My time in White Tank Mountain Regional Park was at an end today. I could have stayed another day and hiked a few more trails I had not been on – leave that for next time. You may be wondering where the name comes from for this county park. The water erodes into the large blackened rocks, leaving holes that can eventually become small pools. The granite underneath is white, leaving the impression of a white tank of water built into the stone. Thus the name of the mountains surrounding me, and the park I was leaving today. But I had to make one tourist pit stop along the way.
I was inspired for my travel day by another great sunrise. Good thing, because I was going to brave Walmart on the second last shopping day before Christmas. I was up early: fill up with water, dump my tanks, quick stop at the Nature Center, then Walmart, in and out as quick and early as possible to avoid the rush.
I manage to remember to unhook everything, water, electricity, carpet. OK, I just had to remember to bring the carpet in, but you get the idea. I then filled up my water tank with the water from the park, which was really good tasting mineral water. Now, who knows what the previous renters have done with filling the water, so you treat it as “boil order” water. But you can still use it other than for drinking straight out of the tap, IMO. Things are bright enough now that I start up the motor, and head for the dreaded “first dump”. Not garbage, but sewer dump. Poop, in case you didn’t get the drift.
I pull up to my first dump station – nice and easy pull in and drive out as you leave the campground. Line things up, hook up the hose. Dump the black water first, then the grey water. You can think about why in that order. Things go well, this is less gross and easier than expected. Unhook the sewer connection. Ewe, there is a bit of poop on the end. Well, I’m going to have to rinse everything off with the hose anyways, so grab the hanging hose and turn it on. Nothing. Turn it on more. Little dribble of water. Point at business end of sewer hose. Not enough. Turn tap a bit more, hoping for something better. A couple of seconds pass and a BLAST of water comes out spraying water and what ever poop remains everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Ugh. Going to go through a few wet wipes in a moment for sure. Oh well, this is the initiation of the RVer – baptism by poop spray. I anoint thee, “Sir Smells a lot”.
So I pull out of the dump station, and head to the next crappy job, shopping at Walmart on the 23rd of December. But a little side trip first, to the White Tank Mountain Interpretive Center.
It’s really more of a souvenir store, but it does have some aquarium tank displays with captives of some of the local fauna you are not likely to see just wandering around. The best animal in my opinion is the Gila Monster, I evidently was lucky to see him out in his pool rather than hiding.
I got the tour from one of the interpreters, which was pretty interesting. He shined a UV light on the scorpion hiding in the back of his tank, yeah – he is a pretty big guy, wouldn’t want to find that in my shoe in the morning! There are a few mounts a well, but it was really just a one room display with a lot of crap for sale. But hey, it’s free, so don’t expect the world. Still worth a quick stop on the way in/out of the park if you have not been there before. Oh, the library is the other part of this building, and has free WiFi. Yep, I am learning that as a traveler, free WiFi needs to sought out to help you do things like update your phone, and not use all your cell data on video downloads. But I digress.
It was time to leave and hit the Walmart, December 23rd style. I arrived at 9 am, not bad, but I was still expecting a zoo. What I got was a little petting zoo instead – not nearly as bad as I expected, especially by the time I got out at 10 am. The lot was not near full yet even. I don’t know if that is due to saturation of Walmarts in the USA, or the general lack of holidays Americans seem to have – it was a Monday after all. But I was happy to get out the parking lot with my RV unscathed, onto fill up with gas, Quartzsite, here I come!
The gas fill up had one minor annoyance. They wanted my zip code. “9-0-2-1-0” I punch in, the only thing that show was good for. Invalid zip code. Some choice swear words later, I go inside the gas station, a “Loves” down here in the USA. Oh no, I can’t pay at the pump, got to do that in here for us Canuks. Get it together Loves, other places work just find for Canuck Cards.
Back on the highway I go, for my one hourish drive down the Interstate 10 to Quartzsite. I have noticed travelling to different parts of Canada that people seem to have a different driving “style” in different parts of the country. No different in the USA. The speed limit on the Interstate is 75mph, a pretty good clip. Surprising to me was that few people seemed to be exceeding that, and a lot of trucks and RV type vehicles were going slower. That is usually a good clue that the cops don’t tolerate speeding much. As I’m driving an RV, I’ll follow the expected stereotype and go slower than most vehicles. I’m in no hurry, save a few dollars in gas too. I notice that the semis do vary in speed a lot more. I’m doing 70mph for the most part, but I both pass semis doing 65mph, and get passed by semis doing 75mph. Also, they pass each other pretty quick, and move back over if the traffic flow allows it. Semis in Alberta could learn a thing from their desert cousins, pass faster than 1km/hr, dudes!
I arrive in Quartzsite and it is immediately apparent that Snowbird/Nomads/RVs is the big economic driver down here. Everything is geared towards it. Since it was lunch, and I had scoped out a promising Mexican restarant, I decided to go for it and try it out, Taco Mio.
I had the special, a Beef Tamales – really good other than the red sauce which tasted like some watered down thing of Frank’s Red Hot. But worth it, the rest of the food was great! I found in parking there that yes, my little RV does fit in a car parking spot, kinda. I ended up backing onto the sidewalk getting out, but that was mostly me giving extra space to the cars I was not trying to hit. No biggie, no pedestrians were hurt in the de-parking of my RV! Next, onto my first BLM land camp at Roadrunner BLM 14 day camping!
