Quartzsite Continued

It is the the 19th of January and at the moment I am sitting in my motorhome out in the desert with the wind blowing the coach all over the place and the rain is coming down.  It is supposed to be bad for the rest of the week, but it just seems to rain at night.

I hung out with the SOLOS singles group for the past week and between Hugs and Mugs in the morning and Happy Hour in the afternoon we did fun things during the day.  After I got back from Blythe with a new roof, it deadens the rain now which is nice.  Before it used to be so loud that I couldn't hear the TV.  Every group has happy hour so we visit them all.  One had great entertainment with one of the singer with the Sons of the Pioneers.  Of course they had finger foods, I did resist this time.  We checked out a couple of other places and stopped at the famous Reader's Oasis Book Store.  This guy, Paul Winer, has been around it seems forever, a really nice guy that doesn't like cloths.  He seems to be the only one that can get away with it.  The last time I was out here I didn't get a picture so here it is.  Only in Quartzsite.  He owns this bookstore and has every book and tapes you could think of.  Just ask him and he will find it.  He is a poet and has had his poetry published, boogie and blues piano player and singer.  He performed all over the northeast U.S. and coast to coast in Canada.  He was the naked boogiwoogie piano player.  He is a nudist and has been all his life.  If you are ever in Quartzsite stop buy and say hi.

They have almost everything you want in this little town, lots of restaurants with very reasonable prices.  A place where you can get breakfast all day.  Thursday was a veg out day, but that didn't happen a friend called so we walked around one of the flea markets along with the wind and dust.  We tried to find the Pipe Museum and thinking it was a building looked for awhile.  It was in one of the tents in the market.  This museum houses over 1,500 smoking pipes and stands from as early as 1600's.  For the $2.00 admission it was well worth it. Pipes have been made of everything from corncobs to silver and gold and other prescious metals.  One popular material is meerschaum (meaning Sea Foam in German) was the superior material.  They receive these pipes from all over the world.  There are also metal advertisements all over the walls.  Ashtrays  that brought back memories of my childhood.  When a lot of people smoked one thing or another.  They are trying to raise money to buy a truck to house the collection so they can travel around showing people the history.  Quartzsite had a bad wind storm come through in December and it did destroy a few of the display cases.  Tents are used and the wind can destroy them very fast.  There is also a gum museum, but I didn't have time to check it out, always next time.
Friday was dancing day, a group of us went to a place called "Somewhere" in Bouce.  We stopped and had supper then went to this bar.  It is very small with very little dance floor, but it was packed.  They had a live band and I danced almost every dance.  The group I was with has a policy that a guy has to dance with all the women and the women can ask the guys to dance.  Another late night.

Saturday we took about 8 cars and went to the Desert Bar.  This is north of Parker and about 5 miles off the main road and is dirt it winds through valleys and up into the mountains.  This place was an old mining town and this guy bought it in 1975and turned it into a bar.  It is only open for the winter and only on Saturday and Sunday from 1.00pm till dusk.  They have no electricity only solar.  They serve hot dogs and hamburgers (not very good) didn't have any.  A band plays all afternoon and you can dance.  The water was trucked in for years and now has a well that only goes down 367 ft.  There is a church there but it is only a wall that is built like a church, weddings are held there, but no services.  The windows in the bar are old refrigerator window doors and the bar stools are made of steel and they sway from side to side.  The top of the bar is brass and the ceiling is made of stamped tin purchased from a factory in Missouri.  The womens washrooms have stalls of thick steel and the sinks are overlooking the hills, a beautiful view.

After we left there we headed

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to the Blue Water Casino in Parker.  We stopped and picked up their players card and received $10.00 in cash. While waiting for the card we had a late lunch out on the patio right beside the Colorado river, what a view.  There is a marina there, no boats too cold, but lots of ducks. When we picked up the $10.00 I was just going to put it in my pocket, but decided to put $5.00 in.  Well I played three times and the machine started dinging. $59.95 later I quit and cashed it in.  So I came out with $66.00.  

