On to Quartzsite

Everytime we think that we are getting good at this moving stuff, something goes wrong. Doug went outside to dump the tanks before we left the park this morning. And the septic system for the park was full. We couldn't empty our tanks!

Now, when you are going into the desert to boondock for a week, you have to have empty tanks to start. Doug was not a happy camper. We ended up having to drive to a nearby county park and pay $10 to use their dump station.

Then, a picture got bumped and the glass shattered. The day was not off to a great start. Oh yeah, it's the 13th! But everything smoothed out and we started east on I-10. Within the hour we were parked in the desert about 5 miles north of Quartzsite.


It's pretty easy to set up the coach when you have to power or water to hook up. We put the jacks down, opened the slides and put the solar shades on the window. We're home!


Here is our front yard.


Here is our back yard.

We are attending the Desert Rat Rally in time for all of the shows at Quartzsite. By tomorrow, there should be lot more coaches in the pictures. Our little group is expecting about 150 Alpine coaches.



And just for you Mom B. Another sunset.

Can You Call Them Chores?

Doug made an interesting discovery this morning. The spare tire in the Jeep desperately needed air. We didn't want to head into the desert without a spare tire, so off we went to Blythe. We found the tire store and K Mart as well as Ace Hardware. But we both need haircuts and there was not a barber or hair salon open on Mondays. I guess we'll be shaggy for a few more days.


When we got back to the park, we walked to the river edge to check out the boat launch and dock. The Colorado river seemed to be quite low. The ramp to the dock was almost vertical and closed.


That didn't keep Doug from dreaming about the catfish he could catch. There are pictures in the office of some of the fish that have been pulled from the river. The 50 - 60 pound catfish had him drooling.

We spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between laundry and visiting with our friends Dennis and Julie. And then the evening was spent reassembling the basement. The heat dried everything just as we had hoped and several items were even discarded. We wondered why we had kept them!

Tomorrow we will head for Quartzsite and the desert.

On the Colorado River

We left the Riverside County Fairgrounds after lots of hugs, handshakes and see-you-soons. What a great group of people. Everything went smoothly. The propane tank is filled, the refrigerator is filled and best of all, the inverter is working.


We had a pleasant drive across I-10 in the 78 degree heat and arrived at Hidden Beaches RV Resort. It's an OK park that is situated right on the Colorado River on the California side. There are quite a few empty trailers and campers so we are guessing that on the weekends when everyone wants to launch their watercraft and play, this place is jumping.

A full hookup site was necessary to do laundry and long, hot showers and after a little shuffling of sites we settled in. This is not a fancy park but it will do for a couple of nights while we prepare for another week of boondocking in the Arizona desert near Quartzsite.


Shortly after we got settled, Doug heard a strange whooshing sound and opened the basement compartment to discover water spraying and pouring all over everything in storage. The hose that connects to the water pump had become unattached (disattached?). Either way, what a mess!


We shut everything off and started unloading the basement. It looked like the Beverly Hillbillies had moved into the park. But the carpet was soaked and will need to dry in the heat (hopefully tomorrow). I dried things as best I could while Doug repaired the hose. Thank heavens he is a boy scout-be prepared kind of person. He had everything we needed to get the water running again.


We paused long enough to watch another southwest sunset. I hope you aren't too tired of sunset pictures because I love taking them. Some evenings the sky is just spectacular.


And then it gets better!!!

found .06
YTD .51

Last Day at the Rally

Today is our last full day at the rally. We purchased a solar shade for the front window that will be a huge help out in the desert at Quartzsite and some new lights for the bedroom fixtures. Doug is experimenting with led lights instead of fluorescent. So far, we like the looks of them.

We also picked up a new atlas and map holder as well as some polish for the wheels. There was a booth (for which we had coupons) that was giving away packages of waffles and pancakes. So, we picked up our freebies and that will be dinner tonight.

In the afternoon, Doug decided to replace the turn signal on the coach that wasn't working properly. A quick trip to the auto parts store resulted in new bulbs and .12 picked up. Woohoo!
We grabbed our mail at the post office then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting. Tomorrow we move to a park near the Colorado River.

found .13
YTD .45

A Visit from Washington

After another busy morning in the exhibit tent at the rally, we took a ride west to Desert Hot Springs to visit with our friends from Washington, Doug & Diane. They managed to escape the horrible winter in between storms and are now enjoying the sunshine and blue sky.

We met them at the park where they are staying (Catalina Spa & RV) and visited for a couple hours until we were all hungry. They followed us to the nearby In-N-Out Burger for lunch and then a quick stop at the Flying J for a couple of rv related items.

It was almost evening by the time we arrived back at the coach and the happy hour had already been disbanded. So, we just settled in for the evening and relaxed. Not many pictures today as we were busy enjoying ourselves and completely forgot the camera.

found .12
YTD .32

Powerless!

