Do you want an off the beaten path road trip? Take a section of old RT 66 that takes you up a 2 lane mountain road, to the old mining town of Oatman, Arizona.
This old town is in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, Arizona, USA. It began as a small mining camp soon after two prospectors struck a $10 Million gold find in 1915.
During the warm months of the year this is a tourist destination complete with people from all parts of the world unloading off tour buses.
I was here just after Thanksgiving and the weather was chilly enough at lower elevations. Up the mountain east of Bullhead City, Arizona and about half way to Kingman, Arizona, it was down right cold.
Though the shops were open the town was kind of dead. Nothing like the stories I had heard of hoards of tourists. I think I was greeted by more burros than humans. On this chilly morning I thought someone should definitely open up a highly visible coffee shop. No Starbucks to be found up here. No real indication a hot cup of brew could be found.
I had a blast with my camera and actually appreciated the fact the cold was probably keeping people away. The whole town is a photographers dream.
The are the old buildings, hotel, etc. Now a bar, eatery, antique shops, and the typical place to see wind spinners, hanging crystals, and tie dyed shirts.
To me, the main attraction was the overly friendly burro’s that seem to own the town. Persistent adult burro’s that walk right up. To the more timid baby’s that have stickers on their foreheads stating “Don’t feed me I am still nursing’. They were incredibly cute.
There is old iron, vehicles, bottles, and signs. Many places look run down. Over on a hill in the distance you can see broken down mining structures. Off on another hill a huge rusting steel tank that appears to have held water at one time.
Don’t expect cell service most of the time. But the drive up the western slope of the mountain was beautiful in the early morning light.
I didn’t stay long since I was in shorts and a sweat shirt. I will definitely be making a return trip in the coming year. This trip was more of a recon mission to find where Oatman was. To get the lay of the land to return and do more photography. I can see I need to dedicate a whole day to this location.
When: Feb 10-12, 2017
Where: Boulder Beach Campground-Lake Mead, Boulder City, Nevada.
This is a family friendly weekend. While we do partake in adult beverages, if you are not well behaved around other people, kids, and our grandmothers, please seek out another event. 🙂 We don’t tolerate rowdy or loud types that may bring other camper complaints, ranger visits, and situations that will result in being asked to leave.
This is a no cost involved meet up. Other than your own travel expenses, National Park entrance fee’s and National Park campground fee’s. We collect no money.
Saturday Potluck attendance is optional but if you attend we please ask you brings some type of food to be shared. Anything such as a main dish, side dish, appetizers, chips, salad, etc.
Also be sure to bring firewood.
Disclaimer: We hope we have the moon timing correctly plotted for the area 🙂
Are you a photography buff wanting to photograph the moon rise? Want to camp? Enjoy a potluck meal? Or sit around a campfire?
Secure your own camping site in the dry camping area of Boulder Beach Campground inside Lake Mead NP, near Las Vegas, Nevada. These dry camping sites are not open to be reserved in advance. But this time of year there should not be a problem with availability.
RV sites with full hook-ups are available in an area adjacent to the dry camping sites and I believe you can reserve these in advance..
Dry camping sites are first come first served and all attending must make their own arrangements to secure their site and pay directly to the park. This is in the Lake Mead National Park. There are entrances fee’s at the Park main gate even if you come in for the day. Annual, senior, and other passes may reduce your entrance and camping fees. The group meet up does not charge any additional fee’s.
Some will be in trailers, camping out of their vehicles, in tents, and RV’s. RV’s can set up in the dry camping sites if you don’t need full hook ups and want to be closer to the group.
There is a Full moon, moon rise timed with sunset Friday evening. We are combining this photo op with Camping all weekend. We will be on the western shore of the lake. There is an open area that offers full view of the lake and distance mountain peaks across the lake to the east.
We are putting together a very informal group Photography, Moon viewing, Dutch Oven Potluck, & Die Hard Camping Event for this February 2017 Weekend. You can interact or not, as much as you wish with others attending. On Saturday afternoon we will have a Potluck meal get together in the dry camping area.
