Quartzsite

January 18, 2009
Lorraines' Report

Sunday night and I’m late in posting for the blog, again. Well, all I have to say for myself is that I have been busy-still. This morning I woke up at 8 am, only to find the coach empty. Chuck had gone out walking with our friend, Dave Hasselberg and forgot to wake me. I needed to be up because I was supposed to make breakfast for our friends here at Quartzsite, AZ. I think there may have been fifteen or so that came. While we were at the FMCA Rally last week, there was a booth that gave out a free bag of waffles and a free bag of pancakes. I kept ours for this week and told our friend Patsy King I would make breakfast for the group. Connie Esparza called last night and offered to bring scrambled eggs. I told her I was doing the waffles, pancakes, sausage patties and an orange/banana fruit cup. So we did breakfast for everyone. I think everyone enjoyed the food and the friendship this fine Sunday morning.

Then everyone headed off to the big tent, hoping it wouldn’t be as crowded as yesterday. Chuck drove us gals over, me, Connie and Patsy King. Then he went his way and we all went ours. It wasn’t as crowded and we had a fun time. Connie and I ended up buying things together at the big tent, taking advantage of the vendor’s offer of lower prices for quantity. I think we both felt like we made out like bandits.

We got back in time for the first football play off game. While the guys watched the game at our coach, the gals went to the King’s coach where we played two games of golf or as we call it “pass the love”. The gals also made food for the guys to eat while watching the game.

We finished in time for 5 o’clock happy hour and enough time to make the food to share for happy hour. We sat around the fire visiting and eating. We saw a beautiful sunset, one of the nicest ones I’ve seen here in the desert. And here I am now, writing for the blog.

This week since last Sunday was spent cleaning up the coach from the Rally, it was filthy; doing laundry for this week, including the rugs, stocking up for this week at Q and trying to catch up on sleep. I slept twelve hours the first day after the Rally, then eleven hours the second day. We were busy with friends, Joe and Alice Morin from Bellingham, WA. We saw them twice, went to dinner with them once, along with Mike and Linda from our group here at Q, (I have to mention that we ran into Linda at a Walmart there in Palm Springs. That was how we all ended up going out to dinner). We went to dinner with Tom and Dorothy Warren, our friends from the Rally. Then it was time to leave to come over here to Quartzsite.

We got into Q on Friday around 1:30 or so and were whisked away by Mark Didelot and Richard King, for shopping before the big influx of people for the opening of the show. We got home around four o’clock and set up our rig, then I got food ready for happy hour.

Man, time sure goes by fast when you’re busy and having fun. I don’t know how I used to do it all when I worked. At least the weather is warm during the day, into the 70’s and down to the low 40’s at night. In this dry climate I have been able to come off one of my heavy duty arthritis medicines, which is good for me.

So until next time, bye for now, take care and I’ll see you down the road….. Lorraine


Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009
Chuck's Report

Once again, it's been a busy week. Last week we were at the FMCA Rally in Indio, left there on Sunday and went to 1000 Trails in Palm Springs. This place was full, only had a couple sites empty each night. Saw lots of motorhomes that were at the Rally, figure they were there for the same reason we were. After spending a week boondocking (camping without hookups) at the fairground, they were ready for some electricity and water.

We spent Monday cleaning the coach, inside and out. It got pretty dusty at the fairgrounds and they allow anyone to wash their rig at their sites. So on Monday I got the top, driver's side and front washed. (Don't want to overwork myself and do it all in one day.) Lorraine cleaned most of the inside on Sunday and finished on Monday, looks good. After that we headed to Super Wal-Mart to restock.

Tuesday I finished washing the outside while Lorraine cleaned out part of her closet. She ended up with a bag for Goodwill and got everything organized. She also had bought some plastic baskets and re-organized one are of the cupboards. You know the drill, a place for everything and everything in it's place. She also took all our throw rugs and bedding to a laundry mat, found a real nice one thanks to Joe and Alice.

Our friends, Joe and Alice came over for a visit on Wednesday. I tried to hook Joe up to our computer but was unable to connect. I called Cradlepoint in Idaho, was on the phone with them for 1/2 hour before they found the problem. That's good service from a company, we got our router a year ago at CHRISTmas and they still provide good service, I like that.

