VACATION UPDATE

Since it was a cloudy morning, we drove up to Parker to check our emails and log some caches.

We’ve been enjoying some serious down time since leaving Caliente on January 16.  We had the motor home serviced in Coolidge that morning and when it was finished carried on to Gila Bend where we spent the night.  The next day we arrived at our chosen boondocking spot near Bouse.  We are at Mile 14 on Plomosa Rd and have no close neighbours.  There is usually very little traffic on the road from 10pm - 6am.  The only exception was last Saturday when we were awakened at 4 am to a herd of transport trucks going past.  Apparently the highway north of Quartzsite to Parker was closed due to an accident and all the traffic was re-routed on Plomosa Rd past us.  We are about 20 miles from Quartzsite and a little further from Parker.  We have the car with us if we need to go to either place.

We drove in to visit with Jacquie and Jim in Quartzsite the day we arrived and have been in a couple other times.  Shortly after our arrival, we both came down with colds which slowed us down for several days.  We went one day and walked around the big tent at the annual RV show and went to Quartzsite on Saturday to the annual bloggers get together.  Less people at bloggerfest this year, I think about 20 and all but 4 were Canadian.  I met Jim J Sunday and we spent three or four hours geocaching.  Aileen and I have taken the RZR on several rides and so far the trails have been very quiet.  That has been a nice surprise since there are many tens of thousands of people in the area this month.  In fact, the section of Plomosa Rd closest to Quartzsite, 0-3 mile, has been the busiest we’ve ever seen.  It was nearly wall to wall RVs everywhere you looked.  There seemed to be a lot of special interest groups camping together.

So far we aren’t feeling under privileged with not having onboard internet.  Aileen does have her             I-phone that she can check her email on.  I have taken my computer to McDonald’s in Quartzsite twice and once to a truck stop in Parker that had superfast internet.  I’m finding that I have more time for other things since I’m not spending the time online.  I am preparing this post in advance so that sometime in the next few days, when we get up to Parker again, I can upload it.  We’ve been doing lots of walking in the desert around us and have found some beautiful flowers that are coming along after the extra rain that the area has had this winter.  The best ones have been the little Desert Stars.  They are rather tiny and difficult to see as they grow very close to the ground and they mostly grow in gravelly soil so blend in well to their surroundings.  Most of them are smaller than a quarter and some are about the size of a dime.  There hasn’t been much in the way of bird life but the past couple days we’ve been seeing more.  A couple of rabbits and a coyote are about the only larger animals we’ve seen.  I expected we’d see some sheep but none so far.

We will probably stay in this spot until we have to go and dump our tanks then we may move over the hill closer to Quartzsite for our last few days.  Our plan is to remain in this area until around February 12^th,   when we’ll head back to Caliente at Florence.  We’ll only have about five weeks then until it will be time to begin our trek north again.

We have been out in the sunset most evenings

Aileen at Gila Bend

Saguaro sentinels at Gila Bend

Taken from beside the motor home at our Plomosa Rd camp

Lots of gnarly old Mesquite trees willing to pose in the sunset

Some pretty neat shapes are picked up when using flash

Full moon

The night before the full moon while out walking.  I didn't notice until later the large airplane crossing the moon.  Click on the image to enlarge if you don't see the plane.

Desert Star, the flowers can be either white or light purple

Nice paint job on a truck at the Quaratzsite RV show belongs to one of the vendors 

Ocotillo bloom

Aileen in the dunes north of Quartzsite

A leafed out Ocotillo

Desert Stars

Desert Sunflower

Yellow-cups Evening-Primrose

Scorpionweed

Gnatcatcher

Male Side-blotched Lizard.  Not the blue specks on his back and tail.

Some of the area out behind where we are parked

GOING ON VACATION

We're heading over toward Quartzsite, AZ this morning.  Might be gone close to a month.  Not planning on having dependable internet so this blog may be quiet for the duration.  I saw online that Quartzsite and all western Arizona got quite a bit of rain yesterday so some flash flooding occurred.

Went out behind the park hoping for a nice sunrise but it just got darker

Still some fall colour in January

Northern Cardinal

Seen while out in the RZR

Aileen spotted this rock squirrel along Price Rd

Bighorn Ewe

Javelinas

Biggest grasshopper I've ever seen, 2.5-3 inches long

Box Canyon

And I will leave you with this one.  Taken looking east along Price Rd, east of Florence, AZ

BEEN AWHILE

Quite some time since I last posted.  It seems like every time I plan to put out a blog post, something pops up and off I go on another tangent.  I’ve been out three days every week lately except for over the holidays and even then I got out a few times.  We have Escapees RV Club friends Al and Laurie from Keremeos, BC visiting the area for this week and staying a few miles down the road.  I took them out on the club ride Monday and I think they had a good time.  Laurie is the photographer in the family so she rode with me while Al and the two rat terriers, Waylon and Willie, rode with Richard J.  I even managed to find them a sheep, first one I’ve seen in a month.  We took them to the Boyce-Thompson Arboretum today and spent several hours wandering around there.  We took the long way home going south from Superior past the huge Ray mine then via the Florence-Kelvin Hwy.  It was freshly graded so very nice driving.  We had a couple of showers along the way.  Since they used to be horse people, we took them by the wild horse/burro corrals in Florence.

On Tuesday, Escapees friends, Dan and Bev, who are from Victoria, BC but wintering in Mesa, joined us and Al and Laurie for lunch at Mt, Athos Restaurant in Florence for a nice lunch.  We came back to our place to continue visiting until late afternoon.  We were able to sit out in the sunshine for a change.  Our weather has been all over the place this winter.  We’ve had two electric heaters going much of the time and we’ve had three good rainfalls in the past little while.  .31, .52 and .75 of an inch so the desert is really starting to green up.  I hope it translates into some nice flower blooms before we have to head north.

I may or may not post another blog before we leave next Wednesday.  We are heading to Quartzsite but don't know what we'll run into over there.  Apparently with the government shutdown, the long term visitor areas are closed to new arrivals.  That may put so much pressure on the two week free areas that it will just too crowded for us.  If that is the case then we'll be looking for somewhere else to spend some time away.  We plan to be anywhere from two to four weeks away and probably won't have much for internet as I decided to try going without this time.  Aileen will be able to check emails on her phone but not on my little cheap phone.

Banana Yucca southeast of Florence

Whitlow Ranch Rd east of Florence

Red-Tailed Hawk

On a ride the other day.  Almost made it home before the rain, but not quite.

We had a close call for snow a while ago.  It was down to the bottom of most of the mountains around us.  This is about three days later.

We got to see this horseman going cross country last Thursday while we were out riding.

Can you spot the horseman?  Click on the photo to enlarge.

Another Red-Tailed Hawk

In ten years, this is the first Bald Eagle I have seen here in Florence, AZ.  I was heading into town for gas after a ride when I spotted it.  It was very skittish for some reason.

A few shots of our riding area

Al, Willie, Waylon and Richard J

The Bighorn ewe that I managed to see way up on top of the rim of Box Canyon

She was on a narrow ledge and this shot is from the south while the above one was taken from the north

Life and death of Saguaros

South Butte from one of our trails

Aileen and I walked out behind our park the other night and caught some sunset images.  It was nearly dark when I took these two.

It was full dark when I took this one with the aid of my flash

Female Phainopepla