Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Quartzsite Az.

Today was an interesting day as we took a day trip to Quartzsite Az.  Quartzsite is a sleepy little desert town in western Arizona, near the California border.  At least it is sleepy most of the time.  However, when the weather in the north starts to turn cold, snowbirds head south and about 150,000 of them end up camping in Quartzsite.

Normally the population of Quartzsite is around 3500, and taking care of this many visitors for several months every year, has taken some interesting twists and turns.  For a town with 3500 citizens, there is a large number of RV parks or campgrounds here.  They cater to a small number of permanent residents and then fill up during the winter months.  The campgrounds are only a small part of the accomodation picture however.  In addition, the federal government owns thousands of acres of desert land around Quartzsite and thousands of the visitors chose to drive out into the desert, park their RVs, and spend the winter there without any ties to the civilization grid.  A typical "campsite" in the desert looks something like this:

Or this:

Suffice to say amenities are not the strong suit here.  There are several attractions that bring thousands of RVers here to the desert.  The winter weather is generally mild, the government either charges nothing, or very little to stay on the desert land, and the real attractions are the RV show in January that attracts upwards of 1,000,000 people, the hobby craft and gem show in early February, and the Rock and Roll Classic Car show that runs along with the gem show.  All this activity takes place in the "big top", a huge tent erected in Quartzsite just for the purpose of housing this event.  This is an amazing phenomenon that is a "must see" for all true RVers.  Linda and I are thinking that this coming winter is probably going to be our turn.  She actually has her desert "site" already picked out, subject to change of course.

Our purpose today was to scope out the area, and get our feet wet in anticipation of our journey there next fall.  We will keep you posted as we plan this adventure.

It has been a busy and tiring last couple of days.  Our last post was on Sunday and at that time we were in El Paso Texas.  Monday morning, after jousting with Pilot/Flying J, we headed further west, through New Mexico, and into Arizona.  After driving the full width of Texas the previous couple of days, the trip through New Mexico and Arizona was like doing a wind spring, and the miles just rolled by and we found ourselves in Casa Grande Az. by early evening.  Earlier in the day, we had called our friends Byran and Billie who live in Casa Grande during the winter and arranged to have dinner with them Monday night.  Byran suggested we stay at Fiesta Grande RV park in Casa Grande for the night.  This turned out to be a good suggestion, particularly since they have a wonderful dog run area with REAL grass, fenced in, and a bunch of other puppies for them to play with.  Needless to say, Webster and Kassy had a great time playing with their new friends.

We also had a great time with Byran and Billie at their home, with great food and a fun time with all who attended dinner last night.  Linda and I returned to the coach tired, full and relaxed.  Thank you Byran and Billie for hosting us.

Tuesday morning, we go up, took the pups to play, and then packed up in preparation for the short hop up to Phoenix and our destination there, Royal Palm RV Resort.

This is a very nice resort park with all the usual amenities.  Our site is large and we are comfortable.  Tomorrow we are going to drive over to Quartzsite to scope out the territory in anticipation of staying there next winter.

Not everything was wonderful in our world on Sunday as we went round and round with the manager of the Flying J over how they were charging our diesel fuel on our card, but I won't get into that right now.  I will say that it took many phone calls and took until Monday night before Pilot finally got it straightened out.

Nancy Reagan Movie

It has been announced that Jane Fonda will be playing the part of Nancy Reagan in a new movie.  As a Vietnam vet, I have a real problem with the likes of Ms. Fonda playing a true patriot such as the heroic wife of a one of the greatest presidents ever.   I'm certain there will be formal protests of this move and I encourage all to participate in those protests.

Sunday March 25, 2012, West Texas

Today is Sunday, March 25, and sad to say, we had to leave our friends at Scenic View and move on down the highway towards Phoenix Az.

Leaving such a restful and beautiful place is difficult, but we have a schedule to keep on this trip, and so we go. We departed Lone Star TX around 1:30 yesterday and headed west, towards Dallas/Ft. Worth. We are not trying to burn up the highway on this leg, so we ended up in Abilene Tx. last night, staying at our second favorite destination, Flying J, pulling in around 8 PM. We had a bit of a catastrophe yesterday when we stopped at a road side picnic area and took the kids out for a walk. Apparently Governor Perry was so busy campaigning earlier this year, and didn't have time to mow the grass at the picnic area here. As a result, the kids got their fur full of sticky weeds and Linda and I spent about an hour cleaning them up. Poor kids were really good though and got rewarded with extra treats as a result.

