Why Jamboree! An RV-neighbor told us about it today. Be at 7pm at the Why Community Center and you can to a lot of nice music. Of course, we went and we had a lot of fun, I must say. The place was packed when we entered a bit late. Yeah we were late as I had to wait until Bea was ready.  Seems like there is always something which is not yet done. A 20+ mixed orchestra had already started and boy what a sound. I snapped off a couple of pics and tried to use the NIKON DSLR for a video take, but it is obvious that video takes are not what this camera is made for. Tomorrow we will be back on the road. It’s travel time! So possibly, you will get an update on that tomorrow.

Bea has arrived!
Bea has now arrived safely with her mom. Talked to her this morning and her mom seemed really glad to have her daughter visit.

Even though the temps should go up today, there are still coming ugly wind gusts from the mountains.This morning I  read other bloggers had their experience with the storm casts yesterday. George and Suzie have a couple of really impressive pics on their website. 
Did a longer walk with Molly and contemplated for a while whether I should move the rig a bit farther up the hillside. However, a horse outfit got up there before me and I am not sure whether the wifi connection will be good there, as the view to the valley would be blocked by a couple of hills to the north.


So far I was able to do some office work today, and we'll just see what other things are coming onto the agenda.


Maybe I have some more stuff later.


Stay tuned!

Have noticed a new follower #58! Thanks for your interest "Julie" who also has a site called "Come journey with Julie"

Jeri at "Just Wanderin' " was wondering where I was hiding out exactly. Well, I am hiding out at the Vulture Peak Road, which is a gravel road off the Vulture Mine Rd, which turns off Hwy 60 in Wickenburg. Jeri was one of them who had been "rockin' and rollin' " during the past storm.

Meanwhile it has actually warmed up quite a bit and promptly I spent a few hours sunbathing behind my rig. Had a book too!

The Flight has taken off!!

As I am looking at the flighttracker I can see that Bea’s flight has taken off from Charlotte Douglas Internat’l Airport. She is on her way to Germany! I dropped her off at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Internat’l Airport this morning. I am usually not afraid of city driving, but today we were just lucky. Yes, we were lucky that we did follow our sense of direction rather than that GPS Lady, who apparently had missed a couple of updates on Phoenix Highways. And I am proud to say that I didn’t even bother to put her back on on my return from the airport. Nope, I just followed “West Exit” and rolled straight back on I-10 West. I took the loop 101 north, which connects to Hwy60 north. And that was all there was to it. Al from the Bayfield Bunch, who knows this area, told me where to get my bottled water refilled so I stopped by the Wickenburg Safeway before I was heading up that Vulture Peak Rd. again. Thanks Al! So now what? It felt kinda strange to be in the coach – alone!! Well, there is Molly, alright, but how am I gonna use the rest of the day? Tried a walk with Molly, but the wind was downright icy and that walk turned out to be a short one. But I discovered cow shit. Amazing that cows can find something to eat here. And where were they? Hopefully they don’t come and scratch their hide on the motor home. I wouldn’t like that! Looking up flightracker showed me that Bea had left from Phoenix. Checked my emails and wrote a few, oh and I had lunch. I never forget that, right? I talked to Molly as there was no one else to talk to. I watched an old Video, then walked again, this time to the top of the hill, looking down on the rig. There I was! A wide view also towards the North – desert to far I could see. I guess I can make supper now. Meatballs again!    Thanks for skipping by!

Good Old Quartzsite
After sleeping deep and long (we went to bed at 9pm AZ-time) we got ourselves over to CJ's RV-repair in Yuma an hour earlier than our appointment.
After explaining yet again about the awning and that one arm was out of timing, a guy tried to tell us that nothing could be done to fix it as the straps came with a certain length and that was that.  
However, I had read about the full adjustment procedure on the Internet and explained HIM what and how to do it. When also suggested he could call Carefree of Colorado He all-of a sudden told me that he knew what i was talking about. 


????


Well, we pulled off the street and parked the rig. Pretty soon two guys started the work. and it took them less than half an hour to fix it. 


