MA to AZ and beyond

[rob cote]

Hooo boy what a weekend! Okay first, Friday. We hiked early. After failing yesterday, I was DETERMINED to do the loop around Goldwater Lake. We set out in slightly chilly weather but walked into warmth over an hour or so. We found the way to the lower lake, which was easy because we've been there, and we followed the shoreline trail. Eventually, that took us to the upper lake. I know we're really close to civilization, but for some reason these trails seem really remote. It's quite nice.



SERVICE ROAD
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We wound around the far side of Upper Goldwater Lake and through the picnic area. The trail gets pretty vague in certain spots, but we managed. When we got to the opposite side of the dam, we hit a roadblock. There's construction ongoing and the road and trail are both closed. I believe they're cutting in a road or installing a parking lot. Perhaps both. We turned around and began the journey back. We took a shot in the dark trying a new trail that I was pretty certain linked to the most direct route back. My legs and feet were getting tired! Luckily, I was right, and we got back to the campground about 4 hours after we'd set out. Just in time for checkout, I think. Or perhaps too late. But we had no issues.





We hopped in the van and drove off to accomplish some chores. Empty the pee jug. Check. Dump the trash bag. Check. Empty the grey water. Check. Check the fresh water. Full enough. Get groceries. Check. Get Mandy. Check.

And we were off for the weekend! We drove to Seligman, AZ because that's as far as we felt like going for the night. Even cutting the total drive in half like that, we ended up parking later than we'd hoped. Isn't that always the case? We found a gorgeous spot off the highway and far from the train tracks in the middle of a ranch co-op land. It seemed there were no other humans for at least several miles in every direction. Maybe a dozen or more. It was quite remote. We wished that we got to spend more daylight there, but oh well. We parked in a small copse of trees and set to work on dinner. Chicken tikka masala and coconut rice. Again, yes, but we wanted to try and do it better. We failed I think, but that's okay. It was still good. We checked out the night sky but the semi-full moon washed out the stars. So, we went back in to watch a movie I don't even remember and pass out.

It's hard to want to build a campfire all the time when it's just us. We COULD. But it's chilly most nights, so it's more comfortable inside. And if it's just us, we're usually like why not be more comfortable hanging out together? And then our clothes don't smell smoky, and we don't have to worry what if we didn't fully extinguish it, our butts aren't freezing, we don't have to pack the chairs in the morning, etc. Maybe we're just killjoys though? I dunno.

 

[rob cote]

Saturday, we got up to continue our drive. We were taking an indirect route to Lake Havasu City, by way of Oatman. First, we had to get to pavement, which took quite a while. We were on graded dirt roads which were mostly decent, although there were some sections of washboard here and there. We hopped onto 40W and headed to Kingman, AZ. I'd forgotten to refill the coffee pitcher, so we were running on fumes.

When we got to Kingman, it was straight to The Human Bean for morning coffees. It so happened that the one we went to was right next to a promising-looking taco shop, Pancho Villa's. We hadn't had much to eat by then, just a yogurt each, so we walked Loki a while and then went in. The cashier was a rare but wonderful type. You know when you're in a place and the staff sing along, usually poorly but whole-heartedly, to the music that's playing? And you can just tell they genuinely enjoy working there. To this type of person, it seems that it's not even work, but just their favorite place to hang out, and they happen to also be providing a service to people. He was like that. He knew all of his regulars by name and was just having a fantastic time. It might be in part the personality, there's no way to know, but I swear the food is always amazing when the staff employs someone like that. Pancho Villa's is no exception.



After we ate, we got diesel simply because we saw it available under $5 per gallon. Then we continued on our way. The drive to Oatman cuts across some desert basin, and then through a twisty mountain pass. It was a neat drive, but don't stare at the scenery too much or you might send it off a cliff. There is little in the way of safeguards against this, and there is evidence to suggest it's happened to others. We spotted at least a few cars dotting the cliffs, far from any pavement.

We parked and hopped out and walked into town. Almost immediately, a donkey approached us. Loki sniffed the donkey's nose and didn't seem to care much. The donkey kicked out a rear leg at nothing, so we quickly walked away. Something about his body language that I can't really explain gave the impression he was uncomfortable. He followed us immediately and attempted to attack Loki. It all happened so fast, I couldn't tell if his hooves made contact or not. If any did, it was a glancing blow at best, and Loki was uninjured. We were saved by a woman who ran into the street screaming at the donkey. She quickly informed us that the donkeys are territorial and it's not safe for dogs. We hustled back to the van and immediately left town. We were parked less than 5 minutes. Loki has exhibited zero symptoms since, so I'm sure he's fine. It could have been far worse.

Finally, the last leg to the lake. We went to the state park, parked, and headed to the trail. Sunset trail follows the shoreline on the Arizona side of Lake Havasu. We basked in the warm sun, enjoyed watching the boat traffic, and did a tiny bit of swimming. The water was cold, but it was so warm outside it was actually pleasant. We tried to walk to London Bridge but encountered an impressively long fence. It was so long, in fact, that we walked all the way back to the van to drive around it. We drove around town a bit before finding a place to park by the bridge and check out the underside. We got a drink and some fries at Burgers Under the Bridge because they had signs indicating their dog-friendliness. Loki got an ice cream. He loved it.





As we had left the state park earlier, we noticed there was a "camping overflow" area with campers setup in it and some empty spaces. We went back to ask if there was any room available there, even though it said everything was booked online, and they said no. Oh well, it's free to ask. Wanting to park somewhere before sunset, we set out towards some BLM land just outside of town. There are tons of campsites all along the highway.

I found an opportunity to access the gravel against Mandy's better judgement. The highway cuts flat across the desert, but the gravel road follows the contours of the hills, up and down and up and down. We took it slow and climbed the first hill. Crested it, and began the descent. It was rougher on the down side, but I just rode the brakes and looked for an exit. Mandy repeatedly stated the pavement would be better until we got closer to an actual campsite. At the bottom of the hill, we could have turned hard right to get back to the pavement, but the surface was uneven, and it looked a little sketchy.

I continued up the next hill, with the plan to back down an adjacent trail, sort of a fork, that lead to the pavement. It seemed less uneven than the transition at the bottom of the two hills, and easier to navigate. I began backing down the hill, aimed slightly towards the highway (on the passenger's side), and suddenly the driver's front wheel lifted well off the ground. We could feel it touch down again and we stopped immediately. We were leaning uncomfortably far towards the passenger's side, and it was a decent way down to the highway. Moving very slowly, I carefully exited the van at the same time as Mandy took my seat. I needed to assess from outside. We weren't stuck in the traditional sense, as I think the van could have driven forwards or backwards. But I was pretty confident that either move could have resulted in a rollover. Not ideal.

