A Trip into Quartzsite, Winds Return

La Posa South LTVA

On Monday, Nov. 28^th Bill was up ahead of me. I heard his phone making noises, notification noises, and once he got up to see what it was, he just stayed up. It was barely 7 am. I stayed in bed with Gibbs until 7:30 and then we went for a walk. He went as far as he wanted and turned around. No, he isn’t scared of anything, he has no problem walking on the stones or the sand, he just wants to get a few steps in and go home. 😊

Clouds can easily make the picture

And today they sure did

I dropped him off and hi-tailed it towards the mountains to the south of us. Just in that direction, I had no intention of going into never-never land. Bill asked if I’d walked yet back to the Magic Circle to see their big event tent but the last time I did that, we got lost. At least lost enough to give me ♥ palpitations so I have only returned once to see if I could find my way back. Obviously, I did. 😊

It was a nice walk again this morning

I managed half of my steps this morning and returned home. It was going to be a windy day, gusts to 20.6 mph, with wispy clouds appearing over us throughout the day. It wasn’t a full covering so it still warmed up to 73F/23C. It would have been very hot without those gusts! We had our morning brew and then I hopped in the shower. We have plenty of water for the next 3 days so I stretched my shower out in a timely fashion.

I got a kick out of this sign
at The Pit Stop

Bill and I drove into town for a few things. Propane for the Suite, fuel for Black Beauty, a new Sunhat for Pat, groceries at Roadrunner for meals, the post office and we took a walk through Tyson Wells before heading back home. It was lunch time and since we hadn’t eaten yet, we were hungry. Did we buy anything? Yes, we did. Bill picked up some led lights at the K & B tent for the basement and I bought some extendable fridge bars.

At the Surplus Outpost store
I found my new hat
Bill helped me pick a colour and I love it

Our silverware drawer is very wide and we use two trays side by side. As much as I love the space it gives us, they don’t fit securely from front to back and I’m constantly pulling them forward to the front of the drawer. This past summer, Bill had mentioned finding a piece of wood to fit across there to hold them in place but he didn’t have any luck. So! The bars were not for the fridge, this time. It is a double bar system and extends to the 23” we need. 😊 Happy camper here!

Our cutlery drawer
If the two trays were identical, it would be better
but for now, the extension bars will work great

We also drove around to Park Place RV Park once more to get the correct mailing address for post office deliveries. I’d dropped our Christmas cards off with the wrong P.O. box on the return address. Darn! It just meant sending an email to the family members in case they wanted to send cards and I did that when we returned.

The Ocotillo out here are still
not green

After a couple of cinnamon buns each for lunch, I went for a short walk with Gibbs and then a longer one on my own. My phone app sent me streamers of congrats when I bypassed my goal of 6,000 steps and then more when I returned home with 8,000. I installed the app on Bill’s phone so he can keep track as well. He just has to remember to carry his phone with him!

For supper, I had thawed a pound of ground beef and will find something to fill our tummies. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy was on at 5 so I watched that before starting the ‘something’. At 6, you’ll be pleased to know that the ground beef turned into a good meal. A sloppy joe of sorts but with my own ingredients and even Bill suggested his own touch. I added celery, onions, mushrooms, thickener and then his brown beans. 😊

Just before supper, the sky was showing off again

On the side, I cooked a section of pepper squash for myself and then we had the whole mixture on hamburger buns that I bought today. We both enjoyed it very much and it was quite filling. The Voice was on by then and we watched that while doing dishes. We didn’t need the generator on to prepare the meal but Bill turned it on at 7 for a few hours. This is our tv night. What a great day!

Our hamburger meal was very good
and we have leftovers! Yay!
good night!

Thanks for stopping by!

Waking Up with Guests, Walking the Desert, Quartzsite Meandering, Silly Al’s

I was awake a few times through the night but still managed to have a good sleep. Our guests were still sleeping behind their divider so I crept out with Clemson and then settled at my laptop to post my blog. As you’ve noticed, it was a morning posting. We had fun catching up last night and now a new day, Wednesday, Jan. 17^th is upon us.

Once everyone was up around 8:30 and we took ourselves off for a nice walk around the desert. It was fun showing them the places and things we love. When we returned, we all had our morning drinks before I made us all bacon and eggs. With our tummies full, all cleaned up, we headed into Quartzsite to fight the crowds. Ha ha. Actually, we were indeed prepared to walk and join the fray of people.

