Things are busy here in Jumbo Rocks campground. I'm pretty sure it was full Thursday, but all day Friday there was a parade of hopefuls cruising the campground for that elusive empty site. (No reservations, first come, first serve). The campground road has become quite constricted, as motorhomes and vehicles pile in for the weekend. Nancy was focused on where next to camp. I was concentrating on the batteries, and why they're drawing down so quickly. I found that the fridge needs 12 volt for the electronics, and draws even when running on propane. I also found it has climate control, designed to eliminate humidity buildup, also drawing 12 volt, un-necessary in the desert, and so shut off.
So, of course it was the propane which provided the days entertainment. I checked it first thing this morning and found that we were down to one bar on the monitor. We could put on extra blankets and do without the furnace, but no fridge would be a problem. The 90 pound tank lasts so long you tend to forget about it; we were hoping it would last until we rolled out Monday morning. The previous owner carried a 20 pound tank, so you could resupply under just these circumstances, however, in our optimism, we considered it extra weight and left it at home. So off to town we went in the Bigfoot. Extricating ourselves from the campground created some excitement, passing incoming Class A's on a winding, single lane road lined with campers of all descriptions.
Twentynine Palms has 23,000 people and the main national park offices, yet no gas station carries propane. The local building supply was rumored to have propane, however, his compressor had been broken for an extended period of time. The RV Park/golf course was next, and did have propane, but no one in town seemed to know where it was, and when finally discovered, the highway signage was under a different name. We did nearly drive into the local Marine Base; there were three barbershops on the highway advertising Marine Haircuts (I really wanted one, but Nancy said no), right beside the tatoo parlours and the "We Buy Cars For Cash" joints. After finally completing the propane mission, we treated ourselves to fry-fi at Rotten Ronnies, paid some bills, caught up on some correspondence, and Nancy booked us into Borrego Palm Canyon Campground at Anza-Borrego State Park. On our return to Jumbo Rocks, we were relieved to find our spot still unocuppied (we left the Accord and sufficient debris to indicate ownership), parked, releveled, and shut down with a sigh of relief.
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