New Discoveries

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way.

It’s still a little cool for us to be outside running around.  It looks as though this storm that California has been sending our way is going to last through about Thursday.  It’s not that it’s a bad storm in this location.  It's chilly at night and the winds are a bit breezy.  We’ll be glad when it’s over.  However, by that time we’ll actually be thinking more of watching the weather over the Siskiyous than caring what it is like in Arizona.  After all, we don't want snow or ice to get in our way when we head north for the holidays.

We did discover a few new things around Quartzsite we hadn’t discovered on our previous three trips.  First, we finally found the Mountain Quail Café.  It’s not on the main drag and kind of tucked down a side road.  You might guess that since we found it, we also had to try it.  We had nothing to complain about and enjoyed the lunch.  While in the area we also discovered quite a few different RV parks that we didn’t know existed either.  Some of them were quite nice and quite cheap.  Some of them not so much.

Not far from the Café we saw a couple State Trust Land signs.  The sign said, “No Trespassing”.  It wasn’t BLM property.  It belonged to the State and not the Government.  However, regardless that the sign indicated no trespassing  there were about a dozen RVs parked there.  We had to stop and talk to the folks staying there.  After all, they were boondocking almost in the center of town.  We wanted to know the details.  According to the person we talked to all that is needed is a pass for parking on Trust Land.  We already have one!  We bought it before we arrived in Arizona.  However, we bought it for our ATVs and didn't know it was good for boondocking on State Land too.  The fee?  I think we paid $20 for the annual pass.

I’m sure if more people knew about the pass, this is where they would be parked instead of miles down the road in the 14-day parking area.  Since I'm posting the information here I certainly hope the RVers know what they were talking about or I'd get the blame.

Ever see one of these Outback Loft trailers? I guess this turns a one bedroom unit into an extra bedroom for kids or guests.

On Monday it was still chilly so instead of exploring on our ATVs we took another drive around the area.  Guess what?  We found another new restaurant.  They just seem to be popping up all over the place.  Well, some have closed down from last year including the Texas BBQ, Janet’s Kitchen and Best Mexican.  The new one is next to the Pilot Station.  It’s name is Three Times.  Obviously there must be some significance to that name but we couldn’t figure out what it was.  Our only thought was that maybe this was the third time the owners had owned a restaurant. Let's hope this one makes it.

Can you believe a home like this being built right inside the city limits of Quartzsite?  The home looks like it had just been finished.  No one was living in it. Well, they aren’t living in it yet.

Many music jams are held around “Q” during this time of year.  When we checked into our RV park we were given a list of them.  Monday night we went to our first since this one was held in the club house here at the park.  We were surprised to see so many guitars and strummers.  It was fantastic.  Saturday night another one is being held in the club house.  We plan on making it to that one too.  I guess I’m going to have to get out my Reba shirt and wear it to fit in though.

‘Tis life on the road.

Checking in at Quartzsite

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.

The big wind storm passed through Quartzsite on Thursday.   With the winds taking a break on Friday, the 136 mile drive was an easy one especially after we got out of the Phoenix area.  We actually didn’t get on our way until close to noon but we weren’t in any hurry.  The only plans we had were just to get settled.

Quartzsite hasn’t started to rock and roll yet with the big influx of RVs and people.  It will though in about four more weeks.  There are a few vendors and more and more keep coming in. The traffic isn’t bad yet but it will be.  The lines aren’t too bad either but they also will be soon.  It’s not that the town is empty.  It certainly is not.  It’s just not bulging at the seams yet.

Price of unleaded fuel in the Phoenix area averaged between $3.19 and about $3.24 a gallon. Gas isn’t that cheap in “Q”.  After all, it’s their high season and they want to pull in all the cash they can. The  price on Main Street in “Q”?  Well, two stations are selling it for $3.35.  Just down the street there is a Pilot Station at $3.23.  Obviously, that’s the place to stop.  A Love's is just around the corner but we haven’t checked that out yet.

