More Desert Fun (01-27-14)

Part of the attraction of Quartzsite Arizona in January is what they call the “Big Tent” RV Show.  It’s a huge temporary RV market place. We like meandering through all the vendors, although we never buy very much.

  This year the big “score” was a small but versatile table. It’s very light weight and when you take the top off, it becomes a foot rest.  I think about 8 of us in the group bought one of these tables.

Life in the desert is never boring.  A few days ago we had a pot luck/spaghetti dinner for about 40 people. 

Although it seems like lots of our fun revolves around food, it’s not always the case.  This time the meal was special because we were honoring Lee, one of our friends who had been full timing for many years, by himself. He’s now in his late 80s and still going strong.  Jeri read a proclamation declaring it “Lee” or “IYQ” (his name on the forum) Day.  It was a great opportunity for us to let him know we respect and appreciate him and his sense of humor!

Since we had everyone together, we decided it would be a good night to get a group picture. Well, tons of fun was had while waiting for the sun to dip below the horizon. It seems we lined up for the picture way too early so we had to sit for quite a while.

What a difference a professional makes! This was taken with my camera while we were still waiting for the correct sun configuration.

 

Eventually the sun was in the right spot and the official picture was taken by Carol Dwyer, one of several professional photographers in our group.








Once the sun had set Dave and Paul lit the Chinese lantern that Paul and I have been carrying around for two years.  Its kind of like a mini hot air balloon.


We all watched it fade off into the distance. 

The First Few Days of Quartzsite (01-21-14)

Quartzsite Arizona is a unique place to visit.  It’s a small desert town in Arizona, known for its quartz deposits.  In the RVing world, its known for something else though.  Its a gathering place for RVers from all over the country.  We come here in January by the hundreds of thousands.  Why? Well, pretty much to just hang out with friends, and if we’re lucky,  meet some new ones!

A lot of times when I explain Quartzsite to non-Rvers, I get a skeptical look.

That’s because when we come to the desert, we have no hook ups- that means no electricity, other than what we make when we run our generators, and no sewer- just our water tank and holding tanks.  Paul and I are on a mission to see how long we can last.  We’ve never tested it before. About a half mile away is a place we can refresh our tanks, so its not a big deal.

 

 

Its easy to do this in Quartzsite in January because it’s a balmy 70-75 degrees during the day, and cools off into the 40s at night.  No need for air conditioning. I wouldn’t want to be here in April though!


So, here are the kinds of things we’ve been doing while hanging out with our friends:


We build pathways.
I don’t claim credit for building this but because there are about 15 rigs or so in our group, someone connected the two sections with a lighted pathway.  There’s a reason that it isn’t straight, but lets just say it makes it easy to find our way back to our rig in the dark, late at night, after being at the campfire.

Speaking of campfires, we have a communal campfire available for whenever anyone feels social.  We also respect each other’s occasional desire for “down time” at our own rig.

Paul and I are sort of known for our Margaritas, so we hosted a Margarita and Quesadilla night.








 

We had a lot of help, with some people providing ingredients and other people helping to build the quesadillas.  A fun time was had by all.

Entertainment is cheap in the desert, and most evenings we are lucky enough to have a beautiful sunset to watch.

The other night was “bring your hotdog to the fire” night.  Many of us brought hotdogs to cook over the open fire. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, there are always projects to work on, as well.  Unfortunately, the day we arrived, we found that something had put a hole in our roof.  Luckily we had friends who had the patch kit we needed, and Paul was able to fix it right away.  We have absolutely no idea how it happened though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also knew that the guest bed was getting pretty uncomfortable to sleep on, so we picked up the materials to add some support  under the mattress.  Hopefully this helps, since the next people to sleep on that bed will be us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I need to get ready for the party we are having today, so I’ll post more another day.

Our New Vacation Home (01-16-14)

In between all the fun we were having rebuilding the deck, Paul and I took time out for a road trip.  First we drove up to Hemet, CA, about an hour and a half ride.  There we found the truck camper we want to buy to take to Alaska.  We made arrangements to come and get it a few days later. The camper is a 2005 Lance 1181, with one slide.
The couple that we bought it from, coincidently, are selling it to go “fulltime”.  They are buying a Mobile Suites similar to ours, and it will be finished in March.

