relo outside of town
the relo
Got up at 6am and
- refueled and took on water at the local gas station
- hit the supermarket in th same parking lot.
- More gizzards, this time $0.83 for a pound on managers special.
- bag of mixed apples in “ugly fruit” closeout, $0.99
- bag of plaintains as above, $0.99
- Also picked up 2x banquet turkey pot pies for my traditional relo lunch
- went to the PF in the same lot for my last shower for the next two weeks
temperature
It was 54F at the edge of town and 50F as I pulled into public lands. Same elevation, just away from concrete and other urban factors.
road conditions
The dirt road shows evidence of mudholes in past monsoons. Since there is no significant rain forecast for the next 14d I went further in. After monsoon starts I’ll want to be quite close to gravel, pavement, or other reliable surface.
Even though it is dry and pretty level I have learned my lesson from the Flagstaff monsoon: I now camp with the front1 tires up on leveling pads whether or not the site is level. After a couple weeks of solid rain in F the fronts sank into the ground and required a dig-out.
The good news is even if I get stranded due to muddy conditions I have enough staple foods to last a couple months. And if it’s raining all the time by definition I can catch water. Basically I’d just have to wait out the mud.
location
The spot is giving me deja vu; it looks just like a spot I think was west of Tucson:
- many winding dirt two-track paths, like rabbit trails for RVs. Easy to get lost so I immediately marked home on my phone.
- a lot of campers separated by a couple hundred feet
- low confiers (more like high shrugs) that offer privacy but don’t block rooftop solar
I’m pretty sure I haven’t been here before.
Update: I didn’t blog about it but there was a nearby entry in my gps waypoint list. And I found this pic from Sept 24, 2021. I measured the distance with google maps and I am now camped 724ft from where I was 1.5 years ago. That is a pretty good indicator of when this area will have cooled down again.
Too bad this area isn’t at 8000’ or higher; it’s on the border of BLM/USNF land so one could bounce back and forth to stay within the rules.2
Muffin is quite happy to be out of town, lounging in the dirt.
reception
Serviceable Tmo and Verizon. Outstanding OTA after I reoriented the van. All the channels the cheap DVR needs come in clearly. I don’t really need TV shows, but I am banking them when they are availbale.
Homeworx DVR -> laptop processing -> Kodi (OSMC) pi -> 12v tv
The processing is really coming together. It attempts to correct OTA reception errors and bumps volume by 50%. I have found DTV OTA to have much lower audio than the old analog system.
bonus content: miso base
Yesterday I went to a local Asian market to try to find some miso paste. I find miso soup soothing and like to keep some packets on hand. Unfortunately in the pack shown to the right it’s $0.91/serving.
While at the Asian store I found some promising contenders:
- Marukome quick serve instant miso soup packets. ~$0.32/serving. Convenient and has seaweed but requires refrigeration; luckily I have a fridge.
- Nora islander style miso soup base. $0.17/serving. Just the base but I do have dried seaweed. In a packet so I will have to measure out 4 grams of base for each portion. Might have to find a small container to avoid spillage.
I haven’t tasted either one yet, so will report back after I do.
Miso (みそ or 味噌) is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus Aspergillus oryzae) and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients - wikipedia
even more bonus content: RedPocket and Visible swap
I finally heard a report that someone got the new (non-cloud) Visible working in an LTE router. I followed their lead and got it running in the Cudy router. The RedPocket GSMT is back in my carry phone. Reminder: both providers are MVNOs.
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