“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
— Dalai Lama.”
I started the week with my water pump working intermittently and after a few days, it quit all together. It’s inconvenient as hell, but I have a 2-gallon cube of water and there was a water kiosk just down the road from where I was parked in Ehrenberg, so there was a little bit of latitude as to when I got it fixed.
Ehrenberg has been a lovely place to live. Neighbors are spread far enough apart for me to have my own space and close enough to visit daily for my “talking-to-other-humans” fix. Cosmo and I spend about an hour each morning visiting Bonnie. I believe she wakes up earlier than I do (and I’m nearly always up before the sun rises). Cosmo and I do our morning routine and watch out the western window for her to come out of the van and put up the folding “visitor’s chair” before we head over. Bonnie has been a good source of information partly because she has had an old Roadtrek longer than I have so she knows its ins and outs, and partly because she has spent the last few winters here, so she knows the area and what it has to offer.
I have two new neighbors on the other side of the van, and both have tiny pull-behind trailers. They are simple box trailers that the two occupants have built out to make them their homes. They are both around my age (probably slightly younger, but not by much) and I’ve enjoyed talking with them most mornings.
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What a delightful day I had. It was nothing short of magical. I decided that I was going to drive to Quartzsite to get help with my water pump. Bonnie turned me onto a Roadtrek group on Facebook. They are people who all own old Roadtreks and she told me if I posted my issue, there would be someone (or many someones) who would post a solution. I posted one night about my water pump issues and by morning I had three people in Quartzsite who would work on it or who knew someone who would. I had to go into Blythe first to get some peat moss for my composting toilet, and then was heading over to Quartzsite. I had a friend I met there last year text me a couple times saying he was in Quartzsite and asking if I was coming back. He said he’d really like to see me again. When I walked into Ace Hardware to get my peat moss, I noticed someone staring at me. It was Kenny, my friend from Quartzsite. He gave me a big hug and said, “What’s up little brother?” I said, “I am on my way to Quartzsite to look for YOU!” He said, “I’m not there.” We laughed. I told him about my water pump and he gave me pointers to get it off. I’m glad he did because it was tricky and without his pointers, I wouldn’t have gotten very far on the repair.
I drove to Quartzsite and met with Beth who I’d met only online through the Roadtrek group. She introduced me to Mike who she thought would help, but he declined and seemed very grumpy. She later said not to take it personally. He was mad at her because he helped her get her solar panels hooked up, but she didn’t want them mounted permanently on her roof, but rather preferred to set them out facing the sun each morning to have the best possible collection angle. He was mad and insisted he drill holes in her roof. She declined and he was apparently taking it out on me by not helping me with my water pump. Beth said “I KNOW we can do it. Let’s try.” She brought her tools, and I got down under the sink and she coached and told stories as I applied the tricks and tips that Kenny had suggested. We got it off (took about two hours—it was like a puzzle to disconnect first one pipe, then one wire, then twist the pump to a different angle to get to the other pipe and wire. It is a tight space and very difficult to get to, but we managed. I got the new pump on which I purchased in Quartzsite at an RV store. Well, I got the new pump almost on. The intake and output were at slightly different positions from the old pump, so I needed to go back to Ace to get adapters, but I felt quite confident someone there could help me with the fittings needed to complete it.
It was so good to see Kenny again. He texted me later in the day and said if I needed anything, he was in Ehrenberg and just call and he’d come over and help. Beth was so supportive and helpful and it made my day to see Bonnie so glad that I “came back home” to Ehrenberg. I sat outside and watched the sun set, gorgeous as always.
I also got a text message from Kristie, who I met in JTBLM. She had taken Rob to Nevada to his court date. Kittie and I wondered how that went and Kristie informed me that the judge cut Rob’s fine in half and gave him 3 months to pay it. Having interaction with Kittie, Kristie, Ken, Beth and Bonnie all in the same day made me realize how many connections I have made on the road. My tribe is ever-growing and so supportive. My face hurts from smiling so much. I love my life even if no water is coming out of my faucet yet. That is such a minor inconvenience, and so overpowered by the support system I have.
The next morning, I drove to Ace Hardware in Blythe. I took my new water pump which I’d disconnected because I knew it had to be put back in a different way, and I needed to bring it into the store to show what size fittings I needed on the male and female sides of both the intake and output valves. In the plumbing department, an older man who looked like he may have been a member of ZZ Top asked what I needed and I said I wasn’t sure. I explained that I needed a flexible pipe/hose that had this (I showed him the pump) connection on the male end and this (showed him an elbow fitting that came out of the pipe in my van) on the female end. He nodded to follow him and he pulled out two hoses. They seemed short to me and I added a description of the space they occupied and he put them back and picked up the next biggest size. I pointed out that both had two female ends and he said, “Follow me” and in the next aisle over he handed me two male/male nipples (not nearly as erotic as it sounds) that would turn one of the female ends into a male connection when screwed together. I went out to the van and decided to work on it in the parking lot in case I needed something else, I wouldn’t have to make another trip back to Blythe. In minutes, water was coming out of my faucet again.
