Welcome to our Blog!

ATTENTION

http://www.islandgirlwalkabout.wordpress.com  HAS MOVED to a self hosted site.

Future updates and all content on this blog can be found at http://www.islandgirlwalkabout.com.  See you there!

 

 

 

We are Brenda and Hector Lopez and have been “on walkabout” since October, 2012 traveling our beautiful continent in our Class A Motorhome “Island Girl” with our wonderful dog Angel.

We welcome you to come along on our journey and will share travel experiences along with Hector’s beautiful photography.  Along the way, we’ll include some “RV stuff” – information about RV’s and the fulltime RV lifestyle for those who may be interested in it, already doing it or just curious about it.

We are very grateful for all we’ve learned through reading other RVers’ blogs and hope that some of our experiences are interesting and useful to others.

Sign up as a follower to receive an e-mail for each of our new posts.  We absolutely love to get comments, so please let us hear from you.

~ Brenda and Hector

Our Blog is Moving to a New Home

Lots has been happening here in San Diego in the last few weeks.  One of the things we’ve been focused on is preparing to move our blog to a new hosting platform.

We’re not making drastic changes, but we are moving to a self-hosted site (WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com) in order to have more flexibility in the future.  We have a few improvements planned too.

And, no, we didn’t figure this out all by ourselves.  This time we got help.  Dennis and Jeanette were recommended by Nina of Wheeling It fame (thanks Nina!) who mentioned that Dennis and Jeanette were headed to San Diego around the time we would be here.

And so we contacted them through their business website, Motorhome Office of Design and Technology and a plan was hatched.  Dennis and Jeanette have been quite generous with their time and their pricing, are great people and have taught us tons about blogs and social media in a short time.

They’re funny too!  After all, they live in a 1978 Wanderlodge named the Cheddar Yeti 🙂

So, in the next few days we’ll be replacing the old blog with our new improved one.  There is nothing you need to do if all goes according to plan.  There may be a brief period where the site will be offline as the transition occurs.

Our http://www.islandgirlwalkabout.com URL will remain the same and we plan to transition all of our followers as well.  So if you get  updates via email you should continue to.

We’re excited about our changes, but if for some reason there is any problem, please bear with us.  Gremlins can be found in the internets …

Hector has also been working on a new photography website that will allow us to sell some of his beautiful photographs.  Stay tuned for more news about Hector’s photography website which is coming soon.

Hope you enjoy the improvements we’ve made.  Send your comments!

And the journey continues.

~ Brenda

 

A Southern California Weekend with Brother Gus

Yes, we’ve been quite busy here in San Diego, and five weeks have passed rather quickly. And what else did we do the rest of our time on the coast of San Diego?  Well, for starters, Hector’s brother Gus joined us for a fun-filled long weekend.  Hector had been hoping that Gus could join us here in Southern California, so we were really excited about his visit.

The original plan was to spend a four-day weekend together, but Gus and his friend, Jessica, who took a connecting flight out of Miami, encountered delays and problems both in Miami and after their connection in Dallas.  Including an emergency landing in El Paso, Texas in an aircraft not meant to land in such a small airport.  But they arrived safe and somewhat sound.

And the much later arrival shortened our weekend together to three days instead of four.

These two brothers are quite a pair when they get together and this time was no exception.  Like two overgrown kids.

And, speaking of kids, Gus really wanted to visit Disneyland as he is a big fan of Disneyworld in Florida.  So Hector and I hired a pet sitter to walk and feed Angel and off to Los Angeles the four of us went on Friday for a fun and very long day.

Hector and I have a history with Disney – when we got married, we had very little money, so we had a Floridian honeymoon – driving around Florida and playing tourist at various spots:  Disneyworld, Sea World, Circus World (since gone) and others.

So visiting Disneyland had a bit of a nostalgic feeling – this is the original park and vision of Walt Disney, built in 1955 and about to have its 60^th anniversary.   Many of the original rides are still operating, albeit with some tweaking and refurbishing, and we enjoyed riding a bunch of those original rides, including some of the kiddie ones 🙂 .

The DIsneyland sign over the years

Being a kid in a fantasy world for a day is not bad, but the lines can be crazy.  Turns out that the Disney diehards have developed strategies to minimize that.  Including multiple apps to provide you with information about the lines.  So I went high tech and purchased an app to check out the waiting times in advance and we used the FASTPASS system, a must to avoid some of the long waiting times.  Which allowed us to pack in more rides.

We visited the silly but fun Enchanted Tiki Room for some sing along fun.

We went into the Haunted Mansion, got (slightly) wet in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and had some delicious beignets (almost like the ones in New Orleans).
Gus and Hector had some fun with the other kids in the Astro Orbitor.

 

But my all time favorite part of the experience was watching the nightime parades and fireworks.  We watched three: Mickey’s Soundsational Parade, full of floats and Disney characters; the Fireworks Show; and Fantasmic, which is a combination character and light show with pyrotechnics, lasers and special effects over water, a beautiful show.

We really stretched out the day, but it meant a very late departure back to San Diego.  And Hector did a great job of driving back in the middle of the night while I chatted endlessly to make sure he stayed awake.

The next day we opted for a more mellow beachy day.  We went to a really pretty beach, Windansea in La Jolla, where we walked along the rocks and watched some surfers.

