They are very careful about protecting the cavern. It stays pretty much the same temperature (70 degrees) all year, has been pitch black for thousands of years and has a humidity of 90+ percent. So they don’t want any foreign species in there. They ask if you have been to any other caves in the last year with your current shoes on, and then spray them with a disinfectant if you have (one couple on our tour got sprayed). A bat issue.
Never saw a single snake all day..
A Vermont rig pulled in last night and I walked over to see if they were out and about, but they left early this morning. The bathroom thermostat must have been broken because it was like a sauna in there all weekend. It must be electric because I saw no propane anywhere. This campground has no electric hookups but the campground host has power and there is power in the bathrooms.
The van so far has been a perfect balance of simple but enough. The battery reported 53% this morning after two days without any sun to speak of since it's very shady here. The main loads are the refrigerator and the heater. Shady works because most of the year it is so sunny that you would want shade. This campground, like most here in the southwest, are open year round because the weather is so nice. It gets cold at night but as soon as the sun comes up, it is warm again. So the van with its heater ensures year round use.
An older couple were trying to figure out the constant beeping in their Winnebago. I poked around inside the cabinets and found the inverter complaining that the batteries were too low. Once they knew that, they simply pushed a button to turn the generator on which would recharge the batteries. These big rigs are complicated.
We all pulled out around 11:00 and drove the hour plus to Whitewater Draw. Carmen has camped here before and there seem to be about 4 sites for overnighters. Not sure who maintains it but there isn't any ranger station on site and I don't think they charge anything to stay. We pulled out all of our lunch stuff and had a nice brunch/lunch. Then we walked the loop to see the Sandhill Cranes which migrate through here. There were quite a few there today.
We said our goodbyes and headed back to Bisbee. Deb and I unloaded everything from the van, drained everything that needed to be drained and refilled everything that needed to be refilled so we'd be ready for the trip next week to Kartchner Caverns State Park. This trip helped try out our outdoor cooking setup and group camping. Next week it will be just us.
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It is only 1 1/2 hrs away so we had a leisurely morning and made it to the campsite by noon time. They both convoyed up and got there soon after we did. We grabbed the smallest site since our van is smaller. These folks are pros so they were setup in no time. You can build fires only in the barbecue grill thingie but that was nice, because as soon as the sun goes down, that big clear sky sucks the heat out of you here in the west. We went on a hike to the Faraway Ranch a mile or two away and it was nice with soft meadows, lots of deer and wild turkeys. The ranger said deer season had started so the deer were smart enough to stay in the park where there is no hunting.
Deb N & Dave did the cooking the first night with a nice potato soup and corn bread, and everybody brought snacks and desserts so no shortage of good things to eat. Then Deb V and Milo taught everyone how to play Up and Down the River and we had a fun night. We all turned in for the night ready to hike the next day.
We worked up a good appetite, so Deb V & Milo cooked fajitas for dinner along with the never ending snacks and desserts. Then another night of Up and Down the River in Deb N and Dave's nice warm camper. Good sleeping after a full day of hiking.
Our friend Carmen had an important birthday so somebody (Carmen?) decided a sleepover would be fun. The Jonquil is a sweet, old, motel right on Tombstone with a big back yard that they rent out for occasions. In the last week we also learned our good friends Katie & Pam decided to move for a year to Prescott (but only temporarily!) so the party also served as a good bye, good luck party.
The weather guy sent us a cold snap at the last minute so we moved the band (Los Amigos of course, our beloved town band) and the party into the Bisbee Grand Motel and got a huge crowd. Carmen is very popular and fun and loved in Bisbee so it was fun to see her catch up with everybody in town.
When the festivities ended at the Bisbee Grand, we headed up the hill to the Jonquil where our 4 campers were already set up. Carmen had her toy hauler, Deb & Milo had the new van, Carmen's friends Skip & Donna had their camper and Katie & Pam had their van. Nick got a room in the motel and a big fire was started in the fire ring out back. A lot of folks came up from the Grand to continue the party.
Many hours later we crawled into the campers for the night. The next morning we gathered in our van (we have heat), had coffee and then broke camp for the long 1/4 mile back home.
What a great idea and Happy Birthday Carmen, and good luck in Prescott Katie & Pam, we miss you already.
