We have been getting out to some incredible places, following the directions in the rock books. We often feel like we are on top of the world.

We have been in Barstow for 10 days now with an issue with the pan that holds the antifreeze in the engine. So for the most part, we have just been leaving the motorhome in one place and making trips our to the various sites in the jeep.

So far this trip we have replaced the oil pan, the pan that holds the antifreeze and the generator….. it has been expensive. I guess on the positive, we have not paid to camp anywhere for at least a month. We work hard to get everything charged during the day time when the sun is shining. We are getting better all the time at optimizing the solar power.  Ken has installed a devise that gives us more accurate knowledge about the batteries.  We have learned that it is best to never get down to half charge.  In the past we have gone through a lot of batteries and have learned that we need to be careful that the charge never gets down below one half.

Some nights the temperatures are dropped down close to freezing, and the  inverter gauge is showing we are down to one half… so we are using the generator for 15-20 mins some mornings. In previous years we just did not use the generator, because we did not have these concerns about the guage dropping so low….. This year our old generator just would not charge the batteries…..so we had to buy a new one, I guess to save the batteries.  We also put in a block heater  into the engine before we left Canada, so that we could heat the engine on cold mornings, before starting it,  to make the engine last longer.

THIS is Afton Canyon, a truly amazing spot that we have spent a few days exploring. I think that is me…

It is essentially one large canyon with many other canyons leading into it, and then other canyons leading into them

So we climbed up through the side canyons and looking back at this..

I was thinking that it is like a baby Grand Canyon and perhaps a million years from now if the water keeps pouring down through the ridges and cracks… it might become like the Grand Canyon.

I did want to briefly mention Quartszite and some of the things we bought there.  We did not buy this piece…. from Morocco, but pictured it showing the fossils in the underlying stone.

This is a sink we bought for our master bathroom. It is from Morocco from the Sahara desert.

Apparently the Sahara desert was once a sea and the environment these creatures settled in preserved their structure.  I guess these mass beds of fossils were discovered when they began mining the Sahara desert.  The people we spoke to there said that with the travel bans it would be unlikely they would be coming next year. Trump is adding travel bans from other countries all the time.

This is Kathy and Pete, the couple from Kamloops we are intermittantly traveling with… and this is Tucker’s Tail…. he does not like to have his picture taken

 

This is the very toothful Talon, showing off his newest editions.  WE DO miss him.

We are currently just outside California City in the Mojave desert which apparently is a mecca for ATV riders, and there seem to be roads everywhere for them do to their thing. It is quite a well established place, they even have a first aid station ?????

This winter has been colder for us than other years on the road, but trying not to complain  TOO loudly, as we hear it is -20 celsius back home.

Much love to all from Ken, Janet and Tucker the rabbit hunter.