Campsite – Page 5 – Harry Lange

Farmington, NM – Thursday September 26, 2019

After two great weeks of fishing on the San Juan River at Navajo Dam we have internet again. We are at the San Juan County Fair grounds because as we were leaving town we developed generator problems again. A last week we had a new carburetor put on the generator. This week I was running the generator so we could have some air conditioning, when I turn the A/C off the generator quit running. We went back to Cummins where the new carburetor was installed and asked them to look at the generator again. Their generator person is in Durango, CO until the end of next week. The service guy gave me the name and number of two other local guys who are good at generators. Neither one of these people called me back. One I left a message the other one had a really nice lady who said they would call me but they didn’t.

At 5 o’clock we decided to give up on getting help and spend the night here at the fair grounds and move on to Gooseneck State Park, Utah tomorrow. We may be able to live without a generator for a while. The biggest challenge will be the week and a half at the Balloon Fiesta. We are there from October 2 – 14. Weather will drive how this works out. With sunny weather the solar panel and watching our electricity usage we may be able to make it through. If not we may have to buy a portable generator. We will see what happens.

I will be going back and updating the blog for our time at Cottonwood Campground, Navajo Dam, New Mexico September 11 – 26.

Today’s travels

Campsite photos

This picture has a fair ground special feature. The fair ground has 574 sites.

Jacob Lake, AZ – Wednesday September 4, 2019

Today’s drive

We were up early, I wanted to get to Jacob Lake before it got hot and to get an open campsite. Arrived at 9:30 and got a large pull-though at the end of the Loop, site 12.

Have good open sky for satellite TV, sat radio and sun for solar panel. Also have great internet

There is an antenna here at the Hwy junction going into north Grand Canyon.

We are also at 8000 feet and the weather is perfect, 77 with a few thunder showers while it is over 100 at Lees Ferry, Zion and Monument Valley. We are going to stay here until the 11th when we have reservations for fishing at Cottonwood Campground at Navajo Dam, NM. It will be a 338 mile day to Cottonwood but the weather is much better here. I have been working on staying at 200-250 miles at day even when we traveling.

This map is the temperature map at 7:30 Wednesday evening, says we made the right call on where to stay.

Made the right call on the pickup battery. It was right at 12.5 volts Wednesday and Thursday morning ( writing this on Thursday 9/5). It is still had for me not to try and get the last usable mile out of every part.

Sand Hollow State Park, – St. George, Utah – Tuesday September 3, 2019

It is hot today 102 here and tomorrow 105 is the current forecast. The plan is to go to Lees Ferry / Marble Canyon for a couple of days than on to state park north of monument valley.

I think we may try to get into Jacob Lake FS Campground on the north side of the Grand Canyon. The elevation is 5000 plus. They always have some drop in sites and we will try for an open one.

Today’s drive 118 miles

In site 12, pull through on far side of the hill from the cell towers, did not get internet until sun was almost down.

We also got a new battery for the pickup. When we got here the battery voltage was 11.9. It is only 4 years old but I don’t want to take a chance. I put a voltage meter in the pickup so I would know if was having any voltage leaks. If the battery goes dead while it is in tow mode it has to go to a Ford dealership to reprogram the transmission. At 102 degrees in the shade I decided to go to Interstate Battery and have them put it in. When we got back to the Campground after running a bunch of errand the voltage was at 12.6 right where it belongs.

Cathedral Gorge State Park, NV – Wednesday August 28, 2019

Today’s drive 148 miles.

We are in site 3 for the holiday weekend. We have good cell/internet on this side of the park, last time we were here we stayed in site 13 and it was terrible. A sign on the water says we need to boil the water, they may have a contamination problem. Glad we travel with water, we still have 50 gallons and are good for a while.

We hav been here many times over the years. All the sites are non reservable so it is great for just stopping in mid week. We have set out several major storms. A couple of years ago I-15 was washed out south of St. George and all of I-15 traffic had to go by here for several days.

Weather forecast here

This is for Virgin River BLM Campground we were going to go too.

Bought two bags of potato chips at Costco in Bonney Lake and between this one and the one behind it they grew to the point where I had to open this one to get it out of the cabinet.

Rest Stop East of Glenn’s Ferry – Monday August 26, 2019

Today’s drive 256 miles

Spent 4 hours at an Oregon Trail Information Center just east of Baker City.

It was interesting, we were here maybe 12 years ago. I forgot to look up the date before I started this post. ( update May 1, 2002 was the date )

We are at a really big rest stop that we have stayed before.

I did get a spot next to a light pole.

Parking here we can have the bedroom slide out tonight.

LaGrande, OR – Sunday August 25, 2019

We had to be out of Salmon Cove by 11:00 a.m. today.

Today we start heading south toward New Mexico. It was sad to leave the Garcia’s we will not see them again until the end of November. The next few days will be traveling and nights at rest stops.

I do think we have a change in plans. Our original plan was to spend the holiday weekend at Virgin River Campground which is just inside Arizona between St George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada. When we got internet today I found out it is going to be hot there.

Look at the daily forecast for the next week. The Virgin River Campground has no hook ups and NO shade, not a tree or a bush in the place. I think we will go to Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada that at least has electricity we should be able to get into on Wednesday.

Today’s travels.

Salmon Cove Campground- Friday August 23, 2019

Mike and Tanya had a lot of work to do to start to make their new trailer there’s. They made it to the gathering on Friday hoping they had not forgotten to many things. The best part is they remembered Jack and Bryn.

At Salmon Cove there are three areas for people to gather around, this is where we stayed.