Sunday, January 30, 2011

Yearly trip to the Desert Bar

We met friends at the Desert Bar Saturday.  It’s a unique place and we usually end up going once a year.  It’s off of route 95 just about 4 miles outside of Parker, Arizona.  You make a right turn onto a road that immediately turns to dirt.  You drive and drive and drive and think you are never going to get there.  It’s about 5 miles on a dirt road that sometimes is a single lane.  But then you come around the last turn and you know you have finally arrived.
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You walk over a covered walkway and this is a picture of the bar.  Notice the solar panels on the roof.  This bar is completely powered by solar! It is only open from noon until sundown on Saturday and Sunday and only during the winter months. 
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They have a band that plays and the place is really packed with people.  They cook hamburgers and hotdogs and chili and chips.  They have a full bar and of course sell T-Shirts.
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Hot water tank and a cooling tower.  Water drips from the top and cools like what we used to call a swamp cooler. 
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There are sculptures all around made from horseshoes and other metals.


It was a fun day with good friends. 

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fun in the desert

We have been dry camping in the desert outside Yuma Arizona since Monday.  There is a group of about 15 rigs. We have had pot luck dinners, gone to DaBoyz (An Italian place in Yuma). Yesterday we went to what we call an oasis in the desert…natural hot springs.  First picture is a hot shower.  Second is a cement pool about 5 ft deep and about 120 degrees.  To hot for me.  Third picture is the smaller pool, 3 ft deep and about 95 degrees.

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It was a fun outing and we all got clean since when we dry camp we are conserving water to try to stay 7 days without moving. 



Today we ventured into Mexico.  We parked in the US and walked across the border.  A lot of people from the Yuma area go into Mexico for eyeglasses and dental work.  Everywhere you look there are dentists offices and optical stores.  Of course, they also have the normal hawkers of jewelry, leather and pottery.

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Here are some pictures of our group.

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The weather here has been wonderful. It’s been in the mid 80’s until last night.  The wind came up and today it has cooled to about 75.  Hopefully, the wind will die down so that we can get enjoy the company. Everyone will be going in different directions come Sunday.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

We are in Yuma

We arrived at Yuma Lakes RV Park on Sunday and have settled in for a week.  First on our agenda was to finally meet up with MsKay and Dan.  They are part of our class of 2008 but they never made it to Quartzite for our first meeting.  They followed us around Iowa the summer of 2009, but we never got a chance to meet.  Monday we finally did, along with Terry and Jeri Williams.  Of course it was over food.  We met at Coco’s for lunch.  It was a great time. IMG_3098
Dan and Ed have gone to play golf this morning and I am left to do some laundry.  Tomorrow we are meeting at the local swap meet for a little shopping.  Fun times!!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Leaving Livingston

We left Livingston, Texas last Tuesday and after getting the motorhome inspected, we were able to still drive about 250 miles to stay at the Walmart in Seguin, Texas. That was night 1.  We left Seguin and drove 350 miles on Wednesday and arrived at the Walmart in Fort Stockton.  That was night 2.  We still had 245 miles to go on Thursday to get to El Paso, Texas and then another 80 once we crossed into New Mexico.  We now sit in Deming, New Mexico resting for a day before we start again to our final destination of Yuma, Arizona. I hate the drive across west Texas, but there are not many choices this time of year since going a northern route might lead you into some severe storms.  Here is a picture of what you see…
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for approximately 700 miles!!!  Boring!!!! I finished one book and got halfway through another!!!
We are staying at Dream Catchers RV park.  It’s an Escapee park like we stayed at in Livingston.  We pulled in yesterday afternoon and the first thing Ed did was wash the road crime off the car and motorhome.  We were clean when we left Livingston, but we ran into some drizzling rain in Houston and that really made a mess out of things.  A hard rain would have been better.  Today, Ed has left to play a round of golf and I need to get busy doing a couple loads of laundry.  Tomorrow we leave and will make one overnight stop before we arrive in Yuma.  Looking forward to seeing friends that are also staying in the area and in another week we will move out to some BLM land (free camping) to boondock (camp without hookups) with about 15 other couples.  There will be a lot of eating and catching up.  Fun times ahead!!