After moving into our site and setting up, we drove the two short miles into the center of town. We were off to the Best Mexican Restaurant.  We had eaten at this restaurant several times in the past. However, the Mexican restaurant was no longer in business. In it’s place was Q-Town Café. The parking lot was packed and the people just kept coming. Menu prices were reasonable, service top notch and my barbecued ribs were some of the best I’d ever had.

Shopping with the vendors in town can be a fun experience.  You can find just about everything for sale.  However, the local stores start marking their products up about this time of year.  High season is short lived here..  Many of the businesses and even the RV parks close down during the summer months.  This is it.  They’ve got to make a profit.  That profit hopefully will see them through until the RVers start coming back again in the fall.

On the first Saturday of each month there is a huge craft fair in Quartzsite.  We wanted to check it out.  However, we also wanted to check out the breakfast offered at the park first.  You’ve got to admit that $3.00 is a great price for breakfast.  The park volunteers were cooking and it appeared as though everyone in the park was eating there.  The menu consisted of french toast, bacon, strawberries, orange jucie and coffee.  Not a bad deal for $3.00, huh?

Then, it was off to check out the craft fair.  We had seen lots of  spinners made from soda and beer cans but nothing like these.  I guess each year new ideas come out and some of the trinkets get better.  These were double spinners for $20 each or you could buy a quad one for $30.

We escaped the craft fair without bags of stuff.  Matter of fact, no purchases were made by us.

Here’s a new item to Quartzsite.  It’s the RV Caddy.  This little caddy has a dual purpose.  It can be used as an RV dump and also fill your fresh water tank.  There are two separate compartments in the caddy.  You can rent it from the vendor in town and do it yourself for $35 or you can have the vendor empty your tanks and fill you up with fresh water.  The price for that is $35 also.  It takes about a half hour to completely empty and fill your rig so the reason for the price appearing to be the same is that they figure you could do two RVs in that rental hour.

Saturday the winds started blowing again. It seems the storm that brought the big winds also had other winds behind it plus much cooler weather. We had planned on doing a few things but all we got in was a short ATV ride and a few vendor stalls. It was downright chilly!! 

Bring on the sun!!

'Tis just life on the road.

Gadgets for “Q” and Filly’s

Everyone is a friend, until they prove otherwise. 

I remember a couple of years ago when we had our first winter visit to Quartzsite.  It was amazing all the neat little gadgets you could pick up from one or twelve of the hundreds of vendors there.  We actually discovered some of these little gadgets were a necessity.  Well, knowing that we were soon going to be heading in that direction I picked up a few more little gadgets from the sale bin at Harbor Freight.  Check out the $2 bargain headlamps.  You might think this is funny but it’s not.  When there before all of us bought the little led lights that attached on your cap to make the nightly path to and from the campfire a little easier to see.

I also found another little $2 LED light that could easily be hung on Duchess’ leash for night time outings.  I wasn’t through with my finds though.  Check out this magnesium fire starter for $1. Now I know it probably isn’t as good as one of those butane BBQ fire lighters but heck for the price, why not give it a try?  Besides that was a well spent $1 ‘cuz we were helping out the local economy.  Will we find these things at “Q” cheaper?  Well, maybe but with bargains like this, I didn’t want to chance it.

I wasn’t through with gadgets from the dollar-ish table.   A few times we found that we needed to siphon water from one place to another.  Perhaps, we’d need to do that again. Or, maybe we’ll want to siphon gas from the Jeep and fill a gas tank for the quad or a generator.  There’s nothing like being prepared.

Terry also found some little treasures of his own but his treasures meant he had to do some work on the trailer.  At least with my little finds there was no work required and only a place to stash them until we get down to our next destination.