I drove back to my spot in Ehrenberg, and when I pulled in, Bonnie came out of her Roadtrek to see how I made out. I got out of my van doing the happy dance and told her I had running water. We talked outside for a bit, and then I got parked. Rejoicing in running water again, I washed up and then got out my ladder and got up on my roof and cleaned off my solar panels, which were covered in thick desert dust. The sun was warm, the sky blue and cloudless. The moon rose over the mountains in the northeast.
All was well in my world.
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The rest of the week was easy and without any stress. I visited with Bonnie most mornings and hung out in the sun in the afternoons. It got cold at nights, sometimes down into the upper 30’s. My heater is working and so is my hot water heater, and my double sleeping bag is nice and cozy. I flick the heat on a few minutes before getting out of bed, so that it’s comfortable when I get up and get my sweats on. By mid-morning it is usually pleasant and by early afternoon it is usually summer weather.
On Saturday, I ran into town and dumped my trash at the Ehrenberg transfer station. Then I headed to the laundromat, did a load of clothes and while they were in the wash, I got a long, hot shower. I went back to my spot on BLM land and made a bean/cheese/brown rice burrito, with hot sauce and sour cream.
There was one tiny flaw in my water pump hookup, and in the middle of the night, I had thought of a solution. I dug through the “spare parts” I had taken off when I replaced the pump, and found a small elbow. Although the water pump was working fine, one of the hoses was bumping into the cupboard door when it was closed. I found an elbow, and that turned the hose in an upward instead of outward direction. Now it’s back to perfect. It is quiet, has good pressure, and I will never take fresh water coming out of a faucet for granted again.
Lessons From The Road: My sister and I have a saying that we must constantly remind each other of: “Don’t bleed until you’re shot.” We come from a long line of worriers, so we have learned to fear the worst as a natural part of being alive. We have to constantly remind ourselves not to lose sleep or get an ulcer over worrying about something that hasn’t yet happened. It may sound obvious to many of you, but to us, it’s quite difficult to do. With my water pump (the one under my sink, not the one under my hood) going out this week, and my van being due for an oil change with no Jiffy Lube or Valvoline within a reasonable distance, and with Verizon Wireless (Now dubbed “Verizon USELESS”) it was quite easy for me to fear the worst and fret over how I was going to take care of all these issues. The oil change was the easiest. I was telling Bonnie about going to the nearest place in town and being quite skeptical about their ability to do the job correctly (a very run-down, old-timey, service station with a waiting room full of disgruntled-looking patrons). Bonnie suggested a place just a few blocks away from there that she used and she said they were fast, thorough and efficient. I went there and she was correct on every count. Within 20 minutes I was pulling out with no worries for another 3500 miles. One (big) thing off the list that was hanging over my head.
The next thing was Verizon Useless. They seem unable to help me by phone or online chat. I discovered there is a Verizon store in Blythe (about 10 minutes away) and I’ll go there before heading to Quartzite. My friend Richard advised me to get rid of my business account with them (My phone is still under The Soap Fairy, which I’ve not owned since 2014). He said it would not only be easier to deal with but would be cheaper. I will see if they can do it at the store, because the tech support in India and China seem unable or unwilling to help and Verizon’s policies for businesses (can only log in from one computer, and must log in every 30 days or be locked out) are just not practical for me.
The water pump was a larger issue. Imagine going to your bathroom or kitchen, turning on the faucet and nothing comes out. On the road, I’ve learned to divide my problems into two categories: Inconvenient and Life Threatening. The lack of a water pump is inconvenient. I have a 2-gallon cube of water. Using it is not as easy as being able to turn on the faucet when I want to wash dishes (or myself) or make coffee, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m not going to die from it. Using these two categories has made my life much simpler and much happier. When I start to “bleed” before I’m “shot,” I categorize the problem and (so far) they have always fallen into the “inconvenient” category. Actually, only once did one fall into the category of being “Life Threatening” but I didn’t know it until I took the van to the shop for a “funny noise” and was informed that I was quite lucky that my front wheel didn’t fly off as I was descending a winding mountain road at 60 mph.
I highly recommend using this method. When things are not life threatening, but only annoying, that gives me the leeway to deal with them on my own timeframe. If they become annoying enough, I’ll get to it faster. If the inconvenience doesn’t require me to uproot my life, I have the choice to continue on my merry way until such time that it becomes too big of an annoyance, and then I deal with it. I wish I’d learned this lesson about 65 years ago. Maybe I wouldn’t be totally grey by now. ?