I feel as though I have been neglecting the blog. But the truth is, we haven't had any power. On Wednesday, the major portion of the day was spent repairing the inverter. For those non-rvers, the inverter is the small piece of equipment in the basement that takes the power from the batteries and changes it into power that we can use inside the coach. And not just any kind of power, but the kind that runs normal things like the tv and computers and anything that runs on ac power. In order to work on it, all power to the coach had to be cut. All power....all day.


So, with the help of a couple of new friends, Ray and Louie, Doug spent the afternoon rewiring the inverter and voila.....we have power when we aren't hooked up to shore power. Ray took the time to answer all of my questions and explained volts and watts and amps in plain english. What was a black hole in my knowledge base has become quite light now. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture. But, I wanted you to see the wires that had to be replaced.)

That pretty much took up the whole day Wednesday, intermixed with some socializing. And yesterday, the rally exhibits opened officially. We didn't get a very early start as some of the coffee-and-doughnut people did. But by 10 am we were strolling through the exhibitor booths and thinking of ways to spend wads of money.

It didn't take long to realize that our wish list was a lot bigger than our wallets. So, we listed everything in a notebook that we thought we wanted and/or needed. Several hours later when we exited the tents, the list held over a dozen items. We had a cool drink (lovely day today) and went over the list carefully. A couple of items were laughed off the list immediately and a couple more just didn't make sense at this time. However, we were left with six items that we were truly interested in. So, Doug started talking to friends and neighbors about each item. Weighing the pros and cons of each, we eliminated three more. Hooray! That just leaves one expensive item, one mid range item and one not terribly expensive item. Two of them are necessary replacements for broken items in the coach and the last will be a quality-of-life improvement. Tomorrow, we will go back to the vendors and try to work some deals for the three things.

All of this important shopping was followed by a quick trip to the grocery store and another informal gathering to partake of snackies, beverage and conversation.

found .01
YTD .19

Rally Time

Wow, I missed a day. We spent all day Monday at the Oasis Palms RV Park cleaning the coach and doing laundry. The basement on the drivers side is now organized and everything was accomplished except washing the outside of the coach. Our neighbor stopped by to visit and deliver a bag of tangelos. We had never had them and had to look up what they are a combination of. They are tangerines (of course) and pomelos. Next, we had to research pomelos. There are an ancestor of our current day grapefruit. Ah ha! Tangerines and grapefruit. Yukon Ray (our neighbor) also gave us a helpful hint about eating them. Salt sprinkled on them lightly increases their natural sweetness.

We were out of the park bright and early today and headed to Indio for the FMCA rally. We met with the rest of our Alpine Coach Association at the Fantasy Casino and then caravanned to the fairgrounds where the rally is being held. When we registered, there were 19 coaches in our group and by the time we arrived, the count was up to 30.


The caravan to the fairgrounds went fairly smoothly and we were all lined up in a holding area so we could unhook our toads (cars). It was quite a sight to see all of the Alpines together.


After a short visit period, we were led single file to the parking area. We are parked on the asphalt so it isn't too dusty and we have power. The vast majority of the participants are dry camping so we feel pretty lucky. As you can see, we are parked nose to nose with just enough room between us to open our slides and park our cars. What a way to meet new friends!


That's the back of our coach and we are in the middle of the row. So, you can get an idea of how cozy we are. Tomorrow, there will be several more rows of coaches parked behind us when the general admission starts.

We picked up our information packets and name badges then spent some time visiting and getting set up.


About 4:30 the "wine & whine" session started at the end of the row. Everyone brought their chairs, beverage of choice and snacks. We had the opportunity to meet some new friends and catch up with some old friends.


Before we knew it, it was dark and we headed back to our coaches for a bite of dinner.

found .02
YTD .18

Crazy Winds and Oasis Palms

The wild and wicked winds continued all night and into this morning. It made for a sleepless night and we both decided enough was enough. We packed up the coach and left our boondocking site.

We called around and found that the Oasis Palms RV Park near the Salton Sea had openings at a reasonable price and they accept the Good Sam card for a discount. So, we checked the map and planned a route through Box Canyon instead of backtracking on I-10. What a smart choice! The road is two lane and narrow in places but what views. The road winds through fantastic rock formations and mountains. We even found several places that we would consider for boondocking. Quite a few off road vehicles enjoying the day also.


We arrived 30 miles later at the Oasis Palms and found a nice pull through site for a couple of nights. It's a very friendly park and covered with citrus trees. We took a ride around the park and picked grapefruit, oranges and lemons right from the car. We are welcome to take all that we want. Mmmmmm.



Here is the lemon tree just outside the door. All of the trees are loaded with fruit and nobody uses it.



