Greetings readers and friends, welcome
back. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, January 16th,
while we were in Ehrenberg, Arizona. Sunday we left the coach after
lunch, about 12:30 or so, with the Bullock's and headed towards
Quartzsite to do some geocaching. We hit one trail along a gas
pipeline road that was based on frontier outlaws. Each cache was
named after an outlaw and the description gave a little history on
the individual. It was interesting and each cache was unique in it's
hiding, so there was a level of interest you don't get in a power
trail of one film canister under a rock after another. We were able
to
After caching we stopped by to visit
with our friends Clark and Judy Mckay, who are staying in the desert
with some friends, not too far from where we were caching. We talked
to Clark, but Judy was not feeling well and stayed in her coach. We
will be with them in a few weeks when they come to Yuma to be with
the group. We then headed home and relaxed for a bit. About 5:00 we
went to Gary and Ramona's coach for cocktails and then a nice
meatloaf dinner prepared by them. Dinner was great and we sat and
talked after eating until about 7:30 when everyone headed back to
their own places for the rest of the night.
Monday, January 18th, we
left the coach about 11:30 and drove into Blythe with the rest of the
group to have lunch at one of our favorite little home town Mexican
restaurants, Garcia's. We have been coming to this place for years
and we try to get here at least once or twice on every trip to the
Blythe-Ehrenberg area. As always, the food was great and we had a
wonderful lunch, eating probably way too much. After lunch we went
to Albertson's for a few things before heading back home. We stayed
in the rest of the day, doing a few chores and relaxing.
About 5:00 the group came over to our
coach for happy hour. After happy hour we did a BBQ with steaks that
everyone brought. Jackie had a lamb chop. We also did some potatoes
in the oven and a few people had a salad. The meal was great and the
six of us talked until about 7:30 when everyone went back to their
own coaches for the evening.
Tuesday, January 19th, we
left the coach after lunch, about 11:30, and drove to the Quartzsite
area for some more geocaching. We had Gary and Ramona in our car
because Gary had developed a bad driveline in his Jeep the other day
and didn't want to drive it until he could get it fixed. Peggy and
Vernon followed us in their Jeep. We managed to get 19 finds and one
DNF in a few hours, a good afternoon of caching. After caching we
took a drive to one of the BLM desert camping areas to see some
friends of ours that are staying up there, the Minard brothers, Ray
and his wife Del, and Curt and his wife Sharon. We found their
campsite, but no one was around. We will see Curt and Sharon in a
couple days as they are going to be in the same Quartzsite campground
as us starting on Thursday.
We then headed back to the RV park and
had cocktails at 5:00 with the group at Peggy and Vernon's place.
The Wilson's went back to their coach for a dinner of leftovers, the
other four of us put some pork chops on the BBQ and had dinner at the
Bullock's. We had a great meal and were back in our coach by 8:00
where we watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, January 20th, we
left the coach after lunch and drove into Blythe to do some laundry
and shopping. Starting tomorrow we will be in Quartzsite for eleven
days before moving on to Yuma. Any laundries in Quartzsite would
probably be crowded, so we did laundry today so we wouldn't have to
again until we were in Yuma. After our laundry was finished we went
back to the coach and I started making a big batch of chili. We had
cocktails with the group in our coach and then served chili for
dinner. Vernon made some corn bread and we had a great meal. We
visited until everyone left around 7:30.
Thursday, January 21st,
moving day. We packed up the coach and left Ehrenberg about 10:30.
I made a stop at the Flying J truck stop for propane then headed east
20 miles to Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is a small desert town
with a full time population of less than 4,000, however in the
Spring, mostly January and February, it is host to upwards of 300,000
recreational vehicle enthusiasts who come for the mild winter and the
various RV, rock and gem shows that are held, along with acres of
swap meets. Many stay in RV parks in town, but the majority dry camp
on the relatively flat desert, most of which is Federal Bureau of
Land Management land, surrounding the town.
We have dry camped for brief periods on
the BLM land, but this year we opted for an RV park in town. We
don't like to go more than a week or so, while many of the visitors
here will stay a month or more in the desert. We, the Bullock's and
the Wilson's moved from Ehrenberg to Crawford's RV park today. We
are parked next to our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock, who came here a
couple of days ago from Indio. Some other friends, Curt and Sharon
Minard, also came here today from the desert north of town and are
parked behind us. We should have a fun time for the eleven days we
are here.
