Blowin' in the Wind

Phew, what a past couple of days we have had! So you know I wasn't feeling very well...I don't really know what was going on with me. It kind of felt like I had a stomach bug on-top of  'my lady days' on-top of light food poisoning... to say the least every movement was awful, but after three and a half days of it, it's finally gone! Woo hoo!! We kept the bed down all day Saturday. It was a bit of an interesting day with the bed down since J' still had to work. At least he had the passenger chair to sit in...good thing he put that swivel on it last December.

Sunday I was feeling much better so we rolled the bed up, J' was a happy guy! We watched some football and just hung out. The weather had called for some big winds for the next few days and they sure did come through on that! I took Savannah on about an hour long walk, thinking it would be a nice change for both of us (with my icky feelings). The wind was blowing so hard, even MY hair was blowing all over the place, haha!

[caption id="attachment_1820" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Nature's Blowjob[/caption]

I had brought my ipod with me to jam to on my walk and the wind was blowing so strong it kept whipping them out of my ears...umm, OW! We walked down the main gravel road for a while. When we turned back I moved over to a new road they just put in, I guess they are going to put power lines in here. With my heel still healing it was a much nicer road to take, I didn't have all of these little rocks jabbing me in the heel...awww, relief!

[caption id="attachment_1821" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The Road Less Traveled[/caption]

 Plus, I really think the Bug likes to jump up and down on the dirt they moved over to the side...remember, she's a "Circus dog"...haha!

[caption id="attachment_1822" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My lil jumping bean[/caption]

Monday (yesterday) Wayne came and picked us up at 9:30 a.m. We had made plans with him the day before to go run some errands...he's such a nice guy, checking on us and making sure we're okay. That's one of the great things we've run into on our journey, very loving and nice people. We thank you all for caring for us, even though we start out as strangers we always end up as family...so thank you again! So Wayne came and swooped us up about 9:30a.m...right on time! We rode further down the main gravel road (the opposite direction), I don't think the van would make it down there so it was cool to be able to see what was down there. We went to the dump first...Nana LOVES the dump, it smells soooo delish! haha gross

[caption id="attachment_1823" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oh, the smells!![/caption]

 We then took all the cool back and side roads over to Smith's Grocery. Wayne doesn't mess around, he knows all the back roads. It was fun to go on a little adventure although we were just going to the grocery store. Smith's is a real nice store, great ambiance! It is super clean, there's really no one in there, the people are nice and the prices really aren't that bad. Oh, Wayne gave us a little shoppers card too, for a discount...that saved us $9.00! Every bit counts!

[caption id="attachment_1824" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our new store[/caption]

Now that we know about Smith's, we probably won't be doing much grocery shopping at Wal-mart. This Wal-mart is actually not that bad, it reminds us a lot of the one back "home". It's really clean and there's never anyone in it...but it's nice to switch things up.

[caption id="attachment_1825" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Whizzing by Walmart[/caption]

Wayne showed us where the Post Office was and then we headed over to an RV park on the South West side of town and refreshed our water...for FREE!!!!  Don't you love that word? I know we do!

[caption id="attachment_1826" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wet t-shirt contest![/caption]

The boys got a little wet while filling up some of the milk jugs... I laughed, probably harder then I should have...but it was funny! After all of our silly shenanigans, we ran a couple more errands with Wayne and headed back home. Thanks again Wayne, you are a blessing and such great company!

[caption id="attachment_1832" align="aligncenter" width="300"] That's what we look like[/caption]

After errands we pretty much just got back in the van and did our thang! The wind was really bad, so there's nothing to really do but sit in the van. We can't drive anywhere right now, so we sit. We make up things to do, we talk about a lot of different things, we research lots of different things and then laugh at Savannah...haha. She has found a new spot in the van to lay. J' let her lay next to him the other day so she could see out of the window and "window hunt" and all of that good stuff. Well, now that's just her spot!

[caption id="attachment_1827" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Shh...baby sleeping[/caption]

As long as she's by her daddy she's a happy girl. I swear if everyone in this world loved like Savannah loves J'...this would be such a beautiful, loving world...and a little crazy. She's a little cray cray over her daddy! haha

So today... Tuesday we still sit in the van. It's more windy today than the last two days...hopefully it'll pass by tomorrow. I'm very ready to be able to take my Bug on walks again and just be out of the van without feeling like you're in a tornado. The cold has also come with this wind, which is nice for sleeping and there aren't any flies right now... but c'mon man! So that leaves us only to laugh at Savannah...oh you know she likes it because it usually means food is involved! In this case...Peanut Butter!