 

In addition to that the real reason we went to Harbor Freight was to pick up a ramp to load our Vinson ATV on the trailer.  Now that we had all the work done on the trailer so we could side load one of the ATVs, we still needed to get a ramp to actually get it on the trailer.  This is the great ATV ramp we found down there at a great price. We did discover that the width needed a little tweaking.  However, that's the easy part.  The hard part was finding the ramp at the price we wanted to pay.

After our bargains, we just had to take another ride.  We just had to.  I think I enjoy the rides even more than Terry does.    It’s peaceful and there isn’t a lot of traffic or red lights on the trails.  The desert really is beautiful.  However, we did see one thing that we didn’t like.  Someone dumped a load of old tires out there.  Ugh!

We were back to Filly’s Roadhouse on Thursday night for our favorite duo in the area – Brant and Kerry.  Those guys really are fantastic.  We love listening to them and we love going to the places they perform.  Of course, the singing was fantastic but the company was even better. We met Jim and Sandie there.

  

Friday we're off for a long ATV ride up to the Superstition Mountains with a group.  Later in the evening we have reservations at the Arizona Opry.  We’ve always wanted to go there so we finally we will get a chance to.  The problem with coming to this area later in the season and wanting to go is that all the seats are usually booked.  That’s not the case this time of year.

Saturday?  It’s a weekend and we’re taking a little trip to Quartzsite .... maybe.  Well, not to stay but just for a visit.  We rarely get bored and I bet you've already figured that one out.

‘Tis life on the road.

Hanging Out Around Apache Junction

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.

 

We’ve been a little busy the last few days.  We weren’t really doing a heck of a lot but it always seems we’ve got something going on or something that needs to be done. 

One thing we wanted to do on one of those busy days was return to the huge Mesa Swap Meet but it’s only open on the weekends. I bought some material there a week ago and wanted more of it before they ran out.  Since this place is so big and we really didn’t want to stroll all the way through it again, we decided just to walk the outside loop.  That’s where the quilt shop was and that’s where we also found little flags for our quads.  Why is it that all the really cute flags are taller than wider?  We needed the wider ones for the ATV poles.  They were only $3 each so we bought a few.  Of course, once we got them back to the RV, we discovered they needed to be adjusted so the pole could slide through and my sewing machine is still in the shop.  We also bought our first Christmas present.  Or, was it our second or third?  Ugh!

Another stop was made so we could get a license plate for our ATV.  We figured if we didn’t do it soon, our luck might run out and we’d get stopped.  It didn’t take long.  The hard part was finding a place open on Saturday to get the title transferred and the plates.  We had made a stop at the DMV on Friday but then realized it was a holiday and no one was working.  One thing about licensing the Arctic Cat in Arizona is that there is no sales tax if purchased from a private party and Arizona licensed the quad for road use.  There are so many snowbirds in the area that they are used to out-of-staters using the address of their RV parks for the title.  However, the title is just printed at the time of transfer.  Actually two stickers are required.  One is for OHV (off highway use) and the other is for normal travel on the road.  No matter what state the quad is licensed in an OHV sticker is required on it.

Bass Pro Shop is located in Tempe.  One more stop just because we had to.  That’s such a fun store to walk around.  You find all these neat little toys you didn’t know you had to have.  Terry found a few.  We also looked at trail GPS units that might be good for finding our way back.  I’ve watched too many of the “I shouldn’t be alive” shows where the problem was in getting back where they came from, I guess.  Even though we already have two GPS units, they aren’t the ones that are good for trails or atvs.  It’s not that we know much about the waypoints on a trail one because we don’t. 

On the way back to the RV we made a stop at the Arizona Casino.  It wasn't really on the way but kind of it was.   We didn’t go to gamble.  We went to donate a few bucks and that’s just what we did.  There’s no gamble about it at all. 

Later in the day when we got back to the corral, we saddled up our horses and hit the trail again.  This time I wanted to try my little video camera on the front of it to see if I could get videos of our rides.  I had ordered a tripod mount and used it on my other quad but it never seemed to tighten up.  These bars were a tad bigger.  I figured it might work.  It did!!  The camera didn’t tip over.  The only problem you have with using a video camera on a trail is that the pictures bounce all over.  There’s absolutely no way to get a nice smooth ride let alone a nice even video.  At least I have no clue how to do it with a tripod mounted on the machine.

