Detour to Quartzsite

When we were breaking camp at Bouse, the ‘previously reluctant’ slide refused to retract on it’s own.

Hailey likes the new chair – even if it is laying on the bed!

Out came the manual crank – which worked with relative ease, notwithstanding the awkward position need to crank it.

So instead of heading for unknown territory, we headed back to Quartzsite and spent the night off Dome Rock road, conveniently near the RV Lifestyles repair place.  They were able to take a look at it right away in the morning, and confirmed that the drive actuator (motor) was u/s as I suspected, but did not have one in stock, and said it might take a week or more to arrive when ordered. Since the supplier was closed for the holidays, it might have taken even longer.  At least knowing what the problem was will be a help, and I can perhaps find one in stock elsewhere, or order it somewhere that I plan to stay for a while.  It isn’t really hard to crank manually, but not really worth it for an overnight stop.

After being tempted by a few of the ever-expanding selection of vendors setting out their goods in Quartzsite, and topping off the fuel, we headed east on the Interstate 10.

The co-pilot assumes the travel position.

But not for long, as the road to Wickenburg was quieter and more appealing.  It would have been rush hour in Phoenix if we kept going, so after re-stocking the cupboards at Safeway we turned off on a quiet little road to Castle Hot Springs as an alternative.  I knew from last year that there were a few camp spots roadside, once past the end of the pavement and a few ranches and farms.

But she was up and keen to see what wildlife the new camp location had to offer.

This is a much greener area than where we were at Bouse and Quartzsite, with lots of saguaro cactus and palo verde trees.  And once the sun plunged behind the mountain range to the west, there has been no traffic at all on the little gravel road, a pleasant change from last night where we knowingly camped way to close to the interstate, which maintains a constant roar all night.  But it is close enough to Phoenix to pick up around 40 channels with the tv antenna, many of them in Spanish.With luck, and the Tom Tom navigator doing it’s best, we should be able to sneak through Phoenix around lunch time and miss the worst of the traffic.