We were hungry when we pulled in, and after getting parked, we took off to locate a mexican restaurant we had found on the GPS. After a 20 mile round trip, including finding the "closed" restaurant, we ended up eating at the Denny's at the Flying J. Oh well! Of course, we did get to watch THE Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team knock off #1 seed Syracuse. Go Buckeyes. Up next, either Tarheels, or Kansas. Either way, final four baby!!!

Although, Abilene is the prettiest town that I've ever seen, and the women here don't treat you mean, it is now Sunday morning and we are getting ready for the next leg of our journey which will take us out in the west Texas town of El Paso. I intend to fall in love with a mexican girl at Rosa's cafe'!

More later!

Another Day in Paradise Monday March 19, 2012

Today is Monday here in east Texas. Yesterday whizzed by so as to hardly even notice its coming and going. However, it stayed here long enough for us to enjoy some beautiful weather, to lay in the clover, to soak up the sunshine, and to watch the puffy clouds drift by. In particular, the pups really enjoyed the day. The figured out very quickly that they could relax in the clover with the cool ground and the warm sun creating a perfect balance of comfort.

We are still here in Lone Star Texas, about 2 hours east of Dallas. East Texas is a beautiful area with rolling hills, green grass and beautiful trees. Lone Star is a small town with population of about 1600 really nice people (and from what I hear, a couple of old grouches). Lone Star has one stop light, two gas stations, one grocery store and 8 baptist churches. Linda and I attended South Union Missionary Baptist Church yesterday then spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on sleep lost during the mad rush through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and into Texas the other day.

Last night our hosts here at Scenic View Campground

http://www.scenicviewmarina.com/

invited us to dinner at a local mexican restaurant and we dined on enchiladas, tortillas and other tasty cuisine along with some other friends. A good time was had by all.

Today, being Monday, we had few plans, especially since the weather forecast was for strong winds and heavy rain. So far (at 3:30) we have had some breezes, a couple of sprinkles, and some clouds, but mostly blue skies and sun. Once again we spent the day relaxing and recharging our batteries.

A Journey

In the year 550 BC, the chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Well, that covers a thousand mile journey, but I was beginning to wonder what it would take to get an 1100 mile journey going! Our original plans this month were to leave Ohio on Wednesday, March 14. However, because our motorhome was in storage up until the Sunday before that, we really didn't have time to get going until the afternoon of Thursday the 15th. Since we had reservations for Saturday the 17th in Texas, we decided to push ourselves a bit and traveled to Franklin Kentucky on Thursday, arriving there about 11 PM. As is our habit, we stopped at a convenient Flying J truck stop for the night, where I and the bed became as one for the rest of the night. We got up about 8 on Friday morning and went into the Denny's located at the Flying J. After breakfast we fired up the coach, aired up the bags, and headed southwest towards Tennessee and Arkansas with our goal being the Flying J in Texarkana. We expected to stay the night there and finish the last hour and a half of our journey to Lone Star Texas on Saturday morning. As luck would have it, we ran into a lengthy delay due to construction on I45, and finally arrived at our destination about 11 PM. After another night sleep, we woke up refreshed, and while taking the pups for a walk in the parking lot, came across an interesting sight:



A trailer full of giant animals including a chicken, a horse, a hippo, some sort of griffin thing, and other assorted animals that, apparently the driver had to have along on his trip with him, sort of like a modern day Noah, if you will.


We left Texarkana and after a short drive through east Texas, we arrived at Scenic View Marina and RV park in Lone Star Texas. If you are wondering why we worked so hard to get here, this is the reason:



After our arrival here, Linda and I got into the car and headed down the road about 5 miles to David Beard's Catfish Village:



If you like farm raised catfish, or even think you might, you owe it to yourself to someday try David Beard's Catfish Village. They have really good catfish filets in an awesome batter, along with cole slaw, tomato relish, tartar sauce, a really nice cocktail sauce, and it is all you can eat. I may be hungry again, sometime next week!!

Tomorrow is Sunday, and we will be going to church at South Union Missionary Baptist Church. After that there is plenty more relaxation in store for these weary travelers, with more adventures to come. See you next time.