January 14 - 27, 2013 Quartzsite and Boomerville

On the 14th, we traveled with Bill and Shelly to Quartzsite.  Right before we got off the exit, we saw Geri and John on the frontage road heading towards Boomerville.  What a coincidence – :-))  So after traveling 2 more miles on the dirt road, we came to Boomerville, where we found Bruce and Sue and stayed for the past two weeks.

A little background: Quartzsite is the town, normally ~3000 year round residents.  But in the winter, specifically January and February, there are more than 100,000 RVs camped at the RV parks and in the desert (on BLM lands) surrounding the town.  The big draw is the RV show and many of the Gem and Minerals shows throughout the town.   Many RV clubs and chapters have rallies during this time.  As you know we belong to the Escapee RV Club which has many sub groups.  One of those groups is the Boomers who have their rally during this time – Boomerville.  This year there were over 100 rigs that stayed in our area.

Side view from the desert of Boomerville:

Our little area:

There are so many activities both in Boomerville and Quartzsite that it can be over whelming.  But the best thing for me is reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. The downside is not having enough time to spend with each one – :-(((.

So what did we do for two weeks?  Well,

Walks in the desert:

Molly – Sue and Bruce’s dog:

Neat cacti:

Shopping, shopping and more shopping…This is our group heading to the “Big RV Tent”.

Jerry, Darlene, Shelly, Andy, John, Bruce, Bill, Geri, Sue, Bob, Jackie:

John, Jerry, Andy, Bill, Diane, Geri, Sue, Bob, Jackie, Shelly, Bruce (same group – :-)):

Eating, Eating,  and more eating:

One of our visits to Silly Al’s – great pizza:

In Boomerville, we had a chili cook-off, lots of potlucks and happy hour snacks – oh my. 

Campfires every night where we laughed and laughed, told stories (mostly true – LOL) and solved the problems of the world.:

 

A 4 x 4 trip with WOW scenery:

And speaking of scenery:

 

The sunrises and sunsets – OH MY!:

 

 

The following two pictures are of a sunrise. That morning we heard Bella meowing behind the blinds and then the blinds took on a reddish hue.  We did not know what was going on until we opened the blinds and the sunrise  - WOW! - It was BEAUTIFUL!:

    

And we spent every day telling even more stories and laughing and laughing and laughing….. we are so blessed!

Geri, Me, Sue, Shelly:

      

As our time in Quartzsite ended, we watched a moon rise over the mountains – Beautiful!:

 

So many other things we did but I did not keep daily notes – which brings me to an apology to all my blog readers.  I was very lax in not keeping up the blog – sorry.   And an apology to me too since I did want this blog to be a travel journal.  So hopefully once I get caught up, I will do a blog a few times a week if not daily – :-))).

 

Stats for the 14th:

Miles Traveled: 186 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona:  South Montgomery Road; I-8; SR-85; I-10; Service Road (Dome Rock Road East); Mitchell Mine Road

 

Enjoy today!

January 1 – 13, 2013 Casa Grande Part 3

Hard to believe our time here on our lot in Casa Grande is winding down.  Since I last updated we have continued our daily activities here – socializing with friends, beading, walking, playing cards, eating out, etc.   However for me (Diane), it has been on a slower scale – the cold I had, zapped a lot of my strength and it has taken longer than normal to get it back.  But I can honestly say that each day I am better and am almost up to my normal self – :-))).

We had a cold wave move in and with it came a sandstorm – very eerie. 

Also with it, temperatures have dropped drastically – day time highs barely hit 50 and nighttime lows are in the 20’s – Brrrr!!!   Hopefully by next weekend it should be back to normal.

I did get new tire covers made for the RV that now match the window covers:

Next up is covering from the awning to match the windows – :-).

We have had many hummingbirds stopping by to eat.

 

  

 

The feeder is outside the window cover so the birds cannot see in but we can see them.  And it has been fun watching the kitties watch them. 

