RZR – TooBusyForWork

Out of Quartzsite for this year

We left Quartzsite on Monday, 23 March, planning on gradually working our way home to Iowa. This is the picture Kevin took on Sunday night of the sunset. It was taken through a long lens, and then it had be reduced in quality some, but it is an impressive sunset view from our campsite.

We first went to Lake Havasu City, spending 4 nights at the Elks Lodge there. I went to a “Staycation” with the Havasu Quilters guild Monday through Wednesday. The problem was that I was still very, very sore from my back spasms. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I intended. I finally sewed up the quilt block for March’s Block of the Month, but I am not very happy with it. It is not only not my best work, it isn’t even my average work. Oh well, it will do though. I made some little scrubbers for gifts from a kit I have been hauling around for a couple of years. They will be cute in a gift package of a mug and hot chocolate mix (the fabric is hot chocolate related). I also finished all the 8 star blocks I needed for my Christmas quilt, but I didn’t get much more accomplished. All day Monday back would spasm for 30-60 seconds while I just tried to breathe through it. It really sucked. Tuesday was better with no spasms, just soreness. Wednesday the pain was bad. The staycation is normally a treat with lots of good companionship, good food, and lots of sewing time.

After LHC, we headed north to Monticello, UT. We spent one night at the NavajoLand RV Park in Tuba City, AZ on the way. It was decent but not really set up for a rig our size. In Monticello we are staying at the Western RV Park. It is another older campground where we barely fit, but they obviously just redid their sewer system with a lot of fresh gravel on all the sites.

The reason we are in Monticello is because Kevin bought a new side by side! The shop is in Grand Junction, CO, and we drove the truck with the old RZR in the back from Monticello to there. Why? Because when we leave here tomorrow we are headed back to Monument Valley, UT and then to AZ to complete all the paperwork. We had planned on picking it up after we left Monument Valley, but they had rebates that expire tomorrow. But first a bit about the trip up to Moab on the way to I-70. I don’t think we had ever driven the road headed north, though we have done it southbound a few times. It is a glorious drive. There was haze and we had a schedule to meet so only a couple of pictures, and those were through the windshield. The first was the lovely La Sal mountains south of Moab. Lots of snow on their peaks.

And then we started getting to the fabulous rocky outcroppings as we got nearer to Moab. I loved this one the most, and I named it “Haystack.”

And here is Kevin in the brand new rig! It is a Polaris RZR 900 Trail Sport. We got a very good trade in, rebates, and additional deals because they had a bunch of 2024 rigs still in stock. It is a 900cc engine with 75hp and real doors that don’t require contortions to get in the rig. Even the seats are more comfortable. Now he gets to keep the UPS driver busy bringing all the accessories to make it street legal and comfortable. Things like roofs, windshields (front and back), mirrors, and storage boxes are all aftermarket. Kevin has a great time shopping for them, and putting them all on will keep him busy when we get home. I can hardly wait until we can take it out on the trails!

We leave tomorrow for Monument Valley. I will post as we finish that portion of the trip.

Edited to add: We had an absolutely fabulous late lunch at Bella Thai in Moab. It is probably the best Thai food I have ever had! I wanted to make sure I had it in the post because I look back a such info later on.

Quartzsite Redux

We are staying at a different location in the Tyson Wash LTVA than we were the last time we were here. The crowds are gone, so we moved a bit closer to the entrance. We back up to a wash, and there have been quite a few birds coming by – quail, hummingbirds, doves, and some other ones I don’t know. A friend has a trail cam, and I am definitely going to buy one before we head out for the summer. She puts it out every night, and she finds lots of cool creatures. One time a bobcat came by! Not here luckily.

We definitely have done a bit of riding since we arrived and my back has improved. I am still taking it easy, so no long, rough group rides. We enjoyed this view from the “Q” mountain (someone put a rock art Q on it). I have posted other pictures from a nearby spot, and the reduction in campers is significant.

One of the interesting things in the area is this old mill just outside the town. It is always fun to wander around it.

