Fulltiming Road Runners

It’s getting warmer here.  We’re loving it.  We even left all the windows in the trailer open all night last night.  The high got up to 87F yesterday and the trailer got up to 83F inside.  Today it’s already 80F at 9:50 a.m. and going to get up to 88F.  We’re also going to get a lot of wind today thru Thursday.  Yuck.  We’ll be putting the satellite dish down this afternoon when the winds pick up and probably keep it down thru Thursday.  Oh dear, what’ll I do without my internet?

There’s also a chance of showers tomorrow night through Thursday.

It’s so quiet in Quartzsite now.  You don’t have to wait in line at the gas station any more and you could almost shoot a cannon down Main Street and not hit anything.  People are leaving in droves.  If you don’t like getting stuck behind a line of RV’s on the road, don’t head north in the mornings and early afternoon.

I just wanted to let ya’ll know we probably won’t be posting for a few days due to high winds, but you’re used to my not posting for a few days anyway.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

Not a lot has happened the last 5 days.  We got the lights installed in the bedroom and so far they are all 3 working great.  We hope they continue doing so for a few years and not burn out in 3 months time like before.  It sure is nice to have enough light to take a shower at night.

We went to the BLM’s closing meeting on Thursday.  That’s where they say thank you and give us our stipend checks.  The final count hasn’t been taken, but they think the numbers camping out here are pretty much the same as the last couple of years.  Things are changing next year with the campground coordinators for the different LTVA’s so we don’t know what/where we’ll be doing next year.  We’ll definitely be back next year and probably volunteering at one of the contact stations, we just don’t know which one.

After the BLM meeting we got back to Quartzsite in time for us to go to Blythe to pick up our new Weber BBQ at Ace Hardware.  The Weber is a bit more expensive than others, but it is so totally worth the extra cost.  Today was the first time the wind has been down enough to use it and I slow cooked chicken legs, chicken breast, and quartered potato wedges.  Turn the heat down, and turn the chicken & taters every 12 minutes 4 times.  The taters pushed to the back of the grill the last 12 minutes.  It turns out perfect every time.

The weather has still been pretty durned good.  Not cold, not hot, just warm and occasionally windy.  Counting today the last 3 days have been pretty windy.

We worked yesterday, signed up all of 3 people.  The wind was blowing too hard for us to spend much time outside the contact station, so we were bored most of the day.  I had my computer and photos and games to play with, but even that can get old after a few hours.

Hmmmm… 5 paragraphs and I haven’t gotten to the subject of the post yet.  Trust Judy to ramble.

We’ve been on I-10 east of Quartzsite a few times and there is a road called Gold Nugget Road.  Today we went for a ride to explore that road.  It only goes a few miles back to either a mine or a gravel pit.  We suspect its a gravel pit because of the different colored piles of gravel/sand/dirt.  After finding the end of the road, we weren’t ready to go home yet so we just went exploring.  Along the way we ran into some flowers, of course… and… I got photos.

First shot though is a shot of a male Anna’s Hummingbird on our feeder this morning.  I love the critters at springtime.  They are so colorful.

I have a shot of the Fairy Duster Bush that I particularly like.  So full and colorful.

There’s bunches of Ocotillo plants out there and they are so green and lush.  Some are all budded out and ready to bloom.  We definitely have to go back in a week or so.

A new flower for this year is the Engelmann Hedgehog Cactus.

Another new one for this year and all the years we’ve been coming to the AZ desert.  I’ve seen the Prickly Poppy in my flower books and wished to see one “in person”, but until today, it hasn’t happened.  We were driving on a road between Salome, AZ and I-10 and I saw this bush with large white flowers on it.  I asked Thom to stop and back up so I could get pics.  The bush was about 2 feet in diameter and at least 3 feet tall.  Here’s one of my shots of the Prickly Poppy.

We’ve had a few idiot people to deal with the last week or so, but I’d rather share with you the beauty of our desert, rather than the negative things you can run into down here… especially if you do volunteer work with the BLM.  Don’t get me wrong, working with the BLM is mostly fun and interest, but there are “those times”.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

What a day!

