MONDAY JANUARY 21/08The wind blew hard all night & was still blowing hard when we got up this morning. In fact, it continued to blow hard all day until it finally had it's way with us & smashed our satellite dish to the ground.
Figured a drive north to the town of Parker this morning would be an ok thing to do so off we went. Bumper to bumper traffic going through Quartzsite. I'm at the point now, especially after yesterday, where I will be very happy to put the Q experience behind me for another year. It's time to see some new things, travel some new roads, & experience some new adventures.
Our drive up to Parker was uneventful & I noticed the traffic was heavy both ways. Parker is probably a nice place but it was just about as crowded as Quartzsite so needless to say, my nose was a little out of joint. A lot of RV's heading to & from Quartzsite go through Parker. Picked up some gas, groceries, & dog food & headed back to Quartzsite via Ehrenberg. Nice highway, scenic green fields, no traffic, & picturesque mountains. A much nicer drive than the crowded highway 95 we had just taken to get to Parker. Slipped into Quartzsite the back way & avoided all the downtown mess & congestion by following Pipeline road through the desert right to our campsite. Parked the car about 30 feet from the motorhome & satellite dish. Winds were still gusting & blowing hard. I was standing in the doorway of the rig when a huge gust of wind came round the car, swirling the gravel into a spinning cloud of dust like a small tornado. It headed straight for our satellite dish, smashed it to the ground, & then it was gone.
What a sickening feeling to see our precious satellite dish lying broken & twisted upon the stones. The electronic box (LNB) that relays the television signal from the satellite was broken right off the bar it was anchored to. I was convinced our internet & television days were over for sure. Kelly said, let's get some tape & fix it. Ya right!! Dis-assembled the bar from the dish & the dish from the tri-pod. Took the bar inside, got some crazy glue & attempted to put the broken piece back to-gether. After much swearing by Al, & TLC to the LNB by Kelly, we actually had the broken pieces back to-gether & holding. With a bit of electrical tape & generous helpings of duct tape, we carefully re-aligned the LNB on the bar, tightened down the one remaining screw & headed back outside to put everything back to-gether. Within minutes we had our internet working but the television was still non-operative. Noticed a bent metal bar & as soon as we got that straightened out, our television signal was fine again. WoW, we had dodged a nasty & expensive bullet. It's now after 9 p.m. & everything is still working perfectly normal. Strange huh!!
As the rest of the day dissolved into basically nothing we began discussing our departure from Quartzsite. It was decided Wednesday morning would be good because we are beginning to run a bit low on propane. We will head east on I-10. Unfortunately there is no way out of Quartzsite except to go right through Quartzsite so we'll have to endure some bumper to bumper traffic. However, we have the "pull out couch" to unload first so we'll start out early.
Overall, this wasn't one of the Bayfield Bunches better days..........maybe to-morrow.
NO PHOTOS UPLOADED TO THE WEB ALBUM TO-DAY
You guys must be fans of the Red Green Show putting your LNB back together with duct tape. Good job, guys!
ReplyDeleteJust wondered what internet satellite Armand has you on. He couldn't put our TV on our internet LNB because the satellites were too far apart. Do you have Starchoice?
Fellow Canadian, also from Ontario,
Sandra
Some days are good! Some not as great. Had one of the later myself today.
ReplyDeletethe hermit