Sunday, January 31, 2010

Shea Road-Parker, AZ

We made it to the site of the Parker 425 off road race.  We back in and are right on the rim overlooking the race field.  Should be noisy and dusty come next Saturday.

Sunset was spectacular last night and this morning’s sunrise was great.  It’s soooooooooo quiet out here and very peaceful. I’ll get photos for tomorrow’s posting.

Oh, here is a photo of a couple of baby hats and booties I knitted for Amity, our great-granddaughter.  She’s two months old now.  Thank you Paula for the bootie pattern…it is fast and simple. CIMG3552

Wanted to point out a website I saw on Nick Russell’s blog this morning.  It’s www.harvesthosts.com where you get to have free overnight parking at wineries, farms and orchards. You can check out their products, pick produce, taste wine and be close to nature. Right now they have areas in Oregon, Washington and California, but plan on being in all the lower 48 states.  They are modeling themselves after similar networks in Europe.  Check them out; I like the idea; sure beats a Wally parking lot!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Last camp fire in Boomerville

Jim went down to see Terry Webb to see if he needed help installing the Kozy World brick heater he bought.  Terry said “you having happy hour today?”  Vicki said “You are still the co-host!”  So we had happy hour in front of our rig with Terry, Vicki, Bill, Lesle and Jim and I.  It was fun!

The sunset was magnificent last night. Notice the faint silhouettes of the rvs at the bottom. CIMG3560 After having a great steak dinner with Bill and Lesle the boys decided we needed one more camp fire. I really like this photo with the lights of Quartzsite in the background.

CIMG3563 Lesle brought out the marshmallows and Bill poured a special brandy (E J XO Vintage Release-marvelously smooth).

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This morning we drive to Parker.  We part with Bill and Lesle for a month or so, as they go to Tucson in preparation to join the Escapee’s Mexican Connection and travel to Mexico for a couple of weeks.  We’ll catch up with them in Yuma at the Gypsy Journal Rally.  Remember, you are loved!

Friday, January 29, 2010

End of Boomerville

We have sure had a wonderful time here in Boomerville and enjoyed meeting all the Boomers we’ve read about on the Boomers Bulletin Board, but had never met.

There were a total of 131 rigs this year, not all of them here at one time.  There was a full schedule of activities from discussing diesel engines, to beading groups, discussions on traveling to New Zealand, and Dutch oven cooking.  Quite a list, huh?

CIMG3487 Gretchen and Bob made pancakes twice a week and folks contributed blueberries…yummoooo!
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Another morning we had “omelets in a bag”
CIMG3541 We had several potlucks before happy hour CIMG3542 And even a wine tasting party.

CIMG3493 Happy hours around the fire pit were nightly CIMG3530 And friends like David and Kathy came by to visit from other areas.

CIMG3537 We shared dinners at night with friends, Chuck and Nancy CIMG3523And brought along friends Joel and Barbara

It’s been a great time, much laughter, good food and better friendships.  It will be remembered a long time.

We’ll have one last night here and barbeque steaks with Bill and Lesle as it will be a month before we see them again as they are going along with 69 other rigs with the Mexican Connection to Mexico. We’ll catch up with them in Yuma.  Tomorrow we drive to Parker

Remember, you are loved!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Boomerville is almost over

I've been amiss in posting because I've been engrossed in reading Dan Brown's book Lost Symbols. Boy is it a page turner!!!! Like all of his books, you can't put the darn thing down. The last of each chapter gives you a hook that entices you to want to read on to the next page. I started the 508 paged book three days ago and haven't even knitted a stitch since...my nose is in that book all day. I sent Jim out on all kinds of trips just so I could read unimpeded!

Last night we had our last potluck and then sat around the fire and remembered Boomers who passed on this last year. It was a moving experience. There were only about 40 people there last night as many folks have left already and move left this morning.

We met for Donut Breakfast at 8:30am today and rummaged through the last bits of auction stuff before it went to the local thrift store. A couple of rigs pulled out while we were assembled and Jan Moore and I sang and mimed the "Goodnight" song from Sound of Music, complete with the ending high notes....it's fun to be silly at this age.

Tonight we have our last "official" happy hour here at Boomerville and then at 5 pm we will go invade Silly Al's Restaurant and about 20 of us will enjoy great pizza and camaraderie, and probably a couple of pitchers of beer!

Jim is out getting water right now in the bladder and we will start breaking down for our departure tomorrow morning. We are going to move over to Plomosa Road for a few days and visit with our friends Niki and Mike.

