Saturday, February 23, 2013

More Time in Calif and AZ Desert

While still in Quartzsite, we drove over to the east side of Tyson Wash where you can see Indian grinding holes and some petroglyphs. This is also the site of the original Quartzsite which had washed away in a flood and later was rebuilt on higher ground at its current location.

There were only a few petroglyphs that could be seen clearly. There is another place called Dripping Springs that is suppose to have hundreds of petroglyphs but is farther away and we'll do that another time.

 

 

 

 

Our last days were cold and we got not only rain but a little hail. A little blurred but that is hail sitting on the window ledge as well as on the ground.

 

 

Thursday we left Quartzsite and made our way up to Lake Havasu State Park. I could only make a 3 day reservation as there is a blue grass festival starting on March 1st but the whole week is booked. We were luck to get the last spot on the beach. This is a favorite place of mine and we enjoyed our 3 days already it is still cold.

 

 

There was a 300 mile long jet ski race taking place on the lake from the campground that is within sight of the state campground. I can't image riding a jet ski for that many miles.

 

 

 

 

Besides lots of water sports, there is a good hiking trail that includes a desert garden.

 

 

 

 

 

We have two weeks until we have our reservation in HB for 4 days and 5 days at Escapees Jojoba Hills that is near Temecula where Kori and Nick are getting married at Ponte Winery. With gas and diesel pricing so high we decided to not head any farther east. We thought of going to Mojave National Park but weather is only in the 50's and too cold for us. The Yuma area is suppose to be warmer and so we are going to spend some time back at one of the free boondocking spots on American Girl Mine, not far from Winterhaven, CA which is on the other side of the AZ/CA border from Yuma. Then we will spend another week in Borrego Springs at another free boondocking spot we like.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Boondocking and a Trip to a Bar in the Desert

After crossing the border, where our motorhome went through a scanner and some checking of our bays, we headed for Yuma where we spend one night with hookups. Also did a bunch of loads of laundry. We then headed back to Quartzsite to join the RV Dreams boondocking rally. It is a two week rally where people can come and go. We got there on Friday and stayed through this last Thursday. Howard and Linda put on a number of seminars on boondocking. Joe went to a few but as we have been boondocking quite a bit, he didn't really learn much. However, it was great for the newbies to Boondocking. We mainly thought it would be fun to get together with fellow rvers. The rally was at Plomosa Rd, which is one of the BLM areas you can stay free for 14 days. It is very nice and we would stay in this part of Quartzsite again. Our first night was an appetizer night and we made meatballs with Sweet Baby Ray spicy bbque sauce and cranberry sauce as our contribution. Lots of great things to eat, enjoyable time around the fire and another great desert sunset.

 

 

 

 

, a group of us led by Howard and Linda made our way to the Desert Bar, The Nellie E Saloon. Our kids who have friends who have a vacation house in Parker and so have visited this fun bar and restaurant a number of times. We kept meaning to go there ourselves and finally we have now done so. The name Nellie E comes from the mining claim as the land the bar sits on is a former mining area. You get there by driving just north of Parker onto a dirt road,. Cienega Springs Rd that whines through the desert for about six miles. Then in the middle of the desert, there is the saloon. It is completely run on solar power and there are sitting and bar areas both in and outside. There is also a stage where Hard Rain played the day we were there. A great band with a great selection of tunes, that included original tunes, as well as a mix of cover songs of Rolling Stones, REM, Talking Heads, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash among others. A lot of fun was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

Howard in Yellow and Linda right below in lt yellow
 

 

The open air women's bathroom has a great view of the hills.

 

Church structure below is for any religion and is often used for weddings.

 

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

It's a Carnival and other fun in San Felipe

San Felipe has a Carnival and Parade over the weekend. Friday we went into town to have lunch and check it out. We had a good lunch at Mariscos La Morena, on the Malecon, the main shopping area across from the Sea of Cortez. We walked around the area as sites were set up to sell food and other items. We ran into a number of other Escapees who also decided to check out the scene. There were lots of people having fun on the sand and sea as well as the street scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of our group attracted some little beggers.

 

Charlie picking out some earrings.

 

Did I mention the weather turn. It is starting to get windy and cold. Our warm Mexico days are gone I am afeared :(

We thought the parade was suppose to start at 3, then 4. It finally started around 5:30 or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was getting colder and the group has plans to go to the Taco Factory Saturday night to eat and watch the parade from the restaurant and so we headed on home. The next night we had our dinner at the Taco Factory but it was so very cold and windy that some of us decided to forgo the parade though we did have another good meal at the restaurant.

 

 

Earlier that day we had gone to the local swap meet/farmers market. Their produce looked very good but as we can't take much of that over the border we didn't buy any.

 

 

 

We had the auction I mentioned below where we bid and won several items. There were several more dinners at Pete's Camp Restaurant and we had another lunch with some of our friends from last year and some new friends made this year.

 

 

At one of our last night's happy hours, there were several riders that have been in the Baja 250 that spoke to our group.

 

All in all, we had a great time in Mexico. Next year is Ensenada, which maybe in our plans if we can work it out.