Some Good News, Some Not, But a Nice Day

We had some ups and downs today.  We have been having trouble getting our Dish Tailgater system to operate correctly and consistently since the day after Christmas. Dish sent us a remanufactured receiver, but the system still did not work more than one time out of ten. A call to Dish and we were advised to contact King Controls (the manufacturer of the antenna part of the system), which we did this morning, and were shown by a very courteous tech how the antenna works with the Dish receiver, and how to prove that the antenna was working correctly.  It was operating correctly. Then we called Dish RV again to review, and were told by a very rude "James" in Virginia that Dish had done all that they would do, and that we should call King Controls again because Dish had already sent us a reman receiver, and that's all that they would do.
So much for customer service.  My advice?  Do your homework diligently before investing a great deal of money on this system. At least as far as the programming is concerned.

On an up note, we had a bit of difficulty with our BigFoot RV Leveling System in that the rear jacks all of a sudden refused to retract.  A quick call to Quadra Manufacturing and we have 2 small parts on the way.  This IS customer service!

We continued our tour of the Quartzsite flea markets today.  The top pic shows an eagle windsock with a fish in its claws.  Awesome! We're about to the end of the vendors, until next week of course, when a whole new group shows up for the RV show.  Most of the vendors that are here now will stay.  We've talked to a number of vendors that indicate that business is down 40 to 50% this year over last.  Most of the RV parks in town that are booked months in advance are still showing vacancies, and vendors are discounting drastically.  A sign of the times.

Of course we had to eat, so a bag of caramel and cheddar Kettle Korn followed by a scoop of Chocolate Malt Crunch ice cream filled the bill and our stomachs!

The evening was finished off with a fire and a spectacular view of the night sky! Donna looks a bit chilly, eh?  It's supposed to get down to the mid thirties tonight, and down to the high 20's in a couple of nights.  Oh, boy!  Why again did we leave Cally?

A Special Day

Today is a very special day: It is the birthday of our daughter-in-law, but I won't tell you how old she is!  Jamie is the wife of our son Jeff and the the mother of Devan (16) and Hanna (13). Jamie is one of those people that keep the stuff of life together.  She is involved in her families' life to a degree that makes me tired just thinking about it.  She works in a retail store 4 days a week, has two businesses of her own: making luminaries out of natural beeswax with natural leaves and flowers embedded in the wax, and advising people about healthy living through proper nutrition.  She also supports Devan in his extensive musical interests and Hanna in her volleyball and educational pursuits, as well as supporting her husband in his business.

May I introduce Jamie:

Happy Birthday Jamie!









The sunset tonight is for you!

Flea Markets by the Dozen!

Today was our first day visiting Quartzsite flea markets.

This pic is of the north side of Kuehn Blvd in Tyson Wells.
We had already toured 2 areas and were about to jump into this one, but we noticed that daylight was fading, so we postponed it until later. The sheer variety of "stuff" for sale is beyond belief!  In the area shown above there are approximately 500 rented "booths"!  In our travels today we saw about 1/4 of the flea markets available.  Lots left for later! We did run across these two "ant" figures made out of rocks and wire...The first is in honor of our musically inclined, guitar playing grandson, and the second is in honor of a great friend that is always there to help when he's needed.























The RV Show area is south of Kuehn Blvd, behind us in the first picture.  We managed to find a couple things that we couldn't live without, but the large open areas that will soon fill up with RV related merchandise has us on pins and needles with anticipation. We've already bought more LED lights for the dining area in our trailer, and obtained info on window screens and awning shades. We may have to find an ATM!

We've decided to respond to the inquiries from so many of our adoring fans and address the issue of Belly's in Quartzsite.  The pictures above will give you a taste of the type of information we've been able to unearth.  There is a large underground society in this area that requires a large belly, usually on the male population. We don't have any definite proof, but we suspect that most of these people spend an unusual amount of time at the outdoor day care center pictured above. Some of the clues to this underground that we've been able to gather include an absence of teeth and a distinct aversion to water.
There is a possible connection to a vender's booth selling Arkansas Crystals, but that may just be because it is next door to the Day Care.  We will continue our investigation with all due diligence.

And, finally, another superb Arizona sunset!

A Move and some History

This is the view that greeted us this morning. The sun was bright, the air was crisp, and the birds were chirping.
So....you see the bush in the center of the middle photo? That's where we moved the trailer; the light sandy spot just to the left of the bush turned out to be the absolute best camping spot in the entire 11,400 acre LTVA area!  But first we spent 2 hours driving around looking....kinda like placing a picture on a wall.... In all seriousness, the new location is better all around: it's more level and the ground surface is much more user friendly for those of us with walking/seeing issues.

This is the monument dedicated to the mid-eastern person who helped the US Army attempt to establish a camel corps in the southwest in the mid 1800's.  The attempt failed, but the man named "Hi Jolly" is honored with this monument in the local "Boot Hill".

This sign is at one of the entrances to the currently running Gem/Mineral Show in Tyson Wells.  TW is just across the road from "Q", and is one of the most active of the "show" venues.  We haven't had time to explore the shopping yet, but I'm sure it will be starting soon. We drove by the location of the "big tent" that will be going up soon for the RV show.  Paul Evert is sponsoring the show, and so has a huge presence onsite.  They must have 50 top of the line motorhomes (sorry, motor coaches), onsite, with space for more.  The workmen are laying out the artificial grass that will be the floor of the big tent, and it is huge!  We'll get some pix later.

