Another Fixing day in the Desert

Every once in a while we need a fixing day and today was that day for Pat and Harold.  Along with buying a new to them used RV comes the challenge of figuring out what all the buttons are for and how all the different systems work.  So today we devoted some time to crawling over the Alfa, getting to know it.  First change was to take out 2 old Costco deep cells and hook up the newer batteries they kept from their old 5th wheel. 

A Shopping Day

Today was still supposed to be cool in Yuma so we planned a shopping day so we could stay indoors.  We were a bit surprised when the temperature went up to 17C but there was a breeze.  First stop was Cracker Barrel for an early lunch or late breakfast.  This is the Cracker Barrel where all of the RV spots are full of cars and trucks, so if one came along, there would be no where to park.  Just a pet peeve of mine.

In Search of Warmth

We are sick and tired of waiting for tomorrow to be warmer.  Quartzsite has been on the cooler side since we got here and the days have been breezy, so Pat said lets head south.  Now we are not quite ready for Mexico with the Ponderosa yet so we decided to got to Ogilby Road which is west of Yuma.

We didn't get in a rush today but rather sat around morning Happy hour until almost 11 am.   Kyra is not coming with us because she has to tend to some medical issues with one of her cats.  Ed and Lessie don't want to leave today because their friend Melvin is going to be in Q with his truck today and they want to visit with him.  So that just leaves the Ponderosa and Goldie heading south today. After we had all that figured out,  Sue and I decided to do laundry and have lunch at the Main Street Laundry while Pat and Harold got their paper work on Goldie done.

One Mans Junk is another Mans Treasure

One thing I have not accomplished yet on our stay in Q is to visit the never ending junk sale along Main Street by the Post Office.  It is an amazing place to visit because there is stuff there that I am not sure anyone who has a lick of sense would want.  Everything is old and rusty and broken but I'm sure there are treasures there as well.  I just can not see them.  None the less, it is fun to just walk through and see what they have so that is how I passed a couple hours today.

A Day on the Rock

Dome Rock is a neat place to hang out for a while.  What a view from up here. We have a couple things planned for today and we are also anticipating the arrival of Pat and Harold with their new to them RV.  Can't wait to see it.  Today there is a cemetery walk at the Hi Jolly Cemetery and Ed and Lessie invited me to go along because Sue has no interest in seeing no cemetery!!!

Moving Day again

Pat and Harold are almost ready to head back to be with us from a couple week hiatus in California.  They have been hanging out in Ventura CA and I think Harold has been taking surfing lessons on the side.  I KNOW that Pat is shopping.  We will have a story about their adventure when they arrive back here in the desert.  Because they are coming back and we will not be around here in the LTVA for very long, we decided to move over to dome rock free camping area until the beginning of the week.  Sue and I went over in the Jeep to scout out an area first and found one up on a mesa overlooking Quartzsite with the mountains right behind us.  If you wanted to buy a view like this it would cost a fortune, and we get it for free!!!

A Little Road Trip

We took a little road trip today to check out some different areas of interest that may be accessible for free dry camping around Parker AZ.  As soon as you get anywhere near water, it seems like the snowbirds with deep pockets are there already, packed in like sardines.  We actually saw one RV park where if you were parked side by side and you both had slides on opposing sides, you would not be able to walk between the RV's.  l can't imagine doing that for 6 months of the year.  I often hear the words of the song Willie Nelson sang.... Give me land lots of land under starry skies above, don't fence me in.  He was my kind of guy.  We did find a couple of nice spots down near the Colorado River just outside Parker.  We may try one of them out for a night. 

Wash Day

The Ponderosa has not had a good wash and wax for quite some time.  Being an older fiberglass body MH makes de oxydizing a necessity to stop the white streaks from running down the sides.  And lots of wax afterwards.  We decided to get Roberts RV was to do the job.  They arrived at to start the job.

More Friends Arrive

Today I will erase a few more projects off my list of things to do.  Our friend Kyra needs a couple things done to help her out.  The first thing was to change the anode rod in her hot water tank. She hasn't had it done in a while, and I'm sure an RV dealer would charge lots to do it for her.  For those of you that have no idea here is where you find an anode rod.

A Crappy Day!!!

