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Huachuca City, AZ

After we left Quartzsite we headed east to Huachuca, just outside of Sierra Vista. We are staying at Mountain View RV Park. I would recommend this park for long term folks, but it is not nice at all for short timers! The first spot they put is had the sewer connection underneath the trailer. The manager was quite put out we weren’t willing to crawl underneath the trailer to get to our (paid for) facilities. With bad grace they moved us to “the only other site they had” which was very narrow and had two trees that keep us from parking on our site. Note that of today (Saturday) there is still a pull through site available plus numerous back ins. At least the place is quiet.

Yesterday we did laundry and went to a lovely little quilt shop called The Squirrel’s Nest. I got some cut fabric for microwave fabric bowls.

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One cover will be the bowl-kokopelli fabric and the other will have the quail on both sides. I love mountain quail! I also got fabric for two baby quilts. One is for my niece and her upcoming baby boy (the white and gray) and the other is for a son of one of my sons (the cream and red). I am going to make both the same pattern, an Irish Chain.

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Today we tried tried to visit Bisbee, AZ, but we couldn’t find any parking. We drove through town three times, checking out the public lots plus on street parking, and nothing was available. I can’t walk for blocks just to get to the historic area. We were both disappointed, so we decided to drive to Tucson to see the RV show they had there. (Yes, I know that makes no sense.)

We decided to actively start looking at options for selling the house, buying a house, and buying a motorhome. First step was to talk to a Realtor friend in Utah to see whether the market is as hot there as I have heard. Spoiler: it is! He was practically begging us to list, and he said he had folks who could help us get things ready to sell. There just aren’t very many houses on the market right now, and he needs listings. He also gave us some good recommendations on how to juggle the finances for house and motorhome. Ummm. Now we have to get serious! Our current favorite coach is a Tiffin 37PA. We plan on ordering a new one from the factory, so we need to finalize options. Lots to do!

More about the Quartzsite trip

Warning, this is a long post. I really should have posted more frequently, but the data on my cell phone has been very slow until a lot of people left.

While we did go to the Big Tent, we have also done other activities in the area. Last week we took a trip to Castle Dome, a mining museum and ghost town about an hour and a a half a way. The first 45 miles are highway, but the last 8 or 9 are washboard gravel so it was slow going. The area is well worth the trip though. Here is why the community and mining district got its name.

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The builidngs came from various mining camps in the area with only a few being original to the town itself. One of those was the hotel.

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The place is just full of wonderful history.

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The mining continued through the 1950s, but I didn’t take pictures of the later period exhibits. Down the road a bit they have a walking tour past a number of old mines. They range from hand dug pits 30’ deep cut by the early Spanish explorers to sophisticated hard rock mines last worked in the 1950s and 60s that are hundreds of feet long with multiple levels. The area was know for gold, silver, and lead with some copper too.

We took a trip down to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Quartzsite on the Colorado River. When the river was channelized for irrigation purposes in the 1960s, the refuge was established to mitigate some of the loss of wetlands. We drove down on a dirt road that mostly edged along the river. It had been washed out completely in a few spots. Most of them had been fixed recently (the bulldozer tracks were still fresh), but we did have one spot where we had to detour. I would not recommend this route for passenger cars. We returned via a hard surface road that went to Blythe that would be suitable for passenger cars. The refuge looks like a classic dry desert until you round a corner on the auto tour and see (and hear) this. You will have to click to see the video, but it is worth it to turn the sound up.

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Besides the thousands of ducks, geese, and pelicans in the water, we also saw a few dozen sandhill cranes standing in the alfalfa fields grown for their use.

We also took a trip to the Desert Bar northeast of Parker, about 45 miles from Quartzsite. This is a classic place, completely off the grid, open only on weekends from October to April. All kinds of bar and grill food – burgers, pulled pork, chicken fingers, etc. – plus a full bar and live music. The road is very rocky and rough. A passenger can would have to be careful, but it is doable.

