Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Thursday: (02/25) Breakfast was Don McMuffins just like yesterday except Lou picked up a pastry thing from the bakery to top it off,

Today's adventure was a trip to the Cibola NWR South of Blythe. Most of it  including the Visitor Center is located on the Arizona side of th Colorado river. The three bridges to that part of Arizona are rather precarious little one lane bridges with weight and proceed at your own risk signs but probably could take the largest motorhomes with ease. Wei found the roads interesting. The roads from Blythe were very good until we crossed from Riverside County into Imperial County. Then they were in rather a poor condition. After we crossed the Farmers bridge, which is evdently a private bridge, the paved roads on the Arizona side were excellent. On the refuge though, the roads are almost all gravel roads.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Visitor Center learning about the place then hiked the Desert Trail outside and behind the visitor center. You get a pretty good view of the alfalfa fields that the geese and cranes forage in. Unfortunately, we forgot our binoculars so our viewing was limited to normal vision. Also unfortunate was the fact that we were about two weeks to a month late. Most of the Geese population has departed. Thousands of birds gone. We'll put this on the calendar for next year for a visit in Mid January.

We drove the Auto Tour road. We stopped at the Corn Field trailhead and walked th 1/2 mile trail. It was a nice oasis of mostly Cottonwood trees. There is a nice viewing platform along the trail but not many birds to be viewed. We didn't locate the corn anywhere along the trail. it was obviously loosely named.  The actual corn fields are located amid alfalfa fields. Co-op farmers get to harvest the alfalfa duringthe late spring to early fall but don't disturb it when the birds are present. The corn is knocked down and used by the birds. The area is quite lush.


We then drove around the refuge including the levee road back.


They grow alfalfa and corn for the birds. The geese have already headed North but some cranes were still here. Sorry for the fuzz, my camera isn't working well.


We stopped for lunch along the Colorado River listening to the cranes chatter with each other. I fixed buffalo summer sausage and Colby cheese sandwiches with potato ships and carrot sticks for lunch.

We took the Oxbow Bridge back across the river into California and looked around a Oxbow BLM Campground ($15/night) and a Palo Verde County Park campground ($7.50/night) along the river near oxbow Lake. We may use these when we visit next year.

We stopped on the way home in Blythe at the market for a few things.

Dinner was leftover pork roast soup and corn chips for me and three bean salad mixed with cottage cheese for Lou.

Quartzsite, Indian Petroglyphs, Grinding Holes, And Water Tank

Wednesday: (02/24) A nice start to the day, clear but cool. My famous Don McMuffins for breakfast (English muffin, fried egg, sausage and cheese). A few errands after breakfast. I've been playing tag with RV Special Things, a tent vendor here that sells good LED lamps. I had bought a couple to test and like them and decided to get more to replace the junk LED lamps I bought a couple of years ago. They haven't had the type i need, supposedly delayed shipment due to Chinese New Years so I've been checking regularly to see if they come in. They haven't and the store is folding its tent Friday so I dropped off a card with my phone number to get a call when they come in. They will be in Yuma next and as it happens we will be too.

Next stop was Discount Solar to get some wire to rewire and reroute my solar panel wiring to work better with the new mounts. A short stop to get filtered drinking water. Another stop at the Chamber of Commerce for a map which they didn't have. And then home.

On the way into the LTVA, we stopped at the office and asked about where to find the Indian grinding rocks and we were in luck. The volunteer there had just been there and knew the road number to take. It was different the the number in the book I was reading.


On our walk yesterday evening, i noticed the first floweres had appeared and more are ready to appear. I didn't have my camera with me so i had to go find the early bloomers again this morning.


This place is going to the birds. We had a visitor from a nice big bird, a red hawk. Also we have quail. This one was doing his morning calls from his perch.


It's hard to believe but we have moss on the wash banks near our campsite.


We headed on out and found it easily. There is a bunch of rocks along Tyson Wash, actually Tyson Wash goes between them. Most of the area is flat land except for these rocks. The wash makes an "S" turn here and the area under the cliff formed by the rocks washes out and there is still water there, a lot of it. Found the tank. This is where Road 621 meets the wash. Road 621 is just South of Road 356 before the gas line road we took the other day.


The view of the tank from the West side of Tyson Wash above the Indian grinding holes.


I checked the top of the cliff and didn't find any grinding holes but did find a bee hive in a hole in the ground. Smart insects these bees,


On the cliff above the tank are several petroglyphs. My interpretation is that they are recording floods due to a lot of wavy horizontal lines. At least that's my guess.


