Our last episode concluded on Monday, January 6th, when we moved from the Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, California, to the Fairgrounds in Indio for the FMCA Western Area motor coach rally. We only move about a mile from the RV park to the fairgrounds, so we were in and parked before noon. After we got setup we went out and did a Costco run to stock up before we leave the Coachella Valley at the end of the rally. There will be no Costco close for a couple of months after we leave here. About 5:00 we drove back over to the RV park and had cocktails and then dinner with the Babcocks and the Bullocks. We were back home by about 8:00.
Tuesday, January 7th, we were up early and out of the coach by 10:00 to go pick up Peggy and Vernon Bullock for a trip to the Living Desert Museum in Palm Desert. The Living Desert is basically the Coachella Valley's zoo and neither Jackie nor I had ever been there despite having lived in the desert for many years. We had been to events there where we were taken into the place and had dinner or cocktails in one room, but we had never actually toured the place.
The Living Desert is quite large, over 1,500 acres, and has a wide variety of animals, although the tend to specialize in those that live in desert climates. They have a North American section and an African section with most of the animals that you would expect. Although some of the enclosures are very large and nice, many of the animals are in the smaller enclosures and cages you would expect in most zoos. They also have a wide variety of desert plants in the park so it also serves as a bit of a botanical gardens as well.
They do have a good tram system through the park that makes getting around easier. You buy an all day ticket and can then just get on and off where ever something grabs your attention. As with most places like this the food was outrageously priced, but at least it was tasty. We ended up being there about five hours and had a really good time. By the time we dropped the Bullocks off at their coach we were bushed and just went home and relaxed the rest of the night.
Wednesday, January 8th, the first official day for the rally. We had a relaxing morning and after lunch we went up to the auditorium to set up our booth for the Chapter Fair. Most FMCA rallies feature a Chapter Fair at the beginning where the various chapters can set up a table to try and recruit members. We set up a table for our Full Timers Chapter, of which I am the current President. We had a few visitors and gave out several membership apps, so we will see how successful we were. We also saw a few fellow Rvers we hadn't seen in a while, which is also typical for a rally. A lot of our acquaintances we only see at rallies.
The Chapter Fair ended at 3:00 so we packed up our stuff and went back to the coach. About 4:00 we left again and drove back over to Indian Waters for dinner with Ray and Suzie and a bunch of our other friends. Peggy and Vernon Bullock had moved from Indian Waters over to the fairgrounds this morning, but they are parked in the handicap area and are not close to us. Ray was making his famous “Fireman's Taco Salad” tonight, a dish that he almost always serves at least once whenever a bunch of us get together.
In addition to us, the Babcocks and the Bullocks, we had Gary and Ramona Wilson come over from their house in Ontario. They had been full time Rvers up until this past summer when health issues forced them to move back into a house and sell their coach. Over the past five or six years we have camped with them many times and always enjoyed their company. We also had Bev and Jerry King at dinner. They are not full timers, but we do cross paths with them frequently, usually at rallies. We also had another couple, friends of the Babcocks, whom we had met once before when we visited Ray and Suzie in Menifee at their house.
We had cocktails and chatted and really enjoyed the evening. The taco salad was great as usual and everyone got their fill. When the night got a little chilly most of us went into Ray's coach and talked until about 8:00 when everyone drifted off to their own homes. We went back to our coach and watched TV the rest of the night. A great evening with friends.
Thursday, January 9th, we left the coach about 10:00 and went down to the events area to go through the vender tents. The venders opened for the first time this morning. About 1:00 we paused for a lunch break, buying some junk food at one of the food court venders. We happened to run into Ray and Suzie and Jim and Sally at the food booth, so we had lunch with them. After lunch we went back and spent another couple hours walking through the coach displays. They had quite a few coaches on display this year, many more than in the last few years. Of all the coaches we went through, even the high end luxury brands, we only found one that had a floor plan we liked and it was a half million dollar Dynasty by Monaco.
