Here we are, on the road: We’re in Quartzsite, Arizona

Sunday, January 23, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Hello once again from Quartzsite, AZ. We are parked here in La Posa South with about 50 plus Tiffin Motor Homes and a variety of Some Other Brands or “SOB”. We came here on Thursday from Palm Desert. While the weather here has been great, it is quite a bit cooler than in Palm Desert, with the highs in the mid 60s, with lows down to the lower 40s.

We are here for the annual motor home show held here every year, with thousands of other motor homes that come to the desert to dry camp, some for as few as a day or two up to weeks or even months. We must be crazy like the rest of those attending the goings on here, because we enjoy doing this once a year. Now mind you, I still like having 50 amp, water and sewer, but I can do this week here at Q for the enjoyment we get in seeing some old friends and making new ones. Sacrifices have to be made, sometimes for the common good.

This past week was more of the same. Sunday we spent a quiet day home, watching the Seahawks lose.

Monday was going to be a girl’s day out, but it didn’t quite make it. The gals had other things going on and I never got together with them until late in the day. The guys, Rob & Rick and the gals, Dorothy, Melissa, Joy and Norma joined Chuck and me for a late lunch at the buffet at Augustine Casino. We played a bit, and then headed over to Shields Date Farm and Store so Norma could get some dates and date shakes. We spent a quiet evening home after that.

The next morning found me headed over to Wal-Mart to get my hair done. My goodness that place was jumping; the 3 workers had at least 10 people waiting in line to get their hair cuts, colored and perms the entire time I was there.

I have decided I need to find a new gal to do my hair whenever we are back in the Palm Springs area, since the hair dresser changed my formula again. The last time she turned it too orange while this time she made it too dark. Thank goodness my hair grows fast.

When she was finished, I did my shopping for coming to the desert here. I think everyone else who was coming to Q had the same idea because it was so packed in the grocery part of the store that even some of the shelves were empty of your basic food items. Chuck and I spent another quiet evening in.

Wednesday morning found Chuck and I headed out to Costco for the rest of our supplies for Quartzsite. We finished up and took the groceries home.

We decided we wanted to go to the Salton Sea, about an hour away from us, since we hadn’t been there before. We enjoyed a nice drive there on a sunny, warm day.

When we arrived at the visitor center at the Salton Sea we got out and were overwhelmed by the smell of rotting fish. We walked on over to the edge of the water and saw lots of dead fish with lots of birds feeding on the fish.

We headed inside the visitor center to learn that there had been a huge fish kill two days earlier from the water temperature turning so cold, below 60 degrees. The hosts said the fish were Tilapia, a warm water fish from Africa, and that there were 10,000,000 fish in the lake there.

We watched a short movie on the history and formation of the Salton Sea. I was surprised to learn that the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California, and sits directly on the San Andreas Fault Line. Like Death Valley, it is below sea level; currently, its surface is 226 ft below sea level. There are 400 different bird species that have been spotted there on the lake. We learned a lot of information in a very short time and enjoyed our visit there.

From there we decided to head on down to try and find Slab City. We knew it was close to Niland, CA, but we didn’t know where. We went too far by one town, and then stopped to ask how to get there. We found it after we stopped a second time to ask for better directions.

We were surprised by what we saw. Slab City is “The Last Free Place.” Squatters and snowbirds have taken up roost at an old, abandoned military base, once called the Marine Barracks Camp Dunlop. It was shut down back in 1961. Some military servicemen remained after the base closed, and people have been living there ever since. There is no charge for parking or camping. There is no running water or electricity. Just the slabs from the old military buildings remain. Most of the campsites are marked with a trailer – other sites just have piles of junk strewn about. Some trailers are well kept and others not well kept at all. One hill side where the caves are is painted boldly.

Chuck had commented on a run down looking trailer/rv park on the way to Slab City. On the way out Chuck made another comment saying that those old, run down rigs in the trailer/rv park looked good after seeing the ones in Slab City. You just never know what you will see on the road.

On the way back home Chuck dropped me off at Casino 29. We were meeting Rob/Norma, Rick/Joy, Tom/Dorothy and Melissa for the dinner buffet. All of them except us and Tom/Dorothy had vouchers for a free buffet dinner. They wanted to use it before we all left the area. We all met up and enjoyed a wonderful meal together before we left the Palm Springs area the next day.

Thursday we were on the road by 10 am. I really enjoyed our time there in the Palm Springs area and look forward to going there again.

We were into Quartzsite by 2 pm, I forgot we were loosing an hour heading east and going into Mountain Time.

We were happy to see our friends, Richard/Patsy, Mark/Sue, and Steve/Sandy when we arrived. We set up the rig and visited a bit before heading out to dinner with Richard/Patsy and Steve/Sandy. Dinner was at The Grubsteak where we all had a good dinner with tons of food.