Our new bedroom lights from DoubleTree arrived Friday at the Blythe UPS Customer Center so we had to go pick them up this morning.  The UPS Center is open from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. so the window is pretty small for picking up packages.  We then went to Burger King for breakfast (I know… not really healthy).  After that we drove the route we plan to take north to Needles to check it out and make sure there wasn’t a lot of steep climbs, etc.

The drive was so relaxed, just going wherever we want to explore whatever we want.  As we drive thru the desert I notice these creamy yellow flowers in patches.  They are lovely and intriguing.  Today we had the opportunity to stop and see what they are.  The creamy flowers are the yellow creosote flowers I posted 2 days ago.  Along with the Creosote flowers there were patches of Blue Bell Phacelia.  I absolutely love these flowers.  I got shots of them a couple of years ago, and haven’t seen them since.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to see them and be able to get pics of them.

Right in there amongst the Bluebells there were Brown Eyes.  The throat of the flower is a dark rusty red and therefore called brown eyes.

I finally got my shot of the Desert Lily.  I asked Thom to stop at a wide spot in the road in the area I’ve seen Desert Lilies and there were quite a few.

I mentioned we got the lights from the Manufacturer of our 5th wheel, DoubleTree.  We got home from our drive around 3:00 p.m., approximately 220 miles, and Thom just had to open the package of the light fixtures. Then he just  had to take the first old fixture out and replace it with the new.  Of course, I was trying to do dishes, but had to help him with the installation.  All in all, we got all 3 fixtures replaced and working, and I even got my dishes done around 5:30.

While we were in Blythe we stopped at the Ace Hardware store and ordered a new Weber BBQ.  The one I have isn’t working properly, and all the fixes we’ve tried haven’t worked.  The weather is getting warmer and I certainly don’t want to cook indoors and heat up the house when it’s already 80F+ degrees in here.

I need to say goodnight.  I’m tired and my thoughts aren’t meshing.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

I think I mentioned yesterday that we planned on going to the Roadrunner just north of Parker for all you can eat Fish ‘n Chips today.  It was even better than the last time we went.  This time I ordered a green salad with chicken and ate one of Thom’s pieces of fish.  The seating at this place is on a barge or on the docks outside the barge.  Today was super windy and even though we sat on the barge in the sun, we were chilly and that along with the many college aged kids drinking and being loud kept us from lingering beyond getting our fill of food.  We think we’re dealing with Spring Break with the college aged kids.

After we finished “lunch” which actually was a very early dinner, we drove up to the Parker Dam, crossed over and came back to Parker on the California side.  The river was gorgeous with the wind putting ripples on the water and the sun turning those ripples into diamonds.  I didn’t even try to capture it with the camera because I knew it would be futile.  We also found some blooming Beaver Tail Cactus and I got a couple of shots.

There’s an area along the road that is BLM sand dunes designated for off road vehicles.  Sand Verbena and Evening Primroses love the sand.  Here’s a couple of shots showing each one.

Sand Verbena

White Stemmed Evening Primrose

I’m not sure I’ve identified this one correctly.  One of my books says it’s a Desert Chicory, but the other books show the D. Chicory as white not creamy yellow.  At any rate, it’s a pretty flower.

This flower is a member of the Evening Primrose family and is called a Sun Cup.  They are really pretty on the hillsides.

I’ve saved this one for last because it’s a flower I’ve been hoping to run into ever since I met/married Thom 10 years ago and fell in love with the desert.  This flower is called a Ghost Flower.  They grow in “colonies” and when you see the colony it looks like a ghostly rendition of a field of flowers… ethereal even.

I think we’ll be staying home tomorrow to get a few things ready to head down the road.  Sunday means laundry day and Monday we get to drive to Blythe to pick up the new light fixtures DoubleTree is sending us for the bedroom.  While in Blythe I intend to take advantage of the New York steaks on sale at Albertsons, and also the Navel Oranges.  I also intend to hit the Blythe Ranch Market for produce.  Ya can’t beat 4 bunches of radishes and/or green onions for $0.99.  Lettuce for less than $1 a head.

The last two times we’ve headed towards Parker  between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. we’ve found the RV traffic to be thick.  Looks like people (a lot of people!) heading north to go home.  We curse them when we are driving the car behind them, forgetting that we will be one of them in just a few weeks.  But, Thom doesn’t drive the truck ‘n trailer at 55 mph like most of those we’ve been behind.  The sweet spot on the truck is between 60 and 65 mph so he usually stays there to get the best mileage.

