Empty Shelves

I was hoping that as more snowbirders returned home, the shelves at the local grocery stores would be restocked. That was not the case at Bashas' this morning...

I was able to get everything I needed, but not everything I wanted. This is the closest I have ever come to what my parent's generation experienced during WWII rationing.

Campground Closures

I have been seeing an increasing number of both private and public campground closures including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS) and National Forest Service (NFS). The best place I have found for the latest news on closures is Campendium's State by State Campground Closures & Responses to COVID-19. You will definitely want to call ahead before moving to your next site.

Pandemic Panic

The snowbirds here in the park are returning to their home states early this year due to the coronavirus. The ones that I have talked to indicated that they were concerned that more states will go on lockdown and that they might not be able to get home for the summer. Although this seems unlikely to me, all I have to do is look at what has happened across the country in just the last week and I can see their point. Here's what my row looks like today...

That RV at the end is leaving tomorrow

Update (3/21/2020): Click here to read about Canadians returning home early due to the coronavirus.

Personal Update Re: Coronavirus

I have been sitting here in the RV attempting to self-quarantine, social-distance and shelter-in-place from the coronavirus. I have even started to work-from-home (some people call it "napping"). There is enough food, water and toilet paper to last up to a month, so I will probably die of boredom before the virus gets me.

In my 73 trips around the sun, I have never experienced anything like this. Although the virus is bad, it is its effect on our economy and way of life that is truly frightening. In my opinion, the coronavirus will probably go the way of other viruses such Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), but it may take a lot longer for life to return to normal as we have known it. Only time will tell.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Sunny and I toured the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just west of Tucson, Arizona. Taking photos here is like eating potato chips in that you cannot take just one. If you have the opportunity to visit the museum, be sure to see the Raptor Free Flight Show where they have birds of prey fly within inches of your head...

The coronavirus did not deter large crowds from attending the museum

Other interesting animals at the museum...

If you would like to see photos taken from previous visits to the museum, click here.

Klondyke Trail

Yesterday, I drove down to Benson, Arizona to visit friends in the area. Today, Sunny and I followed Lehman and Jane on the scenic Klondyke Trail...

Sunny and her highly customized, rock-crawling machine

One of many river crossings

Lunch at the end of the trail

Turkey Creek Cliff Dwelling

Another beautiful landscape

CB Antenna Quick Disconnect

Back in 2016, I mounted a Firestik CB Antenna behind the spare tire on my Jeep. Although it has worked well, I have been reluctant to run the Jeep through an automated car wash for fear of damaging it. After exchanging emails with Right Chanel Radios, I learned they have a quick disconnect that should solve my dilemma. I ordered it on Thursday and it was delivered today. Now, I just have to wait until it quits raining to install it.

If you are in the market for a CB radio or accessories, I highly recommend Right Chanel Radios. This was the third time I have done business with them and their products and service have been outstanding. 

Desert Flowers

When you think of deserts, you probably don't think of colorful flowers. Here is a field of wildflowers (I believe they are posies) near the RV park...

Quartz Ridge

I joined the group from the park to ride Quartz Ridge west of Highway 87 northeast of Phoenix. This trail is known for its quartz rock outcroppings which apparently are fairly rare in Arizona...

Bird of prey sitting on a thorny cactus

The ridge is a narrow trail surrounded by Saguaro cactus

Lunch at the end of the trail

I do have two caveats:

1. There are bushes sticking out onto the trail that cannot be avoided. You will definitely have "Arizona pinstripes" on your vehicle by the end of the day.
2. Sections of the trail are off-camber with deep ruts. Wheel placement is critical to staying upright.

Lastly, here's a video showcasing some the beauty and challenges of the trail...

Devil's Canyon

One of the reasons I chose the Santa Fe RV Park is they generally have Jeep rides out of the park once a week. Today, I joined the group on a ride to Devil's Canyon east of Superior, AZ...

It's a scenic trail that can be done in any high clearance vehicle...

Digital Trail Camera

I purchased a CamPark T80 trail cam capable of taking photos &/or videos of anything that moves day or night thinking it might be fun to set it up in the desert to see what critters might be lurking out there. In order to learn how to use it, I started with a couple of videos taken in the park. Here's a short compilation of some shifty looking characters passing by while I was out for lunch...

SxS Ride

John was kind enough to invite me to join him and his rowdy friends at the Arizonian on a side-by-side ride to the coke ovens (I believe they are actually charcoal kilns, but everyone refers to them as the coke ovens). If you are not familiar with the trail from Martinez to the ovens, it is a long and rocky ride with a number of obstacles that could be described as not for the faint of heart. I told John I would ride with him if he promised to keep at least two wheels on the ground at all times. Much to everyone's surprise, he kept his promise.

Professional rock crawlers

The camera does not capture how steep this hill is
Click on photo to see the smile on Becky's face

Beautiful scenery along the way

Ron making it look easy

Distant view of the ovens

Unfortunately, the top of one of the ovens has collapsed since I was last here

I hope it was caused by mother nature and not by man

Jeep Ride

Jayne, Steve and I explored some trails north of Saguaro Lake near Four Peaks. On the way up, we went through an area known for its wild horses. As fate would have it, I was able to photograph the legendary "horse whisperer" at work...