We weren’t through yet.  We had been wanting to go back to de la Cruz, a Mexican restaurant in Gold Canyon since we had been here.  We visited in October when we flew down to check out the RV park and liked it then.  Saturday night was no exception.  It’s a great little Mexican restaurant.

Sunday morning we found  an eTrex Legend CX GPS unit on Craigslist.  The unit was in nearly new condition. We walked away with it for $80. I thought it was quite a deal.  Figuring out and following waypoints is a lot different than following roads and highways.  Now we need to figure out how to use it.  There are maps online we can load on it.  However, most of them aren't places we intend to be.

In the afternoon we ended up going back to the Mesa Swap Meet to get a bid for some welding work.  We were loaded with pictures of our trailer since it now needs to be enlarged by about 3 inches to fit the Arctic Cat.  When we bought the trailer we had the smaller Suzuki.  This last ATV is just a few inches too long to fit.  Now to wait for his cost estimate.  Ugh!

Then, of course, we again met Sandie and Jim for a late lunch in Apache Junction.  We also got to stop by and check out their new 5th wheel.  Since Jim is a fisherman (what a fisherman he is!!) their whole place is fishy.  Well, it’s not that it smells fishy.  It’s decorated to make Jim really feel at home.  The theme is fishing.  Really cute ….

One of the downsides we discovered of being this far out in our RV is  ….. it’s a long ways out!  The nearest grocery store is nearly 7 miles.  If we need to go anyplace for anything else, it’s a good 15 miles at least.  We’re not liking that part of being so far from every place.  However, only time will tell what we do about it. 

Thank a Veteran

 

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. -- General George Patton Jr

 

Yesterday we celebrated the 236th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps.  Today we are thanking the veterans for their service.  Being raised and living in the United States we have a lot to be thankful for.  Much of our thanks go to those who served and are serving today in the military.  It’s because of them that we can enjoy the freedom in this country that many others throughout the world have never experienced. 

There are two blogs I read this morning that I would like to link here.  They both reflect back on their fathers who were POWs during WWII.  Both are definitely worth reading.  The first one is here and the second one is here.

My father was from Kerrville, Texas.  Uncle Sam claimed him and moved him from there to Fort Worden in Washington State.  Instead of moving back to Texas after the war he settled in Washington, married my mother and spent most of his life fishing in the waters around Port Angeles.

Terry was in the US Navy and spent time along with many of our generation in Vietnam.  He didn’t spend his time in the waters off shore as many sailors did but spent his time on land in Vietnam.   For the first time TV brought that war home to most Americans.  Those of us who had loved ones over there were glued to it.  Not only did the battles of the day cover the news, it was probably the first time coverage of protestors was on every channel.  Remember when?   He can also tell you about the spraying of what they now call “Agent Orange”  almost every single day for the time he was there.  Amazing what they’ve learned about it after the fact.

As most of you know, we also have a grandson, Justin  who has followed into the footsteps of his grandfather with military service.  He is now serving in the US Navy going through schooling in Pensacola, FL. We are proud of his choice and want Uncle Sam to keep him safe.

We were invited by our neighbors, Sue and Marcus,  to attend a birthday party with them on Thursday.  Actually, we went to two birthday parties on Thursday.  The first one was a big bash thrown by a Marine veteran.  It was the 236th birthday of the Marine Corps.  It was a fantastic party.  The party was put on and totally paid for by the Marine veteran, Jim.  Even souvenir Marine Corp glasses were given to everyone in attendance.  It was an amazing event.

Our second party  was a birthday party at Filly’s – another local restaurant and lounge where Kerry and Brant were scheduled to entertain for the evening.  Actually, this wasn’t a planned birthday party but since we were invited to share part of the birthday cake, we did.  This is another local dive that was amazing.  Again, entertainment was spectacular and so was the company we were with, Jim and Sandie.

