Quartzsite, AZ

Have you ever seen 50,000 RVs camped in the middle of the desert?  No?  Then come to Quartzsite in January!

Here we meet up with old friends - not friends who are old, but friends from past travel years.  Plus we meet some new friends.  This year, the group is large - about a dozen RVs parked together south of town on one of the BLM's LTVA (Long-Term Visitor Areas).  Quartzsite has about 2,000 full-time residents, but during the winter the warm, dry weather draws snowbirds from all over the continent to winter here.  The shows in January draw even more crowds - the RV show and a couple of rock & mineral shows.  Fun, informative, tiring ... great to spend time socializing.

Not many photos from this part of the trip since many days are spent hanging out or wandering through the exhibits at the shows.  And towards the end of our stay, Brad gets a cold so isn't up to some of the activities.  Oddly enough though, another couple camping out with our group we met last year in southern Utah.  Frightfully small world!

	The entire group on Potluck Spaghetti night. It's quite a crowd, and LOTS of fun. Photo courtesy of Carol Ann Dwyer, resident photographer!
	Lunchtime during a gold prospecting outing (Brad's out searching). One of our new friends is a member of a Gold Prospectors Club and takes us a half hour up into the nearby mountains to look for gold. We didn't find any.
	Jerry panning his diggings from the prospecting trip with wife, Janice, watching. He didn't find anything either!
	Still panning; Ed in the background trying to get into the photo and Brad yapping to Gerry.

Winter Vegetable Capital - Yuma, AZ

Yuma lies in the southwestern-most corner of Arizona along the Colorado River.  If you eat lettuce in the winter, this is likeloy where it's grown.  The fields are lush with vegetables of all kinds and irrigation is almost non-stop.  It looks and smells heavenly after the dryness of the desert.

We spend 10 days here, visiting the farms and historic sites from our campsite at Mittry Lake (where we camped last year).  The best part of camping here: lots of migratory birds, great views of the small lake, daily sonic displays thanks to the nearby Yuma Proving Grounds - a military base which tests heavy equipment and artillery.  The worst part of camping here: hunters and mosquitoes.

	Remember the movie 3:10 to Yuma? Well, this prison is where those prisoners were brought. From 1876 to 1909, the Yuma Territorial Prison housed over 3,000 including 29 women. During the weekend we are here, we see the Annual Gathering of the Gunfighters. Teams come from all over to compete by acting out old west skits that always end in a gunfight. It's a lot of fun to watch, plus there's a vendor selling Indian Fry Bread - mmm!
	The nearby Imperial Dam outlets, full of American Coots. There's a nice picnic area at the dam and a farm not far away that sells Date Shakes - mmm!
	The restored town of Castle Dome with the rock formation of the same name in the background. The current owners have collected shacks from the adjacent Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and restored them, rebuilding a ghost town. They've done a great job - best ghost town museum we've been to yet.
	Marilyn at the hotel bar in Castle Dome's ghost town. I think the whiskey has dried up.
	Another full moon rise behind a date palm taken from our campsite at Mittry Lake.

Sand Dunes and Mines, CA

Just a few miles west of the Arizona/California border are the Imperial Sand Dunes, a playground for folks with OHVs (Off-Highway Vehicles or 4-wheelers or dune buggies).  The dunes are about 200-300 feet high and stretch for 40 miles from north to south and 5 miles east to west, cutting through Interstate 8 near the Mexico border.

The area east of the dunes is also known for gold mines, and it is at the Tumco Historic Site on Ogilby Road where we set up camp, with a great view of the dunes.

	From the Cargo Muchachos Mountains at the Tumco mining site, our trailer and the view of the Imperial Sand Dunes (aka the Algodones Dunes).
	Just a beautiful sunset behind this ocotillo plant. Taken from our campsite.
	The Old Plank Road - a wooden road that was used from 1914 to 1927 to allow vehicles to cross the dunes. If winds buried the road in sand, horses were used to move the sections of plank road to allow travel to resume.
	The border between the U.S. and Mexico. I'm glad we don't have to look at something like this between Canada and the U.S.
	When you look at the fence at 90 degrees, you can see it's actually steel bars that are very close together, not a solid surface. The sign behind Brad says to stay 100 feet away from the fence, but we had to get closer than 50 feet to be able to read it! Fortunately, no Border Patrol Guards swarmed us.
	We have a campfire one night and the smell of Brad's hotdogs draws some attention from this guy. It's a desert kit fox. This inquisitive little guy is no bigger than Grady, but he's fully grown. He's so adorable I just want to scoop him up and hug him.
	Our little foxy friend is very bold and comes within a couple of feet of us. He is obviously fed by other campers as he is quite persistent and stays with us for about 45 minutes, leaving only when we go back inside.

A Trip to Mecca (Hills), CA

In Southern California, between the northern shore of the Salton Sea and the southern entrance of Joshua Tree National Park are the Orocopia Mountains with the Mecca Hills on the western edge.  Box Canyon Road cuts through the valley with lots of OHV and hiking trails through canyons and to summits with incredible views.  We quietly welcome 2014 camped at the southern entrance of this high desert national park with a few other campers.

New Years Eve day we decide to do something different - we try our first date shake!  Sounds kinky, doesn't it?  In this area just east of Palm Springs, date palms are grown for their fruit and all kinds of delicious foods can be sampled - date pancakes, date bread, softened dates, and the infamous date shakes.  Who would ever think of making a milk shake from dates, but I'm glad someone did - they're the most delicious shake I've ever had!  After browsing through the gift shop and the beautiful gardens, we drink our shake and head to the beach, at the northern shore of the Salton Sea where we set out our zero-gravity chairs in view of hundreds of migrating pelicans, ducks, egrets and other water birds, then watch the sun fade behind the Santa Rosa Mountains before heading home to watch the hockey game.  We are Canadians, after all!

Happy New Year, everyone!

	Inside Painted Canyon, a very busy trail in the Mecca Hills near Indio.
	Marilyn in the slot on the Painted Canyon Trail. The rock walls can't compare in colour to those in southern Utah, but the textures are fantastic. Here, however, the walls are mostly hardened, compressed clay as opposed to sandstone.
	Marilyn on the Ladder Trail in Painted Canyon. This is a pretty difficult trail with several ladder climbs, and up is definitely easier. Views from the top are fantastic, but into the sun so we don't take any photos.
	The fertile valley between the Salton Sea and the Orocopia Mountains. Along the road are fields of crops bearing peppers and other veggies, with citrus trees in the background.
	The gardens at Shields Date Garden where we sample date shakes and other date delicacies.
	Relaxing with lunch on Desert Beach at the Salton Sea's north shore. The Salton Sea is over 200 feet below sea level.

Celebrating in California

In 1958, my dad's baby brother moved to California about one hour from Los Angeles.  Uncle Bill is the last of the Martin boys surviving his three older brothers, and we visit him each year for Christmas.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that this IS California and the weather is usually great.  This year - sunny and almost 80F (27C) and no wind.  Sigh...  Compared to the ice storms back home, we are in heaven!

	A solar farm (mirror type) in the desert on I-15 somewhere between Las Vegas and San Bernardino. We've seen a few of these out here this year. Only two of the three towers are online at this facility.
	Christmas Day with Uncle Bill at our trailer at the East Shore RV Park in San Dimas.
	The Puddingstone Reservoir is used for year-round recreation - fishing, boating and swimming. Lots of people are out today (Boxing Day which the Americans don't celebrate) enjoying the unusually warm weather. Our trailer is on the hill behind us, overlooking the lake. What a view!