We are packed and ready to go.  The first night we traveled to Willcox AZ. There is some state land 30 miles south where one can camp for free. Our first night of what is called boon docking. For those of you not familiar with RV talk, that is parking without electric or water hookups.

We drove to what seemed to be the middle of nowhere and then took a left. It was gorgeous, the moon almost full, lit up the camp site. Wow! Things looked like they were off to a great start.

Let’s have a bit of background for those who don’t know the condition of the Schmidtmobile. The gas gauge only works when the engine is turned off with the key in the run position. Silly Jeff you didn’t check your mileage towing 3800 pounds of small house on wheels. ( BTW we average 10 mpg ) Nor did this adventurous one stop for gas before driving into the middle of nowhere. Oops, you can see where this is headed.

My better half says to her self, “Let me check how much gas we have.”

“Um, Jeff.” She says, “The gas gauge is below the E”

“DOH!” Said the leader of the clan, “Tomorrow morning while you make breakfast I’ll see if I can make it back to Willcox to get gas.”

Well, thinking about: Will AAA deliver gas here? Where exactly is here? Does the cell phone work? does not make for a good night sleep. I tossed and turned till 3.

Well if you took a look at the weather in AZ it got cold. I think it got down to 47 degrees and windy where we were. It was 112 on Tuesday. That’s a drop! So we were running the heat. About 2:30 I smelled something. I bolted up out of my almost sleep. “I smell propane!” I exclaimed, waking my wife.

I heard the heater trying to light. The propane tank must be empty. I went outside and switched to the other tank. That let the heater kick on and I finally got some sleep.

To be continued