Spring Cleaning

Not much happening here at Emerald Cove. We have been doing some spring cleaning, getting all the sand and dust from our time in Quartzsite out. We have played Bingo a couple of nights and Ed has played some poker. We have yet to play the mini golf course they have here. We basically are being lazy and cleaning little by little. We went up to the bar last night for Karaoke.

We finally had the wiring for our direct tv fixed the right way. When we were in Quartzsite we had them come and install a new LNB on our dish so we now have a DVR and a separate receiver in the bedroom. I can watch something different now in the bedroom! I'm doing a happy dance.
We are still getting used to the DVR. We have recorded some shows and will start recording movies to keep.

Still have a list of chores to do...but then we are here for 5 weeks...Maybe it's time to go check out the casino!!

All good things must come to an end

And so our time here at Quartzsite is ending. We had one last bonfire last night.











And everyone started leaving this morning. Now we have this big empty space beside us. Yesterday we had 4 other rigs out there! Now there are only 2 of us left.



We have had a wonderful time here, meeting some new friends from the class of 2009 and reconnecting with classmates from 2008. Lots of eating out..soon its back to the diets.

Tomorrow we leave for Emerald Cove, our home park on the Colorado River. We will be staying there for the next 5 weeks giving our home it's 'spring cleaning'. After the wind and dust flying around the desert, it really needs it!

One last thing...Today is our grandson's 10th birthday. Happy Birthday Ramey Jay!
Love ya.


Here he is with his big sister, Ciera.

Batten down the hatches!

The storms that have been hitting California have reached us here in Quartzsite. The first storms that went through California gave us a moderate amount of rain and occasionally some winds.

I guess it is only fair that the stronger the storms are in California, the stronger they are here. It rained pretty hard last night and the winds were not bad, but now we are really getting buffetted by some strong winds.

All of the motorhomes in our group have pulled in their slides and no one has their satelite dishes up. No one is going anywhere. We are better off staying where we are than trying to drive these high profile vehicles in the wind!

As long as we have water and our generator continues to hum we will be okay. As one in our group said, "The good news is we have no trees or power lines to fall on us."

Staying Busy

We are having a very busy time here at Quartzsite.

We purchased a Pressure Pro Tire monitoring system and Ed was busy installing it on the motorhome. This system will monitor the tire pressure and an alarm will sound if the tire pressure starts to go down. Since we are really bad about checking the tire pressures, this system is something we have been talking about for some time. The system will also monitor the tires on the car, but we had to install new valve stems on the tires, and have not put the sensors on yet.

Saturday we went shopping at the 'Big Tent'. There really isn't much new from last year. They have a lot of vendors selling stuff and a lot of vendors advertising there campgrounds. We did stop at the Direct TV booth though and today they came to install a DVR and wire for a receiver in the bedroom. We had to sign a new contract, everything they did today didn't cost of anything! It was really easier than we ever thought it would be. Now we are able to watch something different on each TV and we can record another program. Can someone show us how to use it??

Saturday evening the Class of 2009 held their graduation ceremony and Chili Cookoff. The Class of 2008 got to judge. That means we got to eat without doing any of the work. Isn't that what upper classmates are supposed to do?? It was a fun evening!

Sunday we took some of the Class of 2009 to the Desert Bar. The Desert Bar is one of the most unique things in the area. You have to travel 5 miles of winding dirt road to get to the bar. It's only open on the weekends from high noon until sundown and isn't open at all during the summer months. It's totally solar powered.



We need to take the motorhome over and dump our tanks and drive into town to get some water. The water pump here at LaPosa South went out last week and they don't expect it to be fixed until Wednesday or Thursday. But a full tank of water should last us until we leave here on the 26th.

The weather here calls for rain for the next few days. Rain is bad because it keeps everyone inside their rigs but it does help with the dust. Maybe we will do some laundry or maybe we will just curl up with a good book! By Friday the storms are expected to be over. Then we should have another 4 days of good weather before we move on. We will be able to have our fires at night again and go for walks in the afternoons. This is fun!!

