Saturday March 11th 2017

Today was a beautiful clear sunny day with the temperature pushing ninety. There was a light breeze, so as long as you weren’t in the direct sun it was very comfortable outside. Inside was another story. The sun hitting the motorhome raised the inside temps to the uncomfortable level by about two in the afternoon.

It’s necessary to run the air conditioners to keep the inside of the rig manageable. I put one of the AC units on about 3:30. The idea of using them in March hurts my northern head so I only used one. It was starting to get the inside temperature under control around five when the power went out. It wasn’t just my site, but it wasn’t everybody. About twelve of us blew a breaker for our section of the park. It wasn’t the result of a true overload, just too much juice for a weak high power breaker. As I’m writing this blog entry it is eight o’clock and the Electrician has just arrived to try and get the power back on. I can last overnight on my battery bank, longer if I was in true conservation mode. I just can’t run the AC or the Microwave off the batteries. So I’m not worrying.

After two days of heavy tourist action, I took it easy today. I started the day watching a hot air balloon pass over the valley. The same balloon seems to be up every morning that isn’t too windy. It is always very high as it crosses over this area. Some mornings it is going in a southeast to northwest direction and other mornings just the opposite. When the balloon is up, the wind on the ground isn’t blowing hard enough to tell which direction it is blowing.

Hot Air Balloon over the valley.

I used some of my free time today to continue to research my journey when I leave here at the end of March. The good news is it appears May is warm enough all the way up to the Canadian border in this area of the country. So the plan I’m working on now is April in northern Arizona, Las Vegas and Reno Nevada. Then I’ll cut across the southeastern corner of Oregon into Idaho and head toward Glacier National Park. I need to work reservations, but I’m hoping that June reservations will be easier to get than July or August. Some of that area is also in the path of the total eclipse in August which is another big tourist draw to contend with.

Once I finish with Glacier National Park, I’ll start working my way south at a slower pace. Utah will be the focus of the second half of the summer into the fall. I’ve given some though to the Albuquerque balloon festival in the beginning of October, but I’m not locked into the idea yet. I’d like to have the motorhome better prepared for boondocking before spending two weeks without electric and water.

I think I’ve got enough of a plan to start finding places to make reservations up until about the July Fourth holiday. That means using Google maps to calculate distances, then online and paper directories to find campgrounds, followed by more research on the campground review sites. I need to make reservations for the rest of the summer too, but there are a few things I need to know about possible commitments before I start to lock in the return from the north.

It is now around 8:30 and the electrician has fixed the breaker panel. I have electricity again, but it has cooled off enough that I don’t need the AC.