Friday, January 9th, I was up and working early to replace the house batteries in the coach. For those not into RVing, most larger motorhomes have two sets of batteries. The chassis batteries, which are usually normal 12 volt automotive batteries, or in the case of a diesel pusher like ours, two large truck 12 volt batteries, start the engine and operate the headlights, taillights, and other normal automotive functions. The other batteries are called the house batteries and operate all the 12 volt systems inside the coach itself, interior lights, appliance control boards, and other functions related to the house part of the coach. In larger RVs like ours there can be an inverter which converts 12 volt DC to 110 volt AC for the outlets in the coach when you are not plugged into a power pole. Because this inverter function draws a lot of current, most larger coaches have multiple 6 volt deep cycle batteries, wired in such a way as to provide 12 volt power. In our case we have four house batteries which are the same as those found in golf carts.
We still had the original house batteries in our coach, which were now eight and a half years old. I take care of the batteries, checking the water and connections often, but that is still a long time for house batteries. Four or five years is the norm. I finally decided I needed to replace them and had worked through our friend Barry Cohen to buy some new house batteries from a company that Barry's brother works for a battery wholesaler. I got a really good deal on some top line batteries for about a hundred dollars each, quite a bit under retail.
I was out of the coach by 9:30 and took the old house batteries out of the coach and loaded them in the car. They are really heavy, close to a hundred pounds each, but I got it done. I drove down to the gas station in Indio where the wholesaler had dropped off my new batteries, and traded them out. Because of the value of the lead in the batteries, and environmental concerns, they really charge you through the nose if you don't return the old battery, or the “core” as they call it. I took the new batteries to the coach and by 10:00 had them installed and everything working again. I hope that these will serve us as well as the originals did.
After I got cleaned up from my mechanic work we left the coach and went out to do some shopping. After shopping we stopped at Cactus Jack's in Indio for some lunch and to meet with our friend Barry Cohen for lunch. I wanted to give him the check for the batteries to give to his brother, but we also wanted to see him one more time before we left the Coachella Valley on Sunday. We won't be back here until March. We had a nice lunch and visited with Barry for about an hour or so before heading back to the fairgrounds.
Once we got back to the fairgrounds we walked around the vender area trying to get donations of products or little gifts that we can use when we do our Full Timers Chapter rally this summer in Oregon. A lot of the venders will give you little things to put in the “goodie bags” for the rally participants. We gathered up quite a bit of stuff on our first run through the tents. After the venders closed for the day we headed back to the coach and just relaxed the rest of the night. I was pretty tired after being busy all day and enjoyed just chilling.
Saturday, January 11th, the last full day of the rally. We left the coach about 10:30 and went down to the events area to get set up for our seminar. Jackie and I agreed to put on a Full Timers seminar at the rally. The Full Timers Chapter always puts on a 90 minute seminar at all of the FMCA conventions, the big rallies. To my knowledge they have never done one at one of the seven area rallies that go on around the country every year. While we were at the Beat the Odds rally in Pahrump back in October we met a lady who happened to be the seminar coordinator for the Western Area rally. We talked about doing a Full Timers seminar at the Western Area rally and a few weeks after Pahrump she called me and said they had a cancellation and would I like the spot. We agreed and now we have to do a seminar.
We were pleased to see the fairly small room packed with people when we got ready to go at 11:00. There were a couple of other members of the Chapter there including Jim and Pat Goetszinger, and Ray and Suzie Babcock. Jim told me later he counted nearly 90 people in attendance. Jackie and I did a tag team type presentation and shortened the original 90 minute talk into about 45 minutes to leave time for questions. We had a number of questions and most everyone stayed until the end of the seminar. All in all I think it was a success. We had a bout 30 people sign up for more information and a couple of people joined the chapter as new members.
