Sunday Jan. 10

An update on the below post about "Big Boys and Their Toys".

The new Remote Control to our gererator didn't work as it wouldn't shut off the generator. I would start it, but not shut it off when the red button was psuhed.

So today we carried the generator back over to our picnic table again.  That thing is heavy... I takes the both of us to lift it. So we took the covers off again. I tried pressing the reset button on the new remote start unit. No help. So next I started taking apart the Tap-In Squeeze Connectors I had installed. 

I found one that hadn't pinched completely through a wire coating. That was it... I ripped them off and soldered the wires as I should have done in the first place. 

[All the time thinking that John, of John and Derek wouldn't have had this problem. I will never use these things again. These snap connectors worked so well back in my later teens to connect lights under the dash of my parents car which they let me drive. Had to tap into the existing power leads and with a switch to turn them on and off.  You do remember those lights don't you!]  Under the dash lights were the cool thing back then. And to think I can still remember that, do you?

Now all is well as us Big Boys with our Toys are Happy with our New Must Have Wireless Generator Remote Control THAT WORKS. 

I was a fantastic day here in Q today.... clear skys and all anyone could ask for at this tine of year. RVs are pulling in big time into the BLM areas as this town ramps up for all the events this month. 
 

Saturday Jan. 9

Seems like the rest of the world is in frozen gridlock. China is shutting down factories due to lack of electric power and Europe is also in dire straits. It's cold out there. BUT here in the southwest it is some of the best weather we have had in years at this time of year. 
The RV forums are full of people complaining about the weather, even in Florida and south Texas. Hope our weather in Q lasts through the end of January so the throngs who show up for the big tent show will find this a good place to land for awhile and remember the great WARM time they had and come back. 
Last week the rock club had 80 renewal memberships and also about 80 new members to a count so far of about 625 members YTD. Way ahead of last year at this time. I would like to think it has somthing to do with the web site we do for them to promote the club. I know the Ad hits on our sites are way up. 

It started out slow this season but RVs are pulling in at a faster clip, that is if they can get through the storms up north. Many say thery are still sitting in snow banks waiting for the roads to clear so they can get out to head south. A frustrated group to be sure. Be glad you are here (if you are) and to think others still trying to still get here. 

Now for our day today...

It got off to a slow start as I woke up in A-Fib and had to take my pills to get my heart back in sync. I hate it when that happens. Never a fun event having your heart go out of sync.  Got my pulse back to normal and relaxed this morning. We had been planning our "big boy and their toys" install for today so in the afternoon we go to it. 

Installing our remote starter for our Honda EU3000is
The control panel had to come off (with the screws Terry has his wrench on) and the starter switch removed along with other knobs. Then connect several wires to other color coded wires. The white remote control box is just above the battery (lower right) in this after the fact picture. He was putting control panel back on in this shot. 

Looks more like open heart surgery. Terry was pulling off gas lines etc. and removing the air filter box. 
Had to get close to the carburetor.

This is the part where we had to install a remote choke assembly. You need to choke these things when starting so with a remote starter it needs a servo to move the choke. So drilling was needed to attach the servo to the air filter frame, not just connecting wires like the up front install. 

The instructions called for pulling the snap in contacts from a connector and solder to three of the leads and reinsert the snaps.. We instead used three of these Wire Tap-In Squeeze Connectors. Seemed like the easy way to go. 

After we were all done, I pushed the big blue remote start button and it started right up. Fantistic... 
BUT when I pushed the red STOP button, nothing happened. WTF...  (the center blue button is for extra choke)

So I said, Terry, remove The control panel again, we hadn't put the big plastic cover back on yet.  I need to check the Tap-In Squeeze connectors to make all is good as that was about the only thing I could think of that could be wrong. 

I did find one of the squeeze connectors had both wires on the same side (replaced it) and made sure to push the contacts down tight again on the other two. The white remote control box does have a reset button and as I looked for it, I might have pushed it... so not sure if it was bad connections or a reset item. SO when we tried it again all was well as it shout down when the stop button was pressed. 

So I'm telling you this is so cool. Terry sez it was not a problem to go outside to start and shut it down. 
But I love having the power, to have power, when I need it.  It's like being on the grid when off the grid so to speak. 

Next..

Oh by the way propane went up today (per a story about prices in the area in  RVing Quartzsite.com)  from $2.39 to $2.55 a gallon before local taxes. 