The RV show started on Saturday, but I waited until Monday to try and avoid the crowds.  I go over early like 8 am to get a parking spot.  You can't move in there most of the day and forget getting a parking spot.  I met a friend and went for lunch and the rest of the day I tried not to spend any money.  That was a lost cause.  I needed water filters 2/9.95 so bought four, they are that for one in Canada.  I almost bought a flag pole, but talked myself out of it.  They now have lights that are brighter for your RV and use less wattage, picked one up, but my coach is too old and it wouldn't work. I also got some orthotics for $200, in Canada over $400.  So back I went today to pick them up and take the light back.  Oh then I bought an external hard drive and a flash drive. 

I got to talking to the lady that was helping her son with the orthotics and they host camp up in Utah right where I want to go so she invited me up to camp with them free.  She is going to take me to all the great places I want to see.  Its amazing who you will meet and what they do, that is what is so nice about RVing.

 I am glad I am heading back to Yuma tomorrow if the rain and the wind dies down enough to drive. I have had enough of dry camping for awhile. Have a great week everyone.

Quartzsite

In my blog I have been trying to catch up to where I am now, but the last few days have been so great I wanted to fill you in.

I left Yuma last Thursday and arrive in Quartzsite mid morning.  It is only 68 miles so it was a leisurely drive, with very little traffic.  The scenery as usual was magnificant with the mountains in the background against the blue sky and the desert.  Just north of Yuma they have a border patrol where you have to stop and check in.  They have sniffer dogs that check for every thing.  The guy asked me if I was an American citizen and when I said Canadian he said have a nice day.

Quartzsite is a small town of about 2,000 people during the "off" season but swells to over 100,000 RVers in the winter time.  You can park for 14 days in the desert for free, then you can move to another part and start again.  You can also get two week passes for $80.00 or 6 months for $180.00.  You can go where ever you want on these passes.  I joined a group called the WINs Wandering Individual Networks, a group that is very active Kayaking, hiking and biking. I am not a member, but my friends are. They only dry camp and live off solar panels and wind generators and know where all the free camping is.  My friends were there and Bob was replacing my old TV with a flat screen.  He put the frame on a hinge so I can open it up and I am now able to store things behind it.  I can also access my audio and video plugs (Wii coming up shortly to play with).

What is so much fun is when you wake up in the morning and you look out at the mountains with the sun coming up and a coyote wanders right by your window, sniffs around and moves on.  Grabbed my camera, didn't get a good shot, there is always another morning. A knock on the door and my friend Donna is going to Parker did I want to go.  It is the only town that has a Wal Mart Supercenter and it is 24 miles away so got a few things that I needed.  I was looking for walking sticks and they had them for $18.00 a lot cheaper than Canada. All RVers work around Wal Marts they are one stop shopping. When we got home someone mentioned All You Can Eat Fish Fry so a car load went to a little town called Bouce 23 miles away.  I could have gone dancing that night, but ran out of steam.  When I came in I bottomed out and it broke my connection to my brakes on the car.  Well at happy hour I asked if someone could fix it and it was fixed in 5 minutes, got to love the networking.

In Quartzsite everyone works around whatever hours you want to work it seems. Information was closed at 3 and didn't open until 10.  Sally Ann open at 9 closed at 1.  Forget going to the post office the line up is a mile long outside in the sun.  Can you imagine 100,000 people waiting to get their mail, Well not all in one day, I know a few drive all the way out to Bouce for theirs.  Left for Blythe, Ca at 9 the next morning, was only a 40 minute drive.  While I was waiting for the roof guy I parked by a part of the desert across from his house.  While having lunch I see about 15 Quail running past my window and hiding in the bush beside me.  Out comes the camera, they are so cute the way they try to run fast with little legs.

There are a lot of these pretty birds in the desert and are fed very well in some areas.  I am having the roof on my RV redone in Acrylic at half the price I would pay in Canada and it has a 10 year warranty.Scott Christian arrived so I backed into his driveway and he set up.  He owns two beautiful homes on the Colorado River with decks at the back.  They have three garages that house their pontoon boats and their four wheelers.  The family comes and plays when school is out for the summer.  Scott has been doing this for about 5 years and is a guy that has had his hands into almost everything.  When he retired he got bored so now he works all over the U.S. fixing roofs.  What was nice about it was we went into Blythe to shop and ended up at Sizzler Steak House for dinner.  What a great way to spend an evening talking to someone interesting.  I usually have dinner by myself.  Today is another beautiful day up to 28 in the shade with a nice cool breeze. Sun deck here I come.  I will be here for three days then I will go back to Quartzsite for the RV show and a rally with the singles.