Hopefully I can finish the book and rest up a bit. Boomerville is so much fun but something is going on all the time and you are go, go, go all day long. After two weeks we need a little of peace and quiet to regroup.

Remember, you are loved.

Monday, January 25, 2010

We got a heater

  Finally-----------finally------we got a catalytic brick heater!!!!!!!!!  I have wanted a brick heater since day ONE.CIMG3517  Jimbo had to think it over for two years.  But being fair to him the best place to buy a catalytic heater IS here in Quartzsite.  So last week we went to RV Lifestyle and bought a Kozy World two brick 122 (yes, Laurie, the same one you and Odel bought recently) and I love it!!!! 

I love the idea of backing up to it and feeling heat, which you can’t do with central air furnace.  It makes you think you have a fireplace in your rig.

Following the salesman’s advice, we didn’t get a quick-release valve because of safety issues he expressed. But we use a heater most of the year round for morning warm-ups, so it won’t be a big deal to move it around the kitchen a bit.  Luckily, the dogs are not bothered by the heater and are not afraid of it; they walk around it to get to their food and water.

Momma’s a happy camper with the new heater!!!  Remember, you are loved.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Colorado Boomerang Reunion

Yesterday we had a reunion of the 2008 Colorado Boomerang attendees.  There were six couples who traveled together for about a month after the 2008 Colorado Boomerang. After the Boomerang in Buena Vista we went to Trout Creek, Lake DeWeiss in Westcliffe and then campground at Great Sand Dunes National Park, where Odel and Laurie joined us. Out of those six couples four couples are here at Quartzsite at Boomerville.

CIMG3518After happy hour Nancy and Chuck, Marie and Dave, Jan and Chuck  and Jim and I gathered in our rig for a little get together.  Nancy brought some liqueurs she got in Mexico that were mighty tasty and we had happy hour left over snacks to enjoy.

 

When we were in boondocking together at Trout Creek (outside of Buena Vista) we got silly for some reason (like we have to have a reason) and started doing the can-can.

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So last night we reenacting the can-can line.

 

 

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Then the boys had to get together again, but we couldn’t convince them
to do the can-can.

 

 

 

So all we were missing were Rich and Terry and Lee and Edie for the whole gang being together. We had a good time remembering that 2008 summer together and sharing what we have done and where we have been since.

Good times and great friends spending time together…..nothing better!!!  Remember, you are loved.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Building an Ark

I’m quoting a Boomer Bulletin Board posting that John Black made last night, because it is so cute and really describes what we are going through here in Quartzsite, Arizona.

“Hi to everyone in Boomerville.
A note for an add on for tomorrows activity schedule. Those of us that survive till tomorrow morning please gather at the fire circle after the morning rowing exercise to use the remainder of the firewood to build an ARK. Anyone with building plans for a dessert version of an Ark will get preferential window seats when we get it completed. I know we can have it done by time for Happy Hour because Boomers can do anything we put our minds to, unless of course we forget during the building process and end up with another dessert bar. :-)
Seriously, button down the hatches and good luck to all of us. What a story we will be able to share with friends/grandkids about surviving the great dessert storm of 2010.”

Well said, John, really well written!!!!!!!

It was a wild, wild ride inside the rig with the storm we experienced. CIMG3511Here is a couple of photos I took from the inside of the rig looking out. You could barely see the rigs across from us.  One of the Boomers had a wind meter and he said we had wind gust of 73-80 MPH last night.  I ran out of wine and brandy trying to soothe my nerves.

 

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This is to show you the puddles and lines of water carving trenches across the desert behind the rig.

The boys went out for donuts this morning; those Quartzsite donuts are so good! The washes were NOT filled with water, but Jim said they were very eroded. All the activities have been cancelled for today as there may still be some bad weather coming out way. 

While we were weathering the storm we watched Speed Channel show of the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction.  It was fun to see all the beautiful cars we remember from our youth.  Joel and Barbara came over to see if I could fix this computer as he had a bad virus.  Well, it took me from noon yesterday to 11:30 am this morning, but I finally was able to get all the Trojan viruses, etc out of his computer, but only because I made umpteen phone calls to my computer guru, Lory, back in Colorado!!!  She is amazing and walked me through all the steps – a couple of times, actually.

CIMG3516Here I am this morning working on Joel’s, Barbara’s and our computer – is this still “multi-tasking” or is it “triple-tasking”?

Lory turned me on to a new software (iobit 360) that really does a great job on spyware, malware, and finding deep viruses that normal anti-virus doesn’t even find and another application (Advance System Care) that cleans, configures, and optimizes your computer.  They can get both programs from c/Net at www.download.com  Both Joel’s and Barbara’s computers had updated AVG anti-virus on them, but on Joel’s a virus got through.  So I changed them both over to using Avast Anti-Virus instead.

