the last of Quartzsite (01-22-12)

We’ve left Quartzsite behind, and have moved to Mesa, AZ.  At least, we left most of Quartzsite behind.  It took me 4 hours to vacuum and wipe down every exposed surface, to get most of the dust out of the trailer. Not a fun task when you are doing it one handed.
   One of the sort of “rules” about blogging is that you can’t wait too long between posts.  Partly because readers get tired of checking to see if there is a new post and not finding one, but also because after a few days, you forget what you did, and whatever you did do, doesn’t seem blog worthy anymore.  Makes you start to question why you are bothering to blog at all.
Anyway, let’s see, what has happened in the last week or so….

We had a bulletin board where we could post anything we wanted other people to know about.  It was a great idea- that way no one could fall through the cracks and get left out of a field trip.

We took a group photo, which took longer than you would think, since we had to wait for the sun to be in the right spot.  We have a professional photographer in our group (thanks, Carol!!)

We went to the Desert bar with about 14 other people last Saturday.  The Desert Bar is a unique place.  We went there last year too, but there were lots of people who hadn‘t been, so we went again this year. This bar is only open on weekends, and you have to drive down a very long, windy, dusty, dirt road to get to it. 

                                                              Because of that, it opens at “high noon” and closes at sunset.

It’s mostly outdoors, although there is an interior part as well.  There is live music most days, and you can get some basic food.  The entire place runs on solar (as you can see from the picture above, they have tons of solar panels).  It’s just a unique place to go and hang out for a while.

     We went to the ghost town of Castle Dome with a bunch of people from our group. It was a small mining town, established in the mid 1800s,  A few of the buildings are in their original spot, but some were moved in from further away, and others were re-built.  It was a fun day that falls into the category of “we are easily entertained.”

   

We went to dinner on Monday with 4 other couples, all of whom own a Mobile Suites, the brand of 5th wheel that we have.  I didn’t get a picture of that because I was too busy talking.  

   One of the main attractions in Quartzsite in January is the BIG TENT, which is a huge RV show with every conceivable RV accessory you could want .  Paul and I walked most of the show and only bought some LED lights!  Wow!

We left Quartzsite to head to Mesa because we had to get new axles put on the trailer (again).  We are going to take it to an alignment shop next week to make Sure the axles are correct this time before we drive too far.

There’s one more thing of importance that has happened in the last week- my son turned 25!

Quartzsite, AZ (01-18-12)

Quartzsite is a town in Arizona….technically.  But  if you ask an RVer what Quartzsite is, you’ll probably get a different answer.  It’s more than a town, its an experience, or a feeling, if you will.  The small town of Quartzsite is invaded during the month of January by hundreds of thousands of RVers.  We all stake a small claim in the desert, and call it home, for a few days or a few weeks.  In our case, it’s our desert home for 10 days.  We are sitting here, in the middle of nowhere, with just the water we have in our tank,  and  our generators, for the next 10 days. Ok, well not exactly.  We are surrounded by our friends- about 25 of them. 

Most of us are Escapees, or full time RVers.  Some we have met before, some we are meeting for the first time.  But we all have something in common.  We are calling this little piece of desert “home” for the next few days.

.  There is a communal  campfire every day/evening.  The people surrounding it vary, but it’s there for whoever wants to sit by it.  Usually Paul and I are out there, since we love campfires, but tonight I decided I HAD to write my blog. I can hear the laughter from inside the trailer and I know everyone is having a great time.

    

The sky is so beautiful, day or night, I can’t resist taking pictures every chance I get. 

 With so many people, there is an incredible  variety of things  to do every day. We start the day with a walk at 9:30 am. for anyone who is interested. Usually I am.  An hour later, we have walked 3 miles, and gotten some cardio in (and some chatting).

Paul and Steve borrowed two ATVs and went for a ride this afternoon. I elected to be safe and not risk further injury to my wrist.

Yesterday Paul and I walked 3 miles and found a geocache.  We got back in time for the potluck supper that our group was having.

Monday we went to “Silly Al’s Pizza” for dinner.  We waited outside for an hour and a half for our table for 19 to be ready, but we were  having so much fun talking, we barely noticed the time (except we could smell the excellent pizza, so we were starving).

Well, the computer battery is dying, so  I guess I’ll have to post more some other time. ..

Benson, AZ ( 1-11-12)

First, a quick update:
We saw the surgeon yesterday and he said my wrist looks great and I can go play for a month and then come back to get more Xrays and hopefully get the cast off.  It still hurts if I try to use my hand, so my frustration level is rising.  The doctor did say I could start walking again, but no  hiking.  He’s going to give me a splint once the cast is off, to protect my arm when I hike.  Sounds good to me.

               So, we are still in Benson.  Most people don’t know where that is, hence the map. We debated moving up to Tucson, but it’s so cheap to stay here, its tough to justify the move. Plus Dave and Nancy are here, so we can hang out, and Paul has access to more tools here so he has started one of his larger projects, building a box to put the dinghy in.

 

This is Dave, Nancy and Paul, taking pictures of the sunset.  It’s so beautiful out here with the mountains in the background.  They came over for dinner and Margaritas one night, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

The sunset is pretty much 360 degrees all around us.  I didn’t take a picture showing all of it, but here is some of it.  The clouds were beautiful.

There really isn’t much going on here, and I am getting somewhat bored and therefore easily entertained. 

I shouldn’t say there’s nothing going on.   There is plenty to do here, just not much that I consider blog worthy. Tonight a Cowboy Poet is performing.  He’s good enough that he has been on NPR.  Every day at 4 pm there is a social hour, for those days we are feeling social. There are classes I could take, as well.  I have tons of stuff I should be sorting through, like pictures, but eh…..