The desert is ever changing and this is one of those times.  Cooler weather is moving in and bringing it in is the wind.  This place is so beautiful when it is sunny and warm, but can be abrasive when the wind picks up the sand and whips it in your face.  That was what happened today.  First clue was when the mountains disappeared.  Then the temperature started to drop and by supper time it was quite chilly. 

Cardiac Exercise Program

So I guess I didn't quite get the right impression of how happy Sue was with her permanent markers for her birthday.  If you remember yesterday she did say that she was going to make some kind of a mark on me.  Well I guess this is what she meant!  I must be a deep sleeper!!

Thanks photo shop.

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

Today was Sues Birthday and it started off much the same as any day.  Come to think of it most of the day was just like any other day.  lol.   Sue had decided to take me to the stock car races in Yuma for her birthday.  Of course I made the sacrifice and said yes.  Ed and Lessie had not been to car races in a long time so we brought them with us.  First stop (after a bathroom break behind a tree along the road, because it is and hour and a half to Yuma with no bathrooms along the way) was the Arizona Marketplace in Yuma.  We like this Market because it is more RV orientated than the Mesa one.

More Home repairs

When I got up this morning I turned on the hot water so we can all do our morning chores.  There it was, that nice bright shining light telling me the hot water tank was on propane.  Don't know why I hadn't completed this modification sooner.  It will save a lot of propane.

The Lost Chairs owner returns

The weather is a little cooler in the mornings so everyone is a little later in coming out of their warm cozy homes to have coffee on the deck.  It is still beautiful and by 10 or so no one even remembers it was cool.  Today Sue and I are going to Parker for a supply run.  I had forgotten that it is a good 45 minute drive, but it is always nice driving in the desert. 

Happy Valentines Day!!

My sweetie had my Valentines card and a wee gift laid out for me when I got up this morning.  She is the thoughtful one this year.  Every year I get to juggle between Valentines and her birthday, which is on Feb 17, so I guess this year I will have to do extra good on her birthday!!! I did get her a card at least!!  This neat motto will find a special place in the Ponderosa.

Fixing day #1

Fixing day #1 began like all the others with a happy hour to decide what the plan for the day was.  My first plan of the day was to get my boots on and walk over to Kuhn street in Quartzsite, to see what was left there and to root around in Gamblers and picking up do dads to help with all the repairs and additions to the Ponderosa.  You will get to see what I bought as I show you all of the repairs.  There are not many vendors left along the strip and a lot more were packing up as I poked around looking.

When I got home it was time to start on some projects.

Off to Quartzsite

Today is moving day.  We are heading to Quartzsite to do some repairs to the Ponderosa.  There are a lot of little things that we need to fix and Quartzsite has all of the supplies we will need to fix them.  Ed and Lessie will be following us today, and Kyra will come maybe tomorrow.  Chuck and Angela are planning a short trip back to Illinois for a special birthday, so we won't see them for a while, if at all.

Cruising Canyon Lake

We have reservations on the Dolly Paddle wheel cruise on Canyon Lake today so morning happy hour was a planning session for when and where and how.  About 12:30 we all loaded up and headed to Canyon Lake.  It is about a 14 mile drive on the mountain road which leads to Tortilla Flats so we didn't mind leaving a little early so we could take our time going there.  The mountains up that way are really pretty to look at.  Not long after we got there "our ship came in" from the previous cruise.

 

The Sheriff comes to the Mountain

Our time on the mountain is slowly coming to an end so we have to tie up some loose ends.  Us guys have some regular maintenance to do to our batteries and motor homes in general.  The ladies insisted that they were not quite shopped out, so off they went on one last spree.  We have a friend dropping by this afternoon, so they will have to be back by two.  That deadline may or may not happen. 

One thing we have noticed is that there is a little truck from the Ghost Town that sometimes tours people up the trail in front of our camp showing them the desert and the interesting stuff in it.  I get the feeling we are sort of on display for the tour and wonder if the man narrating the tour is saying something like.."Shhhhh. We must be quiet so we don't spook the group of squatters on the left, who are following the traditions of the gypsies.  They are a group of homeless Canadians who can't afford to live in a park.  Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle as they may be hungry and might bite!!!"