Then we drove over to the Children’s Pool, also in La Jolla to watch the seals, an activity that Hector and I really enjoy.

The seals are having pups, and we saw a pup that had been born 45 minutes earlier.  There is a ritual that apparently takes place each time a pup is born – seagulls go after the placenta – a protein source – and the mom tries to protect the placenta – she identifies it with her pup. 

It’s tough to look at the stressed out mom circling and trying to protect the placenta while also taking care of the pup.  Ultimately, the seagulls win and mom goes back to focusing on her pup only.

The pups are just adorable, and we spotted others that still had part of their umbilical cords.  And there are some wonderful volunteers watching their backs.  I spoke with one of the volunteers who was just a fountain of knowledge.   It’s so comforting to know that there are so many people looking out for these adorable animals.  And our fine afternoon ended with a fabulous sunset.

On Gus and Jessica’s last day here, we went biking and skateboarding (Gus) on the Pacific Beach boardwalk.  This is a quintessential Southern California experience and since it was a weekend, there were tons of people walking, cycling, skateboarding or just hanging out along the boardwalk.  Definitely some great people watching.

We topped it off with a walk in Ocean Beach, a neighborhood with a hippie flair.  There are lots of funky shops, quite the other side of the spectrum from the Disney experience.

While there we had lunch at Hodad’s, a burger joint that’s an Ocean Park institution.  Hodad’s had great burgers, fries, fried onions and a fabulous strawberry shake.  We did not skimp on the calories and, oh yes, it really was worth the wait in line.

So the brothers got to play together once more during a jam-packed visit on a fun-filled weekend.

~ Brenda

Honey, the Ocean is on the Wrong Side

After having spent three and a half months crossing this big continent, we’ve finally arrived at our winter destination, San Diego, California. And will stay here for a couple of months.  To think that just last year around this time we were in Fort Lauderdale, Everglades National Park and Key West,  Florida. 

And having started our westward journey at the northern end of Nova Scotia, it’s really exciting to have reached the opposite side of the U.S.  And we’re so happy to slow down the pace of travel, a welcome change after a lot of shorter stays in recent months.

I was fully prepared for cooler temperatures than we had in South Florida since San Diego’s latitude is close to that of Charleston, South Carolina, but the weather here has actually been warmer than normal for this time of year.  So we are very fortunate, especially in light of the awful weather that the rest of the country has experienced this winter.

Warmer days = happy tropical island girl.

And in our first couple of weeks, we’ve settled into the urban lifestyle.  We’ve strolled and biked along nearby beaches and their neighborhoods:  Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, and La Jolla.

The Ocean Beach neighborhood is a standout, parts of it frozen in time in the 60’s, with some rasta flavor added in.

At La Jolla, we spent a long time just looking at some adorable seals.  

And were lucky to catch a glimpse of a mom nursing her new baby underwater.   The lady standing next to us, who seemed to be in the know, informed us that the baby was one day old.

These guys make lots of funny faces and cute poses.  We could watch them for hours!

And Pacific and Mission Beaches are just around the corner, so we’ve visited a few times. We watched some beginner and experienced surfers flowboarding at the Wave House, an artificial wave machine where you can watch the action up close.

And every morning and evening we walk Angel by the shores of Mission Bay right by our RV park.  Angel is happy to be walking on soft grass and sand since some of those desert areas we visited recently were pretty rocky.

San Diego has lots of dog friendly parks by the water.  Angel visited Fiesta Island across the way from our campground, where doggies can go leashless.  And we went to the dog beach in Ocean Beach.  A really pretty place for dogs and humans.  Alas, the crab huntress found no crabs.

We also happened to catch the Chinese New Year Food & Cultural Fair.  It’s a small fair run by the San Diego Chinese Center, which serves as a cultural bridge between Chinese and non-Chinese communities.  The lion dances were especially fun and colorful.

San Diego also has lots of farmers markets, at least one every day of the week in various neighborhoods. We love farmers markets and visited four of them so far.

There are some small and some large ones and others that offer more arts and crafts than food.  Our two favorites so far are: the Ocean Beach (most funky) and the Hillcrest (most elaborate) markets.

And being food lovers, we couldn’t resist all the great ethnic food offerings and have found tasty and inexpensive Middle Eastern, East African, Vietnamese and Indian food, most at the farmers markets. And yes, we also sampled the famous In-N-Out burgers.

Oh, and Hector and I are taking some group swing dance lessons. We’d been taking ballroom dancing lessons two years ago before we left Denver but had to stop because of my foot surgeries.  So it’s fun to be back in the “swing” of things.

And the beautiful sunsets continue.

There is only one minor problem.  Hector, who has an excellent sense of direction, occasionally gets thrown off course because the ocean is on the “wrong” side.  Having lived most of our lives on the East coast, having the ocean on the west gets him turned around.  And I’m no help at all, since I’m directionally challenged no matter where I am.  But he’s getting used to it and becoming quite the California boy.  Could bleached blonde hair be next?

We’re having a fabulous time in San Diego.  This is an ideal spot to spend the winter.  Even though the ocean is on the wrong side.

~ Brenda

Beautiful Anza-Borrego

First light

We’ve been in the desert for two months, spending most of December in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico, and January in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and California.

