TooBusyForWork

Arriving in Death Valley and trip to the Racetrack

We arrived in Death Valley on Monday, 17 February. We got lucky again and got an end site looking east to the mountains. My favorite spot! We are here for the Black Sky Festival in the park this weekend plus this is one of our favorite places! We didn’t do much but settle in and look at the glorious views on Monday. Tuesday we also just relaxed. A friend, Ron, came on Tuesday, so we chatted a bit and sat around the propane fire pit (no charcoal producing fires in the campground). Another motorhome came in near us towing an F-150, same model we have. The man came and asked Kevin to help him get it out of tow mode; it was brand new and he was having problems. We invited them over to the same fire, and they had all kinds of questions about the park. They were only going to stay two days, but I notice they are going to the Racetrack today. Glad I convinced them to stay longer.

Wednesday we went to the Racetrack ourselves. Ron has a 1 ton 4X4 pickup to tow his fifth wheel and we had our F-150 4X4 so we were all ready to do it! We stopped at Uebehebe Crater first. Pretty impressive as usual. We didn’t hike down it or anything, but I enjoyed the view. It had been a few years since we have been there. First the road was washed out, and the next time we just didn’t get around to it.

(As usual, click on the link to get the video)

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Then we started down the high clearance 4X4 road to the Racetrack and the moving stones. Ron said this was almost the #1 item on his DV bucket list, and we hadn’t been for years. The road was definitely rough. Due to how good the image stabilization is on the GoPro, it is hard to tell. Look toward the end of this video to get an idea though.

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Here are Ron and Kevin walking to the Grandstand, a black chunk of rock in the middle of the Racetrack. Without some humans for scale, the size of the rocks and mountains is impossible to show. And sorry for the truck antenna in the way.

I took more pictures come back than I did going down because the light was better. Here is one showing the layers of rock in the area.

To get to the Racetrack, you have to go by Tea Kettle junction. Why is it there? Lots of stories, and no one knows the truth. Occasionally the NPS has to pull off some when they get too heavy.

Why would it be named “Tea Kettle Junction?”

Another interesting spot is an entire forest of Mohave yuccas. They look a lot like Joshua Trees from a distance, but they are obviously different close up. Like Joshua Trees, they are found at a very specific elevation.

The campground we are in got its name from the fabulous sunsets. They look different each direction you look.

On Thursday we had to go to Pahrump to pick up Kevin’s meds, and we again ate at the fabulous Chai Thai restaurant. We also had dinner at the Furnace Creek Inn, quite upscale. You have to make reservations for dinner, and we never got around to it before. The meal was scrumptious as were the cocktails before hand. Expensive though. $40 for cocktails and another $100 for dinner before tip. Occasionally a splurge is worth it. The only problem was my right side was so beat up from the drive to Racetrack that I was in real pain. I ended up taking 10mg of Flexeril, and I slept like a log. Still a bit sore this morning, but not in agony like yesterday.

The Dark Sky Festival begins today, and we have tickets for the main speakers tonight and tomorrow. More on that later.

Taking a break from Quartzsite

We are now staying at the Elks Lodge in Needles, CA. Definitely a sad town, but the lodge is nice. We are on our way to Death Valley, arriving there tomorrow. We have been busy here doing laundry (lots and lots of laundry!) and cleaning up the incredibly dusty motorhome (lots and lots of dust!). In between I took a Zoom class about machine binding offered through the Arizona Quilt Guild. Well worth the time and money. I love Zoom classes!

To catch up on what we have been doing since the last post, it has mostly been quilting, driving back and forth to Parker for Amazon packages and good food, and a bit of relaxing in the warm weather. The temps have been in the 70s for a couple of weeks now, and the nightly lows are mostly in the upper 40s, even into the 50s. We haven’t used much propane recently! Kevin got his new drone out again since the wind was down, and I love the pictures.

The first one is from above our campsite looking toward La Posa South LTVA. You might have to zoom in a bit to see the much more crowded area. I don’t go boondocking to be 30’ from my neighbor! We much prefer the less crowded areas. The second picture is our campsite. Motorhome, outdoor kitchen, truck, RZR, and the Clam shelter make a comfortable resting spot for a few weeks. The blue covered tripod has Kevin’s telescope on it, trying to keep it out of as much dust as possible. The third photo shows a picture using the telescope on a clear night with a full moon. He’s been figuring out how to use the tracker with the telescope.