Here's a panorama of the scene, but keep in mind the panorama effect makes it appear much flatter than it actually is:



The transition across the fork in the trail was not as flat as it looked when I initially drove by it, so when we crossed that threshold the passenger's side rear dropped a lot more than I anticipated. We were also right on the edge of what was packed trail, so any movement downhill would have put us in the loose stuff and probably started an avalanche. I've been in a lot of stuck situations off-road but none have ever been half as terrifying as this. We didn't take any pictures or video because we had to focus 200% on recovery. We are so extremely thankful that Ben and Reya stopped to help. Passing by on the highway, they thought something looked wrong with the way our van was parked so they turned back.They had a crew cab F250 and a few tow straps.

Ben and I discussed the situation and all possible recovery options. I was concerned that using the factory tow point would cause a few issues. First and most importantly, it would have required opening the passenger's door to remove the hook from storage. That made me uncomfortable. Second, we were so far over the passenger's side, I thought the tow point may have gotten underneath the center of mass and would have been done nothing to prevent a rollover. The angle was a little sub-par because of the tire, but we ultimately decided to strap around the driver's side control arm. Ben put his truck at the top of the ridge and pulled tension in the straps. Mandy put the van in drive and relieved the cramp in her calf from smashing the brake pedal. I prayed to all of the gods then choreographed the dance between both drivers. Ben pulled; Mandy drove. The wheel came way off the ground again, but the strap prevented a rollover, and got us back onto solid ground.

We ran up against a bush which began to fight us because of weird angles. I decided to have Ben move his truck and re-strap on the other side of the bush. Mandy probably could have driven from here, but we wanted to be 100% safe. Another short tug and she was at the top of the hill on flat ground. We thanked our saviors profusely and followed them along the ridge back to pavement the safest way we knew. No further issues. There's video of the extraction shot by Reya towards the end of our video here:


Mandy imposed us on their campsite for the night so that we could share our bottle of wine with them as a thank you. It was all we had to offer. We spent a while getting reorganized inside the van first, and I showered off all the dust of extraction. Then we hung out around the campfire with them and some other neighbors until late into the night. When the smoke started to really bother our eyes, we called it a night and walked back to the van.

 

[rob cote]

Sunday we awoke in the middle of the desert precisely when we felt like it. We spent the morning leisurely, slowly working through breakfast and dressing and all that. It was warm enough to open all the windows and the slider, just a gorgeous day. We offered our new friends and lifesavers a tour of our home since they expressed interest in it the day prior. They were great guests and asked intelligent, engaging questions. We exchanged numbers and parted ways; we all had errands to accomplish.

We headed back into town via pavement (lesson learned) to find a coffee and a laundromat. If you go to The Human Bean and they ask if you want a bean, take it. It's a chocolate covered coffee bean. We love them! Mandy worked the laundry situation, while I monitored chicken wings in the air fryer and worked on video editing. The wings came out awesome. We devoured them after the laundry was finished. I think we can improve on it a little bit by setting the oven to broil for the final few minutes. They had a decent crisp, but I think we can do better, that's all. Next time.

We tried to link up with our saviors, feeling like we at least owed them a beer or something. They were still working their errands, so we decided to head back to Prescott and catch them at a future date. Mandy drove us a different route than we took Friday. I didn't see a ton of the ride; I just laid in the back to read. I can't work on the laptop while the van is driving, I get queasy. It's annoying. We arrived to town late, since we stopped who-knows-where in some parking lot to make dinner. We had just warmed up leftovers, and then continued the ride. Since it was late, we just parked on a side street downtown and went straight to bed.

Monday, we did a quick walk downtown before work. Then, Loki and I went to Enchanted Forest Trail to find a free campsite. These ones are limited to 7 days in 30, and there's no host or anything. You just show up and if a site is free, you take it. Lucky for us, one was free! They're all free, actually. I meant available. We snagged it and setup our hammocks.



Loki seemed very much in favor of doing absolutely nothing, so I obliged. There was no cell service at all at the site, so I did a lot of reading. I tried to get him to hike a few times, but he was not interested at all. So, I just gave up. The sun was out so I took the opportunity to just chill. I don't often do that. I didn't want to leave all our stuff unattended for any longer than necessary, so I waited until the last minute to go get Mandy and the mail. Then we came right back.

Of course, once the whole gang was together, Loki had boundless energy. Not actually, but he was down to walk, finally. We went to the end of the trail and encountered a gate. There was only a clasp, not a lock, which we were told means you can walk through, but not drive, in Arizona. Can anyone confirm? We walked through and closed the gate behind us. The trail didn't continue much farther before there was a locked gate. So, we went back. We chatted for a few with Julia and Rob, who were staying at the site right next to the gate. And before we knew it, an hour or more had passed and it was dark out. They were so friendly and talkative. It was lovely. Eventually, we made our way back up the hill to the van to make tomorrow's coffees and get to bed.

 

[rob cote]

We may have found dog's special place because after we dropped off Mandy for work and went straight back to the campsite all he wanted to do was lay outside. All. Day. You guys, I tried to get him to move. I swear. I packed everything into the backpack to go for a hike and when I hooked up his rope, he was content to let me drag him by his collar across the dirt. Just dead weight. So, I capitulated. I did more hammocking.

Eventually I got the urge to do literally anything productive, so I started cleaning the windows. You ever start cleaning something and it just escalates? I didn't even clean all the windows, but instead started on the passenger's side door. This is where the vast majority of Loki's drool goes when we're driving. That's not true, it's all down the outside of the van, too. But inside: dash and door panel. So, I cleaned all that. And then just kept going. B-pillar trim, seat trim, floor, the whole dash, steering wheel and column, all the way across to the driver's side. I wish I got a picture, it looked so good after. For like an hour until we had to go pickup Mandy, and dog got inside again. Oh well.

When we got back, we did a different hike. Trail 305 intersects Enchanted Forest Trail, so we tried that one out. We turned right onto the trail from the "road". This way, it leads to Bannie Mine Rd. That's the next trail down Walker Rd., which also has free camping on it. Bannie Mine Rd. is in much worse condition than Enchanted Forest Trail. I think I wrote about it briefly before, a few weeks ago perhaps. It was too rough for us to want to have to commute in the mornings, because we'd have to hurry while driving slow, you know?

Anyways, this hike was so cool. All of them out here are, honestly. It's just so different from New England hiking like I'm used to. The woods are much more see-through, and you can see the shape of the land. Plus, the land is much more dramatic with cliffs and ravines and whatnot. Loki pricked up his ears at one point and focused uphill. We followed his gaze and noticed at least 3 deer standing at the crest of the hill staring down at us. Just mean-mugging.



