Jan 30???

Gosh, the month is almost over. It's hard to believe, seems like we were just watching the new year come in...Today was our lazy day. I went to town to get some potatoes. I decided that since it was overcast and kinda gloomy out, that homemade potatoe soup sounded good. After it was made and we tasted it, I had made the right decision. I have enough left over to take to work tomorrow.We played 3 games of yahtzee this afternoon. I won 2 and Bob won 1. We talked to the forest service personal about the camp host position we are thinking about taking this summer in Wyoming. After talking to him, we have decided to take it and were accepted. It is at the Northfork campground, 60 sites, just west of Laramie Wyoming. Actually Centennial Wyo is 30 miles west and it is a few mile past that. We were concerned about using our solar panels in the mountains but the Forest Svc. person thinks we will be able to get sunlight enough to charge them for the day. We're going to give it a try. We can move from site to site to acquire the right amount. So come and visit us at the Northfork campground this summer...We would love to meet you!!!We helped Mitch with the sewer dumping today. We thought it would be easier to use our Blue Boy than have him hook up his trailer and make a trip to the dump site.I captured this photo of our hummingbird that has been sitting in the tree all day. Guess he likes the necter in his personal feeder.

Also below him is the evening sunset that fell upon the desert tonight.

Well, going to close for tonight. We both have to work tomorrow. Bob at Tyson Wash check station and I will be at La Posa North. If you are on the road and stop in, let us know about reading this post.

I have to start dinner--tonight it will be Chicken fried steak, baked potatoes, green beans, salad and homemade rolls. Talk to you all tomorrow...

Jan 29th

Another beautiful day in Quartzsite. As the evening closes in we are getting some cloud cover but the temp is just as nice as anyone could ask for.

Our day started out by taking the tire for the trailer to be fixed. We had to leave it at the shop because they were backed up with other repairs. 4 hours later we picked it up. The cause of the flat was a leaky valve stem. When we bought the trailer in Nov. we had them put 4 new tires on because it looked like the old ones had sun damage. It's now on the trailer and still holding air. WHEW!

Tried to get to the post office annex to pick up mail about 10am but there were about 30 people waiting already. Later in the afternoon we managed to have only about 10 in front of us.

It looks like a lot of vendors are moving their wares out. Several campers have also left town today. The traffic in town was low today even compared to yesterday.

We had a visit from our Canadian neighbor, Mitch, tonight. They will be headed to Yuma in the next week or so.

Here's a picture of Carley. She's modeling a sheepskin lined leather coat that was purchased at the Dog House vendor at Rice Ranch. Probably will not be wearing it for a while since the weather took a turn for the better.
Our dinner tonight is baked pork chops, brown rice, corn on the cob and salad. Can you believe we can get corn on the cob in January? Only in Quartzsite!
Till tomorrow---enjoy the evening.

Jan 28th

Another balmy day in Quartzsite. The sky was overcast, a slight breeze in the air and the temp in the low 70's. The perfect end to the day would have been sitting next to the aquamarine waters while listening to the ripples of the water made by the soft breeze. Back to reality now!!

We had the lovely chore of doing laundry today. It wasn't as busy as it has been in the past. We then headed over to Janets' Kitchen, one of the local restaurants here, and had a nice breakfast.

After a trip home to pick up some gems that I faceted, we headed back over to the Pow Wow to find settings for them. I was only able to find one, but now have a beautiful necklace from the first stone I faceted.

I have the gold one set in a pendent.

We then bucked traffic trying to find a place to park at Tyson Wash where tons of vendors are, and after about 1/2 hours of not getting anywhere, we parked over at Rice Ranch. Short walk to the other side of the highway where we found some rough faceting material to use in my classes. THEN===since the vendors will be leaving shortly, I talked Bob into going over to get a funnel cake. They just melt in your mouth but I'm sure the calories have escaped when they took them out of the deep fryer.

Heading back to the truck we spotted a vendor that was selling bicycles. After trying out a few, Bob settled on one to buy. Shiny red,,,,looks pretty good! Bob and I are going to try to ride our bikes every night from now on.

While we were sitting outside I got a picture of an ultra lite flying overhead. I don't know if he was taking pictures or just watching all the people in the desert.

Time to start dinner, just going to have smoked sausage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend...Till tomorrow, stay safe, healthy and happy.

Jan 26th and 27th

We got off to an early start (9am) and headed to the Pow Wow at the QIA building. We started off there by riding the shuttle from the parking lot to the vendors.

All we needed to finish this ride off was a moonlit starry night, straw in the bed of the wagon pulled by the tractor and a cup of hot chocolate in our hands..Maybe a few snowflakes would perfect it also.

