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Hello, and Welcome to the March Newsletter. Our snowbird trip is winding down, one month to go. I hope you seasonal folks are having fun prepping the rig and looking forward to spring RVing.
Thanks, everyone for subscribing to and reading my monthly newsletters. If you're new or missed any editions, you can always catch up by visiting the Archive Page.
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What's New With Us
We spent the first week and a half of March continuing to hang in the Saddle Mountain BLM dispersed camping area, a new favorite! Sweet mountain views plus interesting hiking and photography fodder.
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Once the weather warmed up, we made our way north to the Cottonwood and Sedona area. BIG MISTAKE. We loved the area but arrived right in the middle of Arizona spring break for K thru Grade 12. The place was packed with vacationers. I was only able to get four nights at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, RV parks were booked solid, and most of the boondocking locations were filled up.
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We had a pleasant time at Dead Horse Ranch and celebrated our little beagle Angie's 15th birthday. Many treats were enjoyed that day.
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With some colder weather once again moving into the mountains we decided to retreat to lower elevations. Being it was still spring break I thought to myself "Where would the spring breakers not be?" Quartzsite! We pulled into the Plomasa Road BLM area to find my theory was correct. Nice and mellow with just a smattering of other campers.
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We enjoyed several days boondocked near Quartzsite. A few cold fronts were sailing through the southwest making for spectacular skies. We browsed what was left of the swap meets in town and hit Silly Al's for a yummy pizza lunch. I have to say I like the vibe of Quartzsite in March once the massive winter throngs have dispersed.
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We would have stayed longer, but some overdue repairs and maintenance to our truck were in order. It really needed to get into a shop. Big Blue's glow plugs were shot, so morning starts were becoming a pain not to mention a smoke show. It also was time for routine oil change, fuel filter, coolant flush and I had a suspicion the engine fan clutch was weak as we had a few overheating episodes on the recent climb up I17 to Cottonwood.
The shop in the Q was booked solid for a week, so we continued our way west and landed at a friends place in Mojave, CA. They have full hookups in their driveway, so we thankfully had a place for the trailer while the truck was in the shop.
I took it to a local shop just down the road called Desert Truck Service. I'm glad to have found them as good service shops for older diesel trucks are becoming scarce.
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They did a bang-up job on ol'Blue. He starts excellent on a cold morning now and keeping much cooler pulling grades with the new fan clutch. It must have been fading slowly as the cooling system hasn't performed this well in years. I'm a happy tower. :)
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We are finishing off the month of March camping in Red Rock Canyon State Park located on the eastern slopes of the tail end of the Sierra Nevada range in California. I've driven by this pretty area many times on Highway 14 and always wanted to stop. Stay tuned for a look at the park in the days to come.
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Image of the Month
I couldn't pick between these two. They happened the same evening while boondocking in Quartzsite as a thunderstorm was moving through.
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