Next stop was drinking water then propane and Diesel at Superfuels. While the propane is still cheap the fuel was not. 


But you know that already.

Without these there would hardly be vegetables on American tables.

So after topping it all off, we hit the road, that is Hwy95 out of town to Quartzsite. It was now 11am and at 12noon we reached the Border Patrol Checkpoint on 95. We pulled off the road right behind the station and had lunch. 

Bea discovered 2 flying objects 

It was now very hot outside but still cool in the coach. 


Coming to Quartzsite at almost 2pm we dumped the water we had filled into the blackwater tank yesterday. There are still a lot of rigs at Quartzsite, but we could pull right into the dump station.

We spent the afternoon in the shade and didn't move much. 


Tomorrow we want to start early as it is supposed to start blowing across the Arizona desert later that day. And we certainly don't like being in a desert storm.


And that's it for today again. 


Thanks for your interest!

At Pilot Knob After all those Good Byes (some of them 2-3times since yesterday) we finally hit the road to Holtville to get our holding tanks emptied. When we were just about to make the turn into the Dump station I noticed a Lazy Daze rig which looked familiar. Immediately I was thinking of Jim from Jimbo’s Jouneys. Could it be possible that that guy was hanging out here? I had just read his blog about his wine and whales tour on the Baja. Was he looking for us? I parked in front of the gate and jumped out to see whether the rig had a Texas License plate. He had just brought the rig around, looking out the window when I saw Jim’s friendly grin. Unbelievable. After running in to him weeks ago at the water post in Quartzsite, this was the second time we met without planning it. But while we were heading east, Jims plans were going westward towards the coast and a few relatives he has there. After this unexpected meeting we got the rig serviced and were off with a 100 gal of fresh Holtville town water. As we were heading east on I-8 the sun was about to settle on the western horizon and were throwing its reddish rays across the Imperial Sand Dunes . Entering the Pilot Knob BLM we saw the host having a glance at our BLM-sticker and waving us through. There are quite a few rigs in here at this time, but the area is not very even and it was hard to find a suitable parking spot. Then it was time to do a walk with Molly, we need to keep her happy if we want her to be content while rolling down the road. We had meatballs for supper and how good was that!        Thanks for visiting!

OLD YUMA, 
When staying in the Yuma area, it is good advice to go see the old town of Yuma. Even though there are also newer buildings it still bears the flavour of bygone days, 

Some single buildings seem to be from the beginning of last century. 

The center, or "Main Street Plaza" as it is called, resembles a market place with its numerous booths of artistic merchandise. Since we are close to Christmas, a decorated tree has been put up at the entry. Yuma Main Plaza has a relaxed atmosphere which is underlined through a country musician on stage. People are hanging out here, browsing, buying or just sitting around on benches under the shaded store fronts. 


Yuma has indeed a rich history beginning already at the time when several Indian tribes were populating the banks of the Colorado River, these were namely the Quechans, the Cocopahs and the Mohaves. Recording, however, first started in the 16th. century when explorers, adventurers and pioneers were pressing on to reach the American west. At that time the river was broad, untamed and wild rushing towards the Gulf of California. Some places the river bed was 15miles wide and quite impossible  to fort. Because of a geological formation the river narrowed into a 400 yards wide channel at the future town site of Yuma. Until 1950 the tribe of the Quechans were also called the Yumas and as a result the Colorado Fort was called Yuma Crossing. 

Yumas history recordings began on a day in 1540 when the Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcon arrived at the Colorado River.  From that day and until 1854 Yuma was under the Spanish and Mexican flag. Then, in 1854 and as part of the Gadsden Purchase Yuma became part of the U.S. Territory. 
As a strategic point with an increasing east-west traffic  Fort Yuma was founded in 1849. Being the only viable south western route 60.000 people passed through Yuma from 1849-1850. During this time the town was called Colorado City. In 1870 Yuma had become an integral part of the Wild West and represented a challenge for law and order. Bandits preyed upon the civilized part of the population and in 1876 the Arizona Territorial Prison was built in Yuma. housing the most dangerous and notorious criminals until 1909. It soon became a symbol of frontier justice and still stands as a landmark for Arizona's intolerance of treachery.



