Holtville Hot Springs

We arrived here yesterday afternoon, a day late. More electrical problems, this time with the levelers, which are the "legs" that come down from the bowels of the Royal Palms at the touch of a button and make us stand level on uneven ground. We got all packed up to leave camp, Steve pushed the button, and nothing happened--the levelers refused to retract. Steve checked all the fuses. Twice. He replaced all the fuses anyway.l Nothing. He crawled around under the motor home and checked for loose wires. Nope. He emailed the techies on the Skinny Winnie website and got their two cents. Still nothing. Oh, and did I mention that during all this, it was raining? The only rain we've had since we left Salt Lake. We couldn't call a tow truck or emergency road service because, with the levelers planted on the ground, we couldn't be towed. Finally, Steve crawled underneath (wet, cold, rocky ground), and was able to reach up and manually raise them. By then it was 4 p.m., so we just stayed where we were for one more night. Now that the levelers have been retracted manually, they won't go back down--they have to go into an authorized dealer to be serviced. The nearest dealer is actually not all that far away--Glendale AZ, near my parents,' so we will take it there for servicing when we get back that way, in about a month. Steve says it will probably be expensive, as they are no longer under warranty. There goes any income tax refund we'd planned on. Sigh. Till then, we'll be leveling the Palms the old-fashioned way, with boards and rocks.

Yesterday, we hopped on I-8 and drove about 40 miles to the Holtville Hot Springs BLM area, one of our favorite places from last year. The campsite we had last year was taken, but Steve found us an even better one. Someone, or a series of someones, has made a lot of effort to make this "home." We have a palapa (a few palm frons included) with a little flagstone patio, a rock garden, and a sparkle garden made up of bright bits of glass, all carefully delineated with stones. We are tucked back in away from the dirt road and out of sight. The dogs can be off leash and will bother no one. Tex has already taken advantage of his new freedom by finding possibly the only pile of cow poop in the area and rolling in it. Ewwww! Luckily, I keep a big bottle of doggie shampoo for just such occasions; Tex got a bath. He wasn't happy about it, but the rest of us were.

Last night, after Tex's bath, we drove the two miles to the hot springs and went dipping with John, who is camped just across the road from there. He's invited us over to his place tonight for chicken stew. I'm bringing salad and dessert, which means a quick trip to Holtville, 9 miles away.
No problem, as we need to fill up with propane anyway, and are low on a few groceries and other odds and ends. Including a kitchen sponge. Tex ate ours. Adorable as he is, I'll be relieved when his puppyhood is behind him.


I'm also posting a few pictures I found from our brief stint at Imperial Dam. I don't know if I mentioned the wild burros, but they were pretty cool. There was a herd of about 12 of them wandering around. The two you see in the photo are standing on what passes as a landscape there--nothing but volcanic rock. I have no idea what they eat or drink. They would wander through the campground. On one of his morning walks, Steve spotted one standing right next to a woman who was sitting in her lawn chair next to her RV. Now THAT would have been a picture! Unfortunately, Steve didn't have the camera with him. The tepee in the other photo was very cool. Steve has always wanted a tepee.