We took one 55 mile jaunt out past the famous Quartzsite golf course. You are advised to bring colored ball, orange being the most popular. The 9 hold course has marked holes with flags .There always seem to be people on the course.

We also took a side trip to the old Scott’s Lead Well. There is an old corral, a broken watering tank, and water storage tanks. They aren’t working anymore, so the fish and game folks installed a new wildlife guzzler. The tank is underground, and it has a well to pump. If the water gets low, they come out and fill the underground tank. When we were there we startled a bunch of birds away. The video shows the ride up to the old tanks, and the still picture shows the guzzler and the old tanks in the background. As usual, click on the link to get the video.

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Sadly the desert will filled with trash. We collected 1 1/2 sacks of small pieces of garbage since we couldn’t take any big stuff. This is a burned out fifth wheel someone had taken out to a lonely spot and torched. Probably an insurance scam: “Oh officer, the rig was in perfect shape before it was stolen!” Disgusting..

This is a memorial to a local bicyclist. The bicycle was actually stolen a few months back, but they replaced it.

It is still very, very dry, but the ocotillos have started blooming even though there isn’t enough moisture for their leaves to come out. They are among my favorite desert plants.

Our ride took us out to the Cyprus Copperstone Mine. It is an open pit gold mine that was very profitable. Now they are planning to dig underground in the same disturbed area for more gold. We didn’t get too close; they have gates that are locked. The pit is off to the right.

On the way back we hit the sandhills that are northeast of town. So many people think Arizona is just sand dunes, but they are actually pretty uncommon. Here is a short sample.

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I have been sewing some as I recover from the back problems. This is what I am calling “Midnight in the Desert.” I am in love with the colors of this, and I really like the way the circular star pattern shows up as a secondary design. I was planning on sandwiching and quilting it here, but I have decided I really want to get the intersections super flat with the LaraStar ironing system I have at home. The colors in the first picture are accurate, but those in the second picture are quite washed out. It does show the fabric design of the print though. I have also sewn a few hundred Christmas squares together, but I won’t show that one for a while yet.

Tonight Kevin got a great picture of a doze camouflaged in the brush. It was easy to hear him/her, but it took a bit of work to see.

And no post in the southwest is really complete without fabulous sunrise …

…. and sunset pictures.

We are heading to Lake Havasu on Sunday. It will be getting hot here – upper 80s into low 90s – so it is time to head in for electricity and air conditioning.

After Death Valley – KOFA National Wildlife Refuge

We left Death Valley on 1 March and went back to the Needles Elks Lodge. We did the necessary tasks of laundry and grocery shopping, then we headed to our favorite spot in KOFA along King Road. This spot is so pretty, sitting between two rugged mountains. Except for a friend that pulled in a couple of days after we set up, there was nobody within 100 yards.

The first picture is on the north side of our campsite.

This is just a bit to the side, just as the sun was almost gone.

We did go back to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge one day. This time we took the highway, and our friends took the 4WD road. We beat them by only 5 minutes or so. The paddle cactus blow was just starting to bloom in the garden there. I think it is a Beavertail cactus, but I am not foolproof on identification.

At least some of the cranes were still there, but a lot have already headed south.

There is so many places to ride the RZR here! The landscape is generally more vegetated than in Quartzsite, so here is a sample.

One of the key things the Fish and Wildlife Service does is maintain watering spots, known as tanks, for the wildlife. Here is a natural catchment area that has been enhanced. In prolonged dry spells, they will bring large water trucks in and fill the basins. I am quite impressed; the trail in was rough and narrow.

Sadly I came down with a massive back spasm while we were here that resulted in a trip to the ER in Yuma. Some heavy pain meds (400mg Gabapentin, an injection of an NSAID, and a Lidocaine patch), and I was able to walk out. But I sure didn’t do much the next few days! It was over a week before I felt 75% recovered, so we didn’t get to ride as much as we wanted.

We headed back to Quartzsite on Monday, 10 March. I finally got some more sewing done. Here is my in-process inspector saying I better get going!

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.

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!

Antelope Island views then north

I forgot to post any pictures from Antelope Island, so here you go! The bison herd on Antelope Island is famous. The bulls were looking pretty beat up since mating season was just finishing.