I also worked a bit with Joe, showed him how we do our blog. He said he may start one, I'm looking for it Joe. I know you are going to Costa Rico but expect to see a blog soon after that!!

Wednesday was a quiet day as I remember. We didn't have too much planned for the day so we went to Wal-Mart to stock up for our week in Quartzsite, Az. We happened to bump into Linda at Wal-Mart and made plans for a dinner with Joe and Alice, Mike and Linda and us. We ended up a nice Mexican place and had a good time. We stayed around for awhile and had lots of good conversation with much laughter.

Thursday, I met Joe and Alice in the morning as they were leaving town. They are keeping some stuff we don't want to carry into Mexico, we will see them again later this winter in Yuma. Sad to see them leave, they are good friends and we enjoy being with them.

Thursday evening we made dinner arrangements with Tom and Dorothy Warren. We went to Applebees and found they had surprising good food. We had a nice waitress who flirted with Tom throughout the night. We, once again, enjoyed spending time with them, they may make a day trip over to Quartzsite this week.

Friday morning was moving day for us. We planned on going to Quartzsite, filling our tanks at Flying J and parking with our friends. Just before we were ready to start the engine, the people parked next to us, Fred and Marilyn from British Columbia, wanted to see the inside of our coach. This put us a little behind our self imposed schedule but no problem, it's always nice to visit with people. Then just before we pulled out of the site, Mark Didelot called and wanted to know what time we planned on getting into Q. To make a long story short, Mark, Manuel and Richard were planning on getting into Q by 9:30 on Wednesday last week but they didn't get there until afternoon. One of the people already there gave them and their coaches (they all drive Tiffin brand) a bad time on his blog about being late. I didn't want that to happen to us so I said we would be there around 3 - 3:30, knowing full well we would be early. So when we got there at 1:30, no one was expecting us. They had headed into town and had to return to escort us to our site, my bad. Sorry about the time thing Mark, was trying to protect the Tiffin name, ya' know.

We didn't even set up but headed off to town with Mark and Richard. We met up with their wives and Manuel and Connie Esparza. We spent a couple of hours exploring then heading back to the campsite. We got set up and visited with all our friends, both old and new. I don't have pictures of all the people who are here now, we expect more to show up today and Monday so I will include names and pictures next time I post.

Saturday was an all day affair at the big tent for us. This tent is huge with lots of vendors inside and surrounding it. This week is RV week in Quartzsite so most of the vendors are RV based on their wares. If you want something for a RV, most likely they have it somewhere in Q this week. We looked but didn't buy much, every booth that I was interested in had way to many people there. This place is busy!!

Friday and Saturday afternoon most of the group sat in their chairs and visited until it was time for our 5:00 cocktail hour. Now nobody drinks too much but the ladies bring enough snacks to feed everyone. We sit around a campfire, eating snacks and listening to Richard tell stories. It starts to get dark by 6:30 and cools off so everyone moves a bit closer to the fire and/or head for their coach. By 7:30 most of us called it a night and headed home to our coach.

Sunday morning Lorraine and Connie fixed up a late breakfast for everyone. After breakfast we again went to the big tent for awhile before returning back to watch the NFL playoffs. All of us were we sort of rooting for Arizona vs Philly. Currently we are watching Baltimore play at Pittsburgh, we are rooting for the Ravens.

Picture of Palm Trees at 1000 Trails, Palm Springs. These are all Date Palm trees, each site has at least two trees.

More Palm Trees.

Mike and Linda at dinner on Wednesday.

Joe and Alice at dinner Wednesday.

Lorraine and Chuck at dinner Wednesday night.

Another picture of 1000 Trails from our roof. Lots of people here.

Looking to other direction.

Manuel and Connie Esparza

Mark Didelot and Richard King working on a project. I think they finally had to ask their wives for assistance to figure it out.

Bob Kline and Richard fooling around at one of our 5:00 happy hours.

So that was our week, hope you enjoyed yours too. Most of these folks we met in the past year, seems everywhere we go we find good people. So after our fun filled week, I will say bye for now, 'till next time.

Thanks Chuck