We also have a nice little lake (pond) for our view from the front window. What a rough life.

We will use the next couple of days to catch up on laundry and cleaning. Then on Tuesday, we will meet with an Alpine Coach group and caravan to the FMCA rally in Indio. Sure are looking forward to seeing some old friends.

Found .03
YTD .16

Geocaching General Patton

We had another educational geocache trip today. We thoroughly enjoy this hobby and for those of you who have never heard of it or experienced the thrill of treasure hunting, check out the website www.geocaching.com. Even if you aren't traveling, there are tons of caches in every area.



Our first cache of the day took us less than 3 miles from where we are parked. Using the latitude and longitude posted on the geocache website, we hiked up a slight hill behind these rocks. The day was cool and perfect for a short hike.


And this is what we found. Geocaching in the desert is totally different than in the northwest. There were many times in Washington that we never found the cache, simply because there are too many hiding places and gps units have trouble finding the satellites in places with very dense foliage above. (lots of trees!) But in the desert, there aren't quite so many hiding spots.


We are also finding that the containers used for caches are different in different places. In Washington and Oregon, the containers were quite often ammo boxes or boxes that are very weatherproof. Today, we found an Ovaltine jar, a Folgers coffee can and a plastic jar.


The contents of the caches vary dramatically. We have found everything from money to paper stickers. Today's treasures were pretty crummy. But, every cache has a log book and when you find it, you need to date and sign it. Then, if you are really into geocaching, you can go back to the website and log into that particular cache and leave a message. It keeps track of how many caches we have found and where. Our goal is to find at least one cache in every state.

Our next stop took us right past the General Patton Museum at Chiriaco Summit. We didn't get a chance to go into the museum but there are quite a few tanks and equipment parked outside and a statue of the general himself. It looks very interesting and I will post some pictures when we go back to visit the museum.


This is the Folgers cache. Again, the treasures were slim pickins' so we just signed the log book and returned it to it's hiding place.


Our final destination was out in the middle of the desert at Camp Young. This is where General Patton trained a million soldiers from 1942 to 1944. Other than this monument to General S.B.M. Young there is nothing but acres of desert and one lonely cache.


It was starting to get very cool and windy as some dark clouds rolled in. We decided that it was a good time to call it a day and head home. The wind blew so hard the coach rocked and creaked all night long. No fun.

found money .00
YTD .13

Errands and Plans

Not a lot happening today. We ran to the gas station where Doug picked up a dime while pumping gas. And then the grocery store. Just stocked up on a few goodies and returned to the coach. We will be meeting lots of friends on Tuesday for the FMCA rally, so we are getting prepared for that.

There are a couple of geocaches nearby and we want to check those out before we leave this area. And of course, Doug wants to do some more metal detecting. Lots of plans, not so much action.

found money today .10
YTD .13

A Richer New Year

Doug decided to play with his metal detector today. It was a beautiful, sunny day and all of that sand was calling to him. He knew there were riches to be found.


At first, it was fun following him around and listening to the beeps and squawks of the Whites QXT Pro. But after the 60th bullet shell was uncovered, it wasn't quite as enticing. So, I tried baking a loaf of bread instead. (disaster!)


He uses the big detector to narrow down an area and then this little detector to isolate the treasure. He spent a lot of time sifting through the dirt just to end up with a rusty nail, bolt or screw.


But then came the payoff! He found a penny! And then another one! By the time it got too dark to see anything, he had a profit of three cents. Not bad for a day spent lounging in the southwest sun.

Found money today .03.

Happy New Year!

As I sipped my coffee and watched the sun rise over the mountains, I remembered why I love the beginning of a new year. It's like opening a new, special notebook and flipping through all of the clean, white empty pages beckoning me to to start fresh. I know.....it's Thursday, just another day. And nothing has changed in our lives since midnight. We can't just toss away the baggage that we carry from last year. Still I love the fact that it is not only socially acceptable, but we are encouraged to resolve to make positive changes in our lives. Who can't use a positive change or two?

2008 was a tough year. We lost people who shaped our lives and psyche. We lost the unconditional love of a pet and less importantly, a sizeable chunk of savings. Yet, we found friends that stood beside us and shared the hurts. We found ways to put one foot in front of the other. And we found our traveling spirit. We discovered that life doesn't have to be predictable and neat. Sometimes life is incredibly messy and confusing and wonderful. Our choices and goals can be totally off base and still we are given a new day and a new year to try again.

So, to heck with all of the resolutions involving weight loss and saving money. Eating right and becoming organized are over rated. Today, my resolution is to find at least one piece of beauty in each and every day. Sounds simple and maybe that's what I need. Life doesn't have to be complicated, does it?