After the seminar we spent a couple of hours making one last pass through the vender areas as well as going through a couple more of the coaches out in the coach display area. We went back to the coach about 3:00 or so and rested until just before 5:00 when we left and drove to a Chinese restaurant in Indio to have dinner with friends. It was us, Ray and Suzie, Jim and Sally, and Bev and Jerry King. The Bullocks were going to come, but they were having some work done at their coach which hadn't been completed yet, so they had to stay there. The dinner was very nice with some great conversation. The food was good, to me not the best I have had, but at least it was menu and not a buffet.
After dinner we went back to the fairgrounds and since it was only about 6:30 we decided to go to the evening entertainment, a rock and roll group called the Boomerama Blast and were supposed to be doing 50's, 60's and 70's music. Since that was our era we thought it would be fun. We sat through the closing ceremonies for the rally as they gave out awards for the parade and other things and then the group came in. It was three guys and a gal, all from Sedona Arizona. The three guys played guitar and the gal was a singer and beat on a box she was sitting on and banged a tambourine. No drummer, no bass player, just three lead/rhythm guitars. They all played sitting down, so they looked like a high school jazz quartet and they had very little personality. The three guys were decent guitar players, but the singing was pretty iffy in most songs. People started leaving after the second song and we finally left about half way through. Not the best choice to entertain for a group that is predominately baby boomer age. We know and like the music and like to hear it played well. We went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Sunday, January 12th, moving day. We were packed up and ready to leave the fairgrounds by about 9:30, heading for Ehrenberg, Arizona, about a hundred miles east of Indio, just across the Colorado river from Blythe, California. When we went to hook up the car for the trip the transfer case would not go into neutral and displayed an error message on the dash. Not good. This meant we couldn't tow the car until we took it to a dealer to get it fixed. I had read about this problem a few weeks ago on some Monaco chat group sites. Back in the summer we received a recall notice from Chrysler about having to do a minor reprogram of the transmission computer. The recall was required by the Feds because of complaints about the electronic transfer cases slipping into neutral by itself and causing the car to roll away when parked. With a four wheel drive the car will move even if the transmission is in park if the transfer case is in neutral. That's the reason you can tow these vehicles with all four wheels on the ground, know as “four-down” towing.
We had the recall done in October when we were in Pahrump and didn't think any more of it until a month or so ago when I started reading on the blogs about many, many Jeep owners not being able to shift their transfer cases after getting the recall done. Digging into the matter, it seems that the actual cause of the problem with the transfer case was a circuit board that was breaking. When it broke it would sometimes actuate the solenoid that pulled the neutral lever, shifting the case into neutral. The Feds made them do a recall, but only required that they address the complaint issue, the cars go into neutral and roll away. Chrysler did that with a cheap, software fix that disabled the functions of the transfer case if it detected a fault. So instead of having to spend a couple hundred dollars to replace the circuit board, they spent a couple dollars to do a quick update in the computer. When the board fails later, the owner is now saddled with the expense of fixing the problem. Typical big business action.
Anyway, we are now victims of Chrysler's scam, so Jackie had to drive the 100 miles from Indio to Blythe, following behind me in the coach. There is a Jeep dealer in Blythe, so I hope we can get the problem fixed while we are there for our two week stay. I also hope that our extended warranty on the car will pay most of the cost of the repair, which I understand can run close to a thousand dollars. Yikes.
We got into Ehrenberg about noon even with me stopping to get fuel for the coach and to fill the propane tank. We are parked right next to Peggy and Vernon Bullock, who will be traveling with us for the next couple months. We are here for two weeks before moving on to Yuma and are looking forward to a relaxing and fun time. After we got all set up we didn't leave the park, just rested. Peggy and Vernon came over for evening cocktails and dinner and Jackie fixed chili relleno casserole again, which was great. Everyone loves that dish. They left about 8:00 and we watched TV the rest of the night.