We headed out around 8:00 and the dump station was backed up (with vehicles) so we skipped it (easy enough at home). We drove to the town of Patagonia and had breakfast at the Wagon Wheel. Good old eggs, toast, coffee, homefries, the all American breakfast (or lunch actually, ok, dinner too).
We stopped at the Gathering Grounds coffee shop so Deb could get her tea and a guy from Oro Valley was unloading his bicycle to go for a ride. He told us a great story about tent camping near here when a bear tried to get an aging banana he forgot was inside his tent.
Leisurely trip back home via Sonoita and Tombstone.
This was another great 3 night “systems test”. We came back with a few more things we need to get and a few ideas to simplify. My $5.99 shower curtain privacy screens did the trick in Patagonia, but we need to get something a little more substantial. If my dad could see them he would swell with pride!!
Back in Bisbee we cleaned everything out, re-organized and cleaned the van, load of laundry, etc.
We started breakfast (yogurt, cereal, cold stuff) and an older man who we’d met the night before came to check out the van. He and his wife live in New Mexico and they have a place in Mexico, so they drive their old Toyota T100 back and forth each year. They also have a pull behind camper that they store in the US before going to Mexico. They look very experienced at this annual migration. They have e-bikes they use on the dirt roads wherever they stay. Modern times.
Then we closed up shop and headed north toward Ajo. Gas down here is $1 more per gallon so we got just enough in Why, AZ to get us to Tucson. Deb saw on YouTube that the seatbelt issue can be fixed with a larger magnet so we headed to Harbor Freight. I bought a couple of them but no luck. So back to the credit card trick and sitting just right in the passenger seat.
We stopped at McD’s to publish the blog, and then headed south on RT 19 (highway) to Nogales, where the cutoff to Patagonia sent us north again on Rt 82. We pulled into the park at 4:00 and hunted for our campsite. We’d reserved the last available spot in the park and it was ok, but this park is very crowded, which I take as a good sign. We hiked around the entire park to check out rigs and equipment. Fun to see lots of young families with kids riding their bikes and scooters around. I remember those great times at that age. Lots of folks with fishing poles. We picked up a bottle of wine at the store since we ran out of everything alcoholic the last couple of days, and sipped wine while watching all the kids playing as the sun disappeared.
There is cell service here (a little) so we could catch up on stuff (a bit). Then dinner inside and hot drinks after. I am typing this listening to the kids running around outside in the dark. I remember those years for sure!!
A 4.6 mile hike this morning after eating a couple of hard boiled eggs. We hiked to Victoria Mine which was active from 1890 to 1899 and then off and on until the 1930’s. Gold, silver, lead and some copper, not sure how much of each, but being so remote, it was expensive to ship stuff via pack mule (no railroad) so I am guessing silver and whatever gold came with it since they are worth so much per pound or ounce. The mine site looked like they dug a bunch of shafts, some remnants of a boiler were scattered around, the usual collection of tin cans here and there, the stone remnants of the store, a makeshift road out (wide enough for wagons so I am assuming the road is original, more research required..).
Back at the van, we made a proper cold breakfast (yogurt, bananas, cold cereal, etc) and then packed up and drove to Ajo. We first stopped at the ranger station to upload the blog which took a bit since the wifi was crappy. We met a retired couple who were watching the 15 minute movie and intently making notes on some kind of forms. They told us after that the park service has a "not so junior ranger” program for not so junior people, and they planned all their vacations around visiting national parks and scavenger hunting, using the form that the park service mailed them (they called and requested them).
On the way to Ajo we drove up Alamo Canyon (3 miles and back on a dirt road). Remote camp sites at the end of the road with no services (but we don’t need no stinking services). So a good note for another trip.
We are thinking because it is so warm here (high of 91 yesterday, low of 65 last night and high of 89 today, low of 65 tonight) that we should come back here in January when our Bisbee weather is at its lowest temperature.
Ajo was a completely scratch built town so all the streets are designed in a pattern like a bird spreading its wings. The plaza downtown is beautiful, nicely painted and kept up nicely. They are struggling a bit if you wander around the back streets (empty houses, second homes, etc.) but they have a coffee shop, tourist info office, a couple of art places and tchotchke shops, all very well kept. So struggling tourism but home town proud. We will come back.
