1/19/2013–The RV Show in the Big Tent Opens

The RV Show in the big ten at Quartzsite opened this morning.  We drove over there around 10am this morning and quickly found a parking spot and it didn’t seem overly crowded when we started looking through the tent.  We purchased a couple of LED bulbs for our florescent fixtures and Ken installed them when we got back to the RV.  So far, we’re really pleased with the brightness of them compared to some we got a couple of years ago.

They’re making some high class golf carts now.  I didn’t ask the price, and I didn’t want to know.

Dennis cleans up pretty good!

And Carol gets her nurse’s pin…Nurse Crachet that is.

Denny purchased a new toy at the market today.  It looks like a fishing pole and cooks 4 marshmallows or 2 hotdogs…just what every guy needs!

That’s it for today.

 

1/18/2013–A Day Checking Out Quartzsite

We headed out from the RV late in the morning to look for a few items we needed for the RV.

From the bridge over I-10 on US95 we could see the busy areas on the west side of 95 and south side of I-10.

The big tent seen in the background in the middle left side of this photo will open for the RV show on Saturday.

We walked around the area south of the big tent and saw this gas driven ice cream machine, visited with the Too Crazy Ladies, and had lunch at one of the vendor stands.

This photo is looking south toward an entrance into the big tent area.  It’s not too busy today, but will be packed tomorrow.

We drove through the long term visitor area and found Santa’s RV and toad.  It’s quite a change of pace from his Christmas Eve vehicle.

In that same area, we found another unusual tow vehicle.

We stopped at a parking spot near Gamblers RV and walked over there to look around and didn’t find any of the items we needed from our list, so we returned to our campsite to get ready for the 3:30pm potluck.  Although several RV’s pulled out throughout the day, there are still several here and there was a good turnout for the potluck with a large amount of food.

Needless to say, we’re having a good time here in Quartzsite visiting with longtime friends and enjoying some great meals!

1/17/2013–A Warmer Day in Quartzsite, AZ

After our morning routine of computer, breakfast, etc. we were on the road to see if there would be a long line at the post office to pick up our mail that arrived there yesterday.  I walked into the building at 10:50am to find out that we couldn’t pick up general delivery mail until 11am.  There were only 6-7 people in the lobby waiting for that time, so I got into line behind them, and we were on the road with 20-25 minutes.  What a surprise from previous years here where we waited in line for 1-2 hours…but of course, the RV show hasn’t started yet.  From there, we drove down to the west end of town looking for the store that sold tow bars and accessories.  It wasn’t in the location where we remembered, so it may have gone out of business or moved.  We drove to a few other stores to look into getting a little big larger propane heater for the RV, but due to the recent below freezing nights here, there were none to be found (of the type that we were looking for).

As it was a warmer day in Quartzsite, there seemed to be more people at the Escapees RV Club happy hour than yesterday.

Molly climbed the ladder on the back of an RV to take photos of the crowd.

I think Bob is suggesting she get off that ladder before she falls down.

Here’s just a small portion of the folks enjoying the music and happy hour.

This very unique motorcycle was parked at the event this afternoon.

Dennis & Carol’s little green man feels the pain from the ATV accident and has his head bandaged too.

One happy hour wasn’t enough for us today, so we drove out to Escapees Boomerville to see our friends Jerry & Sue.  There was a big crowd there too and this is just a portion of them.

We had a nice visit with Sue, Jerry, and their relates Ron & Diana.  As we were leaving Boomerville and heading back to our RV, Ken saw this parasailer flying over the area.

First a more distant shot…and then

a closeup.

Back at the RV, we had a quick dinner of tilapia and green salad and it was nice to be able to keep the door open for a while.  After that it was another routine evening of computer, tv, and reading.

Ken may have an ATV trip lined up for Friday, so we’ll see what happens.

1/16/2013–Yuma to Quartzsite, AZ

Ken’s sinus problem was much better this morning, and we decided it was time to drive to Quartzsite.  The fuel and propane prices are quite a bit higher in Quartzsite, so on our way out of town, we stopped at the Flying J to top off the diesel and propane tanks.  Here are a few photos from our trip north on Hwy 95.