They didn't bother us, and I hope we didn't bother them. We carried on to Bannie Mine Rd. I don't really know when we started, but it probably took about an hour. We took the pavement back, which was about another 20 minutes or so. We had worked up an appetite on the hike, so we set to work on dinner straight away. We cooked steaks, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I wasn't crazy about the carrots but the sweets and steaks came out really good. I feel like carrots are always just fine. They never are crazy good. I wish I knew how to make them better. Any tips, I'm all ears. By the time we cleaned up and everything, it was time to head to bed.

I'm feeling repetitive, but Wednesday was mostly the same. Honestly. Loki is like the laziest dog lately. I cleaned the whole bathroom and the kitchen, except the oven. Loki held the dirt down in the campsite. I walked around the perimeter of the site with a grocery bag and collected trash.

I was going to MAKE him walk after I was finished. But then I saw a little piece of plastic bag sticking out of the dirt. I pulled it up, but it tore, as old plastic that's been outside is wont to do. So, I dug up the dirt to lift it out. And dug and dug. It took way longer than I thought it would because I don't have a shovel and I was trying to be careful to make sure I got it all. It appears that someone dug a hole to bury a bag full of shattered beer bottles. Bud light, as best I could tell. Why? Some people are just stupid idiot-heads, I guess. In any case, it is out of the earth now. But I guess it'll just go back into the earth at a landfill. After all that, my back was killing me, so I just laid in the hammock a while. Loki didn't care.

We picked up Mandy, and then groceries. We didn't have anything to make for dinner. I was feeling some BBQ at Lucy Dee's, so she made me drive there, even after we got groceries. It hit the spot. The brisket was excellent, and the ribs were great too. We talked about how mac and cheese is like the flagship BBQ side dish, but no one ever seems to put actual effort into making it great. No exception here. But the sauces at Lucy's were all really good. We didn't have any more stops to make, so we parked the van back at our site on Enchanted Forest Rd. and walked down the road again. Through the gate again. We found a side trail this time that seemed to follow the river. It didn't go very far, though, just to a mining claim. We turned around and headed back. We packed up the hammocks, deciding that tomorrow we'd vacate the site for someone else. Mandy had downloaded a movie, Cleaner, onto the tablet, so we watched that since it was still fairly early. It was pretty decent.

 

[rob cote]

We left the campsite on Enchanted Forest Trail and brought all our stuff with us. Maybe we'll be back again, but not this day. After we dropped off Mandy, Loki and I went to Watson Lake Park. It's $3 to park for the whole day, until 8pm. Pretty cheap. We walked around for a couple hours, maybe getting about 1/3 of the way around the lake. Most of the time we spent in the riparian area. It was nice, but I imagine it's much prettier when everything is green in the summer. Maybe not, who knows? Locals, probably. Once we got part way around the lake, I got a feel for how much longer it would take to do the full loop. I gauged my feel and complete lack of supplies and decided it best to turn back. We were just out for a walk, not being heroes.



Back at the van, I made breakfast and we chilled for a bit. My back was getting angry on the walk, so we laid in the big bed for a bit. Our coffee pitcher had run empty after I made Mandy's, so I went across town to buy one for lunch. While there, I bumped into Julia who we'd met in the Enchanted Forest a couple days ago. Awesome lady, living in a F-550 with a big custom box on the back. We ended up going over some of the finer points of each of our vehicles, travel plans, and just life on the road for a few hours there in the parking lot. Eventually, we had to part ways, and Loki and I went to pick up Mandy. Julia was leaving town to head to Wisconsin.

We headed back to Watson Lake, because we'd already paid to park, so why not? We continued the hike from pretty much where Loki and I left off. We made it about another third, maybe less. This section was a lot tougher; mostly scaling boulders, and the trail is quite vague in parts. It was fun, nonetheless. When we started to get a bit hungry for dinner, we turned back.



Butter fried chicken is probably like the least healthy recipe ever but it's so frickin' good. Slice up the chicken **********, and boil them. Then, coat them in a mixture of flour and season salt. Then shallow fry in a pan with hot butter till they're crispy. We also had broccolis, and the remainder of leftover carrots and sweet potato.



It got dark as we cooked, ate, and cleaned up. The moon came up over the hills on the far side of the lake looking stellar.



Afterwards, we headed into town to find some street parking for the night. Nearly a whole week of parking for free! Only $3 spent is not bad. We both read until we passed out.

 

[rob cote]

Friday morning was the usual. We woke up. Mandy showered. I waited. Loki slept. I sleep on the rear side of the bed because the flares are deeper there, meaning the bed is longer there. So, I'm, in essence, "trapped" until Mandy gets up. Not actually, but it's easier than climbing over. So, I just wait. I showered after she was done. Loki slept. Then we got dressed. Mandy usually dries her hair while I dry the shower. We use a rubber squeegee to scrape all the water down the drain. It helps prevent water spots and moisture in the air which inevitably condenses on the windows and just makes stuff wet. Cars don't like to be wet on the inside.

We're getting pretty good at minimizing the amount of moisture in here. The Arizona climate is doing most of the work, I'm sure. But we've got a decent system. Hopefully this will help someone else out. We always sleep with the fan cover at least open. Sometimes it's on its lowest setting, sometimes not. It depends on how cold it is outside, mainly. If it's super cold, we leave it off and let natural convection do the work of moving the air. Then, when we shower, we turn the fan speed up to 40% or 50% power. This is the time when most condensate accumulates on the windows if it's cold out there. The fan does a pretty good job at sucking the hot, moist air out. Then, after showering, we dry the walls and floor of the shower off with the squeegee. Another trick is to only open the door to the shower quickly to grab the towel, then close it to dry off inside the shower.

After that, we break our fast with cold-brewed coffee and yogurt with granola. Mandy regularly makes the granola whenever we're getting low. It's probably cheaper, but we haven't done a cost breakdown. It's difficult to calculate because we don't use whole containers of things in a batch. For example, there's peanut butter and syrup in it, I think, but not an entire container of peanut butter or syrup. Just small amounts of each. But anyways, that's not the point. The point is that it's tasty and we like it. Loki licks the remaining yogurt in the containers most times. Then we throw them out. This is something I'd like to do better, but I'm not really sure what to do with recyclables. It's always really easy to find garbage containers, but a lot of our trash is recyclable. But we don't know where to put it. And in our house-living experience, every city does it differently. Are there any good resources for learning what to do with this stuff? I feel bad, so I want to do better with it.