After Lukeville we headed back to the park and took another 5 mile road back into some remote sites inside the park. Then back to our site to watch the sun go down and watch some refreshments go down as well.
Lots of snoring going on in Sally Ann tonight!!
So on to Rt 86 all the way down to Why, AZ where it merges with RT 85 and then into the park. Nice young ranger there who was filling in today (and couldn’t ring up our National Park refrigerator magnet) and he verified where our site was. I think he was ready to go back out and do field/wildlife stuff and not the inside stuff. Nice kid.
So at 3:30pm we found our site and at that time we only counted a couple more campers. By dusk, another 8-10 had rolled in.
This park is very remote and right on the Mexican border so there is a history of drug smugglers. In 2002 a young park ranger was shot in a skirmish with drug smugglers and they named the visitor center after him. In 2007 they made multiple improvements in security and have not had major issues since then.
We walked around the park as the sun went down and then back to the rig to make dinner and play cards. Deb is determined to learn to play Gin Rummy.
We love the simplicity of this design. It fits the sort of minimalist way we have traveled and camped (motorcycle and backpack). It is wonderful to have heat, to just jump in the back when it rains, to have lights, to have a fridge, and while I was skeptical, the induction stove is pretty nice. Oh yeah, and the electric tea kettle. Next phase is outdoor setup, stay tuned.
We alternated van drivers with Deb listening to podcasts and me taking advantage of Sirius XM, which comes as a trial on the van. I hate monthly expenses but this one might be worth it. When the radio is doing the endless spinning routine, XM has every kind of station you can imagine (all Elvis??, Doctor radio??, Red White and Booze radio??).
Camp food was surprisingly easy thanks to our very experienced friends (you know who you are). There is a plethora of pre-cooked options as well as pre-cooking your own stuff. That way you are basically warming dinners up. I think when we graduate to outdoor cooking we can do more normal (smellier) cooking, but the pre-cook stuff is great for both not making a big stink and minimizing power consumption. We were able to cook dinner and get a few hot drinks per day while only using 20% of the power. This also includes running the fridge all day and running the heater every night. The Wabasco heater runs on the van's gas tank and they claim it uses 1 gallon every 22 hours of use. Sounds like an experiment.
Speaking of experiments, the mpg figure the dash spits out is about 1 mpg optimistic. I did a check when I fueled up today (miles and gallons) and I got 20.1 mpg and Dodge got about 21 mpg. Not as good as the hybrid RAV4 but it's a bigger vehicle.
No cooking for breakfast (yogurt and hard boiled eggs) even though we had plenty of power left (68% after all night with the furnace running). We split the driving back and forth all day. First stop was Durango, where we enjoyed coffee and chai at the Durango Coffee Company, which was pretty busy. We found easy parking for the van and car and did a little walk around town.
Then we told Google maps to get us to Gallup, NM on I-40 where gas was 30 cents cheaper (thanks Gas Buddy app), which it was. We filled up in Gallup then down the interstate into Arizona, then south on RT 191 to Lyman Lake State Park. They seem to be getting a lot of rain in this area, and there were saturated fields all over and signs of water running into the RT 191 (mud from side roads). By the way, New Mexico has a lot more potholes than Arizona. We noticed both ways.
The Lyman Lake park ranger was running the store and said the lake was only at 12% capacity. Partly because they have been pulling water from Lyman to fill smaller reservoirs below it, but mostly because there has been less precipitation (summer rain and winter snow pack) for the last 6 years. They got a lot today but need a lot more.
We found our site easily and cooked dinner then walked (in the rain) to the showers. The park seems to be only ⅓ to ½ full.
So sitting here typing this with the lights and heater all running, hot drinks steaming nearby and 88% battery still left. Back to Bisbee tomorrow, we think.
Nerdy engineers report:
I caught the refrigerator on today and it draws 3.3 amps, not sure of the duty cycle.
It appears the range with a full tank of gas is 500 miles or so.
I got 21.9 mpg today the last 100 miles or so and Deb said she got 22.something on her driving leg this morning.
We still need to figure out how to make the little red light on the dashboard stop blinking all night (black tape?)