As usual, the cats are a big distraction. They both like lying on my legs with the “magic blanket,” but they are not always cooperative about it. A look at Minnie’s face here says that Luna is taking up far too much space!

I did finally get the practice pieces from the feathers quilting class bound as a cat bed. Minnie says it is marginally acceptable, but she still prefers the blanket.

I forgot to mention something we actually did buy at the Big Tent – a microwave toastie/panini maker. Pretty handy little gadget. The ham and cheese sandwich shown was made in 2 minutes in our low powered microwave. We now use 3 minutes. The cute thing has a silicon outside and metal grates inside. The metal grates absorb microwaves and heat up, but the silicon keeps the contraption from sparking. I am quite pleased! We have had “grilled” sandwiches a number of times now, and this gadget it a keeper.

We left Quartzsite on Wednesday ahead of some rain and wind that was coming in. We spent Thursday night at the Elks Lodge in Parker, just to see how it was. Kevin would like to transfer to a Lodge he can be more active in, but the Parker lodge is quite small. We arrived in Needles on Friday night, and besides cleaning, laundry, and shopping, we also visited the Goff Historical Center. It was called “Goff Schoolhouse” the first time we visited a few years back, but it was definitely misnamed then. Yes, the schoolhouse is an historic building that is part of the museum grounds, but there is so much more! Lots and lots of mining history and general history about the Mohave Desert and the Mohave Road. Fascinating stuff.

The schoolhouse was the center of the Goff community when it was busy and active with mining, ranching, railroads, and WWII training. Little is left of that except the schoolhouse these days.

A few of the more unusual exhibits are working stamp mills that have been restored. Very impressive! The vast majority of stamp mills in museums are incomplete and definitely not in working order. It was a true labor of love to restore the mining equipment at Goff. The first picture of the two stamp mill shows how they worked taking in 2” pieces of stone and breaking them up into dust. The dust was then washed and moved to chemical vats for separating the gold or other precious metals. Goffs no longer uses aresenic and cyanide, but they do have water tables for separating. I would love to come here some day when they are operating the mills. The ten stamp mill is the big buy with huge wheels for moving the stamps.

I have also been quilting a lot. I got all the squares for my Christmas quilt made up into twosies before, but I made them all into 4 blocks and then combined a number of those into 16 blocks. I still have quite a few more to do, but I am making some good progress.

I will end with a glorious Arizona sunset. They just can’t be beat.

Quilting and riding in Quartzsite

People I meet sometimes think I am an extrovert because I engage in conversation well. However I am actually just an outgoing introvert. I am mentally exhausted by the last 3 weeks of people. I really like the group who showed up for the rally, and keeping things a bit organized is just what I do, but my oh my, I needed some “me” time. I have done it, finally.

But first another trip on the RZR. We went on Colorado River Indian Tribe (CRIT) land on Saturday with 27 other rigs. It was supposed to be a short ride, but with that many rigs it took a lot longer than anticipated. It didn’t help that 10 rigs got lost on a turn. Of course they were found again, but it took about 45 minutes to get them all rounded up and back with the group. Interesting ride though!

The first video gives a good feel for the ups and downs. The GoPro smooths things out so much that the ride is deceptive; it was rough!

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The second video is just a nice view of the area.

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I also took some photos of the cabins we visited. I didn’t spend much time on good pictures because I have a bunch from previous visits. The area is just full of mines – big ones, medium ones, and small little glory holes. Lots of gold and silver taken out of this area.

This is where we had lunch. I hadn’t ever been here before. Fascinating rock formations.

I also did a lot of sewing. I am participating in a Block of the Month Club with a quilt store, Inspired to Sew in Cedar Rapids, IA. Luckily the classes are all virtual so I can follow along easily. I finished my first block quite late on 2 February, but I kind of made up for it by finishing February’s block today. Here they are. Note they are big blocks – 18” finished.

