There was a big rain on December 22 that lasted most of the day but the sun did peak out a couple times and there was a full double rainbow in the sky. Pretty impressive sight.

I had been chatting with Keith Schneider…a friend from Ontario who was planning to come down to Arizona. He was originally planning to leave Ontario after Christmas but decided to head out earlier. He arrived and joined our group on Saturday the 23rd. I met him down at the I-8 ramp and he followed me to the rest area to get water and then he followed me back into the BLM to our area. Travelling along with Keith is his dog Oreo. Keith has a new to him toy hauler trailer so he was able to bring his Quad and some airplanes. He is an avid RC flyer

We had a great Christmas with our group. On Christmas Eve John and Brenda joined us for Happy Hour and we all contributed to putting out a nice spread of food to enjoy. I had make some butter tarts and some fresh bread that morning. There were meatballs, dips, crackers, cheese and various other delights.

Christmas morning was just Kim and I opening our presents together. Later in the morning we had Mimosas with our group. We then had Christmas Dinner all together. I made the turkey and the stuffing. I was able to squeeze 14 lb. turkey into our small oven in the motorhome. It turned out great. Kim did the turnip (rutabaga). Deb K. and Riley contributed the mashed potatoes and Deb D. made a green bean casserole and extra stuffing. There was a lot of food and it was delicious. Can’t forget the apple pie for dessert provided by Deb K. I think we were too hungry to take any pictures….at least I don’t have any.

We also had a bit of a New Year’s Eve celebration at happy hour. Snacks and hors d’oeuvres and some champagne. As the evening began we sat around a nice bonfire for a few hours. We didn’t quite make it to midnight but it was close enough for me.  On New Years Day, Deb D. treated us to what she calls Meat Pie but what we would also know as Tourtiere. Deb’s family going back, have roots in Quebec and her meat pie was a family tradition during the Christmas Holidays. It tasted fantastic! 

I’ve been making a daily trip into the various washes around us; originally to search for gold (with no luck I might add) but I’ve been bringing back an assortment of rocks. I’ve got quite a collection now and I’ll have to decide on just a few to take with us when we leave the area.

Since Keith arrived he’s been out on his quad quite a few times. We are very close to the dunes so he has been over there a few times. The week leading up to New Year’s there was a huge influx of people into the dunes area. Lots of Toy Hauler trailers and Rv’s of various types. There is large gathering in the Glamis area every New Year’s and I guess this year was quite large.

Keith has let me go out on his quad a few times and although at first I was a little hesitant I have quite enjoyed it. I head toward the mountains and there are all kinds of trails and washes to explore. There is a working Gold Mine very near us and I’ve travelled around that area quite a bit.

This past Tuesday, Tom and I drove over to San Diego to tour the USS Midway museum. I was there on our last trip south with Bill Richards and Keith but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to return. I thought Tom might be interested since he is a Navy veteran. We left about 7:30 CST in the morning to arrive at the pier at around 9:30 PST. We arrived just before 9:30 and put in time on the pier before the gate opened at 10:00. Across the harbour at the Naval Base, 2 other aircraft carriers were docked. No. 72 is the USS Abraham Lincoln, and No. 71 is the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Roosevelt was used in the filming of Top Gun. It’s a great tour if you ever get the chance.

Tom took me out for a ride in his jeep yesterday and we went exploring. Our destination was an old copper vein in the mountains where the rocks have oxidized and have that blue patina. We picked up a few rocks and spent a little time climbing and exploring the area. Next on the agenda was a spot where there was a large amount of quartz on the side of the mountain. Tom had been there before but wasn’t quite sure where it was so we just travelled around, exploring various trails until we finally found the one leading to the quartz. I also picked up a few large chunks of quartz. Tom got out his new metal detector and searched the sides of the hill and the washes to see if could find anything interesting (gold). No luck on the gold but we did find quite a few shell casings and a pop top. We spent about 4 1/2 hours all together out there.

The time has come now to head back to Quartzsite. The area will have begun to get quite busy I’m sure. People will be arriving from now until the big RV show starts in a little less than 2 weeks. We want to find a spot now before it gets too crowded. We’ll be heading back to the Roadrunner BLM. Our plan is to move on Tuesday. Kim and I and Keith will move then and Tom and Deb will move later this week. Deb K. and Riley will be staying here in Ogilby Rd.

Again you’re all caught up. Until next time.

