More Quartzsite and then Cocopah

Thursday January 30 started off windy but warmer.  This is what the wind did to our camping chairs over night.

 

But it didnt seen to bother Walt and Terry's dog Rieku.

Or Brian's dog Radar.

Terry, Walt and Jim headed into Quartzsite for breakfast and then continued their RV shopping.  I went into "Q" a little later in the afternoon to run some errands, and took these pics at the intersection of Hwy 95 and Bus 10.  The first is looking south east toward La Mesa RV.

Then here is the view to the southwest. There used to be a used motorhome lot there, but he moved farther west.

This is the view northeast.

And the view straight north.  Gas is more expensive here at the Shell, than at the Pilot, or the Love's, where there price is $3.18 for regular.

During the day La Mesa RV called Jim and made a better offer of the Berkshire that he had looked at the day before.  Things went well, or so it seemed at the time, and the deal was done, pending financing. So while in town I went to La Mesa to look at this coach.  Really nice!

After several minutes of admiring the coach, we headed back to the campsite.  For dinner  headed into "Q" to eat at Crazy Jerry's Pizza and Wings.  The pizza was great, the wings were not as spicy as we had expected, but still good, and the meal was topped off with ice cream sundaes, for those who wished to partake.

By time we returned to our campsite it was dark so we all headed into our coaches and called it a night.

On Friday January 31 Ann and I headed in to Quartzsite to first give Ann an opportunity to see the new coach that Jim was planning on buying.  While we were looking at it a tech came out to look at the specs on the hitch.  One of the main reasons for Jim wanting to upgrade to a diesel pusher was that we wanted a coach that had  a hitch with a 10,000 pound rating, and the not the 5,000 pound of his current Southwind.  After looking and grumbling, and Ann holding a light on the tag on the hitch, the tech agreed that it was in fact, only a 5,000 pound hitch.  By that time most of our group was there looking things over.  Walt got on the phone to Forest River, the company that makes the Berkshire, to check on the hitch, while the rest of us continued to look over the coach.  Another selling point of the coach was that it had a 2000 watt inverter, but upon inspection, it was only a 1200 watt inverter.  I think we see a pattern developing here.  A salesperson lying hoping people dont check things.  Then a tech came out with a book showing Jim where he could order the heavier hitch for the coach.  So let's revue, he wanted the coach because he wanted the heavier hitch, it didnt have one, but they would sell him the coach, and he could pay to buy and new hitch and have it installed.  Things were not looking good....

At this point Ann and I headed over to RV Lifestyles where Ann wanted to purchase some tape to attach to the top of our front curtains so they slide in the channel they are supposed to, but they didnt have any.  At this point Brian met us there, and Brian and I went to do some shopping, and Ann went to do some shopping as well.

Brian and I first stopped at Discount Solar to get some battery interconnect cables to hook up his four deep cycle batteries.  Then it was off to the Grubstake for lunch.  Even though it was only about 3:00 PM, people were already showing up for dinner.  Brian's half-pound burger was good, but my so called "crab cakes" were mostly filled with air, and not much crab.

Then it was off to the Big Market to get dog food, and a couple of bundles of firewood for future campfires.  The Big Market is an interesting store as it has both groceries, and hardware items.

When we got back to the campsite we took off the jumper cables we had used as temporary battery interconnect cables, and replaced them with the new ones.  Looks nicer, and works better!

By the time we had finished Terry, Walt, and Jim had returned with the news that because of the lying and deceptive sales people at La Mesa RV, and even though the financing was approved, Jim had cancelled the deal for the Berkshire.  Probably a good move, even thought the price was right.

We did have a fire in the evening even though it was windy, so no one stayed out too long, but I did get a couple of the obligatory sunset pics.

For breakfast on Saturday February First We all went to the Mountain Quail Cafe for breakfast.  Really good food and we were joined by a co-worker of Brian's who was staying at the local motel.  While waiting for our breakfast, Walt checked the weather for Denver and environs, and made the decision to extend their stay here in Arizona for a few days.

