Author Archives: Pauline

I made a bad decision when my gut feeling was telling me not to do it. But I did it. Well, I at least TRIED to do it. The idea itself was the stupid thing to do once you sit back and realize how stupid you are.

We was on the road by 8am, drove from Quartzsite, AZ to East of Yuma when I needed to take a break from driving and since we are in BFE I decided to just pull off the next exit, park along the side of the exit and take a 15 min or so break.

We pull off a exit where we see nothing but sand, the exit offramp was too narrow to park there so I was heading for the off ramp when I see there is a huge area just off the road to the right of the exit, so I start to pull into it and making sure I didn’t get into loose sand or anything. It turns out a semi exited right behind us so I wasn’t able to take my time and plot my course into the open area and once I realized I was “off course” I decided the best thing to do was a U Turn across the road where it looks like others have used it for the same purpose.

At this point the idea of “Stop. Disconnect the Jeep, do a U Turn from the point you area, hook up the Jeep and go.” came into my mind.

But who has 15 minutes of their life that they can just throw away on a whim?

So I drive across the st, and turn Right and start making the the U Turn when I realized I didn’t have the room to make a U turn and that it would in fact be a wider U turn into what looked like loose and deep sand, I better gun it and gun it NOW…

Missed it… By that much.

Many things go into one’s mind when they hit a sand bar. The first thing is usually “Was the captain drunk?” And the second is “Gee, if I just disconnected the Jeep.” for two reason’s. Reason one being the best reason, had I disconnected the Jeep I could easily have turned around on the paved road. And the second reason being, that if I did find myself in the same situation without the weight of the Jeep slowing me down like it did in the soft sand, I would have made it. A third thing is “Jeep’s are heavy”. And of course the fourth thing is “Really? Did you really just do that? What a dumbass.”

We first dissconnect the Jeep and easily drive it off the sand dune that stopped it. But Ackbar was in sand that looked harder then it was, not too deep, but deep enough and after trying to get it rocking I realized I brought that shovel for a reason. I dug out the sand in front of both back tire’s and put some old mats we have in front of both, Pauline put the Jeep into Low 4Wheel and we strapped the Jeep to the front of Ackbar with the hope she can give me just enough momentum we can get Ackbar out.

Lucky for us, She did and we did get out. Total time stuck, 10-15 minutes I would estimate. We once again hook the Jeep back onto Ackbar and start heading toward the highway. As I slow down to take the onramp, the breaking system told me the Jeep’s breaks were still on and I was getting a “break away” error. Ok.

We have had this before, I just need to unplug and reset etc. We are now on the other side of the highway where we have a wide paved road, so we rest everything and test and once again start heading toward the East bound exit. Breaking system error as soon as I was making my turn and now, I was exactly where we just escaped so we decided to fallow the GPS and drive 4 miles for a u Turn.

The GPS lied, there is no road but there was a wide enough area to turn around and we finally disconnect the Jeep and Pauline drive the Jeep the final 80 miles to our current destination just out side Why, AZ.

We are currently sitting by the camp fire and looking at stars and listening to the night life.

I Love Vodka.

I learned a few thing’s in the last few days. One is stop half assing my hikes. I have been going out in flip-flops, no hat, no water, no light etc. I have all the gear, I paid for it, USE IT.

Another is to listen to my brain more and my ball’s less when it comes to driving Ackbar. I mean really??? You really drove a 32′ foot RV towing a 3,000 lb Jeep into a 8″ sand drift 4′ wide while doing a U turn? And you thought this was a good idea? Wow. Ok.

We arrived about 1 hour later then we wanted to, but it was still the perfect time. We met a friendly guy from Nebraska, he had some gold old fashioned humor, we was discussing about talking to them tomorrow or so.

Today we went into Organ Pipe National Monument and it was really cool, we strongly suggest it. It’s a huge “forest” of cactus’s, just keep in mind the speed limit of I85 is 65mph and not the 55mph you thought and people down here like to drive FAST. Drive with your lights on at all times. It really helps being seen in the desert.

We stopped at the visitors center and got our typical shirt, magnet, sticker etc. And drove around looking at the campsite they have and it was really nice. At this time of year, you would be pretty isolated for $12 a night. No hookups but there is a dump and water station and limited generator usage hours. But I would be willing to stay there.

