The next morning was a Saturday and a few off road motorcyclists arrived for it was a nice area to ride. Once they got geared up and rode off it became quiet again but I just had a feeling about moving on to our next projected camp near Lake Havasu City. I felt Tracy was okay staying but she said she was alright with moving on if I wanted to even though it would be warmer further south. And so we left and once going I felt I had made a bad call in moving on. Should we have stayed put for the eight degrees cooler weather? I agonized over this for most of the way, around a hundred miles, to Lone Tree BLM dispersed camping. I just felt responsible for Tracy putting her into something not so nice just because of another one of my bad decisions. When we arrived she liked the new place and was glad we moved. I felt better even though it was indeed much warmer but as she said “Don’t worry about it. I can turn on my air conditioner.” If I have to listen to her generator running I deserved it after all and consider it my punishment. Tracy’s onboard generator had crapped out long ago and would cost a couple thousand dollars to repair. To buy a high quality Honda generator was equally expensive. So she went and bought a Predator generator from Harbor Freight. Predator generators are ones I have always referred to as the Noisemaker 3000. She said this was the new quiet model. Yeah, right. But when she fired that generator up later in the day to power her air conditioner I was more than impressed. That thing was even quieter than a Honda. Well done Tracy. We enjoyed another very nice evening under the stars.
The next morning Tracy asked what I was planning on to do. I said I was going to unload the motor bike and explore around some. “Want to get your electric bike out and ride with me?” I was thinking she wanted to ride as she mentioned it at our previous camp but she surprised me in saying she wanted to move on. We had been discussing weather and I thought she had said it would be a couple of days before Quartzsite would cool down but she pointed out that it would be cooler there than here even if by only three degrees. And so we left. I was fine with that for I had done essentially the same decision making with her the day before.
It was while camped at Lone Tree I had a brilliant idea. Loading the Honda back onto the carrier on the RV had always been a test of my strength as I have to push it up the ramp backwards. Positioned facing to the passenger side was the only way the bike could clear the spare tire mounted on the back. What if I could load it forwards from the driver’s side allowing the bike to pull itself up with the motor running? The rack is designed for just the one way of loading as the ramp has two tabs that fit into slots on the carrier. The other side does not have these slots. But I could cut some in. I took the loading ramp off while at camp and carried it around to the other side. There was a clamp bracket there and those two tabs fit nicely over the bracket although the ramp sat an inch or so lower. This could be overcome with the motor running I thought. I felt real good about this new idea and looked forward to the next time taking Gracie off the carrier and putting my new idea to the test. Little did I know at the time how valuable this newfound knowledge would prove itself to me when I needed help the most.
Another one of the good points of traveling with someone is seeing something I would normally pass on by. I had stopped to see and walk across the London Bridge at Lake Havasu years ago so I would not have stopped this time except that Tracy wanted to see it and so we did. I’m glad she wanted to stop. It was nice to get out and wander about a tourist attraction when there are very few tourists out and about and that was the case this day. And of those that were there very few wore a mask. It was almost like old times. Tracy picked up a hand full of brochures at the visitor center and a couple souvenirs at a shop. I took a couple pictures for a blog post.
We continued on to Parker on our way to Quartzsite to pick up a few last items at what would be our last Walmart this year. Entering the store we were barked at by a young girl. “You have a mask?!” Tracy said “medical” and the girl let her go, no questions asked. Interesting. I put on my bandana as I didn’t want to deal with the snippy woman. Inside the bandana slipped down from my face and there it stayed for the remainder of my shopping. If people headed my way in an aisle I would slip it back up over my nose. A bandana is much easier to play with than a mask.
When we were done I told Tracy I had to eat before we continued on down the road. She needed to eat too. It was hot and I really wanted a milkshake. I told her I was going to stop at the Burger King a half mile down the road. Tracy didn’t eat crap food and would fix her own lunch. “I’ll meet you there” she said.
At Burger King I parked. There were no other cars in the lot. Were they even open? I approached the side doors and found them chained shut. I could see someone inside waving me around front. At the front door a kid stuck his head out and told me to go around to the drive-up window. Sheesh! At the drive-up window (no cars in line) I told him I wanted a Whopper and a chocolate milkshake.