After we got set up and relaxed a bit,
we did walk around one of the gem and rock swap meets that is right
next door to the RV park. It was interesting for a while, but soon
all the rocks looked alike. We went back to the coach and waited for
cocktail hour when the whole group got together outside. The group
has grown to large to have everyone inside, so it is now time to come
to happy hour dressed for the cool of evening. We visited until
about 7:00 when everyone went back to their own places for the rest
of the night.
Friday, January 22nd, we
left the coach about 10:30 and drove over to the “Big Tent” to
wander around. The Big Tent is the headquarters for the Quartzsite
RV Show and is a huge, circus like tent, probably a quarter mile long
and a hundred yards wide, full of vendor booths selling mostly RV
related items. We walked half the tent and then stopped for a lunch
at one of the carnival style food booths scattered around the outside
of the tent. We ran into Peggy and Vernon there and had lunch with
them. After lunch we finished the other half of the inside of the
tent and then had to walk around the outside perimeter because it is
all vendors also. We finally finished about 2:30 or so and made a
stop on the way home to pick up some fresh veggies at the local
market for dinner tomorrow.
After we got back to the coach we
relaxed for a couple of hours. Clark and Judy McKay came in from the
desert to visit with everyone for a hour or so. They will not be
camping with us until we get to Yuma in a couple of weeks. About
5:00 we had happy hour with the group. Another couple joined us
tonight, our friends Sally and Jim Calzada. They have camped with us
in Yuma before and are good friends with Ray and Suzie. They were
actually here for the last few days, but had to drive home yesterday
to take care of some family issues, so they were not here when we got
into the RV park.
After cocktails with the ever expanding
group everyone went to their own coaches for dinner. Peggy and
Vernon came over to our coach and we put together a quick dinner of
pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw and beans. We had a great dinner
and visited until about 8:00 when they went back to their coach and
we watched TV until bedtime.
Saturday we left the coach after lunch
and went for an hour or so of geocaching. There are so many caches
in the Quartzsite area that it is easy to get to an area with a lot
of caches pretty quickly. We got eight new finds with no DNFs in
less than an hour. We then went back to the coach and started
getting ready for the big pot luck the group is doing tonight. We
had early cocktails, about 4:00, and Mike and Darlene Neighbours
stopped by to visit. They are staying in a county park near Blythe,
but were in Quartzsite shopping. They stayed for an hour or so
visiting. They were acquainted with most of the group. They didn't
stay for the pot luck, but some friends of the Minard's and the
Bullock's did come in from the desert to dine. We wanted to get
everyone together tonight because Jim and Sally and Curt and Sharon
are both leaving tomorrow to continue their travels and we won't see
either of them for a while.
We had a great dinner. Jackie made
taquito casserole and Ramona made chicken enchiladas. We also had
rice and beans and a couple of other Mexican flavored dishes, along
with some salads. Everyone visited and talked until it got too
chilly around 7:00. We cleaned up, went back to the coach and
watched TV until bedtime.
Sunday, January 24th, we
left the coach after lunch, about 12:30, and drove to the area near
the Big Tent that is known as Tyson's Well. This is a huge swap
meet/vendor area that is always set up in conjunction with the RV
show and the gem and mineral show in January. Since today is the
last day of the RV show we knew that many, if not most, of the
vendors will be packing up today and tomorrow. We enjoy Tyson's Well
because it has a lot of the little items that you need for the RV
from time to time, stuff like bungee cords, clamps, and also some
geocaching containers at pretty good prices.
We spent about three hours wandering
around the swap meet, buying a few odds and ends, but not too much.
After the swap meet we stopped to pick up a nearby geocache and then
headed back to the coach. The four remaining couples of our group
gathered at 5:00 for happy hour and then we did a hamburger BBQ. We
all ate in Ray and Suzie's coach because it was a little too cold to
eat outside after the sun went down. We talked and had a good time
and about 8:00 everyone headed back to their own coaches for the rest
of the evening.
