V5N2A

Quartzsite.....Again

We absolutely love this place. If there was no Quartzsite, we would have to invent it. This year was a little different in that we spent 7 days here, 6 on the desert without hookups. On the 6th day we went into a campground, filled our water tank, and dumped our holding tanks and went back out on the desert and washed the motorhome. From there we went to a Rest Area in Ehrenberg, AZ which is located on the AZ/CA border. We still had enough water in our tank to shower the next morning and move on to a campground. We've got this Desert thing down to a fine art. The only thing we had to do every day was recharge our batteries by running the engine or the generator a couple of hours. Our campsite was free, however, so the cost for the week was marginal to say the least.

The food in "Q" is something that is impossible to pass up. Our first venture into the "Big" city was for lunch at a Greek place, we found, that was serving Chicken Gyros. They were so good we had to go back later to have them again, on another day. We visited a Mexican Restaurant located in town that had fabulous Shredded Beef Burritos. And a trip to "Q" wouldn't be complete without a visit to Billy Bob's BBQ. (Pork and Beef cooked on an outside grill) All you have to do is follow the smoke to get to it. And we absolutely HAD to have the Giant Onion Rings and the "stack" of Curly Fries. (Fries that were fried in a block that was 6"X6"x10" high) We had a couple of Monster Burgers with that entree. On the way out of town we bought a dozen Dutch Dogs which are Fritter-like Fried Cakes with fruit baked inside. I don't know if I'm going to make it until next year.

We also met up with some friends that we met last year in Gold Canyon. (Apache Junction) Clay and Jerie Nye were at an RV America rally with us there and Clay is a retired Firefighter, another one of those early retirees. We were together for a day at the big Good Sam Tent. We had a couple of beers together afterward, and hoped we could get together again before we both headed home.

The shopping, as always, reveals the best prices anywhere. But even a good deal is no good unless you need what you are buying. I always manage to find some tools to pick up. This year I had to pick up socks. The 20 extra pairs I'd already bought, were sitting at home in the closet. I guess I'm "saving them for good."

We had a couple of days to kill over Super Bowl Sunday, before we went to Desert Hot Springs, to our homepark, and found a campground on the Arizona border in Ehrenberg.

A couple days later we pulled into Desert Hot Springs and the weather has finally warmed up. Aside from a couple of indoor pools we haven't even had the urge to go swimming until we got here. For the last 5 days Me and the Mrs. have been soaking in the pool and hot tub extensively. It'll be tough to leave this place.

Rest in Peace

If you heard a loud scream around the end of the month, last month, it was me hollering at the printer that just died. It died a sudden death after printing the front logo for the Newsletter. Because the Newsletter was written and ready for printing and mailing, we needed to do something fast so our faithful readers wouldn't be disappointed. You are faithful readers aren't you?

We made a mad dash to Lake Havasu City after supper one night to retrieve a new machine, at Wal-Mart, of course. And then the fun began. Installing it was one click of the mouse. Making it work, was several rotten words that were never learned in Catholic School. Or were they? I forget. It did take Sharon one visit to church with a lot of praying, to get that baby online and functioning. I'll take my help from wherever I can get it. So with any luck at all, everybody will get their Newsletter on time this month.

Indian Arti (FAKES) facts?

We experienced another "interesting" place sightseeing this month. We had never noticed the Blythe Intaglios (pronouced Intal-e-oes) even though we had been through here on several occasions. Blythe, of course, is located on I-10 on the California border about 20 miles from Quartzsite. The Intaglios are located about 15 miles north of there. The site, as we were told, were Indian carvings that were constructed thousand of years ago.

As we drove into the site, we encountered the roughest road we had ever been on in the last 3 years. We drove in about 3 miles on this horrible road when we encountered the end of the road. We were supposed to climb a mesa to view the carvings, and one loomed ahead of us that was at least 150-200 feet high. Needless to say, a climb was in our immediate future. We grabbed the cameras, and commenced the ascent. With legs burning, and out of breath, we reached the top. Nothing! There was nothing to be seen. We took some pictures of the mountains and our car down below, and then started down. The rocks and gravel were loose so we had a tough time getting down.

As we drove out with the car, we commented on how it was, at least, a nice day for this trip. 1/2 mile from the highway we spotted the chain link fence that surrounded the Intaglios. They were "on top" of a mesa that was all of 20 feet high. As we "climbed" the mesa we were reminded of other indian "earthworks" we had encountered in Iowa.

The thousand year old carvings were scraped out of the soil and appeared white amid the dark rocks that surrounded them. We don't know if these things are real or not, but I think an 8 year old kid with a plastic shovel could have done just as well. In fact there were areas outside the fence where people had attempted to do just that with just their feet.