The Best Part of Quartzsite

FRIENDS!

Everyone who comes to Quartzsite is there because of Sue and Dan from Kernville, CA and "The Ranch" in Wyoming. We all either know and love them or know others who know and love them.
(We first met them when Mike worked at the INDY 500 and have been friends ever since)

Barbie (Sue's sister) and John from Pine Top, CA - John had throat cancer this past year but is doing well now - what a blessing!
Bonnie (has known Sue since elementary school) and Barry from Tucson.

Larry (kids went to school with Dan and Sue's kids) from Sparks, Nevada
Renee and Angelo (longtime friends of Dan and Sue) from the LA area - Angelo had a tough couple of years and it was great to see them back!

Lael and Doug (friends of ours from MN) spent a couple of days and they both seemed to enjoy the bookstore... (Paul is definitely giving Lael the eye!)

(yes, he did lift the flap)
Karen and Mike (neighbors of Dan and Sue at "The Ranch") from Mojave Valley, CA and Farmington, NM

Diane and Tud (Mike worked with him at Geldners years ago) from Battle Lake, MN

Bobbi and David were introduced to the group last year. This year they bought a new motorhome while at Quartzsite and will soon be fulltimers.


Colin (longtime friend of Dan and Sue) and Cathy, from Lake Havasu, were there with two couples who are friends. (Colin is in the plaid and Cathy is talking to Bonnie in the 2nd picture)


Of all the many activities and events and shenanegans, the salute ranked near the top. Barry bought a Marine flag and proudly mounted it on his coach. Someone (to remain unnamed) snuck over and replaced it with a Navy flag and then gathered the vets for a salute ... only then did Barry notice the change. Seems there is some rivalry between the Marines and those who were in the Navy...

And then later, Mike brought out the Army flag...
Sunday night the group had diminished to 6 couples. As we sat around the campfire, we were approached by a young gal who introduced herself as a reporter from CBS. She asked permission to film us for a story on RVers that will aire next Wednesday on the morning show. We were not interviewed, only filmed as we sat and talked and enjoyed the fire... who knows if it will make it to the show, but it was yet another new Quartzsite experience.

(Oh, and Barry's copper hose stuff in the fire was a hit, too!) See the face in this fire picture???

Quartzsite in the Rear View Mirror

Well, the annual gathering in the desert is over for another year. As usual, it met expectations! This was either our 8th or 9th year of enjoying the excesses of shopping, food and dust... lots of dust this year... we both spent most of yesterday cleaning and washing and washing and cleaning. Then, last night, we joined Sue and Dan for dinner at a clean and dustfree spot in Indio, CA - we have been to Mario's several times in the past few years and always find good food and Chianti.

(Bonnie bought this shirt at Q this year)

My pictures from this year's experience spotlight some of the standbys in the desert.

Joann's Fry Bread is the BEST!

Flags, traffic, and a shortage of parking spaces,

different spots every day,
and must haves.

If you can't find it at the oldest swap meet, it probably does not exist!

This couple is ready to be done with it all - 50% off everything.

If it is too old to be useable, it must be art... or not!

This one is kinda cute... I could maybe plant something in the bucket...

Old Quartzsite is still there... but it diminishes every year so I decided to take some pics this year. The old general store with the mountainside Q. This old gas station has seen its better days.

I don't know what story this old building tells.

Love this area!

The Camel Stop was the first post office in town - you can still see the lettering on the building.

This year the town has new signs... I hope they keep the old as they continue to evolve.

Doctors and Dentists and Barney Oldfield... Oh My...

Sorry I haven't updated for a few weeks; it has been an interesting time...

Somewhere around the middle of December, I awoke a couple of different times in the middle of the night with pressure on my chest (no, it wasn't Mike getting fiesty). I would get up, walk around a bit and after an hour or so it would go away and I would go back to sleep. Well, one particular night, it didn't go away and Mike took me to the Emergency room at the Apache Junction Hospital at 2 am. EKG and blood work were normal but they wanted to keep me and do a stress test the next day.

Noon the next day came, I was sick of waiting and decided to go home with the tests scheduled for another day. On the 23rd, I went in to the clinic for the stress test only to be told (after waiting in a little room for 30 minutes) that they didn't do a nuclear stress test there - I needed to schedule it for the Gilbert Clinic.

On the 27th, I go for a nuclear stress and stress echo test in Gilbert and it is "abnormal" and I am scheduled for a angiogram the next day. OK, you can imagine what that night was like. In between telling Mike where to find my life insurance information, I cried and prayed.


On the morning of our 21st Wedding Anniversary, I report to the hospital sure that awful things were going to be discovered and life would be drastically altered. Two hours later we were on our way home with good news - no blockages, no artery problems... I just have a heart that "spasms" occasionally. (No jokes about being spastic, please ). No meds, no concerns. All is good!

We did manage to work in a couple of games of golf with Sis and Mike (Mankato area friends) and dinner a few times and even a few evenings of cards before leaving for Yuma on January 1st.

Once we get to Yuma, we head for the dentist in Mexico and begin the many days of making the trip across the border as Mike is getting some major (and much needed) dental work done. So far all is going well for him and I have finished 2 books in waiting rooms. We shopped around and Mike had exams by three different doctors before deciding where to have the work done. Next week Monday will be another trip over the border for two crowns and then on Thursday, we head over with Bonnie and Barry. We may learn Spanish if we aren't careful - anyway, we are stocking up on hooch!

We haven't really done much, except eat soup, so yesterday we decided to take a drive and look at crops... Instead of turning right unto the I8, we headed north and immediately saw this on the GPS.

If any of you are old time racing fans, you will recognize the name Barney Oldfield. Mike tells me he raced at the MN State Fair. He drove an old open wheeled race car and was well known in the 40's and 50's. We figured he must have spent some time in the area and maybe even used some of these backroads as practice area. Anyway, off we go.

We have stayed at Pilot Knob RV Resort at least once every winter for 6 years and never knew why the park had the name... now we know!
I am not really too sure why this little area is known as sidewinder pass or why someone decided it was the end of the world... although the town of Felicity, The Geographic Center of the World, is just a mile or so away... but that story has already been told.

And then another mile and there was this...

Those are religious statues on posts and the area is very neat and well cared for... but we have no idea as to its significance. A pile of beautiful Quartz and an angel statue in the middle

and various other statues around in two perfect circles... there has to be some significance...

As if that isn't enough weird stuff, check out this desert home.

At this point, we hadn't traveled more than 4 or 5 miles. The rest of the trip was more typical desert trails. The ocotillo are even flowering, seems early but there has been some moisture this year so I suppose they think it is spring. That is an old mine in the background.

Barney's "highway" deteriorated in some spots.

It felt good to be back in the desert with the mountains looming in the background.

When we got close to the canal (where campers enter this BLM land), the trail actually became a divided "highway" for a mile or so.
Once we were across a narrow canal, we were in farm country and the scenery was vastly different.

Fields of vibrant red

lettuce.
And green heads of lettuce
in fields stretching as far as the eye could see.

And newly planted fields. That is the bus that picks up workers in Mexico at 5 every morning.

And long rows of dark green

broccoli.


A field that was just picked
still has some good looking cauliflower




And everywhere you look, harvest is taking place.
Mexican day laborers hard at work

at back-breaking jobs that American workers don't want.

The crops are looking good!

Till later...