well good morning everyone how are you guys doing eric here from nomadic fanatic
i'm starting my day off here in tater tots scooping around the uh yuma area it's my last day
my last night anyway in uh arizona where we head into california tomorrow those of you that
have heard me talk about california for years and years and years 2022 is the year of change for me
letting all my preconceived notions and bias go out the window and possibly spend a significant
amount of time here at the first part of the year in california okay so uh thanks for joining me
guys i do have to run but i'm actually on my way uh back to the courtside area real quick to get
my last piece of mail and close out my post office box up there say goodbye to everyone
and uh hit the road on for newer adventures so thanks joining me guys we'll be uploading this
video with some nomad internet link below in the video description let's have some fun today okay
of course the wind just picked up outside but we're going to stay
in tater tot i wanted to take a look at this just random structure out in the middle of the desert
long abandoned everything is boarded up on it and i believe that sign up on the corner i'm reading
that right i think it says something about oasis and i think i see a palm tree on there
so this may not have been a residential building this may have actually been some
sort of a little gas station or a little mini mart of something for whatever reason uh and
uh you may also notice that i have finally given up on growing the beard out yeah we're back to my
my normal uh trimmed up cut in look for for my beard i just know what works for me i try i didn't
even make it 60 days this time i i'm just gonna stop even bringing that up okay all right little
update here on my jack's tattoo on my leg i did finally take off the vinyl cover that was on it
and it's healing nice it hasn't started scabbing away itches like crazy though but yeah it's uh
it's it turned out really really well and it is healing really really well just itches
so yeah let's go pick up the last of my mail there and uh close out my account and say goodbye to
arizona yeah oh boy it is really windy today here uh all of my business and courtside is done now
all of my stuff closed up uh all my friends that i could get a hold of i said goodbye to
so uh with that yeah just finally made a stop here to the high jolly monument here in quartzite um hi
jolly was uh he brought camels to the southwest thinking that would be a really good idea to uh
haul freight on uh camels here in arizona back in the day and it just i think there's like civil
war times so this is where his his monument lays after he brought camels over he uh tried mining
and a few other things in the area and uh this is his resting place where his gravesite's at so
had a lot to do with quartzite and camels by the way that was a lot of fun riding a camel while i
was here in quartzsite you never know man you just i'm really glad i came to quartzsite arizona this
time i won't do it next year i will do something different next year but i'm glad i did lots of fun
um what should we i want to eat here in town i wonder if they're still doing that massive
tater tot cheesy not tachos remember tachos i'm gonna go see well guess what gringo's is still
open here and they're still doing their tachos alright guys now you know what i'm talking about
tachos there's cheese there there's cheese on top of them there's meat with the tater tots
it is ridiculous all right got my sombrero hat on now so now i can officially dig in here we go
it was awesome what that is awesome
i'm gonna miss tachos when i leave here
oh that's that mild sauce uh cleared up my uh nasals a little spicy there that's good food man
uh they're gonna be in billings this summer actually they're gonna be on the east coast as
well but they're gonna have a truck up in billings montana more on that later it's just possible i
could find myself in montana this summer but yeah as quartzite and the big tent kind of
wind down here and people start to pack things up this town will go back to normal at least traffic
wise and everything all right we'll go head back down to yuma arizona where the rv's at right now
maybe check a few more spots in california for boondocking while i got the car because it's easy
to make a u-turn if it doesn't work you know type of thing about an hour and ten minute drive uh
back down to see those kitties well i came up here to senator's wash imperial dam in california and
everything is booked i mean every single site is taken to see some friends at the start of
it over there but there is nowhere to camp over here right now on the california side
it looks like everyone who left quartzite has now dipped into the california side of blm land
so uh there's this really steep incline right here where you obviously can't camp i just parked over
to look at it so we are gonna officially start our trek over into california then
all right well i'll go back to where the rv is parked and start putting things together
i guess i'll see senators wash uh another time do you see how opie is giving me a hug
are you giving dad a hug
hopi you are melting my heart little monster and your purine
oh my gosh are you done you done totally done oh you want mores okay opie
you gotta give your sister a hug though hey hey you gotta give your sister some lemons yeah
tara opie gave daddy a big hug it was really cute you should have seen it
what do you think tara man i'm not an opie i'm a terra that's right that's right got some treats
for you guys wanna see let's go see come on that's right there's no more freebies in life
you have to fight for your treats i put them in this kitty kong
they're in there smell them if you really want treats you have to fight for them
no i'm not going to help you got to figure out on your own kitties
good luck and i'll bite you dad especially me and dad making me work for my treats and stuff
well you've been keeping me up at night opie need a little bit of help i need a little bit of help
sleeping so you're gonna work while i edit okay hey good boy that was pretty good tara you gonna
help there you go yeah you just use your fear did you get another one maybe it's too easy do i need
to get bigger treats i might need to get bigger treats yeah they might fall out of that one too
easy oh well i'll get five minutes a piece right there yeah okay okay yeah that's too easy dang it
all right hey good morning everyone it is the next day out here and going to be leaving yuma as
planned i really want to put some miles on and get about an hour into california today so to do that
we are going to take interstate 8 for a bit here and i am going to miss yuma but get a load of
these temperatures these are the next seven days here in yuma and uh oh boy for uh february that's
pretty dandy that's pretty harm and it is actually going to be similar in southern california
so put on some miles i'll get back to you once we get moving on into california all