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14CC2CA4-2257-42BF-9A78-7A6AE1DA658D — The band the day we went

50599FEF-6D84-4078-ADF2-8A5CCC84514C — Love the views

1366E67F-71D2-4ACF-B3DC-F05EFDE035B1 — Nice view from the open air bathroom (the stalls have doors)

A7308B1B-9807-44DD-B51E-0FAA76403670 — It takes a lot of solar to keep this place going

DBE04F31-288A-4694-B118-1F455D9C0548 — A popular viewpoint

We now intend on staying here until Thursday. Early Wednesday morning there will be a lunar eclipse, so we decided to stay another day.

Oh, and a few housekeeping items. There is a really nice Albertson’s in Blythe, CA about 20 miles away. Quartzsite only has a couple of convenience stores that carry a (very) few groceries. We did laundry on a day trip to Yuma at Plaza Coin Laundry, a very nice spot. We ate lunch at Ronnie’s Pizza. Great pizza at a real hole in the wall place. I did make ribs again, and this time I took a picture before we ate. E1625881-BF04-47C2-A38D-4F4BB68808AB

For the traditional Saturday potluck I made my tried and true green chili chicken enchiladas, made New Mexican style (layered) in the Dutch Oven. They were a hit. I always feel a bit guilty when I get complements on them since they are sooooo easy.

Quartzsite with 200,000 of my closest friends

We drove from HB on Friday to the desert south of Quartzsite, AZ. This is the snowbird capital of the world for a week or so during their RV and Big Tent Show each winter. The rest of the winter the desert is still popular with snowbirds, especially if they can dry camp. For a $40 fee the BLM will let you camp on their land for 14 days. There is access to water, a sanitary dump, and trash bins. They also have a $180 fee for those who want to stay for the season – as long as 7 months. I can’t imagine doing that, but this is a great place for a couple of weeks. We met up with friends from RVForum.net, and we have daily Happy Hour get togethers plus a potluck planned for today. Nice folks.

Saturday was the first day of the Big Tent Show, and it is a BIG tent (picture from last year).

We should have waited. The show was dreadfully crowded, and parking was a mess. Kevin kindly dropped me off near the door and parked a 5 minute walk away. Did I mention it was crowded? We still haven’t bought anything but two USB charging cords, funnel cakes, fry bread, and ice cream. The last three were over three separate trips, so it wasn’t quite as bad as it looks in writing. We finally figured out the best time to go was mid afternoon, around 2 or 3. Much less crowded, and it is a great time for funnel cakes (a not so secret vice of mine).

The specific area we are in is called La Posa Tyson Wash. The surface is mostly gravel so it isn’t hard to get around on. We have a number of OTA TV channels plus my Verizon phone gets good data service except when everyone else hits it by mid morning and again in the evening. We bought a 14 day pass, and we intend on staying until,after the lunar eclipse next week. When I mentioned the 200,000 other people here, I might have both understated and overstated the impact. Yes, there are actually more than 200,000 people here in the desert, but they are mostly spread out quite a ways. It feels much less crowded than a state park, and if you want solitude you could find it. We intended to camp with a group so we are in an area about 200 x 75 yards with 25 rigs or so.

BAA9A014-8234-4DD5-BF7A-E4E2ABD6EDE7 — Sunrise at Quartzsite

We also continued to look at Class A RVs. My latest favorite is a Tiffin RED 37PA. Nice kitchen, good storage, big bath and closets, plus big water and waste tanks so we can continue to dry camp easily. This one is certainly in the running. We also looked at about 10 other coaches, and nothing else hit our fancy.

Huntington Beach via Bolsa Chica State Beach

When I was still working, I did a lot of work for Boeing in Huntington Beach. Kevin hasn’t spent much time around Pacific beaches, so we decided to spend a few days at Bolsa Chica State Beach, 3 miles or so north of Huntington Beach. We arrived in early afternoon on Saturday after a long hassle driving in a crowded city. Ugh.

