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Back in Deming. I took the trailer into Jimmy's RV first thing this morning. He got all the numbers he needed to order the parts and I was back at the ranch within an hour. My plan is to have him do the work about the 1st week of December and winterize it. I'll bring it back to the ranch park it and jump in the Navion and head west. I'll hit the slabs about the 1st of Jan to get the Navion solar ready. Then head for Q whenever the group desides to get there. After Q I'll wander a bit before coming back to Deming to get my taxes done. Now if I can just follow that plan it will be a miracle. We had beautiful weather yesterday and today but more wind is in the forecast for Saturday along with freezing weather at night. Santa better trade that Mercedes back in on another sleigh. And another bug no no. Don't sit on the bank while fishing. I did in LA back in the 70's then willingly jumped in the lake, took my pants off and made a mad dash for my trailer holding my pants at arms length. Those fire ants are wicked. And a word of wisdom. When bit by a stinging insect heat water (coffee or Tea) in a ceramic cup so the cup gets hot. Touch the hot cup to the welt for as long as you can stand the heat. The venom from stinging insects is killed by heat and the itch will be gone. They make a medical gadget called Therapik that does it with infrared light but the hot cup works better and faster. Pour about half the hot liquid out first so you don't slop it on yourself while holding the bottom edge of the cup on the welt.

It's still trying to blow me over. I'm a little afraid to use Linda's method of using the seat belts to stay in bed. I'd probably end up on the ceiling with the whole rig on top of me. I tried to walk a little this morning but that didn't work very good. I had to hug a cactus to keep from going into Mexico without a passport. Those things are very picky about who they let hug them. Now I'm out of band aids. It didn't get quite as cold as predicted but the wind made it feel twice as cold. However I was nice and toasty inside the rig using the AC as a heat pump. I also used the electric on the water heater. I really got my 4$ worth by using an electric only site. I've decided to go back to Deming tomorrow and get the trailer into Jimmy's for a new hot water heater and window awning that got torn in that hail storm back in July. Then leave a little early for the slabs and check out the boot heal on the way. Then while I'm at it spend a little time down in Organ pipe Nat'l Monument. I'll stay at the slabs until I find out when the group will be gathering in Quartzsite.

It's rocking and rolling today. No rain today but that wind is terrible. I tried to walk this morning but had trouble keeping my balance so gave up on that. I don't have an anemometer on this rig so don't know exactly how fast the wind is but it sure is tossing this rig around even with the stabilizers down. It should be good for taking a Steve if It don't shake me off the bed. Roger: I hope you know how to swim with all that rain. I used to love Mission but now the traffic is so bad I hate driving down there. The last time I went there I left the next day and went back up to Goliad state park.

The best plans made by man always go astray. I'm down at Ponch Villa State park. It started raining about a half hour after I got here and has been spitting every since. However I'll have to go back through Deming before I go on to the Boot Heal. I forgot to take the loose fry hamburger out of the trailer freezer and put it in the Navion. I do have some canned chicken and tuna so I won't go hungry but don't want the hamburger to spoil if the electric goes off either. It's a wonder that I remember my own name. Tomorrow we are expecting winds up to 40 MPH. I hope the weatherman is up to his usual lies. They are only expecting 32* here tomorrow but Deming is expecting 27. I didn't winterized the trailer but did leave the blue flame heater on set for 55 degrees. I did dump before I left to halfway protect the dump gate. I also put the water hose away. Now if I don't go stir crazy sitting inside with all the bad weather I'll be OK.

Rvnetwork has been down all day. I hope it wasn't something I said. I had planned to leave for the boot heel this morning but didn't make it so will try again to go in the morning. It will be raining tomorrow and turn cold on Monday. Columbus is predicted to be about 6 degrees warmer than Deming so I'll go down there an stay at Poncho Villa State Park till Wednesday to get past the cold and wind of Monday and Tuesday then use highway 9 to get over to the boot hill. I'll probably come back here mext Sunday to pick up my mail and hopefully the missing package that hasn't showed up yet. I've also ordered a new LP guage for the Navion that should arrive by them. It's getting close to December. When I get back I'll take my trailer to Jimmy's for a new hot water heater and new window awning that was torn in that hail storm back in july. I'll also have him winterize it. As soon as he is done I'll bring it back here then start drifting west in the Navion. I'll head for the slabs and have Solar Mike put a couple solar panels on it so I'll be ready for Quartzsite in January. I hope the jello don't get to runny cause I have a lot growded into a short time frame. Somewhere in there I want to crowd in Ajo and Organ Pipe Nat'l monument.