Upon closer inspection of the "Tonight's Special", we decided we would return here for dinner tonight(actually early evening).  After all this is Quartzsite where Happy Hour in some places starts at 2:00 PM and most places close at 8:00PM.

Then it was off tv antenna shopping for Walt, Jim and I. Brian's co-worker, Liz, and her husband took Brian back to our campsite, so he could show them what desert boondocking is like.  Ann and Terry also went shopping.  We wanted to be sure and be able to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, and we had not been able to get any over the air channels at our campsite. Earlier we had seen a booth that was selling an Over the Air antenna that was purported to be a lot better that the Winegard crank up antennas that most RVs have.  We quickly found the booth and after some explaining by the sales person, Jim bought one.  As you can see in the pic it is an Orca Impulse.

 Then upon the advice of the antenna sales person, we went to a place called K-B Tools to get a 10 foot length of 3/4 inch and a 10 foot length of 1 inch tubing, and a piece to connect the too, as it was recommended to get the antenna at least 15 feet about about ground, and that 20 feet above the ground would be better.

Here is Walt about to bunge the sections of tubing to the top of his Jeep.

Once back at the campsite it was a four man project to get it installed and up and running.  Installing the antenna went pretty easy, but getting it to work required some dismantling the bottom of the entertainment center in Jim's coach to get the antenna connected to the proper place.  Once that was done, and with the help of  TV Fool, to know where to point the antenna,  we had over 20 over channels including FOX so we would be able to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Her is a pic of the installed antenna.  It is about 10 feet about the roof of Jim's coach, making it at least 20 some feet above the ground.

After what seemed like a fairly short afternoon, it was time to head to the Mountain Quail Cafe again to try the prime rib dinner.  When we arrived there was some what of a wait, and Ann took the opportunity to take a pic of the "Quartzsite Twins" as both Walt and I were wearing matching shirts that Terry and Ann had bought for us.  How nice!

Our server was quite busy, and mixed up a couple of our orders, wrong potatoes with our steak, but we were able to fix it ourselves, and we all agreed that the food was delicious, and no one went away hungry.  Going to be good day for the dogs tomorrow with the steak bones and meat scraps!

On the way out the door, I took these pics of some local artwork on display.

Once back at the campsite we all headed to our coaches, no campfire tonight.

February 2, Super Bowl Sunday!

Although the focus on Sunday was the Super Bowl with all of us at least being somewhat Broncos fans, and at least one of us being a somewhat moderate to rabid Broncos fan, but there are still the mundane things in life that need to be attended to including doing laundry.  So the day started with Ann and Brian going to the laundromat in Quartzsite, and were followed a little later by Walt and Terry.  While Brian's laundry was drying he went over to the Road Runner Market to the ingredients for the chili recipe he has.  To say the least it is a unique recipe.  He was able to get almost everything he needed except some napolitos that the recipe calls for, so a trip to Blythe, Ca was in order and hope he could find them there.  Terry and Ann stayed with their laundry, Brian brought his back to his coach, then he and Walt headed to the Albertson's in Blythe.

The chili recipe calls for roasted peppers, and it takes a while to roast, cool, and peel them, so I agreed I would do that while Brian and Walt searched for napolitos.  In the pic you notice there are no red peppers on the grill, I had overlooked them in the bag, and roasted them after doing the orange and yellow ones.

After having breakfast at the restaurant adjacent to the laundromat, and finishing laundry, Ann and Terry decided to take Terry and Walt's Jeep, drive part way up Q Mountain, and walk the rest of the way to the top.  Here they are leaving the campsite.

Views on the way up.

A close up view of the "Q" on Q Mountain with the American and M I A flags at the top in the background.

View from the top.

Close up of the American and M I A flags at the top placed there by RV Forum members Henry, and Frank.

Ann and Terry posing with the flags.

A view of the valley floor showing several small "washes" created by rain water running down off the mountains.

A picture of an old mine as seen from the top of the mountain.

Some close up of the ol mine.

And one last pic looking back up to the flags from the old mine.

Then it was on to the Super Bowl.  Brian's chile was about done.  Terry had made some guacamole dip, and some queso dip. Ann made jalapeno jelly and cream cheese dip.

