Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Back in Florence

Bathroom, pantry beside fridge

Ffrom the bedroom to the living room

Colsets at the foot of the bed




We pulled out of Quartzsite about 9:30 yesterday heading for Florence. We decided to take I-10 through Phoenix and then 60 east to Florence Junction and 79 south to Florence. The trip went very well. We spotted the truck route (I-10, 17 and 60) which we followed and it led us through the west side of Phoenix very smoothly. It was way nicer than places like Sacramento, Portland and Seattle on I-5 with their multitude of bridges and direction changes. We stopped for a long early lunch at a rest area where I took pictures of brittlebush and greasewood flowers then again at Florence Junction for a stretch and photos of some palm trees left over from some the scene of a long abandoned enterprise. We arrived in Caliente and had the trailer set up by 2:30. Fortunately, no neighbours were in evidence to witness or disturb backing into the very tight spot. It took several tries before we managed the deed. Several neighbours stopped later by to welcome us home. We really enjoyed getting back in the pool tonight and had four other couples to visit with there. First time we’ve had ten people in the pool at one time.
This morning was busy. I went and got our new name tags first thing then we went to the land title office to do some business. Next was the insurance office to get a policy in place for Wednesday and the bank to pick up cheques for our new account. Aileen also got the mail box changed over at the Post Office and we picked up the application for water and sewer from city hall. After lunch we went to Coolidge for gas, groceries and a truck wash. Southern California and Arizona have a lot of mineral in the water and most water will leave white spots and streaks on the windows and paint. This car wash uses filtered water for the final rinse which gives a fine finish. I unloaded the pick up box and stored everything in our shed so we can haul home anything we find for the park model. The only furniture they left for us was a hide-a-bed in the living room so we will have to come up with a bed and table and chairs PDQ. I grilled pork chops on the BBQ at the end of the street and watched a reasonably nice sunset while cooking. We had heavy cloud part of the day so hopefully tomorrow will be nicer. There are four swimming pool complexes here and each has some grills, ours has four. Each also has shuffleboard and one has mini golf. We had lots of residents welcoming us home again today. Everyone is so friendly!
Jan 27
This morning we had planned on driving to Casa Grande to look for used furniture. Several of the neighbours said they’d been recently and the selection was not good. Then Bill across the street came over and told us about Grandpa’s Furniture in Apache Junction so we headed that direction. Along the way we saw a store selling lift beds so we stopped in. We bought one with a queen mattress and two night tables to be delivered tomorrow. Then up to Grandpa’s where we eventually bought two swivel, reclining rockers and a small table with four chairs. They will also be delivered tomorrow in between Mitzy’s hair appointment and our meeting at the title office to close the sale.
I walked around Tierra De Sol this morning and found several places the Caouette’s could rent. The lots in there are huge and can accommodate any size RV. I grilled a steak that we’d bought at Safeway for $2 a pound and it was surprisingly good. Aileen says we’ll get five meals out of the $9.71 steak. Aileen and Mitzy are glad to be back walking in familiar ground and meeting their respective two and four legged friends.
Jan 28
We took Mitzy for her haircut and when we returned the bed was already in place. Good thing I’d left the door unlocked. Neighbour Daryl was kind enough to come over and supervise as the delivery guy didn’t want to enter without someone on hand. Shortly after the chairs and dining set arrived. We immediately started moving stuff from the Arctic Fox to the park model. We had our lunch in the new digs then went to town to finish closing the sale. Just back from that and doing some paper work at the office when Jordans called that they had turned down at Florence Junction. They were by themselves as Caouettes decided against coming. We went and waited at the highway and they arrived in about 12 minutes. The park manager insisted on measuring their motorhome as we said it was 36 feet which is the maximum permitted by the city. After a long hunt for a tape the motorhome was declared legal. So then J’s were allowed to get their renters tags. The motorhome fits on the lot just fine. I cooked steaks again for supper.