A little added bonus today……. sunsets in the desert

Well the time has come again to fill you in on what’s been happening down here in Southwest Arizona. I’ll just let you know what we’ve been up to since the last post. 

On Thursday the 30th of November, the 6 people remaining in our group packed ourselves into Deb K’s truck to travel south for the day to go to Los Algodones, Mexico for a few hours and do a little shopping in Yuma. We left reasonably early since it was a 90 minutes to the border with Mexico. As I’ve related in other blogs, when going to Los Algodones you park your car in a parking lot on the USA side and walk across the border checkpoint. There is no screening when going to Mexico but on the way back you have to clear the border checkpoint. It’s never a problem but sometimes the line returning to the USA can be long and we have waited in line for quite some time in the past. We spent our time in Mexico doing a little shopping and stopped for lunch at El Paraiso. Before leaving Mexico we stopped and picked up a few things at one of the Pharmacies. Many things there are much cheaper than buying at home or the US. 

I took one afternoon to drive around some of the trails in the desert near us. There is one kind of main trail that follows the gas line called…… Pipe Line Road. The Equinox (that’s our car) did pretty good through the bumpy terrain, down and up through the washes. The AWD was able to handle pretty much everything.  It was a fun ride, but on the last wash my front clearance wasn’t high enough and I scraped the bottom of the front fascia as I was coming up out of the wash. Bummer…. No serious damage just cosmetic. 

A few days later Tom took me out for a ride in his Jeep. We headed over to the mountains on the west side of the La Posa area. We spent a couple hours travelling all kinds of trails and the Jeep was more than able to handle it. It certainly has a lot more clearance than the Equinox.

We weren’t many more days near Quartzsite before we all moved down to the Yuma area. There is a BLM area west of Yuma in California that is on Ogilby Rd. that our friends like to stay at, and that is where we headed to. The move happened on December 5th. It’s a nice area and Kim and I hadn’t been there before. Where we are staying is about 6 miles north off of I-8, close to the Imperial Dunes on the west and is bordered by the Cargo Muchachos mountains on the north. It’s about a 15 minute drive into Yuma. There are just a few Rver’s in our area with lots of space between us and any neighbours. As I’ve mentioned before BLM land is Federal government owned land that, in many areas, RVers are allowed to dry camp on. There are no services like electricity and water. So in our case at Ogilby Rd., there is a Chevron Gas station about 4 miles east on I-8 that has a dump station where we can dump our holding tanks for a fee ..$15.  So we drive there every 10 days or so to dump our tanks. After that we drive 4 miles west of Ogilby Rd. to a rest area that has water. That’s where we fill our fresh water tank. It is a bit of an inconvenience, no doubt, but it is part of the boondocking experience. 

Our days here at Olgilby Road have been pretty laid back. Kim and I did a little Christmas shopping for each other. We’ve done the normal routine type things like grocery shopping and laundry and those types of things. We went to the Arizona market one Thursday morning. Most of us have fallen victim to a cold bug that one of us (me) picked up somewhere. We’re all mostly past it now. 

We met some new friends at one of our happy hours on December 12…. John and Brenda Brown. They are Albertans who spend their winters in Arizona as well. I met John on our first trip to Arizona around January 2019 at a blogger fest in La Posa South. We visited Mexico again with John and Brenda on the 15th of December.

On the 17th of December some of us travelled to Welton, which is east of Yuma to do do a little trail riding. We drove to Elva and Gerry Shannon’s place in the morning. After a short visit Gerry took Deb K. and I in his Jeep and Tom and Deb D. were in their Jeep and we headed off on the trails to our first stop at the Naked Date. This is a restaurant south of Welton that serves light fare and has Date Shakes. I had never had a date shake before so I was eager to try one. They are fantastic. After a quick bite we were off again. We headed off through the desert on various trails and Gerry took us back to the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range. This is an active Air Force facility so you have to stay on the trails and you must have a permit to enter. Our first stop in the range was at Baker Tanks. This is a natural formation of rock that captures water during periods of rain and is able to contain it and the coolness of the rock helps to avoid as much evaporation. Still water in them. Eventually we came to a spot that had a few old Tanks that you could have a look at. I climbed one to get a good look. It was a lot easier to do this stuff when I was a little younger. It was a great excursion and I appreciated that Gerry was willing to take us out.

I’m going to end my update right here as it was getting quite long.  The second part of the update will get posted later today or tomorrow. Stayed tuned. Don’t panic…. it’s pretty much done….I won’t make you wait for another month….