Time for me to quit rambling and let ya’ll get on with other things.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

Man!  What a life!  The temps are warming up, the breeze continues to keep us comfortable & our world is getting more colorful by the day.  Who could ask for more?  Yesterday got up into the low 80’s, today into the mid 80’s.  Yesterday we went for a ride north to verify the Vidal Junction Agriculture Check Station in California is really open as rumored.  It’s been closed for years, but this year they opened it again.  That’s okay, what’s one more little slow down when we’re not in a hurry anyway.

We worked today at the Contact Station… Boring!  We had all of 5 signups.  I think we only have to work one more day for the season and that would be a week from tomorrow.  We have our closing meeting down by Imperial Dam on Thursday and if the station is still going to be open, we’ll work on Friday.  Don’t get me wrong, I love working the contact station and meeting and dealing with the many different kinds of people who come in here, but I’ll be happy to end the season and not have to spend days doing next to nothing.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and windy.  I really do dislike the wind, but it come with the territory.  The worst part of the wind at this time of the year is we can’t put out the awnings to keep the sun off our windows so we have to work hard at keeping the trailer relatively cool, shades up, down; windows open, closed; vent fan running, not.  Today, with us not here to do the manipulations, the inside temps stayed a couple of degrees lower than than outside temps.  When we got home it was 84F inside and 86F outside.

If I don’t quit rambling, I won’t have room to share photos from the last few days.

This is a shot of the sunset 4 days ago, on the 14th.

I don’t think I’ve shared with you this year the Yellow Rumped Warbler.  He has a lovely song, so when I hear it I instantly go looking for him.  He’s not a seed eater so doesn’t go to the feeders, but he does like fruit and I can find him going to the ground when I put apple peels and cores or other fruit leavings out.  This time he was up in a tree a bit of a distance away so the pic isn’t great, but you can see how he got his name for sure.

It’s so cool while walking out here to look down and see something like this clump of Blackfoot Daisies.  They are always in a clump like this and always hug the ground.  I love them.

Another one of the flowers I love out here is the Phacelia.  There are many different types of Phacelia.  They will cover a hillside and turn it purple.  I love the fiddleneck look on this one.

Enough for now.  I think Thom and I are going to the Roadrunners Cafe in Parker tomorrow for their “all you can eat Fish ‘n Chips”.  I’ll probably order a salad and Thom will do the fish ‘n chips and I can eat a couple of his fish while not overdosing on carbs.

Talk to ya’ll again soon.

Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

Today was a lovely day.  The temp got up to 81F for a high, with a lovely breeze to keep us cool.  This morning I got up early (7:20 a.m.) because I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I made myself a cup of coffee and took it and my camera outside and sat in the sun watching the birds at the feeder and getting photos as the opportunity presented itself.  I got several good shots of birds in the morning light.  Later this morning I went for a walk… mostly because my blood sugar was high and exercise brings it down.  Of course, I took my camera with me on the walk and managed to get a good number of shots of the spring flowers opening up now.  I now have about 25 photos to share so I guess my posts will be sprinkled with photos for a few days.

Marv and Deb and Thom and I went into town to wander the main street vendors.  Nearly all of them are gone so it took us all of about 1/2 hour to finish our wandering.  It’s amazing how fast this town empties out after the big tent shows.  Many vendors stay until mid to late February, but when March hits, the exodus really begins.

I guess Marv and Deb came back here from Yuma so Marv could help Thom & I get packed and ready to move, but it’s too early for us to start packing and all, so there’s not really anything for Marv to do to help… he and Deb are probably going to leave tomorrow so they can do the things they want on the way home and still get there when they want to.  We’ll miss them, but we’ll see them again in just a couple of months.

I’m sorry I’m not posting any photos tonight, but Deb is coming over in a bit to watch American Idol with me and I’ve not got time to load and share pics tonight.  I’ll post a bunch tomorrow, for sure!

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

I’m writing tonight mostly because I promised to do my best.  There isn’t a lot to say other than talk about the weather and my infatuation with the wild flowers of our desert.