Now with all that activity on Thursday, it didn’t mean we had time to spare.  We didn’t.  We had to get in a little ride.  We did just that.  We jumped on our quads and took a spin in the desert.   I also brought back a souvenir from our little outing.  I do that more often than I want.  Notice the little cactus on the tire.

How did we ever have time to work?  And, Marti thinks she just might get bored.  HA!

Superstition Skies – Elvis’ Hangout

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you'll never be asked to do a thing.

 

We actually did something a little different on Wednesday.  It was something I wasn’t too happy about either.  My sewing machine went in to the repair shop.  Ugh!  I had things to do and it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do.  Now you might think it was the operator but it really wasn’t.  The good thing is I discovered a huge shop in Mesa.  Oh my lands!  It was huge.  I told Terry I needed to dump him one afternoon and make another trip in there to check out all the crafts and fabric.  I doubt he’d want to go with me anyway.  Oh well, my sewing is now on hold for about a week and I absolutely hate it.  How will I ever get my projects done??

We didn’t ride on Wednesday either.  After all, we’re pretty busy folks.  Our neighbors invited us to go to a get together with them.  We did but discovered they had the wrong date for the get together.  It’s actually on Thursday and not on Wednesday.  Oops. Haven't we all done that? 

We met Jim and Sandie at Superstition Skies.  This place has the most fantastic duo.  We went last year to listen to Brant and Kerry.  They are really, really good.  The food?  Well, prime rib was the special for the evening and Terry couldn’t pass it up.  His comment – it was excellent.  For an extra $5 you could add a slab of ribs and they were excellent too.

If you happened to drive down the road in front of Superstition Skies, you’d think it was a real dive from the outside.  Maybe that’s what makes it such a special place.  It’s different.  The restaurant has been around since the early 50’s even though the owners have changed. This place was popular back when ladies of the evening, cowboys and movie stars were a common sight there.  During the filming of many Apacheland western movies the stars frequented this place.  The bench Elvis sat on is still there for all to see.  Do you think they are waiting for him to show up again?  Not only was it one of Elvis’ haunts, Ronald Reagan, Kenny Rogers, and Marty Robins walked through those doors.  This place and it’s surroundings will definitely make you feel part of the Old Wild West.  And, the music of Brant and Kerry on Wednesday evenings is fantastic!

Super Scenery

We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.

Tuesday we ventured a little farther than we had previously.  Our neighbor was our guide.  We got on our ATV’s and headed due north towards the Superstition Mountains.  There are no roads and only a few trails.  The land is state land and normally not travelled a lot. You don’t really have to stick to the trails.  You can make your own.   I tried that once but didn’t get too far because of a big gully.   There was no way that I was going to try that route with or without wheels. The ride around this area is definitely Arizona in all it’s finery.  The scenery is not what one is going to see just by driving down the highways. 

Instead of leaving the park via the back gate, we decided to travel along the riverbed.  Others in the park had suggested this route.  There was a huge difference between driving down the riverbed than exiting by the back gate.  The riverbed was full of rocks!  It wasn’t the smooth surface we had become used to at the back of the park.  Getting into the riverbed was a little challenging for me too.  At one point instead of turning to stay on the road, I had a quick decision to make and ended up plowing right through a good sized thorny bush.  Ugh!  I had to carefully pick it all off of me.

The ride was fantastic.  We saw a coyote running in the wild.  Actually, the coyote was running from all the noise we were making I’m sure.  We saw petroglyphs that supposedly told others where to locate water in the desert.  We saw beautiful birds, cactus and even a bridge leftover from the old highway 60 which hasn’t been used in years.  This definitely was the bridge to nowhere.

