BACK IN CALIENTE FOR A WHILE

We arrived here in Florence, AZ this afternoon about 2 pm after driving from Quartzsite via Gila Bend.  We had three excellent days boondocking north of Quartzsite.   Aileen did lots of relaxing while I worked part of each day getting the road grime off the motor home.  I spent many hours each day out geocaching and finding lots of new areas.  I now know where there are lots of ATV trails to explore if the opportunity arises.  I rode my bike to a series of caches the first day and that was a bit challenging at times as there were some really soft sand spots and lots of washes to walk my bike through.  There were some challenging climbs to some caches the next two days, in fact I quit on three of them as I thought the risk was too great. 

I took a drive around Quartzsite and it was very forlorn looking with none of the vendors set up yet.  There were only about half a dozen RVs camped in the Plomosa Road two week free area where we stayed.  In January, there will be scores of them.  The Quartzsite RV show is January 19-27 this year and I imagine it will be really busy in the whole area.  

We got to see several of our friends this evening including Bob and Evie who are next to our motor home.  Because of Evie’s health issues, they didn’t make it here last winter.  We did three loads of laundry after supper and stopped by the pumpkin carving party, the same as we participated in last year.  That’s where we saw most of our friends.  I came away with three iced muffins.  The park is still pretty empty but will start filling up this week.  We heard about some of the people who passed away or are too ill to return which of course is all part of the circle in a place like this with so many older residents.  It is interesting hearing about everyone’s adventures over the summer or on their trip down.

Tomorrow will be a big grocery shopping day and more cleaning and organizing here.  We pushed and pulled the ATV out of its shed before backing the motor home into place.  It didn’t want to start.  I charged the battery to see if that will help.  I also pulled Aileen’s scooter out and put the batteries in so it is ready for use.

Our Quartzsite spot

There is a gravel road about a mile in front of us then the I-10 freeway about six miles then nothing until I-8 freeway east of Yuma which is probably 60-80 miles away.  Another 80-100 miles would be the Mexican border

The neatest spot that my caching took me to was called Hole in the Sky.  It was over a mile from the car as the crow flies, don't know how far it was for me.

Here's a more distant view.  See the tiny arch up there ?

There were several of these flower clumps to brighten the desert.