Quartzsite days

Solar !!!

RVSue has a solar panel mounted on her van, the PTV! (Perfect Tow Vehicle), she is showing Chuck how she raises it up to catch the best of the sun's energy!

Next, Bill comes over to check it out. Bill and Ann have a solar panel attached to their Casita also!

Solar panel is up! Chuck and Bill approve while Scotty and DoogieBowser look for Sue's crew!

Her dogs come by later for a visit!

You can see Bill and Ann's solar panel mounted at a permanent angle on their Casita in the background!

The "Q" Experience

Quartzsite takes on a carnival experience every Spring! Colorful tents pop up like weird desert blooms!

The closer you get to the carnival, the worse the traffic becomes!

Flags flying, children crying, feet dying!

We walked and walked and walked! So Many vendors! So little energy! LOL!

 Traffic going in to town, traffic leaving town! I was lucky, I just bought a couple of pair of socks and some ice cream!

"Q" Gives a sunset !

Our campsite at Dome Rock lit up our last night there! What a sky, what mountains!

The Ocotillo cactus behind Sue's rig, reaches

up into the sky as if to greet the sunset!

This was our last campfire and our last gathering of friends! Clete and Chris had left this morning and tomorrow this campground would be empty!

 Oh.... but what a glorious sunset for our goodbyes!

Our last morning... from left to right:

Sue, Chuck, Bill and Ann, ??? and Rosemary (jeeeeeze--- I forgot your husband's name!),and Jim and Carol, all pets there and accounted for!

Jim and Carol left right after this group photo! Several folks had already left, but they had arrived a few days earlier than we did... sadly I didn't get any photos of some of these nice folks!

Bill and Ann left next, headed to Sue's Pond near Yuma. Sue and Chuck and I decided we needed breakfast at the great Mountain Quail Cafe! Then we filled propane tanks and headed back to the "Q" circus to see if we missed anything! Sue picked up a few needed gadgets and some LED lights. We spent one more night in camp and then we headed down to Sue's Pond near Yuma! We had so much fun (EXCEPTING for the electrical problems!) and we were glad we made the trip! We made new friends and reacquainted with our old friends! Life is good!

See ya at Sue's Pond next then on to Ajo!

Geri, Chuck and the Hound Herd!

On The Road Again, Continued !

Hi again! We arrived at our home base in Truth or Consequences NM on Saturday, Jan 28.  I am going to backtrack a bit from my last blog because I had such a poor wifi signal, I couldn't upload several of the photos that I wanted to show you from Sue's Pond near Yuma AZ.

Texas Canyon

First thing I want to set straight is that Texas Canyon is located at the second rest area as you enter AZ from the East!  The whole area of Texas Canyon is a beautiful area and worth exploring!  I spent several days there way back in the early 1980's when I was travelling and living in my slide in camper on my GMC pick-up truck! This area is wonderful for your imagination to explode.... remembering all the TV westerns!

RV Sue's Casita parked next to the pond. Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but this beautiful pond is located on BLM land (bureau of land management) and you can camp there for 2 weeks FREE, but there are no hook-ups. You have to go into Yuma to dump the black and grey tanks and fill up with water!

 The MotherShip and the BLT (Best Little Trailer) enjoying the sunset at Sue's Pond!

Quartzsite !!

We arrived on Friday the 13th !  Only a couple of hours (if that long) north of Yuma, we finally arrived at Quartzsite and found all of our friends and their shiny white Casita's nestled at the base of Dome Rock!

Friday the 13th soon lived up to it's reputation! As Chuck was unhooking our truck from The MotherShip, the electrical cord that connects from the truck to The MotherShip that runs the brake lights, recharge the batteries on board the trailer etc etc while on the road. When Chuck unhooked that cord between the MotherShip and the truck, that cord slipped off where he usually places it when he pulls the truck away. The cord got stuck behind the rear guard flaps bar that sits in the receiver hitch of the truck. Before I could yell at Chuck to stop, he pulled forward and pulled that huge electrical cord out of the MotherShip and it landed on the ground! Yikes!!!! One of our new and friendly Casita friends, Bill, came over and can you believe it??? Bill is a retired electrical engineer and in just a few hours and a couple of trips to town for parts, he and Chuck mended The MotherShip!!!!

Not totally fixed, but fixed enough to get us home. Trailer running lights weren't working and neitheWoW! So great to meet you! So nice of you to help us!

MotherShip Lives Up To Her Name!

The MotherShip soon became the meeting place! Several windy, cold days made sitting outside uncomfortable! We all gathered in the warmth of The MotherShip! From Left to right, Sue, Bill, Cleet, Chuck and Sue with the ever present Bridgette who never wants to leave Sue's lap! :-) ScottyBoy is comfey at Sue's feet!

Sue's Crew consists of 2 Rat Terriers, Bridgette on her lap and Spike at her feet! They keep her company on her travels in her Casita! Sue is a retired schoolteacher from Georgia and she has a cool blog you might want to check her out: http://rvsueandcrew.wordpress.com/

Unlike me, Sue posts almost everyday and she is a very good writer and her blogs are fun to read!

First Campfire

What a feast! Everybody donated something and we

hot dogs and had lotsa goodies to go with them!

