February Adventures while Snow Birding

As our travels continue.....this is a picture of the view going into Quartzsite, Arizona, in the evening.  The interstate winds down into Quartzsite and then winds back up out of Quartzsite....we tried to get an evening view with car lights on both sides of the interstate.  As always, if you double click on any of the pictures, you should be able to see a much larger scale picture.  There was a huge rain, and a tornado watch close to where we were.  Flooding across the main road we travel on caused a road closure for a couple of days.  While we were still in Quartzsite, cousin Janice and Archie came down for one more meal at the Grubstake so Tony could get his last fix of "fish and chips".

We took our motorhome to Lake Havasu to visit friends, Sharon and Gary.  We rode the boat taxi over to the Lake Havasu Landing in California, for dinner.  The first picture is an unusual one of Tiger Woods at a very young age hanging on the wall at the restaurant.




The next morning riding around looking for garage sales, it gave us a good look at the homes in Lake Havasu as well as the unusual way some people give their dogs a haircut.  See the picture of this small dog trimmed to look like a lion. 






Buying a new motor home was next on Tony's agenda.  This picture is of our new Country Coach Inspire (40 foot long, diesel pusher with three slides).  This web site shows the inside in much better detail than any pictures we could take.  It took us four hours to move everything from the old motor home to the new one.  I was shocked that we had managed to get so much stuff accumulated in the short time we had owned the previous motor home.  Our first visitors after we got back to the RV park were Tureda and Neil, Peg and John, Jon and Greta, Butch and Mary, and Randy.  Needless to say, there was plenty of room for everyone.  Because everyone will be shocked that I agreed to this purchase, I am sticking to the story that I think Tony put some kind of drug in my diet Dr. Pepper.  It is the only logical reason that I can think of that I went along with this purchase!!!  Our last evening in Quartzsite was spent with all our friends and a spaghetti dinner provided by Butch and Mary around their fire in the RV park.






The next day we moved on to the California desert to be with Linda and Mike, Sherry and Larry, Penny and Arnie, and Jeanne and Dan.  Because they had heard in advance that we were coming down in a new motor home, Linda and Jeanne planned a celebration of pina coladas and a dinner for everyone.  We had a great evening around the propane fire.  Janice and Archie arrived about a week after we did.  Some will be surprised that Janice and Archie really liked this "boon docking" and want to do it again next year.  At one point our time spent on the campsite included eight RVs (tent camper, pickup camper, three 5th wheels, pull camper, and two diesel pushers).  We were circled in the desert like a wagon train!  






This picture is inserted to show some of the desert layout....and notice the British flag on our ATV....as well as the flag used on Dan's ATV (his American flag was torn, so he substituted a pair of Christmas shorts).  Archie, Mike, Randy, Sean, and Dan are pictured here on an "all guy" outing.


Our time in the desert is spent going for hour long walks early in the morning, bike riding on the desert floor, card playing, sitting around the fire, ATV trips, going to the Arizona Market and Racetrack Market, and occasional trips into Algodoness, Mexico.  I made use of the larger kitchen in the motorhome to cook a chicken dinner for twelve people and then the next week cooked a brunch for sixteen.  Two interesting things seen at the Arizona Market ~ a lady wheeling a baby stroller with five (notice the fifth dog underneath);




and a metal doll house that reminded me of the doll house I had as a kid.....actually I think it was just like mine....antique price tag was $85.00.








Butch and Mary came down from Quartsite  bringing donuts for an early morning visit.  We went to the nearby casino for the buffet lunch with Sharon and Gary from Lake Havasu.

We took a day trip with Janice and Archie to see the rock graffiti.  Not sure why people do this rock art.....but hundreds of groups have been to this area and left their mark ~ clearing a spot on the desert floor and spelling out their names with rocks.

..... the Plank Road (you can read more about this interesting road at the web site) and the








USA/Mexico border fence.  We drove right up to the fence....had to get close enough to read the sign....only to find out that we were instructed to stay back 100 feet from the fence!!  That made a lot of sense.....couldn't read the sign if you were 100 feet back.












After our day trip to the above places we had to go into Yuma to get a tire repaired....what a place to get a tire fixed....but they were very good and quick and cheap.....certainly low overhead for their small business.







Another day trip with Janice and Archie to the Gold Rock RV Park and museum for ice cream.  Then on to the sand dunes on ATVs.  This web site has great pictures of the sand dunes....it is always fun to ride the bowls made by others.  Tony has put a couple of videos together on You Tube ~ Janice and Mike on ATV and Sharon, Dan, Archie, Linda and Mike on ATVs at the sand dunes.




Janice and I went to the Arizona Market without the husbands.  We walked around the market for over four hours, up and down every aisle.

Jeanne, Linda and I took a day trip to Mexico....this photo shows Linda standing in line waiting to get her shoes shined....with all the shoe shiners lined up along the wall.






Our next trip to Mexico for lunch ~ Tony and I and Dan and Jeanne.  Lunch was great, but trying to get out of Mexico was a zoo.  We had to stand in line for almost two hours, slowly making our way to the exit.  Picture shows the line ahead of us to get out of Mexico.  An interesting site during the wait was the border guards carrying rifles and searching cars.  I took the picture of one of them with a rifle, and he waved at me.....unfortunately it was not a friendly wave as I had thought.....he came over carrying his rifle and I thought he wanted to see his picture.  What he wanted was for me to delete his picture.  I handed the camera to Tony to deal with this (Tony wasn't too happy to have to deal with a guard with a gun speaking broken English).

Six of us went on an ATV ride ( Linda, Mike, Jeanne, Tony, Sharon and Dan ) to find what friends had called the swimming pools.....not sure what they were used for, but there was a lot of old mines around the area.  We set up a time exposure to get all six of us in the picture below, but somehow missed getting the dogs that rode along, Ginger and Buddy.



Another interesting sign along the way on this ATV ride.








We took another day trip in the car back to the rock art for some geocaching.  Notice the rock art with the fiddle.  Next picture is of Sharon finding a geocache....rock art says "geo cache" beside it.










There was a big group of people out there gathering rocks and smoothing out a site to make their mark.




We drove on to what is called "The Narrows" down into a wash that ended up being very interesting.  Could walk way back into the chasms.  See the video on You Tube here of Sharon walking out of one of the formations.  This is a picture of Jeanne standing in front of one of the places we walked back into.







Tony and I went to a George Jones concert at the Quechan casino.  George is now 79 years old and did remarkedly well to sing for one and a half hours.....his last song "I'm not old enough for a rocking chair".  There was a sell out crowd and his "Jones Brothers" band was very good.

We were very pleased to receive the news recently of the engagement of Tony's son, Neil and Becky in London.

Stay tuned for our March adventures.  If all goes well, Janice and Archie will return and Uncles Bob and Leo will be boondocking with us for a few days.  Possibly, cousin Julie will come over from Los Angeles to join the festivities.