And no set of pictures for Antelope Island is complete without a gorgeous sunset view. The sunset was just orange/red from the smoke haze. Beautiful, but it makes it tough to breathe.

We did get to Island Park, ID and found a great boondocking site on Sunday, 21 July. We stayed there through Thursday night. We obviously took some RZR rides, but we also enjoyed meeting some friends who were work camping in the area, one in West Yellowstone and one at Henry’s Lake State Park. We discovered the osprey nest on a dead end trail we took by accident. Nice accident! There were two young birds. When I snapped this picture (from a long way away!), one adult bird had just flown off to get more food for the hungry teens.

There was quite a bit of water, and we saw lots of lilies.

We also took one day into Yellowstone. We got into the park by 7:00 am. It was cool enough some of the animals like these elk were still close to the road. The other advantage of early, cool mornings is the steam rising from the thermal features is much more visible.

These three elk were just as we got into the park

We saw a number of the primary animals – bison, bald eagle, osprey, elk, deer, and a fat, happy black bear.

We spent Friday, 26 July, at the Y Knot Winery campground, Glenn’s Ferry, ID. It was still smoky, something that had been increasing since the last couple of days at Island Park. The next day was a killer. We had reservations in Burns, OR, but the AQI was over 600! A lot of eastern Oregon seems to be on fire, and there was a big one just outside Burns. The haze was thick, and the air smelled of smoke. We just kept going until we got to Bend, OR where we stopped at an Elks Lodge again. The drive was mostly 2 lane roads with lots of curves. I was tired when we got set up!

The next day wasn’t any better, but we wanted to keep heading west to get out of the smoke. We drove from Bend to Springfield, OR, just outside Eugene, OR. I had a UPS delivery sent there, and I needed to pick it up before our chapter rally. The road from 5 miles south of Sisters pretty much all the way to Springfield was the slowest I have driven the motorhome. It was only 120 miles, but it took over 4 hours. The traffic was very heavy, there was lots of construction, and the mountain roads very winding. Ugh. We hadn’t started until 10:30, because we thought it wouldn’t take long. I was awfully tired when we finally got to the Elks Lodge where we stopped for the night. We have definitely gotten a lot out of our Elk’s Lodge membership! It is nice to have a safe spot to pull into while traveling. Many are dry camping for $5-$10 which is just fine for us. Some have electricity which is nice on hot days, and those are $20-$30 a night, still worthwhile.

I was so tired of the bad air quality, so we headed for the coast instead of staying in Springfield a few days like we had intended. We are currently at the Elk’s Lodge campground in Florence, OR 1 mile off Hwy 101. Beautiful place for $35 a night with electricity and water. We could only get 2 nights here, but they also have dry camping where we hope to spend the next nights before our FMCA rally in Coos Bay. I intend on hitting the local fabric shop for some more fat quarters and interfacing for class samples. I am teaching a class on collapsable fabric storage containers, and it is easier to show students some of the steps than describe them. I have the kits cut for the students, but I will partially make some more as examples.

Now to clean up!

North Rim Part 2

Ok, I will just come out and say the North Rim of the Grand Canyon beats the South Rim, hands down! I don’t know that I will ever visit the South Rim again.

We took 4 July to just drive around the area and see a few sights before our tour group got together. Here are some highlights.

On 5 July we met our tour group. We started off with an evening ride to a fire tour about 10 miles away. It was very, very, very dusty! There were about 45 or so rigs on this trip, and it seemed to take forever at the stop we made. The fire tower only allowed four people at a time, and it seemed a LOT of people wanted to climb it.

On Saturday we divided into two groups of 30ish rigs to do a ride. Our leader was fairly good, but not completely clear on directions. He also complained about the speed we were making but he stopped for a LONG time at each stop. I know it takes a while for folks to pee and drink water, but it doesn’t take 45 minutes! The ride was beautiful, but it made the previous dusty ride look clean. So much dust! I am just not used to a super dusty ride like that. In our club in Quartzsite we mostly ride on rocks, not dusty locations, and I have seldom riden with so many people, and then it wasn’t on dusty roads. But the views were good.