Across the wash there is another cliff and in the rocks on top of that are several grinding holes, one more that a foot deep. Mission accomplished! Our failed mission of a couple of days ago became a successful mission today.


Wee hear the coyotes some evenings. Here are some tracks we think are coyote. They are following the tracks of a rabbit along the wash.


While we were there wa walked around the area and discovered lots of flowers. In a couple of days the valley floor may be covered with them. These are just the early bloomers.


There are a lot more flowers today.


Most of the flowers are fairly small but these were an exception.

We stopped at McDonald's for ice cream cones on our way home and then had a nice lunch, ham sandwich for me, salad for Lou. We always try to eat desert first.


Dinner was at the QIA. I had their evening special beef stew with a pancake. Lou had a biscuit and gravy. All very good and a very cheap night out!


A nice sunset to complete the day!

Quartzsite, The Final Days

Monday: (02/22) It was windy all day. Lou fixed sauerkraut potatoes with roast pork and fried eggs for breakfast. The original potatoes were gone so she tried something new. She reconstituted dehydrated hashbown chips with the sauerkraut juice. It worked really well so I expect it will have an encore.

Since it was stormy we were home most of the day. I worked on a website while Lou finished one of here dolls.

Lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

For dinner we went to the La Casa De Rancho restaurant on Central Ave. I had the Sombrero, a big two layer quesadilla while Lou had the meatloaf special. Both were very good. Though we've been coming here for years, this was our first visit here and it's a keeper so we'll be returning.

Tuesday: (02/23) Breakfast was leftover breakfasts with fried eggs. Lunch was cold cuts meat and cheese and grapes. I was busy most of the day tinkering at the computer. It was nice today, no wind, no rain, no clouds but quite cool, close to cold.


Since the sun was out and expected to be out, today was another solar dinner day. Lou put a roast on in the crock pot with taco spice, corn and white beans and some salsa for good measure.


Lou went off to deliver her new doll to the recipient, a lady she met here last year and promised a doll. Unfortunately she had to return to Idaho so it will have to be shipped.

I tinkered at the computer all day writing. About 3:30 I called RV Special Things. They still don't have my LED lamps in. Darn Chinese New Years messing up shipments. The close shop Friday and won't get the lamps until Monday, possibly. They'll be in Yuma so maybe we'll find them there.

We took an evening walk out to the big Tyson Wash. There are sure a lot of green spots and we expect lots of flowers soon. We did find one really early bloomer.When we got back we enjoyed Lou's roast for dinner. It was actually like beef taco soup since we added crumbled corn chips for some crunch.

Quartzsite, A Quiet Town

Tuesday: (02/16) We started the morning with a walk down to the river. We then walked through the Blue Water Casino. Kind of quiet in the morning. We then drove on down to Quartzsite.

The first effort was a visit to the dump station. With empty holding tanks and a full water tank we returned to our old campsite by the wash with it's two trees. Breakfast was left over French toast with bacon for me and Cherrios and bacon for Lou.

We relaxed at home the rest of the morning. Lunch was jalapeno loaf Dagwood sandwiches.

Lou went over and looked at the shops on Kuhne Rd. I enjoyed a quiet nap. I fixed ranch beans and hot dogs with cheese for dinner.

After dinner we went over to the Quartzsite Improvement Association (QIA) to see the Sizzling Strings (Jensen Family Entertainers) show. They are a musical group consisting of a piano playing mother and six of their children playing violins, cellos, violas, bass fiddle and the occasional guitar and other string instruments. They each did solos and, other than the singing, were all very talented. The production quality was excellent. The dad was the crew and handled lighting and audio. When we arrived, we noticed a Dolphin motorhome much like ours towing a small box trailer parked in front of the QIA building. Some how all 10 family members (there are also two very young children that don't play instruments) used it as their dressing room and must live in it as well. We had no idea when we saw it that there would be such a large group performing. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. QIA does a great job in hosting these shows. Here is a link to a video of them on YouTube. And more.

Wednesday: (02/17) Lou fixed some nice ham and cheese omelets for breakfast. We enjoyed eating them outside overlooking our wash and watching the birds.

We headed over to the Main Event area and looked at the remaining shops. Some have additional discounts now that the crowds are gone. Most vendors are gone. Some, with permanent building just closed and the unsold product, even canned goods, will be sold next year. Buyer beware. I can look these places over rather quickly, as in a  brisk walk by or through them. Lou examines them in more detail. I completed my rounds and then went over to the nearby RV dealers. One has everything unsold just like when we got to town. Another across the street has sold a half dozen motorhomes since I last visited it a week ago. It's a small outfit with only the owner/salesman there. The previous dealer,with all it's inventory, has several sales people and doesn't seem to have sold anything? From the prices of the RV's I asked about I can see why. Too high. Marketing is everything.