The trails were fun, not difficult and could be done in a high clearance vehicle. There were a couple of creek crossings which always makes it interesting...

All in all, a nice day to be outside with friends. 

Wyze Plug

Back in November of 2018, I wrote an article on Wemo Mini Smart Plugs. As I mentioned in the update to that post, they were great when they worked but occasionally they would fail. And as I discovered again with my recent move, they are not particularly easy to setup.

In May of 2019, I bought an inexpensive Wyze Cam that was easy to setup and has worked flawlessly since then. Now that Wyze has their own smart plugs, I ordered a pair which at $14.95 plus tax and shipping is cheaper than one Wemo plug.

They arrived today and just like the camera were very easy to setup including linking to Google Assistant which allows me to control the on/off switch with just voice commands. If I have a problem in the future, I will update this post to reflect my experience.

Today's Sunrise

I woke up hungry this morning, so I decided to have breakfast at Mickey D's. When I walked out of the restaurant, I was greeted with this...

I had almost forgotten how beautiful the sunrises & sunsets can be in Arizona
Unfortunately, photos never quite capture the experience as well as the eye does

Visiting Friends

Greg & Merry invited me to a cookout and to see their new park model with Arizona room. Never one to turn down a home cooked meal, I immediately said "yes" and joined them and friends that I met the first four winters I stayed at the Arizonian RV Resort. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

Leaving Las Vegas

After living in Las Vegas for over a year, I have decided it is time to see something different, so I am moving to the Santa Fe RV Park in Apache Junction, AZ (east of Phoenix). I am looking forward to making new acquaintances and developing that "sense of community" that never materialized in Vegas. I have friends in the area with OHVs that, hopefully, will allow me to have a lot more off-road adventures.

In my opinion, Las Vegas is a great place to visit, particularly, if you like to gamble and watch world class entertainment. However, it is becoming increasing expensive to live here and the growing homeless population is leading to more crime and violence. The near constant sound of sirens, police helicopters and jet engines is something that I will not miss.

Merry Christmas

At the risk of not being "politically correct", I would like to wish everyone a very...

Impeachment

In my opinion, any rational individual who is not suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" would see the highly partisan/political impeachment of the president as a complete and utter sham. The question I would like to ask those individuals who support impeachment is: "if President Trump is as bad as you believe, then why is the country doing so well".

We are currently experiencing one of the best economies in my lifetime and it will only get better once the recent trade deals are implemented. Why would anyone want to risk losing it by going back to bigger government, higher taxes and more regulations? The only answer that makes sense to me is to regain political power at the expense of the American public.

Brave Browser

I recently switched from the Chrome browser to the Brave browser for accessing the Internet. The initial reason for the switch was the ability to earn cryptocurrency (BAT coin) while browsing the web as I normally would with Chrome and viewing just the ads I choose to read (you can turn these ads off if you like). However, it turns out I am only making a few cents a day, so it is not worth it for just that purpose.

What has kept me using Brave is its speed and privacy. It is much faster than other browsers I have used in that it blocks all those annoying ads, pop-ups and autoplay videos I had been receiving. Perhaps more importantly, it blocks trackers that allow access to your web activity and data which is then sold to the highest bidder. Here's a snapshot showing that it has blocked 8,575 ads/trackers while saving me 8 minutes and earning 22 cents in BAT coin to date.

I did find that there are times when you do not want it to block certain parts of a web page. I use a script on this blog to show the the location of "Visitors" which Brave was blocking. Thankfully, you can turn off the "shield" for any site you choose and view it without any blocking at all. The browser is free, so give it a try and let me know what you think of it in the comment section below.

Back To Little Finland

In July, 2018 I visited Little Finland, an area of unusual rock formations in the middle of nowhere south of Mesquite, Nevada. At that time, it was too hot to explore, so I decided to return when the sandstone was not the temperature of the sun. Today, it was in the 50s which was ideal for some semi-strenuous hiking. 

Kingman Wash

I joined Larry, a fellow Jeep owner, to explore some spur trails off Kingman Wash south of the Hoover Dam. It felt good to be off-road again...

Mountainous terrain

Just enough difficulty to make it interesting

Old mine at the end of the trail

Here's a dash cam video showing the ridge trail, Lake Mead and in the distance, snow covered mountains...

New Tracking Drone

You have probably been worrying about what to get me for Christmas. Well, worry no more as I have found a solution to your quandary: the Skydio 2 Drone. Having crashed my first drone, I need something that can automatically avoid obstacles while tracking. Take a look at this video to see the amazing technology that is available today...

Tow Vehicle

I was thinking of replacing my Ford F-350 with this custom-built Peterbilt tractor with two V12 Detroit Diesel engines equipped with 12 superchargers that put out a combined 3,974 hp....

Unfortunately, I was outbid by unidentified buyer in Saudi Arabia