Moving day.....

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

(The first few pics were taken through a dirty windshield)

 

My morning started about 6 am but I didn’t get up until about 6:30 am. The temps were about the same as the few previous days, a degree or two warmer but nothing much. I packed up my bedroom and bathroom while waiting for the kettle to get hot and by the time I headed downstairs to make my hot chocolate, Mr Heater had the Igloo quite toasty. As I was just about to sit down Riley started making some grunting and groaning noises in her bedroom and so I knew she was awake. I made her hot chocolate while she was getting out of bed. 

 

Leaving Saddle Mountain ....

 

After enjoying our hot drinks we started packing up a bit more of the inside. Finally leaving Riley to finish the inside I headed out to do the few last minute things outside. As I was finishing and just starting to move the Dogsled into the harness our new friend Matt pulled up in the spot in front of us and proceeded to come up and chat. When we chatted yesterday I told Matt we had an excellent spot, (I had noticed he had moved numerous times in just a couple of days) and since we were leaving he was welcome to it. Thus the reason he showed up while we were still packing up. We chatted for a few minutes and by that time a new fella named Bob and his rescue dog (no name) stopped on his walk to chat with us too. After about 10 minutes I explained that we had to get busy and so both gents headed off in their own directions. As I was putting the hitch pin into the slot I noticed Matt lurking off to the side. Apparently he’d never seen anyone hook up a 5’er before. Within 10 minutes we had done our final checks, and we were heading out to Courthouse Road at 9:40am. Late for us but it’s a short day and so we weren’t too worried.

 

Those white squares are bales of cotton.

We rolled onto I-10 West, put on some tunes, and let the Big Dog run along at 55 mph/ 88 km until we pulled in at the Rest Area. We wanted to check on a dump station instead of worrying about one later down the road, but alas, no dump station. We once again pushed the Big Dog up to the same speed, click on cruise and enjoyed the ride. 

 

There are probably 100 or so bales out there...

We pulled into the BLM office, got our tags and proceeded to get our instructions. Moving forward we waited at the dump station for a while, and finally it was our turn. As we pulled out of the dump station the clock indicated we’d been an hour from the back of the line to pulling out of the dump site. We still needed water on board, Riley dumped the garbage while I was dumping the tanks. 

 

The go on and on and on....

After that we drove around for about 45 minutes checking out a number of places and finally picking one. Tomorrow we’ll have to figure out where we are located so we can find ourselves again. However for today, I’m happy to be parked, mostly set up and enjoying the sunshine and warmth. 

 

At the rest area, a U-Haul towing a tri -axle Airstream.

Lunch was a bit hurried today so it was a simple event. Riley had a couple of Sweet Italian Sausages, and I had a couple of turkey dogs. We don’t use regular bread buns, but wraps instead. Riley also added some pretzels and hummus to her lunch, while I was satisfied with just the dogs.

 

Love the crags and creases....

A call to my dad after we arrived to ease his mind about our travels. He said they were having a nice day there too but I’m sure his nice, and our nice aren’t quite the same thing.

 

Rest area about 10 miles east of Quartzsite.

I enjoyed my book for a while this afternoon before making a phone call to Verizon to change our data plan. We just don’t seem to be able to survive on a few gigs and have now switched to unlimited. We’ll see if it works better for us. The phone call took almost an hour as the wait time was long but I was certainly very happy with the end result.

 

The green is CASH price for diesel, add 5 cents for credit card use.

After that I headed outside to catch the sunset. It was nice, and the surrounding mountains were awash with the sun’s rays and the crags and crevices casting shadows and unique shades on those beautiful mountains.

 

Love the wavy outline....

Sunset is now over and I’m here editing pics and writing my post. Riley is doing whatever it is she does to amuse herself. HRH  is once again in her cat carrier. How funny is that? She doesn’t want to go in on moving day but afterwards she spends a lot of time inside it when we aren’t moving. She is a strange cat. 

 

Catching the dust in the rays...

So there you have it. We have left Saddle Mountain behind for now and are prepared to try a few days here in Quartzsite, and if it gets to be too stressful we’ll pull up stakes and head somewhere else. After all our home is on wheels and moving is pretty simple. We are fortunate indeed to have such a lifestyle available to us.

 

Nothing says desert sunset like a cactus in the picture...

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to drop a comment.

 

Fading behind the mountains....

Until next time…. take care, be safe,

 

 

Deb