Blythe CA and Quartzsite AZ 1-28-06

We're at the library in Blythe, CA right now emailing and we did laundry since it's been about 10 since we last did any. Also, we are shopping and checking on getting the CB radio fixed. Talked to Michael (he called us this morning), Caytlann the birthday girl and Carrie (the Seahawk girl).

Out in the desert we haven't been able to log on to anyone's account so no email for some time.

Our friend use "Pocketmail" but it doesn't let you send or received attachements.. such as pics or anything else.

The weather is great, no rain. AZ is sitting a record too.. no for rain but for rainless days - about 105 now. Last rain I believe was on Oct 15, 2005.

We went out to dinner last nigth at Sweet Darling's - fresh Alaskan Cod, fries and cole slaw, it was good. The only drawback was that it was served on paper plates and with plastic "sliverware" but that worked out since we could eat the fish and fries with our fingers. Also, yesterday we went to the "Big Tent Sale" for the second time - mom wanted more Ice Cream. Lots of people and dust.

The newest song in the area is Quartzsite: goes something like this:

Oh Quartzsite, oh Quartzsite oh how we love you

The days are warm and the nights are cold a

and most of the people you see are old......rah rah rah

we need more input so submit yours.

We are going to Mexico Feb 7-10 and stay in a hotel/condo. It's on the Sea of Cortez so should be nice - we're going with Bob and Georgia Williams. We'll drive up to Lake Havasu on Feb 6, spend the night and then drive to Mexico on Feb 7th. We'll be on the water so it should be fun - not should be it will be fun.

Right now our plan is to return home probably late March - we'll come north with our friends in a caravan.

Hi There - Jan 27

We've been without email service for a number of days so I'm writing a little note now, Friday January 27, 2006 to send out possibly on Sunday when we go to Blythe, CA to do laundry. Mom thinks she saw a Starbucks there when we picked up groceries last week. We went to Lake Havasu on Sunday morning to watch the Seahawks win over Carolina. We are going to Mexico with them on February 7th and returning on February 10th. We are renting a condo I believe, Bob is going to make the arrangements and we'll just share in the cost. It's on the Sea of Cortez about 65 miles south into Mexico. We're looking forward to shopping and seeing the countryside.

Lake Havasu is very nice and we had a good visit with Bob and Georgia Williams who we know from when we lived in Boise 35 years ago. Carrie and Stacy may remember the Williams. They have a beautiful large home right next to a golf course.

Our Champion generator quit on us – just stopped producing "power" all of a sudden – after some problems with the trying to get if fixed and taking it to a shop 60 miles (one way) out of our way we got it replaced with an new one. However, we liked the Honda our friends Greeley's loaned us that when we went to the Big Tent Sale we bought a new Honda EU2000i, much lighter by nearly half (55 pounds) vs. 115 pounds on the Champion and much quieter. Anyway now we have two new generators.

We are back in Quartzsite now dry camping and enjoying it too. On Wednesday took the Komfort into Bouse, AZ 16 miles from here to dump the holding tanks and take on water. Out here it costs for those services but on $7 and it was a nice drive. We went to the Big Tent Sale in the afternoon which reminded us of the Puyallup Fair probably over a thousand vendors in all – they are all over around the big tent too.

The days are warm and the nights are cold and all the people look really old… except us of course.

We drove up to Surprise, AZ (near Phoenix about 120 miles) yesterday to meet the Greeley's daughter Vicki and son-in-law Loran. They had lunch for us. Mom really enjoyed herself since Vicki is a Quilter. They just had a pool and hot tub put which was beautiful with those two and the patio the backyard, consisting of gravel and palm tree, is full. Not many people have lawns here and only a few are green.

We are enjoying ourselves.

Happy Birthday Haley Girl – January 26th – you're a teenager now.

Hi There

We've been without email service for a number of days so I'm writing a little note now, Friday January 27, 2006 to send out possibly on Sunday when we go to Blythe, CA to do laundry. Mom thinks she saw a Starbucks there when we picked up groceries last week. We went to Lake Havasu on Sunday morning to watch the Seahawks win over Carolina. We are going to Mexico with them on February 7th and returning on February 10th. We are renting a condo I believe, Bob is going to make the arrangements and we'll just share in the cost. It's on the Sea of Cortez about 65 miles south into Mexico. We're looking forward to shopping and seeing the countryside.