We pass by the Yuma Proving Ground.

And pass by unique hillsides.

We’re getting closer.

Approaching a border patrol check station.

We pulled off the road in front of the Escapees RV Club happy hour location and met up with lots of longtime friends.

Ken is talking with Denny.  He and his wife Susie host the event and do an outstanding job!

People are lining up to go through the food lines.

Walt, Ken, and Bob chatting.

Bob’s wife Molly talking with Art.

My camera batteries went dead right after taking this photo of Dennis.  Sharon did a great job of crocheting him this unique hat to cover his ear injured in a recent ATV accident.

We later visited with good friends Pete & Jo and then joined them for dinner at Mountain Quail Café.  After returning to the RV, I was in a panic for a good portion of the evening as I couldn’t find my camera to update the blog.  After a few phone calls, posts to friends on facebook, and a walk to the fire without any luck, I took another look around the RV and found it hiding from me at the side of the passenger seat.  So…there is a blog update for the day.

12/22/12–1/15/2013 Catching Up on the Blog Again

Here I am catching up on the blog again with a few photos.

There’s a vendor in Arizona City every Saturday selling shrimp and lobster tails from the Gulf of Mexico.  They were small, but we really enjoyed the lobster tails cooked on the grill.

On Christmas Eve Day, we drove south on Sunland Gin Road and logged about 10 geocaches.  Here’s Ken looking for one in the brush.

We got a kick out of this Christmas display in a yard in town.

It was just the two of us at the house for Christmas dinner and we prepared another fried turkey.

We were finally able to enjoy a fantastic meal at Glenn and Sheila’s.

W

On January 6th, we drove to Yuma and dry camped behind the VFW for a few nights joining our friends from the Spokane Elks lodge.

Vivien

and Ernie.

Here’s the RV parked behind the VFW.

Lettuce is being harvested in the fields in Yuma.

We moved to a lot in the Yuma foothills last Friday for some work to be completed on the RV.  That was good timing as Ken got sick and it was nice to have the full 50amp hookups.  We’ve mostly been staying put with Ken getting lots of sleep, and I’ve been busy setting up a new computer that has replaced my old one which has been acting up.

Ken says he’s feeling better this afternoon, so we will tentatively be on our way to Quartzsite on Wednesday.

Missed Our Chance to be Guinea Pigs

It’s been a rather quiet week for us as we’ve both been under the weather.  We even had to pass up on dinner at Glenn and Sheila’s.  As if we weren’t already feeling bad enough, Glenn had the nerve to send me this photo of the meal we missed.

We did manage a shopping trip to Walmart this week to stock up for Christmas dinner at our house.  We’ve invited a few of our neighbors to join us.

Ken finished up stringing out the security camera wiring through the attic to various locations, but he’ll still be probably be making minor adjustments to get them pointed just right.  I spent some time yesterday trying to set up the auto port forwarding for our network to be able to view the videos remotely.  The ISP we’re trying out seems to want us forced into getting a static IP address which adds quite a bit to the monthly cost.  We’ll probably be looking into other options and see what we can come up with for that.

Life in and Around Arizona City

Life continues to keep us busy working on the house in Arizona, visiting with friends, and a few shopping trips to Phoenix.  We managed a trip to Fry’s Electronics one time and it’s always a fascinating store to explore.

The full moon rises in the sky to our east.  Although it isn’t very clear in the photo, one of the planets is in alignment with the moon above it and slightly to the left.

The termite exterminator made a return visit to the house and spent about 2 hours drilling holes in several places around the house, and then spraying termidor into the holes, then patching them up again.

Skydive Arizona is located in nearby Eloy and we had several flyovers last week of a group of six planes holding skydivers working on a record jump.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we attended the SKP lunch at the Golden Corral in Casa Grande.  It was a little bit busier than last month’s luncheon and we visited with our friends, Andy & Diane, Bill & Shelly, Glenn & Sheila, and John & Jana.

And that should get us a little more caught up again.  Thanks for the reminder, Dennis.