Hi Jolly

This afternoon, while shopping at another 'swap meet', I came across the local cemetery in Quartzsite. I had to investigate. This is what I discovered.

In 1856, the War Department approved a plan to use camels to aid in opening a wagon road from Fort Defiance to California. Along with the purchase of the camels came a caretaker whose arabic name was Haiji Ali. The soldiers started calling him "Hi Jolly". The camels proved their worth, nevertheless the War Department abandoned the experiment and the camels were left on the Arizona desert to shift for themselves. They roamed the area for several years.

Hi Jolly settled in the Quartzsite area, where he tried his hand at mining, scouting and delivering "Jackass Mail". He also sold water to travelers. The cemetery is named for him.

This is what a desert cemetery looks like. Most of the graves have a cement slab over them. I can only assume the reason for this is that the rock hard ground prevents burial deep in the ground. The cement would stop the erosion of the area since grass will not grow in this arid climate.




Just an interesting bit of history of Quartzsite, Arizona.

Arriving in Quartzsite, Arizona

We arrived in Quartzsite Arizona yesterday afternoon. The Williams' had saved us a spot right next to them and we pulled in so our doors and awnings would be facing each other.

We haven't seen them since we left Washington State last April. It sure is nice to see friends again.

So far, we only have 3 of us from the class of 2008. Lee (IYQ), Terry and Jeri and us. Everyone else is from the class of 2009.

It's always fun making new friends.




This morning we went to breakfast with Jim and Sandi (class of 2009) and the Williams'. Had a great breakfast at Bad Boys Cafe.


Since Quartzsite is like one GIANT Swapmeet, we have been making a list of things we wanted to look for. So far, we have bought 1 thing off the list and 3 things that weren't on our list!! Isn't that the way with swapmeets...you don't know you need it until you see it!! Oh well..only about 4 more areas to go through. Tomorrow is another day.....

Welcome to Camp Walmart

Had to get out and get some pictures of the Walmart we are staying at tonight here in Fort Stockton, Texas.

We arrived first, and found what I consider the perfect spot. We arrived at 3:45pm after driving a very long and considerably boring 460 miles. Did I mention before I hate Western Texas. As Nick Russell would say.."Nothing to do but count the road kill". I would add to that you can also count the pieces of tires.

Anyway...on to the rest of our story. Soon after we arrived, others started pouring in. We now have 8 overnight campers in the Walmart Campground. There are 5 motorhomes, 2 airstream travel trailers and a fifth wheel.



At least there is no room for a truck to come along side of us. They can be very noisy at night. However even that would be better that the trains that keep me awake last night in Sealy, Texas. Even there we had 4 other motorhomes around us, but there was a lot more room. Must be all the snowbirds on the move now that the holidays are over.

We are expecting an easy drive tomorrow...only about 320 miles to Deming, New Mexico. We will stay at the Escapee park there for the rest of the weekend. We need to be off the road over the weekend to see the football playoffs!!

On the road again!!

We are finally on the move. The repair parts we've been waiting on came in late yesterday, so they finished up our repairs this morning. We had decided last night that if they got the repairs finished by noon, we would leave today. I had a doctors appointment this morning at 9:00am so Ed stayed at the motorhome to wait. I got back at 10:00, they were working on the repairs but at that time it didn't look promising. Then things started to come together and they finished just after 11:00!!

So after filling the fresh water and dumping our tanks, we left the Escapee park around noon. We needed to get propane and still needed to get the motorhome inspected. (We had not been able to get this done because we could not move...our slides would not move until they new parts were installed) We ended up at 3 different places looking to get the inspection done. First place ran out of stickers, the second place..didn't have the time, the third place finally got the job done..Yeah!!

So at almost 2:00pm we finally were able to wave goodbye for now to Livingston. We have only put about 150 miles behind us today but its a start. Tomorrow we start the most boring drive of all...West Texas. Oh well, it's still good to be on the road again!!