Fun in the desert, Quartzsite AZ (01-27-11)

    I have to say that the last two weeks have probably been the most laid back and mellow time that Paul and I have had since we've been on the road.  We keep putting off a departure date because we are just really enjoying the friendship and sense of community we've had for the last few weeks.  And, we're not really in a rush to get anywhere.  We may not get to Florida as planned, since none of the kids can join us there anyway.
   Paul and I took a walk in the desert the other day, and Julie was nice enough to lend us her GPS, so we went geo-caching and found two caches out in the desert.  It was great to have a place to walk to- kept us from getting bored. We are hoping to borrow it again tomorrow to go hiking too.  My GPS is en route to Paul's mom's house, so we should have it next week.  Our mail is on its way there as well.


sharing cell numbers before splitting up to shop~

      I've mentioned that the RV Show is in town, and we've been to it several times already.  We don't need an RV, but we sure did manage to spend a lot of money anyway.  The first day, we all went to the show, and afterwards, Paul and I went home, did some research, and went back the next day to make our purchases.  We ended up with TWO generators, stabilizer bars to keep the trailer from rocking when we walk around in it, and assorted other smaller items.  We got two 2000 watt Yamaha generators because they are lighter weight than one BIG generator, we can use just one if we want to, and we can "tie" them together to make a more powerful generator when we need the extra power. They are so much quieter than the one we had (anyone want to buy a perfectly fine, but pretty noisy, generator?)!!





dinner in the desert

        Several times this week we've had dinner outside together- unless the wind is blowing- and most days in the morning, we sit outside and chat and share our plans for the day.  Sometimes we do things together, sometimes we don't.  Today Paul and I went to a nearby town to do some laundry and  buy some groceries. He is outside right now, tinkering with the generators, trying to determine where he'll store them when we're not using them.


a "house"full of friends!

       Last night it was chilly, and the wind was blowing, so after dinner we all congregated at our place.  We had some kind of Irish drink that Julie and Nancy brought.  I forget what its called but it sure was good.  Maybe that's why I forget what it's called.  It had Frangelico and Baileys, and everytime my cup was empty, Dave refilled it.  wow.  It was a fun night though, lots of laughing and great conversations.
     Dozer sure had his fun the night before last.  In the middle of the night, I could hear him playing with one of his toys, running around the trailer.  When I got up, Paul said he found a piece of one of Dozer's toys on the floor- the tail off a mouse.  Apparently Dozer was playing rough! However, upon closer inspection, we realized that all his toys still had their tails, and the tail Paul found was from a real mouse.   Apparently he got away, since we found no other evidence of a mouse, and Dozer sat waiting by the heat vent for a few hours, waiting for his buddy to come back.

More desert, and a Desert Bar (1-23-2011)

     Our new desert home is located in the town of Quartzsite, AZ, about 90 miles from where we were in Yuma.  We got here Friday and are parked next to Julie and Mike, who were with us in Yuma.




 

parking in the desert

     Quartzsite is a quirky town.  I am assuming it gets its name from all the quartz there is in the area.  It's a rock hounders paradise and there are a lot of rock and quartz shows based here.  Every year, during the winter, the population of this small town of about 3,300 swells to hundreds of thousands, as RVers swarm the area in order to be someplace warm.  About 1.5 million people pass through here during the months of January and February. Although there are several RV parks in town, the biggest draw is the BLM (Federal Bureau of Land Management) land where RVers can park for free, or nearly free.  There are tens of thousands of RVs just parked in the desert.  We are one of them.  There are signs along the roads indicating where "groups" are parked so people can find their friends.  Julie and Mike gave us directions to where they are, and we found them with no problem at all.



 



steady stream of traffic on the road to the Desert Bar

      Our first adventure was to the "Desert Bar" in Parker.  The bar is only open until sunset, and only on the weekends, and if you want a parking space, you need to be there by noon. It's  located 5 miles down a dirty dusty road, which you'd never know, based on the traffic on that little road!  What a fun place!  It uses solar power to run everything, and has a live band playing in the afternoon.  You can get food to eat, and whatever you want to drink.   It really reminded me of the Caribbean, except classier.