Will report the total cost when we go to fill next time.  Seems like a couple times a week to fill a 7 gal tank. We were getting a dollar something back from a twenty at the lower price so we shall see if we have to dig deeper for more than a twenty next time. While boondocking here in the BLM LTVA we use it for the forced air furnace, (we do turn it down at night to 57), fridge, stove top/oven, and hot water so we do use a bunch.  If we were in an RV park and were using electric for most of this stuff at 16 cents a KWH (or more) it would be much more expensive than propane me thinks.  Plus the RV site rental charge. Here we paid $180 for the season for dry camping, we do get water and can dump at the BLM dump site. 
I know your saying you have a generator.  Yes we do, and it costs for fuel. But we just don't let the small stuff bother us. We do have good solar charging at about 25 amps with 4 AGM 12 v bats, and a big 2000 watt PSW inverter/charger but at night with our desktop computer and netbook (Terry and I are on them at the same time) and 32" flat screen TV, lights etc. we do run the generator in econo mode to keep the batteries topped off, so we are charged up to run the furnace without problems till morning.  We leave the DirecTV receiver connected to a small 140 w standalone inverter so we don't have to reboot the box each time we want to watch TV. I also have a XM radio boom box running all night off a small inverter in the bedroom. And many times a 12 v fan blowing air all night in the bedroom. Even our DataStorm Internet system, and wireless router is run off another 140 w standalone inverter in the bathroom closet. Why leave on our huge Magnum 2000 watt PSW inverter/converter when little small MSW ones will run most of our stuff in the off hours.   We turn it on when we use the desktop computer and TV otherwise we leave it off.   The netbook has a run time of over 9 hours. Very cool as it can see our WiFi Datastorm Internet running on its own small inverter powered unit.
I can sit outside at our picnic table and use it and listen to NPR and All Things Considered in the late afternoon... during happy hour. Very Very Cool. 

We are not living this boondocking lifestyle to hide in the dark without power when the sun goes down but to enjoy all we want any time we want it.  Just takes a little planning to make it all work.

With sun during the day I can spend all day on the desktop computer with DataStorm powered Internet service or if I want watch the flat screen TV with just solar power. Solar will handle one or the other but not both to stay above the load. 
We seldom if ever watch daytime TV. What's to watch...  I get all the news online without some talking head repeating it over and over again because they can.. on CNN.

Later... 

Have a great Saturday night. Terry has a pot roast in the oven. 
He asked if he could eat... now that was an hour or so ago.. so I should stop rambling for now.

Think I just missed supper. May have to plead for Terry to nuke it for me... 
 

The Big Tent is going up in Quartzsite and by the time you read this it will be up to the flags.

Don't know what the big tent show is all about go to their site by clicking on the logo below.

Noticed the Beer Tent I spoke of before has live music and if you look inside there is a propane space heater like  up town bars have. Looks like they are serious to get YOU to stop and have brew or two, or three or more. 

Click his music stand to see what he was playing. 

Now a new big boy and their toys story.... 

What you want me to run outside to our Honda EU3000is and flip the fuel lever and turn the starter key to start, whenever we want POWER beyond what we have have stored in our batteries that were charged with our solar cells.  And later in the dark go back out to turn it off. We do have several solar powered spot lights to light up the campsite big time. Well you may ask if I Ron does this. You are right, Terry does that after dark shutdown chore as I'm usually half a sleep in the recliner by that time.  But still why should he have to do that? 
SO... 
I broke down and got a remote starter control kit for our Honda EU3000is generator. 

I had looked them up on the web in the past and was turned off by the price.  But a blog follower stopped by and got my last AlarmIt unit and as we were talking told me the starter kit I wanted was much less costly, as he had one. 
So the next day I called Dekens Implement Company & Cycle and Marine - in  - Blythe, California and they had the remote starter kit. So we drove over and got it. They normally have a booth in the big tent show later this month in Q so I asked if they were going to have a show special on this kit. The bottom line a got about $30 of the out the door price, by asking, and having a clue about these things. 
Now we have to install it. (More on that later with pictures)..
It has a remote variable wireless remote fuel choke so it can be adjusted when starting... so not a simple just connect the wire harness thing. We shall see. 

Anyway the weather is fantastic here in Q right now... Hope it lasts all month through the Big Tent Show events...
 

K and B Tools
Their Slogan... Stack it Deep  Sell it Cheap.  From this picture you can see they do a good job of it. A long time vender in Tyson Wells. They get to town early and stay late in the season. And you know just where to go to find what you want. Things always in the same place year after year. 

We stopped by to pick up some propane lighters. Six for five bucks. That should last us till next year at this time. 

Next across the street in Tyson Wells is another favorite gent. who shows up every year. Never ages wonder why. 