The BOM is from Moda, and it is hundreds of 5” charm squares, all in solids. Each month is in a different color palette. The kit didn’t include the 6 yards of background fabric, so everyone chose their own. I chose to go with an Amish-inspired look, and I think the colors just glow. I have also finished a few dozen blocks of Turkey Giblets that will be eventually a donation quilt (I think). Still a long way to go on that one. Tomorrow I start on my Christmas quilt again. Lots to do there!

Where does the time go in Quartzsite?

I have been busy with the RVForum rally, so that’s my excuse! It isn’t a very good one though LOL! We had folks starting to arrive the Wednesday before the rally officially began on Saturday, 18 January, and we enjoyed a daily Happy Hour around the fire. Folks brought a LOT of wood, so we have had fires every night but two when it was too windy. Wind is a continued issue in Q, but it just goes with the territory.

We added a LOT more wood after this picture was taken

We did a really challenging ride with the Arizona SunRiders again – Preacher’s Pass and Hogsback. Glad we were with experienced riders! We would never have dreamed of tacking it ourselves. But this is exactly the reason we like going on group rides; experienced riders in a group can really advance your skills. The ride leader said there wasn’t any ride in the area that was more challenging, and our little RZR did just fine! Some pictures and videos are needed of course. Click on the links to see the videos.

The second video shows the ride to one of the passes. It is steeper than it looks!

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One of the activities of our rally was a high clearance vehicle ride across the Yuma Proving Grounds to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. Lovely ride through pristine desert, though the lack of rain in the last 6 months made it very dry. The only casualty was our own flat tire! Luckily we got it changed in 15 minutes, and we were all on our way again. There weren’t as many birds as usual due to the dry weather. We were told there were more at Imperial Wildlife Refuge south of Cibola. I did get a few shots of the Sandhill Cranes.

A lot fewer sandhill cranes than in previous years

They liked the edge of the corn rows this time

I also took a video at Goose Pond. Normally there would be thousands of birds, but this time there were only a few hundred.

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Our final formal activity of the rally was a trip to the Desert Bar, aka Nellie E Mine. Absolutely off-grid completely, only opens weekends in the winter. There are pictures of previous trips on other posts, so I will just show the pictures from the women’s toilet, a famous vista (yes, really!).

View from the women’s toilet to the right

View from the women’s toilet to the left.

I admit I am tired and need some quiet time, but I should get that today. Tomorrow evening we will go to dinner at Silly Al’s Pizza, a tradition. Until then I will clean up the mess that is inside the motorhome and get some sewing done.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge – Goose Pond

Putting this out quickly so I can share some videos. More to come.

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Busy in Quartzsite

We have now been here for a bit over a week. After the fun SxS ride I posted about last time, we have just been hanging around trying to avoid the wind. It has been bad with gusts of 35-40 which is a lot in this open, dusty country. As you can see from this picture Kevin captured of me, I have done quite a bit of relaxing. Seems like the cats had the same idea. Those recliners are really comfy!

We ended up making a day of it in Lake Havasu City on Thursday. We picked up Amazon packages we had delivered to Parker, AZ on the way, bought and ate one of the ham and cheese croissants from Stark Bakery in Parker, did laundry at the fabulous Modern Laundry in LHC (cleanest and nicest we have ever been to), did grocery shopping, got my hair cut, and picked up 14 yards of fabric at Fabrics Unlimited.

Fabrics Unlimited is a really nice shop. They sell HandiQuilter machines and supplies plus Accuquilt products in addition to a big selection of quilt fabrics. They also have some specialty products for bag making, but that isn’t something I have ever really been interested in. I bought 6 yards of a black background fabric for the Moda Block of the Month I am starting on, two coordinating 3 yard pieces for a new quilt using the Turkey Trot Accuquilt die I bought before Christmas, and 2 yards of duck canvas for making new bags for the folding chairs we use on the RZR. While I was there the owner told me about a Zoom class they were having the next day (Friday) with a national HQ educator about quilting feathers. I was excited! I have always wanted to learn how to quilt feathers, and I haven’t ever been very successful. They had a sitdown quilting machine I could use (the rest of the class used long arm machines), so I signed up. That meant another 3 1/2 hour round trip the next day, but it was worth it. I used up three big pieces of quilt sandwich (they supplied that and the thread) practicing various feather types. I think I finally caught on! Some of the options I like better than others, but I now feel I could use feathers on a real quilt.