Yes, it was kind of fun to be working on computers again, but that was my “previous life” and it does take a long time to search out and get rid of viruses. But it kept my mind occupied while the storm raged outside and quelled my fears that we were going to tip over.

We’re checking the weather alerts closely, so we will be OK.  Remember, you are loved!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

RV Day/Night Shades

We lucked out and got a hold of a good RV day/night shade repair person here in Quartzsite.  CIMG3509Rich and Chris Ryan came out and fixed two of our four foot and one five foot shades for $120.  It only took them about an hour - believe it or not.  They did a beautiful job taking down the valances and side things.  Then they took the shades outside and restrung them with parachute nylon cord right on the bed of their truck.

 

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Lesle had two of her shades done and a couple of other rvers got their shades restrung also.  Boy, do the shades move up and down easier now!  What a difference.   We did learn, though, that you are suppose to move the day shade first and then the night shade, and not move them both together as I have been doing.

CIMG3506We also got to see one of our camphost yesterday.  Phil Argus came and spent the night with us here and then left this morning. Phil work at Park Creek last year and this summer will be an Area Manager in California.  He is a great person and we enjoyed working with him. We wish him well in his next assignment.

Last night we experienced the worse wind storm ever.  It rivaled the wind storm we experienced with Mike and Sandy Bubar at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument near Flagstaff, AZ back in the spring of 2008. Tonight it is going to be a bit mild, but tomorrow and Friday we are suppose to be hammered hard with wind and rain.  They said to expect wind gusts of 50-60 MPH.  So we are picking up all the outside stuff and parking the truck to help buffer the winds.  got hot dogs and beer OK salsa and brandy and we’ll be all set.

We met with the reps from amazon.com to hear what they are proposing for next year’s peak season – being that they are not using temp agencies any more and are hiring us directly from now on.  We’ll write about that tomorrow.

Remember, you are loved!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Quartzsite-Second Week

Up there in the banner is a photo of Boomerville several day after opening. It was taken by Tom Doerr from his ultralight parachute. See him up there in this photo. He goes up every morning and takes a photo of Boomerville.  Pretty neat. There are now 115 rigs that have come in; several have left, but we are CIMG3483keeping a running total of rigs arriving.

We have had a great time meeting all the people whose BBB entries we have read through the years, but never met.  We’ve reconnected with others.  Yesterday we went back to the American Land and Leisure booth to interview prospective camphosts and saw Rita and Jerry who worked in amazon.com with us.

Lesle and I sucked it up and went to Bells for their Monday Senior Discount Day.  Lines were very long, but the selection was great and I bought two pairs of capris for the warm weather we are experiencing here.  “Back in my day” we called them pedal-pushers, remember?

Last week Jan Moore invited several of us ladies over to her rig to learn Facebook and Windows Live Writer. 
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I found out Facebook could take over your life if you let it.  You see your friends, and then friends of your friends and you start “writing on their Wall” and get answers back from friends of friends of friends…oh, my it can be very time consuming.

But I do like Live Writer, especially being able to compose a blog post while offline and then just publish it and it goes right into your blog.  Plus you can do some really cool things with the photos, tables to put photos and descriptions in, and albums are a lot easier to create than in Picasa.

Gretchen and Bob Mattison, Boomerville hosts, are making pancakes a couple of times a week out here.

CIMG3485 CIMG3487 The best part of the breakfast is the syrup is warm!  Yesterday they made blueberry pancakes – yummoooo!

We had our first potluck Sunday with a brunch.  Oh, my what wonderful dishes from potatoes O’Brien to quiche to spaghetti. The normal large circle around the campfire became many smaller more intimate circles of friends to eat.  It was very nice.

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After brunch several truckloads of folks took off for the Desert Bar outside of Parker, AZ, and five miles inland on dirt roads that you think are going to nowhere.  Then all of a sudden there is this oasis of activity at an old mine that was converted to a bar. They are only  opened on Saturday and Sundays from noon to 5pm because they only have solar which is used for refrigeration of food and sound system for the live bands.  This weekend there seemed to be more “seniors” than when we were here two years ago. Click on “view full album” to see all the photos.

