Quartzsite, Arizona

Socializing Around Camp

Annually, we gather in Quartzsite (Q to most) partly for the RV Show, but mostly to meet with friends, eat, drink and be very merry. Campfires are lit most nights at happy hour, and are occasionally accompanied by dinner hosted by one or more participants. This year, once again, the Porters and Swains host quesadilla/margarita night, and the Dwyers host spaghetti night. Everyone chips in, but these couples' efforts and organization are yummily appreciated.

Most mornings, some of us girls go hiking, for the exercise and comraderie, not the scenery.

Our departure. Several people, mostly the men, fall to a bad cold virus. Brad is on the verge, and we leave while we can so he can spend the next few days in bed recuperating since we've run out of fresh water.

Brad Goes Jeeping

A couple of folks have jeeps, and several couples go to Dripping Springs, an old mine/ghost town. This road is too difficult for our truck's long wheel base, so the jeeps are necessary.

How to thread a needle - with 10 people telling you which way to turn your wheels and when. I opt to spend the day quietly at the trailer, although I unwisely use my spare time cleaning and doing laundry!

Brad inspecting a few remaining artifacts.

Swansea Jeep Trip

Another old copper mining town, Swansea is about 1.5 hours away from Q. We go with Barbara and Wayne, who insist on driving their jeep, although the road is a well graded gravel road, rough only for the last couple of miles, but one we could have easily done in our truck. This panorama shows the remains of the smelter on the right.

Only a few walls of the smelter are left standing. Most of the buildings have tumbled and only the foundations and a few brick walls remain around the town site.

Barbara at the processing plant's foundation.

Barbara, Wayne, me and Brad with the miner's cabins behind us. Someone is currently restoring these buildings.

For those of you who are astute, you may have noticed that I have updated our "States Visited" map. I have changed my criterion from "we've set foot or wheel to soil" to "we've explored this state and stayed in one or more locations". It's a more accurate depiction.

Mittry Lake and Yuma, Arizona

Do you know what I love most about Year 6 of our travels? Being familiar with the places we go - knowing where to camp, where to get supplies, and how to get around town. I love driving into Escalante or Page and just going directly to "our" camp spot without stopping at the BLM Office or Visitor Center to research where we can take our trailer. It's almost like going home, but in about 10 or 20 different cities in 5 or 6 different states. And it isn't boring going to these places where we've visited before; it's a comfort. Yuma is like that.

Yuma - "Winter Lettuce Capital"

Okay, tell me this doesn't look fabulous. An estimated 90% of the lettuce consumed in the United States in the winter is grown here. The city is lush with fields of, not only lettuce, but broccoli, cauliflower, and other unidentifiable leafy crops (I'm no farmer!).

There must be an ecological reason the rows are planted in alternating colours/species, and we're grateful for that because it's just so darn attractive.

Mittry Lake

As always, when we come to Yuma, we camp (boondock) at Mittry Lake just a few miles north of the city out in farm country. We love it here and luck out this year getting this coveted high spot with a view of the lake, Imperial Dam, and Yuma Proving Grounds, with the canal on the opposite side.

When we arrive, we are shocked to see that part of the area near the boat launch has been ravaged by fire. But life continues, and new growth is starting already.

This belted kingfisher's home must be nearby as we see him fishing in the canal many days. Many water birds make Mittry Lake home during the winter including egrets, herons, many species of ducks, terns and of course, American cootes. At night, we hear several owls calling across the steep, rocky hillsides.

Gathering of the Gunfighters

I am happy when I learn that the annual Gathering of the Gunfighters competition is this weekend. We attended a couple of years ago for our first time and thoroughly enjoyed it along with the tour of the Yuma Territorial Prison (of the movie "3:10 to Yuma" fame) where the competition is held. This year, I am not as impressed. I don't think anything has changed except it's never as exciting as the first time. I am reminded how the microphones rarely pick up the voices properly and when a train passes, which they do frequently and only a few hundred feet away, no one can hear anything. Groups compete by enacting a skit about the old west which ends in a gunfight. Fun, but needs some technical assistance.

Algodones, Mexico

Brad and Tom, smile! Friends from Hamilton have a house here in Yuma, and we arrange a day in Algodones, Mexico with them. Americans and Canadians come to this Mexican border town to purchase booze, prescriptions, eyeglasses and get dental work.

Tom, Brad, me and Bev - our reflections in a mirror zoomed in Of course, what's a day in Mexico without a margarita? Well, not much fun. So even I have one (or part of one). Lunch and drinks for all, then a stagger back across the border to our vehicles waiting on the American side. We do have a DD, and today, it's not me!