Moving on. Loki finally rouses when we pour his food into his bowl. He steps off the bed onto the counter. Does a stretch, yawn, and shake. In that order. Every day. We make sure the covers on our coffees are closed, so they don't take in dog hair. Then he slides down the passenger's seat which is laid back into the ramp position. Then straight to his bowl and inhales his food. From the time that he steps off the bed until he's done eating his food, we scramble to make the bed as quickly as we can. We can do it solo, but it goes much faster if someone stands between the rear doors and the bed, and the other of us stands by the sink. This way we can arrange all the blankets easily, and without having to move them underneath us if we're kneeling on the bed. We hustle, because as soon as Loki's done eating, the clock starts ticking until he's going to bark at us to go out.

We throw the bed up to the ceiling, uncover the rear windows, put one of the blankets on the bench, and stow the pillows underneath the bench. If Loki hasn't barked yet, we try to squeeze in brushing our teeth and deodorant before going outside. Sometimes this waits til afterwards. Most days, we have to do jackets and gloves to go for a walk because the mornings are cold. We pile out the sliding door and try to walk for a half hour or so. It depends where we are, how cold it is, and how late we slept in. Sometimes it's less. We had a decent walk around town, since we were just off Whiskey Row the night previous. We followed the trail "under" the town, along the river. It goes under a few bridges, and ultimately links up with Granite Creek Park. From there, there are myriad other trails one can take, but we didn't. We went back to the van to take Mandy to work on time.

I like to take pictures of funny signs. Here's a couple:





We also found this awesome dragon someone carved into a tree stump:



Afterwards, we went across town to Affinity RV to top up our fresh water supply. This process is pretty standard. We just have a fill hole we stick a garden hose into. However, when I built this thing, I used 1/2" PEX tubing to create a crossover pipe connecting the two tanks. The passenger's side tank has an air vent, so air can escape when we're filling, and can enter as the tank empties when we run the faucet. The 1/2" crossover should have been larger. I didn't realize it would be such a flow restriction. But the passenger's side tank fills much slower than the driver's side. So, we have three options. 1) Fill the driver's side tank at full speed, wait until the tanks level, then repeat until they're both full 2) Fill the driver's side tank very slowly, so they fill at the same rate and 3) Quit before the passenger's side tank is fully full.

I'm generally not that patient. So that tank's only ever been fully full like once or twice. I usually call it when it's somewhere around 3/4 or so. That's an advantage of having 64 gallons of tank; if they're not 100% full, we still have a ton of water (*not actually 2,000lbs of water). So, it's not critically important to wait around forever. If there's no one else waiting for water, I'll throttle back the hose some so that it fills slower, and the passenger's side tank gets fuller than it otherwise would. But if anyone rolls up, I'll just go wide open on the driver's side tank til it's full and then call it good. Based on about one-weeks' usage, and eyeballing what we used from the fresh tanks, I've approximated we can go about two full weeks on fresh water. That's if both tanks are fully full, and we both shower each day, wash dishes, drink water, etc. We can easily skip showers and go for much, much longer than that.

The grey water is a different story. We dumped that also. By "we", I mean me. Loki doesn't participate at all. He just sits in the driver's seat to be ready in case we have to move the van quickly. That would be helpful, but no. He's just there to be in the way when I try to get back in. The grey water dumping is much easier now with the roll-up hose attached. It's still a little clunky, but the hose is more cooperative than it was when we initially installed it. It's not perfect, but it's so much less bulky than the RV-standard hoses with the bayonet connectors. That would be a more user-friendly solution, I think, because we could just twist-lock and open the valve and that's it, but we don't really want to dedicate that much room to storing a filthy hose. I love how compact the roll-up hose gets when it's stowed. I always try to maximize the volume flow rate through the hose by making it as round as possible, but then the fluid velocity increases, pressure inside the hose decreases, and it collapses on itself. This cuts off the flow, or severely reduces it. Sometimes, I can get it to sort of self-regulate, where it will partially collapse and then expand again rapidly over and over. I have to be holding it just right to make it work. It's fun to try.

That's a lot about dumping grey water. But it's about all I have to say on the matter. I rolled up the hose and clamped it together, and we drove back to the park. The driving area was still reasonably clean from my recent effort, so I focused on the floor. By midday, it was warm enough for Loki to just hang out outside, with the door left wide open. With him out of the way, cleaning is much easier. I swept the dirt up, and then went over the floor with a wet rag and soapy cleaning spray. I got into the zone when I made it to the entry step by the sliding door. I got all the dirt out of the grooves in the plastic trim piece. It takes a while. Then I worked out from there cleaning adjacent plastic trims until I wasn't feeling it anymore. I took a break to lay for a bit and read. Loki came in and got into the big bed also, up the chair ramp. It was a really nice, warm day out. So, we had all the windows open and such. From nowhere at all, a tornado ripped through the dirt parking lot. In the amount of time it took me to notice what was happening and begin to react by getting out of the bed to close windows, it was all over. The entire interior was covered in dirt. Just everywhere. It was actually dirtier than before I began cleaning two days ago. I was so frustrated. The day carried on with zero wind-having, as before. But then I was too scared it would happen again, so I closed all the windows most of the way. Then it was hot inside. Annoying.

 

[rob cote]

Eventually, though, it was time to get Mandy. I did manage to sweep a bit beforehand, but my efforts weren't as effective the second time around. With Mandy in the driver's seat, we started making our way out of town. But we didn't make it very far at all. I'm honestly not even sure where we stopped; it's always so hard to tell from in the back seat. But we had a chicken to roast, which we knew would take a couple hours start to finish. And we're trying to get better at avoiding eating at like 8:30pm, just because we like to eat earlier. So this time, we stopped early to cook, and finish the driving afterwards. It was like a 5lbs bird, so we got started pretty early. Cover the whole thing with olive oil, and then salt. Smear it all around. That's the whole prep. Technically, you're supposed to tie the legs together, but we didn't have twine. Keeping them together helps them heat up at the same rate as the rest of the body, rather than sticking out in space and heating up too fast which can cause them to dry out. It wasn't an issue in this case. You're supposed to tuck the wings underneath for the same reasoning, but I can never get them to stay so it's just whatever. It feels like the joints don't want to go that way. Heat up a cast iron pan in the oven, with no bird. Then transfer the bird onto the already-hot pan, and let it roast in there for a while. We're monitoring temp in the boob and leg, and once a threshold is reached, we turn the heat off and leave the oven door shut. It continues to cook. Then, we take it out and let it rest some at room temp. This locks in moisture.