And we arrived at what we think is one of the most beautiful deserts we’ve seen so far during our journey, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the largest state park in California, located in the Colorado Desert, one of six  sub-regions of the Sonoran Desert.

The park is named for Juan Bautista de Anza, who, in 1776, led about 300 people over 1600 miles from New Spain (Mexico) to colonize Alta California (San Francisco) for the Spanish.  Since they started in Nogales, Arizona, it seems that we’ve been crossing their path (actually a 1200 mile National Historic Trail) a number of times since we arrived in Tucson.  And seeing his name many times along the way.

And borrego is the Spanish word for bighorn sheep.  Rocky slopes just above the desert floor here are habitat for peninsular bighorn sheep, also known as desert bighorn sheep, an endangered species which has declined from human overpopulation encroachment.  Alas, we didn’t see any during our brief stay here.

Boondocking is very popular here, and there are a several areas that allow RVs to boondock for free.  In the state park, the main rule is that the RV needs to be no further than one car length from the nearest road (paved or dirt) although this rule appeared to be subject to multiple interpretations.

And one area is apparently in contention as to whether it’s public or private, and RVs have been boondocking there for a number of years, ignoring a couple of no trespassing signs.

We found a pretty good spot a good distance from most other RV’s and with great views all around.

We noticed that the areas where RVs boondocked had less plants than the rest of the desert.  So it’s important to be mindful of the vegetation; drive on established paths and camp in areas that are already cleared of vegetation so as to minimize impact on the remaining plants.  Many of these “campsites” have fire rings which makes them easier to locate.

We were greeted on our first afternoon with the first of several fabulous sunsets.  Desert sunsets are the best!

The rest of the desert was rich with plants, although this desert doesn’t have the mighty Saguaros, which we saw throughout Arizona, most notably in Tucson.  

Many other plants that we first learned about in Tucson are found here as well.  The most predominant are the creosote bushes, but we also saw palo verde trees, and those other iconic desert plants, the ocotillo and, of course, lots of cacti.

There are lots of cholla cacti here, seven varieties in fact, of which my favorite are the teddybear cholla.  But beware the spines of these adorable cacti.  There is also one type of prickly pear cactus in this region as well as barrel cactus.   And a couple of varieties of short, “clumpy” (my scientific description) cacti known as hedgehog.  And there are others that we’re still learning about.

The town of Borrego Springs also has several farms around its perimeter.  A couple are tree farms, with palms growing all around them.  There are a few remaining native palms, which are accessible via short hikes, but we didn’t get a chance to go see them.  And, this being California, there are several citrus farms.

So we bought fabulous pink grapefruit as well as extra juicy tangelos at a couple of fruit stands.  One of the stands was not manned but had an honor system; you picked up a bag (or more) of grapefruit and left your money in a metal box.  Love it!

And we made the most delicious vodka and toronja (spanish for grapefruit) drinks with fresh grapefruit juice, a perfect drink for the desert.  A shout-out to our friend Bob (Bob-A-Lu), who introduced us to vodka and toronja while we were living in Puerto Rico.

As for the animals, we’ve not had much luck spotting animals in these parts, except for some hawks and lots of jackrabbits (to Angel’s delight).   But we’ve heard the coyotes often, many times at dusk, and, in fact, we’ve been hearing them pretty consistently since the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is surrounded by mountains. To the east are the badlands, dry areas with very little vegetation and rocks and soil that have been eroded by wind and water, forming steep slopes and other interesting formations.  If you were trying to cross this area in a wagon or a horse you would certainly describe it as “bad”.

There are many fossils buried here and volunteer paleontologists regularly help to collect and preserve them.

As we drove to the badlands for a hike, we noticed some RVs boondocking near the main road right by the cliffs, an interesting option for those that really want to be in a remote place (except for the slight traffic during the day).

We also noticed the State Vehicle Recreation Area with tons of trails for specialized off-highway vehicles and the Truckhaven 4×4 Training Area, a frightening looking obstacle course for street legal 4x4s.

But we were searching for Palm Slot, a slot canyon we’d read about on Nina’s blog and in the park brochure.  The state park doesn’t get a lot of points for signage, as we missed the turnoff for the trail and had to stop and ask state park staff for directions.

What exactly are slot canyons?  They are deep, narrow canyons in areas with low rainfall which are formed by specific patterns of rainfall that create rushing water in particular types of rock, most commonly sandstone and limestone.  There are a number of well-known slot canyons in the Southwestern United States.

And we ultimately found the entrance to the four-wheel high clearance road that led to our trail and also happens to access the Calcite Mine trail.  This mine was the only site in the United States where optical-grade calcite crystals were extracted for use in gunsights during World War II – in fact the marker highlighting this was the only way we found the road to Palm Slot.  The mine was later owned by Polaroid.

We walked a ways down the road and since signage hadn’t been so great just walked into the first slot that had footprints leading into it.

It was a cloudy day and we were keeping a close eye on the weather, as a slot canyon is not a place you want to be in when it rains.  But the clouds were pretty light and we continued.  I had a nagging feeling that this wasn’t the Palm Slot (it didn’t look like the photos I’d seen).  So we turned back to the road after awhile.

Even though it was still cloudy, we walked a bit further down the road and found a sign!  An actual Anza-Borrego Desert State Park sign.  This was the Palm Slot.  We hiked in and it was amazing.  The rock had a pinkish hue and was much smoother than in the previous slot canyon.  But it was getting cloudier so we only hiked for a short while.