Today was mail day which turned out to be an adventure, as seems to be usual. General delivery moved from the downtown office to the annex building. Interesting, there are as many post offices in Quartzite, a town of 3,500 as there are in Palo Alto, a town of 55,000. I found the annex building to be rather confusing. There is only an exit for the parking lot, no entrance. You have to enter through the police department parking lot next door. There is a sign on the minor street but not on the street that the post office is located on. And then there were the 6 unmarked doors, except for one that said exit only. That is the door you enter to get mail. The other doors lead to their own little rooms with PO boxes. Quartzsite is a town without mail delivery so if you get mail here it's in a PO Box or General Delivery. Am I the only one confused? Did they hire California Department Of Transportation Engineers to determine how and where to install signs. It seems much like the terrible signage on California Freeways.

We did a little grocery shopping and returned home for nice chef Lou's salad.

We went over to the QIA pancake dinner. We enjoyed their pancakes and ham and it only cost us $5.50, quite a deal.

Thursday: (02/18) I started the day, since it was shower day, by crawling under the car to reattach the pan I knocked off down in Lake Havasu. it was only held on with two bolts but should have had 7 bolts. The pan was broken off around one of the two mounting holes so it fell down and I had to remove the other bolt when we heard it dragging. I bought some more metric bolts in Lake Havasu but haven't taken the time to remount it. It did make me more nervous when I drove these bumpy roads so I wanted to get it back on. With the job done and grease up to my elbows, it was time for my shower.

Lou fixed biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After breakfast, I started dinner in the crockpot. I browned a pork roast and added it to potatoes and sauerkraut in the pot. This is our first time using the crock pot with the inverter. We usually use it when we have power at an RV park which is quite seldom for us. I started the generator and warmed the crockpot and ingredients for 5 minutes and ran the generator for a total of 30 minutes to knock the top off our overnight battery consumption. The solar system kept up with the crockpot's needs and charged the remaining 50 ampere hours needed for the batteries as well. Looks like we can have our crockpot meals even in the RV, when the sun shines at least.

I lazed around home most of the morning working at the computer. I met Lou later to look at some things she found at the thrift store and then stopped by Discount Solar to see what they had that I might need. I may get some wire there later to fix the cable routing on the solar panels later.

Lou called about lunch time and was headed home and offered to pick me up. I mentioned I was across from the Quartzsite Bakery so we enjoyed some of their pastries and tea for lunch. I had an apricot flower while lout had an apple turnover.

Lou continued her rounds of the vendors. I walked home looking at some of the vendors on the way. On my way back through the camp area I noticed Ron Bunge of Hitchitch.com sitting outside so I stopped to say hello and chat. I hadn't met him before but knew of him since his website has a nice list of RVer blogs and ours is included there. He is also a fellow Datastorm satellite system user and appears on the usergroup map page.

When I returned to the RV it was becoming more difficult to be inside with the smell of dinner from the crockpot. I worked at the computer some more and then enjoyed, what is becoming a habit, an afternoon nap. When Lou returned she worked on making shoes for her dolls for a while then we enjoyed our solar powered dinner.

Friday: (02/19) Lou fixed a wonderful breakfast. She bought a smoked pork chop from the General Store Market and fried some potatoes, onions and peppers and topped it with eggs. We spent the morning tinkering on our favorite projects, me the computer and Lou doll shoes.

We enjoyed salad Lou made with cottage cheese, red and green peppers, onions  and ham.

After lunch we took the car out Old Yuma Road intending to take a hike to see some petroglyphs and Indian grinding rocks South of here near Tyson Wash but we couldn't find the road they were supposed to be on. We made it all the way down old Yuma Road to the La Paz Valley Road through some rough spots when crossing washes that had been washed out. Our car rides quite low and we can't take too rough of a road but we found our path. We looked around the housing in that area and stopped at a garage sale there. Since we were out, we continued West on what would be La Paz Valley Road but after the pavement ended until the ruts got to be too much for our poor little low riding Volvo.

We took Old Yuma Road back to where the gas pipelines cross it. though it's not marked as a road we took the well worn route along the gas line route. It was a pretty good dirt road headed toward Rainbow Acres except where we crossed the Tyson Wash. It was a bit soft and washed out with fairly deep trenches but again we made it through. Fortunately we didn't have to test our auto clubs towing response time. we looked around Rainbow acres and the took the paved road back to Quartzsite and home.