 



The Desert Bar

    We went with Julie and Mike and met up with Nancy and Dave once we got there.  Nancy and Dave were in Benson and Yuma with us. 

       This morning Paul and I went to the craft shows and mineral shows in town.  The "goods" are similar to the ones we saw in Yuma, with the exception of all the gems and rocks.  We didn't buy anything, but we had fun looking.  Tomorrow we'll probably head to the huge RV Show that's in town as well, not that we want a new RV, but again, its fun to look.

      I have been enjoying "boondocking" a lot more than I thought I would.  Part of it is being part of a group and having other people around.  We're not used to socializing with the same people more than once, and its been really nice to feel a sense of community.  Really, the only thing we miss at all  is TV.  We really don't have enough power to watch it unless we run our very loud generator.  Paul misses watching the news every day, and he feels a little out of touch.  We have the computer, but don't really spend much time on it.

     We have no idea how long we'll stay here, but we're not really in a rush to leave, since apparently its pretty cold everywhere else in this country!

As a P.S.,  today is my son Stephen's birthday.  I really can't believe he is 24, which really squarely puts him in his mid twenties. How did he get so old??



Stephen





Busy, busy, busy in the desert (01-20-2011)

I'm not exactly sure how we can be so busy when we are parked in the desert, but, busy we are.  I guess, in addition to busy, electricity and battery power for the computer are at a premium, so I haven't really been turning it on much.  Being able to check my email and stocks on my phone also makes it less critical to keep turning the PC on. I'll have a few things to really catch up on, once we get settled in a park again.





    In the meantime, we drove up to Mittry Lake with Carol and hiked around for a few hours.  We only got somewhat lost once or twice- it was one of those days that a GPS would have really come in handy, since the trail wasn't really marked.  At one point we thought we were almost back to the truck, and technically we were, but there was a canal in the way, with no way over it, so we had to walk around it, which added a lot more time to the hike.  We had a great time, but I think we wore Carol out!


end of the road for the bikes.

    We've been trying to stay active, so we took our bikes for a ride into the desert. Well, of course we didn't get too far.  We followed a road until the sand got so deep we couldn't ride anymore, then we explored the sand dunes on foot for a while.  It was noonish, so it got pretty hot after a while. I think it was the hottest day we've had- the thermometer read 110 degrees in the sun. 





    We've had one pot luck dinner, and have gone out to dinner once with the whole group.  So much food.  Wow. I forgot my camera last night so I am hoping someone will give me their pictures (hint, hint).  Most nights we sit around the campfire and chat, and the individuals who sit out change every night, so we've had a chance to chat with most people at length.
   Yesterday we had an outing to some Hot Springs about 30 miles from where we are.  It's on Federal land, and free to the public.  It's in an oasis, with a fence around it to protect young children from falling in.  A group of us hung out there for a while before heading back to camp. 

     I am very anxious now to get my new GPS.  I curse Best Buy for having it backordered for so long.  It would have been great to have on the hike the other day, but we also got our first taste of geo-caching, and I am really looking forward to trying it again, but I need the GPS.  Dave took us out to look for a cache that is close to where we are camped.  Basically with geo-caching, you use the GPS to guide you to a prize, which in this case, was a small case that contained paper and a pencil.  Once we found  it, we wrote our names on the paper and put the cache back where it was.  I didn't take pictures because I was so busy using Dave's GPS to find the cache.  You can go online and create a log of caches that you find, if you want, and if there is a difficult cache to find, you can read the hints as to how to find it.  Once I start doing it, I'll post a blog about it.  It's a really great way to get out and explore an area.  We had a great time finding this one, and I was glad it was relatively easy.
    Every once in a while we are really reminded that we live in a trailer.  Last night was one of those times.  The wind kicked up fierce during the night, and the trailer was rocking.  At 3 AM Paul (my hero) got up and went outside to fold up all the chairs by the campfire so they wouldn't blow away.  When he came back, we pulled 2 of the slides in, to keep the noise level down and the rocking to a minimum.  We finally got some sleep at about 3:30 AM.
 Some of the people who were here have left, and others are leaving tomorrow, including us.  We are headed up to Quartzite for a few days before taking off for Tucson.  
   I am sure I am leaving out lots of information and it sure doesn't sound like a busy week, but it has been!