Winter Trip 2010 #6

We have spent Another week in the desert at Quartzsite, AZ. We have walked and walked all over looking at gemstones, minerals and swap meets galore. It is pretty amazing how many people are here and how much stuff there is to see. Even after two weeks we will not see all of what they have to offer. This past week we ventured out to the surrounding towns just to see what is there. The first town we went to was Parker. About 30 miles from were we are camping. They had a WalMart and a Casino. Believe it or not, we did not go to the casino, but we did pick up some provisions at WalMart. The next day we ventured over to Blythe, CA about 24 miles from us. Blythe seemed a little bigger than Parker but they did not have a WalMart. Its amazing to see how these people live. The skies are clear, the weather is beautiful and I guess that's all they need. No shopping centers to speak of. Another day, we went to Brenda, AZ, about 11 miles from us. We had met a couple one day at lunch at Sweet Darleen's in Quartzsite and they told us they were from Seattle Washington but winter in Brenda. Well we got to Brenda and found Brenda is made up of 3 RV parks. Two on one side of the highway and one on the other. There is one general store and one restaurant there. We managed to cover some ground with more gemstone vendors but we got tired pretty quick. We spent most of this week when we got back from our day trips reading and I have been doing some quilting and of course enjoying the beautiful sunsets. We camped near a couple that we made friends with who are full timers, Ben and Bonnie. Really nice people. We went to dinner a few times with them and it was fun learning about their camping experiences. We plan on catching up with them at the Grand National Rally for Winnebagos in Forest City, Iowa later this summer. Jim has been in his glory teaching Ben about his Winnebago. Its pretty new and he wasn't sure what all the buttons and gizmos were and Jim spent hours going thru his motorhome with Ben and Ben was delighted to have Jim teach him so much. He also met a guy across the desert road from us who just bought a new 5th wheel at Quartzsite. So Jim was helping him put air bags on his truck because the new camper was bigger than the one he came out here with. Saturday, Jan 30th we head for Laughlin, NV for two days then on into Las Vegas, NV.

Winter Trip 2010 #5

We have been in Quartzsite for almost a week now and we haven't even come close to seeing everything. I've been learning a lot about gemstones and it has been very interesting. If you are interested in making jewelry or into gemstones in general, this is the place to be. I've never seen so many vendors. We are still dry camping out in the desert. It is very pretty especially when the sun goes down. I tried to get some pictures of it, but the pictures don't do the scenery justice. Yesterday it rained cats and dogs all day and all night. We spent the day watching movies and I did some sewing. That night the wind blew so bad we had to bring in our slides because Jim was afraid the wind would rip off our slide covers. After the storm was over we discovered we weathered it just fine - no damage. The weather was sunny today but windy. Saturday we are going to venture outside of Quartzsite to other towns just to check then out.

Winter Trip - 2010 #4

Friday evening we found a great Mexican Food Restaurant in Las Cruces, NM called Si Senor. Dinner was fantastic. We had a leisurely departure from Las Cruces and headed west on I10 and spent the next night (Sat) in Pheonix, AZ at a Flying J. From there we headed to our first destination, Quartzsite. AZ. We arrived in Quartzsite, AZ on Sunday afternoon. What an amazing place this is. Everywhere you look you see RVs parked throughout the desert. Some people park in clusters and some park out to themselves. We are parked with the Winnebago Itasca Travelers (WIT). Jim got the latitude/longitude coordinates from our Winnebago travel magazine. That would be the only way to find a group because the campers are spread everywhere. Where we are, it is surrounded by the mountains and makes for a nice view. After we got our RV set up, we unhooked the truck and took a ride through town. It was jam packed with people and thousands of tents. We wanted to get the lay of the land so when we do hit the swap meets we'll know where to go. I don't know anything about buying gem stones so had to do a little research on the internet before we venture back to the swap meets. After our ride through town, we came back to the campsite and the WIT leader, Gene, built a camp fire and all the WIT group gathered around the fire with our chairs, drinks, and stories to share. There is about 12 RVs parked with this WIT group. Some are full timers and come here on a regular basis. So we got to hear a lot of stories about their Quartzsite experiences. It was really fun. We met a real nice couple from Canada who are camped right next to us. This is their first trip to Quartzsite too so we are both learning together. We are going to venture to the swap meets Monday afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it.

