To caulk or not to caulk? That is the question.

Not many pics to click today I'm still resting up from my hectic balloon rally days.

Rain clouds over Ben Avery gun range.

Looking at some future weather forecasts around the Arizona area, I've noticed more rain predicted than I'm used to seeing. And since winter moisture is the key to Spring flowers, it makes me wonder if there may be a Super-Bloom of desert flowers in the Spring. That would be great if it's true, but other things have to happen to cause a Super-Bloom, so it's still too early to tell.

The ten-day weather forecast for Phoenix has five days with around a 50% chance of rain. That seems like a lot of rain in the desert this time of year. And it still feels chillier than normal to me here in Phoenix, which could be explained by me getting older and only feeling warm enough while straddling the equator.

Now that I've rested up some from my busy balloon rally days, I need to get up on the roof of the Lance and take care of a couple of projects. The first thing I need to do is convince myself I can climb up on the roof using the factory ladder that's screwed to the back of the Lance. I've never liked factory ladders because there straight up and down and don't lean like a normal ladder. But I didn't bring my telescoping ladder with me, so I will have to deal with what I've got, and thankfully the Lance is not as tall as the Arctic Fox.

Once up there, I need to check all the solar panels to make sure their still screwed down properly, and there are some solar panel cables that are flopping around on the roof that I need to secure with  cable ties.

Then I need to check, and maybe re-caulk, any areas of the roof where water can get in, such as the gray and black water tank vents, the air conditioner, the fan vents, and whatever other holes were cut in the roof by the factory, that have been caulked previously. I have found that, unlike the Arctic Fox, which has a crowned roof, so the rain runs off of it. The Lance has a flat roof that allows water to stand in low areas, making resealing the caulked areas much more critical.

If I have the time, the ambition, and the motivation, to clean all the caulked areas of the Lance's roof, I will reseal all the factory caulking with EternaBond tape so I never have to fool with the caulking again.

I put EternaBond tape on some of the caulked areas of the Arctic Fox in 2013 when it was new, and that was the the only time I've done anything to those factory cut outs in the roof, I've never had a leak of any kind, and the EternaBond tape on the roof looks like new.

Theboondork

Boondocking at Ben Avery. There's a restroom and shower right across the street from my boondocking spot. There's about 100 camping sites in this area, and there's two other campgrounds at Ben Avery. Last time I looked there was still only three of us here at this particular campground.

Now you may ask how come there's only three RVs camped at 100 camp sites during the winter when lots of people come to Arizona? And there's two answers to that question.

One is, only shooters are allowed to camp at Ben Avery, but the management doesn't ask, nor do they have an easy way to determine, if you're a shooter or not.

The second reason is, which may help explain the first reason. Ben Avery's gun range is a state government run organization that is not concerned about showing a profit, in fact you could say, the less people camped here, the less work it is for the state employees.... So why would they do anything to cause a bunch of people to stay here? They get paid the same whether the campground is full or empty.

I think I could also make a case that an almost empty campground could require more financial assistance from the state, so the people that run this place could get more money from the state, with less work for themselves, if there's only three of us camped here.

These opinions may or may not be true, but there based on years of federal government employment.

Phoenix police fly by the gun range every now and then. The police have their own shooting range here at Ben Avery, and they often do their shooting at night under low light conditions.