Dinner was leftover pork roast, sauerkraut and potatoes with fresh asparagus. A 630 we headed over to the QIA for the Tim Smallwood comedy and magic show. It was a pretty good show and his Bill Clinton impersonation is pretty good as well. The shows at the QIA have all been well worth their $5 admissions.

Saturday: (02/20) When we went to bed the sky was clear and the stars bright but by 3:30am it started to rain and rained lightly, continuously until about 6;30am. Then it was just heavily overcast. Google had predicted the rain Friday evening and I guess it did. They now say showers today as well. I guess the storm was delayed slightly. Lou got another pork chop yesterday and with the leftover fried potatoes and eggs called it breakfast. It doesn't look like the solar panels will do well today. Lou was in a baking mood and baked some brownies.

Our little trip yesterday was just in time. The roads we were on would not be as hospitable to our little car today.

Lunch was excellent. Brownies and ice cream.

We tinkered at home most of the day except for a couple of errands. Another visit to the thrift store to look for something with a 36" metal zipper for reuse. Couldn't find one, yet. We also stopped at the little market in a tent by the post office for some potatoes and onions. They seem to have the best looking vegetables at good prices in town. Hope they stay open for as long as we're here.

We also went over to Rice Ranch for an Off Off Broadway show. It was too far off for us.


We saw an interesting new motorhome over at Rice Ranch. A very rustic, nice unit all the way from Ehrenberg, Az. It is really very nice inside and durable outside. it even comes with a back porch.

For dinner we went back out to the Mountain Quail Restaurant for prime rib dinners. Of course we brought home leftovers partly because there was plenty and partly because we had shared a slice of apple pie for desert.

It was cloudy most of the day with only very occasional sunshine. After dinner I got back to the TV antenna. I finally got it aimed and we get two channels from Parker ABC and Fox neither our favorite networks so we wont have to watch too much TV. We haven't had TV reception at any of our campsites until now, except presumably the rest stop in Redlands. We haven't really missed it much.

Sunday: (02/21) The wind blew last night rattling the TV antenna which raise the ire of Lou so it may come down and be put away soon. There isn't anything worth watching anyway. So that's why we haven't missed it since we left on this trip.

Breakfast was warmed up leftover prime rib and baked potato from last night with fried eggs. After breakfast we walked downtown.

Lou was feeling restless so we walked downtown. We looked at the new RV's at RV's for less. We stopped at Janet's Kitchen by the Post Office for a bit. We shared a Blue Cheese burger and a slice of cherry crumb pie. It's a nice cafe though a bit pricey. We walked a little further up Central and looked at 5 park model open houses in an RV park. All quite nice at from $18,000 -38,000 with a $1600 annual rental. None of the owners live here all year. I wonder why?

Dinner was more left over pork roast and potatoes.

Lake Havasu Fireworks

Wednesday: (02/10) Breakfast of Engish muffins with egg, ham, and cheese, a Don McMuffin variation.

We stopped in Parker at the Walmart and did a little shopping. Next stop was at the Blue Water Casino for lunch. They have great pizza by the slice at the snack bar. We each had a piece of combination pizza and a tea.

We continued on toward Lake Havasu. We passed our intended destination, the BLM camping area at Standard Wash, just South of town. We explored around Sara Park, where the fireworks show will be. The show is the Western Winter Blast XXI, a Western Pyrotechnics Association Show. Possibly actually a pyromaniacs show.

We returned to Standard Wash, having found nothing better. We could have camped right in Sara Park at what they called the Fairgrounds for $100 for the weekend. Not sure about the cost for the two days until the weekend. We decided against that option both because of the cost and because of the "party" that was going to happen there as well.


We returned to Standard Wash and pulled in the back on top of a hill with a great view overlooking Sara Park, Lake Havasu and the mountains. Our site is a bit rough and difficult to get to but it is on a ridge that should give a better view. However, we think we found out why most of the RV's are down in a gully, in addition to the fact it's more level. They probably have been here before. The wind up here on the ridge is pretty fierce.


Sunset views in all directions.


We enjoyed the nice sunset on the hill. More of our neighbors.


Above is a view of our perch above the town.  Our view of the fireworks from here is pretty good.


The view from our campsite.

Thursday: (02/11) We had cerrios and bananas for breakfast.

When we drove out I managed to knock a plastic screen off tthe bottom of the engine getting up onto the highway. I pulled off as soon as i could a couple of miles down at Sara park and remove it. it may be able to be reattached later. Lou had forgotten her purse so we had to drive back in and get. Another opportunity to knock something else off the car. Our car and the RV both are very low to the ground, about half of other cars and motorhomes so we have to watch the bumps. Some times we underestimate obstacles. At least no permanent damage this time.