Toni, It is expected to be about 45°F Sunday night and go down to 25°F Monday night. I got one of my packages from UPS tonight but the other one is still out there wandering around somewhere. Maybe it's a full timmer. LOL. I had Pizza for dinner last night and leftover Pizza for lunch today then tonight the club had their monthly birthday party and I ate cake and ice cream. You might say I got off my heathy diet just a wee bit. LOL. I'll make up for it next week by taking off again in the Navion. I eat veggies every night while out in that.

What, Steve has class? Does that mean we have to kick him out. Who am I going to have to pick on? Jeri, you can ship some of that warmth over here. It's going down to 27 tonight. I'd better bring the brass monkey in for the night. I was going to go over to the NM boot heal this week but too many things got in the way. I'll try again next week. I went to the Petro Truck stop this evening for dinner. When I went to the cashier to pay, she said "this one is on us and handed my money back. We should have a few more Veteran's days. At happy hour all the cowgirls gave hugs to all the vets. I think I'll re-up for another Hitch. Now it's my turn. Thank you for serving vets. And thank you non-vets for supporting us.

Sandy , you mean to tell me Jim has been home from the surgery all afternoon and hasn't gone fishing yet. What did you do to the poor guy, put super glue in his chair? Jim, just think of how much bigger those fish grew while you were tied down. Get back with it soon. We are all glad the surgery was a success. About all I did today was get the Navion fueled and it's LP tank filled. It's been too windy to do much of anything outside. I'm still wanting to go check out the NM boot heal. But it looks like I won't get everything wound up around here until next week. I have some packages coming that should have been here Monday but I just got another email saying they were shipped today. I got an email Thursday saying they would be here Monday??? Oh well, they didn't say which Monday.

The guy who bought my telescope asked me to come for dinner tonight. It was very good. Maybe I should forget about the cowgirls and start chasing cowboys. LOL. We talked about astronomy most of the evening then the subject drifted to our younger years and some of the foolish things we did. When I saw the response to Steve's comment about the luxury of full hookups it brought back memories of my childhood home. But I'm not going to discuse that cave here. It might give away my age. My parents built our house from shipping crates my step dad brought home from the Chevrolet factory and we lived in an old army squad tent for two years while it was being built. That was in Michigan where we got deep snow in the winter. When the snow got about 4 foot deep the tent was warmer because the heat from the wood stove didn't escape through the side walls and the wind didn't get in. We considered that we were lucky because my step dad had a job in Chevy while most other people in the neighborhood didn't have a job. He didn't earn much but we could by nails to build the house and sugar and floor for canning and baking. We sold and traded fire wood and veggies we grew for the rest of the stuff we needed. When I think of those times even boondocking at the slabs sounds like a taste of heaven.

I've got most of the obligatory chores caught up with and I'm getting Hitch Itch already. I've promised a new cowgirl I'd take her to the Adobe Deli on Sunday so will stick around for that. For next week I'm thinking about going down in the boot heal of New Mexico an check it out. There is an astronomy village in either Rodeo NM or Portal AZ. I think I'll give them a visit. I don't know what Antelope Wells has to offer so I'll do a little Googling on that before I go way down there. As cold as our night time temperatures have been maybe I'd better take some of that anesthetic with me. To day we have a pretty stiff wind blowing which makes it feel just that much colder. I bundled up with all my winter garb while taking my walk this morning and still froze.

I took the Navion in to Jimmy's and swapped the Group 24 batteries for 2 golf cart batteries. I plugged into the shore power and let them charge the rest of the day. I just now turned the shore power off. I'll go over and check the voltage in the morning to see how much they may or may not have drained down. Tomorrow I'll recharge them and tomorrow night run the furnace at 65 degrees to see if the batteries can carry it through the night without going too low. It should but if not I'll start figuring out how to add more batteries in the basement compartment that is right next to the battery box. I sure wish I had wall space enough to put in a blue flame heater. Then I wouldn't have to worry about battery capacity. This afternoon I rearranged my cupboards and put that no slip shelf liner in them. Now maybe they won't re-arrange themselves every time I hit a bump. It has been chilly and windy all day. At mid day we had a good heavy rain so I had lake front property for a while. Tomorrow night 2 of the forecast apps say it will be going down to 30 degrees and 2 others say 34 and 36 respectively. My battery/furnace experiment will have the right weather to be valid. I'm going to stick around here for a few days to get a few of the neglected chores out of the way then fly the coop again and go gally vanting. While I'm here I'll put a good edge on some of my knives so we'll be ready for that operation. Steve, start taking some of that anesthetic so your hands will be nice and steady.