As you can see every day is a present you never know who you will meet, what you will do and where you will go.  I wonder what is next..........................

DEATH VALLEY

After Shoshone we headed to the China Ranch Date Farm.  I am glad someone else was driving I would never have found it.  You have to go through very narrow canyons with only rocks looking back at you.  It took us about 15 minutes to arrive.  It is found in a beautiful piece of the Mojave Desert.  It was beautiful with its date palm trees, cottonwoods and willows by a stream. The Old Spanish Trail is within walking distance and the historic Tonopah & Tidewater railroad bed. They have a store where you can buy everything made of dates.  Everyone loves the date shakes, but I find them super sweet so I filled up on the samples of the breads they make.  I have come to learn that I don't buy sweets because I will go home and eat them in one day.  They had a   very small motel where you could stay overnight. As you can see in the picture they cover the date seeds so the birds don't eat them.

They had these old cars and I what I would call a shack, you wonder how they lived in them.  Of course it doesn't get cold down in this valley.

Next was off to see Badwater, the name comes from the salt that is in the water then dries in the heat, you can't drink it. It is the lowest elevation in the U.S. 282 ft. below sea level.  You can walk out onto the flats where it is wet.  There was a hole dug so you could see the water just under the surface.  The sand was as fine and hard as some of the beaches in Florida.  You could walk for miles if you wanted to.  There was actually water in a little pond by the walkway.  As you can see by the picture that says sea level way up the cliff just how far below sea level it is and where I was standing. You will have to make it bigger to see it.

It was quite warm there as you can see.  I felt the salt and it, of course, was very sharp and gritty. We were trying to fit a few things in so we didn't have time to walk out on the flats.  When you go by yourself you can take the time to check it all out. Next stop was back to the Sunset Campground in Furnace Creek where the singles group was parked for the Death Valley Days.  I had Happy Hour with them and then drove back to my motorhome.  We did meet the wagon train on our travels that day and got to talk to them and find out how they survived.  It didn't look like they were suffering, they told us they trailered most of their things to the next stop.   One day we went to Titus Canyon three cars with four people in each, plus 3 dogs. We went up over 3,500 ft. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Beatty for a breakfast Buretto before we started.  There was far too much so it was lunch that day.  This canyon was a one way drive and after going through it you wouldn't want to meet someone on the way.  It is a very rough and narrow road, sometimes so narrow you could touch the rocks. It winds up to the top of the mountain and then down so four wheel drive is a must.

Our driver stopped a lot along the way and I took so many pictures it is hard to pick what ones to put on here.  The road to the left is what we traveled on up the mountain and you can see what beauty you find in the middle of nowhere
There were mines all along the road and you found them by looking for the tailings in front of the mine.

About half way along the canyon there was an old ghost town called Leadfield with mines all around. A couple of tin buildings and as you can see by the picture a little hovel that someone lived in.  Again it is warm there so they didn't need much.  It is hard to believe that it would take them  days to get supplies in, it took us over four hours.

There were Petroglyphs along the way and you had to watch closely. I loved the rocks that were in waves, it is hard to believe that over millions of years the rocks formed that way from pressure they look bent. Near the end of the Canyon the road was so narrow that you had to be careful not to take your mirrors off.  As we went we had to let people pass us they seemed to be in a hurray.  The last picture was eroded by the rain washing down the canyon and wearing away the rock over millions of years.  You wouldn't want to be caught in any canyon if there is rain in the mountains.  I was going to go up to Death Valley for the 49ers days, but was not feeling very well so hopefully will catch it in 2010.

Please bare with me regarding the pictures they won't go where I want them.  Any questions let me know and I will answer them.  I was going to do Scotty's Castle on this one but ran out of time and space.  Enjoy

 

Pahrump and Death Valley

I want to wish all my friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR, another year gone, hope it was a good one.