It was a great day and a great ride.  It was also nice to have someone we could follow on this trip.  Evidently there are remains of an old ranch out there somewhere.  There’s also old gravestones and an old mine.  We didn’t see those on this day.  However, we did see a couple panning in a riverbed for gold.  This was definitely part of the old wild West.

We were totally exhausted Tuesday evening.  It’s amazing how tired riding can make you and how sore your thumb can become by holding down the accelerator.  I was so tired in fact I kept watching the clock for a decent hour to go to bed.  It was too late to take a nap at 7:00 and definitely too late to call it a night.  Slowly the clock ticked away and slowly 9:00 came.  Then, I went to bed.  I know .. a little early but I was beat!    Who would have thought you could get so tired just riding quads?

Where Are the Dixons?

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way.

Interesting cactus tree

We had visitors stop by on Monday.  Actually they didn’t come uninvited but certainly would have been welcome had they.    It had been raining earlier in the day so we were hoping we’d get a little relief in the rain drops and we did.

Highlights on the cactus after the rain

A little moisture does wonders to the desert.  It brightens the area and softens the very dry ground.

Terry testing the equipment.

That’s a good thing because it just makes riding so much more fun.

Sandie getting a little instruction here.

Where are the Dixons?  They were at our RV park taking a spin through the beautiful desert on the quads. 

Jim and Sandie posing.

I had trouble getting Jim to pose for this picture.  He wanted to finish getting ready to leave us in his dust.  We wouldn’t let him until we had the official picture of him and Sandie on the quads.

Arizona desert.

The tracks you see are ours.  Jim’s a little competitive.  Well, I can’t say he started it.  Terry found a straight path and came back with a top speed of 30 mph.  At that time my top speed was only 23 but I couldn’t let Terry beat me now could I?  Thus, I took another spin and beat him at 32.  Then, comes along Jim.  He waited until I cleared the path using me as his protector on the path just so he could beat us all at 40 mph!!  Of course, he didn’t tell us the speed until AFTER we were through riding.  According to one website the Suzuki has a top speed of about 54 mph and the Arctic Cat well over 65 mph. We're certainly not going to see if this article is correct!  However, next time I see Jim I'm sure I'll have beat his speed.  Beat by a woman!!  Yep ... not a competitive bone in our body!

Oh …. and what was Sandie’s top speed?  I guess she’s just not as competitive as the rest of us.  She proudly announced she had the Arctic Cat up to 10 mph!!!  She gave some excuse like it was too cold or something like that.  Whatever, Sandie!  I'm sure you'll be up to 12 mph next time!

Anyway, if you were looking for the Dixons on Monday, that’s where they were.


**  A little note about the Dixons -- 

      

One thing that is so wonderful about RV clubs such as Escapees or following blogs written by RVers is that you actually get to know folks months or even years before you actually meet them.  After communicating via the Escapees forum and blogging, we finally met the Dixons in 2009.   We've been good friends ever since.  Every winter we have a little group that gets together.   We've met in "Q" and also in Yuma.  This year ... well, who knows but probably some place different yet.  It actually depends on who is in the area as to how many we have!  If you're out there ... come join us in early 2012.

Arizonian–A Snowbird Park

Speak when you're angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.

Guess what I saw out the motorhome window Sunday morning?  

This little coyote just wandered down the road and out of the park.  Well, I guess he wandered out of the park.  At least I saw him walking down the road.  Then, I saw a second one when I was out walking Duchess. 

This is the first year we have booked any RV park for a whole month at a time.  Normally we have opted to stay more at locations where there aren’t full-time or most-time residents.  I guess you can’t call them residents but I’m sure you know what I mean.  I’m referring to the snowbirds who come year after year to the same park.  In the past we have always felt that these parks were more like staying in a regular neighborhood where everyone aleady knew everyone else.  The Thousand Trails, Elks, Famcamps, and COEs have always been more our cup of tea.  The people seem  eager to meet others and just a bit friendlier.