Monday, January 13th, we left the coach after lunch and drove into Blythe to do our laundry. The park has a laundry room, but we do two weeks at a time and don't like to tie up all the washers in the smallish laundry rooms that RV parks have. There is a fairly nice laundromat in town and we got all our clothes done in a couple of hours. After laundry we drove back to the park and did a few things around the coach. Later in the evening we had cocktails and dinner with Peggy and Vernon again, this time in their coach. Vernon cooked some kielbasa on the grill and Peggy made beans and macaroni salad. Another great meal with friends. We went back to our coach about 8:30 and stayed in the rest of the night. We are still getting used to the time change. We lost an hour going into Arizona, but we are only a hundred yards from the border, so we still feel like we are on Pacific time, and the skies still look like Pacific time.
Tuesday, January 14th, I left the coach about 9:30 and drove into Blythe to have the Jeep dealer look at the transfer case situation and get it fixed. After about 90 minutes the service writer came out and told me that there is a fix to the problem, but that parts were not available. He had no idea when the part might become available, but did tell me that he had one other customer who had been waiting a month. Fortunately, our car is drivable since the transfer case is “stuck” in the normal high range. For those people I have heard about who's got stuck in neutral or low 4wd, they are out of luck. They cannot use their vehicles at all. I would guess we will end up having to deal with the Jeep dealer in Yuma after we move there in two weeks.
After the dealership I went back to the coach, had lunch, and then Jackie and I went back into town to the grocery store. After our shopping we went back to the coach and stayed around the coach doing chores and such for the rest of the day. We had cocktails with the Bullocks, but dinner on our own and then watched TV the rest of the night.
Wednesday we left the coach about 10:30 to go out and do some geocaching with Peggy and Vernon. We have cached this area quite a bit over the last few years, and there is not a big caching community out here. As a result, there were very few caches that were close to Blythe, everything was scattered and miles outside of town. Nonetheless, we went out to clean up a few of these. We ended up driving probably a hundred miles in total and managed to get six new finds before we finally quit about 2:30. Not a real good hourly average, but we had fun. The Bullocks ended up with eight finds, because they had not cached in the area for a while, so there a couple we stopped at that were new only for them.
After caching we went back to the coach and chilled out for a while before cocktail hour. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon on the patio about 5:00 and later BBQed some steaks on the grill. Jackie made some wasabe cole slaw and Peggy made potatoes. We ate at their place and had a really good time. We went home about 8:30 and watched TV the rest of the evening.
Thursday was, for the most part, a stay at home day. We did go out around noon for lunch in Blythe at one of our favorite little Mexican places, Garcia's. It is not a very big place, maybe a dozen tables and booths, but the service is great and the food is very good. We met Peggy and Vernon there and a very nice lunch. After lunch we made a quick stop at the nearby dollar store, then drove back to the coach. Peggy and Vernon had a few other errands to run in town. Jackie and I did some chores and spent the rest of the day in the coach. We had cocktails with the Bullocks at 5:00, but didn't have any dinner since we were full from the big lunch.
Friday, January 17th, we left the coach about 10:30 with Peggy and Vernon in our car, and drove to Quartzsite, Arizona. I have talked at length about Quartzsite in other blog entries since we come through here every Spring. It is a small town of a few thousand people much of the year, but starting in December it swells to a hundred thousand as thousands of RVs come into the area. There are dozens of RV parks in and around Quartzsite, but the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land surrounding the town hosts the majority of the RVs, which just camp our there without utilities, boondocking, as it is known to the RVers. There are not as many in recent years as there were say ten years ago, but there are still many thousands who come to spend all or part of the winter in the Arizona desert.
We come to the area this time of year because the third week of January is when Quartzsite is home to the RV show, where they set up a huge white tent, as big as a football field, where hundreds of venders sell their RV related wares. The show opens on Saturday and runs all week, and we will probably be driving in for that later in the week. Today's trip was to meet some friends for lunch and then do some geocaching.