It was a lovely day today.  Warm enough for shorts ‘n if you sat in the sun, even a tank top.  The breeze kept us from getting too warm, but still get our desired 15 minutes of vitamin D from the sun.
Ya know, they say that we old pharts (elderly persons) tend to suffer from lack of vitamin D because we’ve been told to include lathering sun screen on our bodies before venturing outside because we, as older people, have more of a tendency to skin cancer.  They also say that just 10 to 15 minutes sitting in the sun every day will give us our daily requirement… THEN put on that sun screen.  I suffer from vitamin D deficiency and it’s not fun when you’re deficient.  You feel woozy, weak, disoriented, disfunctional, and it’s miserable. I now take a supplemental 2000 units of D a day and feel almost normal.  Of course, it could be the diabetes, high blood pressure, etc that makes me say almost.

Today we drove into Parker to buy a few groceries.  We were out of eggs, milk and my low carb bread.  This is the first time in ages that I’ve walked out of a grocery store having spent only $40.  We were in Parker at lunch time so we stopped for Chinese food at our favorite restaurant, Chinese Gardens.  I’ve never been disappointed with their food.  The only issue we had today was they offer fried or steamed rice, or noodles with the dish and Thom ordered noodles and got fried rice.  They, of course, fixed the problem, but he was half finished with his dish before the noodles came.

I’m going crazy driving down the road noticing all the flowers in bloom and not being able to stop to take photos of them.  The Desert Lily are in bloom and I’ve never ever gotten a shot of them.  I’d've asked Thom to stop so I could shoot them, but that would’ve put us back behind the RV’s going 10 to 15 mph below the speed limit and we waited long enuff as it was to pass them the first time.

There’s a lot of Gravel Ghost alongside the road and you wouldn’t believe the Desert Marigold, Apricot Globe Mallow, and Brittle Bush.

While walking Willow to do her business today I noticed a Desert Chicory.  After I took her home, I grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots.  I love the purple on the underside of the petals.  Here’s one of the shots I took.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but hope to have something to share.   In the meantime, Thom and Marv have a fire going and I think I’d like to spend some time out there with them.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

It seems my blog has turned into a weekly blog instead of every 1 to 4 days.  I’ll try to do better.

We’re working on getting ready to leave.  Thom has spent some time at the storage shed organizing it and sorting things we need to take to Utah with us from those things we can throw away and those we will leave here.  We’re storing some of Marv’s things here this year as well as the “honey wagon” so the shed needs to be well organized to fit everything in.

Our wood pile is dwindling, which is a good thing.  Nearly all the pallets have been cut down to firewood and we’ve burned a good deal of it.  We still have a good bit of the split log type firewood and what we have left we will put in the storage shed.  Last night was too windy for a fire and tonight it’s supposed to blow up to 28 mph, so we won’t have a fire tonight either, but I’m sure that by the time we are ready to leave the wood pile will be a lot smaller.

Marv and Deb arrived back here this morning.  It’s nice to see them again even if they were only gone a week.  They will be staying a few more days then head for home.  They have a daughter who is having twins soon and they want to be home for her shower and the delivery.

The wind is making this a chilly day.  It’s from the north and has a definite bite to it.  I’m a little cool even now, sitting in the trailer (it’s 69F both inside and outside).  I guess we’ve been terribly spoiled lately.  Yesterday I was sitting outside in the sun wearing shorts and tank top… there was a light breeze and the temp was 74F.  Nice!  Tomorrow the wind will die down to 6 - 8 mph and the temp will get up to the mid 70’s again and Tuesday the temps will be in the low to mid 80’s through Saturday.  Man!  That’s so hard to take.  hehe

We’ve a few more flowers opening up with the warmer weather.  This one is called a Gravel Ghost.  It’s stems are leafless and thin so it looks like a ghost hovering above ground.  The leaves of the plant are at ground level.

The Desert Marigold is finally starting to bloom.  We went for a ride on Tuesday and this plant was on the side of a wash.  It got so much water this year the flower is about 4 inches in diameter, it was gorgeous.