The sites at Bolsa Chica are very narrow and the road between the two rows is also very narrow so it was a challenge getting in. After we got set up I discovered I had not measured the spot for the slide correctly and we were 2 inches short! We just kept the slide almost all the way out since it was way too much work to move it over those two inches. The campground sits between Pacific Coast Highway and the beach. We had a site on the highway side and it was very noisy, but then again, it was at a beach so we just dealt with it. We wore foam ear plugs the first few nights, but it was better by Sunday night. Since we arrived on Martin Luther King holiday, the park was packed. We still managed to do a lot of sitting and looking at the surf, a lovely thing.

DF985F6E-B484-455F-A5F3-37AE446FF82E — Surfers were always present

0AD5CA6A-C54F-4B24-B386-C8D8B970C68C — The first few days had low surf

5CF6C033-2C76-4C81-8D26-56EF89D8CE1B — The last two days had high surf warnings

We had two problems. One, my back is killing me when I walk for more than 40-50 feet. That put a damper on wandering around much. We did get to have lunch at Duke’s on the beach, and I found a wild Hawaiian shirt at a store downtown. We even found a new hat for me at the HB REI store! The second problem is more of an issue with my back; Kevin forgot the chargers for our electric bikes! I can bike quite a way even with a sore back, but the bikes have a range of about 20 miles and we intend on being out of town for 5 weeks. We are looking for a way to get someone at home mail them to us, but we may have to drive back to pick them up. We can’t get any new ones mailed to us in time.

I am also trying a new hobby – English paper piecing. I am hoping it is something I can do in short amounts of time when I don’t want to pull out my sewing machine. 140323DE-9EBB-4E7A-B173-F7055E4336FE

We left California today to head to Quartzsite, AZ for a RVForum.com rally. Quite a difference from the ocean. More on that in the next post.

Calico ghost town

We did make it to Calico Ghost Town today, a San Bernardino county park. There is a full hookup area where OHVs are allowed but it was full, so we have a site with electric only. I am actually pretty glad because it is really loud in that area while ours is nice and quiet. It is a little tight, but we managed to get in.

The ghost town admission was included in the fee of $35. Not a bad price since admission by itself would have been $8 for each of us. The place was relatively empty which made for an easy visit, but some of the stores were closed on this Friday during the off season.

We ended up taking an eight minute train ride on a reworked ore train. I do like taking historic trains, and this one was great fun even if it was very short.

710CC792-8EC9-4BED-AE42-5C6C776299C8 — It was a very narrow gauge!

F45BA009-A959-4233-9230-2A7235DF32DE — The best miner’s houses were in the rocks to provide shelter from the blistering summer heat.

A7BFBF27-2EA6-44B5-9418-2866C2025F20 — This ore cart was sitting by the side of the track.

The view from the station back to the town was nice also.

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ED7C1C50-A510-49CF-A0BD-4645233225DC — I doubt the palm tree was planted by the miners.

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It was a nice relaxing day. We even had a beer at the saloon, a nice change from being in Utah.

Tomorrow we will be at Bolsa Chica State Park on the beach! We will have water and electric hookups only, so we will be sure to dump and fill up before we leave here tomorrow morning.

On the road again, plus some food goodies

We left the “sticks and bricks” house today to head south for warm weather. We took our time, didn’t leave until 11:30, and we were set up at the Eureka Casino parking lot (free!) by about 5:30. It was 57 degrees when we arrived, a nice change. Here’s what else happened since the last post though.

I sent a couple onesies with the heat transfer vinyl off to my 11 month old grandson. My daughter is under strict orders to wash and dry them a lot so I make sure I have the technique down. So far so good. I also used the Silhouette cutter to label my food canisters in the kitchen plus decorated a couple of sweatshirts for Kevin and me. Mine is a little crooked, but his looks nice.

Last night we went to see “Something Rotten” at the Eccles Theater. The first act wasn’t thrilling, but good. The second act was hilarious and definitely made the play. Our next show is “The Sound of Music” on 28 February. We have been arranging our trips based on show times, and it is a bit of a pain. I am not sure I will renew the season tickets next year; we would rather RV!

As for food, I have conquered yogurt in the Instant Pot. It tastes yummy even if it wasn’t as thick as I wanted. My first one was a complete fail, so I was thankful this one worked so well.

