Wednesday, 23 through Monday, 28 February 2022
Except for 1 day when I went into town, I spent this week in the campground, dealing with an odd variety of things.
Weather
Reminding us that it's still February and, thus, still winter, the wind that had been so strong the last couple of days when I was driving here kept it up all the first night, sucking the heat right out of the RV. In case that wasn't enough winter weather, it started snowing during Tuesday night and well on into Wednesday. We ended up with only a few inches accumulation, but the wind chill on Wednesday was 23° during the day. Actually, on Saturday at 8 AM, the wind chill was 13°.
My little space heater, that David fixed for me when we were in Dallas, stopped working again, and then worked only intermittently for days. So the only reliable heat we had in the cabin was from the propane heater, which was fine but during the night I'm too hot and the dogs are too cold, because of the heater's location. One morning I found both dogs lying in front of the propane heater to stay warm.
Although the days gradually got warmer - by about 10° a day, up to the low 60s by Monday - the nighttime temps never got above freezing. Which means it was seriously cold each morning when we went for our first walk or two - and sometimes for a good part of the day as well. It'll be an abrupt change when I head over to California on Tuesday, because the temps are forecast for the 80s there.
The roads in this campground are all dirt. Fine when it's dry, but after the snow melted the resulting mud was really hard to live with. Both the dogs and I tracked it inside and it was hard to get rid of. But as I say, it got dryer and the place got more comfortable.
Appliances
Besides the only vaguely functioning space heater, my water pump stopped working. Because the daytime temps were much warmer than they'd been in Bernalillo, I was hoping my water system wouldn't freeze, but just as I was going to bed Friday night, the pump stopped working. This time it stopped completely. Not a sound out of it, unlike in Bernalillo when it was clearly trying but just not able to get any water through the lines. This time, nothing at all.
Well, I've learned to be prepared, so I had a full jug of water that I'd filled up back at a previous campground (not water I'd spent money on in a store), so I could still flush the toilet and make coffee and fill the pets' water bowl and so on. But I figured this time I was going to have to find someone who could sell me a new pump and install it.
Well, as I've mentioned, Seligman doesn't even have the massive RV parks that other towns farther south do, so I got nothing online when I searched for anything related to RV repair. The closest I got was in Kingman, and even that didn't look so good. Finally, I found a couple of places at Ft. Mohave/Bullhead City - towns in AZ just north of Needles, CA, where I'm going after here. Closed for the weekend so I couldn't call until Monday.
But finally on Sunday, it got warm enough in the daytime that I pulled out my water hose and hooked it up to the campground's water and got a nice strong supply. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to wash your hands with soap and water. And by then I needed a nail brush as well. I keep taking for granted the luxury of turning on a knob and getting running water.
Maybe it was the warmer temps, or maybe it was the inspiration of having the system functional, but after I unplugged the water hose Sunday night (freezing temps overnight), my water pump started working again. I couldn't believe it. But it worked then and it kept working the next day. What a relief. I still think I need to get it checked and maybe replaced, but at least now it's not an emergency situation.
Search for Rxs
My blood pressure pills run out on the 1st, so I started looking for a clinic that could take me on a walk-in basis to get a new prescription. The one in Seligman is open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it was a Thursday that I was doing the looking, so that wasn't going to work. I called the Kingman branch of that same clinic - their website said they accepted same-day appointments and walk-ins. I was on hold for the best part of half an hour, only to be told they didn't take walk-ins. I read her what I was at that moment looking at on their website, and got no response. She wasn't going to take me until April. What's up with April? That's when everybody says they'll take me.
Anyway, I was pretty peeved, having to wait that long to get an answer I was pretty sure wasn't the accurate one, but I couldn't figure out anything to do about it. So I called the CVS in Kingman (not one in Seligman of course) to see if they could call the previous clinic to re-up the prescription. And to my surprise I got a recorded message telling me they'd already refilled my prescription and it was waiting for me back in Dallas. I don't think they were supposed to do that, because my last batch had said there were no more refills. But I talked to the pharmacist in Kingman who agreed to transfer the authority from TX to them, and I said I'd pick them up next week. That was a relief.