PEACE

Cleaning, Grinding & Digging

I know you are just dying for an update and I apologize for being a few days behind. First things first, the torsion bar... J' ended up walking over to Home Depot a couple of days ago and got an angle grinder to take it out. The darn thing just would not come out or off any way ya sliced it...so he sliced it in half and finally got the darn thing off!

[caption id="attachment_1674" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Grinding away[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1675" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Only half of it![/caption]

Our new friend, Wayne, offered us a couple of jack stands that he isn't using.  He came to check in on us after reading about the torsion bar problems from the blog, how cool is that!? He then whisked J' away to get some fresh water...FREE Water!! He's a super nice guy with a heart of gold.

Thanks Wayne! 

During the day, while J' was walking, grinding, refreshing, grinding, etc. I started feeling not so well throughout the day but figured J' already had a lot on his plate for the day, so I thought I would help with some things. I did my first potty dump ever, probably not the cleanest of all things I could have done but it needed to be done. ..so now it's done! I spent a good hour or so spraying, wiping, rinsing, filling...all of the fun stuff! 

[caption id="attachment_1676" align="aligncenter" width="225"] So fresh & so clean, clean[/caption]

The next morning I would find out that I did a few things wrong:

1&2- I twisted off the wrong cap to pour deodorizer & water into the wrong area! 3- When I twisted the cap back on, it actually didn't twist back on but crossed the threads, so it leaked a little (good thing we have the mats like we do, they got taken out and washed). 4- I didn't put any water into the top of it. Well, all I can say is, at least I tried to help. It did get a very thorough cleaning AND all the gummed up T.P. was taken out, so I did do some good! I also cleaned the inside of the van up, it looks so purty!

 I hung curtains on the outside of Joon to make it cooler on the inside...it sure heats up in here during the day. A big thank you out to SoulRaven for the curtains!

The rest of the day, when J' wasn't gone or grinding, he was working or reading on the torsion bar. I moved from one spot to another moanin' & groanin' and Savannah dug herself into a frenzy trying to get a hold of one of those Kangaroo Mice...poor things! She sure is a good digger though...she's bound to strike oil out here!

[caption id="attachment_1679" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Digging to China[/caption]

 We all know what she would do with those little mice too...exactly what she does with everything of hers... saves it for later!

[caption id="attachment_1683" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sha-Sha's all locked up![/caption]

Let's just hope for everyone's sake she never catches up with those scared little mice but it is good exercise for her! haha

PEACE

 

We've got Bush!

There are times when even us vandwellers get a little stressed out...well I do anyway. J' always seems to handle himself pretty well in flustering moments...the same things send me into a catastrophic whirlwind of emotions and anxiety. Thank goodness we tend to balance each other out, haha! I think it may have been a handful of things that made me feel the way I felt today; being a dirty girl (no shower going on seven full stinky days), being at our destination but not knowing (quite yet) where we would be camping, things that happened to us once we found a spot and then having to deal with the rest of the day from then on. It started out a nice morning, we slept at Wal-mart last night. It wasn't too bad except I forgot how extremely bright those parking lot lights are...whoa! It's like someone shining a flashlight in your face all night...and the trucks coming in and out, but for some reason the noise didn't bother me. We got up, I walked the Bug and we got online trying to find where the B.L.M. land was that we had talked about a few times with Bob. We weren't really finding anything so we just hit the road and started watching paved to unpaved roads that went into the mountains and turned off on one and drove. After a few miles of driving on a not so great for your vehicle rocky, gravel road, we came to a conclusion this was not the road that Bob had been talking about.

This road would be way too rough to come in and out on a daily basis, so we turned around and went back toward the Albertsons. Since we were in town again, we figured we would look for water. We stopped at a couple of gas stations and saw they have air and water but for a fee. We thought we might as well get some here just in case we can't find a spicket or anywhere else to get it. It cost us .75 cents for 3 gallons of water. I guess we're not in California anymore Toto...we started looking for a better solution.