The fruit came from individually frozen bags of cherries and raspberries. I did add a little bit of sugar since the fruit was unsweetened. Really lovely.

I didn’t get a picture of the other item of food porn: Kevin’s smoked turkey. It was a gorgeous color, amazingly moist, and utterly delicious. He vacuum packed it into 1/2 pound packages, and a bunch of it is in the trailer’s freezer for the trip. We bought the turkey when it was on sale after Thanksgiving. We actually bought two, but the other is in the deep freeze for smoking this spring.

We are all beginning to plan some trips in addition to the big Alaska trip this summer. We made reservations at Kodachrome State Park in southern Utah for late March. A friend who bought their first trailer last year is going to join us, a real treat. They have an A-frame trailer they call their “Tin Teepee”, a name if I find hilarious. During April we have to work around tickets to see “Hamilton” and my daighter’s completion of nursing school in late May. Fun times ahead. Tomorrow we intend on staying at the Calico Ghost Town. Let’s hope they have a spot open. Otherwise Plan B is another overnight in a parking lot somewhere.

A new toy

I like to sew and do machine embroidery. I have seen lots of my friends add a Silhouette cutting machine to their “toy” collection, some to cut fabric for appliqués and some to cut varieties of vinyl. I bought one a few months back, but soon learned I needed some more “stuff” to use it the way I wanted. So I bought a heat press and some fusible interfacing. That has arrived, and I am working on learning how to use the software and the cutter. The software runs on a PC and is very similar to my embroidery software, but cost so much less it is amazing. I first made some labels to identify which battery and charger went with which of our electric bikes. That was a few months ago. I am now working on heat transfer vinyl. You use a special thin vinyl with adhesive on the back. You cut your design, “weed” (remove) the part of the vinyl not part of the design, apply the vinyl with heat, then peel off a protective layer of transparent carrier. I decided to start with onesies since I had some and they are pretty cheap. Here are a couple.

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These are real simple one color designs, but I was practicing. The red one really is on straight and smooth, no matter how bad my photo is. I will do some multi color designs tomorrow. As soon as I figure that out, I will work on cutting fabric for appliqués.

Kevin and I are both getting a bunch of appointments finished before heading out next week. Today I had a dermatologist appointment, while tomorrow is the optometrist. Still to come are the ophthalmologist and dentist.

Christmas with family

We left Utah on 20 December running out in front of a big snow storm. We did pretty good, 660 miles, and we spent the night in North Platte, NE at the the Oak Tree Inn. It was just ok. However the bad news was the forecast changed. We missed the front of the storm by about 100 miles and had to drive through snow and freezing drizzle for a while. After that it was pretty good, and we decided to just head to Cedar Rapids, IA where we stayed for 3 nights at Homewood Suites, a place I really liked. Two separate rooms and a little kitchen made it a lot easier to sleep well and have good coffee. We normally stay with my daughter in Marion, but one of my sons was staying in her spare room until he could move into his newly purchased house. We enjoyed our time with the newest grandson, 11 months old. We like our privacy anyway.

Christmas Eve we went to our oldest son’s house in Cedar Falls, staying until 27 December when we went back to my daughter’s house. My other son had moved into his house by then so her spare room was available. It worked out well because we were needed to babysit one day due to an emergency in her sitter’s family. We left on Friday, 29 December running back to Utah in front of a horrific cold front. We ended up driving to Sidney, staying at the Fairfield Inn. This was also a nice place though expensive. The weather on Saturday was quite interesting. We left Sidney when it was -4 degrees with a bad wind chill. By 40 miles east of Laramie, WY it was 48 degrees! The temperature raised 40 degrees in 20 miles. Back home we have temperatures in the 40s so I hope to not experience low temps again this year.

Christmas itself was great fun. The kids all seemed to like their presents, and so did the grown ups. Of course the grown ups had all given us pretty detailed lists so it was fairly easy LOL! We were also able to pick up our mid-century maple dining room table at a shop in Marion, IA. They refinished it due to some damage it got before I inherited it, perhaps a hot pan a couple of times. The shop also modified the stretchers so it would take an additional leaf, p,us they made a matching left. I can now sit 6 people much more comfortably, and probably 8 in a pinch.

