Quartzsite Christian Fellowship

We arrived to the spot where the Christian Fellowship group gathers in Quartzsite today... since the "unrally" doesn't actually start until Saturday, we figured only a couple of RVs would be here, but... so far there are 11!

Our friend, Nancy, had sent me a picture from yesterday, so I knew some folks were already here...

Part of the group earlier in the afternoon...

... and folks looking for shade.

Later in the afternoon, a few of us went walking -- we just walked about 1.5 miles but it was good to get up and walk after driving and sitting a lot today.

Some of the other walkers

On the walk, Pepper had "marked" Gayle with dusty footprints!

I climbed up on the roof to get a picture of the rigs -- and saw a pretty sunset too!

Carl and Steve were on the ground and took a picture of me on top of the rig...

... while I was taking a panorama picture of the rigs here so far.

Folks are so glad to get together, albeit at an appropriate social distance. It is great to be able to fellowship here with friends where we first met 6 years ago as couples. It is a little bittersweet because memories come back of being here with Sue and with Dwayne, but we are thankful to be able to be here together.

Preparing to depart...

We plan to leave on Thursday morning to head to Quartzsite to join our Christian Fellowship BOF (Birds of a Feather) group, so we've been preparing to get underway. The longer you stay in a spot, the more the rig grows roots so it takes a little more effort than it would usually take to move. In addition, since we're coming back here after Quartzsite, we are leaving some things in the shed that we won't need there (like the bicycles and bike rack). So, getting everything in its proper place and also being ready to be without hookups for 2+ weeks requires a bit of planning.

First thing this morning, we headed into Phoenix to pick up some DVDs that I had requested from the library. It doesn't make a lot of sense to us, that people can go to Walmart and buy groceries and clothes and whatever, but it is too dangerous to go into the libraries - I guess they are non-essential services. So, we have to request items online, the workers retrieve the items from the shelves and place them on hold for us, and then we drive over and park in one of the curbside pickup spots, call, and the items are delivered to our car. They will also provide various types of "bundles" - Kid's bundle, magazine bundle, various other things (http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/ServicesForYou/Borrowing-Items/Pages/Curbside-Service.aspx). A nice thing is that, although Carl has a Mesa Library card (which we have been using to get audio and e-books), since we have a Mesa address, I was able to apply for a Phoenix Library card and get it electronically, allowing me to check out physical items from that library system -- and they had the DVDs that we were wanting.

We have developed an addiction to the Canadian television series "Heartland". It is the story of a ranching family in Alberta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_(Canadian_TV_series)). They are currently airing the 14th season in Canada, making it the longest running series for Canadian television. We started watching it on Prime -- they have seasons 1-9 available there. We found season 11 at Half-Price Books when we were in Dallas and purchased the DVDs for it. We finished season 9 from Prime about the time we arrived in Mesa, and were able to get season 10 through the Phoenix Library - for that one, I requested that it get transferred to the Phoenix Library branch that was closest to where we are staying (they won't transfer to Mesa branches -- or, maybe they would -- through InterLibrary Loan, but I didn't try that). I found, though, that there was quite a delay between the time they put the item on hold from the library where the copy was located until it got transferred to the closer branch. So, this time, I decided to just ask for it to be held at the library that already had it -- which was the downtown branch. It wasn't that much further a drive... However... the curbside service is only available 8-noon M-F, and 3:30-5:30pm Tu-Th... (and some other hours on Saturday). I had forgotten that, so we drove to the downtown location yesterday and arrived at about 1pm -- ARGH! So, we drove over to be there at 8am this morning and got our held copy of season 12 to be able to watch while we're away.

We got back to Venture Out in time to join the 9am Water Exercise class. We are enjoying it - the people in it are fun to be with (at appropriate social distancing, of course!), and it gets our blood moving and allows us to be a little more active during the day. In addition, today, there was also a 5K stroll/walk/jog/run at 10am here in the park, so we took a change of clothes to the pool, took a quick shower after our 9am class was done (at 9:45am), and made it just as the walk started. We enjoyed being with other folks walking around the park, though we walked a bit faster than we might have done if we were doing it on our own (we were trying to keep up with the fastest walkers). The Activities Office gave the walkers balloons to carry (to identify us as part of the walking group? to keep people from running over us in their golf carts? to help lighten us up (helium balloons)?) -- and when we got home, we found another use for the balloons:

Miss Kitty was NOT amused!