Jimmy Durante Rock

Neapolitan Rock

These were our first slot canyons, and they won’t be our last.

After the fact I found a pretty good description of how to get to Palm Slot here.

Whale cloud

As we drove back to our boondocking spot, however, we noticed sand blowing in the distance.  The winds had started up and were blowing some big dust clouds in particular areas of the desert (fortunately not directly over Island Girl).

The next day remained windy, and we decided to stow our exterior stuff that morning (we were leaving the following day).  And we took it easy that day and didn’t do much exploring.

That evening, there was a beautiful, stormy sunset, with lots of sand being blown about.

The winds continued to blow and increased during the night, so I didn’t exactly get a good night’s sleep (Hector sleeps like a rock no matter what).  Island Girl was shaking around a bit and I wondered about those RVers boondocking by the cliffs in the badlands.

Fortunately, the next morning the winds stopped.  And we left this beautiful place vowing to return again next winter.

~ Brenda

Sky Art in the Desert

“Blessings are meant to be shared” – Dennis S. Avery

Borrego Springs is a small town of about 3500 with many seasonal residents, which is actually an unincorporated area of northeast San Diego County about 100 miles from the city of San Diego.  It’s in a really dramatic setting surrounded by mountains and badlands.

The town was California’s first dark sky community, and has no stoplights. So it’s quite beautiful when the stars come out at night.  And the town’s surroundings are part of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which, at 643,000 acres, makes up more than half of the land of the entire California State Park System.

But Borrego Springs might be best known for the life size sculptures found scattered all over the desert around the town on parcels of private land (Galleta Meadows Estate) owned by the recently deceased Dennis Avery, millionaire heir to the Avery labeling fortune, philanthropist and visionary.

The sculptures are crafted of metal by sculptor Ricardo Breceda of Temecula, California, who welds scrap reinforcement bars, wire and metal together, and uses hammers to pound texture into the patches of metal.

Mr. Breceda, sometimes referred to as “the accidental artist” was a carpenter until he fell from a second story during a construction job.  While selling cowboy boots for a living, he traded a pair for a welding machine, and then began to “play” with it as a hobby.  He created his first sculpture, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, when his daughter asked for one after watching “Jurassic Park III”. He continued making sculptures as a hobby for a few years prior to selling any of his works.

In 2007, Dennis Avery happened to drive by Ricardo Breceda’s studio and spotted a 30 foot T-Rex leaning over a fence.  Mr. Avery owned about 3,000 acres of noncontiguous parcels in Borrego Springs that he wanted preserved from development, and had opened his land to the public.  A paleontology buff, he had financed a book cataloguing the fossil treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert.

The philanthropist and artist shared an obsession with the prehistoric, and, in 2008, Mr. Avery commissioned Mr. Breceda to create some of the prehistoric beasts from the book, animals that had roamed this area millions of years ago when it was a lush jungle.  They brainstormed the project and Mr. Avery named it “Sky Art”.

I love a great partnership, whether business or personal or both.

Over the years, the sculpture collection grew to include prehistoric creatures not from this area, then historical incidents and characters, desert wildlife and mythical creatures.  There are now more than 130 sculptures.

Although Mr. Avery passed away last year, Galleta Meadows LLC remains, and a fund was set up so that when any of the sculptures are damaged, Mr. Breceda can repair them.

Hector and I love outdoor sculptures and set out to see all of them.

They are dispersed throughout the desert near town, to the north and the south and most are located within sight of the Borrego Springs Road.

For those wanting a closer up view, there are a number of dirt roads from the main road leading to the sculptures and though some of these dirt roads are made up of softish sand, most are flat and hard.

And, of course, I wanted to get REALLY close and walked over to many of them.  There is a lot of detail that can only be appreciated once you are close up.

There are enormous birds, prehistoric horses, camels and elephants.  There is a wonderful, giant Spanish Padre, an Indian Head, and a jeep going over rocks.

Not to mention a sculpture of farm workers working a grape field.

One of the most impressive sculptures is a 350-foot sea serpent with various parts emerging from the sand and seemingly crossing the road.

Fabulous!

Sky Art is the most unique art project I’ve ever seen.  How wonderful of Mr. Avery to have commissioned these unique sculptures and opened up his land so that the public might enjoy them.

~ Brenda

RV Care … A Side Trip to Yuma

We’d planned an overnight stop in Yuma, Arizona to have Island Girl washed and waxed for a very cheap rate that we found out about on the Wheeling It blog.

And we were very satisfied with the service provided by Robert’s RV Wash, Wax & Carpet Cleaning.  Not quite like a wax job we’d do ourselves (we are persnickety) but certainly very well worth the price they charge.  There are multiple companies doing the mobile wash and wax that you can find either online or in the “White Sheet”, a little pamphlet listing all manner of local services.The going rate seems to be $1 a foot for a wash and another $2 a foot for a hand wax. This is less than a third of what we’ve seen in other parts of the country.  All 39′ of Island Girl got scrubbed and waxed for a mere $125!  She looks wonderful.

