Wednesday 22nd February – have we managed a week on budget?!

Great to be back wearing shorts and sunglasses (plus other clothes of course)!  Awoke to a lovely warm sunny day.  I set my alarm early to catch up on publishing blog entries whilst we have excellent quality Wi-Fi.  I have nearly caught up, so we are only a month behind on the blog.

We rolled out of our plot just before midday, stopping at the dump and the water hose to ensure we are fully prepared for a free night’s dry camping in the desert.  Today we will attempt to come in on budget for the week, that’s $450, for the very first time!!  We have $5 to play with and we need milks so that’s where that will be going and we will limit our driving so that we don’t go below quarter of a tank of petrol as this will ensure we can use the generator tonight for power.

As a nice little freebie, I had noticed a ‘gem’ in the AAA book we would be passing. Mission San Xavier Del Bac lies just outside Tucson and is nicknamed the ‘white dove of the desert’. Built during the 1700s, it is an impressive example of Spanish mission architecture and the internal murals and decoration is described as some of the most pristine still in existence today.  It is still an active mission today.  By way of making a donation we bought a candle for $3 to light on the altar as an homage to family on the other side of the pond and those who have passed on.

 




















We took our time having lunch in the car park before driving only ten minutes to one of the free BLM (bureau of land management) sites just to the west of Tucson.  This would put us in a prime location for the next financial week – only 25 minutes from our tourist target for tomorrow (no spoilers) and then we can hit the road towards Tombstone as soon as we’re finished there.  Knowing us, that will be closing time anyway…

Spot the Harvey...

If all free BLM sites were this friendly and plentiful elsewhere in the US we’d be happy.  It was quite a busy site, just off Highway 86, but far enough away from traffic noise.  It was a free-for-all.  Just pick a piece of land that looks relatively flat and away from others.  As soon as we pulled up a gentleman waved at us and came over to warn us that the camper nearest us had their generator on really late every night, which made him want to strangle them (his words).  He suggested another site nearer them and we dutifully moved, secretly hoping that we won’t upset him later on when we need to use our generator!  I went for a short stroll to nearby rocks to watch the swallows circling above.  Our nearest neighbours tonight are gophers.  Apart from the odd bit of squeaking they don’t seem like too much trouble.

So, here we are.  No hook-ups, no internet or any other facilities in fact, but there is a sense of security of being surrounded by fellow campers - even if the average age of everyone else around us is about 55!

But what about the budget? I hear you ask.  How have we achieved what has seemed impossible for the last month?  Well, we haven’t eaten or drunk anything we haven’t made ourselves, even coffee. We have definitely limited the mileage.  I can’t say how many miles we have done since last Thursday when we were at Grand Canyon, but we haven’t had any long days of driving at all. And we’ve had free entry into a couple of National monuments thanks to our park pass. Here’s the break-down:

Grocery shop:    $105

Camping:             $149

Gas:                       $120

Tourism:              $74

All this comes in at $448 – we’d done it! Ah, it suddenly dawned on me that I had overlooked one expense.  We’d paid $9 for Wi-fi whilst at Picacho Peak, making us over-budget by $7 – darnit!  But we can live with that, it’s the best we’ve done to date.  I guess that a budget of $500 per week between us would have been more realistic but it is good to at least have figure to try and work to!

We had a game of scrabble outside while the sun went down and had the generator on for an hour or so to charge up the battery on the motorhome and some of our electronics.  No complaints from the neighbours, so we will now happily occupy ourselves for the night with reading and listening to some good music for as long as the power allows.