After an hour of running ice water over the slides in an attempt to clear them of ice and snow so they would retract, standing high up on the slippery metal ladder, Marc figured he just about had things ready to go. By the time we left, it was a chilly 19 at 11 a.m. Needless to say, we didn’t get as far as we wanted our first day out—making it to McDermott just across the Nevada line. As we tried to settle in and deploy the living room slide, it ground to a guttural, groaning halt. It was frozen into place, now in the closed position. With an interior walkway of less than two feet, it made for close quarters for three adults, a cat and a 100 lb. dog. Nineteen was the best the day would see as the nighttime temps dropped to a bone-chilling three degrees and our generator quit working. All water lines, dump valves, and plumbing remained solidly frozen and we lived, cooked, and washed up off of two ten gallon water jugs.
Two days later, the slide finally opened for our stay at the Beatty Hot Springs RV Park but water lines remained frozen. Having some space felt wonderful; having our first showers in days at the small bathhouse felt even better! Pressing onward the next day, Saturday, we finally thawed enough to obtain water in the RV for our boondock stay at Quartzsite but the pump wouldn’t stop running and was spewing water all over. It will be another fix on Marc’s to-do list to replace it along with the horrendous job of pulling the generator from the truck—at least an eight hour ordeal, to figure out what is wrong with it this time.
Finally able to relax and enjoy the desert ambiance and warmth of Quartzsite was priceless. Quartzsite already has a fair assortment of boondockers and we also noted that Lake Havasu and Parker were really abuzz with recreationalists and ATVers enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend. Traffic was nonstop. But nothing was like what greeted us upon our arrival in Yuma—the place is crawling with Snowbirds already! We were astounded to find nearly every lot in our area of the Foothills already full, with owners back to their casitas and renters occupying every single hookup on the rental lots. This normally doesn’t happen until January! If you are an RVer and have plans to come to Yuma this winter and don’t already have a reservation, I would venture to say you may be boondocking in the desert somewhere. There’s no room left at the Inn.
