It just wasn’t meant to be…. Or maybe it was..

 

Our Location:

Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite, Arizona 

It has been quiet here, well except the wind. It is a very constant sound some days. I can see how it could drive a person to lose a solid foothold after a while. Don’t worry, we aren’t in danger of that happening. If you have never been to the desert to hear this wind, perhaps the tick, tick, tick of a clock in an otherwise silent room, or the steady drip, drip, drip of water from a leaky faucet, sounds that never cease but beat a tattoo into the brain so that we hear it even if we step into a silent room that does not have those sounds would give you an idea. Like muscle memory of the brain. The wind in the desert is often like that, steadily humming along, a few gusts here and there changes the sounds on occasion but the steady hum is there. It caresses the thorny growth giving slight movement but no rustling noise, some dust in the air maybe, but just the sound of the wind. It is not everyday, but I wake up listening for the tell tale signs of it every day in the desert. The desert winds sounds nothing like our Island winds back home, there is a lonely, haunting quality to the desert winds, almost like it is softly whispering tales of long ago. The Island winds are different, there is business to them, they move leaves, branches, make the trees creak, it howls through the tree limbs, it causes the water to gently lap the shore, it sends endless waves crashing onto the rocks, sending spray many feet into the air, it tells a story too but not the same kind as the desert winds. How can the wind be so different?

Heading toward Blythe, California 

Albertson’s parking lot.

A few days ago we decided to dump the tanks, fill with water and dump the garbage. Since La Posa south is close by it is where we went.  The office to buy the permit sticker doesn’t open until nine and it was a few minutes before that time. A fella comes from behind the building telling me the office would be late opening, some emergency was holding up the opening, at least an hour he said, but cross the road to Tyson Wash and get a permit from them. Across the road I walked, it took 5 minutes to explain my rig was across the road, I can apply the stickers myself, no I’m not staying in the LTVA, but still want a sticker. Eventually after about 15 minutes, stickers in hand I cross the road to find them selling permits, their hour is much different than mine. We did our business and were home, set up and enjoying the day after only about an hour and a half, from start to finish.

We had few things to accomplish and decided to divide them over two days, Thursday and Friday. Sounds good, right? On Thursday we needed to get rid of garbage, get bread, water, and wanted to fill a propane tank, oh yes, and stamps. We decided we go to Blythe, CA to get bread, have a look around and just enjoy some different views. We dropped the garbage at La Posa south, stopped at Lifestyles for propane, and off to Blythe we went. Bread is really expensive in Blythe, we spent about $100. No it wasn’t just bread, but that is all we needed! We checked out a number of stores before heading back to Q. Remembering we needed drinking water, we popped off at the Riggles Road Exit, filled our jugs, looked at the long lines at the One 9, opted to get fuel on Friday. We completely forgot about stamps but not worry we can get them Friday. So Friday morning we load up the laundry, the gas can and into town we go. First stop is Laundromat on Main Street, not many vehicles in the lot, it has a lot of machines, this will be good right? Not! One whole row (both sides of the partition) is empty, that cuts the available washers down by at least a third, maybe more. It looked like the wait would be long just to get enough washers. So off we headed to the other laundromat, same thing, full, lots of waiting. Back in the Dogsled we headed off for fuel while we discussed if we wanted to wait or not. Back to the One 9, pumps didn’t look very busy, yeah. Looking around I realized all of the diesel pumps are covered, no diesel, but we did fill the gas can for the generator. The big trucks were  stacked up at the truck pumps and we don’t need diesel that badly. A stop back at the big laundromat showed a fuller lot than before and so we just came home. Damn, forgot the stamps again. So we will try again another day to do laundry, get diesel and oh yes, stamps.

I always enjoy these views.

For some reason I forgot to publish this post, so I will add to it. It is Sunday and we have completed the laundry, gotten diesel, some more water, a few items of groceries, but not stamps. Oh well, we will eventually get some and I keep thinking I have some but I haven’t looked for them yet, explains why I haven’t found them, doesn’t it?

They are replacing with new and bigger capacity front loads.

I thought this was interesting, it’s in the laundromat.

I have talked to dad every day, keeping caught up on all the happenings. I have chatted with my sister a few times, as well as my friend Linda. I think we are caught up on the news from back home.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

A bit of touring today....

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

When I woke up at 5 am the air was a bit nippy but not cold. Downstairs before 7 am the temp was reading 40F/4C so not a bad start to the day. The night temps seem to be getting a bit warmer every few days and hopefully the trend continues.

It started off like this early in the morning ....

The sunrise didn’t really have much colour this  morning, just a lightening from dark to light with no reds or oranges in the mix until the sun was about to peek it’s head over the edge of the mountain, and then some red/orange colours showed up in the sky. Very pretty.

Then went to this.....

Riley staggered out shortly after 7:30 am and looked as if she’d had a hard night. No not really but her hair was sticking out in every direction making it look as if she’d had a really bad scare. We discussed our plans for the day which weren’t many and decided on lunch, a small change from the previously written menu we follow but since we already had the meat thawed it seemed like a better choice.

My lunch salad....lots of things in there..

Since I had decided to prep lunch early I was pulling the stuff out of the fridge and determined that one of my chores for later today was to defrost the fridge and freezer, so I just kept pulling everything out and heated water to stick in there to help it thaw faster. While the water was working it’s magic I made our salads, readied the spaghetti squash, cleaned the door trays, and crispers. As I waited for the second pot of water to steam it’s magic into the last large pieces of ice on the fins of the fridge I managed to make our homemade turkey burgers and have them ready for lunch as well. 