Some friends of ours from the Sacramento area, friends we actually met thorough Peggy and Vernon, are camping in the desert north of Quartzsite. We have camped out there on a couple of previous occasions, but decided to stay in a real RV park this year. Curt and Sharon Minard, Curt's brother Ray and his wife Del, Curt and Ray's mother Millie, and another couple were all going to meet us for lunch at a place called the Grubstake, on the north end of town. The Grubstake is famous for their fish and chips and is a very popular place in Quartzsite. We have eaten there many times over the last ten years and really liked the food. Two years ago the place changed owners and, in our estimation, the quality of the food and service have gone downhill badly. Last year we Jackie and I went there and, although the fish we had was excellent, the service was awful. We decided we would give it another try since everyone in the expected party had eaten there before and liked the place.
We arrived in town a little early, so we did a couple of geocaches in town before going to the restaurant. When we did arrive we found that the rest of the group had just arrived and were in discussions with the wait staff about seating. There were eleven of us in the group and we wanted to push two tables together to accommodate the large group. The staff was adamant that this was not permitted and we would have to break the group up to sit at different tables. Now keep in mind, we were there early and there were no other customers in the restaurant at the time. The lady who said she was the manager actually got angry at us for wanting to move the tables and when asked, would you like us to leave and go somewhere else, she responded yes. That was really shocking to us, but we did all walk out, get in our cars and drive down the street to another restaurant. I would guess that they probably lost a couple hundred in revenue by being stubborn about moving tables.
We ended up at a place called the Quartzsite Yacht Club, a funky little bar and grill on the main street. We had never been there before, but some of our group had been. Most of us still ended up with fish and chips and we had a great time. Our server was the son of the owner and was both gracious and entertaining. We were able to pull tables together to accommodate our group and we had a wonderful lunch. I would have to say that the fish and chips were probably not as good as what we used to get at the Grubstake, but the way we were treated there negates any thought of ever going back.
After lunch the four of us said goodbye to the rest of the group and headed off to do some geocaching. We will probably see most of the group again in a few days, either here in Quartzsite when we come for the show, or in Yuma in a week or so. We did our geocaching on a dirt road that ran northwest of town, out to an old mining site. We did what is called a power trail, which is a series of caches, hidden by the same person, most of which were only a tenth of a mile or so apart. The series was called Quarry Quest, because the road led to an old quarry, and they were numbered A through Z, but using the military phonetic alphabet, i.e., Quarry Quest Alpha, Baker, and so on through Zulu. We also picked up one additional cache which happened to be along the same road, giving us a total of 30 caches for the day and bringing Jackie and I to the milestone of 6,100 finds. Yea! We got the last cache at about 3:30, so we left the area and headed back to the coaches in Ehrenberg.
We later had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon but no dinner. A little before 7:00 we went down to the clubhouse for karaoke night. We ran into several other couples there that we knew, most from other stays in RV parks over the years. We had a great three hours of karaoke, with a fairly small rotation of only seven, so I got to sing about six songs. Peggy and Vernon even came down for a couple of hours. We got back to the coach a little after ten, watched a couple TV shows and went to bed. A great day, lunch with friends, a lot of caching with friends, and then karaoke with friends. Life is good.
Saturday, January 18th, we had another stay at home day. Got a few things done around the coach, wrote some emails regarding the Jeep problems, and generally relaxed. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and then dinner in our coach. Jackie had a crockpot recipe going most of the day with beef and broccoli. It was pretty good, kind of Asian in character. Peggy and Vernon went home around 8:00 and we watched TV the rest of the evening.
Sunday we had Peggy and Vernon in the car with us and were on the road by 10:30, headed north to Parker, Arizona. Parker is a smallish town on the Arizona side of the Colorado river and represents the only place to cross the river between I-10 at Blythe and I-40 at Needles. It is also where the railroad line crosses the river. Although Parker is about the same size as Blythe, it is more vibrant and active because that stretch of the Colorado is a prime water recreation area. There is also a big Indian casino in town and it is the closest place with a Walmart to where we are staying.