But right before we left Quartzsite, we had an unwelcome surprise.  As mentioned in the last post, our most expensive purchase by far was a SeeLevel Gauge, an external tank sensor and monitor to measure our fresh water supply and gray and black water volume in the holding tanks more precisely, specifically when we are boondocking as here in the desert.

Ok for the “newbies”, boondocking essentially means you are self-reliant, with no electric, water nor sewer connections and likely in a remote location.  So if you plan to boondock for more than a few days, it’s important to manage your electric and water usage.  RVs have tank level monitors that provide information on current tank volume of the fresh water, grey water (sink and shower), and black (toilet) holding tanks.

Unfortunately the original sensors, which live inside the tank, often stop working due to gunk buildup. This is a VERY common problem, even in newer RVs.  Island Girl is a 2004 model we bought in 2011 and her tank level monitors have never worked properly.   Even after multiple cleanings with commercial cleaner and various other products and combinations of products including Borax, Calgon, Dawn, and even a trip with ice cubes in the black tank we were unable to get them to work.

Thus the expensive purchase.  But we apparently didn’t do enough research, a caution to all.  The SeeLevel Gauges claim on their website that “with nothing inside the tank all the usual problems of corrosion and clogging are eliminated”.   And the day they were installed, it seemed that they were.  Not so much.

A couple of days later, after we dumped, the readings remained at full.  Ugh!  When we called the installer, he said that on older coaches there is sometimes enough buildup inside the tank walls to prevent their externally mounted sensors from reading properly.  Surprise!  So now we were stuck with these non working sensors.   With the advice that we should clean the inside of the tanks.  Nice.

Okay, now that I’ve totally bored those who are not interested in RV holding tanks, here comes the somewhat happy, though expensive ending.

We contacted a company that pressure cleans the insides of RV tanks, Royal Flush in Yuma with a one day advance notice to see if they were available to clean our tanks.  Hector got a good vibe from the lady on the phone who said they were available and that “her boys would stay until the job was done”.

And they did.  As it turns out, the three guys who came out are grandfather, father and son.  They had to get creative due to some challenges caused by the design of the plumbing in our coach, but they stayed until those monitors worked.  And they were friendly and nice and courteous.  And funny too.

And we thought that calling them “my boys” was just an expression, but the lady answering the phones was grandma.  It’s wonderful to see a family working so well together.

$200 more dollars later, we finally have working sensors.

A learning for owners of older motorhomes considering external sensors.  They don’t always work and you may wind up having to pay for a professional cleaning if you get them.  And we didn’t appreciate that there was no mention of this possibility at time of purchase.

The good news is Island Girl is sparkly and clean, and we can tell by 5% increments how full each of our tanks is.  And thanks to this being Yuma, the winter home of a zillion RVers and lots of companies to service them, our total expense to wash, wax the outside and clean her tanks was still less than the exorbitant prices some folks wind up paying for just washing and waxing their RV’s elsewhere.

~ Brenda

Tips for Quartzsite Newbies

When we arrived in Quartzsite (the “Q”), we really weren’t sure what to expect and went in search of information about basic services.  And we found the ladies at the Chamber of Commerce at 101 W Main Street, across from the Post Office, very helpful, they answered all of our questions, gave us a business directory and a directory of vendors for the various shows, as well as some other event and tourist information.

For those that prefer to get their information in advance, I compiled a short list of various services that we used and were satisfied with below:

Grocery Stores – The Roadrunner Market and The Quartzsite General Store both on Main Street offered produce, meats, a limited wine and beer selection and other basic foods but the Roadrunner Market was larger and had by far the best selection.

If you need a full grocery store, there’s an Albertsons at 840 East Hobson Way in Blythe, about 20 miles west, just across the California state line.  There is a border patrol checkpoint on the way there and back, and, although we sailed through, we noticed traffic held up on the opposite side so be prepared for a possible delay.

Mail –There is a Post Office at 80 W Main Street, however, my understanding is that the lines can be quite long.

Ironwood Outpost at 225 N Central Boulevard will receive Fedex and UPS packages.  We left our name and phone and they called to notify us when they received our package. They charge a $5.00 fee, but we thought it was worth it to avoid long lines, especially since we only had one delivery while in Quartzsite.  This company provides other services as well.

Laundry – Main Street Laundromat and Showers at 205 East Main Street is a huge laundromat– they have Wi-Fi and a restaurant (didn’t try this one) next door.   They also offer showers, including towel, bath mat, soap and shampoo for $6.00, though we didn’t try those out. 

Bars/Restaurants with TVs – Hector needed a place to watch the Denver Broncos playoff game, and we went to The Quartzsite Yacht Club, 1070 W. Main Street, a place with a very colorful history.  A yacht club many miles from the nearest water.  Funny.

We were not thrilled with our food choices, but it has a large bar, lots of TV’s (some of which are dedicated to off-track betting), and is seemingly very popular with locals.  Another (smaller) place that has TV’s and supposedly good food (per one of the town cops) is The Grubstake on Central Boulevard.

Trash and Recycling –  The Refuse Transfer Station on Central Boulevard on the left hand side headed north of Quartzsite a bit past the Fire Station.  It’s free but open limited hours (7:30 to 2:30) Sunday through Wednesday only so plan accordingly.