LIfe in the campground
From its location, this campground might seem to be noisy, since it's on Route 66 and a mile from the interstate. Plus, one side of it is a wall on top of which sit elevated train tracks. The trains run through here pretty often - several times each hour. Fortunately, they never blow their horns and they're not usually very noisy. I can see how easy it would be to get used to the train sounds and to miss them when you leave. Sometimes two trains pass each other. Once I looked up and saw the second train through the cars passing on the first train, and it was almost like a kaleidoscope and I got a little dizzy. They don't bother me; I like trains anyway. And this is absolutely nothing compared to that campground I was in in - was it Missouri? - where my campsite was just feet from the train tracks, and the trains passed during the night and blew their horns when they did, because of a nearby road crossing.
This KOA has 2 fenced dog parks, one of them decent-sized and the other not bad. Since we're staying here so long, it's nice to have several choices for where to walk the dogs. We all get bored with the same routes all the time.
One time in one of the dog parks we met an 8-week-old Blue Heeler. Really cute and I was pleased to see that both Dexter and Gracie were good with her. In fact, they both looked at her like they weren't sure quite what she was, obviously being a dog but being such a tiny one. Her owner was a nonstop talker - not unpleasant, just constant. At least, it was fine until she said something about the pandemic, then interrupted herself to say, "I guess I should say plan-demic." From there on I was afraid of what she might say and got us out of there as quickly as I could.
Early one morning Dext started woofing (not quite a bark), and after I concentrated I could hear a pack of coyotes howling. My life is more full with him and his acute perceptions than it would be without him.
The air's been so dry lately that there's static electricity everywhere. Sometimes my hair literally stands on end for no reason. So weird. It's actually hard to comb my hair because the static makes it all cling to itself and to my scalp - or alternatively, to the comb so it then flies out into an untamed mess.
I got 2 phone calls on Wednesday purporting to be from PayPal, saying my account is being charged for $399.99 and if I have questions I should call a given phone number. I don't have anything at all to do with PayPal, let alone know where anyone would have gotten my phone number. Online I saw that this situation is a fairly common scam and I should definitely not call those phone numbers they were giving me. Just to be sure I called PayPal themselves and they said no, it wasn't them. They never call people. (Same as the IRS and Social Security.) Anyway, I was reassured.
I kept getting very little sleep, almost always because of cramps and pain in my legs. One night I had really severe cramps in both my calves - sometimes together and sometimes separately - for well over an hour. Not much I could do about them - I already had my heating pad on and did my best to wrap it around both legs. But nothing's a quick fix for cramps. I've also been dealing for a few weeks with a sharp pain in my right leg that starts in my kneecap and runs down the front of my leg to my ankle. I have no idea what it's about, but the heating pad helps for that too. Since it's been so cold overnight, I've started wearing socks to bed, and that also seems to help with the cramps and such. I hope it's just a cold climate thing and that things will improve when March comes on, and in California.
Seligman
On Sunday we drove the half mile into town. I stopped at the one grocery store - I haven't seen a store like that since I visited places in rural Alaska. Lots of shelves, not much on them. But I did get some bottled water (important until my pump is fixed) and some milk (for my coffee) and some grapefruit (I was out of fruit). The owner told me they were super good grapefruit, and she thought maybe they were from California. I mentioned how good Texas grapefruit are, and she said she was originally from Laredo and still had lots of family scattered all over Texas. I should have stayed longer to ask her what drew her to this tiny AZ town, but I'll just have to wonder. The label on the grapefruit said only Paramount orchards, but I've looked it up and learned that that's a Texas orchard. Which explains why (she was right) they are really good grapefruit.
I also went to the Route 66 General Store, because it's the town's hardware store as well as being a tourist shop. I wanted to see what they had for space heaters, but the only electric one they had was way too big for our little space. I found the one I have in a Target, so maybe I can find one in California - if they haven't already stored their winter items.
And we stopped at the multiple (small) buildings that comprise the Seligman School System. They're all together. I didn't try to take the dogs onto the grounds because people don't like dogs to be near playgrounds. But we did walk up and down the street, and Dexter found many many stickers, poor thing. It didn't turn out to be a very good place to walk. We've found a whole lot of stickers in Arizona. Wonder if that'll continue over the state line (bet it does).
And almost every other shop in Seligman is geared to tourists and memorabilia. They all seem to have old cars parked in front - in fact, I couldn't figure out where they expect customers to park. But the town's committed itself to Route 66, and it shows.
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