I’m not saying people aren’t friendly in the snowbird parks but definitely not as much as a regular campground where there are more RVers instead of snowbirds.   I think different types of people search for different types of parks.  Unless the snowbird parks are brand new, folks have already established relationships with others by the time you show up and it’s a little more difficult to connect. So, why did we book a park that was a snowbird park?  It was because this park allowed us to ride the ATVs in the park and had acres and acres of state land around it also for riding.    Isn’t that what counts? The ATV group seems pretty friendly.  For now it works because we figure we’ll do our own thing – whatever that is – and ride in the desert when the mood strikes.  There are a few other parks that also allow ATVs and we certainly plan on checking them out this winter too.

Last week we went to the little potluck affair.  It was nice and we were lucky in that we sat across from another newbie to this park.  We’ve met a few newbies so I’m sure there are even more around.  Then, Sunday night we went to the ice cream social.  I’m not so sure it’s a social event.  Even though there are quite a few tables in the North Hall some of the long ones were pushed together into one long table and that’s where they all sat – together, shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip  – at the one table.  There was no room for anyone else .. none.  I should have taken a picture.  We did find two other folks away from the mighty long table at least to sit by until the ice cream social was over and they headed back towards “home”.

Card bingo followed.  We’ve played this at other parks and always played with four per table.  We had intended to play.  It can be fun.  We had our quarters and dimes.  However, we didn’t because we weren’t at the right table.  There was only ONE table playing … can you guess which one?  We walked out.  The tables aren’t set up to allow folks to mingle and the person in charge concentrated only on the big table. We hadn’t seen it like this before.  The activity director is having a short meeting Monday morning.  That might be interesting.  I plan on attending but promise to keep my mouth shut … maybe.

After the meeting there is another event listed on the big calendar in the North Hall.  It’s shuffleboard.  Being the introvert that I am, I thought I’d walk over there and see if outsiders are allowed to play.  If outsiders aren’t allowed to play with the card group, will they be allowed to play with the shuffleboard group?  Who knows? Maybe I’ll ask.  Do I really want to play shuffleboard?  Well, not necessarily but now I’m curious.   I’m sure that the different activity groups consist of different people.  It’s not that I’ve ever played before so I might just be pushing my luck.  The scary part is what if they really let me play?  The nice part is that it’s raining right now and the chance that anyone will want to play shuffleboard in the rain is another thing so I’ll probably just have to wait for another day.  Whew!

Either way we’re here to ride and mingle with other friends in the area. We also have really nice neighbors at this park.  So, afterwards?    Well, maybe towards Quartzsite!!   Jim and Sandie are coming over for dinner on Monday and we’ve already got plans for Wednesday so things are working. 

Warm Balmy Southern Day ?

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.

 

During the winter don’t most folks wish they were experiencing a warm balmy day especially when it starts to freeze outside.  However, usually only the folks who escape the northern winters for the south really get that balmy weather.  Arizona usually has very nice winter temperatures.  I’m not sure you could call them balmy though.  I think of Florida as having the cool and refreshing weather my mind conjures up when I think of balmy.   Arizona may get hot but it’s a dry heat!

Friday wasn’t a typical November day for Arizona.  The weatherman (who we know is never wrong) predicted strong winds which would bring major dust storms to the area about mid-afternoon.   He was half-right.  The worst part of the storm held off for most of the day where we were. That gave us a little excuse to play.

The plan was to start the morning off with Terry’s mom in Tempe.  Then we were going to visit the Swap Meet in Apache Junction.  We never made the swap meet.  We figured with the strong winds and thunderstorms predicted, the swap meet might actually shut down early so we put that off for another day or two.  Instead of heading out we ended up putting outside chairs and tables away and securing anything else that might be a projectile.  Terry also removed the gorilla bar from the front of his ATV.  Of course, that had nothing to do with the storm and everything to do with just because he wanted to.