Terry's guacamole, and queso.

Dont seen to have any pics of Brian's chili or Ann's jalapeno jelly and cream cheese dip, but I did get a pic of Walt chowing down and intently watching the game.  This pic must have before the Broncos had the ball the first time, because it all went down hill from there for the Broncos fans.

After the game I went back to our RV for a nap, but the others got a fire going, and cussed and discussed the game.  I finally went out to the fire, but didnt say long as I was not feeling all that well, and it wasnt because of the game or the food we had.

Monday February 3rd started early for me, as I was up about 1:00 AM with the stomach flu of some kind, and although I did feel a little better from time to time, overall, I felt bad.  I dont even remember the last time I was sick.

As Walt and Terry's two weeks here at Tyson Wash was up on Wednesday, and they didnt want to renew for two more weeks, and only use a couple of days of it, we all decided to move up to "Plamosa Road" a 14 day "free" area a few miles north of town.  So while the others prepared to move up there, Ann and I decided to stay here another night, hoping I would feel good enough to move up there tomorrow.  In the mean time while Brian completed moving his starter battery to another compartment, a move made necessary by going from two to four coach batteries, and putting his spare time back in place, Walt and Terry went up to Plamosa Road and scouted for a place for the three of us.

Eventually, they all headed out to the new campsite to establish  Stoughtown II.

During the evening the propane for our Kozy World Heater ran out, and although, Ann called Walt to change the propane tank, and I know he would have, I was feeling well enough to go out and change it.

By Tuesday February 4th I was feeling much better and mustered enough energy to move.  Ann took the five gallon water jug, and the two twenty pound propane cylinders to refill them, in the meantime, I took the RV and dumped the tanks and refilled the water.  For once there was no waiting line at the dump station.  They had placed a new pressure regulator on the water spigot, and there was not enough pressure to open the overflow on our water tank(that is how I tell the tank is full).  Once I figured that out, I moved the hose to a different spigot, and the tank filled quickly.

As you can see in this pic, I didnt lower the solar panels before moving.

The drive up to Plamosa Road didnt take long, and Ann was waiting for me at the turn off and in about a quarter of a mile we rejoined the others at StoughtownII.  A pic of StoughtownII taken from the top of our RV.

While I was up there, I took this pic looking south east toward Quartzsite.

The space they had picked for us didnt work too well, so we parked on the other side of a small wash, but still close by.  There was soft ground on the left rear of the coach, so in order to level it, I had to put some blocks under the jack on that corner.

Once settled in I was able to relax, and try to feel better, and for dinner Ann joind the others for tacos, while I stayed in.

By Wednesday February 5th I was feeling much better and drank some see and ate a couple pieces of toast.  A ways to go, but going in the right direction.  The morning was cloudy, but it began to clear off, and once the sun came out, the heating produced this "whirl wind".

While I was out to take that pic, I took this one of our "home" for the next couple of days.

Ann had made me some home made Chicken Noodle Soup which tasted pretty good, but I didnt want to over do it, so I only ate part of it.  I stayed in for most of the day, but did go out in the evening for the last family fire where Walt and Terry would be there, although they will stay at this site till they leave to return to Colorado on Friday, the rest of us are planning on leaving tomorrow for Cocopah Speedway near Yuma, AZ so can catch some IMCA racing this weekend and next weekend as well.

Thursday February 6th started out cloudy, but no rain. I was still in recuperation mode, so relaxed most of the morning while Jim and Brian made preparations for the move to Yuma.  Here they are hooking up Brina's Jeep.

About 1:00PM I started getting our motorhome ready to roll, and after showering, we were off.  Jim and Brian were ahead of us, and we passed Jim while he was getting propane, but by the time we filled up at the Pilot, and Ann got us DQ, Jim had passed us, so when we got to the dump station, Brian was already to go, and Jim was just filling up with water.  As we had just dumped and filled with water a couple of days ago, it didnt take long, and by 4:00PM we were on our way to Cocopah Speedway, near the Cocopah Casino.