What a place this Quartzsite is!  We found places to buy water (.05 to .25 a gallon).  Holding tank dumping can be had at your site for $30, or in town for $15. I went into the local rent-a-mailbox store to sent a package via UPS. The shipping was prepaid on a returned item, but the proprietress told me that she would have to make a phone call so there would be a $5 processing fee! Ya gotta get it while you can!

A New Place, A New Time

We made a short jaunt today from Anza Borrego State Park in Borrego Springs, CA,  to Quartzite, AZ. It was an uneventful trip, but I gotta tell you, the sight that awaited us was even more bizarre than we had come to believe.  We've decided to camp in the La Posa LTVA for a bit so that we can get our bearings for this "greatest RV Show on earth" that starts in about 2 weeks. The LTVA is south of Quartzite about 2 miles with a kiosk at the entrance to the first of the 4 camping areas, named La Posa North.  We stopped to buy a permit and get some information.  The people at the kiosk were extremely helpful and a joy to talk to, giving us information on water and dump station locations as well as general guidance on parking the trailer.  Of course we spent an hour driving around looking for just the "perfect" spot.  Just at dusk we settled on a good place and settled in for the night.  I suspect we'll continue the search tomorrow, if only to explore the camping area.  We lost an hour of time crossing into Arizona, so with that and the scouting time, we were a bit later setting up than we had planned.

As we turned off the freeway and made our way to Hwy 95 south, we passed through an area of vendors affectionately called a "flea market", but this is the largest flea market I've ever seen.  Just driving through we saw advertising for everything from batteries to ATV parts/service and from some kind of food (I think) to brand new motorhomes. We've been told that even though the RV/Gem show doesn't start until later this month, these vendors started gearing up in September! We hope to get some pix of the market area tomorrow, although it will probably take us days to go through it all!

As you can see, these rugged mountains to the southeast greeted us as we stopped for the night.



 The pix below are to the northwest as the sun was setting until almost gone.  The lights are of the distant town of Quartzite.

We have no idea how far we are from town, but it feels like a million miles.  When we step outside the stars are blazing bright.  The nearest camper is about a 1/2 mile or so...just a dim glow in the distance. We feel somewhat isolated...I guess we've been in the city too long.

If the good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise, we'll be back tomorrow with a sample of the wondrous and strange goings on in the town of Quartzite, AZ.  Wish us luck!

Out With the Old and in with the New

Today was a day for laundry and chores in preparation for the next leg of our current journey.

The day started with a trip to the only laundromat available for a community of 5000 and another 1000 or so snowbirds.  The facility had 6 washing machines and 6 working dryers.  By the time we left 2 hours later, there were people waiting in line, people trying to ignore the line, and people (like us) just happy to escape with our lives.

When we got back to the RV, Donna spent 3 hours vacuuming, scrubbing, organizing, and packing because tomorrow we will be leaving balmy Borrego Springs (current temp at 10:30pm is 55 F on its' way to 34) for a stint of boondock camping in an area where the temps will range between 24 at night and 45 in the daytime.  I wonder why we're doing this.....

One of the things we needed to do was to remove all of the holiday decorations and pack them away:

Well, that didn't take long.

So then we had to put up all the "everyday" decorations:

Now, lest you think that it's a very cold chicken being subjected to inhumane treatment, be aware that this is our token indoor flamingo, and was made by a dear friend and neighbor so that we can be reminded of the lighter side of life. We have flamingo water glasses, flamingo notepaper, and flamingo awning lights for the RV.  So you see how it goes.

Apple Pie and Cold Weather

We took a short jaunt from Anza Borrego State Park to the little town of Julian, in eastern San Diego county.  This area has been known for years for its fruit orchards and has developed as a tourist destination.
The elevation of Julian is 4000+ feet, and this time of year is chilly.  There was snow on the ground and a brisk wind blowing. About 38 deg F at 1 pm.  Along with roughly half of the population of San Diego that must have decided that a piece of apple pie was required eating on 1/1/13! The town is very small, and parking is at a premium.  We poked around for about a 1/2 hour before finding a spot for the pickup.  We got out, bundled up, walked to the Julian Pie Company, saw the line waiting to get in, walked back to the truck and got out of town.  Julian is a quaint, cute little town that is a joy to explore, but not with so many people!  We drove down the hill about 7 miles to San Ysabel and found a satellite store of the Julian Pie Company that wasn't so busy.

I forgot to take a pic of the "Original Apple Pie" with cheddar cheese until I was most of the way through it.  Wonder why?

On the way back to Borrego Springs, we took a side trip into Culp Valley.  This area is known to have supported a large variety of native people as well as homesteaders in years past.  We couldn't resist a little four-wheeling!

The trail was in great shape after the brief rains of a few days ago, but we turned around before completing it because it was getting a bit narrow for a long-legged truck like "James"!  He does real well most of the time, but doesn't like to get hurt!

The panorama pic above is of the Borrego Valley just before we fell off the mountain.  The turnout where we stopped had a sign detailing some of the traits of the local mountain goats.  I was surprised that they can drink up to 4 gallons at one time! Of course we didn't see any in the middle of the day.

Happy New Year!