Click on him for a close up. 
And if you are having a bad hair day you can make it even worse by getting one of these caps with hair built in. People actually do buy them and then wear these things in public. Only in Quartzsite where you are almost expected to be seen in one. This might be your stepping stone to Slab City. If you don't know about that place do a Google search, I'm not telling. 
 

Sometimes you just have to act and report alleged scum bags when you see them. I know there is a big thing out there not to rat out on people. But keeping with being green we just had to take action when we saw this.

This was just south of Quartzsite close to the entrance to the big show at 800 S Central at the wash overpass. 
We came out of the south exit from Rice Ranch and right across the road we saw this. I said, enough of this shit, so to speak, and told Terry to call 911.  He did and later listening to my police radio we heard the officer call back saying they claimed they were only dumping clean water.  Note the web site allprotoilets.com.  Guess they only run around hauling clean water and later feel they can dump it in a wash right along the main highway. Fresh clean water and the Q cop fell for it. Does this truck look like they have a clean water hauling service. I could be wrong but if Quartzsite's finest checked them out and let them go, woe be it for me to think an error had been made. 
A passing thought if I can grunt a little more to relieve myself... this year there seems to be a large increase in septic suckers running around the BLM areas. Many more than in years past. We wish them well as it can be a harsh stinky business. That's why I make a point to let Terry do our dump duties. 
Do see our article... We did away with the Blue Boy How we deal with gray and black water.

Have a great day as the forecast is for it to be in the mid 70s for Tuesday. 

At least if you try to dump something here, (see above) it will still flow and drain away unlike up north as right now it will freeze right back up the hose. Close up the house, drain the pipes, and get your frozen butts down here. 
 

On Sunday we went for a drive to check out the latest vender locations. In Prospectors Panorama (next to Tyson Wells) south of I-10 we found the latest idea to make money. A Beer Tent. Now if your wife drags you off to the vender tents for the umpteen times and you are sick of it all, you have an out. The new beer tent, just like at the state fairs you remember so well. After all this is like a state fair, for the most part it lasts about 10 days with the huge crowds for the big tent show with state fair food vender prices. Now off I go on these guys... You would think they would know their market. They think they can come to Quartzsite and sell at the same price as they did at summer fairs.  One sign said 2 hot dogs and drink for $8. Hello. Day trippers or RVers who just show up for the 10 day big tent show will buy, but me thinks the the winter seasonal campers just walk on by and go back to their RVs to eat or to the sticks and bricks restaurants in town. So if they think they can make it, it's a free country. 

Here is the new Beer Tent in Prospectors Panorama... (Next to Tyson Wells) I wish them well. 
It takes new ideas like this to keep Q alive. Hope they do well, now perhaps if they install heaters and are allowed to stay open late and have music they may have a chance. But the Grubstake already is doing that in there outside tent. So we shall see. 

We remember when Q seemed to better off before big RV dealers, like La Mesa RV, bought out the landmark properties in Q. The Silver Buckle Restaurant and Bar was a huge swinging establishment much loved, live bands with dancing and a big bar area and pool table area.  Sort like one of those big Texas type, have a great time places. Now gone.  La Mesa RV now serves free pancakes from it to draw in customers so they will walk through their RVs. Sad indeed. Me thinks. 

Another view of the beer tent on the back left. During the big tent show this will get heavy walking traffic. Wonder how much hassle they had to go through to get a  license in Q. Didn't get up close to check out prices. 

Now for another idea I saw which should be a big hit. Not so much for RVers who use fold up chairs but for people who have these plastic chairs. You see them everywhere.  Now they can be up town.

If you have these plastic chairs get these cover-ups with seat pads for a soft sit. $6 each or 4 for $20
The vender is west of K and B tools and close to the produce stand south side of  W Kuehn St.
They also have other chair pads for when your butt screams for a pad to sit on. Very cool. 
 

Its warming up in Quartzsite after last week where we thought it was a bit chilly. Yesterday clear skies and about 70°.  Now on this Sunday morning I looked at the email forecast from the local TV station back in Iowa. 
ALL week highs of 5 to 10° And a warm up on Friday to a high of 15°  Put another log on the fire.

We just had to sit outside around a campfire yesterday with he great weather, esp. with calm winds. Good tunes on the XM radio on channel 6 with Cousin Brucie who was live from NYC playing 60's music with live caller requests. A fine evening in the desert. 
Now if you're up north and in need of a campfire fix feel free to stare at this one for awhile. 

Click on it for a larger bonfire type look. 
 
 

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