Fulltiming Road Runners

Our BLM Long Term Visitor Area, La Posa North is looking all deserted now. You can practically shoot a canon down Main St. in Quartzsite. It’s kind of depressing looking out the window and NOT seeing Ron & Terry’s rig out there. The last neighbor to the west of us is packing up today to leave. Bob & Sandy left yesterday. It sure was hard to say g’bye to Sandy. I moped all day yesterday.

I’m going to have to keep myself busy getting ready for us to leave, otherwise, I’ll be thinking about how much I miss what was. If I’m packing things away, I’ll be thinking about and looking forward to what will be.

One thing I’m NOT going to miss here in QZ is the wind! It was windy enough yesterday we lowered our internet satellite dish. At least the wind was from the south so anyone headed north had a good tail wind to help with fuel economy. I’m even writing this in the morning because there’s a good chance the wind is going to kick up again this afternoon and I won’t be able to be online.

It’s still below 70F in the trailer now so I think I’ll get busy sorting and packing things away. That way, if I get a bit accomplished, I won’t feel guilty for working on my beaded Blue Bell project this afternoon.

Today our good friends, Rusty & Celeste dropped by to say good-bye.  They are leaving tomorrow.  It’s hard to say good-bye, especially when you don’t know when, or if, you’ll see your friends again.  You exchange cards and hope your friend and you, yourself, don’t lose those cards.  Russ & Celeste are not online people.  I hope I have the initiative to write snail mail to them.  I’m going to miss seeing the two of them around.

This Sunday my best friend here, Sandy, and her husband Bob are leaving.  Neither she nor I have done anything special, like, let’s do lunch or “ya’ll come for dinner”.  It’s so hard for me to say good-bye.  Maybe I think that if I don’t say it, they won’t leave.  I was that way with Linda and Mitch.  They were our very good friends here and it was very hard on me when they left.  I love the life we are living, but the good-byes suck!

Thom and I have decided we want to find a place in Southern California to host in next winter… we want to be close to my Mother.  She’s in her 80’s and we want as much time as possible with her as we can get.  I’m very comfortable with this decision and, in fact, am looking forward to whatever we find, but knowing we probably won’t be coming back to Quartzsite next year, and probably won’t be seeing all the friends we met here for at least another year… it’s hard.

We went back out to Dome Rock for our ride today, found a few flowers to shoot, but not as much as I’d hoped.

The first cactus I saw blooming is this Hedgehog Cactus

The Barrel Cactus are a bit higher up so we parked the truck and walked up a hill. The Barrels are still a few weeks from blooming, but we did see a few Beaver Tail Cactus.

The Ocotillo isn’t quite open yet, but even so, the buds are pretty.

When we left Dome Rock we turned onto a road we’d never traveled before just to see where it went. It was the back way to Rainbow Acres and Pipeline Road. We took Pipeline all the way to Hwy 95. These Desert Marigolds were blooming all over alongside the road.

A single Marigold

On our way back to the trailer Thom decided to stop at La Posa South and get a tank of water. They had a little excitement going on at the contact station. It seems a rattlesnake liked the cool concrete in front of the door and had parked himself there. They couldn’t get out or in. Luckily Thom had his snake stick with him so we stopped long enough for him to move the snake to the wash a little bit away. He dropped it about halfway there so I was able to get a couple of shots before he got it again to finish the trip. It was about 3′ long.

And, lastly, there was this very non-descript bush by the water station, but it had tiny fascinating flowers. They almost look like an orchid. It’s called a Pima Ratany, or Purple Heather… nothing like Scotland’s heather.

It’s 87F inside my trailer with no breeze, so I think I’ll go outside in the breeze to see if I can cool off and get rid of the dizzies.

Just a quick post to share my photo of the real desert blue bell and my photo of the beaded desert blue bell.

My beaded version:

Whatcha think?

We’re going for a ride out in the desert to look for flowers, hopefully ocotillo and cholla will be blooming.  It would be fantastic if the barrel cactus were blooming also but I think it’s a bit early yet.  I’m sure I’ll be posting this evening or tomorrow to share pics.

Toodles

Just a note to say I’ve got pics to take and post tomorrow, so hang in there.

Here’s a pic of my daisy bracelet, finished product.  I know I need to start and finish another one.  It’s like getting back up on that horse that dumped ya!  I find my flowers much easier.

Tomorrow I’ll take a pic of my newest flower.  This one, I didn’t have a pattern for.  It’s a flower in the desert I took a picture of and I found it so beautiful, I wanted to see if I could duplicate it in beads.  I’ll share the beaded flower and the original flower.

In the meantime, one of my two shows is on TV, the generator is running so I can watch it, I better give it my undivided attention.

Toodles.

We worked yesterday and today. Good thing we’re on half days now ’cause it’s the pits to sit for hours just so we can be here to register one unit a day. We had one yesterday and one today. Today’s was a new one even, not a renewal!

Yesterday Sandy taught me how to make the Daisy Bracelet. It’s fun and I want to make a bunch more, but I find it more frustrating than my flowers. Maybe because the flowers are on wire which is much more forgiving than the string on the bracelet.
I did some comparing of insurance quotes for our trailer & truck… fulltimer insurance, to while away the time at work. We’re not happy with GMAC (Good Sam’s).