We caught the Dreamcatcher ferry across Lake Havasau to the Lake Havasu Landing Casino on the California side of the lake. Kind of a long drive to get to it but the ferry costs $3 and takes 20 minutes. We enjoyed lunch at the cafe, one of their daily specials,  a steak burrito with rice and beans with a dinner salad. The burrito was rather spicy as was the rice, but very tasty.

We took a walk around the RV campground and the mobile homes then returned for the ferry. We didn't know you needed to pickup a boarding pass for the return so had to wait another hour for the next ferry.

When we got back we did a little shopping then stopped for dinner at the Golden Corral Buffet then headed home. It was getting dark and we wanted to find our way back in to our campsite without hitting too many rocks.

As we were nearing Sara park we saw a flying saucer, or what looked like one. The evidently set off a fireworks rocket the created a huge black smoke ring that looke like a saucer from our view point.

When we got home we went inside and watched the show, what the call open firing that had started at 5 pm and lasts until 1030. That's a long time to stare at fire works but there will be three more nights of the same with a real show on Saturday night from 8-10.

About 9:30, we went to bed and still had a nice view of the show through the windshield until they stopped about 10 pm.

We will have to take an afternoon nap to be ready for tomorrow night's show.

Friday: (02/12) Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We took a walk around the hills and came upon a friendly group RV'ers way back from the road.In fact, we had to stop several times to share stories with other perfect strangeers. Our walk took a couple of hours.

The group we met way back in were all the way from Berenda, Arizona (near Quartzsite) about 60 miles from home. All our neighbors here on our ridge are all the way from Lake Havasu City, all of 10 miles from their homes. They camp here to see the fire works better. We also ran in to a buch from the California central valley areas. And, of course, many from the colder climents like Canada are here.

Saturday: (02/13) The night of the big boom! I had left over pancakes and sausage while lou had oatmeal for breakfast.

We went on an outing to town. First, a stop at the bank, then a stop at one of the thrift stores we visited yesterday to get a couple of decorated plaster carnival masks for Dawn. the we stopped at several ATV and UTV dealers. Watching our neighbors has inspired us to start looking for an ATV vehicle for the two of us. Of course then there is the problem of transporting it. We now have an idea of what fits and what doesn't fit us and the costs of the different models. You have to start sometime.

We also stopped by several open houses to see what a house here would cost and be like. Nice houses for a song here, relatively speaking.

Our final stop was the new shopping mall, or attempt at it. It evidently opened last April and is very empty still. We stopped by Walmarts for a few things including some jalapeno olive loaf which we snacked on for a lunch snack. and then returned home having wasted another day. We got back in time for an early dinner or late lunch and a nap before the big public fireworks show tonight at 8pm.

They started firing noise makers just after 5 pm when it's still light and continued into the evening. More colorful fireworks and less boomers as it got darker. At 8pm what they call the public display started and all the random firings stopped and it looked more coherent with lots of concentrated firings and then short periods of none. We thought the public display was going to last a couple of hours but it barely was one hour long, very nice and impresive but shorter than expected. We saw many fireworks that we haven't seen before, some huge. Our observation point/campsite is about 1.8 miles per my very scientific calculation based on counting the seconds between the observation of the explosion and the arrival of the boom. From that study I also calculated that the majority explode about 2500 feet with some twice that height. Of course, the acccuracy is only guaranteed to within 100% error. They sent up a couple that exploded at 2500 feet and expanded out on explosion up another 2500 feet and down to the ground before fading away. They were quite impressive.

They stopped for a long time at 9pm and all the people who drove to the show left and then they started open firing again until nearly 1030pm. A very nice show. We're staying another night to watch the open firing on Sunday night as well.

Sunday: (02/14) Happy valentines Day to everyone!

Our breakfast was French toast to use up our old bread, served with bacon. Aafter breakfast we enjoyed the sun outside watching some of our neighbors depart.

We did not leave our camp today. We did take a long walk through the washes and over the hills. Lou fixed stir fry noodles and vegetables with tofu for dinner.

The final night of Winter blast fireworks was as good as ll the other evening. We saw some that we've never seen before. The one that showed a red tracer as it went up vertically about 2500 feet then made a right turn and went 2500 feet horizontally, was quite neat. It must be confusing to be a stranger traveling along highway 95 and seeing some of these fire works. May be the source of the area 51 type reports? Do they test these in Nevada?