Tomorrow we head to Quartzsite for the shows and rallies and more fun – :-).   So stayed tuned – we hope to do some exploring.

Enjoy today!

Enjoy the Ride

December 6, to December 31, 2012 Casa Grande Part 2

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas and are enjoying this New Year’s Eve.

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I updated – WOW!  Where does the time go? 

So what have we been up to?  Well (and I will try to keep this short – :-)):

We have been reconnecting with friends we have met over the years and are enjoying getting caught up and spending time with them.

In the park, Andy and I volunteered to help out with a couple of the activities.  One of those for me has been teaching a beading class and that has been a lot of fun.  I did the activity calendar for January and enjoyed it.  The past two years there has not been an activity leader and I think if I spent a few months here, I would enjoy doing that job.  (But, alas, I start to get hitch itch after a few weeks and need to move on.)

Our Motor Home refrigerator now has a new cooling unit.  We have the 4 door Norcold that was on the recall list.  We had one fix, that failed and then the second failed so Norcold would not give us another.  So instead of getting a new refrigerator, we got an Amish Cooling Unit – so far so good.

Both of our cats, Dusty and Bella, had their appointments with a new vet that we all liked.  All is good except our Dusty has to lose some weight (like Andy and I – LOL) plus he will need some dental work in the near future.

Andy continues to have all his checkups at the VA – so far so good.  The final ones are over the next week.

I spent a wonderful day with my cousin Kris who has moved into an incredible complex.  Check out those front doors:

It was great to spend the day with her – Thanks Kris!

A group of us made our annual trip to Organ Stop Pizza.  I won’t go into the details since they were posted here:

http://thehitzels.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-14-21-2011-organ-pipe-pizza.html

But I do have videos:

 

 

 

From there we went to the Mormon Temple to enjoy their incredible lights:

 

 

 

Enjoying the lights – me, Andy, Keith, and Michelle:

Our weather has been beautiful although we have had more clouds than normal.  And of course those clouds make such awesome sunsets:

  

WOW!

And as 2012 ends, Andy and I have decided to have a quiet night at home.  Both of us were sick and do not have our energy back yet.  To be honest, it is nice to just kick back and enjoy some TV.

We are thankful for being able to enjoy the life we do and count our many friends and family as blessings in our lives.

We wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2013:

Click here- A Brand New Year

Enjoy today!

Click here- A Brand New Year

November 28, 2012 – December 5, 2012 – Our time in Casa Grande – Part 1

Oh my, can’t believe it has been over a week since I have updated.   So what have we been up to???

Well, here goes… socializing and getting caught up with friends, line dancing, crafts, walking, socializing, getting our lot set up, shopping, celebrating Steve’s birthday, socializing, Friday night at our local Moose Lodge, Saturday night at the Elks, daily Happy Hours (I even MC’d one of them), watching movies (Shelly and I are doing the Twilight series), helping out in the park and did I say socializing – yes we are having fun.

Andy and Bill have been doing walks in the desert and one of the days Shelly and I went with them and took my camera.

This is Miles – Bill and Shelly’s pup:

 

Running after the guys:

There are a couple of these in this part of the desert west of Casa Grande.  They were built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1966 and used as calibration targets for the Corona spy satellites.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/mysterious-structures-in-chinese-desert.html

 

We found pipes – not sure what they are:

Footprints that go on forever:

And lots of deep holes:

Fire tower – with a fence around it:

Some sort of lost building – in some areas it was charred so fire???:

Neat flowers:

On December 1, 2012, Casa Grande had an Electric Light Parade.  We came into town early and here is our group by the Elks Lodge – from left to right, Brenda, Michelle, Shelly, Keith, Andy, Leland, and Bill:

 

Once the main street shut down, we were entertained by this gentleman:

Florence Avenue – with the sunset:

And the Parade Begins:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really nice parade!  Afterwards we decided to stop into the Elks until the parking lot cleared – and had another great time – :-)):

So that is what we have been up to - .   Stay tuned for our next adventures and enjoy today.