24/7 Chat About Anything

[NctryBen]

Michigan State University seems to say the peak season is over a month long with some areas having issues with them through November. Again my personal experiences with them is the bites itch about a week and can easily become infected causing even more problems. Best to wear protective clothing and repellent.

I’m glad they are not typically that bad… wow… in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area they have the

I beg to differ & have spent much time in the U.P. They are bad around Memorial day for about a week & were awful when we built the 1st cabin. They may be there longer but not an issue like the week or so. https://www.visitkeweenaw.com/blog/post/bug-guide-to-the-keweenaw/#:~:text=Black flies come on the,under the brim of hats.

• Black Flies: Small, devious, and the one to watch out for most. Black flies come on the scene in late-May and hang around into July. At their peak in mid-June, these little guys can do some serious damage. They are smaller than mosquitoes yet create itchy welts if allowed to feed. They have a tendency to burrow into hair and often bite under the brim of hats. Black flies fade out quickly and can be found almost everywhere.

agreed… being a backcountry canoe guy your assessment is true.
Now if you were in the far far north… Yukon I’m talking… blackflys are what you breath…
University studies are kids who are not versed on reality yet. Haha!

 

[wayne49]

Flint hosts an amazing Youth Symphony and Performing Arts program.

 

[Gr8ful]

Well at least Flint has 1 good thing to offer.

 

[vanbrat]

I guess I had better do my best not to focus too much on it as I have more packing up to do inside my trailer. But if I do not feel rested in the early morning hours I will wait until a better day. I do not HAVE to move until the 15th. I just wanted to leave in the morning.

I know to well that tired driving is as bad as drunk driving.... I rear ended someone when i was exhausted...

 

[maki2]

No driving for me today, feeling too lazy to get in the driver’s seat.

 

[WinneNomad]

I was wondering if anyone knows how many people are still at the Quartzsite LTVA. I know the season ended April 15th but the weather still seems pretty good.

 

[maki2]

I was wondering if anyone knows how many people are still at the Quartzsite LTVA. I know the season ended April 15th but the weather still seems pretty good.

Not very many would be my guess. It is a 14 day limit out of 28 days and you have to move 25 miles away and of course there is a fee to pay. There are other nearby BLM areas close to town that have no fees. Most of the people who choose to summer in Q move into the RV parks which have very low off season rates. Then they can run AC off of shore power, have water hookups, trash and bathrooms with showers and laundry facilities.

 

[WinneNomad]

Not very many would be my guess. It is a 14 day limit out of 28 days and you have to move 25 miles away and of course there is a fee to pay. There are other nearby BLM areas close to town that have no fees. Most of the people who choose to summer in Q move into the RV parks which have very low off season rates. Then they can run AC off of shore power, have water hookups, trash and bathrooms with showers and laundry facilities.

Thank you for your information. I hadn't realized that some RVers choose to stay in Q over the summer. The temperature gets pretty hot but I guess you get use to it.

 

[maki2]

. I read you were not traveling as
too tired. This being May 2, many of us poised to jump to a cooler spot soon, as summer is near. I spend summer and fall
at 7000 ft near Flagstaff. How about you? I think you are in a class B, is that right?

No I am not in a class B. I have a small 52 year old, fully renovated travel trailer.

I spent the winter at an LTVA in Quartzsite. The wind and dust kept me indoors and my back pain kept me from getting enough exercise. A double whammy energy killer.

I moved to the high country near Flagstaff several weeks ago. This will be my 4th spring /summer/fall camping here. I come earlier and stay later than many other people typically do. I did insulate my trailer as part of my total renovation work. I also have a fuel efficient diesel heater/cooktop plus solar and battery power etc. I have no issues with frozen water lines or tanks. All water related stuff is inside of my trailer.

I have not shown very many of the renovation photos here. They are not relevant to what most people are doing for their build work. The one below is in-progress insulation work. I added furring strips on the interior of the fiberglass shell so I could add interior paneling over the insulation.

This next photo is my diesel fueled heater/cooktop. The burner is underneath the ceramic surface. Made in Finland, sold for use on boats.

 

[Happy Camper]

Maki isn't in a class B, but she's definitely in her Element when driving.

 

[rvwandering]

I deleted a series of back-and-forth bickering. I'm sorry if any other posts were accidentally caught up in the exchange and had to be deleted too.

 

[maki2]

When the weather gets warmer at the end of this month of May or in early June I hope paint at least the upper walls half of my travel trailer. Most likely 2 quarts will be enough. I will be putting on 2 coats. One quart for each coat… I hope. The upper part of my trailer has 3 good sized windows plus a large window in the rear entry door so there is not all that much surface area. I can apply the paint on my own but I might try to get a helper to make masking off stuff faster and easier. Prep work typically is more time consuming than the painting part is.

Anyway that is my major spring build project. What are your planned spring “house beautiful” projects?

 

[maki2]

Only another 8 hours to go of 50mph wind gust slamming against my travel trailer. I am looking forward to nicer weather tomorrow.

 

[bullfrog !]

It just started getting breezy here in Tucson around noon!

 

[Morgana]

Amazon sent me some stuff I didn't pay for (extra printer ink). I tried to contact their help desk but went round and round in the stupid automated chat (yes, AI -- if that's what it is -- has a way to go before it takes over the world -- unless it decides to bore us to death). If I just say fork it and keep the extras, do you think the Honesty Fairy will bite me? I don't want to get some overworked, underpaid Amazon employee in trouble either. Modern life and its dilemmas!

 

[Happy Camper]

Amazon sent me some stuff I didn't pay for (extra printer ink). I tried to contact their help desk but went round and round in the stupid automated chat (yes, AI -- if that's what it is -- has a way to go before it takes over the world -- unless it decides to bore us to death). If I just say fork it and keep the extras, do you think the Honesty Fairy will bite me? I don't want to get some overworked, underpaid Amazon employee in trouble either. Modern life and its dilemmas!

Oh you got the ink I sent you. Awesome.

 

[Morgana]

nice try send the gold leaf and antique Moroccan leather next

 

[maki2]

Sorting, packing, cleaning. Last run into town to ship out an order, fill some drinking water jugs, take out trash, etc. Then back to camp to start the hitching up process. I might wait until morning to shift to my next campsite. It depends on how tired and sore I get from the hitching up process. My back complains a lot as do my lungs from that process. I need to work a lot more this coming summer on improving my physical fitness and that most definitely includes my lung capacity! It is sadly lacking this year and made even more obvious by the change to higher elevation camping.

 

[wayne49]

Higher elevation means needing more air to get Oxygen, and more air by volume means more pollen, dust, etc. in every breath you take.

That hit me during the Lassen fire at 7,500 and above, the AQI was lower around where I was. No worry. Then it hit me, doh! Flee to lower ground!

"Be careful out there."

 

[maki2]

Hopefully there will not be a major wildfire season in the areas I like to camp in. But even if there is not there are still going to be a bunch of prepanned prescribed burns scheduled in the areas. It got smokey near the south entrance to the Grand Canyon last summer from that type of burning. So basically when it is not windy smoke is likely to be happening but it is not necessarily from wildfires.

I try to keep on top of the NFS news about prescribed burns happening by subscribing to the NFS Facebook pages for the Coconino and Kaibab forest. They have other entertaining articles about the forest on those pages.