Jan 17 – two months to St. Paddy’s Day!
We are still ensconced in Quartzsite and still loving living in the desert. Buck and Bruce continue being the ever patient teachers of everything we need to know on how to survive. The RV is dusty and incredibly disorganized but we are still having fun. We are now the proud owners of 4 deep cycle batteries that have been linked in sequence, thus giving us more power. The solar panel is amazing – free power from the sun and all we have to do is make sure the panel is facing the right way! We have installed a ‘fantastic’ fan in the kitchen to give us a bit of ventilation. And the two engineers will be helping us install a system that automatically feeds water to our new batteries.
More Santas have arrived to our tiny enclave as well as most of the RVs in the western hemisphere. The annual RV show started on the weekend and the crowds are incredible. We have never seen so many travel trailers, fifth wheels, van conversions, converted buses, Class As, or Class Cs in one place. All RV parks and the BLM grounds (we told you about them last blog) are crammed full. The show takes place in this massive tent (covering about 2 acres) and the surrounding grounds. There are booths for hitches, brake buddies, stabilizers, plumbing, electrical, lighting, décor, signage, flags and poles, tires……..well everything that you may need to go into or onto your recreational vehicle. Of course you can also find the knick knacks, jewelry, fast food, and travel booths. BC, AB, SK, NWT, Yukon, AZ, CA, and a multitude of resorts are all represented. There are booths for Good Sam Club, caravans, and other organizations here. And of course, what fair would be complete without three or four food demonstration booths including Ed’s favourite – waterless cookware!
It’s a short walk to the show and we have taken that walk four or five times now. We don’t always find something to buy, but we always see something to look at!!!
Can’t remember if we told you about the Laundromat here. This place is quite fun – you get to people watch while your clothes are getting clean and that can be a real eye opener sometimes. The Laundromat has the requisite large number of washers and dryers, plus for $5 you can get a shower with hot water (!), or check your email with their free (with donation to the kitty) WiFi connection, or have a free coffee, or even have a meal in their little café. And their ads show a drawing of the bookstore owner washing his ‘clothes’. Of course, remember that the bookstore owner is a nudist and only wears little ‘sacks’ on his…..well you know! So imagine a drawing of this fellow, holding his laundry up in his hands, and saying that he only washes his clothes at the Laundromat. Of course the drawing only shows him from the waist up as he is standing behind a washing machine, but the whole ad is quite cute.
As I said we have more Santas here at the campsite – Santa Bart and his wife Lynda and their friends Peter (a non Santa) and his wife Brenda. We have had a couple of visits from Santa Cliff and his wife Linda, and Santa John and his wife. Many heads are turning around here when we Santas are all talking in a group – 6 or 7 white haired, white bearded, large bellied men usually wearing red!! And the meals we have been putting together are amazing – big spaghetti dinner a couple of nights ago, split pea soup and homemade fry bread/bannock last night and tonight we are having turkey with all the trimmings! Including cake!! Not bad for living in the desert!! See you knew we couldn’t do our blog without talking about food sometime!!!!
Ed and I took a fast trip up to Parker – a small town north of here. This is another of the places we will never live. We have found a few towns throughout our travels that just don’t look/feel too welcoming……or interesting! Of course Parker does have its drawing card – a large casino for those of you who need a gambling fix every once in awhile…….and a new Wal-Mart right across from a large and modern Safeway. Other than that we have been sitting here doing nothing……….and is that ever hard work!! We have dinner at 5:30, watch the sun go down (incredible sunsets here), sit around the campfire for a couple of hours and usually we are tucked into bed by 9:00PM!!! Some of us read or watch TV (yes, Buck and Heather have TV in their rig – we can’t get ours to work). Life is tough!!
Enough for now……….we will talk soon.
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