Meanwhile the chicken was roasting, we also peeled some golden potatoes, diced 'em up and boiled them. These got strained and blended. We have a KitchenAid stick blender (model: KHBBV53VB in case you're in the market) which is reasonably small, but super versatile. It made quick work of smoothing out all the potatoes, which was awesome. We don't have a masher because it's too specialized an instrument. Plus, they always cause the drawer they're stored in to get stuck, even in a standard sized drawer. I hate that. We added in some parmesan cheese to give them a little extra. I meant to put garlic as well, but I forgot until much later. When the chicken came out of the oven, we slipped some asparagus in its place. It needed a different temperature, and the chicken needed time to rest, so it worked out perfectly. Everything ended up ready around the same time, so we feasted. We went back and forth a lot on whether or not to install an oven in this build, and we're so glad we did. Being able to roast a whole chicken in here is so awesome. It was delicious. Per usual.

After we ate, we tag-teamed cleanup. I picked the chicken carcass clean of its remaining muscle and fat tissue and stored it in a container for future consumption. We also made probably way too much potato, so I stored that and the rest of the 'grass (aka aspergrass aka assparagraphs aka asparagus). Mandy did all the dishes. Then, we continued our journey after that little intermission. We drove all the way to Congress, AZ. Only about an hour. On Ghost Town Rd., there is a bunch of BLM land with campsites on it. Even though it was a relatively short drive compared to our other Fridays, we still arrived well after dark. It was kind of tricky to see if sites were taken or not. Eventually, we found one, though. We parked and got ready for bed. We peeked outside first, thinking there might be a cool night sky since it felt like we were in a pretty desolate place. There was a decent amount of light pollution from the moon, and I think it wasn't fully dark enough yet. We agreed we were both too tired to wait it out, so we went back inside to Loki and the bed and fell asleep.

 

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We woke up and did the morning routine. But a bit slower. That's what weekends are for, right? When we walked Loki, we went down the dirt road a bit further and came across a cemetery from the 1800s. It was interesting, because most of what we were assuming were burials had no headstones. Just a ring of rocks, and presumably a body beneath the surface there. Some of them that had headstones indicated people which died at a very young age. Many were under 30. Lots of children under 10. We took a moment to appreciate modern medicine before walking back home. Once we coaxed Loki back into the van, we set off for Wickenburg.

We drove to Carefree Camper Co. Some new friends of ours, Abe and Mel, who we primarily know from the internet, are working on their van there. We watched them on the internet for a while and felt just terrible for them after they got into a van to begin converting it to an RV and it was almost immediately totaled when they were hit by another driver. We reached out when we found out we were nearby and offered to give them some help getting their replacement van together so they can get back out here exploring more quickly. Plus, we wanted to do something different for a weekend, rather than trying to explore an entire area in like a day and a half, like we're used to doing. They were so thankful to have more hands on deck. And we knew from experience that it just makes the work go so much faster. They already had a massive start before we got there. So, Abe and I tackled flooring the rear (which will be their "garage" area) with rubber diamond-plate mat. Then we installed vinyl plank flooring in the forward living area, which is mainly their kitchen and bathroom. Mandy and Mel worked on making a deep shower pan that will double as a bench, and toilet storage. Then we got that installed to the floor of the van. That took us through most of the day. We ordered pizza somewhere in the middle there, so we could all eat without having to break to cook anything.





Sometime late afternoon, we called it a day and packed up. What I left out was that throughout the day, Mandy took mini breaks to run out to our van and fold a dough she made. When we quit working for the day, she fired up the oven and began baking the loaf of focaccia bread that would be part of dinner. I cleaned up myself, and after the baking was done, drove us out into the desert. We already knew the spot, because we'd met Abe and Mel out there very briefly several weeks prior. Most of the staff from Carefree Campers were getting together for a bonfire out in the desert. The whole team are all super-nice people. We got on very well with all of them immediately. Something about getting like-minded people together, who share common ideals and goals, just makes for a great mix. We, of course, were requested to show all the intricacies of our van. The bed lift mechanism is always a hit. I think because the configuration is not very common, and this specific lifting assembly might still be the only one out here in a van.



Mandy wasn't finished with the awesome food-making, though. As the sun began to crash into the tops of the mountains, she set to work whipping up a one-skillet lasagna. Actually, I helped. I wear contacts most of the time, and as such, chopping onions doesn't affect my eyes. An oil is released into the air when an onion is chopped. If the oil gets onto your eyes, it irritates them and causes them to water to flush the oil out. If you wear contacts, the oil can't contact the eyeball, and thus you are immune to its effects. A sharp knife reduces how much oil is released when cutting, because it inflicts less trauma to the onion's cells. That helps, for those of you who don't wear contacts. I don't know the rest of the recipe offhand, but basically you just mix all the lasagna ingredients into a cast iron pan and the noodles cook in the juice from the tomato sauce and that's enough to soften them up. It's not as well composed as a traditional bake-in-a-pan lasagna, but the taste is the same, and those lasagnas inevitably fall apart when you cut them to serve them anyways, so who cares? I actually prefer the skillet one, because you don't get the burnt noodles around the edges that are rock hard. I hate those ones.

We invited Abe and Mel over for dinner in our van, since they can't live in theirs quite yet. We had lasagna and focaccia and it was delicious. Surprise, right? Not really. It's always delicious in our van. They were super appreciative, and it was fun hosting, if a little cozy in our dining area. It's not uncomfortable though, so that's great. Loki pre-cleaned the dishes for us, to minimize food particles in our grey tank. After we cleaned up, we all headed over to the bonfire with the rest of the people we'd just met. We shared the remainder of the focaccia and were thankful that it all got eaten. While it's delicious, we certainly do not need to eat a whole loaf of bread ourselves. That would be bad for my health. We shared stories around the fire and got to know a bunch more new friends. As the fire slowly dwindled, so the number of people around it, until it was just us and another couple who were staying the night in the desert nearby. We waited until it was just coals left, and then walked over to the van and went to bed. Sorry I don't have pictures of the food.

 

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Sunday we had a very leisurely start. We offered and planned to help Abe and Mel out again. They told us they weren't going to be starting until 9:30 or so. And we were only about 10 minutes or so away. So, we took our sweet time getting up, showered, and dressed. We walked Loki around the desert slowly. We chatted with our neighbors Sydney and Albert for a bit. We soaked in the morning sun. Eventually, we decided to pack up our chairs from the night before. We got two of the Nemo Stargaze chairs. I think I already wrote this, but I'm not certain. I think the three points for us - you know the impossible triangle thing, where you get to pick any two? - were cost, comfort, and storage size. We prioritized comfort and storage size. Which means they're expensive. But we considered that the last chairs we had, were probably nearly a decade old. So, assuming that these last as long, it's not crazy expensive on a daily basis, spread over the amount they'll get used. And, we'd rather be comfortable for ten years, than uncomfortable with a little bit more money in our wallets. Anyways! The only bad part about the chairs is they're slightly difficult to get back into their storage bags. You just have to do it in a particular configuration, otherwise it won't fit. But we're getting better at it.