Good luck Julie and get a bicycle. It works wonders Jeff: I was calling a square dance at a campground in Rutland FL a few miles east of Enverness on route 44 when a 5 ft gator came waltzing through the door of the rec hall. Needless to say that tip came to an abrupt end. STEVE: Save some of that anesthetic for me. Are you going to hijack some of Joe's Stash. It has been a very busy day. I've been going constantly since 5 AM. But I got a lot done. I just now got back to the rig for the night. I ate all 3 meals on the run today. I have an appointment at 9AM tomorrow to change the batteries in the Navion. Those Group 24 12v jobs just don't cut it. I'm replacing them with 6v golfcart batteries and will gain 85 amp hours capacity. We tested and measured today and they fit in the battery compartment just fine but we'll have to modify the hold downs. Today, I got the oil changed in the truck and filled the DEF tank on both the truck and the Navion. Now it's beddy bye time ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ JULIE: They work real cheap. That anesthetic they promissed was for them not you. That's pay enough.

I'm back in Deming again. I really enjoyed the ink black skies at Cosmic Campground. It got down to freezing during the night. I didn't have the sensor for the thermometer out so don't know exactly how cold but a paper cup with about a half inch of coffee in it was left on the accessory table and it froze solid. That will probable put an end to the trips up there for this year. I'm pretty sleepy for sitting up half the night so nothing got done once I got back here. Tomorrow will be taking my laundry in and getting appointments for an oil change and refilling the DEF tank on the truck then filling the DEF tank on the Navion. Then more ŹZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I'm up at the cosmic campground with a friend tonight. He is still out playing with the telescope but it got too cold for me so I came in. Cosmic camground is 130 miles north of Deming on hwy 180 neat the AZ border just before you start climbing up into the white mountains. I'm not going to change my pin because we have to go back to Deming in the morning. The weather man says it will go down to 32 tonight and I believe him it got cold fast while I was out coaching my friend on how to use the telescope. I had my winter jacket on and still got cold. But I picked the right day to come up here the sky is crystal clear and the air is stable. You can really crank up the magnification on the scope with no distortion. I can see all seven stars in the little dipper with the naked eye. And at least a dozen stars inside the great square of pegasus. Tomorrow should be almost as good here but then its back to clouds and rain. The weather man said that southern NM is already nearly 10 inches above normal for the year. That's a lot for here because the average yearly rainfall is only about that much. Keep doing the backstroke over there in the east. I'll toss my cranberry juice empty bottles in the creek so the might float down

It looks like the moon and the clouds are going to cooperate and give me clear dark skies at the Cosmic Campground Sunday night. So I'm leaving here tomorrow morning for Deming to reload and pick up my friend who wants my telescope. I'll probably only stay Sunday night at Cosmic Campground because the weatherman says it will be in the low 30's at night up there. I don't have enough battery to run the furnace all night. I had Jimmy's RV run a load test on it when I came back from City of Rocks and it showed right on the line between green and red. That's about as boarderline as you can get. It may just be sulphated but I don't have any way to Equalize it in this rig until I get solar and a big inverter/Charger. The sun came out here this morning after raining during the night. So, I put the awning out to get it dry then got piddling around with something alse and didn't notice right away when it started raining again. I have it out again trying to get it dry but the humidity is so high I don't think I'll be successful. Oh well I'll try again tomorrow.

We have been having fairly heavy rain most of the day. I got my walk in early this morning with no problem. Now at 4:30 PM it has stopped raining but lots of puddles. The temperature only got to 60 degrees today. I've been to Borrego Springs many times while staying at the Slabs in past winters. I really like the place. The town took over a BLM area about 5 miles East of town and did away with the 14 day limit. I have not stayed in that old BLM but have visited others who were staying there. They loved it. The area has a lot to keep you exploring. They even have a slot canyon and a Badlands but don't attempt the road to the badlands overlook unless you have 4 wheel drive. It's about 5 miles of deep sand up a wash. There is a 4 wheeler BLM South of town that is very popular and the area in the state park, practically in town, has about every kind of Cactus you can think of. It's very pretty especially in spring when everything is in bloom. And don't forget all the Iron sculptures (statues).

Darn, use one of those Drones to send us a big pot of Spaghetti. We'll miss you but we understand that gannies and gramps have to get in a little squeezing once in a while.