Lake Havasu is very nice and we had a good visit with Bob and Georgia Williams who we know from when we lived in Boise 35 years ago. Carrie and Stacy may remember the Williams. They have a beautiful large home right next to a golf course.

Our Champion generator quit on us – just stopped producing "power" all of a sudden – after some problems with the trying to get if fixed and taking it to a shop 60 miles (one way) out of our way we got it replaced with an new one. However, we liked the Honda our friends Greeley's loaned us that when we went to the Big Tent Sale we bought a new Honda EU2000i, much lighter by nearly half (55 pounds) vs. 115 pounds on the Champion and much quieter. Anyway now we have two new generators.

We are back in Quartzsite now dry camping and enjoying it too. On Wednesday took the Komfort into Bouse, AZ 16 miles from here to dump the holding tanks and take on water. Out here it costs for those services but on $7 and it was a nice drive. We went to the Big Tent Sale in the afternoon which reminded us of the Puyallup Fair probably over a thousand vendors in all – they are all over around the big tent too.

The days are warm and the nights are cold and all the people look really old… except us of course.

We drove up to Surprise, AZ (near Phoenix about 120 miles) yesterday to meet the Greeley's daughter Vicki and son-in-law Loran. They had lunch for us. Mom really enjoyed herself since Vicki is a Quilter. They just had a pool and hot tub put which was beautiful with those two and the patio the backyard, consisting of gravel and palm tree, is full. Not many people have lawns here and only a few are green.

We are enjoying ourselves.

Happy Birthday Haley Girl – January 26th – you're a teenager now.

Good Morning from Quartzsite

It's 0730 and cold, just got up and turned the furnace on to warm things up - the sun is just breaking over the mountains.  I was able to hook into someone's wireless connection - 

 

Today we are going up to Lake Havsau to visit Bob and Georgia Williams - we know Bob from back in Boise days.   We plan on spending a couple days with them, today watch the Seahawks (Go Seahawks) and then look around Lake Havasu.  On Tuesday we come back to Quartzsite and on Wednesday "The Big Tent Sale".

 

We are having a good time, seeing the sights here in the desert.  on Friday we went out in the desert with everyone in two Jeeps (yup, but not four wheeling) to where General Patton trained his troops back in World War II before going to the middle east.  It interesting the soldiers placed rock around their tents to outside them and paths to different areas.  We enjoyed walking around through the area, it runs for miles and miles but we only looked a small area.  Just a note General Patton is buried in Luxembourg and we saw his grave and those of 5800 American soldiers that were killed there the Battle of the Bulge WWII.

Quartzsite AZ - Good Sam - Lo-Ke-Co

Shirley Greeley . Evie Closson, Dale Greeley, George Rhodes, Goldie Ward.. in the desert 

Leaving Emerald Desert Golf and RV Park

Now on to the desert in Quartzsite AZ 

Evie chatting to Carrie on the cellphone

Taken in Lancaster, CA about 30 miles from Edwards AFB 

Emerald Desert Golf and RV Resort

The rough life camping.. very nice and very expensive camping @ $49.05 a night. Full service, cable TV, 4 swiming pools, tennis courts, golf course... and more

Quartzsite AZ - only a very few of the campers

This is just a few campers... 

Quartzsite AZ

We arrived Quartzsite AZ.... January 18th, camping in the desert and its okay. The generator "broke" and so a friend is loaning us his portable one. will try to get ours fixed tomorrow. Was able to hook into an unsecured wireless connection so can get an email out this evening. We are having fun - going up to Lake Havasu City to visit old friends from Boise Idaho days (late 1960's) Bob Williams - watch the Seahawks game, spend the night may be two then back to the desert camp - we will just take the Big Horn north and leave the camper in the desert with our friends from Lo-Ke-Co.

Nice here and actually camping in the desert isn’t to bad - rocky surface and level. Thousands of campers out here .. yes, thousands.

