A nice quiet day....

Our Location:  BLM Plomosa Road, Quartzsite, AZ

An excellent night’s sleep once again. I slept all night, not getting up even one time. It’s been a while since I’ve accomplished that. Not as cold this morning as yesterday and so we didn’t need the heater on in the early hours. 

 

Sunset tonight on Plomosa Road.

 

 Visiting with blogging friends, a hot drink and some chatter with Riley was the way the day started. Riley left for a walk and I stayed home doing some chores that needed doing. They weren’t major chores but those annoying little things that only take a few minutes but still makes life more enjoyable. 

 

It get's closer to setting.

 

Those chores took longer than I expected and yet I still finished before noon. After that I spent some time making salads and prepping things for lunch before I settled down to read for a while.  The Dan Brown book is interesting but like Web Griffin he provides too much detail that isn’t integral to the story.  At least in my opinion. 

 

The Igloo's nice little spot on Plomosa Road.

  

I spent some time outside bbq’ing lunch and reading my book. The sun was warm, almost hot but the wind kept things moderated and I enjoyed the time outside. An hour on low and slow had lunch cooked and a few minutes later we were enjoying lunch.    

It's half way to it's goal.

 

After a quick clean up we both enjoyed some more quiet time, I spent time reading and Riley spent time doing whatever it was Riley does to amuse herself.

The mountains at sunset. A quad heading home from an afternoon of riding.

 

A phone call to Dad to return his call which he said he didn’t place.  He chatted with my sister Jan and learned that her partner Rick is now out of the hospital. Hopefully they both recover from the flu quickly.  He says the unrelenting cold and wind is supposed to stay around for at least another week. Lots of snow over the last day or so, about a foot on top of what they already had. I think he’s pretty tired of winter already. 

 

Sunset tonight.

 

A short walk to get a few sunset pictures for my post tonight. After which Riley and I decided we’d watch a movie, Silverado with a very young Kevin Costner and Danny Glover.  That was it for our day, I hope you enjoyed your visit here to A long and lonesome highway. Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Deb

Meeting up with old friends ........

Our Location:  BLM Plomosa Road, Quartzsite, AZ

An excellent night’s sleep and I awoke to a crisp morning in which I figured we needed our heater on for a few minutes at least. Riley stayed snug in bed until I had it set up and going and the Igloo was beginning to warm up.
 

It's busy on Plomosa Road.

 I visited with our blogging friends as usual with a hot drink in hand before we turned our sights on heading into town. It took us a while to find a shorter route back to  Plomosa Road than the one we came in but when we haul the Igloo out again we’ll be heading out the same route we came in on. The short cut is good for the Dogsled but not the Igloo.

Some group or other in the bottom picture. Two 5'ers parked close, big and little brother maybe. The top left picture is the Igloo of course, off on it's on and enjoying the peace.

 

We headed into the big tent event which is something new for us, we’ve not attended before. We  checked out a few vendors last year but that was after the tent was gone. We parked in the lot and headed off across the way to the big tent. Wandering around we noticed a few things that would be nice  but not must have of course and so kept on walking. We found the big tent to be a bit busier than we’d like but not a problem we have a goal in mind and that’s the only real reason we are here today. We wandered up and down the rows until Riley suddenly pointed and said, ’We need to go this way.” I turned the corner and sure enough, there in the next row were the friends we’ve been hoping to see while they are out here. We were kind of misinformed thinking they had come out for a visit only but in fact they were working in the Passport America booth. We didn’t get a picture of them in the booth but we did manage to chat with both of them for a good while and enjoyed catching up. I think they were as happy to see us as we were to see them. Truly it was a very nice catch up. Of course they are certain we need to return to Magic River to spend some time there and it’s possible we shall at another time but that’s for the future. I think we’ll be making plans to meet for dinner at a later date. It would be wonderful to sit and chat for a while. 

 

I forgot to get a photo of our friends but we did see their rig while walking back to the Dogsled.

 

Remote tilting frame for your solar panels interested me greatly. Interesting truck don't ya think?

 

We headed off down the rest of the rows and eventually figured we’d seen enough. We left the big tent and headed out among a few of the other vendors, stopping here and there to check things out. I can honestly say that we didn’t spend a dime, not one thing we wanted badly enough to pay an extra 44% to own. Although the remote tilting solar panels by Solar Vector were interesting. It wasn’t long before our feet found their way back to the Dogsled and we climbed in to head home. A bit busy getting out of the parking lot but not bad and before long we were heading up AZ 95 N toward Plomosa Road. 

Some sharp plant life.