I'm really waiting on a consensus on a date for Q also. I plan on going to the Slabs 2 to 3 weeks before our group meets to have a couple solar panels mounted on the Navion. The time frame that has worked best in the past seems to be to start Our group meeting just as the big tent closes. That allows those that want to go to the big tent to come a couple days early. Many of the groups that meet on Plamosa Road pack up and leave when the big tent closes making it easier to find a large enough place for us to meet. The traffic in town vastly improves when the big tent closes also. I really don't have a preference myself because I don't do much shopping in town. I can't walk that much. I just need to know when to start that way. If everyone will state their preference here we can begin to narrow it down to accommodate the majority and come to a consensus.

Wow, this is what the forum should look like. Everyone sharing their experiences with all the group. I was about to leave the group myself because I was making over 50% of all the post and frankly I just ran out of things to say. I felt like I was talking to myself. It's fine to use social media to keep up with your circle of friends. Some of which are not Escapees and don't belong to the Classless Class. But if we expect to keep our circle of Classless friends together. Our Forum page is a must. I have no doubt that someday our Classless group will dwindle away like most of the other Escapee Fulltime Classes have done. It will eventually happens to all groups. But as long as we keep the Forum active and meet with all the others like at Q. We will remain strong. What we have to guard against mostly is becoming fragmented by factions. Each of us has our own circle of friend we tend to enjoy doing things with that we enjoy most. But that should be private. The common interest of this group is simple fulltime RVing and our travels. Our adventures in Travel and fulltime RVing should be shared with the whole group. That's what keeps us alive. That is what made us one of the most read groups on the whole Escapee Forum. Now, I'll get off this soap box before I fall and break my neck.

It got down in the mid 30s last night. I ran the furnace for an hour this morning and it brought the batteries down to 12.1 v. I have 2 group 24 batteries and that just isn't enough capacity for running the furnace. This morning I came back to Deming so Jimmy could install that Sewer Hose Carrier. While here I stopped by the ranch to pick up some stuff I had forgot to load when I left then took off again. This time I went south to Poncho Villa State park at Columbus NM. All the electric sites were taken at City of Rocks. I'll bet my potty trips will be much more leisurely tonight. While at Jimmy's RV I had him run a load test on the coach batteries. They were borderline. They may have been completely discharged a few times by the people that put the first 4000 miles on it or allowed to sit for a long time in a discharged state. Before I go to Q I'll put a couple golfcart batteries in their place. That will give me about 35% more capacity.

Well said Linda. That is exactly how I feel. I might add that we can't bend the rules for one person without doing the same for all. If we allow everyone on the map there would be so many names that it would be useless to our group.

I flew the coop today and went up to City of Rocks to escape the Rally. There are too many high thin clouds to set up the telescope so I'll just enjoy the scenery. I stopped at Jimmy's RV repair and my new sewer hose storage tube was there but he had so many RVs in the yard I felt sorry for him and told him I'd drive back down there tomorrow. It's a little cooler up here and I'm dry camping. I don't have solar on this rig yet but I have a heavy sleeping bag. Trips to the pot will be in record time tonight.

Mine has worked with both Fire Fox and Crome for the past 4 or 5 months. However I use either my ipad or Galaxy tablet to post instead of my computer. Mostly the Galaxy Tablet. My phone acts up a little on the map site with either browser. Mostly because the map covers the whole screen and I can't scroll the page because only the map will scroll.

Dave I was just being a SA with Linda. I've been toying with getting a drone myself. My big problem is finding a place to carry it in my 25 ft. Navion. And yes astronomy junkies are just as sensitive about those that miss use lazer lights. And there are plenty of idiots that do miss use them. We consider them a tool not a toy. The Lavins work at Amazon part of the year. The blunt of my joking was about Amazon not drones. Having said that I have serious guestions about them using drones to deliver packages and personally don't think it will ever become reality. I can see a commercial use of them by companies like Google for taking street level images for their maps etc or even surveillance use by police departments. I can also see Amazon using them in there warehouses to automate packaging and shipping. But delivering a package... that's when the skeet shooting practice comes in and there are plenty of idiots out there that will do just that if drones are flying around their neighborhoods on a daily basis dilivering packages. Long range freight delivery fine at medium altitude but rooftop flight in congested areas, no way. Think of the size of drone it would take to deliver a 50 lb package.

Those Amazon drones have really been good for improving my skeet shooting score. I just wish they had more of them to keep me in practice. Just make sure you keep the spaghetti pot hot when you do get a chance to be with us. But no spaghetti and you're in deep trouble. But you really don't have much to worry about they won't let me play with the delete key. LOL