I drove us out of the park on the long rough dirt road which was a good jiggle test to see what shucks and jives in the various storage places. There is one little rattle somewhere I’ll have to find when the two of us are in the van at the same time. We had a long way to go today so I jumped right on I-70 and headed to Grand Junction. Somewhere on the interstate there was a McD’s so we uploaded the blog, and checked out window coverings, but decided to stay exhibitionists for a while longer (too many choices!!).
Deb drove the next 3 hours (I-70 to RT50 south). She has guided a bunch of hiking tours for Country Walkers and VBT and had to drive van loads of people around, so she is used to the longer wheelbase. I had issues with the 159” wheelbase compared to the 109” wheelbase of the RAV4 so I may need a little practice.
We stopped in Montrose to switch drivers and had a cracker & cheese lunch in the grocery store parking lot. Then Deb bought me my afternoon coffee in the RAV4 while I waited in the parking lot and figured out what 40 or 50 of the buttons in the cab did. I got the cruise control to display mph instead of km/h and I figured out how to reset the odometers. I got the clock to display on the dash. Managed to cross link the dilithium phaser coordinator so it stays in only one time-space. And I figured out how to run the radio from the steering wheel and gave up on those last buttons (I think they make the radio in the car behind you change stations, I hope).
The rest of the afternoon was twisties. Coloradans like to go 55 and 60 on roads that normally should be taken at 45 or 50, but I did my best to let the crowd go by when they piled up behind me. And I finally figured out the gas mileage (now that the dilithium coordinator was synced) and the last leg over the twisties gave me 21.4 mpg, which is not bad since this rig is 9 ft high. We drove into Mancos State Park at 5:15 so had another hour of sunlight. Then we cooked rice, beans and steak tips on the induction stove (just under 3% of battery) and made a salad (0% of battery).
The 2022 Promaster has a new transmission which they advertise as being responsible for 10% more fuel efficiency. They advertise 22 mpg and I got 21.4 so I’ll assume it is true.
We rented a 2021 with the previous transmission, and the cruise control (which I use all the time) was very clunky. The new transmission makes the cruise control much smoother, almost as good as the RAV4, which has a really nice cruise control.
I went through and turned stuff off and on to determine how much current each thing used from our 200 amp-hour lithium batteries.
0.0 amp = nothing but USB charging plugs on (4 plugs, nothing plugged in).
0.8 amp = Kitchen lights
1.1 amp = inverter with no load (quiescent current)
2.5 amp = Cabin lights full on (they are dimmable so I assume 0-2.5 amp)
6.2 amp = Entry lights (not dimmable. Seems really high??)
6.2 amp = Water pump while it is pumping water
68.2 amp = tea kettle
I’ll have to catch the refrigerator and induction stove next time..
So why a van? I have crisscrossed the United States and Canada on motorcycle trips and have been most everywhere, but Deb has not. My motorcycle trips entail riding all day (it’s all about the moving, not the destinations, and the coffee of course), finding a motel (cheap is good), getting a shower, then finding a good taco salad and a cold beer every night. I see a lot of country, but never really settle anywhere for more than a night. The van lets us go long distances when we need to, stop for several days when we feel like it, and not unpack and pack bags every night.
Nerdy engineers report:
The Wabasco heater worked great. We could not figure out what it was doing at first but it settled into turning on at 65 degrees, one degree below where we set it, and raising the temp to 68 before turning off. We have no window coverings (whoo-hoo) so that probably drains the heat out quicker. Not sure what the temp is this morning (nice not to know), Deb says it feels like 30’s after the bathroom run.
We had frost on the windshield this morning and guess what, no scraper. We smugly gave them away two years ago when we left Vermont for Arizona. So I got my Copper Queen Library card out and went to work. Next thing I knew a man came over and told me about these things called scrapers. We had a good laugh as he and I scraped off our windshield. Nice people are everywhere..
The first 50 miles or so of southern Colorado were in the Ute Mountain Reservations, again a kind of tough but interesting landscape.
Even with the UPS stops we pulled into Montrose around 5:30, ate a couple of big salads at the Stone House for dinner and found our hotel.
Tomorrow we need to pick the van up at 1 pm. It will be nice to revisit here when we have a more relaxed schedule.
Oh boy, airports and airplanes and hotels. Today we fly to London and then Dallas where we stay the night and then one more plane tomorrow m...