Monday: (02/15) Breakfast was different. We had cottage cheese with diced jalapena loaf. Quite good. we enjoyed our teat outside watching most of our neighbors depart. There is a wash just below us that several pickup travel trailer campers used to exit their
campsite way back from the road. Each one had to drag the trailer off its wheels through the wash. Doesn't seem practicle to me. When they went in they were able to take a higher road that was now blocked by an incourtous camper parked in theat part of the road.

When we came in I dragged our sewer pipe at the top of a ridge just down from our campsite. This time, for our exit, I calculated exactly how to make our coach seem a couple of inches higher by crossing the top at an angle. It worked with an inch to spare. It also sounded much better than the scraping on the way in.We also both made it out onto the highway without further bottom scrapping.

Our first stop was the laundromat but it was too busy so we just parked the coach and took the car on a tour of town. We stopped at a real estate office and got their listings and covered the whole town finding a couple of very nice fixer uppers for less than $75000. ???

We had lunch at the Black Bear diner sharing a chicken fried steak breakfastand pancakes.

When we returned to the laundromat there was plenty of room to get our wash done. Lou took care of some errands while I waited with the wash. A little grocery shopping, more filtered water and a visit to another real hardware store looking for some tiny bolts for her sewing machine.

After the laundry was done we looked at another five homes. The last one we looked at was extremely tempting. Good condition, good sized level lot, an RV hookup and an excellent neighborhood right next to open desert on the high side of Southern Lake Havasu. Very tempting but since we have to have a reason not to get it the fact it was a 2 bedroom 1 bath will have to suffice. It was fun looking.


It was getting late as we left just before sunset. We drove back down to the Blue Water Casino intending to have a slice of pizza and spend the night but they were out of our favorite combination pizza so we had the buffet. It was a nice dinner and Lou got her delayed Valentines Day prime rib. We had opted to avoid any crowd that might have occurred yesterday evening for dinner and ate at home.

I finally posted a few pictures on this post and the previous.

We'll head on down to Quartzsite tomorrow morning when it's light.

Quartzsite After the Crowd Left

Monday: (02/01) We walked over to the Bad Boys Cafe for breakfast. We shared a ham and eggs breakfast and a stack of buttermilk pancakes all very good. We stopped at the RV Special Things tent on the walk home. They had some LED lamp replacements, almost. They were out of stock for what we need but should get more by 1pm today. We'll return. We also stopped at the gamblers RV Parts store. i had prepared a shopping list of things needed for the RV and had dimensions and etc. We confirmed they had some of what we needed butt since we were walking we didn't get anything.

When we got back I recovered my cell phone and had missed a call from RV Specialties regarding a part for our table I wanted to order. I called them back and ordered the parts which may be here in  couple of days.

Lou had prepared a list as well. materials for her doll making and other items. We completed her list then stopped by Gran'Mas Apple Pie for a slice and some tea. As was true the other day we stayed and chatted for an hour or so. I then stopped next door at RV Special Things and got a couple of LED lamp replacements for a couple of bad lamps in the RV. They use so much less power and work so well every RV should have some. In our two lamp fixtures one is LED, the second lamp is not. the first click turns on the LED, the second brings on the regular lamp as well. The key for regular use is to only use the first lamp and only use the second lamp when more light is needed.

Next stop was at the Gamblers again. I got a couple of replacement struts for the compartment doors. The two that are the weakest as the most used, including the utility access compartment door. We also got a new wire grill for our range top. the old one is looking pretty bad and rather melted. We also got some replacement dinette cushions. They are too wide for our dinette but match the color pretty well and at $50, cheaper than just some of the cost of foam replacement. Lou will reworkthem to fit.

Our neighbors have been busy sawing metal and welding the past couple of days. Today the fruit of their labor was revealed. They erected a wind turbine on a mast that is anchored under one of the RV's wheels. None of them are electricians and they were having difficulty wiring it up but when I pointed out a problem in the wiring, they ignored my suggestion. The error wont damage the turbine but it wont work. They should have the fun of discovering it in time. Listening to them I think they are over optimistic as to the output the turbine will provide but they did make me have a renewed interest it a wind turbine. Maybe they could provide sufficient output to justify the cost. They cost about as much as a single solar panel and work better at night. They are more trouble setting up though so are only good for extended stays.

I got the door struts installed, the  LED lamps installed, and the new range grill installed. Enough work. I fixed spaghetti for dinner. Lou and I enjoyed another TV-less evening listening to KBUX radio, the local Quartzsite radio station. They play a very nice mix of all types of music.

Tuesday: (02/02) Lou fixed eggs, sausage and English muffins for breakfast.