I did bump up the saturation on this to see the shades

On Sunday we only did a part of the ride with the tour group since we had already seen their last stop. At last I could breathe! We had a fabulous lunch all by ourselves in a beautiful grove of pines. There is a lot of virgin forest here.

Kevin showing just how big these Virgin Ponderosa pines really are

We were supposed to travel next to Marysvale, UT, but the fires there were on the west side of town heading east. I figured the smoke would be just as bad for me as the dust had been, so we cancelled our reservations. Hopefully we can get back there another time. On Monday, 8 July, we went to a cheap campground in Fredonia, UT, the Wagon Wheel RV Park. It was FHU for on,y $30 a night, so we didn’t complain. We got all our laundry done and stocked up on groceries in nearby Colorado City. We then had to decide what to do next since the fires interfered with our trip to Marysvale. We decided to just go back to the North Rim!

There are bison in the North Rim, but we hadn’t seen any until our last day there. We finally saw one just standing around (kind of boring) and another have a nice dust bath in a Buffalo wallow. Guess which one I am posting?

We generally just relaxed a lot, riding only another couple of days. The views were so lovely, the campsite so quiet, and the weather so temperate we just chilled reading books and such. We ate at Jacob’s Lake restaurant and the Kaibab Lodge, and both were excellent.

On Monday, 15 July, we started to head north. We spent one night at the Saint George Elks Lodge, and we were the only ones there! Then again, it was 105! Awful, but the views were nice. Tuesday we went to the Cedar City RV Resort, a nice place. We had reservations to see “Much Ado About Nothing”at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and it was a hoot, Shakespeare’s comedies are belly laughing funny and definitely not “high brow” stuff. We had intended to visit a small Renaissance Faire going on, but it was just too miserably hot since they didn’t open until 11:00 am. We did visit the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, but I gave out from the heat before I got to all the outdoor exhibits. Nice museum though!

Did I mention it was HOT? After the 105 degrees in St. George and the 99 degrees in Cedar City, we decided to prolong the pain by spending time at Antelope Island State Park, UT. The island is in the Great Salt Lake, and it was one of our favorite spots when we lived in SLC. We also wanted to see friends in the area. Antelope Island was also really hot, 10 degrees above average, but what is “average” anymore? There was also a LOT of haze from smoke. We did get a bunch of shopping done, and we spent time with friends, so it was worth it. But we aren’t going to stay 3 nights like we planned. We decided to head to Island Park tomorrow morning. Temps are forecast to be in the mid to upper 80s, and we can handle that. Crossing my fingers!

North Slope Road, UT and surrounds

North Slope Road is also known as WY 283, China Meadow Road, and USFS 072. We are parked not far off the road behind a row of pines. Since we arrived on Monday we have taken three RZR rides. The first was a short jaunt on Monday to China Meadows just down the road. It is a large beaver-created meadow that is beautiful. There is a small tent campground, but lots more dispersed sites. And we saw a moose! The picture is just awful because we were totally surprised when he stepped out of the willows and crossed the road. This pic is from Kevin’s phone and does not do the animal justice. This was probably the most beautiful bull moose I have ever seen. He was a glistening dark brown and huge. He walked across the road and was gone into the trees and up the hill by the time we got our wits together. You can see a bit of China Meadows too.

On Monday we took a longer trip on the west side of Marsh Lake. It was lovely! We climbed up the mountains well north to Stateline Reservoir, and then followed the trail along the ridge. There were lots of ruined log cabins scattered through the entire route. We asked a USFS employee what they were the remnant of, and he said they were left over from the tie hacking days. Beginning in the 1860s with the Transcontinental Railroad and continuing periodically through the 1930s, tie hackers would harvest wood, cut it the size of railroad ties, and send them downriver to be collected.

We found a collection of ruins designated as an archeological site. I was told it was a central collecting site for the tie hackers, and it included a commissary plus a number of outbuildings. The first ruin show is the large commissary. You need to click on the link, probably twice.

