Quartzsite, Arizona

Thursday: (01/26) We awoke and were on the road by 6am. We headed a little South on Highway 247 to Highway 62 and continued on to Parker, Az. After picking up a few things at Walmart and enjoying leftover ham, pepper and onion salad for lunch we continued on down Arizona highway 95 to Quartzsite. We stopped in the Hi Jolly BLM campground at MM112 a few miles North of downtown Quartzsite. After settling in, we headed down to the big top RV show. There is a much bigger crowd here this year for this time in the show run. Some interesting things as usual. After a look at the show we covered a few rows of vendors at Tyson Wells before stopping by at the Grubstake Bar for fish and chips. We are really fortunate to have a very friendly cat named Bounder at the neighbors.
(GPS: 33.70700416, -114.21432001)

 
Friday: (01/27) We were up for a nice sunrise. Cereal for breakfast.  I removed the towbar from the RV and put it in the Jeep. We headed toward the big top but had to stop at a couple of garage sales and a thrift store on the way. I found a couple of "new" shirts at the thrift store. Lou found an extension wall mirror at a garage sale. I then headed straight to the RoadMaster tent outside the big top where I dropped off the towbar for repairs. It's gotten too loose to stay in the stowed position a sign of some serious wear. They rebuilt the towbar like new for $155, a lot cheaper than a new bar for $1100. It did have nine years and 70,000 miles on it. I looked  at a few motorhomes and really liked the layout of an older Chinook. Lots of good space for a small RV. Lou was busy checking out more of Tyson Wells vendors. The towbar repairs took about an hour so after 1.5 hours I returned to pick it up then called Lou. We returned to the RV for lunch. Chinese chicken salad for lunch. We returned to the hunt in the afternoon. I picked up a new fluorescent fixture for the bedroom. The fixture on Lou's side of the bed had a bad ballast. We found an exact match. I also found a couple of more matching small fixtures like the one I installed over one side of the dinette to replace a decorator fixture that didn't provide usable light. I also got a couple of LED lamps for them. There are a few other things we that we may return for like a new bathroom sink and counter tomorrow. A mostly leftover dinner. I had a hamburger/chorizo steak with onions, brown rice and fresh asparagus. Lou had tomatoes cucumbers fresh asparagus and a ham steak.

 
Saturday: (01/28) Lou made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we were busy completing our visit to the big top for the purchases we still thought we needed to make. We feel for getting some of the polish/wax. By the time we try it they will be gone so you never know. We also got some things at Tyson Wells. They we stopped by the Gamblers RV Store at Rice Ranch and picked up a new bathroom sink and fittings as well as a piece of Corian counter top to go with the new sink. Also a screen door latch for Ernie's trailer and a magnet for our screen door. Haven't found a replacement latch for ours yet. I spent some time trying to get our Hughes Net Internet to work with no success yet Lou finished organizing her doll magazine articles. We managed to think of eating too late for lunch so we just snacked on some beef log and cheese and crackers. We had to save ourselves so Lou could enjoy her prime rib dinner at the Mi Casa Restaurant tonight. Actually I enjoyed it too and we topped dinner with a shared slice of berry pie.

Sunday: (01/29) Lou made pancakes with fresh cranberry topping and sausage for breakfast. I spent the morning working with the satellite system. I determined I had a bad/intermittent transmit cable. I'm getting closer but still can't get a successful crosspol test which is needed to commission the modem. A bit before noon we headed downtown. I was off to look at RV's, Lou checked out the junk vendors on Main St. For lunch we returned to Mi Casa and shared a wet burrito and a bread pudding. We returned home about 5 pm. Coleslaw, leftover prime rib and baked potatoes for dinner.

Monday: (01/30) Corned beef hash and eggs with tangelos for breakfast. I finally got the HughesNet satellite Internet system working. Persistence does pay off on occasion. I think the threat of having it repaired at the local shop scared it in to working. Those were the sentiments before the sun warmed the dish up and it stopped working again. Reception died when the LNB got warm. I put an ice pack on it and it started working again. Third problem but repaired easily enough when I get home. I have another LNB there that hopefully works better than this one. Meanwhile I'll be a night owl since it works when it's cool. We dropped by Granma's Apple Pie for lunch. Granma treated us to a nice apple pie ala mode with caramel sauce. We visited with Judy for a while then picked a couple of more things up at the Gamblers RV shop and KB Tools nearby before returning home. On the way home we had to wait a bit while they cleared a wreck. A pickup and travel trailer had turned over trying to avoid hitting a dead dog in the road. Better to hit the dog! When we got home we had to balance lunch with some beef log and cheese. We had a late dinner of Chorizo hamburgers.


A nice sunset and we shared our neighbors campfire.

Tuesday: (01/31) Leftover pancakes with cranberry topping and sausage for breakfast. We had planned on leaving Quartzsite this morning after a couple of stops to look at things we hadn't visited yet but on our way we remembered we intended to get the RV windshields replaced. Both windshields need replacement. We stopped at Windshield Magic on Main Street and arranged for the replacement, possibly tomorrow if the glass comes in.


Before we left this morning Lou started some beans in the slow cooker. They were ready by lunch time so she turned them into chili for lunch. We relaxed at home in the afternoon. For dinner Lou prepared BBQ ribs with baked potatoes and fresh asparagus.

Wednesday: (02/01) Leftover corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. Actually the eggs aren't leftover. It's sunny and 38 degrees here at 9am. Pretty typical. Typically pretty. After breakfast, Lou prepared a ham pepper onion and cheese salad for lunch. Since the frying pan was dirty after frying the eggs she usually uses it to prepare other meals, like grilling the ham, onions and peppers before doing dishes. We received word that our windshields would be in today and they set an appointment for 3pm today to install them. We ran a few errands and stopped by at the Craft Show at the Big Top then returned home for lunch. We enjoyed Lou's ham pepper onion and cheese salad for lunch.

 
I picked up some silver bubble insulation at Herb's Hardware and  installed some tinfoil around the satellite LNB and made a shade for the LNB out of the silver bubble insulation.


It didn't fail today, possibly because of the shade and possibly because it was cooler today. At 2:30 we got ready to roll and drove downtown for our appointment.

 
Jeff, the installer, did an excellent job on the installation though he was having some back problems at the time. We've never been able to see so clearly through our windshields. The installation was finished at 5:30 and we returned the RV to our campsite, which was saved by our chairs having spent the afternoon there. We had planned to go to the QIA for their pancake dinner but Windshield Magic gave us a coupon for Silly Al's Pizza so we went there for dinner (above right). We got a ginormous Al's Combo pizza which more than satisfied our appetite for dinner and provided three more meals for the future. Thanks Jeff. Now our tasks here are "really" finally completed so we should be off in the morning toward Yuma.

 
Desert flowers seen at Hi Jolly.

New magnetic latch for screen door.