I was up early taking the dogs on a tour of the local desert ecosystem. We had our breakfast then broke camp and headed into Needles to visit Eric over at Econo Smog & Tune. There was one car in the bay when we arrived so we were the second customer for the day. Eric was easy to work with, he really seems to enjoy his niche here in Needles. He had to recalibrate his equipment to work with our 14,500 lb. vehicle. He went through the protocol and Wilson passed with flying colors. Traded Eric some cash for a certificate and we were on our way over to the Needles DMV office a few blocks down the road.
Wilson takes it up the tailpipe
I had an appointment at 10:30 but it was only 10:00 when we showed up. There were only two customers in the DMV so I pulled a number and got called right up. Definitely not your father’s DMV experience. I was given some forms to fill out then the official came out to parking lot to do a VIN check. Yes, Wilson is who he said he was.
Back inside, the clerk turned us over to the lady who seemed a little more experienced with out of state registrations. She typed us in and organized all the titles, bill of sale, smog certificate and transfer of specialty plates forms. We handed her a fat stack of Benjamins and soon we were headed out the door with a clean registration and the title in the mail. Wilson is legit and can now hold his head up proudly on any street in the nation.
PJ had put some prescriptions to be refilled in at the Rite Aid next door and they were taking forever to get them done. I went to work in the parking lot attaching the plates to the RV. For the front, Ford has a funky clip in at the top and screw in at the bottom license plate hanger. I had to drill holes in the top in order to attach it more securely with my custom special hollow Allen wrench plate bolts. I didn’t have any bolts long enough to be able to hook up the Cardiff plate frames so we’ll just have to let them pass for now.
Taking over the Trust mantle from Lexi
We set up a day camp in the parking lot and made a couple of sandwiches and hung out waiting for Rite Aid to get the meds in order. I walked over to the Autozone and picked up a visor pocket so I can keep all of our registration papers up behind the visor. Our prescriptions were ready and we headed over to make a quick stop at the post office to mail a letter. When I pulled up to the curb, I got hung up on a street sign that was hanging out into the roadway. One of those diamond shaped yellow ones. I don’t even remember what it was for. It drug down the awning then when I pulled away it scratched the decal on the upper back. PJ was super bummed and was berating me for my poor driving. Not the better part of our day.
We decided to just slow things down and stay in the neighborhood and destress for a day or two. We grabbed a spot at desert view which has large oleander hedges between each site providing a cozy little nest to hide out in. The place is mostly seniors, many of them snowbirds who come down to warm themselves in the desert during the cold winter months of their homelands. So it’s nice and peaceful.
We got set up and rolled the awning out to inspect the canvas. It escaped any serious damage. The only scars are the small scratches on the decal and along the fiberglass in the upper right rear wall. Wilson picking up his first road souvenirs. As long as the awning was out, we decided to relax in the shade. Quiet peaceful afternoon. As the day wore on, PJ decided to test the air conditioner while I went over to check out the pool. Nice and clean although there was quite a few drowned gnats floating around on the surface. At least it wasn’t greened out like it was last year when we passed through. Also, today’s 80 degrees was a whole lot better than the 115 we experienced on that visit. I was the only one at the pool and I relished the quiet and soaked in the water clearing my mind of all the tension that had built up over the past few days.
Geese heading out of town
When I got back to the camp, PJ was on the phone with her friend while I sat out on the porch with the hounds enjoying the cooling temperatures of the early arriving evening. The sun slipped behind the mountain at 4:40 and we took it easy from there.
Heart on the Wing 