Parker is about 45 miles from Ehrenberg on a decent two lane road that runs up through the middle of the Colorado Indian Nation. It took us about an hour to get to Parker and our first stop was the El Serape Mexican restaurant. We first discovered this place about three years ago when we came up here, also with Peggy and Vernon, to shop at the Walmart. We thought the food was wonderful and we wanted to go back. Peggy and Vernon have been here a couple times since their first visit and said they have never been disappointed. The restaurant did move to a new location, but they had been to that place too, so they knew were it was.
As before, we were not disappointed by the food. It is pretty standard Sonoran Mexican fare, but spiced up a bit and very tasty. It is also very authentic, with all white cheese and no shredded yellow stuff. It was a Sunday and the place was fairly busy, but I did think the service could have been better. The waiter was not friendly and not very attentive. Had to flag someone down to get more water, chips, salsa, that sort of thing. But I would still go back and give it a good recommendation based just on the food. The original had been to meet several other friends there, but yesterday everyone else opted out, so it was just the four of us.
After lunch we headed off to our true destination and reason for coming to Parker. Peggy and Vernon wanted to “introduce” us to The Desert Bar. They had been taken there by friends a couple of years ago and they wanted to take us out there for the experience. The bar is only open Saturday and Sunday, and only from noon to sundown. It is located on the site of an old copper and gold mining claim in the Buckskin Mountains north of Parker. It is six miles on a dirt and gravel road from Arizona 95, which runs along the river, and the road runs right into the mountains, climbing up hillsides, dropping down into canyons, and running along ridge tops. Since you can only go about 15 or 20 mph without shaking your teeth loose, it seems like the six miles takes forever. Finally you turn a corner and drop into another canyon, and there on the hillside in front of you is a very strange sight.
The inside of the saloon now boasts many vintage and one-of-a-kind features. Its windows are made out of old glass refrigerator doors, the bar stools are hand welded steel, and the ceiling is made of stamped tin. The compound is completely off the grid with it's own well and solar power. It is so far into the mountains there is no cell service, no internet, no contact with the outside world. It is cooled by some cooling towers that works like a swamp cooler without a fan. By wetting the pads on top, cool air falls, creating a refreshing airflow. The saloon also has horseshoe pits and a bridge to get from the parking lot to the saloon. There are also two entertainment stages. 
Another novelty stands outside of the saloon. What appears to be a “church” rises from the desert floor, reflecting sunlight from the well-aged patina of its copper roof. However, upon closer inspection one learns the church is more of a facade than an actual structure. There is no inside area. Constructed of solid steel with walls and ceilings made from stamped tin, plaques in the church bear the names of people who donated money to help build it. But no actual services are held here. It simply provides a picture perfect backdrop with “Old West” appeal. When we got there, about 1:30 or so, there was a live country band playing on one of the stages and probably about a thousand people wandering about the place. The crowd varied from little kids to senior citizens and everybody seemed pretty happy. We all got drinks at the bar and then browsed the tee shirt selection. Can't come to a place like
We also tried one cache once we got back on the pavement, but we couldn't find it. We decided we needed to get to Walmart and then home because the Bullocks' dog Belle had been inside all day and would soon need to potty. We did a quick Walmart run and were back home at exactly 5:00. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and were also visited by some old friends from Indio, Charles and Jan Alphonso. We met the Alphonso's through the Indio Elks several years before we sold our house. They had joined the Elks camping club and also had a house in the same country club in which we lived. Since we went full time we have crossed paths with them from time to time and stayed in touch through email and Facebook.
They sold their place in Indio a couple years ago and moved to a rural area in northern Mississippi, just south of Memphis, Tennessee. We have never been to their place out there, but have seen pictures and it looks very nice. They were out in Indio this winter, visiting friends and having some dental work finished up, and they decided today to drive into Quartzsite for the RV show. When they learned we were staying in Ehrenberg they said they would stop by on their way back to Indio. We have not seen them in a couple of years, so it was fun to catch up with them and listen to some of their stories. They had a cocktail and stayed about 90 minutes before heading back to Indio. They were only driving their car, so it was only about a two hour trip from Indio to Quartzsite. After they left we went into the coach and watched TV the rest of the evening.