I know there is a lot of fuzz and some chalk marks, but you can ignore those. I am going to bind these and use them as cat quilts for Minnie’s hiding spot behind the recliner.

We are also getting ready for the rally I am hosting in a week. I am an active participant in the RVForum.net forums, and we always used to hold a rally during the big RV show week (aka “The Big Tent”). Sadly the previous rally master died a couple of years ago, so I stepped up to host it. Kevin made cool signs as turn indicators. There are a lot of roads out in the desert! Give a man a 3D printer, and you can get all kinds of neat stuff you never thought you’d need!

The sign is maybe 6”x4”, made on his 3 color printer

I have been cutting and piecing some, not just buying fabric. On Saturday I cut about 680 2.5” squares from the Christmas fat quarter bundle my kids bought for me. The quilt will be made up of 8 star blocks and 40 sixteen patch blocks, using pretty much all the fabrics in the bundle. I will still have enough for a pieced border if I choose to add it. I always cut more pieces than I need when making a scrap quilt so I have some extras to adjust colors and in case I mess up a few. Today I have been making “twosies” – sewing two squares together. I have well over half of the squares sewn, and I will probably finish the twosies later today. Then I start making “foursies” – sewing the twosies together. I won’t start that until next week. But here is the current state of twosies and single block in the box I am using.

I love pretty much mindless sewing like this. I have been listing to an audio book in the background, and just sewing a huge chain of these. Maybe I will have some blocks in the next blog post. Or I might decide to cut out the blocks for the Turkey Trot quilt and take that to the Quilt Guild meeting on Tuesday. Decisions, decisions!

Now in Quartzsite, winter 2025

We made it to Quartzsite on Friday, 3 Jan. We decided to leave Oklahoma City and take I-40 to Albuquerque before heading south on I-25. We took the cutoff at Deming to join I-10 at Hatch. We then take I-8 to the Phoenix Bypass up again to I-10 and into Quartzsite. Spent a couple of nights in a Walmart and another in an Elks Lodge, so it was easy stops. The weather was quite cooperative after we left OKC. We arrived about 2, dumped our waste tanks and filled with fresh water, then moved to our campsite in Tyson Wash LTVA. This is where we stayed last year, and it is lovely.

Yesterday, Saturday, we headed out to the Barry Goldwater Training Range for a UTV trip. We hadn’t taken the RZR out of the truck bed, so we drove down to Wellton, AZ east of Yuma to meet up with a local guide. It is a 100 minute trip or so each way, and we drove a total of 50 miles on the range. Interesting trip. Here are some pictures with captions.

Our first stop was a picnic spot. The covered shelter had four fireplaces, and was quite impressive. The women’s restroom had a wall 3’ or so high, big enough to cover the important parts! The men’s toilet was quite a ways away and constructed the same way.

The range takes helping endangered species so there are a series of what are called “tanks” in this part of the world. They are many times big catchment ponds like this one that was almost completely empty. Nice scenery though.

There were all kinds of old military hardware along are path. Lots of old dead army tanks, pretend artillery batteries, multiple launch rocket systems that were rusted solid, etc. You can climb around them, and some of the folks did.

There is also a wooden replica of a town informally called “Combat City” used for training. These pictures were taken by my husband since it was more walking than I wanted to do.

Lots of wooden structures imitating a town

Sadly there are some aircraft wrecks too. Luckily the pilots survived both of the ones we saw. This is one of them.

And what desert trip would be complete without some really cool rocks? The weathering in this aged sandstone was fascinating. The scale is shown by the folks next to it.

We were exhausted by the time we made it home to the motorhome. We went to bed by 9:15 and didn’t get up until 6:30! I admit I woke up a few times, but I managed to get back to sleep quickly each time. The sunrise was glorious.

I will end with a demonstration that the two cats love the magic blankie!

