There are so many things going on this week it’s hard to decide what to do.  Linda decided to do laundry right after breakfast because her sister is arriving tomorrow and she doesn’t want to have to do it while Marilyn is here.  The short list included:

• SKPs Chapter 6 Loose Gathering at Plomosa Road BLM north of town (we are members of Chapter 6).
• Quartzfest at US-95 MM 99 south of town on BLM land (we are both amateur radio operators).
• Bluebird Wanderlodge Rally south of town at BLM La Posa South (Bus Conversion Magazine would love to have photos of this gathering).
• The “Big Tent” RV Show (there are a couple of things we are looking to buy).

While Linda was doing laundry I finished up yesterday’s blog post and started today’s post.  A large APS (Arizona Power System) truck pulled into our camp around 10 AM.  Jim L. had contacted them and succeeded in getting them to send someone over to check the power.  They happened to have someone in town already, so he got here, diagnosed and fixed the problem, and was gone before Jim arrived on his bicycle.  We knew the voltage was high and the linesman confirmed that.  The transformer had several tap positions and he was able to change it to provide more windings and reduce the voltage.  We were consistently seeing 127 to 131 VAC (to neutral) on each leg (258 VAC across the legs) and we know it was rising above 132 because it was causing all of our power protection devices to trip, cutting off the shore power.  We are now seeing 118 to 122 VAC (240 VAC across the legs), which is near perfect.

Butch, Fonda, Jim, and Barb were all gone but I walked over to let Jim and Chris know that the power would be off for about 10 minutes.  I was too late.  The power had already been cut and restored and Jim was outside checking their connection.  Linda was on her way back from the laundry room and we ended up chatting with Jim and Chris for a while.  Chris and Linda went back to what they were doing and Jim L. showed up on his bicycle so we filled him in on the morning’s events.  We agreed to get-together at 4 PM for happy hour and went back to our various chores.

The wind had come up so we decided to use the ratcheting tie-down straps I bought a few weeks ago.  We rigged up two of them between the ends of the patio awning and the anchors we found weeks ago with Butch’s metal detector.  We watched the wind for a while and decided to just put the awning up.  Better safe than sorry.  Been there, done that, bought the new awning fabric (in our previous motorhome).

With the laundry done and the awnings secured we headed for the southern desert to find the Quartzfest and Bluebird/Wanderlodge encampments.  I set the 2 meter radio in the car to 146.55 MHz simplex mode.  Quartzfest (and RV hams generally) use that frequency for talk-in, info nets, and general contact purposes.  Quartzfest was at the Road Runner BLM Short Term Visitor Area (STVA) just south of Mile Marker 99 on the west side of US-95.  As we were driving down someone called on frequency requesting assistance.  They had just exited I-10 at exit 19 and did not know how to get to Quartzfest from there, so I gave them directions.

When we got there we checked in with the camp host to confirm that we did not need entry permits for a daytime visit.  He directed us to the area where Quartzfest was taking place and we eventually found the check-in station after Gordon West (Gordy), WB6NOA gave us directions over the air.  We met him going out of the sheltered area as we were going in.  We walked around looking at, and photographing, antenna setups and stopped to talk to a few people.  Part way through our stroll I thought I heard someone calling my name, albeit somewhat indistinctly.  I looked back over my right shoulder and realized we had just walked past the Montana 5th wheel trailer and pickup truck belonging to Lou and Val Petkus.  We had a short visit with them and then continued on our walkabout.

With the wind came dust and we decided to drive around the area and then leave to find the Bluebirds.  We headed back towards town as far as the BLM La Paz Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) and turned east into La Paz North.  The other side of the road was the La Paz Tyson Wells LTVA but we recalled Jim Guld telling us that the Bluebird Motor Coach / Wanderlodge group was at La Paz North.

We drove in quite a ways and eventually found the BMC/Wanderlodge buses.  There were very few people around, and those that were there stayed in their coaches.  One guy came out, probably to see who we were and what we were doing, so we introduced ourselves and explained why were there.  He directed us to the rally organizer’s bus, but he wasn’t there.  There were 28 buses formed into a circle, noses pointed in towards the center, and I shot a full 360 degree panorama from the fire circle at the center.  I then shot at least two photos of each bus from just off either side of the front.  More buses were arranged in a second, incomplete circle outside the main one, but those rigs were more difficult to photograph.

Linda was keeping an eye on the time and at 3 PM we started working our way towards our camp.  We were back before 4 PM and I made sure Butch/Fonda and Jim/Barb were invited to join the happy hour.  We all gathered at the appointed hour in front of our coach.  Everyone brought a chair, a snack to share, and a beverage of their choice.  The bus provided some shelter from the strong northeast winds and the very warm late afternoon sun balanced out the chilly air until it set, at which point our happy hour gathering ended.

Jim and Chris stuck around to see our coach and we looked at a few videos on YouTube that he made with his Quadcopter mounted Go-Pro camera.  We also introduced them to the music videos of the group “OK Go.”  The groups’ most recent video was shot entirely with a Quadcopter mounted video camera.  We moved over to their rig, which we had not been in before, and ended up talking for another hour.  Some of that conversation was about diet and health.  They still had work to do this evening, and we had not had dinner, so we returned to our coach a little after 7 PM.

While Linda prepared two of the Thai Kitchen noodle soup bowls we keep on hand for such occasions I checked the level of the coolant in the expansion reservoir for the Aqua-Hot.  I had turned the unit off two days ago to let it cool down and most of the coolant in the reservoir had been drawn back in as it did.  There was only about a half inch of coolant in the reservoir so I added some of the 50/50 premix that we carry with us, bringing the level halfway between the “Minimum Cold” and “Maximum Cold” marks.  I turned the burner on, let it run through a full cycle while we ate our soup, and then checked the reservoir as soon as it shut off.  The level was less than an inch below the bottom of the fill cap, so I had guessed correctly how much to add.  I am going to let it cool off again and see where the level ends up.

After working on this blog post while my camera battery charged I transferred today’s photographs to my computer, organized them, and backed them up to our NAS unit.  It was yet another long but very satisfying day.