Holding Tank Dump Station, Potable Water Tank Fill and Propane – The RV Pit Stop at 425 North Central Road.  They have a filter attached to their fresh water fill.  They also offer reverse osmosis water for drinking water refills as well as ice though we didn’t use those services.  A very convenient and well organized all in one set up.  You drive from station to station.

Campsite selection.  Full hook ups or boondocking?  The “Q” has several commercial campgrounds with hook ups.  Most looked ok if simple, but frankly the desert called to us so we didn’t look into the campgrounds in town.  

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allows dispersed camping on various public land areas nearby.   So, how did we choose which BLM area to stay in?  The BLM web site nicely identifies where all the camping areas are on the map, and we read RV reviews, but the descriptions were pretty basic so we couldn’t really tell which one offered what. Two things stood out on many of the reviews – there’s lots of dust and highway noise can be a problem.

There are several free BLM areas (14 day max stay within any 28 day period).  These have no services, pack it in/ pack it out. And a Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) for $40 for 14 nights or $180 for seven months. Cheap! Staying in the LTVA includes access to potable water and a dump site and there are dumpsters and some vault toilets throughout the areas but the places are still basically open desert.

North of town are Hi Jolly BLM (5.5 miles) and Plomosa Road BLM (10 miles).  East is Scaddan Wash (3.5 miles), West is Dome Rock Mountain (3.5 miles), South is RoadRunner (5 miles) and the La Posa LTVA  (2 miles) which is broken up into several areas.  La Posa West and North are right near town and La Posa Tyson Wash and La Posa South (where the dump and potable water are located) are a bit further south.

Choosing a spot depends on your priorities.

Traffic noise carries quite easily across the desert, so if you really want to avoid it plan to drive somewhere as far from I-10 as you can.  Perhaps La Posa South, Hi Jolly or Plomosa Road.

Dust is mostly created by traffic, so to get away from it you should park away from the access roads towards the back of the area you select.

If access to the shows in town are a priority La Posa West is right by the show (walking distance), but you are pretty packed in.

Privacy or Party?  If you want some privacy you might try the Dome Rock Mountain area.  This is hillier terrain so the flat places suitable for camping are fewer and more spaced out.

We drove around several dirt roads looking for our specific campsite and ultimately found a cozy one, a little close to the dirt access road so we got a bit of ATV traffic zooming through but not much other traffic.  You could hear I-10 traffic in the distance but not too disturbing.  

This did mean driving Island Girl SLOWLY down an uneven dirt road.  And several of the roads were clearly not suitable for larger RVs so scouting is a must.

We really liked our spot with vegetation on both sides and our very own Saguaro and we even entertained a couple of times.

Some other BLM areas seemed flatter and less interesting to us, but campsite access seemed easier and lots of groups were gathered in the flatter areas. So if you want a place to arrange multiple rigs in a giant circle and have a giant fire ring, there is plenty of open flat space to choose from.  Some groups place the rigs in a circle, others prefer a rectangle, many are just sort of scattered across the land.

Campsite Services – One nice thing about having such a density of RVs is that they provide business opportunities for service providers. There are several mobile RV repair guys in town, and apparently you can also have water delivered and your tanks pumped out at your site as well (for a fee of course).

So all in all Quartzsite is a great place for boondocking with lots of moral and technical support available for newbies.  We weren’t sure what to expect.  But we sure had a wonderful time and learned a lot about boondocking during our Quartzsite experience.

~ Brenda

The Merchants in the Desert

We have arrived.

Quartzsite is a tiny town of 3,500 year round residents located between Phoenix and Los Angeles, 20 miles from the California border. 

It was once a gathering place for pioneers traveling to the gold fields of California as well as other travelers and then agates, limonite cubes, gold and quartz were found nearby, so the town itself became a destination for the “rock hounds”.

And nowadays, between November and March each year, known as the season, snowbirds, rock hounds and others converge here to escape the harsh winters elsewhere and to shop at various indoor and outdoor swap meets that began 40 years ago.

The majority of these swap meets take place during January and February when thousands of merchants also come here to sell their wares.

We are here in January and during our ten day stay there are eight of these events in town, including “world famous” gem and mineral shows and the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation and RV show.  January is known here as “the largest gathering of RVers in the world”.

The little white dots are RVs

Many of the RVers come to stay in the desert, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands as far as the eye can see.  There are five BLM areas here.  With free camping for fourteen days in one 28 day period.  And there is also a Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) that charges $40 for two weeks and $180 for seven months.

“Boondocking”.   No electric, no water, no sewer.  Just open land, pick your spot and set up camp. Beautiful sunsets almost every day.  And lots of stars at night.

We are joined by RVers of all stripes; the ATV crowd with their desert toys, the hippies and ex-hippies, the young, the old and the oldest – quite a few of those rocking their mobility scooters and walkers down the dirt and gravel. Hector says of this latter group  – “I admire them, they are still after it”.

And all of those merchants.  We are all here.  

So people plan massive get-togethers; members of clubs, small groups of friends, people with common interests, you name it.  They lay claim to an area of land and circle their wagons.

Others, like us, find a cozy little spot somewhere as far from the crowds as possible.  A place to escape from the crowds and enjoy the desert.  “Our” own little spot, with “gardens” on both sides and a great fire ring.

And we have our very own Saguaro, which now has a circle of white rocks around it that Hector “created”.  And we also “enhanced” the fire ring with additional pinkish/brownish rocks. This rock thing is contagious.