 

We managed to figure out our way back to the Igloo and realizing it was past noon Riley made us both a salad while I took care of a little chore outside. After the chore was complete we spent the rest of the day enjoying lunch, reading and Riley even managed a nap. A lot of walking this morning had us not too ambitious this afternoon. However I did manage a short walk around to snap some sunset pictures for tonight’s post. 

 

So many pictures of the sunset tonight.

 

There you have it, a day of seeing old friends and checking out the excitement at the big tent. I hope you all enjoyed your day, doing whatever it is that you did, being where it is you were. Thanks for stopping by.
 

A fiery sky this evening.

 

Until next time….take care, be safe,
 

Goodnight from Quartzsite, Arizona.

 

Deb

Quartzsite, Arizona......

Our Location:  BLM Plomosa Road, Quartzsite, AZ

Last night the wind picked up again until about midnight. It once again shook us, rattled us and possibly we hovered off the ground for a minute or two before coming back to rest on all fours. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. After about midnight it just dropped right off and we heard nothing more until just before daylight when it kicked up again but not nearly as bad. We were half packed up and I can tell you we quickly packed up the other half and hit the road.
 

Heading East along I-10 just after leaving Joshua Tree National Park south entrance.

More desert like here with less greens than we've been seeing.

 We were heading down the hill toward I-10 East at 7:30 AM California Time. A bit of wind as we  travelled along but nothing worrisome and before long we were out of the wind and just enjoying our drive. We stopped a couple of times at the rest areas just because we could and we still made it to Quartzsite around 11 AM Mountain Time. It was much busier than I expected to see along Dome Rock Road with a lot of rigs there, packed in pretty tightly. Not a problem, we were not heading for Dome Rock anyway.
 

Would you advertise really BAD OLD jerky?

 

As you can see we are almost to Quartzsite.

 

As we approached town it was nice to see something familiar this time as we’d been here last year and so we had a good idea of where we were going. We enjoyed our drive through part of town, nice to see things that we remembered and nice to see some new things too. We are looking forward to getting into town tomorrow and visiting some friends and maybe checking out a vendor or two. We shall see how tomorrow goes. 

 

 

We are leaving California and entering Arizona.

 

 We hung a left onto 95 North and headed out of town for Plomosa Road. We passed by the Waste Transfer station I am happy to say that numerous people were coming and going. It looks like some folks have figured out they can just easily take their garbage there as put it in an already full dumpster.

Fuel prices just across the Arizona state line from Blythe, California.

 

As we passed by Hi Jolly I can say it was extremely busy and very full. Lots and lots of rigs in there still. We kept going on to Plomosa Road. We checked in with the camp host and headed out with our two week paper for the window. Can you say very busy? Can you say busier than very busy? I was absolutely amazed at the number of rigs here. Groups, bunches, singles, couples and just about every kind of rig you can imagine. We found a road and managed to squeeze off and drift back out of the way a bit before finding a place to park.

You can see Q way over there in the distance, all those little white dots are buildings.

 

I called Dad but got his machine and so left message saying we’d arrived safely. After that we finished a partial set up and having some lunch, all cooked inside today though, we haven’t set up the Weber yet. Tomorrow we will finish setting up the outside area. A cool breeze had us keeping the big door closed but the windows open on the sunny side of the Igloo. A nice day for sure.  Another call to Dad earlier this evening to touch base and a quick chat. Sister Jan and her partner Rick are both down with the flu but Rick was admitted to the hospital today with breathing issues and dizzy spells. Rick is also a diabetic and with being sick everything is out of whack and so I think that also lead to the hospitalization. We wish them both a speedy recovery.
 

A few of the rigs at Dome Rock. Hard to take clear photos while whizzing by, isn't it?

 

I spent the rest of the evening finishing up a James Patterson book, The People vs Alex Cross. I’m pretty sure I’ve read it before, parts seemed familiar and yet I didn’t remember reading it. Oh well, it was a good read anyway. I’ll start a new book sometime tomorrow.

 

We parked back in there some where last year.

 

So that was our day. We have moved to the state of Arizona again and are looking forward to spending the next many weeks in the state in various locations. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

 

The familiar sites of Quartzsite, AZ.

 

Until next time… take care, be safe,
 

We are glad to be back in the land of the  many armed cacti.

 

 

Deb

Very windy, change of plans, birthday wishes....

Our Location: BLM South Entrance, Joshua Tree National Park, 

California

 

A very, windy night from early evening, all through the night until well into the afternoon today. We ended up pulling in all the slides and Riley slept with me for over half the night. The wind was rocking us and even with the toppers tied down they were still flapping fiercely. Better in than ripped. We ratchet strapped ourselves to a couple of Palo Verde trees, added some big rocks to the back of the Dogsled and hung on for dear life. All of this we did in the extremely bright wee hours of the morning as the moon was bright and showed us everything we needed to see. 