She is such a laid-back kitty though, she tolerated it for quite a while. It was not tied tight on her, and she eventually got out of the loop around her middle when she was tired of it.

After the unsuccessful trip to pick up the DVDs at the library yesterday, we went shopping for supplies at Walmart and had, I think, our biggest shopping day so far there. But... we've found that we really like to get produce at the Farmer's Market that is right next door to the resort:

So we headed to "Superstition Ranch Market" this afternoon.

It is really a nice produce market...

Lots of choices...

... good prices...

I found out today...

... if you don't see the item you want...

... ask, and they may have it in the back. I wanted some kale, and I had gotten some when we were there a week or so ago, but there wasn't any out today. I asked, and the fellow said they had it in the back and he could have it out in a few minutes. That was fine with me!

On the way back into the resort, we drove to the car wash area (about as far away from our rig as you can get and still be inside the resort) and washed the Jeep.

The Jeep will get dirty again on the drive out to Quartzsite (and *in* Quartzsite), but we put a cover over the hood to protect it from rocks and such being thrown up from the rig, and we prefer that the finish is relatively clean before we put that on - thus the need to wash it before we head out.

When we got back to the rig, we got a few more items from our to-do list completed, and I made some soup that we'll be able to enjoy for the next few days.

The refrigerator is plumb full from all our purchases the past couple of days!

I had to look up to see how to spell "plumb" in that usage. I think "plumb" is correct...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/difference-between-plum-and-plumb-and-plump-usage 

Having looked that up (and having nothing to do with either plum or plumb other than a similar spelling... have you ever heard of a "plump of ducks"? Evidently an obscure use of "plump" is as a group or flock... thinking of that, we recently learned that a "group of cats" is known as a "clowder" (also an obscure term)... Okay, I think I am devolving into minutiae and should stop typing now!

Another pole support

We are preparing to head out to Quartzsite in a few days, and will probably spend some time with ham radio folks - so Carl wanted to get the flagpole mount that we had acquired mounted on the ladder so we could have both a flagpole and an antenna up if we want.

Carl positioning the top keeper for the pole - the design is such that you aren't supposed to have to get off the ground to put the flag up on the mount.

We moved the flag over to the new mount after we got it into place. It is a little bit more challenging to get the pole into the mount since we can't use the space over the corner of the rig - so we have to be sure that we're not going to scrape the top of the rig with the pole. We also put the bottom keeper one rung higher so this allows the pole to be a little higher too.

 Just getting to-do's done!

Who lives at Venture Out?

When we went to get our mail a few days ago, we saw this map:

Instructions near it encouraged folks to put a pin into the map where they come from...

 

Not too many from Texas, or Virginia, but a lot from the northern areas of the US and from Canada.

I'm not sure whether people remove their pins when they sell their lot or whether the map gets re-populated every once in a while... some of these pins may have been around for a long time!

One of the things we're missing due to the COVID restrictions on gatherings are the various parties - like block parties (where we could meet and mingle with others on our block) or state parties (where people who are from a particular state or area of the country get together) or club parties (pickle ball club or ham radio club or hiking club or...). We're hopeful that next season (the 2021-2022 winter) will be back to "normal" again. It will be nice to be able to meet up with folks who have similar interests.

New window awning

Since we still do not have the large patio awning on Gracie, and... since not having it, we determined that it would be nice to have a window awning over the window that it would normally shade... because even when it is installed, we don't like leaving it out if we are away from the rig or anticipating windy weather, while the smaller window awnings can be left out even in reasonable winds and rain.

So Carl called a company that he used last year to add window awnings to the other windows.

They had the specific awning that we needed in stock...

... so they came right out...

... prepared for the awning installation...

... made sure everything was measured correctly...

... and then installed the awning, getting it all put in place correctly.

They were able to get it done quickly...

 

...but, it turns out that the awning was not made exactly correctly, so they had to submit a return to the company that made it -- we will keep the awning until the correctly made one comes in...

...it works, but is not straight when it is pulled out. I don't know whether you can see it in the pictures or not...

Awnings seem to be a challenge for us!

Solar!

When we were in Virginia, we got the solar panels placed on the roof of Gracie (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/07/on-road-again-but-first.html) but we didn't get them wired in to provide power to our batteries. Since we are planning to head out to Quartzsite where we'll be boondocking in the desert next week, we prioritized getting the panels wired in during the time we have been on the lot in Mesa. Carl was a little concerned about drilling through the roof to run the wires, so we contacted a local RV Mobile Technician to work on this with Carl.