Monday, January 20th, MLK Day. No parades scheduled in Ehrenberg, AZ. This was a stay at home day and we both got a few projects done. I spent a few hours in the afternoon going through all my closets and drawers, getting rid of old clothing and such that I don't use or need anymore. I have to do this about every two years or the storage gets to overflowing. We had cocktails and dinner with Peggy and Vernon tonight, Peggy made a big pot of spaghetti and meat sauce. Very yummy. After dinner we watched the tele until bedtime.Tuesday morning we left the RV early, about 10:30 or so. We drove into Blythe to drop off the clothes cleaned out of my closets yesterday. There is one thrift shop in town, so they got the stuff. After that we drove into Quartzsite and met a group of friends at Silly Al's pizza place, another of our favorite eating spots. We met the Bullocks there along with Ray and Suzie Babcock and Clark and Judy McKay. The Babcocks and McKays are boondocking in the desert near Quartzsite. We had a great lunch with leftover pizza to take home.
After lunch we went to the big tent for our first run through the venders. There are about 800 venders that come out and set up booths in the big tent during the ten day RV show. Everything from RV parks and resorts to cleaning supplies to repair parts, you name it there is probably at least one person selling it in the tent. We spent a couple hours walking around checking out stuff. After we were done shopping we headed back home, stopping on the way to visit with the Babcocks and McKays at their campsite. We only stayed there about a half hour before heading home for our own cocktail hour. We had drinks with the Bullocks, but didn't have dinner other than some leftover pizza when I got hungry later in the evening.
Wednesday, January 22nd, we were out early again, about 10:00 with the Bullocks in the back seat and headed into Quartzsite for some more shopping. Our destination this morning was an area known as Tyson Wells and is a large outdoor sales area with several hundred venders. We spent about two hours walking through, buying a few odds and ends, mostly stuff for hiding geocaches. For instance, I found some inexpensive magnets which are great for putting on containers that you want to hide on metal objects. The Bullocks bought a couple throw rugs for their coach and some other small stuff too.
After shopping we went to get some lunch. We stopped first at Carl's, but there was a long wait and not enough seating. We decided to go back to the Quartzsite Yacht Club, which was also crowded, but at least we could sit and have a beer while we waited. It did take quite a while to get waited on, but the burgers we had were outstanding and the beer was good too. After lunch we went out for some quick caching before heading back to the coach. We only had time to do five caches that were in town, but it is five new finds for the stats. One of the caches was very interesting. It was at the home of a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant who has put together an ad hoc military museum right in the middle of a residential part of Quartzsite. He has dozens of military uniforms, some dating back to prior to WW-II, and hundreds of other interesting items, and not just Marine Corps stuff, although there is a bias in that direction. We ended up spending about 20 minutes there after finding the cache, talking to the Gunny and looking around at his stuff. Another example of things caching can take you to. We would never have seen this place were it not for geocaching.
After caching we went back to the coach so Peggy and Vernon could let Belle out to go potty. We had cocktails with them at 5:00 and by about 7:00 we were back in our coach. No dinner again because of the late lunch, so we just relaxed with the TV until bed.
Thursday, January 23rd, Jackie and I left the coach about 10:30 and drove into Quartzsite to visit the big tent one last time. We are trying to gather stuff, trinkets and donations, for our Full Timers Chapter rally this coming July in Oregon. We were able to get enough bags from KOA to use as “goodie bags” for the rally and we are trying to get other stuff to put into them. Most of the venders tell us to send them an email and they will then decide whether to give us something for the rally.