Winter Trip - 2010 #3

We left Vicksburg, MS on Wednesday, Jan 13th and continued our journey on I20. We finally found warmer weather 65 degrees (yeah). Jim has also finished finding new applications on his GPS so the ride is going quite smoothly. Our first stop in Texas was in Kilgore, TX. Jim's brother told him about a great BBQ place (Bodacious) (1st pic) right off I20 so we decided to check it out for lunch. It was difinitely worth the stop. The place was pretty big and the parking lot was full at noon time so we figured it must be pretty good and it was. We will definitely stop there again on our westward journeys. That evening we stayed in Dallas, TX at a Flying J. We met Jim's sister, Diana and her husband Sherman for dinner. They drove down from Denison, TX. Jim has this list of the top 15 privately owned steak restaurants in the US and one of those on the list was located in Dallas. It is called the III Forks Restaurant. It was beautiful and the food/service was wonderful. We had a wonderful visit with Sherman and Diana. (2nd pic). While were visiting with Diana and Sherman they both noticed a mole on Jim's cheek that I've been trying to get him to get checked. Both of them expressed a concern that he get it checked. The next morning, Jim received a phone call from Sherman offering to find him a Blue Cross Blue Shield participating dermatologist in the Dallas area and reiterated he should get it checked. So Jim decided he would do so. We were able to get an appointment at 9:50 am and they took him in right on the dot. Turns out that the mole is a Seborrheic Keratoses (KS) and is nothing to worry about. Doc says at some point if it gets too big or uncomfortable to shave around he can get it removed. So we're both glad he got it looked at and certainly both glad it's nothing to worry about. Just another old age thing!! Jim says he will have it removed when the girls quit looking at him on the beach! (Might have already happened!) It took us 3 days to get through Texas. It is the longest part of our trip. I was getting drowzy, and Linda agreed to spell me at the wheel for about a hundred miles, figuring that the traffic would be light in west Texas. She really drives the thing well, and I am very comfortable with her at the wheel. I did get about a 45 minute snooze and, you might know that she hit construction. One spot was quite narrow, only a couple of feet on each side between two jersey walls, at 60 mph! After some colorful language she got through it just fine but turned it back to me at the next rest area. The next night we spent at Wal Mart in Midland, TX. There we got caught up on some groceries and news. It sure is terrible what happened in Haiti. I can't imagine what those poor people are going through. We made it to Las Cruces, New Mexico on Friday. We are at a camp ground right off the interstate. We got here early Friday afternoon and have spent the afternoon doing laundry and emails and of course the blog. We're going to dinner downtown this evening. The last pic is of Charlie in his usual position. These trips make him pretty tired!!

Winter Trip 2010 #2

Our motorhome service was completed after lunch on Monday so instead of spending another night camping at the service center in Gaffney, SC, we decided to hit the road while it was still daylight. Thankfully we are also experiencing warmer weather -- 50 degrees. We made it as far as Temple, GA and stayed the night at a Flying J. Man am I regretting I bought Jim that GPS for Christmas. As I mentioned earlier, he spent a long time on the phone with a Garmin service technician learning all sorts of capabilities on the GPS. The whole drive to Temple, he was playing with the GPS while driving the motorhome. He had to call his brother and friends everytime he discovered a new capability. It got really nerve wracking when we were in 5:00 o'clock rush hour traffic. I couldn't wait til we stopped for the night. We sure are missing our old dog, Bono. He loved camping so much and we are realizing that watching him enjoy himself so much gave us a lot of joy too. Our little dog, Charlie is enjoying this trip though. He's got his little bed right in between Jim and my seats so he can keep his eye on both of us. I think he kind of likes being an only "child". Tuesday we made it as far as Vicksburg, MS. Thankfully, we didn't have any traffic to speak of so Jim again spent a lot of time playing with his GPS while driving the motorhome. His poor neice, Karen -- when he couldn't get a hold of his brother, Mason, to gloat about his GPS, he called Karen (her being the technical person that she is) several times today. Mason and Karen probably know more about the Nuvi GPS than they ever wanted to know. Anyway, we got to Vicksburg, MS around 3:30 and stayed at the Ameristar Casino RV Park. After we set up camp, we decided to make a quick run downtown just to check out the area. I was hoping to see some of the stately mansions here but it started getting dark on us. While downtown though, we found the Horizon Casino which is an old paddle boat (pic above) converted to a casino. We decided that it would be kind of cool to check out that casino instead of the one we were staying at. Neither Jim or I had any luck but we did have fun. They had a new restaurant that opened up at the casino so we decided to have a quick dinner and then head back to the motorhome and Charlie. We plan to drive as far as Dallas, TX tomorrow and with a little luck have dinner with Jim's sister Diana and her husband, Sherman. Also with a little luck, Jim will have run out of surprising discoveries on his GPS and we can talk about something other than the GPS!

Winter Trip - 2010

Sunday, Jan 10th, Jim and I started out on our winter trip to find warmer weather. Our first stop was Gaffney, SC. Jim had an appointment with Freightliner to have our RV serviced. It is still cold here 43 degrees but at least it is warmer than Virginia's 19 degrees. They have a very nice lounge here with WiFi so I have spent the morning cleaning up my emails. I sure was behind. Jim has spent the morning on the phone pestering GARMIN with hundreds of questions regarding his new GARMIN GPS that he got for Christmas. By the way, we made it to Gaffney yesterday with FOUR GPS ladies telling us what turns to make. I have one, Jim got a new one, and the motorhome came with one and of course Jim still has his old GARMIN IQ that he can't bear to let go. It was comical when a turn came up and all 4 GARMINS starting yelling out directions! Anyway from Gaffney we are heading west on I20 to I10. Our first destination is Quartzite, AZ for two weeks. Quartzite is west of Phoenix off of I10 near the Colorado River. It is located in the Sonoran Desert. It currently has a population of approx. 3650. But Oct-Mar there is a big RV festival in the desert and the population goes up to approx. 1.5 million people. We are told it is a must do for RVers. We've traveled thru Quartzite before and I wasn't too impressed but Jim has assured me it will look quite different with thousands of RVers attending this festival. We'll see. From Quartzite we will head to Las Vegas, NV. We are hoping that Jim's brother, Mason and his wife Judy will join us for a weekend. We plan on staying for 2 weeks and are looking forward to it. Our son, David used to live here and we enjoyed spending time with him, but he is now back in VA so it looks like we will be on our own on this trip. You know what they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so with no son to supervise our visit -- who knows what we'll get in to. It would be nice to hit a jackpot or two!! From Las Vegas we plan on heading to San Jose, CA to visit my aunt and cousins. From CA we will head for Harlingen, TX. There we plan on meeting up with friends and doing a little shopping in Mexico. After Harlingen we will do two weeks with Habitat for Humanity somewhere in Texas, Louisiana or Georgia and then head home.