A tour around Quartzsite. 12-16-14

 

Patti and I have been coming to Quartzsite for about seven seasons now and I have taken you on many tours of the desert around here and to Parker and Blythe but I have never taken you on a tour of Quartzsite.
This morning we decided to do just that.

Around 11:00 we got in the jeep and started out of the RV park . Just as we were getting going we saw a road runner running down the street near our spot. It was nice to see one as last year we didn’t see any.

 

When we got to the entrance to the park we turned right and headed toward the east end of town.
We drove past our favorite pizza place “Silly Al’s”. Now you might say it is easy to say that Silly Al’s is our favorite pizza place since there is only one pizza place in Quartzsite but we feel that Silly Al’s makes the best pizza of any place that we have had pizza.

Just across the driveway from Silly Al’s is Dorothy & Toto’s Ice Cream Shoppe. The place to go for root beer floats on a hot day.

We continue down Main street to the towns major intersection of Main and Hwy. 95.

On the north west corner is a 76 gas station (last year it was a Shell).

On the southwest side is a large open lot where one of our neighbors (Jeff) has his wind shield repair business.

There is an RV dealer on the northeast corner and Mesa West RV dealer on the southeast corner.

We got back on Main street and continued toward the east end of town.

We passed our favorite Mexican restaurant in “Q” called “Taco Mio”.

It is the only one left. There used to be a couple others but over the years they have all closed down. It is hard for a restaurant to stay in business when they only have six months to make enough money to get them through the year.

A little further along the street is the Road Runner Market. It used to be kind of junky but last year it was bought by IGA so now it is much better.

A little farther along is the Quartzsite General store it is pretty small and is having a hard time competing with the Road Runner. It does have a good meat department though. That is where we buy the pork steaks for when I make Nopalies.

Next to that is a Family Dollar

and a Bealls Outlet but I heard that Bealls is going out of business.

Past Beals and a few other store’s is the Readers Oasis the store of the naked book seller. On warm days he wears only a sort of cod piece or I guess you could call it a cock sock.

Quartzsite does not lack for Characters.

We drive by more RV dealers and eventually get to the east end of town where there is another signal, a new Chevron station and an Arco. Both of these stations are the most expensive in town.

We turned around at the Arco and head back toward the west end but we took a right turn on Plymouth Ave. and drive by the town administration buildings; which include the Police station,

the Public Library

and the La Paz County Justice Court

 

Across the street is the beginning of the

 

with a couple military jets are on a display by the Quartzsite Garden Club.

A little further is a Skate Park

There is a sports field and a playground behind that

 

Next to that is the

It must be very popular as they have a newly paved runway.

We turned around here and headed back to Main Street where we turned west, crossed Hwy 95 and continued past the Post Office to Moon Mountain Road where we turned north and drove past the Senior Center

and the local hair dressers.

 

Further down Moon Mountain Rd we came to one of our favorite family restaurants The Mountain Quail.

We turned around in their parking lot and went back to Main treet. On the corner is what is left of an old adobe. I’m not sure what it was but it is probably the oldest structure in Quartzsite; or what is left of it.

A little farther west of this are a couple of old dilapidated buildings that look like they date from thirty's or forties.

A little farther down the street we turned into the HI Jolly Cemetery (Named for an Arab Camel trainer).

I guess this needs a little explanation so here is the little I know about it.

Back in then late 1800’s the Army thought it would be a good idea to use Camels in the American desert so they had some imported from Arabia. Along with the camels they brought an Arab called Hi Jolly to teach the troops how to handle the critters and care for them. For many reasons the experiment didn’t work out so they got rid of the camels but Hi Jolly stayed in quartzsite and was one more character who made the old west his home.

From the cemetery we continued west down main street past another restaurant that we go to occasionally; The Times Three Family Restaurant.

.

Across the street are some of the typical business found in “Q”.

A little further is the fast food section of town with the Pilot Gas station which has a Dairy Queen and a Subway inside. Next to Pilot is a Mc Donald's. Next is a Mobil station with a Burger King attached to it.

 

We continued west on Main to the third stoplight in town. We crossed the intersection  to where a Carl’s JR is opposite a rock dealer.
This is a typical Quartzsite business so we decided to stop here and go look at the rocks.
They have many, many tables loaded down with rocks of every description.

As well as rocks they had some interesting sculptures incorporating rocks and metal forms.

After looking around the rock shop for a while we left there and crossed over I-10 and visited another of the interesting businesses'. This is a lot where they sell RV’s and Classic cars. That’s right Classic Cars.
Going into this place is like going to a dusty antique car show. 
Some of the cars have been restored

but most are projects awaiting restoration.

Next we went to another typical Quartzsite business, the junk dealers.