After a little rest we headed into Apache Junction to meet with our good friends, Jim and Sandie.  It was so nice to see them again.  We had a fantastic seafood feast at the Eastern Chinese Buffet and Mongolian Grill.  The place is huge and it was packed.  The menu included just about everything a seafood lover would love.  Jim and I pigged out on the seafood while Sandie and Terry feasted on everything else.  Everything was fantastic including the service.  We know there will be many restaurants around this area that the four of us will visit together over the next couple of months.

It was dark heading back to the motorhome.  It had been windy and dusty most of the day but the evening drive back was pretty clear.  When a storm comes in the visibility can get pretty bad with blowing dust.  It had been down to zero viability in some areas during the day.  Even parts of major freeway systems had been shut down about 30 miles away.

 

The brunt of the storm didn’t hit our area until after midnight.  It seemed to go on forever.  A severe thunderstorm had been predicted and again, the prediction was right.  Winds were expected to be around 60 mph.  From the inside of the motorhome, we were sure it was at least that.  Those slide toppers make a lot of noise.  We brought in our slides and pulled our antenna down.  It seems every winter when we’re in one part of Arizona or another, we usually end up having at least one of these storms.

We do know we are missing our Weber BBQ cover.  If you see it flying by wherever you are, latch on to it.  We’d hate to have to buy another one.

The storm is over.  The temperatures have cooled and the rain brought a fresh smell to the desert.  The sky still looks threatening this morning as the clouds are low.  I’m sure we’ll see more rain today.  Duchess is doing better now that it’s peaceful outside.  She doesn’t like storms like this anymore than we do. 

Another Day -- Working at Living

Retirement . . . is when you stop living at work and begin working at living

We had narrowed down our quad search to a few that we wanted to check out and drive.  Two that we looked at were red!  Yippee …. they matched my helmet.  One was even identical to Terry’s quad other than the color.  However, the one I really had my eye on wasn’t red at all.  It was lime green.  It was also the biggest but the easiest to use and the smoothest ride. You can probably guess that we ended up with the green one.  If I had owned a green helmet, we would have ended up with the red one.  That’s how it works according to Murphy.  Remember him?  He's responsible for everything going wrong.

Totally different than what we looked for --  Arctic Cat 650 VTwin 4x4

Guess what we saw driving down the road in Apache Junction?  We wondered if someone might just be inside when we saw the toilet paper flapping out the door.  Hopefully, they checked it out before they decided to move it.   People joke about taking their bathroom with them.  This fellow actually did.  Well, isn't that similar to driving a motorhome or pulling a 5th wheel?  You're ready for just about anything.

There are actually a lot of interesting things in Apache Junction.  Some of them we just haven’t had a chance to check out yet but we will.  The most important thing we needed to get done on this trip to town was a haircut for Terry.  He was on the verge of looking like a wild man!  Tucked into a little corner shopping center was a barber he decided to entrust his growing locks to.  Instead of waiting while the barber did his magic, I went across the parking lot to a bead shop.    Anyone been there?

I walked in the door and was greeted by the clerk letting me know I was welcome to look around but couldn’t take my purse with me.  Granted there were little lockers to put your purse in.  However, you know the clerk certainly has a master key.  I just felt if she wasn't going to trust me to look at her beads, should I trust her with my purse?  I know shoplifting is certainly a problem for merchants.  I just didn't care for the clerk even thinking I might stash beads in my purse.  Actually, I'm really glad she didn't realize I had pockets in my pants.  Who knows what else she might have suggested. I guess I felt if they weren't comfortable with me being there, I wasn't comfortable being there either.

Thursday we went for our first ride in the desert.  There’s a gate in the back of the park that opens up to miles and miles of areas to ride.  That’s what we did!  We went for a ride.  It was wonderful, it was fun and an absolute blast.

I also want to report we had a fabulous lunch.  We hadn't had such good luck lately with dinners out so we tried lunch.  Where did we go?  I know you're asking that.  We went to McDonald's for their McRibs!!  We knew what we were getting and got what we expected. They were just great!