20-23 March, 2011 On the road again ...

We set out for new territory on the 20th, breaking camp at the Overton WMA and heading towards Mesquite.  We stopped at Walmart and spent a bunch of money and spent the night in their parking lot.  The next morning we went to the Mesquite library and checked our email then drove out to our new campsite.

We'll swing through Mesquite for some stuff then camp at teh base of the cloud covered mountains in the foreground.  (Picture taken from the interstate highway on the way to Mesquite.)

Spent the night in Mesquite then drove to our new area.

At the tip of the red pen is where we were staying.  At the tip of the pencil is our new location.  We are way out in the desert at our new camp.

After a night in Mesquite we drove to our new area then decided to do some more exploring on bicycle before taking the U-Haul farther up the gravel road.

We were here last year and remembered the road getting a lot worse ahead so we took off on bicycles to check things out.  We ended up camping were we are parked for the week.  There are better camping spots ahead but the road deteriorates rapidly.  Last year we were in our Cherokee.  It is considerably narrower than the U-Haul and it had 4wd.  I though about chaining up the truck but there are some narrow places where I though we might tear out a sidewall on one or more of the rear tires.

So here we are.  I set the solar panel out to top off our battery in the last few hours of remaining sunlight.

The view from our back door.

The dog and cat had lots of energy to burn off after a day of travel.

Odie's trying to unearth a mouse.

The cat's trying to figure out how to start the motorcycle.

This is the view to the front of the camp.  Susan took this picture from the roof of the camper.

Susan's checking out the area.

We bought a shower house/tent for use so I put it up.  I took it back down a couple of days later before the wind tore it apart.  We didn't need it anyway.  We averaged one vehicle by us for every two days of camping.  It is not a high traffic area.

From one of the hills behind the camper.

The 23rd we decided to try calling in a coyote.  The wind began picking up so I dn't know how far away the call could be heard that evening.  We didn't bring anything in.

We started a campfire and had some smores then the wind hit big time and we scrambled to cover the fire with sand and retreated to the camper.  The wind was our biggest problem while there.  We had several days it blew so hard we stayed indoors.