The Orange tree

As most days do, we started today with a morning happy hour.  We tend to wait until this time to discuss the plan for the day and decide if there are any things that will work doing them together.  Today was an individual day because everyone had a different goal to meet so everyone decided to go their own ways.  P&H had friends dropping by, Ed and Lessie were off on a parts buying mission, Chuck and Angela had lunch out with relatives, Kyra was Grampa hunting, and Susan and I were visiting Aunt Brenda.  You can see that retirement does not always mean feet up, because we do have some busy days.  We just try not to have five in a row anymore.

Spiffing up the Ponderosa

Yesterday Sue and Pat went on a shopping trip into Mesa and Phoenix and Gilbert and Tempe and Pioria, and who knows where else.  I call it all Phoenix but I guess they are separate cities.  They left about 9 am and didn't get back until around 7 pm.  They both brought lots of treasures.  Sue has been looking for a new carpet for the living room for a while now and this week a mysterious stain showed up in the middle of the old one, so it was time to replace it.  The only picture of the old one I have was from before Christmas and you will see our Buddy Heater keeping us warm.  Believe me, we don't need no Buddy Heater any more with temperatures pushing 90F.

There was a hangin in the streets of Tortilla Flats today

We were enjoying our morning happy hour on the deck when we heard the clippity clop of some horses coming up the road.  Generally there are only a couple horses, but this morning we could tell there were more.  We walked over to the road in time to meet 6 riders out for a cross country ride.  They were heading up the small mountain behind us.  The one horse was a dapple with a design I never remember seeing before.

They all stopped for a chat and told us they were from Illinois and Iowa.  They come every year and bring their own horses to ride.  They even took a minute to line up for a picture.

Colourful Car Wash

Pat and Harold have been looking around at some different RV's and today they are going to take one for a test drive so they invited us along.  Because they don't currently have a Motor Home, they thought maybe we could confirm with them that this one seemed to be normal.

We do not profess to be experts in the field of Motor homes, but have had one for a few years and feel comfortable giving them our uneducated opinion on it.  It ran and drove like a dream and seemed very solid.  That's about all the information we could provide.

Things you see in the Desert

We were just talking about the fact that we have been here over 2 weeks now.  There is supposedly a 14 day limit here, but last year the BLM guy said he has no idea when people arrive and when they leave.  We want to stay here until next Monday if we can because some of our group have things to do in the Phoenix area.   We do get to see some interesting things from our front porch on a regular basis.  There are lots of horse riders here.

Proud of our Hockey kids

Today we are sharing some excitement with our daughter Sheri and our grand kids Donovan and Dani.  The city of Lacombe Alberta has been chosen to be part of the Rogers Hometown Hockey tour.  They bring in the Stanley Cup and a bunch of the Edmonton Oilers to do a bunch of promotional stuff in town.  All of the kids who play hockey in the area are there with their teams and it is a special event for them to meet some of their hockey hero's.  Donovan's team was there to be part of the parade even though the temperature was -43C with the wind chill.

Donovan in front with balaclava over his face

Another walk in the Desert

Today was putter around day at the Ponderosa.  Started the day with coffee happy hour and decided that Sue, Angela, Lessie and Ed were going to the Mesa Market Swap Meet, Pat and Harold were going back on the RV search, and Chuck and I would stay home with the dogs and go for a nice walk in the desert.  Sounds good to me.  Chuck and I and Charlie headed out about 11:00 towards the Ghost town.

Ghost town back there.

Happy Birthday Louise

We started our day with a coffee happy hour again.  Its a great way to plan our day and we actually have a lot of laughs doing it.  Kyra was the person in charge of laughter this morning after her old old old directors chair finally gave out.  Good thing she was not hurt when it let her down.

Now Kyra had bought a new directors chair a couple years ago in anticipation of this day.  She thought it was going to happen a lot sooner than this, so has been storing the new one to put it into service on this occasion.

Grace and Elaine head home

We were up at 6 am again this morning to take Elaine and Grace to the airport.  The week has flown by and I think Kaitlyn and Greg would like their daughter back.  She has sure brightened our days and kept us on our toes.  It has been a pleasure to have her.  It was a beautiful morning for a drive and even with the 3 traffic jams on the way, we still had smiles on our faces when we got there.  We arrived at the airport and within 10 minutes they were checked in and through security and were on their way.