[caption id="attachment_1250" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cheap Gas, Expensive Water[/caption]

We drove back over to the grocery store and as we drove by the front of Albertsons we saw three Glacier water stands...perfect. The cost of the water there was .20 cents for 1 gallon and $1.00 for 5 gallons, much better. After we filled up our empties, we drove around the side of CVS where all the shade was and got on the computers to try to find where "this place" was. We searched and searched, I sent an email out to a friend and we found a place that we were going to go but it was still a good 28 miles away. Everyone that has been to Pahrump and stayed on public land said that it's only about 4 miles to the Wal-mart..we were missing something. My friend, twoknives, got back to me almost instantly and told us from memory where to go. Thank you girl!! We followed her directions and within minutes we were on B.L.M. land. When we were driving on that rocky road, we were about two miles away from the main road into the desert...only we were parallel to it. Finally we were in the land of the free! There looks like there's only one other person/group here (so far) but they are outfitted more with tents and forts, looks like they've been here for a while. We drove in off of the main road into the desert a few miles and found a great pull-off spot. To be further off of the road we pulled more into the desert then just the clearing that we pulled into. To get to where we were we had to drive over a couple of pretty small bushes...we thought we had done this so many times in Shaver with bigger bushes, it wouldn't be any problem. We parked and got out to take in our new view. As I got out, I heard a noise kind of like hot air releasing, so I listened at the hood of the van...nope not there. I walked to the back of the van and heard it even louder, looked down at the tire spitting out all of its air. We learned at that point that these "small, innocent" bushes were nothing to be messed with.

[caption id="attachment_1251" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mean little bush[/caption]

We were both glad that before we left 'home' we spent the money on a new pump, due to our older other one not really working that well anymore...good thing we were thinking with our noggins back then! This van and her tires, I tell you what!!

[caption id="attachment_1252" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Pump, pump, pump it up![/caption]

 We thought we would try to drive on the regular tire to the tire place that was only 2.1 miles away but by the time we got back on the main dirt road it had already spewed all the air back out. That's when J' realized that we had not only one, but two splits in the sidewall, so he put the spare on...and off we go to the tire store.

[caption id="attachment_1253" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cheap tires, cheap water next door![/caption]

We already knew the answer but asked them if they would patch the holes (most places will not patch sidewalls). We didn't want to pay for a "new" used tire so he pointed us down the road to another tire place...they were pretty much the same thing so we bit the bullet and drove over to Wal-mart for a brand new tire. We discussed that it would be better off down the road (literally) if we just got a new tire, with all of the driving we do or would be doing. We treat the van how any other 'normal' person would treat something breaking in their home. This is our home so we have to treat her with the respect she deserves, she takes real good care of us and keeps us safe. Cringing, we got a new tire and road hazard for it...wasn't expecting that $100 bill, but since we budget on the things we spend...we had it!

[caption id="attachment_1254" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ...meh[/caption]

 I think at this point the two of us just want to take showers and call it a day! We drove back to the same spot...only stopping in the clearing instead of driving back off the road more, a much better idea! The good thing is...now we know not to trust the flora! We were finally able to take our very much overdue showers and it was a perfect day for it: No wind, sunny & warm, and no one is around...and if they were (with 'nocs) they got themselves a nudey show! haha

[caption id="attachment_1255" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Just call me Mentos[/caption]

 Now it's time to just sit back, eat something and for me, update my posts I've been slacking on due to travel and the chill the F* out already! I know Savannah won't have a problem with that... lazy girl!

[caption id="attachment_1256" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The definition of not a care in the world[/caption]

 Our new spot in the desert sure is different than anywhere else we've been or camped as of yet, but it's different in the most beautiful ways. It's a tad scary to me as well due to these holes in the ground...don't know if they are from rattlesnakes or chipmunks or both???

[caption id="attachment_1257" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Tons of them, everywhere[/caption]

We took a very small walk but with the sun setting and not really being able to see where I was stepping I wasn't really into it...maybe tomorrow. And let me tell you about the sky tonight.....Holy Sunset Batman!!! I think it was Pahrumps' way of welcoming us because whoa, it was amazing!

And remember that one "red night sky" that I was showing you a couple of weeks ago??? That was child's play compared to tonight. Look at this true Sailor's Red Sky...

[caption id="attachment_1262" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Where are the Sailors?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1263" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Amazing[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1264" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It's all good[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1265" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Crazy clouds[/caption]

I could add about 20 more pictures but I'm sure you get the point, haha. Isn't that the most incredible thing? Well it was amazing to us and I can't wait to see what the sky will hold for us tomorrow...as well as the rest of the day. I have a feeling Pahrump will be a nice home to us for however long we decide to stay here. I hope your day was not as eventful as ours but your night was just as beautiful.

PEACE