So, we cruised back over to Carefree, and got right to work. Abe and Mel had previously installed most of their upper cabinets and doors, which was a big start. I was tasked with installing the struts to hold the doors open. Hinges and latch hardware were already in place to hold them closed. So, I really had a pretty easy task, considering. But it was work no one else wanted to do, but I didn't mind it. I finished much faster than anyone anticipated, I think. Once I got one figured out, the rest were just copy and paste, because all the cabinets and gas springs were the same. Meanwhile I was working that, Mandy drove down the street to take care of washing all our laundry. Then she came back once it was dry. After that was done, I was tasked with making the final upper cabinet. This was pretty easy, because I just had to copy the design of the others, but with different dimensions. The hardest part of cabinet building for me, is figuring out how everything needs to go together. Since they had already done all that legwork, I just copied the design, with the necessary adjustments for the desired finished size. Since their counters were already in place, but unsecured, Abe and I pulled one out, and set to work making the hole for the sink and faucet. I've installed several sinks now, so this was easy. The process is the same whether it's in a van or a house. We laid out the sink, making sure there would be no interferences, and that it was centered over the cabinet below it, for aesthetics. We cut that hole and then put the counter back in. We played with faucet placement until they were happy with it. Then I cut that hole, again ensuring no interferences, and set to work installing the faucet to the counter. Their plumbing system isn't finalized yet, so I only did the mechanical installation. No water hookup yet. I took a break to heat up some leftovers in our van and eat lunch. Abe took that time to caulk and secure the sink. Mandy got assigned painting touchup throughout the van.

Ultimately, we did two mostly-full days of work. Which is a fair bit. But in the whole scope of a van build, is a drop in the bucket. But they were super appreciative of the help. I think the most important part of what we did was intangible. Help of that nature is such a morale boost. Mel had confided in us on Saturday that there was a point somewhat recently where they had to take a few days off because of burnout. And I totally get it. I was there last summer. Those of you who read our build thread will know. The work goes much faster when you have a little bit more help. And then you get excited to be making fast progress. So even after the help leaves, you're working a bit faster than normal for a while. In the end, we're just happy to have been able to help out, and we hope it gets them back on the road a little sooner. It's terrible that their van got totaled so soon, but they're making the best of it and not letting a minor thing like their home being destroyed get in their way.



At the end of the day, when we were cleaning up the shop, Loki came back to where we were working SO PROUD of himself. He had a mouthful of bird. A whole bird. A very deceased bird. He wanted to show it off, but he refused to give it up. He was so pleased until Mandy pried his jaws open, and we threw the bird into the brush outside the fence. It was disgusting. We cleaned up that mess, and the rest of the tools we'd used. We "you're welcomed" Abe and Mel a hundred times as we made our way to our van. I had to put away all my laundry, then we made the bed before heading back to Prescott. I drove. It's a cool drive. It's a cold drive. It was, I think, mid-60s in Wickenburg when we set off. The road goes up a mountain pass, across some plains, and then up another mountain pass to get to Prescott. I don't know what the difference in elevation is, but it's significant. That means it's scenic, but it's also much colder. Prescott was somewhere in the low-40s when we got there, I think. BRR!

Mandy found us a new spot to check out. There's dispersed camping off Copper Basin Road. Just a handful of sites. It seems like a nice spot, and fairly remote. It was cold when we parked, and then it started raining. Then the rain turned to snow. We just heated up some leftovers for dinner, since we still had roasted chicken and smash potato, as well as lasagna. After we ate, we took Loki for a quick, cold, walk around, and then we circled back to get into bed early. We watched a downloaded episode of The Morning Show (there's no cell service at this site, unless you walk to the top of the hill adjacent) before falling asleep.

 

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The ride into work from Copper Basin was rather long. If we could have snagged the first site, it would be better. There's a decent gap to the subsequent sites which are further up the road and so that adds a bit more time to the ride. I'm not sure if we'll stay there again or not. We'll see!

After we dropped off Mandy, we went to the park. We walked around a bit in the park, and then I spent most of the day doing laptop work. I worked on our blog, video editing, etc. Time-consuming, but boring--to-write-about kind of stuff. But that filled up most of the day, surprisingly. I grabbed some groceries on the way to pick up Mandy after work.

From there, we decided where we'd live for the night. She suggested returning to Enchanted Forest, so we rode over there to see if anything was available. There were two open spots, so we took the better of the two, in our opinion. We parked and took Loki for a walk on trail 305 towards Lynx Lake.

On our way, we met one of the neighbors, Sharon. She and her husband just arrived from the Grand Canyon. She invited us to their fire the following night for some wine. She also invited themselves for a van tour. Courteously, of course. We were happy to accept. We've been meeting more and more people, maybe because the weather is getting nicer? I dunno. It's fun, though. We like making new friends.

We hiked for a bit, but not terribly far or long. We turned back when Loki put the brakes on. He wanted dinner even more than we did, I guess. When we got back, we fed him, and then set out to make yet another attempt at coconut rice. We used long grain white rice, this time, where we'd used sushi rice in the past. We used coconut milk, instead of coconut cream, which I apparently bought by mistake on the last attempt. Mandy adjusted cooking time for elevation and followed the recipe exactly. It came out perfectly. So freaking good! I cooked diced chicken thighs in spicy vindaloo sauce. We added a little red pepper flakes to increase the spice level a bit. The flavor was really good, without being melt-your-face-off-spicy. It's annoying when it's spicy just for the sake of it without any actual flavor. This was not that. We put the chicken on top of the rice in bowls and let the sauce mix in. Delicious!

We cleaned up and let Loki out to pee, and then we streamed an episode of The Morning Show. Okay so here's the thing about the show; I feel like it's overly dramatic. Are people really that intense about who reads the news to them, that the people reading the news need to be that intense about themselves? Are people really like that? It seems so over the top to me. I can't tell if it's realistic or what. But also now I feel like I have to see how the story turns out.

Anyways, I took zero pictures because most of the day was uninteresting, I feel like, until dinner. At that point I just forgot.

 

[rob cote]

We got up and did a morning hike a short way up trail 305 from Enchanted Forest. Nothing crazy but made sure to get in some walking. We dropped off Mandy and circled back to Enchanted Forest again. I made myself some breakfast while Loki chilled outside. After that, I set to work cleaning the driving space again. I did it last week, but a dust storm blew through a parking lot and covered everything with dirt immediately after. Remember? Why am I so obsessive about cleaning it? Well, for one, it's just nicer to live and drive in when stuff is clean. But more importantly, we had an appointment to get window tint installed. I didn't want to give them a filthy car to work on because that's just not nice.

