February 15 -- Laundry, Errands and Cleaning

I've been "on the go" every day for the past 3 weeks, spending time at the Valley of Fire, Gold Butte, or the Overton Wildlife Management Area, so I felt it was time to get a few things done in and outside of Discovery, and do a wash -- which I do once a week, otherwise I'd run out of things to wear.  I must have clean clothes to at least feel "civilized".  But first, breakfast...

Here's my breakfast "nook"/dining table, with the iPad Mini playing music (usually KUSC, the Los Angeles classical music station) and MacBook Pro on a photo site. This photo was taken about 2 weeks ago, but the breakfast yesterday was about  the same -- Egg Beaters "Southwestern Style" 

mixed with spinach and cheddar cheese, a slice of Hawaiian sweet bread, tangelo, banana, and apple pie "bites". A lot of protein to begin the day...While the laundry was being done, I popped over to the Overton post office to pick up mail (I have it sent from San Pedro c/o General Delivery).  I also got a call from Douglas Wipper, the archaeologist Kim and I met while at Gold Butte's Falling Man, along with his wife. Douglas called to say he was interested in joining me to do a hike to Kohta Circus, which has been called the largest petroglyph panel in Nevada. YES!  He's an expert on petroglyphs, and also has a GPS which I don't have; it makes finding a destination in the middle of nowhere a whole lot easier than just using maps. So we locked-in the hike for Monday.  I then went to Lin's, the local supermarket which is just up the street from the RV park, for food, etc., had lunch, then decided to take the 500 f4 for a stroll at the wildlife area. It was DEAD -- no ducks, only American Coots, and not much of any birds besides those. But I gave legs a bit of exercise, then on coming back I gave the trailer an outside examination just to make sure everything looked in order. There have been 2 "problem spots" on Discovery, one of them self-inflicted. When I left Yellowstone in late September, I stopped off to get gas -- and scraped a concrete pylon, the one that stops you from accidentally hitting a fuel pump. I made the pullout too close, and now I have scrapes of red paint on the right side of Discovery, along with two loose latches on an exterior storage compartment. Sheesh! And the other problem area is in the front, underneath the rock protector; there's a "bulge" in the wood. 

You can see it underneath the rusted Phillips screw, and the rock guard has also been pulled out a bit. 

I asked the service guy at Camping World about it, and he said it was probably caused by water seeping into that area and making the material rot; he said there's not much one can do about it. He recommended not replacing the rusted screw, either, because a new screw wouldn't hold due to the rot. Sheesh again! But I've had Discovery for over 3 years now, and things could be MUCH worse...I ended the day with a mini-pizza heated in my toaster oven along with a spinach salad, did some stuff on the computer -- and that was it. A nice, quiet, "stay close to the trailer" day. And today it's back to the Overton Wildlife Management Area this morning with the 500 f4...