Going passed Parker we saw this really neat grove of palm trees.CIMG3504

Well, now I need to “publish” this Live Writer posting and hope it goes into blogspot ok.  Remember you are loved.  OK….hold on…pick up your feet…here goes.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Boomerville Starts

Today was the first official day of Boomerville (Escapee sub-group called Boomers meeting in Quartzsite is called Boomerville). We have 65 rigs were here for the first day. We will have about 150 rigs totally, but with rigs coming and going. Some rigs, like us, will stay the whole two weeks, while others stay a few days or a week.

Today was very, very windy with gusts up to 40 MPH, so some of the guys took refuge in front of our rig as it blocked the wind. I took this photo from the kitchen window.
The wind was so fierce they had to move our welcoming tent to in front of another rig to keep everything from blowing away.

Jim went to town to help set up the American Land & Leisure booth, but most of the work was already done by the morning shift; but Jim did get to talk with Gary Huntington the Personnel Manager, and that was good.

We had our daily Happy Hour, which for Escapees is their social get together time to greet new arrivals and make announcements of upcoming events. Tomorrow there will be a Women's Talk time, a talk on solar panels for rvs and another on catalytic heater installation in rvs. Jim will go to both of them.

We are also having a visit from Niki and Mike so they can see our rig which we purchased since we last saw them. That will be fun! We love having them around us again.

Remember, you are loved!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Friendships Renewed

Last night we got a call from our FIRST rv friends, Mike and Niki Brundin. They had just arrived in Quartzsite and wanted to see us. Their coming to Quartzsite this year was a big reason we decided to come here also. We really, really wanted to see them again.


Niki and Mike want to meet us for dinner at Taco Mio. It was a great reunion of friends and great food.


They were the camphosts at Upper Beaver back in the summer of 2006 and we were still working and spent our weekends with them camping. Conversations came around to defining "fulltime rving" to us as we had never heard of it before. Then we asked the USUAL first question "how do you get your mail?" then "how do you.......?" to a million other questions we had. They even opened up their budget to us so we can see how it is possible for even a normal, blue collar working couple to become fulltime rvers.


Niki patiently answered all my questions and Mike showed us all the "stuff" we would need to boondock like blue boys, water pumps to pump out the "bladder" of water, the best levelers, wheel chocks, etc.


This went on all summer, every weekend. By being there for us and answering all our sometime lame questions, Niki and Mike were responsible for our becoming fulltime rvers!!!!! Thank you again, Mike and Niki for all you have done for us. We will be FOREVER indebted to you for this wonderful gift of the fulltime rv lifestyle!!!

Bisbee, Tucson, Queen Valley, AZ

We drove from Deming to Huachuca, AZ and stayed at Quail Ridge RV Parkfor two days; it being a Passport America entity we got in for $16 a night. We parked right next to Bob and Kathy Burns who we knew from Escapees Colorado Chapter 2 Rally last spring in Colorado City...Bob led a workshop on geocaching. Happy hour commenced at 4 pm out in the warm, warm Arizona sun. Although there were some issue going on in the park with the lease holder being fired by the owners, the park itself is extremely nice and well maintained.

We wanted to show Bill and Lesle Bisbee and to see our friends Laurie and Odel who were also in Bisbee; but alas, Laurie threw out her back and their cat, Luna, got sick and Odel had to take her to the vet so we missed seeing them....they are on their way East.

Bisbee is an old mining town and only as old mining town can be, it is full of history and charm. For our Colorado followers, Bisbee is like Creede, but on a larger scale.

After reading Laurie's description of the Bisbee Breakfast Club (BBC) we were excited to try it out and it sure did NOT disappoint. Low keyed and on a quiet street, the BBC on a Saturday is a rocking place, full to capacity and for a good reason....the food is fabulous!!! We got there for lunch and I had the special hamburger with cheddar cheese and a chipolte-mango salsa....my, my, my! Lesle had an specialty omlette with the biggest biscuit I've ever seen all served by this big biker dude, pony-tailed and dressed all in black named, Darrell. His lingo matched his lifestyle and we had a delightful time with him and his comments.












Look at the coconut cream pie Jim and I devoured!

Bisbee is a tourist type town with a wonderful mining museum part of which is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute.
There is also a great mining tour, etc. We saw this car with its personalized expressions. Isn't it grand!!!!!















Bill and Lesle decided to stay for the rest of the week, so Jim and I took off for Tucson and our much loved BLM land south of town on San Joaquin and Ajo Way. We were so happy to see our friend, Les Buffham was already there and he and Jim had a great time catching up. Les came over later that night and played us some of his new songs and poems. Les is a renown cowboy poet and has been named Cowboy Poet of the Year several times. He is a character and so much fun to be around. We came at the right time for Les as he had a doctor's appointment at the VA and they put him in the hospital for two days. Luckily we were there and watched over his rig.