So around 1:30pm, we headed across town to Auto Trim Plus. In the 25 minutes it took to drive there, the dash was covered with dog fur and there were nose prints all over the windshield again. I did my best. They took a good look around the van before beginning any work and noted the dog fur. Sorry. I handed over the keys and Loki and I got comfy in the lobby area. We weren't allowed to watch, which is fine. I get it. I asked though, just because I thought it would be interesting to see the process. I've done tint myself before, but I'm obviously not a pro. I have never attempted a windshield though, and with the size of this one, I don't think I could do it well. We watched a movie on their TV, and then the van was pulled out shortly after it finished.



The work looks excellent to me. The edges of the film are almost entirely invisible. I haven't spotted any bubbles, scratches, or dog hair inclusions. Like I said, it's way better than I could have done. Money well spent. We got ceramic film applied to the windows in the doors and the windshield, and that's it. The rest of the windows are already tinted, and so weren't as important to us. We went with a ceramic film, because we're just trying to keep out some solar heating. We didn't care about making the windows any darker, and actually we prefer them nearly clear. There is a slightly noticeable difference in visible light transmission, but it's marginal. It's really hard to get pictures of this, because it just looks clear. The camera doesn't want to focus on the glass, just whatever is behind it. So, just take my word for it, I guess? Or I can show you pictures of whatever is outside our windows. But that seems pointless.

We can't roll down the windows for a few days, which is a struggle for dog, but he's coping. We picked up Mandy as soon as the job was done, and we stopped at a grocery store to get some dog food before returning to Enchanted Forest Trail. Once there, we set to work making dinner which was a combination of reheated leftover chicken and rice, and a couple steak skewers because there wasn't much left from the night before. After we ate, we walked a couple sites over to Sharon and Tim's trailer as they'd invited us the day before. We played a few games of Farkel with them, and we all shared stories from the road, and a couple adult beverages. It was a really nice time, and they were awesome people. It was lovely to meet and play with them. Eventually, bedtime rolled around, so we said our goodbyes and walked back home.

 

[rob cote]

After we dropped off Mandy, we added some fresh water to the tanks. I thought it was low, because the pump sounded like it was taking in some air, but we were still sitting around a quarter tank. I didn't realize till I got to the fill station. So, since I was there, I figured what the heck I'll add some. Then we went back to Enchanted Forest. I spent a little time cleaning up and organizing around the van, making breakfast, etc. It seems much cooler inside the cockpit area, but it's difficult to quantify, and so it's hard to compare one day to the next. We think the tint is helping though. We choose to believe!

I packed up some snacks and water in the backpack. I put on some sunblock and shorts. I got a few treats out to motivate Loki, who was already outside, laying out in the sun. It took a minute or two, but eventually he got up and moving. At the same time, a ranger was approaching. He'd been at the site adjacent, picking up trash. We started talking, and it was cordial. But I think I misunderstood him early on and it changed the whole course of the conversation. I forget exactly how it happened, but I thought he was asking how long we'd be around Arizona - you know, just making conversation. We've been asked this numerous times; everyone wants to know when they find out we're planning to travel the world. So, I said we'd be here a handful more weeks. In retrospect, I think he was asking specifically about the site we were in. He asked if I knew the stay limits. Yes. So, he told me the limits. Yes, I know. Then he went into this whole spiel about the stay limits and negative impacts to the Wildland-Urban Interface areas - erosion, fires, pollution, etc. I had already mentioned that we had picked up a few bags-full of trash from our site, but I guess he forgot. The site was nearly immaculate, only the yoga mats and dog bed were out, and a closed bag of trash right next to the van (I just hadn't put it into the Trasharoo yet). But I guess he didn't notice that. He further went on to HEAVILY INSINUATE, without directly stating, that we aren't recreating properly or something. He said, "I don't know if your wife hikes, bikes, shoots, fishes, etc. every day" but his tone very much said "I'm certain she doesn't do any of those things". I stole an opportunity to get a word in and told him we hike every day. He wasn't keen on letting me speak much, he just wanted to talk at me, I guess. I began to feel like I was not welcome. He actually said that we need to consider freeing up the space so others may use the land. I forget the wording, but it very much sounded like his view was that we need to give the space to people who will use it "appropriately" or whatever. I'm still trying to figure out how we're recreating incorrectly. And why he stressed the impacts to the environment so much. We rarely have fires, we pack out more trash than we pack in every time, we've hiked so many trails, we respect private property, the water, and the land. We are self-contained, so we're not leaving behind human waste or dirty water. I'm not used to having to state all the things we do like that, so I didn't. It didn't occur to me that I should have to. But I think this guy has some sort of vendetta against people who live in a van, or something. He commented on the fact that my shirt said van life, and it sounded like a negative in his opinion. Over the course of the conversation, if we're calling it that, he reiterated the stay limits at least a handful of times. We're within the limits, Mandy keeps a calendar so we can be sure. But he never asked. And I'm not a great advocate for myself, so I couldn't find a good opportunity to say that. Eventually, we got it over with and we began our hike. You can tell I was mad:



The hike was fine, but I was just mad the whole time. The ranger ruined it for me. All the things I could have said came to me way too late. It was about halfway to Lynx Lake when I realized he probably interpreted what I said to mean that we had been at that campsite for weeks and were intending to stay there for weeks more. But I didn't say that, and I didn't mean that. But I understand now that it could have been misconstrued. Too late. I was just left with this feeling of being unwelcome, specifically because of the vehicle we chose. And that locals are somehow more welcome, or preferred. It seemed like he was trying to enforce rules that don't exist, without actually saying we had to leave. Just through insinuation. I dunno, it was really weird and uncomfortable and, like I said, it ruined the whole vibe of the hike. But we did it anyways. I thought it would be much longer, but it's only about 45 minutes each way. I let dog lead a bit when we were going through the campground, which added some time on because he doesn't know where he's going. So, all in, it was probably about 2 hours round trip.

As soon as we got back, I packed up the yoga mats, dog bed, and garbage, and we left. It was clear we weren't welcome. Oh yeah, one other thing first though. There were empty sites on the trail. So, the point about freeing up the space for other, more worthy, people was BS. But whatever. We went to a park in town to wait for Mandy. I sat at a picnic table and did some research on the laptop on a few different subjects. Once the time rolled around, we got her and circled back to the park to figure out what to do. She referred to her calendar and realized we still had another day to stay in a dispersed campsite. She reminded me that we had made plans with the neighbors, Sharon and Tim, and that we shouldn't just ditch them without a trace.