Emerald Desert Golf and RV Park

Yea this is the life, Green grass, trees, cable TV, Swimming pools, Tennis courts, Internet access, and shopping. There's even a Wal-Mart and Costco with in 12 miles. 

FamCamp Edwards AFB, CA

Just the basics - Water, Power, Sewer for $11 a day 

DioGhee Emailed us...

Grandpaw~
Maw and Paw said you and Grandmaw were on a trip for a while & go we couldn't go play in the park. Where are you two tonight? Rough.
~DioGhee 

Rest Area and Time for Walk

Taking a break from driving... arriving in northern California

Evie on the way to Arizona

There she is watching TV and sewing - multi-tasking 

Where are and whats up ....

We are in Palm Desert, CA near Palm Springs - very nice RV Park - its has its own 9 hole golf course, wireless reception even though weak, 4 swimming pool, and a bunch of other "stuff". Our Komfort is one of the smallest RV/5th Wheels here - there are a number that would go over a million. How did we find this place, easy - ran into a couple of retired educators and they told us about it and we followed them into the park with there approval. It was up to 74 degrees this afternoon and no wind. The reason you haven't heard from us since Friday is that no access to the internet or email - also, our Verizon cell phone wouldn't work at Edwards AFB.

We are going to spend a couple days here and go to Quartzsite, AZ on Wednesday to meet up with the Lo-Ke-Co Sams - and try the dry camping. We have our generator with us so we'll have power for the TV (and we have enough DVD's and Videos to last us a while) but it won't run the AC. We've heard a lot about dry camping down here so we're closer to finding out what its all about. The price is right - FREE.

Go Seahawks...mom was really happy to see them win. We have to plan next Sunday so we have access to the game. Also, mom was glad to see the Carolina Panthers win... Go Hawks.

Friday January 13, 2006 Edwards AFB

We decided to stay three more days here... can't get online from our Notebook but found a computer room at Family Service Center (thank you AF).

 

Froze last night but nice this afternoon .. We got gas, propane for the Komfort one tank went out this morning while i was cooking breakfast, washed clothes, ate at Pizza Hut... came here to use the computers and now its the Commissary and Exchange.

DioGhee Closson - January 2006

Where's GrandMAW & GrandPAW their off to Arizona traveling without me... I wanta go too..... I got an email from them this morning they were at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. The sun was shining and beautiful not like the rain rain and more rain in Seattle (25 days of rain so far).

Edwards AFB, CA

Yea the picture is from Febrary 2005 on our
cruise to Mexico but I haven't figured out how
to download pictures to the new computer... 

On the road...

We're on the road. Spent last night in Canyonville, OR at the Seven Feathers Casino. No gambling, they have a small RV park there and we were luck enough to get in. First day we drove 360 miles then today over a number of passes the highest being around 4000 feet - lucky for us no snow on the roads. In fact near Weed, CA it was 36 degrees but 10 miles further south it was 50 and by the time we got to Redding, CA it was 60. There is lots of evidence of flooding but the water is now down but not back to normal yet.

Today we drove as far as Corning, CA which was only 265 miles and stopped early at 3:00 pm at a Good Sam RV Park. We have cable TV and I was working on the computer inputting stuff in our travel journal and found I could get on line - so that's why an email already. Sitting here in the Komfort and using the new Notebook that’s something - state of the art technology. We are taking it easy only driving about 7 hours a day - it's 9:30 pm and mom has gone to bed. I feels good to relax after packing up the Komfort. Everything is working except tried to put the TV antenna up last night and it wouldn't move. I'll have to take a look at it . may tomorrow.. yea may be tomorrow.

Gas is expensive south of Washington, we paid $2.09, $2.31, $2.35, and $2.19 a gal here in Corning. But we expected high gas prices and took it in stride - but wouldn't pay $2.53 this morning.

It suppose to rain on Tuesday... with wind - sounds like the weather in Lakewood.

Packed & ready to go ...

Getting ready to head out ...

What do I have to do today..... mmmmm

DioGhee plans out his day, run, bark, eat, run, oh and pee 

Dad and Son

 

Holiday Happiness

Me & my STP on Thankgiving 

DioGhee Cover With Warm Towels

Here's DioGhee under some warm towels from the dryer, one of 97 ways to make DioGhee smile.