We got back home and Chuck and I headed over to see other friends from Yuma, TJ and Sharon. Chuck had a call from TJ at dinner, and said we would try to visit them before they left for back home. They were here at Q with Larry and Kathy and 3 other friends, just down the road from us. They came up from Yuma to ride their ATM’s and explore the area. They had a nice campfire going and we enjoyed a nice visit. We’ll see you all next week in Yuma.

Friday found us getting out of here after a slow start. We went over to explore the “junk/antique” area of Q. with Richard/Patsy, Steve/Sandy and Mark. Sue stayed home painting the name signs you put on your rig, for her various clients for orders she took here at Q.

The guys took off one way while the gals stayed together going the other way. We got a call from Chuck, asking if we wanted to head over to another area. We wanted to go so headed back to the cars.

Well, when we arrived, we learned Richard had locked his car keys in the car. We decided we would take Richard back to his rig to get his spare keys. Patsy, Mark, Richard and I rode back with Chuck; Chuck dropped us off and took Richard back to get his car.

We are here at Quartzsite with the Tiffin Forum Group. Most of the people here have a Tiffin built motor home, but there are other types of rigs here too. The first scheduled event was a “Meet and Greet”. Four o’clock came and everyone showed up for fellowship, good food and visiting. The organizer started us off with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Two fires were started when it started cooling off.

When it became too cold for me we headed into the rig for a nice game of “Pass the Love” with Steve and Sandy.

Saturday we head off to the big tent with Richard/Patsy, Steve/Sandy and us. Again the guys and gals split up. The big tent was packed with everyone that came to see and enjoy Quartzsite. We finished up and headed back to the rigs, none the worse for the wear.

Everyone rested since the Potluck Dinner was the scheduled event for the evening. Again everyone enjoyed a great meal with too much food and great fellowship.

When it started getting cold, the gals, Patsy, Sue, Sandy, Joan, Joy, Norma and I came to our rig and played “Pass the Love”. Sue told us another way to play a shorter game which we did with everyone having a lot of fun.

So that has been our week. I would like to wish my niece, Ashley a very Happy Birthday on Tuesday; also, my nephew, Carl a very Happy Birthday on Saturday.

Until next time……Lorraine

1/23/11 Chuck’s report

Wow, another busy week, I just can’t seem to get this retired, slower lifestyle down I guess. But I’m working on it, I hope to have lots of practice.

We started last week with us still at 1000 Trails in Palm Springs. We were able to watch the Seahawks play their playoff game which they lost to the Chicago Bears. The Seahawks didn’t play a very good first half and by then they were out of the game, shoot, maybe next year.

Monday we spent time with our friends, went to the buffet at Augustine Casino then to Shields Date Farm. Shields has been in business for over 100 years growing and producing dates from the palm trees. They have a store where you can buy lot of date type items, other food stuff, tourist trap junk and such. And of course, they have an ice cream fountain where you can by a date shake, very good by the way.

Tuesday cleaning day around the coach once again. Lorraine wanted to get all of our clothes washed before we headed to Quartzsite as we wouldn’t have any utility hookups there. She then took off to her hair appointment and I continued cleaning up while she was gone, even to point of giving our dog a bath.

Wednesday we made a trip to Costco to get the last of our supplies for our week in Quartzsite, we’ve learned from experience to bring what we need, there aren’t any grocery stores or such here.

Later we drove down to the Salton Sea, home of the largest lake in California we found out. This lake is below sea level so it’s very salty but there are lots of fish in it and LOTS of birds around it. They had a huge fish kill two days before we got there and the place was smelly but still we were able to walk around and we learned quite a bit about it from a movie and the hosts at the visitor’s center.

We’ve heard about Slab City for a few years, an old military base where folks stay. They call it the last free spot because the isn’t anyone in charge, no city or county government to bother them and they have a free life. Some of the folks seem to be down and out and their places show it. Others have nicer rigs and seem to be more snowbirds type, just there for a place to park their rigs without any interference from officials. I will try to add some pictures of the place but they don’t show it off very well. After visiting here, I’m glad we don’t have to live there, that’s for sure.

Thursday we got on the road, headed for Quartzsite. We’ve been here before, this makes it four years in a row we’ve come here for RV week. In the past we’ve stayed with a different group, this year we decided to stay with a group of Tiffin owners. There are supposed to be almost 60 rigs here and I would say we are close to that, we’re spread out and cove a big area.

When we got here and set up, we visited with some of our friends who were already hear, Mark/Sue, Richard/Patsy and Steve/Sandy. We also met lots of others, many who’s name escapes me but all nice folks. Later we went to dinner with the above named friends and had a very good time visiting and eating. It’s been awhile since we’ve all been together as not all of them were here last year and therefore everyone had some catching up to do.