Just a few of the many grapefruit I picked off the ground yesterday at Janet's. The wind had knocked them down overnight.

 

Today we were planning on leaving this area and moving to Quartzsite, AZ but with the high sustained winds and heavy gusts we opted to stay put and wait for tomorrow. Even the traffic on I-10 seemed much lighter than usual until this afternoon when the winds started to noticeably diminish.

Gives you an idea of size.

 

We stayed inside out of the wind and flying sand but enjoyed the views outside. A few folks coming and going but mostly just everyone hunkered down and stayed put. As the afternoon progressed the rigs started moving around on the interstate and began coming up the long grade to the BLM area, but only two rigs left. 

The view out our door. That is the road into the park.

 

A call to my dad to inform him of our change of plans, the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, napping and just gazing out the window. As I write this at 4:50 PM California time the winds have diminished to a slight breeze with a few little gusts but nothing to shake or rattle the Igloo. We’ve even taken away the ratchet straps and stones. Tomorrow we will be up and on the road heading east to new scenery for us this year. 

 

Looking north west from our door.

 

A special note today. Happy Birthday Courtney. My oldest daughter turns 31 today. Courtney is a true delight, bubbly, excitable, enthusiastic and just a very nice person. Courtney is with the Toronto School Board for the last couple of years after her return from Switzerland with hubby Matt who had a 2 year research grant there. Courtney and Matt live in Toronto and love the feel and atmosphere of the big city. So obviously a call will be placed to Courtney a bit later. Happy Birthday Sweetheart. 

 

Stuck in a rock outside the door.

 

So that’s it, our windy, stay inside day here at Joshua Tree National Park in California. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your stay.  

 

I think this person may have spent the night in a motel. The car was gone early this morning.

 

 

Until next time… take care, be safe, 

That is toward the Coachella Valley. A few rigs that weathered the wind with us.

 

Deb

A very nice visit today....

Our Location: BLM South Entrance, Joshua Tree National Park

 California

 

Surprisingly we had a very quiet night. I didn’t hear any wind until around 5:30 AM and even then it wasn’t terribly strong sustained winds, just gusts. As daylight came on of course the wind picked but not nearly what it was predicting. It was cool here though, only 49 F / 9.4 C and while the temps rose to about 64 F/ 18 C the wind kept it from being a truly warm day. 

 

Driving along I-10 West toward Indio. Yep, snow on the mountain ahead.

I left this picture as it came from the camera. As you can see it's very hazy over the valley. Still the same snow.

 

We were of course were ready to go early but then again being early isn’t a bad thing and is our norm. Before we left we did however pull in the slides and put HRH Miss Kitty in my bedroom so we didn’t have to worry about the wind while we were away. 

Again, I left the photo as it was. You can see the haze over the whole Coachella Valley area and of course that is snow on a different mountain top. That would be Big Bear you can see in this picture.

Part of the long 10 mile grade down from the Chiriaco Summit to the valley floor.

 

Out the door around 9:25 AM we took the leisurely drive down I-10 West to Indio and from there we made our way to Janet & Dennis’ place off of Manitou Drive. A very lovely gated community with flowers blooming and lots of fruit on the trees, oranges, grapefruit, lemons and probably a few others that I couldn’t recognize. Palm lined streets with a beautiful greens and fairways, amazingly manicured front yards and of course flowering shrubs and bougainvillea peeking out at us from time to time. Indian Wells received a lot of wind last night and was still receiving much more than we were. There was debris from the palms and various other trees visible on the usually pristine  lawns and public areas. 

Not sure if this is a standard feature or a carnival in town. Off on a side street and we didn't get a good look.

 

Cute name don't you think?

 

We arrived at Janet’s at 10:30 AM to find a sea of grapefruit on the ground from the wind. Of course on our way out we picked up a few dozen to eat over the next number of weeks. It was wonderful to visit with Janet ( we didn’t see Dennis, he was on the golf course). We chatted for a while before heading off to Mexicali’s for lunch. We enjoyed Mexicali’s again this year with Janet and ironically we were just down the street from Pacific Brake and Alignment. We parted company around 2 pm  with Janet heading home and us heading back to the Igloo. A nice quick visit but enough for this time. We managed to catch them on an in-between day. Dennis arrived home on Saturday, Janet arrived home yesterday and tomorrow they head off for some medical appointments for Dennis a few hours north of Indian Wells. Busy folks. 

Lots of debris that normally isn't around.

