Another day in Quartzsite

January 26, 2013

Thursday afternoon there was a show and tell. Cindy took her quilts and my snap bags to show. One lady had samples of polymer clay, which were quite striking. Cindy thinks that might be fun, but I don’t think she needs any more hobbies. There was one polished stone wrapped with long pine needles that was beautiful.

They gave the CARE auction results at happy hour. They took in $3278.00 with the wine sales, all of which goes to the CARE (Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees) in Livingston, Texas. Everyone here in Boomerville seems to be quite generous.

Friday morning we decided to go back to the big

 tent and help the economy a little. I wanted to change some of the locks from the dreaded 751 locks to something safer. Cindy has had her eye on some cookware (Kitchen Craft) for quite a while, and so she bought one 10” skillet. She says her mother has had a set for about 40 years and they hold up well. After word we went to La Mesa RV for their free lunch, which they do every day. It was good, and in spite of the long line, it moved quickly. They give free breakfast and lunch every day except Sundays. We probably will try it again another day

After lunch we went to see some of the sights of Quartzsite. First Celia’s Rainbow Garden, which is a memorial to Celia, a young girl who passed away and many others.

 Next we went to the naked book seller’s. He is naked except for a strategic sock, and yesterday he was wearing a sweater because of the wind. Cindy wouldn't let me take her picture with him, and didn't take his picture. So, she took a picture of the sign instead.

 Next we went to the Hi Jolly Memorial. It is called that because the people couldn't pronounce his Arabic name. In 1856 the army experimented with using camels in the area for pack animals, and it probably worked, except the sight of the camels scared the horses, mules and cattle, so it was abandoned and the camels were turned loose to fend for themselves.  

We got back to Boomerville in time for happy hour, where they again announced the results of the auction. We sang happy birthday to Gordon, one of the Boomers. It had started to rain a little bit and we decided to watch a movie. It rained all night and doesn't look like it will let up all day today. The only thing we have planned for today is a trip to Silly Al’s Pizza this afternoon with some of the Boomers.    

January 24, 2013

There are now 128 Rigs

We woke up to a marvelous sunrise. The colors were ablaze across the sky.

The pancake breakfast was at 8:00, always good, thanks Gretchen.  Sue (skip number 66,125) brought a blueberry pancake casserole. Here is her recipe. Our skip number is 110,051.  The highest skip number that we have seen in Boomerville is up to 116,000. We have been a member for less than a year.  I am amazed at how large the Escapees’s club is.  Everyone is very friendly and helpful.  Ray has learned a lot about his solar and about a better TV antenna.

After breakfast we hurried into Parker to the Wal-Mart, third time’s the charm; the meds were on hold in Riverton.  Our insurance thought we had them already. I have them now and everything is good.

We made it back just in time for the Care auction. We learned more about the Escapee’s Care facility in Livingston, Texas. This is a facility for Escapees that need to have assistance when they need to be off the road. Yes, we donated to the cause, we purchased Nanaimo Bars.  The reason was sentimental. We first had these bars on the Canadian Rocky Mountain Railroad on our honeymoon 16 years ago. (And they said it wouldn’t last.)

They decided not to watch the Long Long Trailer at the Pace theater (the white side of their motorhome). So we browed the movie and watched it inside our rig.

Here is my latest project.

Spent the day at Boomerville

Tuesday, January 22,2013

Sunday we went to church. We went to the pancake breakfast before and were teased about how overdressed we were for breakfast. They all said they had never seen anyone that dressed up at Boomerville before. There was almost standing room at church, and they said in the summer there are only six families.

We had happy hour at 4:00 and had heavy hors d'oeuvres, which were a lot to eat. For us that was dinner. If I don’t watch it I might lose my trim figure. That is a joke from a fat old guy. All these goodies and afternoon snacks can’t be good for me! But, oh well, somebody has to do it. Because Cindy has to watch her sugar, she will take one bite, and I get the rest. I usually get double portions.