I can't believe that I haven't done another blog.  I have been so busy having fun there has been no time.  After I left Lake Mead I headed to Pahrump, it was only an hours drive.  Most of the drive is up a 6% grade of a mountain so it was a long slow drive.  I have a campground membership where I can stay for 35 days for $3.50 a night and after that $12.50 a night so I booked in for two weeks.  I was going to go with a singles group to Death Valley, but I had enough of dry camping for awhile and was tired out from the drive west.  So I stayed 7 weeks and would have stayed longer, but it turned cold and would you believe it snowed.  It went down to below freezing every night in December and only up into the mid 40's.

While in Pahrump I did go up into Death Valley quite a few days and hooked up with the singles group.  Pahrump was the area where the Shoshone Indians hung out. Pah means water in Shoshone and rump means rock.  It has a abundance of artesian wells so the area was a great place to farm.  Alfalfa, cotton and cattle were raised. Before the 60's there were no roads, phones in or out of the Pahrump Valley. The town being an hour away from Las Vegas  became a place where people wanted to move so, the telephone lines and paved roads began.  In 2000 there were 25,000 people but that has grown a lot since then.  Its called an exurb because almost all agriculture has stopped.  Michael Jackson bought a home here in 2008 and lived for a while with his kids. There were parts of a few pictures shot in the Pahrump area, Rain Man, The Amazing Race and Mars Attack. From Pahrump you have access to Death Valley, Shoshone, and Rhyolite (a ghost town)  just north about 50 miles.  Pahrump is very unique it has brothels where you can go for lunch and get the tour.  One is the Chicken Ranch, we just looked outside and Sherri's Ranch where we had lunch and a very interesting tour with one of the girls, who was dressed in a very tiny bikini and stiletto shoes.  The place was very high class and very friendly.  They had different rooms that the men can go to with hot tubs, jazzcui tubs and a Bud Weiser room.  Beautifully decorated, we didn't ask the price for the girls.  What they do is parade by the men who are sitting in a very up scale sitting room and they pick.  I was impressed.  The girls come to the ranch for a week or two then go back to their normal lives.  I am told they make very good money. Forgive my spelling on some words.

I went on a couple of tours with the singles in Death Valley and one was Shoshone.  What a interesting town there are a couple of restaurants the buildings from the early 1900s. There is a museum with a lot of history including a dinsours that were found in the area.  Lots of mining equipment.  I love the old pictures and a lot of them show how the woman survived. They celebrate once a year with Shoshone Days.  There is a cemetery there with over 55 people in it and just by the side of the road.  They still use it.  In the hill side there is what they call Dublin Gulch, in the 1920's miners carved dwellings in the caliche clay (don't know what that is).  The name comes from an area of the same name in Butte Montana.  Some caves have split levels, stovepipes and garages.  It is hard to believe that people lived in them for years.  Of course being in the desert it is a lot warmer.  No one has lived in them since the 1970's.  A lot of old buildings that house restaurants, motel, high school and swimming pool. They even have a small airport.

This blog is short want to get it done by Christmas.  Have a great one.

Las Vegas Here I Come

I left the campground early to get into the gas station just down the road.  It was Saturday and I thought it would be an easy in and out.  Well was I wrong.  There was a big transport truck parked right in front of the gas station so I couldn't get in.  When I asked the guy how long he would be he said about 20 minutes, ya right.  An hour later he left, but in the mean time another truck parked on the road, no access.  He did move and I managed to get in.  Some of these stations are very small and if you don't get close enough the hose will not reach.  It took me three times to get at the right spot and the hose just reached.  Guess what Visa card wouldn't work you know the drill, finally was on my way just after nine.   The scenery was very boring, flat and desert, and no rest areas.  I finally reached Kingman and found a place to pull over thank goodness, I have my bathroom with me.  As you come into Kingman there are big signs saying no transport trucks, trailers or buses are allowed over the Hoover Dam.  mmmmm does that mean motorhomes?  It doesn't say.  I don't want to go the long way around because the hills are really steep and from Laughlin up to Vegas it took me 20 minutes the last time to get up the hill.  Sooooo I took the short route and wondered all the way if I would have to turn around and come back.  I didn't see a lot of RVs on the road.  To get to the dam you have to go down really big hills and they curve around the mountains.  Brakes are pressed to the limit, but what a beautiful view.  At the bottom I breathed a sigh of relief they let me through.  I had to get out and open up all my storage bays plus they went inside to look around and I had to open up my car.  The security here is very tight since 911.  I have nothing to hide so just did what they wanted. I commented to the guy that I smelled something - da it was my brakes he said.  Talk about feel stupid. 