We walked, walked, walked and looked at everything there. Took a break at lunch time and had a Chile cheese dog and coke. Back to looking and walking afterwards. By the time we were thru 5 hours had gone buy. Got some great pictures tho. Met many nice people and saw a bunch of talent out there. Here's some pics of part of the Pow Wow...

Carved tree from an artist.

2nd pic:

Jars and Jars of OPAL stones.

Here's a teardop trailer that they were using to store their good in. We were taller than the trailer...Sure wouldn't be a good thing to be full timing in.

After we got home, we were tired so we just had a fire in the evening, talked with a few neighbors and called it good.

Jan 27th--Today was DUMP day. Got the tank filled, drove to the dump station 3 miles away and saw the LINE. We only waited 1 hour and 15 minutes to dump. Guess everyone else had the same idea this morning. We viewed the Vietnam traveling wall that is in town for a spell. Quite a few people were turning up for the opening ceremony. We then had to take a trailer tire off, it was only flat on the bottom tho...No one in town was open to fix it, so Monday morning,,we'll get there before everyone else does. We stopped by Ron and Terry's place on the way home and talked with them a bit. They had happy hour going and they make some pretty good Margarita's!

We're roasting hot dogs on the camp fire tonight with good old pork and beans. Beautiful outside tonight... Stay happy and healthy and enjoy your weekend. Everyday's a weekend in Quartzsite!!

Jan 25th

Not a very busy day today! Bob worked at Tyson Wash check in station from 9am - 5pm. He checked in 23 campers today. The ranger had to go into the camp area and pull out campers that camped without signing in and getting a permit. 3 of them were found.

Traffic was backed up 4 miles south of town waiting to explore the big tent happenings.

I hauled 35 gallons of water from La Posa South. As usual the lines were backed up for the water and dump. 17 units were waiting to dump and only about 5 backed up for water. It was noted by a fellow camper that I was talking to that some of the dumpsters at La Posa South were missing. Dumpster thief???

After waiting in line for water, I managed to get back to the camp site and pump the water into the holding tanks.

This afternoon I watched as a motor coach backed his way into an area about 40 feet from our trailer. We will have to find a new way out of our campsite when we get ready to dump and get water. This will last only about 2 weeks, so it is tolerable.

We're headed over to the POW WOW tomorrow to see all the gems and minerals and equipment for sale. Terry from hitchitch.com is going to be going with us. I'm excited about it, since it is the 1st year I'll see it.

A couple of pictures will follow and I will close for the night...

This detailed coach had a pull out BBQ grill and a wide screen TV about it! Talk about fancy!!! The 2nd picture is how some people spend their time here...Stacking rocks???

Hello All

Hello All,,,

If you don't know, things are very busy here. Yesterday I went out to the Dome Rock area, about 7 miles west of here, to do some metal detecting for Gold and on the way back along the frontage road I got trapped in the traffic. It was a 1 hour and 45 min. trip for a 2 mile journey.

Previous to the prospecting trip I went to the Library, not to bad about 45 min., got some propane about a 45 min deal and got an onion for hamburger -bq about 45 min. Better be ready to stand in line and wait if you want to go or do anything in Quartzstie right now.......

Sandy made Taco's last night and this evening we -bq ed a steak, mashed potato's, carrots and pumpkin pie. Great Deal!!!!!!!!!!!

I worked with the BLM today and Sandy installed a new faucet in the kitchen sink, need to do a little more work on that one. There was an accident on Hwy. 95 North, a 35 mile an hour speed zone but the guy flipped his truck several times,,so hard to tell how fast he was going.

Sandy and I went to the "Big Tent" on Sunday and filled out several cards for prizes that they were giving away. While I was at work today Princess Cruises called and said that we had won a DVD Player, so Sandy went over and retrieved our prize....

We have some great new Neighbors from B.C. Canada. They came over for a visit this evening and we told them that we could help them in dumping and hauling water. Most of the information we learned from Ron & Terry at HitchIitch.com. "Some really great people" Go to their site for good information that will help you Boondock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is lots of fun and you can do it. There are lots of great people here in the Desert that that will help in any way that they can. Let us know if you need help or information and we will do our best to help..!

Bob & Sandy

Jan.23rd fun!!!!!!!

Tried to post this last night but kept getting that the blogger was down. Trying again this morning before everyone uses up satellite space..

I worked at the check in station yesterday, only checked in about 75 campers. Most of them are only staying 3-4 days but wanted to stay in the spot closest to the big tent. Not as far to walk.

Exciting day thru the check in point area!! The fire trucks had to come out. A trailer caught on fire!! Someone was going buy and managed to see it and somehow got in the trailer and use the fire extinguisher some before the fire trucks came. No hope for the trailer. Everything was lost. This was very sad. A cat was in the trailer and got his whiskers burned but he is ok. The person that owned it wasn't home and will try to get a replacement in the next few days.

