Playful Coyotes, Dryer Sheets, Food Tent, Propane, Parcel Delivery, Last Day in this Paradise

It was 6:30 on Tuesday, Jan. 30^th when my peepers opened enough to register on the clock radio. I peeked outside and it was still dark so I rolled over and thought about the upcoming day. It is our last day here in the desert so want to make the best of it. I snapped some sunrise photos after letting Clemson out and before 7:30 I was off down the road for a brief walk. It was 47F with no winds, yet.

there are no words

Last night around 9:00 Bill took Clemson out for his last piddle and he called to me. “Come outside and listen to the coyotes”. We haven’t heard them yet this winter so I went out and joined them. I could tell they were far enough away but it sounded like a bunch of little kidlets playing, refusing to go to bed. Those are the kind of coyote sounds I like. It was amazingly mild still, around 70F and calm. No heater required.

Bill was up when I returned at 10 to 8 and I made our first hot drinks. He wanted to head into town to get propane early but since I made his coffee, we decided to wait until closer to 10 so we could stop in at Quiet Times as well. Fingers crossed that Bill’s maserator has been delivered. It doesn’t look like this will be a full sun day, the gorgeous sunrise proves that the clouds deserved a bit of control today.

I met George as I was heading back from my walk

With a quick clean up, we drove into Quartzsite to Kuehn St. and easily found a parking spot right at K & B Tools. We split up and I headed for the Food Tent and Bill into the tool vendors. I had success and found chicken broth, black olives, tuna, Stove Top stuffing, crackers and Heart Well gummies that we like. For $.50 to $1, I wasn’t about to wait until we got to Yuma to buy these things.

Things were pretty quiet at Tyson Wells
Many vendors have packed up and left

Looking down Kuehn St. sure is different than a week ago

Bill and I met up and did one more walk through at Burly’s Tools where he found a small item he can use back home. From there we drove to the Pit Stop for propane and drove right in. No waiting. 

for a fee you can also fill up with fresh water

gotta love this business

Then it was the back route to catch Main St. again and it was just after 10 am when we parked at Quiet Times. We noticed UPS was unloading as we arrived. There were 3 or 4 people ahead of us. Those ladies are busy from the get-go and we know better than to be nothing but patient.

There is quite a neat ornament display of my favourites - the gambel quails

Waiting in line for our turn, Bill got the email that his parcel had been scanned as ‘delivered’. Too funny! Perfect timing! It was easy to find, he paid his $2 and we headed for home. At 10:31 we were pulling onto the highway. I asked Bill to pull out slowly so I could get a picture of this huge, no doubt very old, saguaro strapped to the building.

Love the saguaro outside
This car parked in the way so you can't see the strapping too easily

At home, I made us another hot drink and fried our last 2 eggs for brunch. Bill had his on a toasted bun and I had mine on lettuce with cottage cheese and black olives. Yummy. I drained the last of my Kombucha too, so we’ll be doing a big shopping spree once we get settled in Yuma.

the flags come down

As I was preparing the food, Bill was checking out his maserator. With a new discovery in this package, he took the time to assemble it to our blue (gray) boy, just to make sure it fit. Voila! All is good. Now that it is Tuesday and we are pulling out tomorrow to go into a full-service resort, we don’t need to use it. Isn’t that Murphy’s Law? No worries, we know it fits on and it will be very useful at our next boondocking site plus at home on The Ridge.

The solar panels get folded down

Bill went back outside to pack some things away and do whatever men do to keep busy and I did a quick wash of the dishes and started on my ‘dryer sheets’. I was asked yesterday what Bill meant by reminding me to ‘soak my tea towels’. A perfectly legit question. So, I thought since I’ve passed on this tidbit to a couple of people already, I would post it in my blog. I don’t think I’ve already done that but if I have, and you’ve read it, treat it as a refresher course!

You can use any size, any material

Just a small amount to begin with

We buy fabric softener. We don’t buy dryer sheets. To us, they were an expensive throw away, if you got the good ones. We stopped buying them probably 4 years ago now. If I am hanging my clothes at the Ridge, I use the fabric softener in the washing machine (at the laundromat). Naturally. During the winter months, in the southwest or if I want to dry the clothes right away at home, I make our own dryer towels.

Last towel soaking

You still need to purchase fabric softener, any brand. Choose 2 or 3 (how ever many loads you usually dry at a time) old small towels. I use 2 cotton tea towels and 1 square towel that is too small to use for anything else. If you have a dishpan or bowl, this works best. I don’t, so I use my small kitchen sink or bathroom sink in the Suite. Start with about a cup of softener, pour it in.

two towels rung out

One at a time, soak your towel, completely. If the smell is something that bothers you, wear a mask or get your partner to do this for you. 😊 Once it is coated, start wringing it out, squeezing out all of the softener. Set it aside and do the next one. If you need to add more softener, add just enough to do it and so on.

