Ground Hog Day, we leave tomorrow

Still in Las Vegas at Nellis Air Force Base. We have not been here since Ground Hog Day, but rather every day feels like Ground Hog Day, same day — different date. Just like the entire world, we are still hiding from the virus. We are grateful that we had a place to stay during the quarantine (flatten the curve-phase).

It wasn’t our plan, but plans change and this change was due to circumstances beyond our control. We came to Vegas on March 10 and have been here longer than any other place since we started full-time travel. 

Plans and Revisions

The original plan was to go to Vegas for three weeks so that we could address some of the issues in our new RV. Our biggest issue is how to get our batteries to last long enough to actually camp overnight. We can camp overnight, but we also want to still have cold food in the refrigerator in the morning.   Our expectation was that we would be here for three-weeks; see how quickly that changed.

Six days after our arrival at Nellis Air Force Base, friends told us that they heard on “social media” that we were going to get kicked out because of the coronavirus lockdown.  We had been watching the number of cases climb and also watching the political reaction to the virus. Getting the boot from our nice RV site was getting a little personal.  I found out that we weren’t being shown the door but instead, the base had decided that no new arrivals would be allowed. Instead of kicking us out, they were canceling all incoming reservations.  Since no one was going to be showing up to take our space, we extended our reservation until the end of April. 

Getting Hot

My feelings were that the world would start reopening about the same time as the warmer temperatures arrived, and though I can’t claim any exceptional insight towards these kinds of things, it seems that my timing was good.  The primary departure date motivation was that I knew that Vegas was going to get hot, starting about the first part of May, and I didn’t want to be in Vegas during the summer. We already have that tee-shirt from when we stopped in Vegas in August 2017 on our first RV road trip and the temperature was more than 100 at sunrise.  Our air conditioners ran the entire time we were here.

I had no idea about how widespread the fall out of the virus would be and am still stunned at what I still consider overreaction. Grandma was correct when she said that “fresh air and sunshine” was good.  Our problem is where people are working or socializing in close proximity to each other.  Telling people to stay inside has helped, especially if the outside is New York City.  I don’t buy it that people are safer inside when outside is Wyoming.

Ground Hog Day

This brings me back to Ground Hog Day, a great movie, which we watched a couple of days ago. I also watched it or portions of it when on board ship, while in the Navy, over and over again.  Everything has been the same – every day. The one day we did get out was to Valley of Fire State Park (while it was still open). This time we concentrated on taking pictures from the confines of our car — or on the side of the road.

Every day we have avoided going out and tried not to be in public places as much as possible, we even limited shopping at the grocery as much as we could.  Typically, on our travels, we would have gone somewhere nearly every day, just for the joy of going, but here we are just sitting. Our exercise is confined to walking around the RV Park, a few times per day, about a mile per lap. I started carrying my backpack, just to make it more like exercise.  

Projects

My projects now include an incomplete water filter and water softener system. I will be able to finish it in a few days. As part of the water filter and softener system, I flushed the hot water heater. Lots of minerals are now on the ground. It should have been flushed at least once a year – didn’t happen.

The hot water heater flush got the stuff off the bottom of the tank. The next step is to soak the inside of the tank with a vinegar solution and flush it again. We may have to do the vinegar and flush step more than once. I should also inspect the electric water heater element, which probably will need replacing, but that will have to wait for another day; so much fun.

Other than that we have been putting things away and trying to learn our new RV.  It really does live very comfortably.

Family Time

The best time we have had in the last seven weeks was spent with family but even that was restricted to picnics. I am so glad that we came to Las Vegas, being with family, was such fun.

Tonopah, Nevada

Tomorrow we leave for Tonopah Nevada, and then to Topaz Lake, still in Nevada. We will have to find a place to park in Tonopah because the RV Park is run by the casino, which is closed…. At least Tonopah won’t be 100 degrees like Vegas will be on Wednesday. I called the sheriff’s office and they told me where to stay in a nice level parking lot – without electric hookups. Have I mentioned that we have a real problem with the electricity department? (More on that subject soon.)