Lunch on the Weber, Spaghetti squash in the foil...

                     I cleaned up both the fridge and freezer, wiping  everything clean and dry before putting every thing back and wouldn’t you know it, we had a great deal more room than we thought we had in the freezer and I figured out how to move the racks in the fridge as well to a better position. It was a learning experience with the racks but now I know how to do it. So we now have more space in the fridge in which to stand things up instead of having to lay them on their sides. Yeah me!!!!

My lunch, potato slice, squash, and a cheese turkey burger.....

Lunch prepared, fridge and freezer defrosted, cleaned, dried, restocked and it was only a little after 10 am. How good was that? I then proceeded to clean up and get ready for the day ahead. We headed out for a walk around 10:45 am, hoping to find a better location. We found one that we had checked out before but found it was already full with two units. There is one we like but it’s in a small wash type looking area  and I’m afraid to park there just in case, so we’ve been avoiding it. We didn’t find anything on our walk but we have noticed a few things  that I thought would not be permitted in the area. A number of people have parked their rigs crossways at the beginning of along stoney areas that would hold many more units but have effectively cut off anyone else from going in there unless they find another path or road. The other thing I’ve noticed is certain spots look like they’ve been lived in for a long time, not just a few months. Some of the junk and/or other trailers sometimes two or three cargo trailers piled up around these units were not just collected from October til now. Not many of course but enough for me to notice. These extra trailers are usually parked in such a way as to form almost like a small compound in their midst. Or again they block off the path to more campsites further down the way. I’m quite surprised at that.

That green thing turns different colours...(he's far, far away, sorry for the blurry pic)

Anyway, back home we climbed into the Dogsled and headed out for a look around Tyson Wash LTVA area. We seen a number of promising looking spots but Riley was worried because they didn’t have a fire ring, so we by passed them. We did however find one that was very appealing.
 

Tough looking cactus, wonder how it manages to survive....

We then headed into Quartzsite proper and tooled around a bit checking out the laundromat and finding Discount Solar to be closed up today. We didn’t find any where to wash the Dogsled and believe me the big fella is dirty with a all this fine dust. You can see our fingerprints where we’ve touched the door to push it shut. However I do have a possible solution for that in the near future as I’ll explain a bit later.

Love this grouping, note the bottoms all look pretty rugged, and one is a twin with one being shorter than the other....guess they aren't identical....

We checked out Hi Jolly BLM as well and decided it wasn’t for us, we didn’t find it appealing in the least. We didn’t check out Plomosa Road today but will at some point. We headed back to the Igloo and took a drive along another couple of roads to just check things out. Didn’t see anything that appealed to us there either. 
 

Yes, that is the moon you see there in among the cacti.

Back home it was 2 pm by the time we opened the door and stepped inside. I started up the Weber and let it heat up while I was inside doing a few little last minute things for lunch. Lunch today was of course started with a salad, then spaghetti squash with a bit of butter, Thyme, Oregano, Parsley and Parm Cheese,  a potato sliced and placed on the grill after brushing the slices with oil. Finally turkey burgers with toasted english muffins, mine was a cheese burger. Two for Riley, one for me. That was lunch. It was very good if I do say so. I’ve found the right spices for us and we enjoyed the turkey burgers more now. With beef I used dry onion soup mix to give it the right flavour but since we’re using turkey I used a few other things instead. Thyme, Parsley, Oregano, a hint of Italian, a wee bit of fresh garlic, crushed, one egg, and some bread crumbs. It has just the right flavour for us.

Notice the big split above those small arms....

After lunch, time to wash up all the dishes and tidy the place up. We grabbed our sticks and headed out for a short walk. We wandered around not far from our current location and found a spot we’ll enjoy much more and plan on moving there tomorrow morning.
 

The straightest line to the roadway for walking....can you tell?

On our way back home with the Dogsled I stopped at the office to ask if having a mobile wash company come into the park was allowed. The answer was yes but only two were on their approved list. I want to have the Igloo and the Dogsled washed and waxed, and the oxidization removed from the front of the Igloo. I would also like to have the carpets steam cleaned but I’m not sure it’s worth it with all this dust. So my question is has anyone reading my post used either of the two allowed here in the BLM. J & R’s Mobile Wash, and Mel’s Mobile Wash? This question just occurred to me, are these the ONLY mobile wash companies allowed  on ALL BLM land or just the pay ones? I never thought to ask that question.

The type of rock that litters the desert floor...

So if you have used them, or heard anything about either of them, I would appreciate hearing from you.

That big yellow ball is starting to slide down....

After our walk Riley decided to clean up and  somehow dropped her phone into a sink full of water. It’s sitting in a ziplock bag of rice right now, hopefully that does the trick. Life is always interesting in so many ways. Hahahaha

A bit further....

So there you have it, our day here in sunny warm Quartzsite, Arizona. Nothing too exciting but it works for us and we enjoyed it a great deal. I enjoyed pushing the Dogsled into 4 X 4   and having it work a bit getting up some of the steep spots in a few washes that we went through. I don’t think Riley enjoyed it but that’s okay, I enjoyed it enough for both of us. Hahaha.

That is some kind of pollution you can see there.....maybe dust..

We hope where ever you are that you’ve enjoyed your day as well. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment.

Love the pink over the mountains...

Until next time….take care, be safe,

Love the colours here in the desert....

Deb