Thanks for visiting!

Arrived!

Yep, that's right!

I-8 towards Yuma

Up early enough to see the sunrise behind us and dashing off towards Yuma,AZ, Arrived at Yuma at 8.30am MST, fill up with diesel and propane. The pit stop took 30 minutes and then back onto I-8. 


The California agriculture check point at Pilot Knob was still there and this time the officer came on board to check our fridge. With nothing there which interested him, we were released into the Golden (bankrupt) State and had one more check point to pass at Gordon Wells, this time it was the U.S. border patrol, who apparantly did not want to talk to us oldtimers and just waved us on.

The reason why we`do not spend our winters in an RV-Park

Finally we could see the Geothermal power plants east of the Hot Springs LTVA and from there it was only minutes to our final, final destination.

Last exit for us to turn into the Hot Springs LTVA

Friends greeted us at the entry and when we arrived at "our" site. All was well and we could set up and take a rest.


The only other thing I did, was doing a run into Holtville, pay my bill for the P.O.Box, get potetoes, wash the road grime off the Jeep and take out some money to pay our BLM-fees. 


Now we have just shut down and enjoying ourselves.


That's what all of us should do from time to time.


Amen


If you come here again tomorrow, I have another "fine" story for you. I promise!

Almost there

We left Alamogordo at first daylight and were heading towards Las Cruces. When passing the White Sands National Monument we remembered the great experience we had there in April. It sure is amazing to see these massive amounts of white gypsom sand which have piled up there.

Our Route today

The sky was deep, deep blue this morning and we enjoyed the grand view of the St. Andreas Mountain Range, but it was a cold morning as well. 

Highway 70 climbs through a pass and descends rapidly towards Las Cruces. 

Descending to Las Cruces

There are signs along the road prohibiting the use of retarder brakes, but there would be no way for the bus to descend safely from those mountains just by using the foot brake. So I decided our safety was more valuable than the peace of the population along that road.

Goods Train between Deming and Lordsburg

From Las Cruces the road climbs up to about 4500ft and I tell ya we were freezing cold in the coach. It seems that Motor Home manufacturers do care little about the well-being of their customers when those are driving in cold weather conditions. The dash heat has no way of heating up the interior of the coach, even with the curtain we have installed behind the seats. From under the dash ice-cold air is creeping up on drivers and passengers legs and I finally had to put on gloves, if I wanted to keep my fingers able to move. Once we were driving in early spring weather up to Alberta we had to buy a little fan heater and let our generator run while driving. It is a shame that these motor homes are sold at several hundred thousand Dollars a piece with such lousy heating systems.

Not so Grand -- the Rio Grande at Las Cruces -- with no water in it

So, despite the bright sunshine all day, we froze until we got down from the high elevation. We were passing Tucson at around 1pm and ended our day at Gila Bend, where the Gila Monsters live. Arrgh.... here I did it again.

Seriously venomous Monster

But tomorrow we are done. We have travelled more than 5,200km  (3,231miles) and we are tired. We need rest.

Can't wait until tomorrow?  Me neither!

Next travel log

Cross your Fingers
We can all make plans as much as we like but that doesn't mean it happens all after the recipe we have in our cook book.
There are sure coming up a few red flags for our 

departure here. Bea has been at the local medical center a couple of weeks ago and they have sent her off for an ultrasound.


Bea's got an enlarged thyroid gland and needs to see a specialist. With the ways the health system is working here it can take weeks or even months before that happens. And the outcome is not guaranteed. The best scenario is a heavily delayed departure (hello winter..) or worst we are not going anywhere. (I hate skiiing...)


Maybe this is the time for a solo trip to Australia. Well, we have to wait and see what happens. 


Anyway, Sunday I am hitting the road with my truck and the 27-foot Cargo trailer. It'll take me 6 days to screech through the continent, provided I don't have a meet-up with Mr. Winter somewhere in North Dakota. I'd hate that.
In order to make sure everything is working on the trailer (lights and such) I did the hitch-up today. There was airpressure needed in 3 tires and 1 on the truck. Amazingly all lights were working. That is definitely NOT normal on a trailer which hasn't been moved for more than a year.