  

We fueled up the Big Dog at $3.59 per US gallon but I didn’t fill him. I’ll find cheaper fuel when we arrive in Arizona I am certain. We took a little drive around the area checking out the dry camping area behind Patton’s Museum but it wasn’t our type of camping. There are designated places to park, all are back in and there is very little space between them. There is some definite traffic noise from the interstate but it wasn’t much more than white noise at the time we were there. Also I think it would be noisy due to the museum and the little store, coffee stop, gas station, etc. You have to really pay attention to see the sign designating the camping area. It is JUST PAST the museum before you get to the busier part of the stop. It is easy to miss the sign. 

 

Nothing like a water fall in the desert surrounded by green, green, green grass.

 

Back home I once again used my new magnet on a stick to clear up some nails that I noticed laying around the edges of the fire pits in our location. A few had scattered out a bit from the pits and so I made sure they ended up back inside the fire pits once again. These pits are right up against some big rocks and so I doubt anyone would drive there even if the pits are removed. Too close to the rocks.  

 

It doesn't look much like desert does it?

 Spent some time reading and resting before doing this blog post. The wind seems to have calmed down from the gusts earlier but it’s still gusty at times. Things are quiet here in our little spot and we’re happy to report that it’s been a very nice day. Always nice to see family. 

Sorry for the reflection from the window.

 

Tomorrow is a short travel day. We anticipate getting an early start and therefore an early arrival time. We are of course heading to Quartzsite for a little while. Some good friends from our Magic River camping days in Long Beach, Mississippi are in Q for a few days and we are looking forward to seeing them. They will only be in town a few more days and so we’re in a hurry to get a visit or two in with them before they head out. 

 

A very typical street in their community. Lots of maintenance workers around.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

 

A very old BMW.

 

Until next time…take care, be safe,

Deb

We moved today......

Our Location: Joshua Tree National Park, South Entrance, CA

 

We packed up and headed off this morning around 7:30 AM California time and an uneventful trip we had. We like those kinds of trips. Except for a little mishap, not ours but someone else's at the rest area on I-8 West just past Ogilby Road the roads were accident free. A semi had some how managed to jack knife himself while coming out of the rest area onto the I-8 West bound lanes but was still in the rest area. It appeared that he thought he wouldn't make the turn and backed up which jack knifed him and his right rear tractor wheels were hanging in the air over the side of the road. A big tow was on route. Enough room for us to slip past him and be on our way though. 

 

Just before the rest area on I-8 West. Lots of weekend warriors here.

 

We made our first stop at the rest area of course, water, and garbage. From there our next stop was a little over an hour away at Brawley's Walmart on Wildcat Drive. We took our time getting a few things that we hadn't been able to find in Yuma. After that it was on the road again until we turned in at the Red Earth Casino on CA 86 N where we used their dump station. We waited for about 20 minutes until it was our turn and within a half hour we were on our way once again. 

 

The border inspection station on CA 86 was backed up and stop and go for a while but suddenly they just started waving everyone through and not asking any questions. It appeared they had two cars pulled over and the K-9 unit was inspecting both.

Back in Ontario, Canada we never think of a Palm Forest.

 

We continued right along taking the Dillon Road Exit to merge onto I-10 EAST bound. From this point on our towing travels will take us east bound, with perhaps some southward movement as well but mostly east until we finally head north to the land we call home. We climbed onto I-10 E and continued on our way. We reached Joshua Tree National Park and set ourselves up by 2 pm California time. A quick call to Dad had me informed that it was too cold for folks to be outside there today and so he was inside doing some net surfing. 

 

Along the way, hay under those tarps, tons and tons of it. A very empty I-8 West bound. Two trees have formed an arch in this field. Very cute.

 

A nice lunch and then Riley and I caught up with our blogging friends and I checked the weather for tomorrow. Ho hum, I wished I'd have checked it last night instead. We wouldn't be staying here at JTNP tonight if I had. Wind warnings posted for here tonight, 25-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Starting around midnight and continuing through the night and into the afternoon tomorrow. I checked the Salton Sea area, no wind warnings of any kind. I was tempted to move but instead we stayed put. Hopefully tomorrow we can still make it into town to see Janet and have a visit. 

 

Welcome to Brawley, CA. Fuel prices are a bit high I think.

 

Can you see the snow on the mountain peaks in these pictures?

 

So there you have it, our travel day which wasn't long and wasn't difficult. We enjoyed seeing the sights again and are looking forward to tomorrow and some time with Janet.  We will be here only two nights and be moving on Tuesday morning. 

We begin the long climb to the Chiriaco  Summit.

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

As we climbed we noticed this helo. He appeared to be hovering at first, then moved off and swung around to come back. We could see the long line trailing and couldn't imagine what he was doing. As we watched he approached one of the towers and stopped, hovering again. It was then I realized there are workers on this towers and he's picking them up. Now that folks is a definite high risk ride to and from work.

 Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb