Arizona 2024: Day 25: Quartzite, AZ: Pop-Pop

Relatively good sleep. You can hear the highway from here. That is good news in a way as it indicates it was not super windy nor raining. Was awake for a bit in the night thinking about some disrupted lives back home and missing the kids (adults) and stuff. Had a bizarre dream that included a family gathering and my semi-Australian cousin had a fresh(ish) baby that could not talk yet, but when the song Danny Boy came on, that new baby sang it pitch perfect. I was holding the miracle child at the time. I guess the pipes were calling.

Back to reality. Walks around our campsite are through the desert rocky wasteland that is Quartzite. It’s beautiful and different. But not as exciting for the morning walk as the previous spots have been. Just did an out and back. Elevation gain was basically nil.

Did I mention that there is quartz at our site in Quartzite?

We abandoned our plans to get pizza today so we spent the day relaxing and reading. we did set out our solar shower bag just in case the need to be cleaner occurred. That there solar shower was a birthday gift for Mrs Milddogs a few years ago. I know how to pour on the romance, or perhaps shower her with gifts.

Later in the afternoon we took advantage of the warm water in the solar shower and, yup, had some showers. No pictures were taken. My poorly designed hanging method for the shower bag resulted in a sub optimal, but still useful experience. The water was quite warm. I’ll devise a better hanging technique for next time. For this time it included paracord, an extended squeegee to keep the van doors apart and various other things. In the newer versions of this van, they give you a spacer bar for the van doors for just such occasions.

Dinner was wonderful garlic (from our garden at home) lemon (from the KOA in Tucson) chicken (from some sad chicken factory farm). Add some potatoes and sweet potato and colour me happy. The foil wrapped potatoes were breathing as they cooked. As the wind cooled them, they would lose pressure and deflate. When the wind subsided they would puff right back up. Tried to shoot some video, but it was uninspiring. It was much like one of those toy pop-pop boats but without locomotion.

Must say though, the NomadiQ is struggling when both burners are on. Since I bought every accessory they make, I’ll try it hooked up to the van propane tank next time. Just not getting the BTUs and it is possible the 1LB tanks just can’t deliver. What, we use disposable 1LB tanks? Yes, but I refill them. What, we refill non-refillable 1LB tanks? Yes. But while we are here in the USofA I might pick up 1LB tanks designed to be refilled. The difference? An easier bleed screw. One of my other cousins, who could play Danny Boy on the piano at a young age, has always hated the smell of propane. He should not refill propane bottles as it is a bit lossy. Filling any propane (or gasoline) tank is lossy.

Post dinner we did a walk along the “roads” here in the Scaddan Wash. Amy enjoyed herself. Not as many smells as some other places, but she did discover a recently deceased and intact lizard. Amy was removed from that situation before she had a snack of lizard jerky. And yes, we caught sunset.

Tomorrow is a new day, where we will be, I just can’t say. There are good reasons that we should stay and just as many that we should stray.

We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Oh, the weather was perfect here today. Sunny, warm (26C) and minimal wind. I have tuned the awning so that it auto-retracts with less delay than it did before. It did auto-retract 3 or 4 times today when gusts hit, thus saving itself and proving it is as close to useless as an awning can be. I spent some time googling manual awning prices.

I added the band Envy of None to my walking playlist today. It’s a recent release by Alex Lifeson’s new(ish), non-Rush, band. Give it a listen wherever you stream your music from.

That was a lot of words for a relaxed day. Take care out there.