I'm gonna be so cheap that I'll take a couple of seatpillows to sleep on in that trailer. I have the habit of getting tired after xxxxhours of driving. Well, I'm hoping that it's not getting too cold at night though. Otherwise I might find myself limping into some motel reception in the wee hours begging for a bed.


Ok, enough from today. I've gotto look whether I can find some other goodies here.... like seeing a Canyon.

The following account is about a trip on Dember 07 2006 when

we decided to do a drive to famous Quartzsite today. Quartzsite is the renown capitol of the snowbirds in America. Several TV-crews have published footage about Quartzsite and its millions of winter campers coming from all over North America.

So we follow Hwy 78 east and north. At Palo Verde the road touches the banks of the Colorado and the County offers a nice free campground right besides the river. On both sides of the road farmers are growing cotton, and now is the time of harvest.

Passing Ripley the 78 soon connects to Interstate 10. At Blythe we stop to buy some lunch.  And then we reach Quartzsite. The first thing you'll see is ---- RV's. There are RV's everywhere. Parked in the desert within the town, at RV-Resorts, the reason why Quartzsite is known to the world. It simply is the capitol of all winter vacationing campers of North America.

Besides of coming here for spending the winter people love the Gem and Rock Shows. It all kicks off in January when the big RV-show is on.  But right now we are interested in visiting the flea market. And what a flea market that  is. You have been looking for that rare kitchen item what your grandma had in the fifties? You'll find it right here. Looking for a part for your 56 Chevrolet BelAir or a couple of used tires or an old gun? You like old records of the sixties? Ok start looking at the Quartzsite flea market. Chances are you'll find it all here.   Here we also meet Joe, standing by his sales booth ready for a talk with a potential customer. I don't know what Joe actually is selling, because his personality takes all of my attention. I assume him to be around 75 years old. His face, marked by  wrinkles as deep as the Grand Canyon, is framed by gray hair growing wildly from everywhere where a mans face might show hair, forming a collar around his neck.  He's holding his 1 year old grandson (?) on his lap, while he is telling us about Quartzsite. "You wait until next month and there will be approx. 1.5 mill. people here leaving you no chance to park your truck anywhere close to town".

After parting with Joe we are heading down Hwy 95 south towards Yuma. And here, right after leaving Quartzsite we discover the biggest campground in the world.  11,000 acres (4,500ha's) of desert land are giving space to several hundred thousand campers. This is the biggest LTVA within the BLM-system. Besides of that you are free to park anywhere else outside of designated areas for max 14 days without a permit.

The area borders to the KOFA Wildlife Refuge east of Hwy 95. Here we admire peaks, towers and pinnacles striving against the blue sky out of the flat desert landscape making the perfect  backdrop for a Mel Gibson Fiction movie.

Far to the west Bea notices a huge dust cloud moving through the desert. Oh, that sure looks like the Santa Fe Stage Coach crossing.  We wonder what that might be and stop for taking a picture of the huge old giants of the southwestern desert, the SAGUARO CACTI.  A Saguaro gets many hundred years old, and it is said that it takes 100 years before the first arm starts poking out. The process of dying takes not less than 40 years, but you'll rarely see a completely dead Saguaro as their stems are popular for making lamps, selling for hundreds of Dollars at tourist places like Sedona, AZ. Meanwhile the dust cloud has moved across the desert and towards Hwy 95. Finally, a mile ahead we see a big tank truck appearing out of the cloud, and turning onto Hwy95. Of course we are disappointed of not seeing that Stage Coach we hoped for. When reaching Yuma the sun is about to drop behind the horizon. And shortly after it is dark. We have to shop some groceries and fill diesel and propane. Rolling in on our campground at 6.30 Ca-time we have a quick supper and then join our neighbors at the bonfire.

Good night folks! See you tomorrow. after that there will be a break for approx. a week as I have to be DRIVING not looking at the Internet. MAYBE, MAYBE a short notice will appear about my progress.


Go West Cowboy, Go West!!