It took me almost an hour to get through this two lane highway, it was Saturday and crowded with people.  Lots of signs saying give way to pedestrians and they do move slow. 

Here is some information on the dam - It was built during the depression to give people jobs.  It was started in 1931 and took 5 years to build.  It is 726.4 ft. high and weighs more than 6,600,000 tons and was finished in 1936.  They employed 3,500 people and it was the first man made structure to exceed the concrete mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Dam tickets are $9.00  for Seniors and the Visitors Centre is $8.00 for Seniors.  The Power Plant Tour is not listed so it is probably a lot more.  They are building a bypass around the dam and it began in  January 2005.  The finishing date is late 2010, but that is questionable.  The winds that blew hard a few years ago blew over some of the spans so they had to repair these before they could continue.  This bridge will span the Black Canyon 1,600 ft south of the dam.  It will connect Arizona and Nevada with approaching highways 900 ft above the Colorado River.  If you want more information go to http://www.hoverdambypass.org/.  I am not interested in this stuff so have never taken the tour. 

I stayed at the Boulder Dam campground with a group called the Wandering Individual Network  WINS for short.  It is a group of singles that are very active with Kayaking and hiking.  They do a lot of over night trips, I don't have a kayak and don't have the stamina they go for hours.  This is a National Park called Lake Mead.  I used my pass and saved $25.00 and $6.00 everytime I went out.  The sites are in the trees and quite big.  You pick a spot you like and then take an envelope from the box they provide and put your money in it.  Not being an American I had to pay $10.00 a day U.S. seniors get a Golden Age Pass they can use at any National or State park and they pay half price.  The campground used to be at the edge of Lake Mead, but now with the water down so far you have to drive to the beach about a quarter mile away.  These sites are dry camping, but they have a dump station if you need it. There are two casinos just down the road so we went for breakfast a couple of mornings.  You don't need lunch after that.  You get two eggs, hashbrowns (these are really good) the size of a small plate and bacon. All for $2.99.  The other casino had 99 cent draft beer, hot dogs, shrimp cocktail and a humungus strawberry shortcake made by the waitress.  Almost too big to eat it all, but I finished it, it was so good.  One night we went to the Elk's for a dinner and dance.  They had BBQ pork on a bun with coleslaw and potato salad, desert was ice cream.  A great dance band, yes I did get to dance, haven't done that in a few years.

Of course I had to find a Wal Mart and a Bath and Body Works store.  For years I have been stocking up on my special body lotion when I come to the states because they weren't in Canada.  They have finally came to Toronto and they opened a store in the Georgian Mall just before I left so I don't have to bring any back.  My car needed an oil change so found the Honda Dealer and spent a morning getting that done.  It was fast and when they were finished they even washed my car.  It didn't last long with all the dust around the west. 

We went to Freemont Street in downtown Vegas the Friday night before I left to see the laser light show, have dinner and just enjoy the crowd.  We went to Binions for prime rib, it was two for one so the cost per person was $6.95.  It was so tender it melted in your mouth, the size of a greeting card and one quarter inch thick.  Baked potato and veggies.  The picture on here is me beside $1,000,000.  Will never get that close again.  We wondered out into the street and checked out the people, some were dressed for Halloween and lots of Halloween things going on.  The Frankinstein rock band played the Rocky Horror Picture Show songs with some great dancers.  Another stage had a magic show where the guy drilled his body with a big drill and then ended with him being locked up in water. The end was the girl was in the water and he was out of his chains. Quite impressive.  I didn't gamble, you had to get a players card and needed ID which I didn't bring.  By the time you get a players card for all the casinos you would need a purse to carry all of them.  The laser show was great they did some Halloween things, a lot of the oldies songs with pictures.  They project pictures onto a ceiling that goes the length of Freemont St.  The colours are amazing.  One of the pictures had a rocket taking off with the fire following.  That night the parking was free which was nice.  We were out of there by 11, thank goodness I wasn't driving I would never have gotten out of the city.

As you can see left the ceiling over the street goes a long way.  It was hard to see it all it moved so fast.  You would need to be at one end for a better look.