We tried to drive to Lukeville, AZ but there was a line of car’s at the “Crossing point 1 mile” sign so we turned around, besides we also didn’t bring our passports.

Tomorrow we will drive the 21 mile one way loop into the desert. It’s $8 per car, but our National Park’s Interagency pass covers that. We was already too  hungry and we did not bring food or enough water or hiking boot’s or… everything we should have with us. So again, I need to stop half ass’ing this stuff.

I will post pictures and videos as we can, most likely next week when we are in Patagonia until August.

Night.

I Love Vodka.

We have almost been full timing for 2 months and we have learned so much, but we have so much more to still learn.

When you choose this lifestyle you know you will have cost that you did not and would never expect, of course that is life in general for anything, but you know my point, moving things wear down.

Or as they say, its the little things that are killing us. The self inflected wounds. The things that were fixed but now have the same issues. It seem’s like when you address one issue, there is another, and then the first issue returns.

*sigh… Where to start?

We had both side windows of Ackbar replaced soon after we bought him due to condensation building up between the double panes. We was told we got entire new windows. Both window’s once more have condensation building up between the panes. This will be addressed when we return to Oregon in 2013/2014? This will take 3-4 day’s to fix once more. This will be covered by warranty. But REALLY???

April 20, 2013 – Gila Junction, AZ – That condensation is between the panes of this new window. It cost us $350. I’m thinking we need to take it back.

The washer/dryer unit needs work, it has a flashing light to tell you its done and that the door is unlocked. It also uses that same flashing light to tell you the door is locked and will be locked for 2 more mins. One flash is fast, the other somewhat slower. We confused for the “door is still locked for 2 more minutes” flash with the “door is unlocked” flash so the plastic handle has been ripped off. And honestly, it was ripped off way too damn easy. I have to order a kit for the fix which including shipping is $60 or so.

We discovered the fridge was 60F when we was running it on LP while boon docking. We have asked and received some great tip’s on what to try for a fix, but we will have to take Ackbar to get serviced. This will cost $80 to $200+?

We have had 2 flat tire’s in the past month. The first one was caused by separation of the tire side it cost almost $600 with AAA paying $100. The second tire we believe was caused by a slow leak in the valve with the tire and the repair of the minor damage caused by the blow out, cost us $425.

The Jeep is getting slowly picked part. One our first drive from Everett, WA to McMinnville, OR I must have kicked up a rock which hit the Jeep’s windscreen on the passenger side frame. It hit the edge of the glass and missed the metal by 1/4″  so we have a “bullet” look which cracked about 6″ down.

Since that leg of the journey, we have picked up 3 more dings in the same general area on the glass. No idea how much replacing the windscreen will cost. We have great coverage for insurance but since the damage will not interfere with driving, I’m not sure it’s covered, and at this point, why replace it when it’s still getting hit? We have what we thought was good back flap, but we need to get better. Cover the Jeep, something.

We had the awning’s over the slide out’s opened for the first time, and not sure if they are missing part’s or what. We tied them down, had no other issue, so not sure there is a issue.

Another issue we are still not sure if it’s a issue is the house batteries. Our first day they died real fast. But we think we forgot about some power drain’s and then we discovered the fridge issue, so we ran the generator more.

We need to DESPERATELY wash Ackbar. We bought him in December and it rained until April for us. Then we have gone from one desert wind storm to another. I did take the time to wash the solar panels for the Death Ray.

Admiral Ackbar is holding up well. Just these minor issues that we need to get worked out. He handles like a dream. He just needs some adjustments here and there.

Just down the road from southern entrance of Joshua Tree Nat’l Park, there is a very, very small town of Chiriaco Summit that has the General S. Patton Memorial Museum.  The nearest much bigger and known town is Indio, CA.

The museum is dedicated to the desert training that Gen Patton had set up there to prepare for fighting in the North African arena of World War II. It was due to Gen Patton that desert training was established in the military.  The museum also had sections dedicated to each war since World War II, honoring the veterans.

As an Army Brat and growing up around tanks, even if I can’t ID them, I throughly enjoyed seeing them again.  Took me back to my childhood on Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD where I lived right across the street from the Army Ordnance Museum. Which is sadly being moved to Ft. Lee, VA

I remember the weekends when they would open the post to civies and dad would be at one of the displays to answer questions about it. =) On the 4th of July, they would have Revolutionary War reenactments….and I didn’t even have to deal with the crowds…I lived there…grin