There are several junk dealers in this spot that covers a couple of acres and it isn’t the largest flea market in Quartzsite.

Okay I think that’s enough to give you a sense of what Quartzsite is like.
Of course there are also residential areas. Most of the homes are mobile homes, park models or permanent RV’s on privet lots. There are a few standard built homes but they are rare. 

Shopping in Blythe CA. 12-16-14

 

Yesterday looked like it was going to be another day where we sit around all day.
Not!!

Around 11:00 we decided to take a ride to Blythe, CA to do some shopping.
We drove west on I-10, crossed the Colorado and took the Blythe 7th Street exit.
We drove through town. Our first stop was the Post Office so Patti could mail off the Christmas cards with gifts to our kids, grandkids and their significant others.

The next stop was at the west end of town at K Mart.
I was looking for a case for my new laptop. No luck.
Patti wanted to look for a couple new blouses. No luck there either.
The only thing we found that we needed was a extension cord and a bottle of Tums.

After we left K Mart we stopped at Garcia’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. We didn’t want to eat a big meal so we both ordered a quesadilla. Patti had the grilled chicken and I had the carne asada. It was just enough for me but Patti couldn’t finish hers so she took the one slice left home to have for breakfast.

From Garcia’s we drove through town and stopped at the new Smart and Final store where we bought some groceries, etc. Of course it seems like you can never get every thing you need at just one store so we went across the street to Albertsons where we finished our shopping.
From there we headed for home. We got back to the RV around 3:30.
Cool! We were able to use up most of the day shopping in Blythe.

In search of the Rose Camp. 12-15-14

Saturday was pretty boring. We didn’t do anything but sit around and read books.
There is a restaurant/bar in Quartzsite called the Yacht Club. We have tried it a couple of times but the food was bad and service was the pits so we took it off our list of places to eat.
This year we were told that it was much better than in the past so we decided to try it again.
The Saturday night special was prime rib so we went for it.
Our server was totally clueless, the salad was old and wilted and the food was cold. Okay, That’s it, three strikes your out. We won’t be eating at the Yacht Club again no matter what anyone tells us about their improvement.

Sunday:

A few years ago Becky, Dennis, Bob, Patti and I spent a couple nights
camping in the desert. Our last night was spent in a canyon where Bob found large deposits of Desert Rose, hence the name Rose Camp.
I, along with Becky, Dennis, Dave, Jo Ann and Patti have looked for this spot a couple of times without success.

Since the last time we tried, I have been scouring the maps trying to locate the trail that goes to that particular canyon. I made a track on my GPS from what I believe to be the canyon, all the way to the main (Vicksburg) road.

I decided that yesterday we would make another attempt. I asked Jo Ann and Dave if they would like to go along and they did.
We had breakfast at the “Times Three” restaurant with Jo Ann, Dave, Jim and Doris.
After breakfast we went back to the RV, packed a lunch, grabbed my GPS and the camera’s and around 10:00 we left the park. We drove east on I-10 for 26 miles to Vicksburg Road where we left the freeway and stopped by the gas station to air down.

 

Once the tires were aired down we headed south on Vicksburg Rd

into the north east corner of the KOFA refuge. At the Pipeline Rd we turned east and followed it to where Vicksburg Road turns off it heading south. A mile or so down this road Hovatter Road joins Vicksburg. From here it is called Hovatter Road; we continued south until we came to The Bob Crowder Dam.

From looking at the maps earlier I determined that the trail we wanted was 2.6 miles south of the monument here.

I reset the odometer in the jeep and we headed south. At exactly 2.6 miles we found the trail we were looking for.
I really don’t know why we had so much trouble finding this trail in the past as it is marked with a BLM road sign.

We must have driven by it several times in the last couple of years  without seeing it. We turned east onto 04 and followed it across the desert.

After a few miles we came to a gate in a fence that we remembered from our original trip so we knew we were on the right track.

Patti opened the gate and we went through the gate and continued heading southeast.

Things were looking more familiar as we continued our ride enjoying the beauty of the desert vista’s.

 

Eventually we found a trail that went into a canyon that we suspected was the one we were looking for.

We followed this trail into the canyon all the way to where it petered out about half way up a mountain. Although we were sure that this was the canyon we were looking for, there was nothing that looked familiar to either Patti or me. We turned around and went back down the mountain to a flat spot where we stopped for lunch.

After we had eaten; Jo Ann and I wandered around for a while picking up lots of Desert Rose and other rocks. In a short time we had quite a bunch of Desert Rose and other sparkly rocks.

 

After a while we left the lunch spot and headed back down the trail looking for the place where we had camped years ago.

I never build a fire ring so it makes finding one of my old camp spots hard, which is one of the reasons I don’t make a fire ring.