On the road again for winter 2024/2025 trip

We are now on the way to Quartzsite, AZ where we spend most of the winter. I haven’t been in the mood for much since my last post. I just had no energy, and I was taking 2 hour naps every day in addition to sleeping more than normal at night. To no one’s surprise except my PA, I had a thyroid problem. She increased my thyroid medication (I had half of my thyroid removed many years ago due to benign nodule), and I feel human again! Not enough to finish the sewing I had planned, but enough to prep for Christmas and the trip.

Last time I noted we were heading back early for a quilting class with Kaye England. She had this really complex block that needed precision piecing, and it was a challenge. I only completed 4 of the 16” blocks in 3 days, but that was with lots of discussions. I intend on using them for a runner on a sideboard. I picked colors that will go very well with my china.

Two blocks of my Kaye England class along with the china I use

We finally did get an opportunity to see the comet that came through. I think it was named something unpronounceable: Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. We were in Iowa, and usually the skies are too hazy to see faint objects, but this one was quite visible to the naked eye if you knew where to look. My iPhone picked it up pretty well.

I did get a bit of quilting done. I did two Hunter’s Star quilts, and I got both of them quilting before running into a wall. I really like the result of this circular quilting on an angular pattern.

The green Hunter’s Star went to a friend of my oldest son, and the pink one was chosen by my youngest granddaughter.

Kevin got a new 3D printer that is MUCH faster and significantly larger than his old ones. He has been having a ball with it. He made these two things for Halloween.

Christmas was also celebrated with some 3D items. He played around with his two color printer for this tree. The little lights made it interesting.

He made some villages. This was my favorite.

He finished with a really superb tree that we added to our nativity set displays. The lights are actually color chasing, and there is a remote you can use to change the colors. Pretty impressive. The buffet is the one my blue Kaye England table runner is going to go on eventually.

And my motorhome sewing area is all complete! Kevin added latches for the storage unit, and the fabulous red chair is one I bought at the Kaye England class. The low back fits my lumbar curve perfectly, and it is amazingly comfortable. I am absolutely thrilled with it. I tried it out with some sewing before Christmas (putting a bunch of blocks together into a small throw), and it works well. I will fine tune the setup this winter.

For my birthday I got a fat quarter bundle of some lovely Christmas fabrics, and I will be sewing that if I can decide on a design. I also have plans for a Turkey Trot quilt, and I am doing a Moda Block of the Month with a local quilt shop via Zoom. I will have plenty to do.

Since it is Christmas, I thought I’d show a picture of our Christmas lights. We added railings earlier in the fall, and putting lights on them was one of the primary reasons. It is much easier to drape railings with lights than putting them on the eaves!

And it wouldn’t be a good post without pictures of the cats. Luna climbed up on this chair at Thanksgiving as soon as we put it out before the family arrived. She was definitely saying, “MINE, MINE, ALL MINE!” Minnie, in her normal way, decided to play “There is no cat.” She loves hiding underneath things.

Minnie in today’s edition of “There is no cat.”

We actually left the afternoon of 27 December, staying in the Osceola, IA Walmart lot. Tonight we are staying in the Emporia, KS lot. And the next two nights we are staying at Arcadia Lake in Edmond, OK while we visit my sister. After that we will see what the weather is before deciding our final route to Arizona.

On the way home from Red Bay, AL

We are in our last night before getting to Iowa, spending the night (again) in the Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green, MO. We don’t have far to go tomorrow because we will be staying in Marion, IA while I take a quilting class with Kaye England! I am quite excited. I have followed her work for years, but I never anticipated being able to take a 3 day class with her. We are doing “Odette’s Journey” quilt using either Accuquilt cutting or some specialty angle cutters. While I have both, I know I will be using my beloved Accuquit. There is one odd piece I might have to use a ruler for, but I hope not. I will post my progress after the class.

We did get all kinds of stuff done in Red Bay. We had someone in Chris Berry’s shop remove our front TV (never used since our initial inspection!) and replace it with cabinets. They cut down the cabinet so it no longer is a head banger and put a shelf and doors on. Tiffin will no longer let you order custom cabinet doors, so the millwork is a bit different. I don’t think it matters overmuch though.

We also go our yearly motorhome service at Bay Diesel. They did fix a MIL engine light after discovering it was due to noise on a data line. The TPMS repeater Kevin had installed was noisy, and he had to move it to a new location. There were over 70,000 instances of the offending message LOL! We had already had it investigated, and we knew it wasn’t a big deal, but it is nice to drive the motorhome without a yellow caution light.

On Thursday we had Precision RV do a big inspection and preventative maintenance on the roof and slides. RV roofs have a lot of holes in them for things like vents and mountings, and Kevin just didn’t feel up to climbing on his belly all over the roof (I knew he was a smart man). They used 3 complete tubes of specialized caulking on the front cap seal where we had hail damage last year. Luckily we had no water damage, and all the rest of the roof looked good. We also had them clean out the undersides of the slides. Years ago we had some Corelle dishes break. While we got most of it, some small pieces had made it under the slide. With many years and many miles, they were completely pulverized into tiny pieces. Glad they got them out, and my slides don’t crackle as we open and close them any more.

Another thing we did was to remove the sofa in the motorhome and start converting that into a sewing area I can leave set up all the time! We are still figuring out the most efficient spot to put my sewing table, and we will be picking up a narrow storage cabinet before we head out after Christmas.

It’s not much to look at yet, but the black strap is the seat belt to hold it in place, while the laundry basket and plastic storage container holds the things I need for the class I am taking. Pretty much all of that will go in the storage cabinet except when i need to sew outside the motorhome. The machine is put up in its purple case ready to put in the car along with the rest of my things.

I actually did get quite a bit of quilting done. I cut, sewed, and pressed all but the border of a quilt for my son’s partner. I can’t show it yet, just in case, but I am quite happy with it! I will border it and quilt it at home. It was so nice to just be able to sew for shorter amounts of time without having to take things out then put them away each time.

I probably should note where all we stayed on this trip too. We left on Tuesday and stayed at the same Bowling Green Walmart we are at now. The next night we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Sikeston, MO. My oh my oh my did they have good food! The last Wednesday of the month is smoked ribs, and they were some of the best I have ever eaten. We stayed in at the Red Bay RV Park, a well graveled and graded FHU “campground.” The sites are pretty wide, and the place is well kept. We stayed there from Thursday, 24 September, until Saturday, 5 October, at noon when we headed to Ricky Johnson’s place for a wash and wax. The motorhome looks so pretty! That night we stayed at the Jackson, TN Walmart. We head to a reserved campsite at Wanatee County Park in Marion, IA. The kids and grandkids from Cedar Rapids are coming out for dinner on Thursday after the class, so it will be nice to see them too.

Late posting again

I have no idea why I sometimes just can’t get in the mood to post. It might be because I am also active on Facebook and post some things there. But I can’t use FB as a search tool to show where I’ve been and what I have seen, so here I am back to it again.

We were, as usual, really busy at the FMCA convention. I taught a class on collapsable storage containers that went really well. Everybody got finished, and that’s a major accomplishment by itself. It helped that everyone knew how to use their sewing machines! Here was a sample I made.

We had thought about just gradually and slowly heading back home, but we decided to pretty much just head straight back with only a bit of detours. We spent Thursday, 22 September, in Caldwell, ID at the Elks Lodge. Nice place. Then we stayed at dry camping spot at Stanton Crossing, ID for 3 nights. There was a nice museum there we visited too. Nice change from all the crowds in Oregon. From there we went to northern Utah on the southern part of the Uintah Moutains and a nice boondock site along the Mirror Lake highway. We did some riding and generally kept relaxing. On Friday, 30 August, we were in Laramie at the Walmart. Saturday we stayed at Cabelas in Kearney, NE. Sunday we stayed at an Elks Club in Des Moines. On Monday, Labor Day, we made it home, though it was late enough in the day we just stayed in the motorhome at the local campground (Big Woods Lake) again. It is so easy to just put the motorhome in a spot and unpack gradually!

I really haven’t done much sewing this entire summer. I did finish a couple of quilts that were mostly pieced in the motorhome. The triangle one only needed binding, but the Hunter Star needed quilting and binding. Much easier to quilt on the sitdown Sweet 16!

Now we are off again. We left this morning for Red Bay, AL for our yearly motorhome service, to fix a few nagging issues, and to get a bit of remodeling done We stayed in the Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green, MO, between Hannibal and St. Louis. About 270 miles from home so a nice day’s drive.