Monday, January 25th, we
hung around the coach until after lunch when we took the Bullock's
and drove to one of the other swap meets in town, one that dealt
mostly with rocks and gems. The girls were looking for a specific
“stone” called Fordolite to use for some earrings. Sharon Minard
had showed them earlier this weekend some of the Fordolite that she
bought. The story behind this material is that someone a few years
back got the bright idea to go into the Ford auto plant and scrape
all the years of built up paint from the walls and fixtures of the
paint booths. Over the years several inches of paint layers had
built up and when you cut the material you can see all the different
colors in lines and swirls. It is really a quite interesting looking
material. It is also very light, which makes it ideal for earrings.
We found the booth and the girls spent
quite a bit of time talking to the dealer and picking out the pieces
that they wanted made into earrings. Vernon and I mostly sat around
and watched other people looking at rocks. They finally settled on
the right piece and we have to come back tomorrow for the final
product. After that adventure we headed back to the coach. We had
cocktails with the group and then we, the Babcock's and Wilson's left
to go have dinner at Silly Al's, the pizza parlor in town.
Silly Al's is a very popular place this
time of year and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. We
finally got a nice table where we all could sit around it and see
each other and at least talk a little. We all had salads and pizza
and were there for a couple of hours. They started karaoke about
7:00 and I got signed up early so I was able to do one song before
the food came. The rotation
Tuesday, January 26th, we
went out after lunch with Peggy and Vernon and went to the rock show
to pick up their earrings. We then went to a couple of stores for
groceries and a part for our coach. The toilet is leaking and I have
to install a new seal. We then went out and did a couple of hours of
geocaching, getting another 14 finds to our credit.
We came back to the coach and relaxed
for a while before we had cocktails with the group. After happy hour
we went to the Bullock's coach for dinner. We did some steaks on the
BBQ. While we were there one of the water supply pipes in the park
let go and we had a huge fountain behind our coach until the park
owners came over and shut off the water supply. Even though it was
dark they had the pipe repaired in less than an hour and the water
back on. After dinner we went back to our coach and watched TV until
bedtime.
Wednesday, January 27th, we
were up and out of the coach by 10:30, yes A.M., and headed with the
Bullock's and the Wilson's to breakfast, yes, Breakfast. Hard to
believe, I know. We went to a place called Bad Boy's where most of
the rest of our group has been at least once for what they say is an
excellent breakfast. The place is true Quartzsite in nature. It is
a large sheet metal and pipe garage that has been converted into a
restaurant. They put it on a painted cement slab and installed
walnut paneling on the side walls, then put in a bunch of tables and
chairs. The kitchen is in an add-on section in the back. You order
and pay at the counter then they deliver the food. I will say the
food was very good. Jackie had a very nice looking and large spinach
omelet and I had corn beef hash and eggs. The food came out pretty
quickly, despite the fact the place was very busy. It was hot and
tasty. Although we are not generally breakfast people, we might go
back and try their pretty extensive lunch menu sometime before we
leave.
After breakfast the six of us drove
south of town to one of the BLM desert parking areas to visit with
the Escapee's Geocaching BOF encampment. (BOF means Birds of a
Feather, and is the Escapee's version of a Chapter in FMCA) We are
members of the Geocaching BOF and know a few of the members from
other caching events. They have a couple hundred RVs parked in the
desert. Their encampment started on Monday and goes to Friday. We
went today because today they are having an actual published event
that we can attend and get credit for a geocache find. We got to the
encampment just as they group was breaking for lunch. We signed the
log for the event and talked for a bit to a few of the people there
that we knew. We were also going to go with the group on a caravan
to a historical site at 1:00, so we had an hour or so to kill. The
six of us went out and did a few geocaches before returning to the
encampment area and lining up with a couple dozen other vehicles.
The organizers of the Escapee's group
had arranged for a docent from the Quartzsite History Museum to come
out and take the group to a place called Picture Rock, an 800 year
old Native American habitat site. It was only about five miles from
the encampment on a series of reasonably easy desert 4X4 trails.
There was a large wash with a rock cliff at the edge and you could
clearly see a lot of very old petroglyphs on the rock faces. The
docent spent a half hour or so talking about the Native Americans who
lived in this area 800 years ago. There were also some caves on the
other side of the wash where they lived. They had a little scavenger
hunt, looking for some numbers that the organizers had hidden around
the area. Vernon found one and got a nice painted rock as a prize.
I looked, but didn't find one. We also did a couple of geocaches
that were hidden in the immediate area. It really wasn't so much a
search because there were 50 geocachers running around finding the
caches. We mostly just got the log from whomever found it and signed
in.
