Into the Desert--out of the Desert!

February 17 – 22

Even though most of the people at Fountain of Youth are at least 10 years older than us, they are a very active bunch.  There appear to be about 40 different clubs/organizations, plus trips to various places in the valley.  Tournaments abound – pool, table tennis, bocce ball (hey, we actually learned how to play the game and both of us (!!) liked it), poker, cribbage, shuffleboard, etc.  Of course there are arts and crafts all over the place – painting, drawing, knitting, etc, etc. 

We were lucky enough to see one of the regular painting exhibitions (about 200 paintings) and one of the regular flea markets – anything goes (jewelry, paintings, books, food, crafts, food, tools, glass works, hot dogs, jams, jellies, candy, etc, etc.  Amazing!!  And although we should probably have taken advantage of some of the activities, the pools were always there and calling to us!!! 

Needless to say our days here were confined (for the most part) to late-ish breakfast, walk the dogs to the dog park to meet some of their new four legged friends, sit in the pool until about 4PM, sundown cocktail, then a late-ish dinner and to bed.  Every once in awhile we would head out to El Centro or Indio.

The dog park attracts some interesting breeds of dogs – lots of mutts (like ours) but then there was a rather large dog – Catahoula Leopard named Rolex (he’s an watch dog…what else would you name him), a scruffy ball of energy named Psyche (most other owners call him Psycho), some JRs. Chihuahuas, poodles, min pins, and some larger dogs – shepherds, Dalmatian, Rottys……..and all of them got along very well.  Great for our two re socialization!!

On Feb 15 we pulled out of FOY reluctantly and headed to the Quechan Indian casino.  We parked in the back gravel lot for free (along with everyone else in a motor home – the place is packed) and set up camp.  Just happened to note later on there were 5 BC license plates in a row!!  Walked the dogs and took off for Algodones, Mexico.  Dropped off our order for new glasses and then had a few shrimp tacos at a place recommended to us by our friends Bruce and Buck.  Great place and incredible food. 

Algodones is an amazing place.  There are loads of optical outlets, dental labs, plastic surgery store fronts, and lots of street vendors amongst the usual touristy shops – leather, dresses, ceramics, pottery, woven wares.  And every third place sells medications – “Cheap, just for you boss, real cheap”.  There are also liquor outlets aplenty.  Like we said, amazing place. 

Stood in line for about 1 hour waiting to go through US Customs and back to the motor home.  Took ourselves out to dinner at the casino then did a little gambling………..since we were already there of course!!  Ross actually made some money (a rarity) and Ed lost a little (another rarity) but we had fun.

Back to Algodones on Feb 16 to pick up our glasses, do a little shopping, and again taste test those delicious shrimp tacos at our new favourite Mexican restaurant.  Before we headed down across the border we had run into Yuma looking for some supplies for friends and family.  Having a tour of the city last year when we travelled with Bruce, Buck, Sue and Heather really helped us navigate around the place.

As soon as we got back to the motor home (another wait of about 1 hour to cross the border…………..going to Mexico is simple – you just walk across, no hassles, no interruptions, no border guards……..coming back to US soil is another matter – long lines, cranky officials, not nice experience….especially dodging the street vendors and beggars) we hooked up the little car and took off for Quartzsite.

Off to Quartzsite.  This desolated space on the map is the confluence of two major highways.  It had been the place where the US army had disbanded the camel caravan they were herding to the west coast.  The camels were set free and the Middle Eastern camel driver was fired.  He set up a trading post for travelers on their way to seek their fame and fortune in the gold rush.  And from there Quartzsite was born.  Today it is the home of a few rock hounds and during the winter months of Jan and Feb it is the home of thousands of RVers.  There are quite a few shows that come into town – rock and gem show, RV show, Classic car shows.  When you have nothing but space – flat space – it’s easy to find a place to park.  The BLM lands (Bureau of Land Management) has large acreages around the town and for $40 for 14 days of camping it’s a good deal.  Of course the camping is dry….no water, sewer, or electricity but there is garbage removal!!! 

Anyway, we find “our” spot where Bruce (and Sue), Buck (and Heather) and we camped last year and set up camp.  The town is quite empty now that all the shows have gone so there is precious little to see, but we take in all the sights.  We are looking for some specific items for Buck, however, we found nothing.

Had a couple of quiet nights watching the sunsets and scouring the town for deals (found some books for $0.50 each, flags for $15 each – and got a few extra for free, and a few other knick knacks).  We had breakfast at the best Mexican restaurant in town and noticed that some of the huge RV dealerships had pulled out of town.  We made an obligatory visit to the Laundromat for showers ($5 for all the hot water you can use, towels, soap, and shampoo) and noted the coffee shop has expanded to a full fledged café! 