Other bit of news,,,the law enforcement was in full force also. Around 10 units headed back into the desert trying to make a drug bust. Supposedly, there was a meth lab going on back there. Hope we find out more info on that!

Here's a couple of pics we took--enjoy!

Selling sausages at the big tent!

Also, a moose came to town!

Jan 20, 21, & 22

Hello all,

We had computer problems for the past few days, so I'll try to update you for the past 3.

On the 20th, Bob and I worked as volunteers at the main gate coming in to La Posa North, where we are camped. Quite a busy day. Everyone was coming in for the big tent opening that day. Lots of campers are coming in for rallies (Blue Bird coaches, Highway patrol, Escapees, Alfa See Ya, etc. Too many to name them all. Everyone is in great spirits tho.

On the 21st, We had the day off! YEA!! We got up and did laundry at 7am, got home at 9:30am. About 10:30 we headed in to the BIG TENT. Lots of people, lots of vendors selling everything from soup to nuts. There are a lot of vendors recruiting for summer employment. Tried to get Bob to commit to working in Alaska this summer, but I think we will head to Wyoming instead. Maybe next year. There was even a booth taking applications for employment for the nudist camps. Out back of the tent is a large 2 story party barge. They are selling them to put into Lake Powell. Pretty fancy for a boat. It had a hot tub on the top deck! The Party Barge below:::

The show closed early about 2pm because of a severe weather warning. It had been windy all day, so we think it was because of high winds. The Interstate 10 was closed down and truckers were advised to pull over for a short while. We had seen enough in 4 hours tho. We then stopped by Ron and Terry's place (hitchitch.com) and talked with them a while.

After that we drove around the different LTVA to see how many campers are parked here. Lots of campers here, quite a few in the free 2 week parking south of town too. This lighted cactus was on top of a truck we spotted.

Jan 22nd---I had to work today. Bob had the day off and was going to run to the post office and get some things from the grocery store. He said the lines in town were terrible. He had to wait at least 45 minutes in each line, plus the waiting for traffic to crawl thru. At the check in station we had about 70 people check in. We didn't have too bad of a day. After the day was over, Bob was the chef for the evening. He bbq-ed the best hamburgers. Was mighty tasty.

Next we are going to watch the premier of Prison Break. I missed a few episodes last fall while traveling out to Arizona.

Rainy Day

Hello All!!!!!!!

A rainy day here in the Desert South of Quartzsite.

Empty sewer and got water today. Everything here right now is wait your turn so nothing moves very fast. Had to get propane and another long line.

Have to do laundry so we must be at the laundry by 5 Sunday morning, Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandy went to Parker, AZ for groceries and I stayed home to do some business, pay bills, yuck. It has been raining most of the day and on Sandy's way back from Parker a speeder went around her. Well, down the road a couple miles the speeder must have hydroplaned and was nose down in the ditch with the top of the car up against the bank. Hope no one was hurt. The Highway Patrol was there but no ambulance yet.

The place is really filling up. We have been helping to check in campers and most seem to be staying for 2 weeks. Lot's of big shows the next 2 weeks.

The Honda Generator is a great deal. We only have it running for about 4 hours in the evening, about 1/2 gallon of gas per evening for our 110 use. During the day we use Solar and an Inverter. All is well so far.

Bob & Sandy

End of the 18th

The end of the day,,finally...Bob and I both worked at the check in station, issueing permits for mostly 2 week stays. Bob was putting the permit stickers on the vehicle windshields. He didn't have many chances to get off his feet. We issued over 140 permits for short term parking today. The desert is filling up with campers and they keep coming in!
Because we were both so tired, we opted to go to Otis's place to pick up a take and bake pizza. Too tired to cook!
We had a propane emergency today. It seemed like we were out of propane, but come to find out, we needed to replace both hoses and connections going into the tanks. They were'nt letting the propane out of the tanks to go into the trailer. Bob got that taken care of quickly. Good thing, otherwise we might be having cheese and crackers for supper.
But there is relief in sight,,,tomorrow we both have a day off.

Full timing and lovin' it

We began full timing the 1st part of November 2006. Bob retired Oct. 20th, we sold everything we couldn't fit in the camper and truck at an auction on the 28th and took the plunge.
We headed south out of Nebr. thru Colo. across NM and ended up in Quartzsite Az. on Nov 9th. We have been busy ever since.
Bob and I (Sandy) started working as part time camp hosts at La Posa North this week. The campers are really pouring in.
Quartzsite events are picking up so I'm sure we'll be busy.
This summer we will head to Wyoming to campground host.
Hope you follow our travels as we take on this big adventure.