Monday we went into the big tent. There was almost everything you could imagine. Not all of it was RV related. Good thing the ring Cindy liked didn’t fit her. We did sign up for Passport America at a reduced price with six months thrown in free. We do like a good deal and were going to get Passport America when we got home, before going to Alaska. We also bought Good Sam towing, which was one of the things we wanted for our trip north. We left the big tent show about $180.00 lighter. The parking was a

madhouse. Good thing I was told about parking west of the tent. The crowds in the tent were almost too many. We also got some information about Canada for our trip to Alaska

 We got back to Boomerville just in time for the pot luck dinner. Pam and Steve invited us to sit at their table. Cool RVers, Judy and Luke were also there. The food was great, and the company better. We talked about going to Alaska this summer, and Judy asked if I would like some literature about Canada and Alaska. Sure I told her. Little did I know it was 30 pounds of literature. We have our reading for our trip cut out for us.

Today we had breakfast, and then went to a self-defense on the road seminar. During the seminar Steve stressed “be aware of your surroundings”. He said if you don’t feel comfortable somewhere, leave. He suggested caring a money clip with $20.00 on the outside with a couple of ones inside. If you are robbed, throw the money clip and run the other way. He was very adamant about never, never go somewhere with a mugger. When they want you to go with them, it is no longer about the money, but about you. They want to harm or kill you. He wasn’t big about guns because he said that most people won’t do what needs to be done with a gun, and oftentimes the gun is taken away and used on the person that originally had the gun. It was a good seminar. Afterword, there was a chili cook-off. There were 25 entrants. After the judging, everyone got to eat a late lunch with the chili and other stuff people brought. I, as usual, ate too much.

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 Boomerville Monday









Judging the chili

The winner

Tonight we are having a slide show on the slabs, after which they will show The Long Trailer (Lucille Ball and Desie Arnes). It has been a really good day.

Yesterday was a very informative day.  We went to a boondocking seminar,and leaned a lot. One thing that caught my interest was when you shower before you get in, catch the cold water in a pan, so it can be reused.  We did that, and used the same water for several things; I cooked leftover spaghetti in a bag and then used the hot water to do dishes. Water is a precious commodity and needs to be used sparingly. There are several other tips that I am not willing to do yet.

Boomerville is growing; today there are almost 100 rigs.  Here is a picture of last night’s happy hour and Ray at the goodies table.

We had a women’s circle and we told a little about ourselves.  People were fascinated that I use to be a School Transportation Specialist and followed school buses all over the state of Utah.

Today we went to the Desert Saloon. We caravanned to Parker. You turn off a little north of Parker on about five miles of rough road. It really is quite the place. It is totally solar operated and only open on weekends from about noon till six. It only opens from October to April. The Nellie E. Saloon (Desert Bar) is situated in the Buckskin Mountains on land that was an old mining camp.  The camp was located on the portion of land that is now the parking lot.  The tall structures you see on the property are cooling towers .I didn't know what to expect, so when we almost got there, I was surprise to see how many vehicles we going there. There was quite a crowd. We decided to get the Philly cheese steak sandwich and fries. They were pretty good. There were quite a few old car and trucks around the property, including a model A Ford pick-up with an Arizona 1931 license plate. There was also what looked like an old fire truck. The battery pack for the solar was probably 10 feet wide and 6 feet high, and had lots of solar panels

Everyone said the you needed to take pictures of the women's restroom, so here they are. The restroom is on the side of a rock formation and the other side is opened to this view.  The stall doors are metal and very heavy.  Enough about a restroom!

Metal doors

View

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Today was kind of a sit back and relax day. We started out with a blueberry pancake breakfast with the Boomers. They were mighty tasty.  One of the boomers had a cordless drill with a mixing beater blade. How ingenious.

 On the way there, Cindy finally took a picture of what looks like a power and water hook-up. When we came in, we both wondered how they got the only hook-up in the whole area. We later found out it was fake. It sure looks real. What do you think? Yes, we are newbies and we couldn't figure out how there was one hook-up so far from everything.

