Who Needs a Generator Anyway?

Arriving in Quartzsite was exciting to say the least. Boondocking RVs dotted the landscape to the south as we approached town. We drove east, past the Love’s Travel Plaza, the vendor booths of Tyson Wells and the Main Event tent and headed south on highway 95.

We pulled into La Posa West Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA), but since it was after 5 p.m. we didn’t have to check in.

That was fine with us; we had a long day of driving and didn’t feel like being too social. Instead, we found just the perfect patch of dirt to park it for the evening. After facing the passenger side of the rig to the west, we made sure we were level and set up camp just as the sun disappeared behind The Dome Rock Mountains.

We put on our jackets and took a walk around our temporary neighborhood. Generators hummed; RVs huddled together, “circling the wagons” while their inhabitants gathered at communal campfires; and couples ate their dinner propped in little window dinettes.

This was the life.

After our brief walk, and seeing everybody else in the hood eating their dinner, we figured it was time to make our dinner. We decided to heat up leftovers in the microwave. I pushed the button to start the generator.

Nothing.

I pushed it again. Still nothing. What the fark? It was working just fine a few hours ago at a rest stop in California. And it only had 5 hours on it. Frustrated, we pulled out the manual to see if it was something that was in our power to fix. Check the fuses; trip the circuit breaker; turn on the auto engine; go outside and prime it and try to manually start it; jiggle some wires.

We only got some more of what we didn’t want. More nothing.

This sucked to say the least. We needed the generator to power up our PC so that we could do some work. Our solar panel was not going to help in this situation. We were deflated and felt helpless. Knowing there was nothing we could do about it; we ate our dinner and called it an early night.

- Girl Bird