After spending an our or so with the
group the six of us left to do some more geocaching on our own. We
cached until about 3:30 and ended up with 14 finds for the afternoon,
not too bad. One of the finds was the Wilson's 1,000 find. Yea,
Gary and Ramona! We then headed back to the RV park. We had
cocktails with the group at 5:00, but everyone went their own way for
dinner. The Babcock's and Wilson's went out for dinner, we and the
Bullock's had dinner in our own coaches. A very busy but fun day.
Thursday, January 28th, we
had a stay at home day. After lunch I spent about three hours
rebuilding the toilet in the coach. I had to take it apart and
replace the seals since it had started leaking a few days ago. It
was a messy job, but I got it done. We had cocktails with the group
at 5:00 and later got together in Peggy and Vernon's coach for
dinner. Peggy spent the day making a tortellini soup that was out of
this world. We had that with a lot of garlic bread and a salad.
Soup and salad dinner, yum. We later went back to our coach and
watched TV until we went to bed.
Friday, January 29th, we
went out after lunch to do some shopping in parts of town we haven't
yet been in. We bought a few things, but mostly just walked around
and looked. At the last store we were in I bought a shirt that was
on sale. We left there and went to the grocery store for a couple of
things and I noticed that the cards I usually carry in my money clip
were not there. It was my debit card, one credit card, and my Costco
and Sam's Club membership card. I was pretty sure they fell out when
I took the money clip out at the last store, so we hurried back
there, but it was closed. There was no phone number or anything, so
we just went home. Just to be safe I called and canceled the debit
and credit cards and ordered new ones. I will go back to the store
in the morning to see if the cards are there. At least if they are I
won't have to get new membership cards from the big box stores.
We went back to the coach and had
cocktails with the group. After that everyone was on their own for
dinner. We had Peggy and Vernon over to our place for dinner.
Jackie made a chili relleno casserole with rice and beans. We had a
great dinner, although it ended up being a bit later than usual.
After the Bullock's left we watched TV until bedtime.
Saturday, January 30th, we
left the coach about 11:00 and went to Bad Boys, the same place we
had breakfast a couple days ago, for lunch with the group. Lunch was
as good as breakfast. After lunch the eight of us, in two cars, went
out to do some geocaching. We only went out for a couple of hours as
it was actually warm outside and the sun was getting to some people.
Nonetheless, we were able to get 17 new caches, and no DNFs, in just
a couple of hours. One of the caches was number 7,700 for us. Yea!
After caching we went back to the coach
and relaxed for a while. We had cocktails with the group and then
went to the Bullock's for leftover soup, which was just as good as
the first time. Jackie stayed home as she was not feeling well.
After dinner I went back to the coach and we watched TV until
bedtime.
Sunday, January 31st, our
last day here in Quartzsite. The weather folks predicted unsettled
weather for the next couple of days and they were right on. The wind
started blowing in the morning and we have 30 MPH sustained now with
gusts even higher. I spent a little time in the morning putting away
what little we had outside in preparation for leaving tomorrow. We
spent the rest of the day inside listening to the wind blow. We also
got a little rain, but barely enough to call rain. We didn't even
get with the group for cocktails, just stayed in and had leftovers
for dinner.
Monday, February 1st, the
first month of the new year gone. The wind was still blowing some,
but not nearly what it was yesterday, and the skies were mostly
clear. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30, headed south
to Yuma, Arizona, about 80 miles or so. The wind on the road was on
and off, making it a little hairy at times since it is a two lane
road, but we made it safely. We stopped for fuel and then checked
into The Palms Resort. This is a different place from where we have
been for the last three years and this year we are staying two months
instead of just one. This is a very nice resort with a mix of stick
homes, park models and RV sites. Our group of five are parked close
together, but we have one odd outsider between us and the Babcock's.
The Bullock's are right next door and the Wilson's and McKay's are
across the street. By the time we got the basics set up it was
almost 2:00, so we went out and had a quick lunch and then did a
badly needed Walmart run. By the time we got back and finished
setting up the inside of the coach it was cocktail hour, but we were
pretty beat, so we elected to just stay in for the night.
Our arrival here in Yuma for two months
marks the perfect place to close this episode. Until the next time,
remember the words of Oscar Wilde. "There are only two kinds of
people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely
everything and people who know absolutely nothing." See ya
soon.