The Travelocity Gnome … campsite protector !

 

And with so many people around it’s a pretty sure bet that you’ll make some new friends.  RVers form strong communities, and it’s really evident here.   This is a great place to connect with old friends and to make new friends.  And we did both.  Including meeting some fellow bloggers that we’ve gotten to know over time on the internet.

First, we got together with Amanda and Tim, who write the blog Watsons Wander that we’ve been reading for quite awhile.  We figured out they were staying at the same BLM area, Dome Rock, as we were and invited them over for happy hour.  They have a beautiful Airstream that they’ve renovated and polished (I miss Luna … our first RV, also an Airstream).

It’s great to see younger people like Amanda and Tim make the choice to travel while working, they are smart to do that early in their lives, and we admire them for it.  Oh, and their blog is great as well.

Of course, we head to the shows to shop on various days while we’re here.  There is lots to choose from;, some low quality old stuff, even stuff covered with dust.  But as they say, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  There’s lots of cheap new stuff made in China. And nice vintage stuff and some fun buys.  Something for everyone.

On the high end, there are beautiful gemstones and jewelry and multi-million dollar RVs.  Like I said something for everyone.  For the RVers, there’s a big white tent which houses most of the RV show.  But there are lots and lots of other vendors at other shows in several locations throughout the town.  Rows and rows of vendor stalls all over town.

In spite of attempts at restraint we made quite a few purchases including:

Best bargain – three kitchen knives professionally sharpened for $8

Most fun buy – a metal roadrunner sculpture for $20

Most impulsive buy – a knife with etched petroglyphs on an elk antler handle and a triple flow obsidian blade – this is our official “rock” memento from the “Q” -$45

Biggest buy – A See Level II tank sensor system to monitor holding tank levels. $385 installed – ouch!  

Hector dreaming of installing our new Oxygenics shower head

Terry, the guy who fixed the boo boo Hector made installing the shower head

Contrary to what some may think, many RV products are not available here and some items are actually more expensive here than online.  Shoppers beware and do your research before making your purchases.

Aside from the buying, for me it’s always fun to see the amazing product sales pitches, these are a reminder of another time.

The whole thing has an air of “only in America”.  And it’s kind of hypnotizing.

And there are lots of interesting characters here.   A historic character is Hadji Ali, who quickly got nicknamed Hi Jolly, a camel driver from Jordan who became a legend around these parts.

He came to Arizona in 1856 as the lead camel driver during testing by the U.S. Army for possible use of camels for transporting of supplies across the desert during the Civil War.  About 80 camels were brought to the area and apparently did very well, but this particular strategy ultimately was abandoned.

Mr. Ali served for over 30 years in the army, became a U.S. citizen and married a woman from Tucson.  He moved to Quartzsite where he mined and did some work for the U.S. government.  He died here in 1902.

In 1935, a monument was dedicated to him and the Camel Corps at his gravesite, which is now the most visited location in Quartzsite.  As well as the inspiration for naming many town businesses, who use the “Americanized” version of his name,  Hi Jolly.

And, speaking of characters, there is also a bookstore in town whose owner Paul wears nothing but a sock on his naughty bits on warm days (almost every day).  Reader’s Oasis Books is actually a fine bookstore and an interesting place to visit.

We found a few other characters prospecting just across from our campsite; searching for gold.  I don’t think they were finding much, but they seemed to be having fun looking.  I guess it’s the thrill of the search.

Other local characters showed off their classic cars at a local “auto show” in a Shell gas station in town on Saturday night.   Hanging out talking cars and engines and stuff like that for a few hours.

Okay it was no Barrett-Jackson but good community fun (50 cent hot dogs!).

The Wheelin It folks.  Nina is on the left, Paul far right. The tall one is Mike from Bear Tracks Blog

Later in the week, we met Nina and Paul.  Nina writes the blog Wheeling It, by far the best RV blog we’ve read. We’ve been reading it for years and it is a great resource for us and all RVers.   Nina and Paul have a LOT of followers on their blog and arranged the meet and greet to create an opportunity for all of the people that reached out to them in Quartzsite to meet them and each other.

Tim and Amanda were there

We had a great time meeting Nina and Paul and some of their many fans, including Mike and Linda, another adventurous couple who write another fun blog that we’ve been reading for awhile, Bear Tracks Blog.

That’s W for Watson

Mike and Linda from Bear Tracks Blog in the center

One night, we joined George, the owner of RV Driving School and my RV driving instructor from last year, and his wife, Valerie at one of their campfire gatherings.  So nice to connect with them again.

We ended the week with a potluck dinner with Amanda, Tim, Nina and Paul (Paul is the OTHER Cuban-American full time RVer, I wonder if there is a third out there somewhere) and their sweet dog Polly.   Good food, great conversation, lots of laughs, another big campfire, oh and yes a little rum.

Quartzsite may not be for everyone, it can be dusty, crowded and dizzying.  But it’s one of those “you should do it at least once” kinds of events for RVers.  And who knows, the lure of the desert, the rocks, the shopping and, especially, good friends may bring you back again and again.

As we publish this blog we’ve left Quartzsite.  We had a blast at the “Q” and were sad to leave, knowing that we might never stay at “our” campsite in Quartzsite again.  Or maybe we will.

