Quartzsite – Page 3 – TooBusyForWork

Leaving Quartzsite tomorrow

We have been here for almost 3 weeks, and we are leaving tomorrow for a full-hookup resort-style snowbird park. It will be quite a change from the lovely quiet desert, but both types of places have their advantages and disadvantages. I am looking forward to doing my laundry in my own washer and dryer!

I ended up removing the stitches in my hand myself. However there is a tiny piece that didn’t come out! I am going to have to dig it out soon. It has impacted my ability to ride my bike, so today was the first time I really took it out. Kevin and I rode to Bad Boy’s restaurant in Quartzsite and had one of their nice breakfasts. The weather today was actually so warm I couldn’t sit comfortably outside in the direct sun (83 by one account). However the weather is changing. We have a strong wind, and a cold front is on the way. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 50, so quite a change.

The weather has been a challenge for Kevin to take some good night photos. We did get a few clear nights though.

Pretty impressive view of the Milky Way from just outside our motorhome. Note the aircraft lights that were captured.

Blow it up to see the mountains, moon, and Venus

I will also provide a bit of info about the rally. We had at least 35 people show up in over 20 rigs. Some were here for a few days, others for weeks. We are a loosely organized group. There was one 4 WD trip that we didn’t take, a daily 2 mile walk in the morning, and Happy Hour around the campfire each night of the Big Tent RV show. Smaller groups visited the favorite restaurants (Bad Boy’s for breakfast and Silly Al’s for pizza or lasagna), visited the show, drove to the wildlife refuge, or visited Castle Dome. I must admit the quiet this week, the week after the show, has been lovely!

Oh, and I almost completed a baby quilt out of scraps. I still have to apply the binding, but that is all thanks left. I will post it when it is all done.

To Yuma!

From Quartzsite and the environs

With me being hobbled by my hand, we haven’t been doing a lot. Then again, beautiful sunny skies and temps near 70 (or more) have made doing nothing very enjoyable! There has been a lot of sitting in the sun during the day and sitting around a campfire at night.

We did go to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday. We took a slow but scenic route through the Yuma Proving Grounds on a gravel road that wandered through beautiful country.

YPG is a wildlife sanctuary and desert plant refuge in the barrier areas.

Lots of green here plus a (Afghanistan?) “village”

Of course I don’t recommend going off the main road!

Cibola NWR attracts a lot of birds to its ponds

There were huge numbers of sandhill cranes too

Oh, and this style of saguaro was plentiful

Click on this link to hear the birds in a video.

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Saturday our group had a potluck meal. As usual my Dutch oven green chili chicken enchiladas were a hit, but there was a lot of other good food too.

Sunday we took a trip to the Desert Bar again, a totally off grid bar and music venue that is only open 12-6 on Saturday and Sunday during the winter. Amazingly cool place.

The last 5 miles are on a very rough dirt toad — The last 5 miles are on a very rough dirt and gravel road

The roads in the area originally led to mines

A number of old dead cars along the road

It isn’t a “real” church, but you can have weddings there

A mandatory view of the women’s toilets built into the hill

View looking out from the women’s toilets

Totally self-contained and off grid but with a 1000 people means lots of solar

We have decided to stay in Q until we head to Yuma on 3 February. I am sure I will have at least one more post from here. Hopefully the cell service improves with thousands of people leaving.

Excitement in Quartzsite

We left the Van Horne RV Park (and their nice little cafe), and we spent Monday night in Willcox, AZ at the KOA. Nice campground with big roomy sites and very little road noise. They had a cafe too, but it was very mediocre. It was particularly disappointing after the enjoyable experience at Van Horne.

I was starting to get antsy about getting to Quartzsite, so we were up early Tuesday to go to Destiny RV Resort in Goodyear, AZ (Phoenix suburb). Nice place, but complicated to get in and out of. Most of the sites are seasonal or year around, but it was definitely one of the more upscale places we have been. There were orange trees all through the campground!

Since we were going to be dry camping for the next few weeks, we made sure to do our shopping, laundry, and clean out the tanks. We really took our time on Wednesday morning, and we didn’t leave until nearly 11:00. We did make it to Quartzsite though.

On Thursday we had Countryside Interiors come install our new RV furniture!

A smaller sofa (full-sized air bed sleeper) plus two lovely electric recliners! The color is a very light beige, not the white that shows in the pictures, and the upholstery is super soft, a better grade than the original. The quilts brighten it up nicely too. We will eventually get a small table made to fit between the chairs. Countryside took away the old furniture, and they said someone was sure to take it so it wouldn’t have to go to the landfill.

I was enjoying my furniture so much that I wasn’t concentrating as I left the coach on Thursday afternoon, so I fell down the stairs! It was a hard and painful fall, and I cut my hand badly on the metal somehow. I was bleeding mightily, and I could see immediately that I was going to need stitches in my hand. I just sat on the ground and cried a few seconds before Kevin helped me up. We wrapped up my hand, put a bandaid on the bloodiest of my scrapes, changed my clothes (I had spilled the drink I was carrying), and took off for the medical clinic in town. They told me they didn’t do stitches and sent me off to Parker’s Emergency Room. I was getting shaky as the adrenaline wore off, and my hand and elbow hurt like crazy. Luckily they got me in quickly. The doctor was worried about my elbow and knee since both were very sore, and he had the do a couple of X-rays. Luckily nothing broken and I didn’t hit my head or lose consciousness. My hand took a bunch of stitches though. They gave me a tetanus shot, wrapped up my hand, cleaned up the rest of the scrapes, and send me back. Still hurt like crazy. I get the stitches out in 7 days. Luckily the new chairs recliner so much as to almost be a bed, so I slept there. I was worried I would bump my hand or knee or elbow in the bed!

To put it mildly I wasn’t feeling good on Friday so we just hung around the motorhome. A lot more people joined the group we are with (RVForum.net) on Thursday and Friday, and more are still arriving. We had an enjoyable evening around the fire with friends even though it was a bit cold. I was feeling a bit better, so we had fresh green beans with onion and bacon (made in the Instant Pot), gold potatoes with onion and peppers, and roast turkey we had frozen from Thanksgiving. Yum, and I don’t have to do any dishes until after the stitches come out!

Today was the first day of the big RV show in Quartzsite, and Kevin braved the crowds to talk to the BlueOx people about refurbishing our tow bars. They have a fixed price for routine maintenance, and we dropped off the tow bars with them this afternoon. The place was crazy busy. I can’t ride my bike right now because of my hand, so I may not go until much later in the week. Kevin did pick us up a funnel cake!

Missing in action

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been trying to find the time and energy to post about our time at KOFA and then Quartzsite, but it seems overwhelming. Instead I am just going to provide a brief summary of the last four weeks, then my next post will be more recent.

We spent a week at KOFA in an great boondock site with friends. I started getting sick there – standard sinus problems I get on a far too frequent basis. On Monday, 14 January, we moved to Quartzsite with some different friends. I kept getting more sick, but treated myself with stam and keeping up with my allergy meds. Finally I acknowledged I felt like crap and was coughing so badly that I needed a doctor. We went to an urgent care facility in Lake Havasu, a bit of a drive, but I wanted a place with good patient reviews. Steroids and antibiotics to get rid of the bronchitis were the Rx. Within 24 hours I was sooooo much better! Steroids do that.

We did do a few things in Quartzsite. Funnel cakes and Indian tacos were a hit (different days). We also bought a couple of new camping chairs plus a little folding table. We had a lovely time with our friends, and ended up staying until Saturday, 2 February. We stayed in the town of Quartzsite at a full hookup site at Quail Run RV Park. Took a bit to get used to being 5’ from my neighbor instead of 100’, but it was nice to have unlimited power and water. I got to do all our laundry in our own unit, a big improvement over laundromats in Quartzsite!

On Monday, 4 February we checked in to White Tank Mountain Regional Park just west of Phoenix. Absolutely gorgeous, but I will pick that up in the next post.

A summary of some RV related information. We were having trouble keeping the batteries up even though we weren’t using that much power. Kevin found a hygrometer to measure their “goodness” only to discover they were not in good shape. Sigh. We drove to Phoenix to buy 6 new ones. Expensive, but needed. The solar worked better than we thought, even on cloudy winter days. We needed up needed the generator only about an hour a day most of the time. Everything else worked really well. We used the satellite when we needed, the refrigerator kept things cold or frozen as needed, and the weather wasn’t too terrible though significantly cooler than normal.

Happily in the desert again

We left Needles on Monday, 7 January, and we are now in a boondock site in the Kofa area off King Road, about half way between Quartzsite and Yuma. This area sits between the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and the Yuma Proving Range which makes it interesting. We can see transport and bombers go overhead, hear bombs being dropped a long way off, and still be hopeful of seeing mountain sheep. It is classic Sonora desert country. The name is an acronym for King of Arizona, a mine in the area. It stamped its gold with “K of A,” and the name stuck to both the mountain range and the wildlife refuge.

Of course the mountains are lovely too.

We are here with 7 other RVs, both trailers and motorhomes. We are all members of the RVForum spending time here before we camp at Quartzsite for a couple of weeks. No services, but we are all self sufficient with solar and generators. We figure we will leave when we need to dump the tanks, maybe Saturday or Sunday.

We haven’t been doing much, just relaxing and hanging around. I hope drive some of the backroads in the area before we leave. There seem to be some interesting looking places to go.

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.

https://www.toobusyforwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/D34BCEF5-BCF9-4AEF-B811-62975C45FC3F.mov

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.

Out of the warmth

Yesterday was one of those glorious desert winter days. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky, the wind was light, and the air was warm. Ahhh! I did a lot of just sitting in my recliner outside. We also took the bikes out for a ride to pick up a funnel cake for breakfast (don’t judge LOL!) and to visit the Quartzsite Museum, a surprisingly nice place. We also had a nice campfire with some of the RV Forum folks who were still around. Most people had left on Sunday morning, the official end of the rally, but there were enough to enjoy a nice chat.

We decided to leave today, as originally planned. We intended on heading through southern Arizona towards Albuquerque, waiting there until my daughter called to say she was in labor. Well, she called us this morning as we were finishing packing that she was headed to the hospital tonight to start her induction. We finished packing, but instead of just driving a few hours down the road, we made it to Grants, New Mexico after a bit over 9 hours of driving. The roads were clear, though there definitely was snow along the sides of the roads in a number of areas. We are staying the night in a clean RV park called Bar S, only $21 for full hookups. We really needed to dump the tanks and fill up with water. The complication is that it is going to be colder tonight than we have ever stayed in the trailer, 19 degrees! (I almost used a dash instead of a comma, but it looked like negative 19, a bit much even for us.) There is a train that comes by frequently, but it doesn’t sound its horn, so I think I will sleep fine. The cats are just glad to be out of the truck. (I know it isn’t a great picture, but she keeps moving her head.)

Quartzsite, Arizona

Once we got out of the Salt Lake City area, we had smooth sailing. We spent the night in St. George and then left by 9:00 am to head to Quartzsite. We took the route through California instead of Lake Havasu, and it was a good choice. We arrived a little after 3:00 on 25 January, but by the time we got permits, figured out where the RV Forum group was camped, and got set up, it was just after 4:00 and time for Happy Hour! It was a nice way to meet the rest of the group. By 6:00 we were back at our trailer and finishing the setup. It took Kevin a long time to get the satellite activated, but that is generally the case with DISH. Sigh. The service is good once we get it started, but it is painful working with them every time we move to get our address changed.

Yesterday we went to the big Quartzite show. This is a ritual for RVers in the West. There are around 100,000 people mostly camped in the desert with a few in town at crowded RV parks. The “show” is centered at “The Big Tent”, a huge big top tent that houses many vendors. There are also lots of vendors outside the tent, and there are multiple other vendor areas that are mostly flea markets with a few nice vendors of a more artistic bent. There are also a lot of food vendors! Kevin and I shared a wonderful funnel cake, one of my main weaknesses.

Here is a picture of the tent. OK, it is a lousy picture taken from the truck, but you get the idea.

One of the things about camping in the dispersed area the BLM calls “Long Term Visitor Areas” is that hookups are non-existence. There are a couple of places with a single dump station, but that’s not much for 100,000 people! The line at the dump station has to be seen to be believed. This picture was taken at noon yesterday.

In the afternoon we took the electric bikes out for a ride. The scenery is gorgeous. I like this scenic saguaro with the mountains in the background.

Today we went towards Yuma, Arizona. Our first stop was Castle Dome ghost town and mining museum. What a wonderful place! It was quite cold with a hard wind so we only did about half of the available exhibits. I definitely want to come back another year in better weather and do the entire thing. Here are some pictures. You can definitely see why they call the area Castle Dome. The rocks are volcanic, and there were 300 mines in the area, mostly for silver and lead.

We also went through the Yuma Proving Grounds. There was a very interesting dirigible tied up not too far off the road. Maybe used for range communication or monitoring? It looks like an instrument cluster or radar at the bottom. You can’t judge the size from this picture, but I bet it was 30-40 foot tall, based on the hanger it was near. Odd site in the middle of the desert!