The drive was uneventful and took us about two hours, and with plenty of room in the race track camping area it didnt take us long to establish Stoughtown III.  Thanks to Brian for this pic.

Since none of felt like cooking, and as a rule RVers, as a rule, dont cook on travel days, Ann found us a Mariscos Mexican seafood place to eat.  We had eaten at a couple of their stores in Tucson, and the food was unique, plentiful, and delicious.

Jim had the carne asada, Ann had the garlic fish, and Brian and I had the garlic shrimp.  You will have to take our word for it, as we had eaten all our food before we thought about taking pics.  This is the aftermath.

After a good mean and a travel day, even though it was only two hours, we all decided to call it a night when we got back to Stoughtown III.

By Friday February 7th  I was feeling pretty good, about 90% of normal, and  had some energy back, not that I have a whole lot to begin with.  We knew we were back in the Yuma area as one of the first sounds of the day were jets taking off from Marine Corps Air Station which is just to the west and north of us.  In years past they had Harrier jump jets here, which take off and land relatively slowly, so the noise goes on forever, now they have mostly F-35s which take off and land quickly.

Here is a pic of what I believe is a KC-135 tanker circling over head.

Here is a pic of what I believe is one of the F-35s.  He got out of range before I could take the pic.

Ann came out and took the bikes of the rack, so I could have access to the ladder, so I could go up on the roof and tilt the solar panels, to gain more power for our batteries.  When I came back down our battery monitor showed the panels to be putting a net 20 amps her hour in our batteries.

Pic of tilted panels.

While on the roof I took a few more pics of our RVs.  Here is Brian's.

And here is Jim's with his new Orca Impulse antenna up and running.

After that project I wandered around the camping area and took a few more pics.

Here is a couple of some flowers growing here in the desert.

Not sure what this is, must be some kind of cactus.  almost looks like a spider crawling across the desert.

Here is a couple looking into the "pit" area of the race track.  As you can see, even early in the day, there are already racers there.

In the back ground you can see the fertile fields where most of the fresh produce in the USA comes from during the winter.

And here is the broadcast tower at the track which sits a top the grandstand.

And here is some pics looking across the fields toward Yuma.

The large building left of center is the hospital.

For lunch Jim and Brian went to the Casino, and while there they purchased tickets for the nights races at the gift shop.  The prices are the same as at the track, but no line to wait in.

It turned out to be a warm afternoon, and Brian's dog, Radar, seemed to be enjoying it.

About 6:00PM we all headed to the track, since the seating is concrete, we got our four racing seat cushions to make the night more enjoyable.  Just inside the gate we met RV Forum member Ray, who was there with his wife, Liza, as well as other forum members, Terry, Frank, and Henry.  Here is a pic of the modifieds"packing" the track.

Here is the evenings awesome Arizona sunset.

Here is Liza, Ray, Terry, and Frank.  Looks like Liza and Frank werent quite ready for the pic.

Here are Jim and Brian.

And finally here are Ann, myself, and Henry.

 The racing was really good.  It has been a year since we have seen any dirt track racing, and I love it!  Also, it was nice to see some drivers there from Iowa, and the evenings winner in the "A" modifieds was from Osceola, Ne.  If you want to know more about the IMCA, here is a link. 

One nice thing about racing in the winter, you can wait till the sun goes down, have a good night of racing, and still be home before 10:00PM, which is what we did.  After getting back to Stoughtown III, I spent a little time on the computer before calling it a day.

On Saturday February 8th Ann made a delicious breakfast for all of us including bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, blue berries with whipped cream, and toast.  What a way to start the day!  Here I am looking like I am helping.

In the afternoon Brian and Jim headed to Algodonnes, MX to get some prescription drugs that are cheaper there, and to have a little fun, and evidently had some fun, as they didnt get back till about 7:00PM.  If you are a FB friend of Brian's, you may get a few more detals of their fun.

Also, in the afternoon, Ann went shopping at the Fry's grocery store over on the east side of Yuma, and stocked up on groceries that will last us a week or so.  She likes it better than the one that is closer.