Camp with us for the weekend or come out for some photography. If you can’t camp all weekend, at least bring a chair and your hot chocolate or favorite hot beverage to share the evening campfire. At a minimum don’t miss the potluck. We are close enough to Boulder City, Henderson, and Las Vegas that some may just want to drive out during the day or evening? Since this is one of the cooler months I expect this group to be rather small.
Contact me if you want an invite, or view the details. The event is set to private in Facebook. I will have to send you an invite. Email to: info@toponautic.com (In the subject line type: ATTN Rick I want in on Shoot the Moon) If you don’t hear back within 24 hrs please attempt another contact.
Some of our regular member campers and Dutch Oven Cookers are already invited. This is camping, Potluck Dutch Oven Cooking (other cooking techniques gladly accepted).
This time of year in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, the weather can be nice or on the cool side. Prepare accordingly. Bring firewood for evening campfires.
For a personal invite and access to more details on our Facebook event please email: info@toponautic.com In the Subject line of your email type ATTN Rick:Add me on Facebook/Shoot the Moon . I will have to send you a FB friend request. Once you approve it I will add you to the event. If you don’t see it happen please send me another email and let me know.
We charge no fee’s to attend this group event. This is just an informal gathering of like minds taking care of their own arrangements. (you do have to make your camping reservations, pay that to the park, as well as park access fee’s)
Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.
Combine 1 cup water, vinegar, and vanilla. Whisk together. Just prior to combining the liquids to the dry whisk the beaten egg into the water vinegar/vanilla mixture. Whisk quickly then immediately progress to adding to the dry mixture.
Pour the mixed liquids into the well of the dry mixture. Stir well with a whisk until combined.
Stir in Chocolate Chips.
Add in the oil/melted butter mixture. Stir until combined.
Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups, and coat liners with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.
This is a simple effective means the restore the use of bad NiCad batteries you might otherwise be throwing out or dumping in the recycle bin. This is for the 18V Dewalt NiCad batteries. I do not know about any other types or voltage differences.
Let me state that as with any DIY project you assume full risk and responsibility of your own safety and of those around you…and any damage that may result. This could be risky or dangerous. Though it has not happened to me there is the potential of a battery exploding. At a very minimum make sure you are wearing safety glasses and that no one else is in the near vicinity. Safety should also apply to any pets.
I found this process on a youtube video after I went to a local HD store to replace the 18V XRP batteries I use in my cordless drill. When I saw the price tag of $89 each I thought I better investigate. Wow… they took a big price jump since I last bought one….I am beginning to think they were mis-marked? Amazon has them for $49 or a 2 pack for $70. No-name brands that fit for $27.
The high priced one was what spawned all of this.
I knew I had 2 batteries sitting on my workbench that would not charge. Read with a digital volt meter the bad batteries read 0 Volts. I reversed the leads. Nothing! The same nothing……0 Volts. I couldn’t even determine the polarity of the battery connectors. Luckily I had a third battery on hand that still worked.
While I saw there are several methods of rejuvenating the NiCad batteries, the method using a wire feed welder appealed to me. It was simple, easy to set up, and I had the welder. Best of all it worked. Though no one explained the theory I am assuming the various methods all use a higher DC voltage, and a way higher amp source to perform the magic. All methods pulse the voltage through the battery you are trying to restore.
You will need a couple slide on terminal connectors to fit the terminals of the battery. Crimp them on some short pieces of primary #10 copper wire. Strip the other end of the wires and twist a loop in the end of each. I used red for positive and green for negative/ground. Depending on your battery connector style you might have to get creative to make connections. Alligator Clips or something else might work?
Determine the polarity of your battery terminals using a volt meter. Mark them with a sharpie.
Open up your wire welder (you do need wire loaded in the machine and extending out through the welder nozzle handle tip).
Loosen and drop the wire tension knob inside the welder to prevent the wire from feeding
Dial the wire speed to “off” or to the lowest possible setting
Set for the highest heat.