Dinner was at a family run and operated restaurant in Parker, just up the road from Quartzsite.  Their chicken fried steak was superb last time we went there.  This time the steak seemed to be not up to par, but still very good.

Off again to Lake Havasu to see the fireworks display from the Western Pyrotechnics Assn. (WPA) We find a RV park right on Lake Havasu a few miles from the race track where the fireworks will happen so our Teddy will not freak out. 

Unfortunately the park is wonderful, great fishing spot, even has a full store, restaurant and day time café.  We say “unfortunately” because the  park was built when RVs meant tents or tent trailers, or if the owners were really rich a small Airstream trailer.  Nowadays RVs can extend to 45 feet and can expand from both sides, but the spaces are still quite small and very cramped.   We have a lake side view but need guidance from three or four of the park’s locals to guide us into our space.  Who knows what will happen when we want to pull out in a couple of days!!!!

The WPA is a professional organization of pyrotechnicians.  These are the people that go from town to town putting on incredible fireworks displays.  For one week a year they get together in Lake Havasu City.  There are workshops, socializing, and from Thursday to Sunday they put on displays at the local car racetrack.  We arrived on Friday, set up camp (once we squeezed our way into our site), and took off for the fireworks.  We took our camping chairs into the racetrack and sat down. 

We paid $5 for parking and otherwise admission is free.  We had our heavy jackets, a couple of books, and thought we would be warm enough.  Unfortunately, a cold front had come into the area and the wind was quite cold.  Needless to say we were a bit cold……..but then again we HAD sat in our chairs for about 4 hours!!! (Best to get there early to get a good seat or position). 

There were three demonstration displays---what they call ‘open shooting’ – the first by a group of WPA members that lasted about 5 minutes; the second show was a group from Seattle and lasted about 12 minutes; and the third show was an impressive 15 minutes from a group named Extreme Pyrotechnics.

 All of them were incredible, loud, colourful, amazing, and LOUD (remember that we were sitting about 150 feet from where they were launched).  However, everyone was talking about the big Saturday show put on again by Extreme Pyrotechnics.  We had been warned to get to the racetrack early – about 2PM – for the 8PM show. 

We didn’t want to freeze our tushes off like we had for the Friday show, so decided to take some munchies, our books, our chairs, some heavier blankets, and something to drink.  We also made an extremely intelligent move by staying in the car until just before the show when we arranged our chairs in front of the car and sat back to enjoy the spectacle.  We missed a very few ground displays but by and large we saw everything perfectly.  There was a great show of about 10 minutes prior to the “main event”, then Extreme Pyrotechnics took the stage and for 32 minutes we were speechless.  The whole show was amazing – colour, lights, fire, imagination and all set to music.  Out of this world……..and we want to come back next year.

There was to be another show on Sunday in memory of a WPA member who had passed away recently.  We let that one go as we needed to get over to Bakersfield and on our way back home.  After negotiating with all the other campers around us so they would move their vehicles and let us out we were on our way.  The trip was the longest we have taken in one day – 6 hours and about 300 miles but reached Bakersfield in good time.  We set up camp, walked the dogs, and took off on some errands – oranges and pistachios at California Fruit and Nut Depot, foodstuffs at Trader Joe’s, and a Mexican feast at our favourite Mexican seafood restaurant.  Great day.

Monday we packed the rig and got ready for an easy trip from Bakersfield to Lodi.  Of course we also had to help ourselves to some oranges at the RV park where we stay in Bakersfield.  The Orange Grove RV park is built on one corner of an orange grove.  Each site has at least one orange tree right outside your door and everyone is encouraged to pick as many oranges as they wish.  We did this on our way down to southern CA and now we again had to fill up on a few tree ripened fruit. 

The trip after that was uneventful except most of the rest stops have been closed and there is nowhere for rigs as big as ours to park and stretch for a bit.  And some parts of the interstate highways (I-5 specifically) are terrible.  Pavement that has ruts and holes big enough to swallow a Volkswagen, road patches that have been patched, then re-patched, and patched again.  And there is little evidence that any work is being done or even planned to fix these problems.  We all know that California is in dire economic straits but surely someone can realize that if the roads are not in good repair then travelers will not be staying and the economy will get even worse.  Oh, well.

Reached Lodi and we set up camp at the Flag City RV resort – another one of our favourite places to stay.  Also found that they have ‘created’ a dog run.  Back when we were in San Jose and then again in Fresno we noticed that cities have these huge drainage pools about the size of two football fields in length.  They catch the floodwaters when it rains, thus allowing for a safe collection of excess water.  Lodi has them too…….one of which is in the middle of the Flag City RV park.  As these pools have a sturdy fence around them it’s a great dog run.  Teddy and Mojo were so excited that they were being allowed to run free, on grass, in this huge field  they were running circles around me!!!  Great fun to watch.