We are looking forward to our new year with thoughts of visiting new states, making new friends, rejoining old friends around campfires, hugging grandchildren and family celebrations. So much to look forward to and to fill the blank pages of 2009. We wish each and every one of you a lifetime of happiness and may 2009 be the beginning.

Don't Fence Me In

We left the Palm Springs Thousand Trails this morning and headed east. First we stopped to top off the fuel tank and then the propane tank at the nearby Travel America Travel Center. (expensive place!) Then started driving east.


We found a quiet place on the BLM land set quite a ways back off the freeway and established camp. It's beautiful and quiet and no busy neighbors.


Here is the view upon stepping out of the door. It is pretty much the same view in every direction. Desert, mountains, blue sky and no people.


We opened all of the windows and enjoyed the light breeze and fragrances from the trees and vegetation.


And for Jacob and Emma, papa Doug took this picture of a new friend. (His....not mine)

In the early evening, Doug set up the satellite dish and we cranked up the generator to watch tv for a couple of hours and use the computers. Our Xantrex inverter is not working properly so we will be using the generator for power until we can find a place to repair it.


But, that's ok too. The generator is relatively quiet and provides all of the power we need. At bedtime, the sky was covered with stars and the night was pitch black. It's amazing how different things look away from the bright lights of civilization. And how quiet the night can be.

Lazy Day at Home

Well, the Christmas decorations are stowed away for another year and we are already seeing Valentine products on the store shelves. Are you kidding me???? We are looking forward to a New Year's celebration and Walmart is trying to sell us hearts and flowers.

I wish everyday was exciting and new but, instead I had a chance to catch up on some reading and game playing today. After making cookies, we just relaxed. Doug prepared chicken with bacon sandwiches for dinner and we were supremely lazy. How nice.

Joshua Tree

On our quest for boondocking sites, we drove to a recommended area just outside of the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.


It's BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) and camping is allowed. The wide, open desert has many sites that include firepits, level parking spaces and a few other campers. Doug can hardly wait to do some exploring.



After checking out the expansive sandbox, we decided to drive into Joshua Tree National Park. We had purchased an annual pass when we were back in Oregon and it saved us $15 today on the entrance fee. Sweet!



As usual, our first stop was the visitor center. We love these places. They sell tons of books and clothes and tourist stuff, but they also have free maps and information about the area. The western half of the park is the Mojave Desert habitat and the eastern half is part of the Colorado Desert. Because of the two different habitats, there is a tremendous variety of plants and animals. Everything from bighorn sheep to desert iguana lizards and 40' tall Joshua trees to tiny wildflowers coexist peacefully.

There are several campgrounds inside the park that are geared toward smaller rigs. Our 40' coach would fit, however it's very tight.


The road meanders about 50 miles through the park with lots of turnouts and informational signs. There is something for everyone when it comes to hiking trails. Short ones, long ones, uphill into the mountains ones and the terrain is so diverse. You drive through miles of sandy wash desert, then mountains of stacked rocks.


We didn't get all the way through the park due to time constraints, but we did find time for a snowball fight! Doug started it.....


And I finished it!

We will definitely venture back into the park to see the rest of it. So much to see and so little time!

Ocotillo Wells SVRA

Our adventure for the day included a trip along the Salton Sea to the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. In plain english, that's an 80,000 acre park for playing on off-road vehicles like dirt bikes and dune buggies.


It is part of the California State Park system and allows free camping and playing. Since we are looking for a place to boondock (camp without power and water and fees) next week, we thought this might be a terrific place to be.

We drove to the ranger station and received some good information and advice. The recent rains have caused havoc for several of the areas where people camp. The ground is still muddy and wet. And the entire area is open to off road vehicles. So it can be very noisy.


We drove to four of the areas available for camping and decided that it probably wasn't our best idea of the year. It is beautiful and if we were just passing through and spent a night or two, it would be an ideal situation. But, to make it a destination for a week, not so much.

Still, we enjoyed the day and Doug would love to go back and rent a dune buggy for a day. It looked like everyone was having a blast! And 80,000 acres is a big playground.

A Simple Christmas

We spent a quiet day at home in the coach. A few Christmas shows were on the tv and the phone was in constant use. But mainly, we just relaxed and let the Christmas rush go by us.

No driving to see relatives or baking or cooking. No snow to shovel or last minute shopping. (We did go buy a loaf of bread to make toasted cheese sandwiches.) There were no obligations or pretend jolliness. Simply quiet, joyful peace.

Sure, there were some things we missed. We would have loved to see Jacob and Emma's faces as they tore open gifts. And the fact that Chris had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas day was not a pleasant thought. But, I know that one day we will all share Christmas together again.

Hope your day was all that you expected and guess what.....we get to do it all over again in 364 more days!

Happy Holidays

And Merry Christmas to all of our dear family and friends. We are sending you our love and wishes for a happy day.