Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A Winter Storm In The Desert

The last couple of days have been interesting from a weather perspective.  A major cold front passed through Arizona on Monday bringing high winds with gusts over 60 mph.  The camper was rocking and rolling.  Sammie was going a little crazy, pacing and whining.  He does not like the sound and motion caused by winds.  Annie, on the other hand, curled up in a ball on the couch and snoozed most of the day.

Rosie finally got a call back from her Endocrinologist on Tuesday after a week of calling her office every day.  That means we were able to get Rosie’s medication refills faxed to the Wal-Mart Pharmacy in Winslow.  So we ventured into Winslow to pick up meds for her and for me.  Picked up some grocery items and took a brief tour of the town.  The town is really small, so any tour would be brief. 

It rained on and off Tuesday, which means the sky was very overcast and there was not a whole lot of solar energy striking our solar panels.  The temperature never got above 53, so we needed some heat during the day.  Which means we had a couple of hours of generator use yesterday recharging batteries and running the furnace. 

For some reason, our rooftop TV antenna will not crank up.  We did get some over the air reception with the antenna laying flat on the roof, but it was sporadic.  We started discussing whether we should keep using Satellite TV.  It is expensive, about $85 a month.  We watch mostly cable news channels, which we could probably do without (news these days can be stressful to those of us with weak hearts Smile ).   I am also thinking that I need to do more reading and living in the moment, than I currently do. What we do like is the DVR features for recording and playback of shows, along with the ability to stop and review live programming.  So I looked up TiVo on the internet and gave them a call to see how it would work with our lifestyle of moving around so much.  Have any of you had any RV related experience with TiVo?

I am reading a book “The Walk West, A Walk Across America 2” by Peter and Barbara Jenkins.  The book covers their walk from New Orleans to the Pacific Coast in the 1970’s.  Reading their story made me realize how full time RV travel is living in the lap of luxury compared to backpack living on a walk over a thousand miles taking many months.  The book is also making me look at our surroundings in a different light.  We are in a desert area.  Deserts have not been my favorite environment ever; but I started staring at our surroundings and am developing an appreciation for the look and feel of the area.  The rain clouds were clearing last night as the sun was setting.  This made for an attractive sunset.  Here are some pictures showing our desert setting and the sunset:

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We are moving on today to Holbrook, AZ.  It is only about 45 miles away, but there appears to be a nice RV Park there with a reasonable weekly rate with full hookups.  The reason for stopping in Holbrook is I have work to do in Show Low and Lakeside, Arizona next week.  The Show Low area is in the mountains of Arizona, an area we have not yet seen; so it should be an enjoyable side trip.

Thanks for stopping by.

4 comments:

TexCyn said...

I have no experience with TIVO at all. Sorry, I'm no help. I wonder what's going on with your antenna that it won't go up though? I have to spray some oil in mine from time to time, but it too is very hard to roll up & down. I think maybe my rod needs replaced or something?
You could probably catch local news on the computer if you can get a good connection...but I agree, the news isn't for the faint of heart anymore! Feint of heart? Something like that...

Merikay said...

We haven't had TV at the house for three years. At fist it was difficult, but now I hardly miss it. We watch an occasional movie or TV series on our Apple TV and NEtflix.

I was a news junkie before.

Linda said...

Your photos are beautiful.

Jim Sathe said...

TexCyn. I found out my contract with DirecTV is on until Nov. 30. Will take another look at TiVo then. I may replace the crank up antenna with a JACK digital antenna.

Merikay, I don't think we could give it up completely; but we are definitely cutting back.

Linda, thank you for you nice comment on the pictures.