~ Brenda

Circling Phoenix

As much as we’ve traveled, we hadn’t realized how enormous the city of Phoenix is.  It’s the fifth largest city in the U.S. and per the Phoenix Business Journal “the Phoenix metro area’s population surpassed 4.3 million in 2011”.  More than one person we met compared it to Los Angeles minus the ocean.

So the campground that we chose to stay in, McDowell Mountain Regional Park, although quite pretty turned out not to have been the best choice in terms of getting around this huge and extremely spread out metropolitan area.  On the plus side, it was located in a large county park with lots of trails.

But our priority was to visit family and friends, so first things first.  Our first visit was to Jon, Hector’s cousin son, who lives in Scottsdale.  And Scottsdale just happened to be the closest town to Fountain Hills where we stayed.

We met in the very trendy Old Scottsdale for some food and drinks.  This area has lots of great restaurants and nightclubs.  And Jon took us to one of those “secret” bars that is not recognizable from the front, this one was accessed through an unmarked door in an alley.  The place had a great mix of people and cool music.  But I cannot divulge its location.

The next day there was a Denver Broncos game, and Jon invited us over to his place to watch the game.  So we spent a nice afternoon watching the game in good company.  And, as an added bonus, the Broncos won!

Once again, we really enjoyed spending quality time with one of our family’s younger generation and are really impressed, though not surprised.

In between visits, we hiked and biked a little around the campground.  While with Hector, Angel got a thorn from a cholla cactus in her paw.  Those thorns can be extremely hard to remove, but Hector was able to get it out incurring only slight pain himself. But it served as a reminder to carry a comb and tweezers in the desert.

Next we visited Hector’s ex-boss and friend, Simon and his wife Janet at their lovely home in Litchfield, a suburb west Phoenix,  very, very far from our campground.  They moved back to the Phoenix area recently from New Jersey and are enjoying the weather tremendously as evidenced by their fabulous yard complete with pool, outdoor barbecue and wood-fired pizza oven.

We took Angel who got to run around the house with their two pups.  Dinner included a couple of different pizzas from the wood-fired oven, delicious!

We’d reserved one day for a drive around the area and chose the Apache Trail for our journey.   The trail was originally used by Apache Indians and was later built up as a road to get building materials through the Superstition Mountains to the Roosevelt Dam, which was completed in 1911.

The Apache Trail begins on the east side of Phoenix and continues to the town of Globe, covering 48 miles of road, mostly unpaved.  It crosses through the Superstition Mountains and the Tonto National Forest through mountains covered by desert plants.   The beautiful drive also passes by three man-made lakes.  We stopped at Canyon Lake, a beautiful little spot.

We also stopped at the small town of Tortilla Flat, described as “an authentic remnant of an Old West town”, with a population of six.  It was a stagecoach stop starting in 1904 and still serves as a stop for many of those traveling across the Apache Trail.

And we were happy to become one of those travelers, stopping for a late lunch at the Superstition Saloon and Rest Area.  The place had lots of character, with dollar bills lining the walls, real saddles as bar stools …

and the cutest bathrooms ever!

The unpaved part of the road becomes quite steep and narrow at points, but the views of the cliffs and rocks are well worth it.  Not recommended for RV’s though.

Towards the end of the drive we reached Theodore Roosevelt Dam, built of bricks, and still the world’s largest masonry dam at almost 300 feet tall.  An impressive sight.

Once we passed the dam, the sun started to set and the moon was rising, a pretty sight just a couple of days before the full moon.  But since it was getting dark, we decided to head back on the highway, which was a looong drive.

We passed through Miami, Arizona. A faded copper boomtown.

The Apache Trail was truly a stunning place though, and very much worth the long drive.

On our last afternoon in the Phoenix area, I visited my friend Marisol.  We met in Tempe and had a wonderful Lebanese dinner together, catching up on many events that have taken place since we last got together.  So much so, that the restaurant started to turn off the lights while we were there 🙂

All too soon, it was time to move on, as we were on a bit of a schedule headed to the big RV show in Quartzsite, Arizona.  And as our visit to Phoenix ended, we realized that we never actually set foot inside the actual city limits of Phoenix.  But we really enjoyed circling the town.

~ Brenda

 

Cool Cars

Our plan for Phoenix included visits to several people and other activities as time allowed.

But, coincidentally, we arrived in the area at the same time as “The World’s Greatest Collector Car Auction”, produced by Barrett-Jackson, “the world’s leading collector car auction and automotive lifestyle events”.  In addition, our RV campground was in Fountain Hills, very close to the location of the event, Scottsdale.

So we decided to go to the show on its first day, which was also the least expensive option as it was prior to the start of the actual auction.

The locale was just massive, and for us to have been able to see all of the cars would have required at least an entire day.  

But Hector and I spent a few hours there and focused on the classic collector cars in the main tent area. Even though there were several tents we never even entered, we still saw a dizzying array of autos.

Although I don’t know a lot about collector cars, I do know what I like.  I like antique cars, and I liked a lot of the cars we saw. There were some truly artistic people designing automobiles in the United States years ago.  They paid such attention to little details, many of which are still standouts.

The colors were truly amazing, the brightest colors I’d ever seen on autos.  And, of course, all of the cars had tons of clear coats applied on top of the paint to make them ultra-shiny.