The RV mobile mechanic, Mike, has created the connection from the roof down into the rig, with the wires you see on the roof heading off connecting to the solar panels. You can also see the mini-solar panel that was provided by Newmar to help to keep the engine batteries charged.

The panels were wired together...

... we had intended to wire the 4 panels as 2 sets of 2 in parallel, but for now, they are all wired in series. The choice on this is due to the fact that if portions of a panel are shaded, it may take the whole panel out of service, which would take all the panels wired together in series out of service. If we have them wired as 2 sets of 2 in parallel, and the shade is affecting only one panel or one pair of panels, the other pair could still produce electricity to our batteries.

In addition, if the panel is not receiving direct sunlight, it won't provide optimum power output. So, we can raise the panels to get better sun input during the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky). However, it can add to shading issues (as you may be able to see in this picture with the cover over our ceiling vent fan shading the middle of the three panels).

Raising the panels also helps with washing the roof, which was another to-do on our list!

After washing the roof, we applied wax to help the roof stay cleaner.

Much easier with the panels raised.

Carl uses the monitors inside Gracie to determine how well the solar panels are performing.

Here, the panels are producing 430 watts out of the 640 watts that they are rated for.

Net positive 13.4 Amps DC are going in to the battery (above the power load that we had going at that time).

The wire comes in from the roof into window valance above the driver's seat and runs down the wall...

.. where it is wired inside the rig to the solar controller mounted on the wall just behind the driver's seat. There are also both a battery cut off and a solar panel cut off mounted on the floor.

After the mobile RV tech had finished doing the wiring, we put wire loom on and cable-tied the wiring to the mounting points to keep it from rubbing (and getting damaged) during travel.

Then we let the panels back down and bolted them into place in preparation for traveling the first week of January.

Carl also checked out the wiring in the battery bay and made sure that the batteries have sufficient water. With the solar charging, the batteries will probably require more water as they will go through more charge/discharge cycles.

We will probably need to replace the aging flooded lead-acid batteries in the not-too-distant future, but they are serving our needs right now. We'd like to get AGMs (Absorbent Glass Mat) or Lithium -- Lithium would require quite a bit of additional research and possible reconfiguration of our battery compartment.

The Changing Look of Homes

According to its history (https://ventureoutrvresort.com/history-of-venture-out/):

Venture Out was first conceived of in 1968 as a possible solution for the rapidly increasing leisure activity of ‘travel trailers’ that were appearing on America’s highways. Early enthusiasts found that they were often disappointed in RV park accommodations, when, they were able to find them. Back then they were looking for the basics; clean bathrooms, a pool, maybe a tennis court, a clubhouse would be a bonus.

In that same history,

Originally Venture Out was designated for only ‘travel trailers’ but through the years, the owners have voted to change their governing documents to first allow park models, then allow an attached awning, then the attached awning was allowed to be developed as an Arizona room and finally the Arizona rooms were allowed to raised to the same height as the park model. All these changes were voted on by the lot owners. Who knows what further evolution’s in design lot owners will approve in the years ahead?

Right around us, we can see example of this evolution... I've collected a few pictures.

I tried to find a park model without an attached awning, but have not seen one yet...

... we did see this "tiny house" that has recently been moved onto an empty lot.

This is a park model with an attached awning that we rode by -- there aren't a lot of these in the park anymore.

From our patio, we have a view that shows a progression through 3 homes:

The furthest to the right is a park model with an Arizona room -- obviously a bit older design of park model than the one to the left of it...

... higher roof line but still a ground level Arizona room (so, there are steps from the Arizona room up into the park model)...

... compared to this one right in front of us with a raised Arizona room -- so all the home is on one level, and the steps are outside leading up to the door.

This is the beautiful home of some folks that we have met...

... it takes full advantage of its corner lot -- but underneath the left-most part is the frame of a park model (all the homes here much have "wheels").

From what Carl was told when they bought here, about 10% of the lots are still for RVs -- that would mean about 170 lots... I cannot say that we've seen that many RVs (or RV lots) here, but, we haven't actually counted. It makes it interesting because we are used to staying in RV parks where everyone is staying an an RV -- it may be a bumper-pull trailer, or a huge 5th wheel, or a van camper or a huge bus - but there is the commonality of "RVing". Here, very few of the folks are RVers at all, and certainly not fulltimers. It is kind of like having our RV parked in a suburban housing development.