This one is for Mom, she loves this flower.  It’s a Fairy Duster (with a visiting bee)

We have a pair of huge Ravens that sweep over the washes around our site.  I guess they are hunting.  A lot of the campers here in the LTVA’s leave leftovers including meat bones, chicken and turkey carcasses, etc out in the wash to attract the coyotes, the Ravens and other scavenger birds are attracted to these scraps as well.  By the way… these people who try to attract the coyotes are the same ones who scream bloody murder when a coyote gets their little Yorkie, Dachshund, etc.
Anyway, here’s a shot of one of the big ol’ Ravens.

We also have Turkey Vultures that sweep over the washes, usually too high for me to get good pictures, but the other day this one came down a bit lower to check something out and I got a decent shot of him.

I mentioned the ride we took on Wednesday.  We were just checking out a couple of roads in the area.  One of them took us up on a hillside overlooking Quartzsite and I just had to take a shot of the view.

We got a phone call from the manufacturer of our 5th wheel.  They want to look at the light fixtures so they are sending us 3 new ones and a return shipping label for us to ship the bad fixtures back to them.  I suspect they will find there’s nothing wrong with the fixtures other than an overload of power and we will be back to working with them on deciding what to do next.  It sure would be nice if the fixtures were faulty!

I will try to get back here tomorrow evening to post again.  If nothing else I can always come up with a few photos to share with you.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Still no resolution on our electrical issue.  The guy Thom needs to talk too at Zantrax has been gone.  Thom will try to call him again tomorrow.

Marv and Deb were going to leave here today and head for Yuma for a week, but the weather report a couple of days ago was saying rain on Sunday and they didn’t want to tow in the rain  so they will probably leave tomorrow.  They do plan on coming back here for a week, then meandering their way home to Utah.

Chuck ‘n Sue are still here, but will be leaving late this week.  We’re gonna miss them bunches!  Hopefully, they will be back next year.

That will leave Thom and I all alone again.  We don’t mind being just us, we enjoy each other’s company.  We need to start organizing and getting things ready to move to the storage shed or pack up to take to Cemetery Point with us.

Until yesterday afternoon, the weather has been perfect, temps in the low to mid 70’s and light breezes.  Yesterday the wind kicked up with the storm coming in and today it’s been raining all day and is supposed to continue into the night.  The high today is only supposed to get to 58F… pretty chilly compared to what we’ve been getting.

We’ve all heard of Slab City in California and have been curious to see what it’s like.  Last Tuesday Marv ‘n Deb, Chuck ‘n Sue, and Thom ‘n I took the whole day to drive over there and back.  It took 8 hours to drive there, look around a bit, stop and eat our sandwich picnic and drive back home.  I’ve got a lot of pics to share, but first a little background…

Slab City takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap there.   It’s just outside the small town of Niland.  There are no signs giving directions to Slab City so we had to stop at a service station to ask directions.
Snowbirds and even a few year round residents have moved in and set up free camping.  There are NO amenities such as water, sewer/dump station, or electricity, not even a phone.

A little bit before you get to Slab City you see this:

Shortly after you pass “You’re Almost There” you’ll see a huge, very colorful “work of art”.   I have no idea how long the creator, Leonard Knight, has been working on this, but it has to be many years.

A flower hill next to Salvation Mountain.

Just a little beyond Salvation Mountain is the “entrance” to Slab City.

There were RV’s and campsites of all kinds, but when we were there, there was no sign of the newer big rigs people say are in there.  Of course, this was the beginning of March and those people may have left for the season.  We saw a lot of the camo netting being used for shelter.

Some people even turned one of the abandoned bunkers into a “home”.

It looks like some people have a whole bunch of time on their hands.

All of us agreed, this is NOT a place we’d like camp.  Where do these folks with permanant or semi permanant setups dump their rigs?  We’ve heard they dig holes and dump in them.  Many of the rigs out there certainly aren’t movable.  They also just dump their garbage and discards on the ground out there.  You wouldn’t believe the number of flies out there.

They do have their own church.

I took a whole lot more pics, but didn’t want to bore you too much.

Oon the way to Slab City we drove along the Salton Sea.  We pulled into one of the campgrounds to take a look.  There were lots of seagulls and pelicans.  I got a pretty good shot of the California Gull.  Believe me, the Salton Sea is NOT that blue.  The color you’re seeing is the reflection of the sky.  The water is actually a weak coffee brown.

I’ve got several pics of the wild flowers that are opening now, but I think I’ll wait for another day.  This blog is plenty long enough already.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.