The one thing I have found out here people eat early, which I like. You have to go early before the crowds or you wait in line. Everyone is home by 9.  I am still having trouble with the time difference.  It doesn't help that I have Eastern Satellite and by 11 o'clock Eastern Time it is only 7 here so nothing to watch.  I have started to use my Tivo and record the daytime shows, then I watch them after 7.  This year I am getting all the TV stations.  The last few years as you go west some of your eastern stations don't come on.  I was told that the satellite wasn't in the right place to get them.  I wonder why now.  Bell does like to play with their customers.  I can't complain about anything to them because we are not supposed to take our Satellites into the states it is illegal.  What they don't know won't hurt them.  Not nice Ma Bell. 

On to Pahrump and Death Valley next.  I am almost caught up with myself here in Pahrump.

GRAND CANYON continued

As one of my blog readers asked a question I thought I should explain why I have so much trouble getting my credit card to work at gas stations down here.  A few years ago some of the gas stations started asking for a ZIP code when you used your credit card at the pumps.  It wasn't a problem back then because I would just avoid them.  Well almost every one I went into this year asks for that ZIP and being Canadian it will not accept our Postal Codes.  They want you to tell them what price figure you want to put into your car, well I don't know and with an RV I try to fill it up then I know how long I can go before a fill up.  Gas guage isn't that accurate although I have never run out yet.  If you don't tell them what you want they want to keep your credit card while you pump the gas.  I will not do that at any time.  What I have done is put an American address as the prime address on my Visa.  I am hoping this will work and will find out after my next fill up.  When I come back home I will change it over to Canadian again.  I also do paperless bills so they don't send the monthly statement to the U.S. address.  I won't be at that address all the time.  The reason they are doing this is quite a few people fill their cars and then take off with out paying.  I think you will see this in Canada in the near future.

I parked near the Visitors Centre in the Grand Canyon and hopped on the shuttle bus.  What a great way to meet people, just ask a question and everyone jumps in.  I went to the far end of the Canyon called Hermits Rest and is only accessible by tram.  I walked back about a mile to the next tram pick up spot. The elevation is 7,000 ft (2,100 m) so even a small walk is an effort with the thin air. I did make it but was breathing hard and decided I wouldn't do any more.  They have beautiful walking paths with lookouts all along the way.  They also tell you how long it is from one tram stop to the next.  This closed part is open during the winter to passenger vehicles.  The temperatures range from 50-60F in the summer and 20 to 50F in the winter. So I got on and off on the way back.

I stopped at the Bright Angel trailhead and had lunch in the restaurant.  The meals are so big here that I hate to order anything big so ordered a chiefs salad.  It was big, but I managed to finished it.  I have to say it was the best salad I have had in a long time.  There is a history room in the same building filled with information on Fred Harvey one of the pioneers that made the Grand Canyon what it is today.  He saw that peopled were getting poor food and services and high prices so he took over and improved the services and food for the railway passengers.  He hired thousands of women to work in his restaurants, waitresses  known as the Harvey Girls.  He hired college educated women to conduct tours of the Southwest.  Mary Colter was hired to do all the architectural work on his buildings.  Her influence directed the early architecture in the National Parks. There were some interesting antiques from the past in this museum.  I looked through the gift shop and was looking through the kids books when a lady came over and showed me a book that her grand child loved "Who Pooped In The Park".  I figured all kids love anything to do with poop.  One Xmas present down a few more to go.

As I was sitting eating my meal the tables were full.  There was a table of German people who spent around $100.00.  The waitress's comment about the tip, which was only $1.00 was cheap.  I giggled to myself because German tourists have a lot of money. Picked the tram up and worked my way back.  It was really busy in the afternoon and was glad I got there early, everyone was looking for a parking space.  Some more information -  The South Rim and North Rim are only 10 miles apart as the raven flies.  It is 215 miles (356km) by road.  The South Rim is open all year and the North Rim is closed from Oct. to May because of the snow.  The South Rim gets a sprinkling of snow a few times in the winter. By four o'clock I was really tired, still fighing this darn flu I have had.  It's an hour drive from the campground I was staying at.

The day was great, missed most of the traffic on the way up and the way back.  Next stop Las Vegas.