One of the Boomers has a power hang-glider. It was warm enough for him to be buzzing around taking pictures. I would like to see them. We were told that he will post them on his website for all to download. When that happens, we will try to post them. Boomerville sure has grown and more are coming in every day. There are now about 68 rigs.  

We took our 5er to town to dump holding tanks and fill with water. After that we went to get the parts to finish my heater project. We got the parts in time to stop at the Escapee happy hour. We listened to more county music and snacked. Then we went back to Boomerville and I finally finished up the heater just in time for the Boomer happy hour. Guess what, more snacks.

We decided to take a walk to walk off some of the calories. We probably walked two miles, and I’m a little sore (too much sitting around). 

Cindy finished another quilt top today. If she keeps it up, she will run out of projects.

Busy Day

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

We went on a walk first thing this morning. This seems to be like a well-organized community. Today someone had all the garbage brought to the tent, (the blue awning) where it was loaded and hauled to the dump. We got talking to some of the campers about their heaters. They really liked their Kozy World blue flame heater. We decided to go to town to check them out. First we went to pick up our Escapee name tags from Too Crazy Ladies. We are now official members of the Boomers and Escapees. Then we went to the RV place that sells the heaters. It got time to go to the Escapees happy hour, so we told the RV 

people we would be back.

There were quite a few people at the Escapee meeting. They had singers, and pitch-in lunch. I think everyone had a good time. Lots of food for sure. After eating, we saw a sign for the Boot Camp at Congress, Arizona. I decided to talk to them because we had wanted to go to it, but we were on the waiting list. The man in charge said we were probably on the waiting list because they couldn't promise RV sites with hook-ups, but if we could boondock, he was sure we could go. He said he would call the lady in Texas that is in charge and see what could be done. About ten minutes later, I got a call from her. She said if we were willing to boondock, we were more than welcome to come to the Boot Camp. They both reiterated that there was still a possibility of get full hook-ups, but couldn't promise at this time. So on January 31^st we are headed to North Ranch, the Escapee Park in Congress.
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After all this, we went back to the RV place and bought the heater and what hoses I thought I needed to hook it up. I got one of the hoses too long, and will have to get the right one tomorrow, but I got it going---toasty inside the rig now.

We went back to Boomerville in time for their happy hour. They had everyone introduce themselves. There are now 62 rigs here. I don’t know how that compares to other years, but we are getting a lot of people here. I forgot to mention, it was considerably warmer today. 

After I got the heater installed as far as I could, we were invited over to a camp-fire with 3 other couples and stayed for almost two hours. It was nice to sit under the stars and talk about where people have traveled.  We got some ideas for our trip to Alaska this summer. One of the couples is from Alberta, and are going to give us a list of things to see and do in Alberta. 

Trip to Quartzsite

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

First thing this morning, we went to a pancake breakfast. They had a CARE bottle for donations, which brought in $22.00. They said that wasn't bad, considering how few people showed up.

It’s still cold here, but warming up a little bit.

   

 Today we went into Quartzsite to order Escapee and boomer name tags. We walked through the flea market area and looked at all the stuff (didn't buy anything). There are sure lots of rocks and gems for sale. A lot of the booths are not open yet, I guess they’re waiting until the tent show starts. Still lots of people.  We also filled up one of our propane bottles. While we were there, we checked out where to dump our holding tanks.

    

Entering Boomerville.

There now are about 50 rigs in Boomerville.

We came back in time to go to the 4:00 gathering. They had all the newbies stand up and introduce and tell a little about themselves. There were quite a few more people that went to it yesterday. It was warmer and not so windy as it has been (bring on the 70 degrees we are promised for later in the week). They gave each of the first timers to Boomerville newbie beads, which we are supposed to wear all week. It was nice to meet one of the bloggers we were following, Laurie Brown and Odel King (Semi-True Tales of Our Life on the Road.