Brenda and Randy with the huge saguaros

First stop, Reader’s Oasis Books. While boondocking in Quartzsite, we’d heard so much about the naked book store owner. Paul Winer is well known in the area for walking around amongst his customers in merely a crocheted sock/thong, a hat and running shoes. We didn’t get the opportunity, or didn’t take the opportunity last winter to make the trip in to see the store. This year we knew was the time. Brenda and Randy would get a kick out of this as much as we would.

The Four Amigos

this is quite the set up

This mesquite tree grows out of the wash

Paul was outside when we arrived in his hat, shoes, thong and a sweatshirt. Mind you, it was only 13C so we understood the cover up. So, we wandered through his shop, listening to his old-style jazz/country and were blown away by his huge collection of books. What a fun journey this was. Brenda and Randy engaged him in conversation about his choice of music and whether they could purchase a cd.

We all adored these beautiful Burmese dogs on our walk this morning

We left there and found a spot to park in the west corner of Kuehn and Hwy 95. We walked the strip, in and out of gem tents, grocery tents, clothing, kitchen and jewellery tents. Our friends had a lot of fun and about 2 ½ or 3 hours later, we loaded into the truck with our purchases. What a good time it was. Back at the Suite we invited The Yates and The Duchaines to break tradition and join us again for a short Happy Hour.

Beads on strings in one tent

Rock wine racks

Clemson needs boots like these

She has a portable barber shop

Brenda could do this!

By 3:45 we were on our way back into Quartzsite for an early supper at Silly Al’s. We were all looking forward to it and Brenda and Randy couldn’t wait to experience this rare pizza treat. We had a wait of about 15 minutes or so and since there were 12 of us, we took 3 tables of 4. This worked out well. Anna, our waitress, was run off her feet as the place was crazy packed.

Bill and Randy split the Hawaiian special and Brenda and I each ordered a small pizza of our choice. It was delicious! Bill and I had a couple of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and boy, am I feeling that now! We had a few ‘doggie’ bags to come home with. I had to sit and let supper settle and try and write my post.

I've lost our friends!!

Brenda and Randy chat with the owner
while the fellow on the right waits for his attention

The other two poured a glass of wine and went outside to enjoy the beautiful evening. What feels cool to me, feels wonderful to them. Remember, they just left -7C/19F yesterday! I gave them a few minutes, downloaded my pictures and then grabbed a warm hoody to join them for a bit. They leave tomorrow and my head could use some clearing! LOL

Relaxing after Quartzsite

Waiting in line

Busy place

We watched the stars for about half hour and my oh my, are there stars!! The sky is black speckled with all these thousands of little lights. I left the two lovebirds and came in to finish this before I got too tired to do it and couldn’t believe it was only 7:30. This has been a wonderful day with Brenda and Randy. I hope you have enjoyed yours as well.

Randy and I get silly

We all dig in! Yum!

Brenda, George and Suzie

No guys, I said 'smile'! :)

Brenda and goofy Len

Paul and Ann

Happy Hour!

And then I'm in a picture too!

Good night from all 4 of us at Quartzsite, Az

Thank you for taking the time to read today. I love to hear from you.

Time to Spin our Wheels, Follow the Leader, Quartzsite

On Sunday, Jan. 7^th Bill and I were both up soon after 6:30. It was another nice night for sleeping, only dropping to 55F. I didn’t bundle quite as much when I headed out for my walk. I was hoping to locate where Gayle and John found a site yesterday. I walked back ¾ of a mile which seemed to be almost to the end, but couldn’t find them before I turned around.

Morning sunrise

Long tall Patsy

I could be blind but they sure weren’t close to the road if I walked by them. Obviously, I didn’t go far enough. Oh well, we said our goodbyes last night. Back at home I made my tea and joined Bill. We were pretty much ready but I wanted to have a shower before we left. George and Bill decided on 8:45 departure so I was a bit rushed but not too bad.

This is quite the set up
don't ask, don't tell
Summoning ufo's?

It looked like I was coming to the end
as there were so few rv's back here

We had cereal and both of our units were pulling out at 8:45. We’re that good! 

We followed George as he knew of a different way to get us onto I-10. He took us onto S33 which wasn’t going to rate very high in Bill’s Road Ratings but doable and in half hour, we turned east onto CA-78. 

Much nicer two-lane highway and the closer we got to Blythe, we experienced the Dips. Up and down, and repeat but they don’t bother us. Makes me think of us in the back seat as kids, “go faster, Daddy!”

The continuous crop industry blows me away
And everything is so healthy looking

Don't know what is in these huge silos
Lots of graffiti

The temperature is 65F at 9:15 and we are seeing some scattered clouds today. Our panels are working well, I’m sure, soaking up available sun. 