Saturday, January 24, 2009

That's it for Quartzsite for this year

We’ve been experiencing Quartzsite for the past several days. Aileen and I have been to the big tent RV show, to some of the flea markets and even a couple RV lots. I have been fairly restricted this year as my legs are giving me a lot of grief. Not sure what it is but my right knee has been quite swollen and my left calf is very painful. Walking makes things worse. We did visit Howard and Linda Payne yesterday who call their RV experience RV Dreams www.rv-dreams.typepad.com . I have read their blog since soon after they started it and followed along with them as they researched then bought their Ford 450 and huge 5th wheel. They’ve been full timing for over three years and are only 45. They work camp their way around the country so instead of putting lots of miles on they get to stay and explore each area thoroughly. They then tell the rest of us what they find and show us pictures. Since there were only a few days when we were both here in Q, it was nice to find them and meet in person.
We will have another look around the shows today then tomorrow head back to Florence to finalize our purchase and get things organized before departing for BC in mid February. Jacquie and Jim are going to follow us over to Florence on Wednesday and we were able to rent them a spot for a week or two. We will be picking up Wendy and Randy at the Phoenix airport on February 8th.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Moved on to Quartzsite

Day of the Quartzsite RV show - the whole place was this crowded!

All three are oranges! The big one is over 4 inches.
Aileen said the girls enjoyed their night out and the Johnny Cash impersonator was pretty good even though he was ill with a cold. I puttered on the computer then went and enjoyed the pool and hot tub. At one point there were 9 of us in the water and all were from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
We dumped the tanks and loaded up on water then hooked up and departed by 9:40. We arrived in Quartzsite, Lo Posa West camp area, shortly after 11 and were able to see Jordan’s and Caouette’s from the gate house. We are parked with them and will likely be here for the next 8 nights. Jim is hopeful we’ll be able to get internet here. He has talked to them a couple times and they’re working on getting things up and running here. I posted some pictures this morning in Yuma but it was quite chore. I guess the server wasn’t strong enough to handle the pictures as I ended up doing them one at a time and it took between 3 and 12 minutes per image! When you scroll down the pictures and come to the bottom of the page, click on older posts to see my last written post as each picture has become a new post thus using way more room.
Jan 17
I went to the RV show this morning for two hours. I did manage to get through everywhere but just barely. There wasn’t room for anymore people in the huge tent. I’ve no idea how many were in there but it would be several thousand. And it was just as crowded all around the outside at those exhibits. My only purchase was a campsite guide for Canada and the US which is 1,575 pages thick. Aileen stayed home as she isn’t foolish enough to venture into those size crowds. Mitzy was under the weather for some reason today and needed the company. She wouldn’t eat until later this afternoon and that was stimulated by some popcorn!
After lunch, we went for a drive through all four BLM camping areas. While there are a lot of RVs in spots, there is room for thousands more. We’re pretty lucky where we’re parked as there is new pavement near us but most of the outlying areas are suffering lots of dust. It’s a tradeoff, we have to sleep with ear plugs here or get covered in dust in most other spots. Jordan’s have internet now. They had to drive across town to find a strong enough signal to get signed up and now can log on to a different signal from the same provider. It seems that is what I’ll have to do, I guess. There was a hot air balloon being lit up for awhile tonight not far from us. I didn’t take any pictures as the foreground was too busy and I couldn’t get the whole balloon.
Jan 19
We’ve decided to stick with plan A and not bother buying internet. We’ll keep searching out free WiFi. Therefore the blog posting will continue to be sporadic. We’ve played Mexican Train all three nights. The first night we played the Chicken Foot variant and the regular game the last two. We went to a Mexican restaurant last night and the food was excellent. I brought almost half my taco salad home so that will be lunch today.
Happy Birthday to my brother Tom today! I will try to get this posted this morning. I have several pictures from the last post that I will attempt to get online first so you might want to scroll down below this posting to check them out.

Sunset - Why, Arizona.

Red Tailed Hawk - grab shot.

Sunset - Why, Arizona.


Looking down our street in Caliente.



Friday, January 16, 2009

Brick ranch house in Alamo Canyon.
Organ Pipe Cactus - Alamo Canyon.
Organ Pipe Cactus.