Later we drove over to visit with our friends, TJ/Sharon and Larry/Kathy, who came in from Yuma to ride their four wheelers and do Quartzsite for their first time. They are planning on leaving today but I haven’t heard if they’ve changed their plans or not. But in any case, we will see them in a week when we head to Yuma.

Friday we took tow car loads of folks into town to “shop” on of the areas. This place, Tyson Wells, is mostly vendors set up for the season, lots of rocks, gems and such, clothes, tools but mostly junk. When we got ready to leave, it seems Richard had locked his keys in his car so we made a quick run home, dropped of some folks, picked up his keys and then everyone got a ride back to the campsite. Richard was pretty good about the whole thing and promised to buy us all dinner for any inconvenience he may have cause us, (at least that’s what I’m sure I heard him say.) I don’t know when he is planning this big event but I’m sure he will let us know.

That night we had a Meet and Greet here at the campsite. Everyone brought some food, we lined up and had a prayer and said the pledge of allegiance then loaded up our plates and ate. Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy were staying in Ehrenburg at a campground but they happened to stop by to find us just about the time we lined up to eat they were able to join with us, meet some of the folks and find out where they would park the next day when they moved over to here.

Saturday we headed over to the “tent” along with what seems to be 100,000 other people, it was crowded. We only stayed there for a few hours, didn’t buy much but did look around and see who was there. It was too crowed to do much shopping as most of the vendors we were interested in had folks standing three deep, waiting their turn to talk, get information or buy whatever. We quickly had enough and came back to the coach to get ready the evening’s affair, a pot luck with all the folks staying here with the TRVN group. That’s Tiffin RV Network, an internet site with a forum and such, set up for Tiffin owners and anyone else interested in learning about Tiffin Motorhomes. It was from this forum that we all got together here.

So once again we had a good meal and a great time visiting with friends, both old and new ones. It’s tough to meet and talk with all the people here but we are sure trying to at least say Hi and shake their hands. Everyone has been nice and friendly and very supportive. Sure a good group of people here, that’s for sure.

This morning they have it set up for anyone who wants to, to cook an omelet in a bag. They have some cookers going on, put the eggs and whatever fixings in a seal-able sandwich bag, put the bag in boiling water for 14 minutes then open and eat. We decided not to attend this morning as the wind is blowing and it’s a bit too cool for us but there was a large group that did show up and they said it was worth it, even with the wind blowing. Correction, Lorraine took the bags out and they cooked the eggs and they were good.

Everyone has to run their generators for electricity and their heaters or whatever they have to keep the coaches warm. I think everyone is following the generally accepted practice of observing quiet hours from 10 pm until 6 am, not running their generators or engines during those hours. But boy can you hear them start up at the crack of 6 and by 7 I think almost everyone is running their generator, charging their batteries, running their microwaves and such. We can use everything in the coach, with the generator running, as if we where hooked up to 50 amp power in a campsite. Tiffin’s motto is “Roughing it Smoothly” and that’s what we are attempting to.

This week the weather has been cooler than what we were experiencing in Palm Springs, by about 15 degrees. The highs have in the low 70s, getting down to high 30s at night. We also had some wind the day we arrived and the wind is blowing a bit again this morning, making it feel colder than it really is. The sun, however, is shining brightly and It’s starting to warm up once again, life is good.

We plan on moving over on Monday afternoon to stay with the group we’ve been with the previous three years here. We have friend there we want to visit with and catch up the happening in their lives since we saw them last year. It is amazing how we can see someone a year later and almost start the conversation off where we left it a year ago.

But we will soon have our fill of this boon docking stuff and head out to a campground. We are thinking we will leave on Wednesday, head to Yuma and find a campground there for a couple of weeks. We haven’t spent any time yet trying to figure out where we will stay or make reservations but I’m hoping every place won’t be full. If the number of folks we can see camping out here in the desert and the size of the crowds in town yesterday are any indication, I think there are more people here this year than any year we’ve been here, hopefully because the economy is improving and they are feeling better about things and able to travel more. Only problem with that, if it’s true, there will be more people trying to do what we want to do and you know about supply and demand.

So guess with that, I’ll add some pictures and get this posted. We plan to go to town again this morning and I want to be back in time to watch the NFL divisional championship games this afternoon. Here’s hoping the winds die down and the temperature warms up enough that we can turn on the outside TV and have group over to watch with us. I only have one team I’m rooting for and that’s whoever is playing against the Steelers, in this case that would be the New York Jets. As far as the NFC game goes, I’m just hoping to see a good game played in some cold weather.

The Salton Sea