A huge cattle ranch

We came through the other side of the Imperial Dunes and it gave us another insight into how popular this area is for rv’ers with their toys. This highway is not crazy busy but what traffic we encountered, was mostly those who wanted to ‘play and stay’ in the dunes.

Only saw one buggy on the trails though

This is a nice drive and we would take it again another time. We pulled off at a rest area with washrooms at 10:15 so we used the facilities and stretched our legs. We walked down along the riverside where there were a couple of campers. With no Camp Host we’re not sure if it is a Free area again. George said they stopped there for a couple of nights one year when it was a fee area.

You could camp right along this river
The ducks wouldn't mind

Salt cedar tree taking over the whole area

When he told me the name of these trees, Salt Cedar, I had to take a picture of their expanse. Interesting how ‘salty’ they really are. I’d never heard of them before. We were soon back on the road following George. Along the highway it is easy to see that this area is popular for growing cotton. Although it has all been harvested, there are covered bales for quite a stretch along the highway.

We drove through places we’ve never been through before, like Glanis, Palo Verde and Ripley and that is always interesting. I love seeing the small blurbs, how people live and it continues to make me feel our own blessings over and over. 

And someone was actually living comfortably here, notice the a/c in the window?

People are making do with what they have and in many cases, very, very little and that is quite humbling.

I don't know if Elouise's Shoppery was open or closed
but what a neat name

A water tower for Patsy
Hey! that's for me!

An interesting old steel barn for their hay storage

Turning onto the I-10 we noticed a bit of an increase in regular traffic and I started to notice the mountains and stately Saguaro cacti dotting the cliffsides. 

Here I go again getting melancholy because this again feels like coming home. Bill and I love the Q even though we have been in some beautiful RV parks, this is a place where we can settle for a little while.

Dome Rock is a popular free boondocking spot

 Soon passing by Dome Rock Rd. a free camp area, we could see Quartzsite ahead of us. We have a few exciting things happening while we are here and look forward to each one over the next few weeks. 

We passed the Q mountain that we climbed with Gerry and Melinda last winter

We pulled off I-10 at Exit 17 and saw the Love’s Truck Stop that we’ve landmarked for some friends and came to a dead stop in the heart of Quartzsite. Only for a few short minutes though and we were skimming through looking at some very busy vendors.

Brenda and Randy, this is for you

We turned right onto I-95S towards the LTVA’s and soon noticed that even the Big Tent is all set up ready for vendors. First on the list, it was nice to see that at La Posa South, the only LTVA with dump stations, there were only 3 in the lineup to dump at 12:30 so we took advantage and topped up our water tank at the same time.

This gal at the Quartzsite corner never gets vacation
and probably not paid very well either

We were set up on a nice site by 2 o’clock with the exception of Bill tilting our solar panels. The sun peeks through periodically so we are happy that we were charged up pretty good. We didn’t watch television for the 4 nights we were at the Hot Springs but we will be here so I helped Bill lift the generator down from the back of Black Beauty.

I told Suzie, 'friends that dump together, stay together'
Take that however you want!

Now the generator is set up, secured and ready to go for Madame Secretary and the Golden Globes if we choose to watch tonight. I had a headache, I think because our lunch was delayed, so Clemson and I went up for a snooze while Bill put our flag up and caught up on some reading. 

We both had to start into new books today after finishing our other ones yesterday. I’ve chosen a switch up again and will check out another Jack Reacher story this time. Lee Child writes a good book too.

Bill is stuck on Alex Cross right now so between us, we are bouncing back and forth between authors. I’ve decided on a simple but hearty supper with mini sausages and corn grilled on the Weber and potatoes and broccoli cooked inside. After my nap, Clemson and I joined Bill, Suzie and George for a brief Happy Hour As soon as the sun disappeared behind the clouds, the temperature dropped by at least 5 noticeable degrees and we came home.

Neither of us was hungry enough to start it until 5:30 so, and because of a late lunch, it meant a later supper. Bill settled with his book for a while and I caught up on my post. Soon enough, we were both ready to eat by 6:15 and cleaned up by 6:30. Supper was great! I mashed the skin on potatoes with butter and cream making them wonderfully creamy. It felt like comfort food.

Bill ran the generator for a while tonight so we had the option of watching our programs. We are far enough away from anyone that the noise didn’t bother Bill. I understand where he is coming from when he worries about it, but at the same time, we are all doing the same thing out here. This has been a good day, getting up early and moving the wheels further east. We are expecting a couple of cloudy days and maybe rain on Tuesday. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, they need rain here.

Goodnight from the Q

I hope you have had a wonderful day and I want to thank you for stopping by. If you wish to leave a comment, please know that I read them all and will respond.