Turn welder power on and click the weld/feed button on the nozzle handle and make sure wire DOES
NOT feed
Use a Volt meter between the welder ground clamp and the tip of the wire to check polarity
You will have to trigger the nozzle button to see voltage flow. Make sure you know your
meter lead polarity. If the meter goes negative, or reads negative, reverse meter leads.
In most cases the welders grounding cable clamp should be negative.
In most cases the wire sticking out of the welders nozzle handle will be positive.
But know for sure before proceeding because you have to connect with correct polarity
Plug the made up wires onto the battery.
Connect the welders ground cable clamp to the matching polarity on your battery. Let is hang there. In my case my welders ground cable clamp read negative with the volt meter. So I connect my welder ground cable clamp to the negatively connected wire of my battery.
Next you have to pulse the voltage through the battery. Depress and Hold the trigger on your welders nozzle handle. This energizes the wire sticking out the end of the nozzle you would normally weld with. If you are set up correctly the wire is not feeding out the tip. Make sure you do have about an inch of welding wire hanging out the end of the nozzle.
While still depressing the nozzle button so there is voltage, Tap or quickly drag the welding wire onto the other lead of your battery. In my case I am tapping this on the positive wire. You want to do this in such a way the welding wire does not start welding and bond to your battery wire. You will, and should, see a spark. Tap about 25 times rather quickly. Stop and feel the battery to make sure it is not hot. Repeat another 25 taps. Again feel the battery for any excessive heat. If not hot proceed with another 25 taps. At this time you would have tapped about 75 times total. Remove the welder cable clamped to the battery. Read the battery with you volt meter. If it worked you should be reading 16 to 18 volts.
If the battery reads lower you may need to tap it with the high amperage welder juice another set of 25 taps.
Once you have the battery in the 16 to 18 volt range, let is rest for 15 minutes.
Once that battery has rested for 15 minutes put your battery in its normal charger over night. You may find you brought your battery back to life. So far I am batting 100% on the restorals.
One of the few old White Company Red Buses (a.k.a Red Jammers) found in Glacier NP – Montana. Interestingly:
The “Jammer” name came from the sound the un-synchronized transmissions made when shifting gears.
The White Company at one time produced passenger cars that ran on steam. Around 1911 they converted to producing gasoline engine cars.
These old Red Buses were first introduced in Glacier NP back in the 1930’s.
Volvo ended up purchasing the assets of White, when White went out of business. Volvo is now part of the Ford Motor Company. Ford Motor Company a leader in alternative fuels took a special interest in renovating the vintage Glacier Park vehicles back in 2000.
The fleet of 33 Red Buses now run on clean burning LPG (Propane). The original carburetor gasoline engines were removed and replaced with fuel injected 5.4L bi-fuel engines capable of running on either gasoline or propane.
Transmissions changed out to modern automatics.
The chassis was removed and replaced with a modified E-450 chassis.
The original brake system was replaced with a production 4-wheel disc ABS system.
The windows were replaced with modern safety glass. The external lights were brought up to current standards.
The Desert Southwest offers some diverse scenery. While most of the year that days are hot and sunny, there are cooler periods. On occasion we are blessed with delightful rain. While these rains can sometimes come down with such intensity they become deadly, they also transform the stark landscape into something of beauty.
I live on the western edge of Las Vegas, Nevada. Further west of us is a rugged mountain range with peaks that exceed 10,000 feet. At the foothills of this range is Red Rock Conservation Area. The lower levels are desert. From the desert floor there are giant clumps of sandstone jutting up hundreds of feet. Sandstone walls of the Keystone Thrust, rise up from the valley floor up to 3000 feet. Just behind them, the mountains.
I was watching the rain pouring on the mountains the other day and decided to drive up to Red Rock to enjoy a different kind of experience. One of the rain and water flowing, rather than the normal dry, and unforgiving terrain.
Since this was the early part of May and we have had rain more than the past many years, the cactus, plants and bushes were in full bloom.
While not the optimum conditions for photography everywhere I turned I saw different colors. The rain started again and I had to keep the gear dry. So I popped back in the vehicle and enjoyed it and the drive out of the park.