We never did actually find the exact camp spot but we are sure that this is the correct canyon and we did find the general area where we had camped.
Now that we have found the canyon, I feel more confident bringing the rock hounds here to look for Desert Rose.

As usual the ride was very picturesque.

Eventually we got back to Vicksburg Road and headed for I-10 where we stopped at the gas station to air up the tires and top off the gas tanks. We got back on the freeway and by 5:00 we were back at the RV.

It was as always a fun drive through the desert.

Data usage, gambling, shooting and jeep repair. 12-13-14

Out of data again.

I’m not quite sure what happened but we used up our monthly allotment of data again. The only thing I can think is that my new computer is always sending and receiving data while it is in sleep mode. Yesterday morning we got a message from Verizon that we had used 75 percent of our available 10 gigs of data. In the afternoon we got another message saying we had used 90 percent. This whole time we weren’t using the computers. We weren’t doing anything online and by 9:00 we got another message saying that all our data had been used up.
Before I bought the new laptop we had only 5 gigs and seldom used the 5 gigs.
As soon as I started using this computer our data usage shot up, so we got a new plan with 10 gigs available. Now we are using the ten gigs before the month is over. From now on we will have to turn the Wi-Fi off unless we are actually working on line.

The Wi-Fi in the RV park is the pits and costs money so I will try to publish the next several blogs at the library using their Wi-Fi.

Patti went gambling. 

Patti, Jo Ann and Becky went to Parker to visit the casino. Patti and Becky lost money but Jo Ann made a little.

Dave and I went shooting.

Dave bought a couple of Russian rifles at the monthly yard sale so yesterday he and I went out to a spot north of town to try them out. They are bolt action 7.62 MM military guns.
On the way out the door I grabbed my camera so I could get some pictures.
As it turned out the camera didn’t have a card in it. The card was still in my computer. There is no indication on the camera that the card was missing so I happily took several pictures of the rifles and Dave shooting them. 
Sorry no pics.
The rifles shot ok. One had a very bad trigger. Very stiff with a lot of creep before it finally fired. Once we got that figured out it was pretty accurate.
The other one had a much better trigger but the sights need some work. The sights are a leaf style military sight that are adjustable for long range but at the lowest setting the rifle still shot very high.
They were fairly comfortable  to shoot without excessive recoil.

I go to Parker for some parts.

When we were on the ride Wednesday the tailpipe hanger on the jeep broke. I borrowed some tie wire from Dik and wired it up so it would quit rattling while we were on the ride.

Yesterday when Dave and I got back from shooting I drove to Parker to get a new hanger and a clamp.

We have a Car Quest auto parts store in Quartzsite but the guy that runs it is a dick and he doesn’t have a good selection of parts. I hate to spend money in his store so if my vehicle is running I will go to Blythe or Parker for parts.

Yesterday the weather was very blustery with some very strong gusts so I didn’t want to drive down I-10 to Blythe. I-10 is like a race track with most vehicles going 80 to 90 + mph. I usually end up pushing Clifford up to 70 or 75 mph. Also the winds along that section of highway come screaming down the Colorado River and are much worse than they are here around Quartzsite,
that is why I went to Parker; it’s a much mellower drive.
I stopped at the Napa store there. They were very helpful and I got the parts I needed.
After I got home I replaced the hanger in about 30 minutes and now the exhaust system is solid again.

That was our day. Not very adventurous but then every day can’t be an adventure. That would be to stressful.  

Laundry, housework, and checking the weather.

Patti had laundry to do yesterday so while she was doing that I did some housework.

We have had the warmest December that I can remember down here. Even the few rain’s we have had are fairly warm.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case back home in Northern California. They have been getting slammed this year.

I was just reading my friend Bob’s blog (“Bob’s Eyes”) and he was documenting the problems that he has been having with this latest storm. Water outages, power outages, fallen trees and some flooding in the Russian River Valley. So far the flooding has been minimal but they aren’t through with the storms yet.  Guerneville has a history of flooding every few years but that hasn’t happened for a while.
They really need the rain to replenish the reservoirs after three years of not enough rain.

I am wondering what is happening up at the cabin. It is located in an area that gets torrential rains on a normal year. I can’t imagine what it is like with these storms. I would love to be there to experience it first hand.
I’m sure there are a lot of trees down. That means lot’s of firewood for next fall. I just hope none have fallen on our buildings.
If these storms don’t  destroy our new spring taps we should have plenty of water next summer.
I’ll bet that the tree that fell into our swimming hole in the creek this summer will be washed down stream by now.

Okay, well, that’s all I have for now.