Before we could do anything, we had to remove everything from the bed of our truck and put down a rubber mat. Taking the enormous toolbox out is never a fun project, but completely necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day we came to pick up the camper started really early.  We left before 7 am so we could get to Hemet early in the day.  Once we left there, we had a 5 hour drive to Fresno to drop the camper off.


 
It was great that both Sharon and Chuck were there when we picked it up.  They showed us how to put it on the truck and secure it- something we’ve never done before.  With about an inch clearance on each side, its a bit of a challenge!

Finally, after what seemed like forever, and was, in fact, several hours, the camper was on the truck. It didn’t look that big with no truck under it, but once it was loaded, it looked huge!!

We had called our friends Kirk and Karen in Fresno to make sure the guest room was available, and off we went.  Our thought was that we would spend a few weeks this spring setting up the camper and closing up our home to put it in storage before heading to Alaska.







  We found a good, secure storage place near Kirk’s house.  This way we’ll be able to visit with friends while we work on the camper, and we’ll have access to tools and help when we need it.
So, here are the pictures of the interior:




When you walk in the door, the dinette is on the left. There is storage under both booth seats and it converts to a bed.



Behind the dinette is the refrigerator and a hanging closet.  In the front of the camper is the bedroom, which actually has a queen size bed:





It also has a fair amount of storage ( we’ll see if I still think that once we try to load everything!) and another closet for hanging clothes.  There is also a small TV on a swivel so we can watch it from the bed or the dinette.  The camper comes with a Dish Satellite antenna, but we won’t be using it.
When you come in the door, on the right hand side is the kitchen area:





There is a double sink and a small convection/microwave.  I would have liked to have a propane oven in addition to the convection one, but at least the camper has a built in generator that turns on with the flip of a switch.

Next to the kitchen is a large pull out pantry, with lots of storage and three drawers below it:




And finally, between the pantry and the bed, is the bathroom.  One of the reasons for getting the larger truck camper was to have a “dry” bath.  Similar to a boat, bathrooms come in “dry” and “wet” versions.  We’ve had both and prefer Dry.  With a wet bath, the entire bathroom is, essentially, the shower- there is no separate shower stall. That means you have to dry the entire bathroom after a shower- a bit of a pain. We figured if the camper is fairly livable, we’ll be more likely to keep it for a few years to travel in the summer months more easily.

So, the dry bath has a separate shower stall:




And of course, a toilet and sink.  The fresh water tank is about 45 gallons and the gray and black are both about 35 gallons each.



The camper is actually pretty cool, and I look forward to outfitting it.  Decisions will have to be made as to which items we buy for it, and which we bring from our Mobile Suites. We lucked out yesterday at the swap meet we had with our RVing friends here in Quartzsite.  Someone put a Wilson Cell Phone antenna on the swap table and we were able to get it, so that’s one purchase we won’t have to make!  What a great idea that swap table was!!

We are now hanging out in the desert of Quartzsite Arizona with a bunch of friends, so I’ll soon have to find time to post about that but for now, the campfire is calling my name.

The Deck (01-15-14)

Well, first of all, this is new and somewhat exciting.  This is my first post from our new computer.  Unfortunately we still have not been able to get any information onto it from the old one, so I have none of my files, pictures or music.....yet.  We'll keep trying, but since we have now moved on and are in the desert of Arizona, internet access is extremely slow, making it more challenging.  Not to mention we are sitting in a circle of about 40 friends, which means our time  might be pretty occupied, not leaving much time to work on the PC. 

The only pictures I have of the deck work right now are the ones that were still on my camera, and the ones I stole from Amy, so I'll have to make do.  Anyway,  here's the story:

Paul's nephew Shad, and his wife Amy live near San Diego, and just bought a new house.  They had asked if Paul could add a railing to the existing deck to make it safer.  He, of course, said "sure". Once we saw the deck, he offered to  make more drastic changes. The original deck (below) stood 3 feet high, and was flush with the hot tub.  Not a great set up. 

 

Add to that the fact that the stairs from the master bedroom intruded into the yard and the whole yard looked a little choppy.

 

 

With help from his brother Tom, Shad and Amy, and everyone else who happened to be around, we lowered the deck 28 inches and moved/rebuilt the staircase so it is less intrusive.

 

 

Paul loves a project like that to work on.  It's one of the things he misses about owning a house.

Please stand by....(but here's an update) 01-15-14

Whew,  Paul and I spent the last two days in and out of stores with these logos:

Shopping is probably my least favorite thing to do, and shopping for computers rates even lower on the list!  After doing everything we could to get our laptop to re-boot, including enlisting the help of the IT guy at the campground, we had to admit defeat.  In order to use it again we'll have to Restore it, which will wipe out all of our info.  So, before that happens, we have to get the info off, and onto another computer.

Our laptop is 6 years old, so we knew it was a matter of time.

After learning more about intel processors than I ever wanted to know, we finally bought an Acer V5 touch screen laptop.

As you can see, Paul is pulling the hair out of his head in frustration trying to get this thing set up.  It came with Windows 8 and the first thing we are doing is upgrading to Windows 8.1.

It wasn't as simple as it sounds and Paul gave up because he has stuff that HAS to get done today.   I took over and have been on the phone with Microsoft for an hour.  Looks like they got it to work.  Once its loaded, we can get our stuff off the other hard drive, but for now we still have no computer.

So, what did Paul need to do that is so important?  He had to take care of this mess:

Obviously our hitch and toolbox are not in the bed of the truck.  What we DO have is tons of wood.  All of it had to come out to put the toolbox etc back.  We are leaving here Friday, so no time to relax.

Well, ok, we did take Some time to relax.

Last night we went out with a friend of mine and her husband.  I've known her since I was about 5 years old, and she moved out to San Diego a few years ago.  We had a great dinner at a (surprise!) Mexican restaurant.

Back to the truck.  We emptied the bed to pick up the new-to-us truck camper that we bought last week. We have already dropped it off in Fresno, but that's another story- one that will be told when I can post Pictures with it!  Yesterday we picked up a bunch of firewood because we're headed to the desert for two weeks.  We may have to leave some behind though.  That's a LOT of firewood!

In the meantime we are taking care of all those last minute things we need to do when we are leaving a spot after being there for a month.

We will return to our regularly scheduled blog posts.......(01-11-14)

As soon as my computer gets either fixed or replaced......

 Lots has been happening but I can't upload the pictures from my camera, only those from my phone, so I will wait to post most of what we've been up to.  Also, Blogger for iPad is terrible.

Meantime, we stopped in Los Angeles to have lunch with Jess and Geoff, who happens to be a COLTS Fan!

He served lunch on these plates.  I hope I don't get indigestion!  

The Patriots are playing the Colts tonight in the playoffs.  May the best team win!!  Go PATS!!!

Fun with Family (01-05-14)

The last week or so has been mostly spent enjoying time with family.  Here are a few pictures of what we've all  been up to lately:

    The oldest and the youngest- Great Grandma Gerry, (GGG) Paul’s mom, reads to her great-grandson, William.

Jess and Shad (Paul’s nephew) have a dance competition.

Paul and I strolled through Old Town San Diego with Jess and Gerry, and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

We invited everyone over for lunch at our place.









 

William enjoyed being pushed on the swing by nana (Sue1) while mom, Amy, looked on.

We partied hard New Years Eve, with Paul’s brother Tom and Sue1.

The weather has been so awesome that Jess, Paul and I went paddle boarding in Mission Bay.

It was a better work out than you’d think.  At least, that’s what my muscles were telling me the next day.

 

I do feel a little guilty, enjoying all this beautiful warm sunshine when I think about other parts of the country that have been enduring record cold and major snow storms.

We’ll be here for another week or so before heading to Quartzsite Arizona to meet up with our friends.