right and off to our right the blue sign welcome to california feeling a little bit of anxiety um
i did fill up for gas at the pilot in arizona uh 354 a gallon there so we've got
500 and about 510 miles of yuma our arizona gas to start into california and then we're gonna
be struggling to find gas in california under five dollars i don't think we're gonna find it
gas prices rock it up that's one of the things that i'm a little nervous about
okay you sped up as soon as i tried to pass you that was cute uh but okay as as crazy as
i'm dreading this i'm also i'm almost sure that the next two months in california
are gonna be some of the best two months of my life i'm feeling really really confident as well
as having a lot of anxiety about this okay because a lot of rvers are not gonna voluntarily choose to
go rv and explore in california right now
so here you go guys i'm gonna take you with me and we're gonna have fun either way also opie's been
being such a good boy uh we needed to get some cat food so i brought opie to petsmart in his
buggy and he loved it we got to go see the birds hope he hasn't learned to cackle yet like cats
do when they see birds but he was sure staring at those birds and then i took him down the toy aisle
let him pick up some toys in person and so he picked out his toy and tear his toy and uh that
was a lot of fun i'm really trying to get opie socialized more so that he's not a scaredy cat so
that he's good with people and strangers and loud noises and stuff so things are going really well
kitty count opie tara i need to see you all right didn't lose any kitties good grief eric
are you serious right now are you actually serious right now eric yes i'm serious
that was weird
i should learn from camper van kevin you always lock the side door he had his steps ruined
because they the steps automatically go out when the door opens so oh bumpy sorry tater tot
well we're here we're to a place i've been before this is as far west as i've
ever been on interstate 8. this is the hultville hot springs area which has
uh boondocking ltva so this will be the last night i use my long-term visitors area sticker pass
for the season which has been awesome um look how empty this place is guys there's
no rvs out here in the front there's a couple way back there but holy cow yeah let me go find
a spot i ain't gonna have any trouble by having my privacy out here tonight that's awesome
open up some vents here i had uh stopped back there because i was gonna try to uh pop get some
drone shots pop the drone up in the air but as soon as i calibrated and everything it said that
there was an airport nearby it couldn't even take off so that's one of the cool things about dji
it's hard to get in trouble because it's literally not gonna let you fly as long as you have service
and it's connected to all the maps and airports and restrictions you're not gonna be able to get
in trouble so i wasn't able to get the drone shot but i was not focused enough about closing the
door all the way that's kind of scary but yeah oh my gosh sunshine um opie i'm gonna close this and
get some air in here we will now keep this closed all the time since hope he knows how to escape
smart little bugger probably not even going to use the hot springs this particular time i just
i just need a safe spot to uh park overnight and before we move on from this spot though i really
need to point something out how grateful i am for the sunshine uh the the the dry weather this
this past year and this summer of just non-stop rain every single day everywhere i went
drove me a little bit mad as you probably remember on this channel 2021 was an incredibly historic
wet year for me and what arizona has provided these last three months
you could not put a price on it now i i know the desert is
boring the desert's ugly it's dirty it's sandy but after what i went through last
year i am forever grateful that in the last two and a half months
it has only rained lightly twice on christmas eve and the very first day of the rtr other than that
having this kind of sunshine and weather in the 80s and no rain it has reset my soul it's exactly
what i needed and that's another reason why i'm really looking forward to the next two months in
california is that uh i can expect temperatures to keep getting warmer and more and more sunshine and
a lot less rain than i had last year so i want to be clear about pointing out how thankful i
am and happy i am and how amazing it has been to live my life without rain every single day
anyway i need a beer and it looks like my kitties want to stretch their paws tara
where you going you want to stretch your cat paws opie wants to stretch his paws too
you working on your meow still opie yeah you got to work on that little more buddy
so people have been noticing that i switched up bud light maybe it's one of the good things uh to
come out of spending all that time in courtside with other people a lot of people who used to
drink bud light in fact uh old friends new friends and everybody drinks busch light and i'm like well
i have been working for a while to get that bud light sponsorship i don't think it's going to uh
work out uh so i i tried busch light out there and it tastes exactly like bud light to me except it's
more than half the calories of a bud light sorry carbs it's got less calories but more than half
the carbs of bud light so i feel like it's it's better um also it i don't know it's it's cheaper
it's significantly cheaper than bud light and it's made by the same company anheuser-busch busch
light is a kevin harvick's main sponsor this year for the 2022 nascar number four bush light um so
cheers guys that is one delicious beverage opie double dope please what are you doing
on the counter where you don't belong tara barbara what do you see outside you want to
get into some troubles yeah well you and your brother always get into trouble don't you yeah
anyways guys i'm gonna cut this video off here in this part of california and then in a couple days
here we're just gonna continue on and remember all of this is new territory for me i've never been
to san diego in in my life and so as we follow eight south with a couple detours along the way
we are eventually going to hit the pacific ocean in san diego which i'm really excited about
but a lot of new territory here we're going to be hugging the mexico a country line the the
border there so we're going to have more border patrols and all that crazy stuff um but i do have
enough gas to get all the way to san diego i don't really worry about getting gas again
until we're closer to like los angeles anaheim i mean i'm not stopping at anaheim for anything
opie and tara and i will see in a while guys please consider giving me a thumbs
up on the video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and leave a comment
and tell me tell me how big you think opie is going to get how many pounds in two years
how big is opie gonna get let me know in the comments see you next time guys bye
you