I spent the afternoon relaxing until we got new neighbors.  I have heard other RVers talk about this, but I believe it is the first time I have seen.  This camping area is huge, but the new neighbor parked about 10 feet from us.

Here is how big the camping area is.

Here is where our new neighbor parked.  Things that make you want to go hmmmmmmm.  But I must say they were very quiet, I dont even remember hearing them run a generator, so it worked out well, afterall.

Since Jim and Brian hadnt got back from Algodonnes, and Ann didnt feel like going to the races tonight, I headed off to the race by myself about 6:00PM.  Once again, just inside the gate I met one of our RV Forum members.  This time is was Big Larry, who told me that he and his wife, Loretta were there, along with Henry, and his wife Margaret.  Here is Henry, Margaret, Loretta, and Larry.

It was another night of great racing and beautiful weather, but the same guy who won the "A" Modifieds the night before repeated his performance.  A great weekend for him!  And just like last night, I was back at the RV by 10:00PM. The end of a great weekend of racing, great friends, and great food!

Sunday February 9th was another beautiful day here in sunny Arizona, so for breakfast we headed to Bubba's, a place we had eaten at previously when we were in the Yuma area.

Here we are getting ready to leave the restaurant.

Our next stop was a farmers market on the north side of town, where we bought some fruits and vegetables including some delicious dates.

 Brian with his bag of "goodies"

Our next stop was the Yuma Marketplace, a huge open air market covering several acres.

The variety of things for sale here is mind boggling.  From ice cream, to beer, to clothing, to RV stuff to any kind of trinket you can imagine, 

At Wally's world we bought a plastic dish pan, and a mosquito swatter for one of Ann's friends.

Jake Bryan,if you read this, we thought of you when we saw this jersey.  Sorry, man.

Here is Ann's trunk stuffed full mostly with two nice reclining camping chairs that Jim and Brian bought.

Then is back to the RV for some Sunday after noon R&R.  A high school classmate of Jim's who, with her husband, are staying in a near by RV park, came over for a visit.  I can only imagine how much they had to talk about since they graduated in 1964.  Here is Jim and Linda catching up on old times.

Later in the afternoon, I set up the portable Directv dish.  Other than the Super Bowl, we havent hardly watched any TV, since our first week in Quartzsite.  I cant say I miss it much.

On her shopping trip to Fry's on Saturday, Ann had bought some nice T-Bone steaks for our Sunday evening meal.  So along with them we had green beans with bacon and garlic, Ann's cole slaw, which has pineapple and raisins in it, and fresh cantelope.  Brian marinated the steaks in a home made marinade with Italian dressing, Worcestershire sauce, and other secret ingredients.  I got the grill out and started it, by the time it was hot, the steaks had marinated long enough and were ready for the grill. Brina did a great job of cooking them while multi-tasked by digging a fire pit for the nights fire, and getting some firewood. Sorry, about not having any pics of this sumptuous meal, as there is no evidence it happened, as Brian's dog, Radar, even ate the steak bones.

After sitting by the fire for a while, Ann went in to watch a movie on her computer, while Brian, Jim and I sat by the fire for a while discussing the weeks events, and where we might want to go next.  I went in fairly early to get moving on doing this blog update, while Jim and Brian sat by the fire for another hour or so.

Monday February 10th was a day to chain myself to the computer and get the blog updated.  Doing ten days at a time is too much to remember, even with pics and notes!  My blog updates always start slowly, but eventually build speed, but by the time I am finished, I usually slow down some, and it is very hard to keep on task...look, there is something shiny!   Ok, back to the task.

It is a quiet day around here, Ann is work, working, I am doing the blog, and we didnt see Jim or Brian until early this after noon. for lunch Ann heated up my left overs from Mariscos from last Thursday, then it was back to writing.  Jim, Brian, and Radar did stop over finally, and after giving Radar a treat, Jim and Brian went into Yuma to mail some stuff and Jim was going to find a new door latch for his coach.

It is now about 5:00PM here.  The weather is beautiful; about 80 and a little breeze.  Things dont get much better than that.

Until next time,

Paul