This morning's sunrise. it started out cloudy but turned into a beautiful day before lunch

I made a quick trip to the Walmart in Parker because I only had a month's worth of my over-the-counter allergy nose spray, and seeing as how it's been Springtime in the desert for a while my allergies are really acting up. Normally when they start to give me this much trouble I would move but randomly moving doesn't look like it's in the cards this Spring.

The Walmart was interesting because I've never seen a Walmart before that had empty or partially empty shelves. The 1 gallon drinking water shelves were about half empty and there were warning signs rationing them to 1 gallon per person. There was some toilet paper, but very little, and it was also rationed. In fact I think it would be safe to say that all of the paper products were either out or being rationed, at least the stuff that I saw. A lot of the refrigerated items such as meats and cheese were there just not very many, and not as much of a selection.

Once I left the Grocery area Walmart looked perfectly normal. There was a normal amount of stuff and the shelves were full. There was plenty of my nose spray so I bought a six month supply, and all the other medicines had full shelves. So overall the only things in Walmart that I could tell were a problem was paper products and the 1 gallon plastic containers of drinking water, and since this is a desert its not surprising people would want to get all the drinking water they could.

I didn't see anyone wearing a face mask, but I did see one customer wearing gloves. And the employees that were stocking shelves, or running the cash registers all looked and acted normal, no gloves, no face masks, perfectly normal. Now there are no cases of the sickness in this county but the California border is only about 4 miles from Parker so I would worry about the possibility of California problems bleeding over into surrounding areas, but that's just me because like I've mentioned before I've seen what some people will do when a hurricane destroys civil order for a few weeks.

Fortunately being a loaner, and a boondocker, things haven't changed for me a great deal. I don't shop as often as I normally do and I'm staying away from people even more than I usually would but other than that the biggest change in my life is worrying about my family, I seldom worry about anything so I'm not used to feeling like this.... And I don't like it, I don't like it one bit.

                            theboondork

if you gotta camp in a tent at least this one is big and has a bathroom out back

The Arctic Fox keeping me sane at an insane time.

Instead of thinking about all the things going wrong right now I figured I would take a little time to look at the good things going on in my life, and count my blessings as it were. Since happiness is a state of mind which is largely under our control I have found that thinking about good things makes the bad things a little easier to deal with. So here are six things that's making my life a little better right now.


1---- The first thing that made me feel better is the new medicines that are coming out soon, and especially the hydroxyChloroquine thing that's being used in hospitals right now and by all indications is working great. I've looked at a lot of doctors reporting on the Internet about the hydroxyChloroquine and every one of them is either cautiously optimistic or saying it's a game changer in the fight against Covid.

2----- One of the people that's in President Trump's press conferences every day, and I believe she's a doctor, said that all the information is showing that only a tiny percentage of young children are getting the virus. And I believe she said there is only one known young person dying from the virus. That took more than a little worry off of me about my grandkids, because through this whole ordeal they have been one of my biggest concerns.

3---- I think a lot about living in a smaller RV because there's so many good things about living lighter and smaller but this is one time that I'm really glad I'm in a 30 foot fifth wheel and have a refrigerator big enough to actually stock up on some things. Yes I could self-isolate in something a lot smaller but I think it would be more difficult both mentally and physically, the Arctic Fox gives me room to walk around and that makes my self-isolated life feel more normal.

4---- There's no Covid in the County where I'm at. To be more accurate, there's no KNOWN Covid, but as we all know that can change rapidly but at least for the time being it makes me feel a little better.

5---- So far it doesn't look like the government is going to close the LTVA's where I'm at since they close anyway the middle of April. This takes a big load off my mind knowing I've got a nice place to stay with the basics of life that I need available, and it's a place that I'm familiar with and enjoy living.

6---- And last but not least, since I stocked up on things weeks ago before there were shortages I have plenty of toilet paper.

                                theboondork

I found out what's going on with the overflowing dumpsters at the LTVA's. Apparently in the governments infinite wisdom they pre-paid the trash company for getting rid of the trash this season, and since the company was already paid they do as little as possible to keep up with the LTVA's trash. I expect in another week you won't be able to see the dumpsters.

Last night's scaly looking sunset. I know it looks scaly but I can assure you no fish were involved.

I took a walk over to the building where you check-in to the LTVA and talked to the two guys that sign people in and they said they haven't heard any official word or even any rumors about closing the LTVA's. I take that as a good sign since I've made up my mind to re-up just so I can make sure I can have a place to dump my tanks and get water no matter how long the Covid problems last.

Even though I would feel safer in a location that is not so close to the big cities in California as I am now, I would feel far less safe driving from place to place and finding the boondocking spots I'm familiar with closed.

Because of the system here you shouldn't re-up until your first hitch is over because whenever you re-up that's when your new two weeks stay starts, so re-upping early makes no sense, so it looks like I'll wait till the 27th to pay for two more weeks.

                                     theboondork

My well-made, over-engineered, incredibly strong, unused fire pit. maybe I'll use it before I leave here, but I kind of doubt it because I don't have anything to burn. of course I could burn all my dirty laundry because going to a laundromat gives me the Covid willies.