“We don’t have any milkshakes” he says.
“Oh man, that’s why I came here. I really wanted a milkshake.” I asked why they didn’t have any. Evidently the trucks hadn’t delivered any product. “I’ve had ten people leave today because of no milkshakes. I tell you what. I’ll give you two Whoppers for $5.”
“I can’t eat two of them!” I said.
“Well, you could eat one later for dinner.”
“Okay, go ahead.” He rang it up.
“I only charged you $3.60.” He had given me the old person’s discount. Okay, two Whoppers for three sixty. I felt better. “I’ll bring your order out to you.”
“I’m in the RV out there” and I walked away.
Back out front I met a confused old lady. She couldn’t figure out if they were open or closed. I told her they were open but she had to go to the drive-up window. The poor thing was totally befuddled with all this COVID silliness and I was with her one hundred percent. I led her around the side of the building to the drive-up window. I returned to the front and a motorcyclist had just pulled up.
“Is the dining area open?” he asked.
“No, ya gotta go to the drive-up window.”
“I see someone sitting in there.”
“That’s one of the workers. He’s waving people around the building.”
Now wouldn’t you think by midday they would have put a sign up on the door above the logging chain advising people to go around to the drive-up window?
The motorcyclist got going. “This is a bunch of shit. I’m going to go to Wendys south of here.”
“There’s a Wendys to the south?” I asked. I am thinking about that milkshake still. Well the Wendys was twenty miles away, not in town. So we were talking about COVID shit and my order comes to the front door. The little old lady went for it.
“Oh no you don’t. That’s my order. I worked hard for that.” She laughed and her drink soon followed my two Whoppers to the door.
I ate one of my Whoppers in Tracy’s RV. She needed to fill up with gas so I said I would go on down to McDonalds and get my milkshake while she filled up. The milkshake had become a quest now. I don’t care for McDonalds but I really wanted that milkshake to get me to Quartszite. On the way I came upon a Jack in the Box. “This will do” and I swung in and parked. Unlike Burger King several cars were in the drive-up lane. Was the dining area closed like it was at Burger King? A lady stood outside then pushed the door and walked in. Super! I walked in wearing my bandana. No customers were inside except the woman. Of all the workers none were wearing masks. I ripped off my bandana and ordered my milkshake. Two burly guys had followed me in wearing masks. They looked at the lady and me, then the workers. Their masks were gone in a pair of seconds.
I had told Tracy that I had a half a tank of fuel and that would last me until I left next spring since I don’t drive around Quartzsite any all winter. “Well I want a full tank in case the shit hits the fan after the election” she said. Good point. Smart woman. I filled my tank when we arrived in Quartzsite while she filled her propane tank. I led her six miles on down the road to the La Posa South dispersed camping area. I was surprised to see so very few campers along the way. We stopped at the kiosk so she could pick up her long term permit sticker. I had decided to not buy one this year as I wasn’t planning on staying all winter this time and besides, no one ever comes by to check. I have no need for the dumping station and not that much water. The kiosk office was closed. That’s odd. Tracy finally noticed the posted hours of operation sign nine to one. They had cut the days in half since hardly anyone had arrived yet. In the past I had always arrived as early as mid-September but due to the excessive lingering heat not that many campers were present. Goes to show how many travelers are smarter than I. It was 98 degrees. Instead of a thousand or more RVers being set in their spots for the winter I doubt there were even a hundred. Also with the border being closed preventing the Canadians from making their annual trek to the desert, this too was a huge factor for the low attendance. I led Tracy on in showing her where the dump station and the water fill-ups were. There we said our goodbyes. We both liked our solitude and would camp at different locations. I filled up with water and waved back at her as she waved at me while dumping her tanks. I went across the highway to Tyson Wash LTVA finding only a couple dozen campers in the whole area. I located a nice late afternoon shady spot nearby where Quarantine Camp sat from the beginning of the year when we here. I think this will do Beans. We were home.
In one short week everything would go bad, very bad.