Speaking of Dogs...  seems everybody had at least one! 
Jim and Carol brought the one, the famous in Casita worlds, Jerry the cat!

Meet Jerry, the Cat!

Jerry, the cat sits on Carol's lap at our gathering! Jerry is very social, he has been travelling with Jim and Carol for 6 years and loves it! Bill's wife Ann, even made a special stained glass window for Jerry's Casita (that he generously shares with Jim and Carol!)

Jim, Carol and Jerry!

Goin' to the Dogs!

Ann, relaxing with Samantha!

Bill and Julie, his lap warmer!

Clete and Diego!

There were several other campers with their dogs, but seems I got distracted and didn't get their photographs!  It was a fun group as you can see! We had a ball. I will post again tomorrow, more about the Quartzsite experience and our friends!

Wishing you lots of laughter in your life!

The MotherShip Crew,Geri,Chuck and the Hound Herd!

On The Road Again!

Headed To Yuma to meet RVSue!

We finally took the MotherShip out of dry dock,

filled her full of good eats, clean sheets and doggie treats! This is the longest we have been dry docked

off the MotherShip since we first boarded 

her almost 2 years ago!

On the  2nd  Tuesday of January, we climbed aboard

and headed out of our home base of Truth or

Consequences NM! The destinations being Yuma,

Quartzite and Ajo AZ!and lo and behold, the one main thing we forgot was our MiFi aircard from Verizon! YIKES! So I am very late posting all our fun news we want to share. Forgive me. Today 1-23-2012 finds us in Picacho AZ KOA, hooked up to shore power and I have a weak, but workable wifi signal!

Therefore, I am gonna try to get out part one of our journey to Sue's Pond near Yuma AZ! So far I have been working at this blog about 4 hours!

SLOWWWWWW wifi connection here! PLEASE BE PATIENT! If I can't finish it all here, I will finish when we get back home to T or C!

Just short of the I-10, I was a bit surprised to

find windmills spread across the New Mexico

landscape!  We have seen hundreds of them in CA and TX, but never until now had we seen them nestled in this SW corner of NM!

After almost 6 months dry docked in NM,

we are now crossing the state line into Arizona!

The second rest area on I-10 in eastern Arizona is one of my favorites, Texas Canyon! One can just imagine the old cowboy westerns where the bad guys are shooting at the good guys from all the big rocks and boulders at this rest area! Love it!

Right after we pulled out of Texas Canyon rest area, this truck passed us pulling a humongous BBQ Grill!

Chuck was all ready to pull in and follow them! That darned grill was bigger than the truck pulling it! YUM!

We both love good Bar-b-que! That is one thing that we haven't found in NM! That and a good seafood restaurant! Oh well..........

We were headed west going through Tucson, when we remembered Al (from the www.bayfieldbunch.com blog) had mentioned the at the same exit as the hospital there was an In-N-Out burger!  One of Chuck's favorites and he has not had an In-N-Out burger since his California days! So when we saw the blue H hospital sign we took that exit and parked in the big parking lot behind the restaurant and we pigged out on the best burger I have ever had! Now I understand all the commotion about In-N-Out food! It is the best ever! Honest!

Just west of Tucson, we saw our first Saguaro Cacti!

What giants these guys are! Royalty of the desert SouthWest! I wish you could see all the way up the mountain in the distance, Saguaro cacti marching up all over those hills! You can click on any of the images in this blog and bring them up to full size.

When I lived back east, before my first trip to the SouthWest, I used to see paintings of the mountains layered in different hues of blue and wonder why... it sure didn't look like anything I was familiar with! Well, you get out here and sure enough, the mountains are really layered in blues. This is also known as a Saguaro Cacti forest!  See all the Saguaro? Not like a forest back east, but a forest none the less! Absolutely amazing to see!

The Saguaro forest extends up those mountains in the background...much as pines etc would cover the mountains of the east! All those "dots" are cacti!

SUE'S POND !!

Finally we arrive at Yuma on Thursday and find Sue's pond just north of Yuma!  This is a beautiful little BLM site, you can "boondock" here for 2 weeks free!

For you non-campers, "boondocking" means camping without water, electric, sewer hookups. Most RV's can go 2 weeks or more with careful conservation of resources before having to dump the black tanks (sewer) or having to refill water supply.  This pond is isolated, beautiful and there are about 20 or so RV's camped around the pond! Certainly warmer here than than up north! It runs mid-60's day and mid- 30's at night.

It seems I have lost most of my Wifi signal, as it's not letting me upload anymore photos to the blog. I will continue when we get back to Truth or Consequences NM about Friday or Saturday! I can't believe we forgot our air card! Sheeeeeesh! We leave Picacho KOA tonight headed to one of our favorite AZ campgrounds in Safford.... the Roper Lake State Park. We will stay there 2 nights (it's danged cold still at home!) and then head to T or C!

We love you and remember, if you want to leave a comment you have to go all the way back up to the headline "On The Road Again", click on there then come all the way back down and leave your comment.... or heck, you can just email me!

Wishing you a great day as we get The MotherShip ready to take off!

Geri, Chuck and The Hound Herd!