New boots, the rez and desert mushrooms. 12-11-14

On Tuesday we took a ride to Blythe to get me some new boots.
I had heard that there was a Redwing dealer in Blythe. It turned out to be a sporting goods store called The Yellow Mart. They carried several brands of shoes and work boots. After trying on several pairs to get something that would work on my bad foot I bought a pair of Wolverine boots. They felt good at the store but after wearing them for a few hours they hurt my big toe. That toe has always been a problem so I guess I will have to work on breaking them in anyway.
While we were in Blythe we stopped at the A&R Deli and Bakery for lunch. They have good sandwiches made with their fresh baked bread. My personal favorite is the turkey on spiced cranberry bread.
Of course, after we ate our sandwiches we had to buy some thing to take home for dessert. We bought two Cannoli's. I hate to use this term but they were to die for.
If you are ever in Blythe stop at the A&R Deli for lunch.

Yesterday we took another ride into the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
We met the other jeeps in front of Freda,Gene, Becky and Dennis’s at the northwest end of Quartzsite. From there we headed north and after a short drive on the main dirt road

we turned right and followed a trail into the Tyson Wash.

We were at the back of the group behind Dik’s (That is the way he spells it)Cherokee, Patti noticed a bumper sticker on his rear window that says it all.

Once in the wash we drove north for a few miles and entered the rez.
A mile or so into the rez we passed some cool looking sand cliffs on our right.

We couldn’t find any trails going toward these cliffs so we continued on until we came to a trail that went around the west end of the formation between the cliffs and some agricultural land.

After a mile or two we found a wash with lots of tracks going toward the north side of the cliffs.

We followed this track to a place where the trail went up a very steep sand hill.

We elected not to try the hill. It was decided that this would be a good spot to have lunch so we broke out the chairs and lunchboxes and sat around eating and visiting.

While we were sitting there Dik took a stroll up the canyon. When he came back he told us that there was a big wild bee hive in the side of the cliff.
Several of us walked up the sandy wash to get some pictures of the hive.

Here you can see the cones and lots of bees.

When I got back to the jeep I was limping pretty badly as my big toe was hurting. Fortunately I brought my old boots with me in the jeep so I put them on. Much better.

We headed back down the wash to the trail we were following and continued around the cliffs.

We found another trail going toward the cliffs and followed it.

The trail wound through a narrow canyon with high cliff on each side.

The trail was mostly pretty good

with one bumpy area

and a few tight spots

The trail goes to the left of the tree.

There were lots of interesting rock formations in this canyon.

After a mile or so we came to a place that was impassable by us so we turned around again and headed back to the main trail.
As we drove back down the trail we passed a niche in the side of the cliff

with a horse scull set in it like some kind of shrine.

Back on the flats we saw some semi wildlife.

I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of those horns.

We followed the trail along some power lines.

It was a bit dusty.

Along the way we saw something that I didn’t expect.
Desert mushrooms.

I looked these up online and found that they were a type of Shaggy Main mushroom.
Here is a sight with more info.

http://www.birdandhike.com/Veg/Species/Non-V/Podaxi_pis/_Pod_pis.htm

The trail we were on eventually got into an area of low hills which I call a
merry-go-round as the trail goes round and round and up and down.

Eventually we came to an area where there was some old mining activity in the distance. There was also a very old rusted car body. Not sure what model it was.

 

We decided to come back here at a later date to check out the mining area.

We turned left at this place and followed the trail until we dropped back into Tyson Wash where we headed south for town.
At one spot a woman came running out into the wash and waved us down. It turned out that she and her husband were stuck on side trail and asked for our help to get unstuck.
It turned out they were in a Polaris ATV and were high centered on a berm that they tried to cross.

 

We hooked them to Dave’s jeep and pulled them free. I was surprised that they could get an ATV stuck that way but I guess you can get any vehicle stuck under the right conditions.

After the rescue we headed on down the wash and eventually took a trail that left the wash and connected with the main dirt road heading for “Q”.
We were home around 4:00. At 4:45 we met the jeepers at Burger King for dinner.

It was a fun ride again and we are looking forward to the next one.

A ride to Parker AZ. 12-09-14

 

We took a ride to Parker yesterday so that Patti could turn in a prescription at Walmart.
We stopped at the post office on the way into town so Patti could mail Christmas cards.
After Walmart we went to the Cross Roads Café for lunch.

On the way home Patti counted 10 hawks on the power lines along 95.

When we got back to the RV bark, I tried to find out why the jeep occasionally leaks fuel from the vapor recovery system. I couldn’t find anything obvious. I think there is a crimped vent or vacuum line some where but to follow the lines I will have to drop the fuel tank and that will have to wait until I get back home where I can take the jeep off the road for a while. I don’t have any other vehicles down here or a good place to work and I hate working in the gravel so unless the problem gets worse it will have to wait.

Okay, that was our day.