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This one is just an example of the ride. Most of it was on smooth two digit roads.

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This shows Stateline Reservoir.

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Today we drove on the east side of the campground a total of 60+ miles. It was rough! Wyoming has many trails restricted to 50” units which include motorcycles, traditional sit on ATVs, and the smallest of the side by sides like ours. This is what they use to make sure you stay true to the size limit! This was through a bog.

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Then there are these photos too. It was beavers that made the beautiful meadows, and this dam, not even close to being the largest, is a meadow in the making,

Big beaver dam to eventually make the beautiful meadows.

White columbines were everywhere in the riparian areas.

I have never seen so many white columbines!

Of course the GoPro was busy too. This was the first 50” trail we too, today. It was ROUGH! It went mostly straight up through a big blowdown. Very interesting, and challenging to drive on. There was one spot where a dead tree had rolled into the road, and Kevin moved it to the side, securing it with a rock.

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Here is a video of the bog boardwalk trail.

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Luckily not all of the trip was challenging, but we were both tired and a bit sore.

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it is expected to rain tomorrow, so we decided to take the truck to visit Ft. Bridger. Going to see how my back holds up!

Oh, and I did do some sewing. I finished up a sample for a class I hope to teach at the Redmond, OR FMCA convention in August. It is a cute fabric box that folds completely flat! RVers always need compact storage ideas.

Umm. Should have taken a picture of it collapsed!

And to end on an adorable note, the cats love the motorhome! They spend all their time staring out windows at the squirrels, mice, chipmunks, and birds, that they collapse and cuddle more than usual.

The best reasons to delay making the bed.

Eclipse then home

We woke to a cloudy morning on 8 April. It didn’t look promising for viewing. Kevin kept watching the cloud cover on weather apps, and just before totality we quickly drove 20 miles northwest. We got amazingly lucky, and the clouds parted just enough to view totality! There were still some high thin clouds, but we could see the “Diamond ring” and then the darkness fell. All the birds stopped singing, and even the insects stopped their sounds. Very odd, but just like what we observed during the 2017 eclipse in Idaho. Soon it was over, and we got absolutely no good pictures! We were rushing so much to get to a clear spot we had no time to set up gear. Oh well I have memories.

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night at the RV park in so-so weather. We spent Thursday, 11 April at the Walmart in Abilene. Nice spot for an overnight parking location. We spent Friday at Mustang RV Park in Oklahoma, leaving very early after deciding to make a run for home because of a bad storm coming in. We made it to the KOA in Topeka, KS on Saturday, then home on Sunday. We put the motorhome at our local county park, open but without water. We were too tired to unpack, so we just slept there that night. Monday and Tuesday were unpacking – ugh. It always seems a lot more trouble to unpack than to pack. But we are now home, and the cats adjusted quickly. I think they like the extra space for their zoomies. They run from the bedroom through the living room and down the stairs multiple times a day.

April and May are our medical appointment times, and we are both pretty busy with our respective dentists and doctors. Kevin is getting his dental implant finished, and I have appointments with a dermatologist, ophthalmologist, and the pain medicine guy. I need a dentist appointment too. The pain med will require at least two follow up appointments, and the derm probably will too. Sigh.

My poor 830 Record sewing machine had to go to its doctor on Saturday too. I got a thread sound up at the stand and broke the needle. I can’t get it to do any free motion quilting since, and it broke 5 needles when I kept trying various repairs I knew about. It sews ok on straight stitching, but there is thread wadding up on the bottom when I do FMQ. Hopefully I just pulled something out of whack and the machine can easily (and inexpensively) come back from it. I will find out in a week or so. The RZR is in for some major preventative service too since we really don’t know how it was cared for before we got it. We have out a few thousand miles on it! We had a regular oil change done when needed, but this is a more extensive service. We find out that dollar amount next week too, depending on whether they fine anything serious. We don’t think so, but …

I won’t be posting much, normal for me when I am home. Staying in one place just isn’t as interesting as traveling. We do have one short trip planned with my son in law and his two children the week after Memorial Day. Then we will be leaving for our western summer in mid-June.