a rainy cloudy day

click the pics

This is the way the sky looked in Tombstone all day. So there wasn't much going on in my life, and I had to baby my batteries.

It was raining lightly when I woke up this morning and found my propane tank empty. Propane tanks have a way of emptying themselves at the worst possible times, like when it's cold, rainy, and dark. But I figured out years ago that no amount of worry, bad language, or even prayer will bring back the propane until you hook up another tank. So, with that done, I'm back to having heat, a working stove for making my morning coffee, and a refrigerator that runs. Now I have to find someplace in Tombstone that does propane refills.

I've never refilled a tank in Tombstone before. I know I can fill it in Benson, but that's about 25 miles away, so I need to look around Tombstone and see what I can find. And yes, I can go two or three weeks, depending on how much heating I have to do before I run out again, but I don't like not having a spare tank ready to go, so I try to refill my empty as soon as possible... It's one of the very few things in life that I don't procrastinate.


Due to the very cloudy weather and the intermittent rain showers, I didn't do anything or go anywhere today. Unfortunately, staying in the camper all day puts a heavy strain on my batteries since I'm not getting any solar charging, and being stuck in the camper all day, I want to use the computer more often, and that uses up even more battery power.

 But to be a successful long-term boondocker, a balance must be found between the amount of battery charging and the amount of battery use. However, it seldom stays cloudy and rainy long enough in Arizona for me to figure out what that balance is.

So today was a day that I missed my Trimetric battery monitor. And yes, I have a very nice Fluke voltmeter that does more tricks than I'll ever learn how to make it do. Still, if you're a serious boondocker, there's nothing that I know of that will replace a battery monitor that tells you how many amps are going into your batteries from the solar panels or any other way your batteries are getting charged, and how many amps are leaving the batteries from your load, all in real-time.

If you only boondock occasionally, for relatively short periods, you don't need a battery monitor. But if you boondock long term and want to remain comfortable in all kinds of weather, knowing the condition of your batteries in real-time is very useful information.

 This is the driver of the Tombstone stage, and he's staring at the newly invented cell phone in his hand. He's trying to call the sheriff, Virgil Earp, to tell him the stage has been robbed, but he's got the only cell phone in town so there's no one he can talk to.

 in 1882 Tombstone residents decided that this whole cell phone thing was not going to work out and went back to using smoke signals which had always worked well in the past.

Tombstone at Christmas. The whole town is Decked out in red and green decorations that brings a cheerful look to the entire town.

A sign that needs no explanation.

This tourist shop on Main Street, is obviously making a killing selling big round boulders to the tourists.