We renewed our friendship with Jim and Marcia Cumberland whom we first met at the Gypsy Journal Rally in Casa Grande in 2007 as both Jims were participants of the Cactus Queen Beauty Contest....neither won, however; and then we met again in 2008 in Coffeyville, KS, working for amazon.com. Jim is a storyteller and an aspiring to be a skinny Santa Claus thus the growing beard and Marcia is a talented writer. We had lunch while at Snyder Hill and enjoyed talking the afternoon away.

We met another couple at Snyder Hill, Joel and Barbara, from Oregon. They checked out the sights during the day and we had happy hour at 4 pm and it lasted till 8 pm and never ate dinner either night, but we sure had fun and Joel makes the BEST pico de gallo. We ate up a whole pint of the glorious stuff. Joel and Barbara are Escapees and on their way to Quartzsite also, but weren't going to be with anyone else, so we invited them to become Boomers and join us in the desert. They agreed and will be here this week.














Lesle and Bill drove up to Tucson one day and we all went out to La Fuente Mexican Restaurant on Oracle Road for lunch. If you read other rvers' blogs you would have already heard about La Fuente, the best pink and purple Mexican restaurant in Tucson!















I spent our week in Tucson knitting and reading. I really enjoy Fern Michaels' series called The Sisterhood - strong charactered and professional women who have experienced injustices by the law and take revenge through masterful plot. There are about 10-12 books in the series now and I bought the last two and enjoyed sitting out in the sun and reading. I also finished up a hat for Knots-Of-Love.org It is an organization that provide hats for chemo patients undergoing treatment. Last year I knitted 12 hats for my dear friend, Lory, when she went through treatment for breast cancer and I know how much it meant to her to have a soft, warm hat to cover her head, especially to sleep. I have knitted numerous ribbed caps for newborns at hospital nurseries as a project of the Escapees, but I wanted to do something more creative.

We spent some time looking at a 34 foot, three slide, 2005 Discover America Hitchhiker at Beaudry RV Sales, but after two days of looking and thinking we passed as we found a stress crack on the corner of one of the living room slides.....dang-----and the price was right too!!!!!!

We also enjoyed lunch two days in a row at good, ole In-N-Out Restaurants. If you haven't heard of them before they serve ONLY hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hand cut French fries, shakes and soda pop.....period....nothing else. But boy do they succeed in those!!

Last Friday we drove from Tucson to Queen Valley to visit our friends Dave and Marie Dengate, whom we met at the Colorado Boomerang summer of 2008, and subsequently this last summer when they volunteered at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. They bought a park model at Queen Valley RV Resort a couple of years ago and although they will be coming to Quartzsite in a couple of days, we wanted to see Queen Valley and their place. The park is very, very nice with many activities and a beautiful community center with pool, two hot tubs, large barbeque area, activity rooms, etc. I got sick Saturday afternoon and spent the evening in bed with chills. But Sunday we enjoyed the company of some of the Dengates friends and went out for pizza with a bunch of them.










And look at the gorgeous PURPLE cacti we saw on the property.

One of the friends came in on Saturday and LAVONNA did the driving as she said her husband was a better navigator then she was. Boy did I admire the way she whipped that big Hitchhiker back into their site.

I told Jim "I use to be brave and assured. Now I'm just a little, old lady!" Then during the evening Jim made a comment about spending money for me to take rv driving lessons and not driving the rig since that day........sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

On Monday we drove - scratch that I, yes, I DROVE the rig from Queen Valley, THROUGH Phoenix on I-10 and 17 to Quartzsite; about a 3 hour drive. I did it fine. I did ask Jim to do the refueling at the truck stop, and he thought he would be driving after getting diesel.....but oh, no, Mama got back behind the wheel and we took off. Jim paid me the greatest compliment by closing his eyes and actually going to sleep...taking a little nap as I drove!!! Know that was something.

So we arrived in Boomerville outside of Quartzsite about 2 pm and were warmly greated by those first ten rigs here. In a couple of days there will be 150 rigs assembled, believe it or not. Jim lite the bbq grill and we enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner with Bill and Lesle.Watching the stars "pop" out at night was a special wonder out here in the desert, far from the lights of any city. Oh, I am so happy out here in Quartzsite.

Well, dear friends, it has been three hours to get these last 11-12 days caught up on the blog, but it is done now, thankfully!

Oh, one more photo I found while driving down Oracle Road in Tucson. What do you think goes on it there??????

Remember, you are loved!