Lou spent the morning working on the dinette cushion adjustments. The new cushions are wider than then should be so Lou worked on cutting them down to size. That required a knife that was good at cutting foam. She stopped by the thrift store and picked up a few and found a good one. A visit to the fabric store found some matching thread.

I spent the morning removing the drivers seat to tighten the framework. Getting it tightened went smoothly but it took the rest of the morning to get it reinstalled with all adjustment functions working.

About noon we returned to Gran'mas for an apple pie lunch. That included a long visit with Jeannie, aka Gran'ma of Gran'ma's Appl Pie.

When we returned home about 3:30 we took the motorhome down to La Posa South to empty the holding tanks and get water. Dinner was leftover spaghetti and some coleslaw.

In the evening we went over to the QIA (Quartzsite Improvement Association). They have entertainment many evenings. This evening it was the "Call Of The West" which consisted of Jeanne and Jerome, cowboy musicians. The show cost only $5 each for a total of 11.25 after we had an ice cream and some popcorn during intermission. Quite a bargain especially since the group was very good. Lou and Dawn went to a show last year but this was my first.

Wednesday: (02/03) Lou was in a cooking mood this morning, She fixed spam hash with eggs for breakfast. She also cooked up some gelitin with fruit for tonight's desert.

Today was laundry day. We thought, with it being mid week and early in the day, no problem. Wrong. The three laundromats were very crowded. We didn't check the tiny launtromat nor the one in the semi trailer. We needed to go to Blythe anyway so we took the laundry on a little road trip.They have a really nice one there that we've used before and it wasn't crowded.

I stopped by the Ace Hardware while the clothes tumbled to get a matching nut for the driver seat repair. I broke one and couldn't find one in Quartzsite.

After the work, we stopped at the Steak and Cakes Cafe for lunch. We'd seen it on the way into town. The parking lot was over full so it was likely good. We parked out back in the dirt lot. When we went inside it wasn't crowded. It turns out they have a large meeting room in back and they were having some meeting there. Lou had a steak and shrimp. it came with a dinner salad that would put most chef's salads to shame. I had the country fried steak and had soup. It was the expected homemade soup and excellent as well.

I had forgotten my cell phone and it had a message from RV Lifestyles saying the table brackets we ordered were in so I picked them up. When I got back, the neighbors Air Breeze wind turbine was spinning in the light breeze. I remembered my little clamp on meter could read the DC current without bothering the wiring so we went over and asked if I could see what it was doing. They don't have a meter on it. It was putting out about 1.5 amps (36 watts) in the average breeze. I measured 2.5 amps (50 watts) when the breeze perked up for a moment and 1.1 amps (27 watts) when it died away but seemed to be averaging 1.5. It's setup for a 24 volt system on the modified bus. If the turbine turns about 12 hours out of the 24 hour day it should produce only about 18 ampere hours. We use about 110 ampere hours a day and our 400 watts of solar panels charge them fully if the sun shines for 5 hours a day. The measurement today is similar to my previous experience with wind power. Not too much power provided unless the wind is blowing really hard, steadily. But it can work at night and on cloudy days where solar can't and in an area like this, with some good wind, it may produce some additional power. It is a bit of work to setup so wouldn't be good for short stops. At the price of a 130 watt solar panel plus the additional cost of a tower to mount it on and only providing about 1/2 the power of the solar panel, it doesn't seem really practical yet. Still checking the idea. there are enough of these around, Am I missing something? Clouds and wind do go together?

We stayed and chatted with them for a while until the sun was down it was getting rather cool outside. Dinner was leftover spaghetti and jello for desert.

Thursday: (02/04) Breakfast was leftover spam hash. I spent some time trying my new antenna out to receive over the air TV in Quartzsite. No luck. Seems like nothing is here.

Lou fixed super nachos for lunch. I worked on the computer most of the day. Lou worked on the dinette cushions.


Friday: (02/05) I started the day with a hike to the top of Q mountain. It's really more of a hill, but a nice walk. It provides some nice views of all of Quartzsite.


We have a lot of neighbors as seen from Q Mountain. On the right, a closer view of our campsite.

We went down to Rice Ranch to a "restaurant' space A21 for breakfast. I had the pancake breakfast eggs and bacon. Lou had biscuits and gravy. We then walked on to the Post Office to pickup our mail. We browsed our way home.

By the time we got home it was lunch time. Lou fixed  a chef's salad.

Lou worked all afternoon on the dinette cushions cutting them down to the correct size for our dinette. She completed that task and they look great. I worked on setting up a new website.

Lou fixed steak and a salad for dinner.

