brought some to all of our Slabs Neighbors.  hahahahhaa
 

We had driven past this JAIL a few days before, but I wanted to get a pic of it.  It’s right next door to the sheriff’s office, and yes, it’s the jail.  I pity the lawbreaker that has to spend a night in here!



Now, a few of you blog readers have commented on hearing that The Slabs was a dangerous place or a less-desirable place to go camping.  Well…. it is rough, and rocky, and scattered out in the desert terrain.  The road is rugged in spots, and the first few sections are perhaps the messiest and filled with folks down on their luck.  Here are a few shots:

and some people are just messy and never pick up their stuff….  also the town folks come out and dump their trash instead of paying for it at the turnoff for the landfill up the road a ways

Some folks go out away from anyone and pick remote spots, put up their solar panels and enjoy the quiet

Our group of friends are a little bit closer together to each other, but in a nice neat clean area and we are not bothered by anyone else.  It’s a good place to boondock and it’s FREE~!

(Chili Bob's Bounder, Seann’s Jayco, our Safari, and in the background is Rich and Mary’s Tiffin and truck)

Seann did a water run today for fresh water.  Instead of moving their trailers and motorhomes, many boondockers carry a water bladder that holds about 40 or 50 gallons.  It’s similar to a water bed mattress only smaller. They fill up in town and bring it out in a pickup truck.  Seann has an extra water pump rigged up with a cord down to his trailer outlet wiring on the pickup truck for power.  He filled his 35 gallon tank and had extra to bring to us!   So he and Steveio set to filling the rest into our tank while I snapped a few pics.

 

“Hey Culligan Man!”

Another thing we put up, that we hadn’t really used since we got the rig, was a sunscreen.  This attaches to a slit in the awning roller and gives an added layer of shade when the angle is too steep to block the sun from the side of the rig.  We are faced East with the front of our rig, which means the side is facing south.  This is so our solar panels get the most sun along the southern sky from morning noon and evening.  But the afternoon sun coming onto the south side of the rig really heats it up.  Even when sitting out in the chairs along the side of the rig, the sun is hitting us quite strong.  So we put up our extra panel of sunscreen to help out.

 

Today we had a birthday to celebrate!  It was Peaches birthday…  and our thoughtful Mary bought birthday cakes and arranged a little party!   That Mary is soooo sweet and always ready to have a gathering at their rig.  They are the Community Center of the Rayhound Road and Chef Roger Way location at The Slabs!   Everyone gathers here for camaraderie, information, food and campfires!

                          Birthday Girl Peaches                         Mary cutting cakes while Chili Bob waits for a piece

 

(ignore the pallet mess in the background, the guys are still cutting them up)

Jan, Perry, Mary, Chili Bob, Peaches                            Woody, BillyBob, Jan, Perry, Mary, Chili Bob

 

                      Seann and Rich                                Steveio, Mike? from New York, Woody, BillyBob and Jan

 

And THIS is for our friend, Rick… who tends to have a “thing” about women and picnic tables…

Hope you are feeling better soon, Rick, and back under those tables soon!!!!!