We are now getting an assortment of appointments done before we head off on our next snowbird trip south. Doctors, financial advisors, haircuts, etc. all get done in the next week and a half.

Fresh air, snow, and a little sewing

The pollution in the Salt Lake area has been dreadful all week with red air levels. Yesterday a slight snow storm came through and blew out the nasties. Ahhh! I can breath again.

Tuesday I went to the annual Christmas dinner for the American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group. They like to eat at Golden Corral, a buffet. I admit it is not my favorite choice. I just can’t eat enough at a buffet to make it cost effective, but I like the company. I also went to an Open Sew Neighborhood Group on Friday where I completed the 35 blocks I need for my next Quilt For Kids project. I will wait to take a picture when I have the entire top done. I am sure I won’t finish it until we get back from Iowa after Christmas.

Today we went to Antelope Island to enjoy the clear air. It was glorious! The salty part of the lake was ice free, but the fresh water coming in from Farmington Bay was full of ice.

97F00363-BD43-4C3B-841C-E2382868AC19 — Looking towards Promentory Point.

ADD6A688-ACA9-41CA-B8E6-3A3C66E60CAF — Looking towards the Wasatch Front.

49F4D1BF-803E-45A4-9128-2E210D11D846 — Egg Island and Ladyfinger Point. Clear air is shown by the mountains in the background.

FB9C814A-9E34-4FD9-9F79-79560B7298D2 — A gorgeous buck.

2F1E291E-8D72-43E5-BEDF-19E76D9915E0 — One of the harem.

They were filming a commercial just south of Garr Ranch.

C6A7D1F4-0073-4536-850B-A33D86E0B5B1 — The horses are being followed by a camera van.

C9658365-D95B-43BA-A970-A7AA63A71DFC — The parking lot was full of vehicles supporting the filming.

We are also doing some minor home repair – replacing sinks and faucets in my bathroom and the kitchen. After we went to the Island we stopped by Home Depot to pick os e parts up for the bathroom. Of course, something had to break requiring even more parts. Looks like it will be tomorrow before Kevin fixes it; it is just too risky to turn off the house water on a Sunday evening with the stores closed!

We are still shopping for Christmas, but almost everything is done. Still some wrapping, but that is about it. We have decided to leave on Wednesday mid morning or so, spending two nights on the road. There is snow expected, and I prefer not driving through snow in the dark. The trip is 1200 miles, and it is nice to get to our destination early enough to see people.

Sewing Presents

It is getting close to Christmas, and I am way behind on my Christmas sewing. Yesterday I finally got cranking. I decided to make some microwave bowl cozies, and I got six of them done. It requires a special batting that is 100% cotton, no polyester at all. The 42 x 36” piece I had was cut into 12 squares, 10” each. Each cozie needs 2 pieces of batting and 2 pieces of fabric. See how the bowl fits? I made 3 of the green/orange fabrics and 3 of the coffee fabrics.

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I also made some bibs for my grandson. These should have been made months ago, but I was having trouble finding the ribbing that goes around the neckline. I finally found some at a local quilt store of all places!

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I am going to write my directions down here because I modify the ones I have found online. I use hand towels, not finger tip towels. I fold them of the way to make the center of the neckline. In this case, it was 10”. I then cut a circle out using the a CD for a pattern. I also cut 13” of ribbing. The ribbing is sewn into a circle using a 1/4” seam. I then quarter mark both the ribbing and the towel, applying the ribbing with a faux serger stitch on the Bernina. I used to use my serger, but the sewing machine is much easier for the small openings. I also top stitch the ribbing to make sure it stays turned over correctly.

I will take one of the bibs and one of the cozies for tonight’s American Sewing Guild meeting. We are having a holiday dinner instead of a regular meeting, but Sew and Tell always happens! Over the next few days I will make some more cozies, and that should do for Christmas sewing.