Saturday: (02/06) Steak and eggs for breakfast. Lou was off to the craft show at the QIA and then back over to Tyson Wells. I walked over to Rice Ranch to the RV Special Things shop to see if they had gotten in any more of the LED lamps I want. They hadn't yet, possibly before they or we leave.

The rain returned today getting really heavy in the afternoon and evening.

We went to an early prime rib dinner at the Mountain Quail Restaurant. Very good and even better since they knew how to serve mine medium well without making it tough. Most places it's rare no matter what you asked for. We had a good dinner and left with enough leftovers for another meal.

After dinner we took a drive around town, in the rain, mostly East of Center.

I spent the evening getting rid of a few bugs with a new website.


For some reason the sunrises (left) have been better than the sunsets (right).

Sunday: (02/07) A late breakfast at the Mountain Quail. Country fried steak and eggs. We took another driving tour, this time around the neighborhoods off Moon Mountain Road coming back from the restaurant. We also drove around Q mountain Vista Estates, an own your own little RV lot neighborhood near the Q mountain. I dropped Lou off at Tyson Wells Craft Show and drove home.

I worked on modifying my solar panel mounts to allow raising and lowering the panels in pairs to solve the shadowing problems I've always had. One set was rather straight forward, attach the two panels with a bracket on each end. The second set was a bit more complex since they are offset to avoid roof obstacles. I obtained a couple of used aluminum U channels from a junk vendor here and attached the two panels to the rails. The wind was picking up and the clouds threatening rain before I got off the roof for dinner. Tomorrow I'll go get some better bolts and finish the job but it looks like this will work better than before. It's put together with sheet metal screws now so could blow away if I don't install some good locking bolts. I also have to replace one of the cables and reroute it.

In the evening while I played on the computer, Lou was busy sewing doll clothes for a doll she's putting together.

Lou fixed leftover prime rib, leftover potato and some fresh broccoli for dinner.

Monday: (02/08) Lou baked biscuits and made sausage gravy for our breakfast.

We then went off to do some shopping. First stop Herb's Hardware. I needed some bolts for the solar panels to replace some sheet metal screws I used yesterday. I don't want the panels to fly away. Lou got some reflective bubble wrap insulation. She's going to make a cozy for our pressure cooker to try to do some slow cooking. Just bring it to a boil then wrap it up and let it cook all day. The trick will be to keep the plastic from melting.

I walked my way home while Lou drove doing her todo list. She returned the knives she got from the thrift store back to the thrift store. She just needed one to cut the foam and got a half dozen for $2, used the best to cut the foam  seat cushions and now they get them back. Sort of like tool rental. She also stoped by the market and who knows where else. I stopped by the Gamblers RV surplus store and bought another table leg like on our dinette table. Lou wants to be able to adjust the height of the table lower for typing and sewing.  Haven't fully figured out how to do the leg yet but if al else fails we'll just have two folding legs a long and a short. If the outside one folds at an angle it would avoid the shorter leg set inside it. We still looking for the right stuff to make the existing leg a telescoping leg. We'll find the right stuff eventually.

Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich and some embellished soup. Lou started with some tomato soup from a box and added some  fried onions, peppers and hard tofu.


When I got back to the RV I went up on the roof again and drilled out the sheet metal screw holes for the bolts and installed them. Much nicer. I also made some longer brace arms, probably too long, and installed them to elevate the panels at a higher angle. I used our friendly palo verde tree as my anvil, a very sturdy tree it is.

I knew we were pretty tall now but the neighbor reminded me so I measured it. Fortunately, our RV is short, only 9.5 feet so the 4 feet height of the raised panels only puts us at the 13.5 feet limit for the street. I don't intend to drive with them that high except to the dump station about 3 miles South and back every week. The high angle makes them much more efficient this time of year.

Dinner was fried trout, mixed vegetables, and rice pilaf by our evening campfire.

Tuesday: (02/09) A nice sunny day. More biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

We walked through the the Prospectors Panorama and Tyson Wells Center. Quite different now that there are only a handful of vendors left. Only the street front has vendors now.

Lunch? Rhubarb Pie and tea at the Sweet Shop next door to The bad Boys Cafe. Then by Trina's for deep fried mushrooms.As we headed home a ittle after noon the clouds were coming. We're supposed to have rain this afternoon.

Chili sizes for dinner, one of my favorite meals. Lou was busy making doll clothes while I played at the keyboard of the computer.

When we got back to camp we packed away the chairs tables and mats since it might rain. We'll be leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Lake Havasu for a few days of fireworks then returning here Sunday.