After doing 3 towels, this is all that is left

Wring them out as good as you can because all you do now is hang them to dry. Once dried you can use these same towels over and over and over etc. Probably 30 or 40 loads.

Retrieving excess from the sink

You’ll know when you need to do them again by the absence of the smell in the towel or by the static that is in your clothes. These work just like a disposable dryer sheet. The laundry smells nice and you will not have static cling. If there is any softener in the sink leftover after wringing, you can decide if it is enough to worry about saving or just washing down the drain. I choose to use my spare baster to retrieve what I can for the next time.

saving what I can because I'm cheap
and Mom taught me  'waste not want not'

So, I finished my towels and hung them on the back of the ladder. There is a breeze now so they shouldn’t be too long drying. 

Hard to see but they are hanging on our step ladder to dry

Just have to remember to take them each time we go do laundry. That is the hardest part! Next, I wanted to dust the Suite in time for moving day tomorrow. I started in the living room, all hard surfaces, window ledges and even the soft surfaces of our leather furniture.

Moving to the dining area and bedroom and finally the hall and woodwork, putting things away for travel as I go. Aaah, that smells better and everything is temporarily clean. I’ve decided on a simple indoor meal tonight of Tuna helper so told Bill he can put the Weber Q away as well. That earned me a kiss so I know he is happy to get as much packed today as possible.

With the jobs done, I took my bottle of water outside with a new book. I’m moving back to James Patterson’s “violets are blue”. I finished the David Baldacci book last night in bed and wasn’t as impressed with it as I’d hoped. Bill liked it better than I did mainly because there was a lot about the market/business type stuff and it lost me. My brain isn’t into that stuff, sad to say. Anyway, I finished it and will move on to another good one.

Beautiful sky today

Before going out, I called about our 3 nights free coupon that we got from the Big Tent show but reached an answering machine. Today, I left a message and hope to hear back. It would be nice to know sooner than later whether we can get in or not. While I was sitting outside, my phone rang and it was Fortuna de Oro returning my call and taking our reservation for 4 nights in the very near future. Yay!

Bill was non-stop this afternoon, packing things away, dropping the solar panels, putting the table and portable panel away and I was sitting reading my book. I encouraged him to slow down and poured him a Coke but until he is done what he wants to do, there is no stopping him.

Cheers everyone! To our last Happy Hour at Quartzsite this year!

Finally, around 2:30 he came inside and sat in his recliner. Whether he dropped off or not, I don’t know, I remained outside. At 3 I came in and we discussed drinks to take over to George and Suzie’s for H.H. Our last Happy Hour with this group, here. First, he fed Clemson and then we walked over. I didn’t take a drink because Deb had offered to make another batch of Beer Margueritas. Sold!

Deb suggested a group 'selfie' so we could all be in the picture
Great idea!
George, Suzie, Patsy (me) Bill, Deb, Tom

We had a nice chit chat as usual, I can’t remember everything we discussed today because of those drinks! Ha ha not really but after having 3 let me tell you, there were no problems in my world or any world for that matter. I was able to make up our Tuna Helper and added frozen peas while it cooked. As a last-minute addition, I crumbled 4 Ritz crackers and sprinkled each serving with Real Bacon bits.

tuna helper with peas, crackers and bacon bits

And the sun goes down on our last evening here
I will certainly miss the all around mountain views and
gorgeous sunrises and sunsets

This is tonight's sunset

It was a filling meal and tasted quite good as a change of pace for us. I can’t remember the last time we had a meal from a box. Not a good habit to get into but once in a blue moon (imagine that!!!) it is okay. With dishes done up, we turned our tv on to watch our programs only to be disappointed AGAIN. Same as Sunday night with the Grammys, we are missing shows because of the Greatest Super Bowl Commercials and the State of the Union Address. We turned the tv off.

And the day began like this at 7:15 am

I think this is one of my favourites today

Bill put the generator away and the satellite dish since we won’t be needing them tonight. I’m downloading pictures and finishing my post so I can sit and read a few more chapters of my book. Already I’m hooked on Alex Cross’s latest mystery and I’m only 5 chapters in! James Patterson has done it again, a bestseller.

I have had a great day starting with a fantastic sunrise and ending with a quiet evening with my sweeties. I hope yours has been a great one too.

the moon at 6:30
If you are up at 3:45 am you will see the start of the lunar eclipse
Set your alarm!

Thank you for stopping by. All comments are welcome and read.