So, we went back. And we brought a cheesy chorizo dip thing that we'll probably never make again. It was way too much cheese, I think, and basically solidified. It wasn't very dippable. We explained the whole ranger situation to them and then we played a game of Sequence with them. We'd never played before, but it was pretty easy and a good time. We gave them a trail map I'd found at Watson Lake, as they were interested in doing some hikes. Tim's completed the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails, which we were enthralled to hear about his stories from the trails. After going over some of our favorite hikes in the map (so far), we made our way back to our van to go to sleep.

 

[rob cote]

Friday, we spent the day down in the valley. That's what they call it here. Or PV. For Prescott Valley. It's the next town over, all downhill. We checked out a new park. Well, new to us, anyway. It's actually pretty old. Well, not as a park. Prior to that, it was a mining site. They dammed up a river in a pretty steep gorge, so they could use the pressurized water at the bottom of the artificial pond to essentially pressure-wash the ore out. Now it's just a small park with antique equipment strewn about. The pond is pretty scenic, though. So scenic in fact, I didn't take a single photo. That's my bad. I need to get better at that.

It was quite hot, and the sun was relentless. We took shade under a pergola for a while, but eventually moved into the van since we each needed some water. We just chilled, so as not to work up a sweat or exhaust ourselves, until we had to go pickup Mandy. From there, we headed to Flagstaff. Also called Flag. The drive up was pretty uneventful. I noticed that the outside temp was 88F in Camp Verde as we were passing through, and then when we got into Flagstaff, it was 62F. The temperature curve with respect to elevation still surprises me.

We had made plans earlier in the week to meet up with a couple people we'd met in the woods, Rob and Julia. They're traveling together, in their own vehicles. Rob booked an Airbnb because he needed to do some maintenance on his Earthroamer. Julia invited us to meet up at his Airbnb, but then had to fly to Wisconsin. We went anyways because Rob wanted company. And there was a hot tub, and a little work we wanted to do.

We arrived around 7pm, so we just ordered food from a local Mediterranean restaurant to be delivered. Mandy and I got souvlaki and it was most excellent. We spent a while chatting with Rob until we were all tired. We headed off to sleep in the van to prepare ourselves for a day of work ahead.

 

[rob cote]

Saturday, we woke up and went to work...eventually. It was a slow start because we felt like it. We didn't have a TON to do, but a moderate amount. After breakfast, Mandy set to work on our mountain of laundry. I rotated our tires. This is the first time we've used the OEM jack, and I was surprised at the quality. It's quite a nice piece.



I even looked through the owner's manual (which I'm not a huge fan of - it's IN the head unit) to find the proper jack point in the front. They don't tell you where to jack in the rear, but the axle is always best. I don't love that you can't page-by-page through the manual. You have to search, and hope that the search works. It seems like not the best solution. But I managed through it. We're at 21k miles now, and I think this is the third rotation. I'm not excellent at keeping track. But whatever. Wear seems decent, and uniform. I would estimate there's approximately half the tread left, without any measuring tools.

After that, Rob and I ran some errands. He wanted to clear some stuff out of his Earthroamer that he just wasn't using. He packed up a few storage bins to ship home to himself. We also went to Home Depot to pick up a few small project items. I got a pipe union and some insulation and spray adhesive. On our way back, we picked up BBQ at Satchmo's. We ate when we got back, before getting to work. All of the food was delicious! We got pulled pork, ribs, and brisket. Their spicy sauce is Cajun style and I loved it.

So, the next thing I wanted to rectify regarded the grey water storage tank. The grey water tank insulation job was poorly done from the start. I did it on a day that was probably around freezing. Maybe below, I don't remember. The adhesive backing on the insulation didn't want to cooperate. My hands didn't want to cooperate. It was just bad. I knew that, but it was the best I could do at the time. When we got back from running errands, I set to work dropping the tank out of the spare tire cage so I could wrap insulation all the way around the tank this time. I figured if I could squish the insulation between the cage and the tank, then even if the adhesive fails, the insulation would be trapped in place. So, I cleaned the whole tank and applied insulation with spray adhesive as an extra safeguard against failure.



It was tricky to execute, because I couldn't get the tank fully out of the cage due to the heat tape and drain valve. But it came out far better than the first time. It looks much neater, it's more thoroughly insulated, and less likely to fail. I reinstalled the tank with a union, so if we have to drop it again, it will be easier.



Meanwhile, Mandy worked on making a loaf of focaccia. It's a full day thing, so it wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. She also worked on walking and entertaining dogs. Rob's dog is named Bandit and he is a very high energy puppy, I think he's still under 1 year old. And a cattle dog. After all the insulation was done, we cleaned up and relaxed for a bit before heading out. Our plan for the evening was to check out Lowell Observatory. We got to check out the very telescope that was used to locate the dwarf planet, Pluto. We also sat in on a few talks of various subjects, like the lifecycles of stars, and dark matter and energy. It was awesome. Unfortunately, it was a little overcast, so the observation deck telescopes were only looking at Betelgeuse and Sirius, but it was still awesome to look through the scopes and talk to the staff.

When we got back to the house, Rob was out. So, we sat in the hot tub a while under the night sky. Then we rinsed off in the shower before getting into bed in the van to sleep.

 

[rob cote]

Sunday was a lazy start kind of morning as well. Once we got moving, we pulled the van out of the driveway. Rob's last task on his worklist for the Earthroamer was to repack all his gear. This was much easier in the driveway, since his stuff was in the house. No problem for us, we didn't have much to take care of for the day.



While Mandy completed the last dough manipulations before baking, I chipped most of the ice out of our freezer to claim some space back. We edited the video of our week while the bread was baking (and continued afterwards as well). Rob kept getting distracted and chatting with us, which was totally fine with us, but I felt bad for all the work he had to do. In the end, everything got taken care of in both vehicles. I did a tiny bit of touch-up with the spray adhesive on a couple edges of the insulation.



Sorry I don't have a finished picture. I'm always too focused on just eating the food and there's really no time to take a picture of it. The focaccia ended up comprising our lunch. It was so good. We took Loki and Bandit for a walk so Rob could finish packing his truck uninterrupted (even though he was only interrupting himself). There's a network of trails just outside the neighborhood we were in. We did a few-miles loop, maybe 4 miles total. Pretty easy grade, through neat landscape. The dogs enjoyed it, although I think Bandit more than Loki.



When we got back, we got in the hot tub again for a bit to relax. We discussed having one someday when we have a house again. Or at least a piece of land. After we showered off, I continued working on video, while Mandy set to work making steak tacos for all of us. They were so good. Flank steak is key, provided you don't slice it until after you cook it. Pan seared, medium. So delicious. We all ate together, and then said our goodbyes. We got on the road around 7:30pm or so to make the drive back to Prescott. Since we parked downtown late, we just went right to bed.