We browsed the tent for about two hours before quitting and grabbing a quick bite at one of the food stands. We then did a little geocaching around Quartzsite, ending up with nine new finds. About 3:30 or so we headed back home, made a quick stop at the grocery store and then back to the coach. We had cocktails and dinner with the Bullocks. We BBQed lamb chops for Jackie, Peggy and Vernon and I had a nice T-bone steak. I don't much care for lamb. Dinner was great and we sat and talked until almost nine when we decided to go home. Another great day in the desert.
Friday, January 24th, we left the coach about 10:00 with Peggy and Vernon to do some geocaching. We cached in an area just south of Quartzsite in the desert where there were a couple of cache series' laid out. All of the caches were only a tenth or two of a mile apart and we worked parts of two different series' as well as a couple of other caches that happened to be close. All of the trails and roads were pretty well traveled and easy to navigate, so time between caches was minimal. We finally quit about 1:30 because everyone was getting hungry, but in that time we managed to get 32 new finds, a great caching morning.
After we cached we went to find a place to eat. We stopped at one restaurant in Quartzsite, but there was an hour wait, even after two in the afternoon. We decided that most anyplace in Quartzsite was likely to be that way, so we just headed back towards home, crossed the river and ate at a place in Blythe called Steaks and Cakes. It's a cafe, but the food was pretty good. I had a big burger and fries with some clam chowder and I had no complaints. Everyone else had minor complaints, the toast was late and not cooked enough, the fish was a little overdone, that sort of stuff, but overall the place was good enough that I would go back.
After our late lunch we went back to the coach and relaxed until just before 7:00 when we went down to the clubhouse for karaoke. It was pretty much the same rotation as last week, with only six or seven singers, so I got in about seven songs before they closed it down around 10:00. For the most part it was a pretty good batch of singers too, so it was enjoyable listening to the singing. When we got home we watched an hour of TV to unwind, then off to bed.
Saturday, January 25th, was a stay at home day. I spent a good part of the day doing a cleaning job on the storage bays under the coach. I generally do a complete review of everything we have stored under the coach about every two years. In most cases, if there is something under there we haven't used in two years it gets tossed. I got rid of a number of things today and cleared up a lot of space down there. In two years it will fill up again, that always happens, but for now I am happy. I also spent an hour or so putting stuff away in preparation for our departure from Ehrenberg tomorrow. Jackie got some inside chores done also.
In the evening we had cocktails and dinner with Peggy and Vernon. Peggy made some tacos and some rice and beans and I made a pot of red chili. We had a great Mexican meal with friends. We went back to our coach about 8:30 and watched TV the rest of the night.
Sunday, January 26th our day to head for Yuma. We had the coach pretty much packed up and ready to go by about 10:00, but I discovered that one of the rear tires on the Jeep was nearly flat. I couldn't find any nails or anything, but I didn't want to just air it up and then have Jackie have to drive it a hundred miles on the highway. It took me about 45 minutes to get the tire changed, mostly because I have to completely unload the back storage area to get to the tools and the spare tire. We were ready to go by 11:00 and we were out and on the road.
The trip was about 92 miles and Jackie had to drive again because the Jeep is still not fixed. We can't get it into neutral to tow, so she has to follow. The trip was pretty uneventful and took about two hours. We arrived to find the Bullocks, who had left about an hour before us, parked and pretty much hooked up. Our other friends Ray and Suzie Babcock are parked next to them. All three of us are staying in Yuma at the Caravan Oasis RV Resort for a month.
I spent a couple hours getting hooked up and setting up some of the outside decorations. Jackie and Peggy went out to get haircuts. When she got back to the coach we had cocktails outside with everyone. Ray and Suzie wanted us to go out to dinner, but we were too tired. Peggy and Vernon had their grandson Troy over to visit. He is a Marine stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station here in Yuma. We had a nice chat, him being a new, less than a year, Marine, me an old timer. About 6:30 we went into the coach, had a light dinner, and then relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.
Our arrival here in Yuma marks a good point to close this chapter of the blog. We will probably get another one online in a couple of weeks. Until the next time, be safe and happy and enjoy everything life has to offer. Bye.