About mid morning, we saw Larry heading our way at a goodly clip. They had a large lizard out there on the other side of John & Marie’s motor home (pretty close to the station), and it was just posing, basking in the sun. I grabbed my camera and tried to catch up with Larry’s brisk pace. I managed to arrive just a second or two behind Larry. The lizard was absolutely gorgeous! AND it was the largest I’ve seen this season out here. He was about 8 - 10″ from nose to vent (beginning of tail) and his tail was another 10″ to 12″. Here are 4 shots of it.  Note his hefty claws on his right front foot.  I imagine he can dig pretty good!  The Desert Iguana is an herbivore and appears to like plant roots… I’ve heard from the locals here they dig up plants in their yards and are quite destructive.

I so hoped I’d be able to get pics of this guy before we went home. I’m happy.

I’m finding that although I’m more than willing and ready to get in there and take pics of the rattlesnakes we and our neighbors see, I am, in fact, very frightened of them.  This evening I had to go out to dump the coffee from our thermoses and found myself very uncomfortable with only the porch light to light the way.

This afternoon I went over to Sandy’s to learn how to do the daisy chain bracelet/necklace/anklet.  I just couldn’t make myself take the shortcut through the wash.  I went the long way around just in case the snakes were out hunting in the wash.  I admit it… I’m a wuss!

On my walk over to Sandy’s today I saw a lizard scurrying away from my footsteps.  He was big, fat, and FAST!  I sure wish I could have caught up to him to get a picture.  With his girth, I’d think he was either a collared lizard or a Chuckwalla, but he never let me near enough to shoot him.

Mom, the Ocotillo is either not blooming or has finished already.  I’m voting for the not there yet.  I still need to get photos of them.

Tim, our young photo journalist friend, has finished and published his article for his Masters Degree.  He mentions on his blog he has only 1 more class between him and the degree.  I’ve linked the word “article” to this article and will also put the link on the side bar to the left.  I think he did a great job… of course, Thom is the voice you hear thru most of it, so I may be a bit prejudiced.

I was sitting outside in the lovely breeze yesterday when something in the sky caught my eye.  I looked up and saw this Turkey Vulture gliding overhead.  Sure is a pretty bird when he’s in the sky.

I finally got back to baking bread… made two loaves on Tuesday.  Yummmm

I have lots of little projects I need to get done and one or two big ones.  I’ve got dates to re-package into small freezer bags,  date bars or brownies to bake & find a new insurance provider.  Big projects:  1- bite the bullet, and take the time to create my website so I can start selling my photos, note cards, trees and maybe even my beaded flowers.   2- get the inside of the trailer organized and ready to move.  Those of you who’ve been inside my trailer know just how big a project that one is!

Sooooo… I’m off to do dishes, package my dates & start one of the big projects.

PS.  I got my taxes done yesterday!!

It’s been a few days since I’ve written to the blog.  I’ve noticed that those of us who follow the sun, and who blog seem to be slacking off on posting to their blogs.  Maybe it’s because we are just 1 step from packing up and heading down the road and are looking forward to that and planning our steps towards that goal.  Also, things are really slowing down here.  People are leaving the LTVA (long term visitor area) in droves.  We can see only 1 RV out our back window now, and it’s barely visible through the Ironwoods back there.

Our friends Mitch & Linda left today.  We’re really going to miss them.  As Thom said today, we’re learning that one of the big hardships of living full time in your RV and following the sun is you have to say goodbye way too often to new good friends.

The wildflowers are continuing to open and are much more profuse than even a week ago.  I’m hoping to get back to Dome Rock towards the end of this week.  The Ocotillo should be opening and many more of the desert flowers should be opening as well.

It was windy & cool today.  The high, according to our weather station, was 61, which is about 25 degrees lower than day before yesterday.   Tomorrow should be relatively cool too, so I think I’ll try to get a couple of loaves of bread made.

I’m rambling again so I better say g’night.

Toodles!

Jeepers! Less than a month & we’ll be on the road again. I got a lot of work to do before then. Guess I better quit playing with crafts ‘n stuff ‘n get my li’l ol’ self in gear!

It’s been quite warm the last couple of days… up to low 90’s outside and high 80’s inside. It’s supposed to start cooling down tomorrow, with a chance of thunder showers on Sunday. Hopefully I can get quite a bit done this weekend.

We had a bit of excitement at Bill & Cheryl’s today, our neighbor to the south. She almost stepped on a rattlesnake while cleaning up some things in her “yard”. The snake was about 3 feet long. I followed it down the wash several hundred feet, taking pics all the way:
Coon Tail Diamond Back Rattlesnake - see the black ‘n white coon tail?

Thom dumped gray water today so we’d be sure and have enough room in the holding tank for our showers tonight.  I went with him to the dump station at La Posa South.  I’m so glad I went along.  I got some pretty good photos of new wild flowers down there.

This is a Brittlebush covering itself with flowers.  The flower stems grow about 8 to 12 inches taller than the bush itself.

This is a Fairy Duster plant in a wash.  I love this flower!

The Fairy Duster flower:

…and this is the Apricot Globe Mallow

Thom is still recovering from his fall.  It’s going to take a lot of time for him to get back to normal.  Poor guy.