Living Our Dream

The drive from Quartzsite to Yuma took us through the Yuma Proving Ground where nearly every weapon system in the ground combat arsenal is tested. During October - March, it is also the winter training site of the U. S. Army precision parachute team the Golden Knights. Although we weren't able to stop, we look forward to a return visit to check out the Heritage Center on base.

Yuma is located on the southwestern border of Arizona full of orange and lemon groves and romain and lettuce. After the  desert, it was wonderful to see fields of green.

However, because of the big freeze earlier this year, entire orange groves were brown and loaded with fruit ruined by the freeze. The lemons seemed to fare better. We passed this  truck  on the highway loaded with lemons.

For some unknown reason, we were not expecting much in Yuma, but we were surprised to learn we could easily make this a winter destination. However, between the interstate noise, trains tooting at every crossing night and day...and there are a lot of them...and the inability to reserve a site for less than three months, we're not sure it would work out. We enjoyed our four days at Las Quintas Oasis RV Park with paved roads, cement pads, spacious sites separated with gravel and will stay there again...even with the train noise. Obviously, there are many people who are not as sensitive to the noise because it was a busy park, having had to spend one night dry camping in the overflow area before getting a site.

We especially enjoyed our visit to the Yuma Territorial Prison along the Colorado River with California just on the other side. This well-maintained prison, now a museum, was in use from 1876-1907. One of the particularly curious things we saw at this museum was this clock with reversed numbers. It was used in Yuma's Barrel House Saloon. The numbers are reversed so that you could tell time through the mirror without having to turn around. Check out the accompanying photo album for a picture of the clock in the saloon.

Some western history came full circle for us when we recognized this picture of Barney Riggs.  

We learned about  Barney when we were at the West of Pecos Museum. The Pecos museum included the original saloon with a placque on the floor marking the spot  where Barney Riggs killed  William Earheart in 1896. Seems Barney Riggs was serving a life sentence at the Yuma Territorial Prison for the murder of Earheart.  However, he received a pardon by the governor for saving the life of the prison warden during The Gates Massacre. Barney Riggs was later killed in self-defense by his wife's son-in-law. Ah, life in the old west.

Our next stop was El Centro, CA, landed us at Rio Bend RV & Golf Resort. These sites were also nice with gravel, cement pads, a tree on most sites separated by bushes. We had a beautiful view of the mountains with breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. El Centro is in the heart of the Imperial Valley. The Valley is an agricultural mecca where 1,400 miles of canal and 1,100 miles of pipe irrigate the desert and allow for a long growing season and a two-crop cycle. It is a major source of winter fruits and vegetables.

El Centro is also the winter training site for the Blue Angels so again our heart beat proud when they would fly over during their practice maneuvers.

We took a day trip up to the Salton Sea and the Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge. The Salton Sea is one of the largest inland seas and is saltier than ocean water. However, fertilizer runoff, increasing salinity, and inflow of highly polluted water threaten the viability of the Salton Sea for recreation as well as the avian population.

The Sony Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of snow geese, white pelican, and pintail ducks among other waterfowl and shorebirds. There was a nice mile-long trail that took up to the base of a hill overlooking the preserve and lake. How quiet it was up there! (Check the album for more pictures.) Don't know what spooked the geese, but they flew en masse from their grazing site next to the observation ramp .

On our way to the preserve we passed a plant like this with 4-5 others in the distance. After learning they were Cal-Power, we went on-line later to learn they were geothermal  plants producing energy using the heat of the earth  often associated with volcanic and seismically active regions.

California has a number of other energy sources including these wind farms we passed on our way to Riverside.

Our trip through the Morongo Valley was beautiful…I got tennis neck looking from one side of the road to the other! Surrounded by these mountains on both sides of the road, we could occasionally catch glimpses of the valley below. Morongo Valley is part of the San Andreas fault system.

We were headed to Riverside to visit Swiss friends of Margery's folks. Driving the interstate sysem in California proved to be a real challenge. We quickly learned why the road system so quickly bogs down. The on and off ramps are so frequent and close together that they contribute to the congestion. Additionally, there are NO exit numbers…only road names. California has embarked on a plan to add exit numbers, but it will take several more years to complete. In all of our travels through CA, we saw only two or three exits with numbers.

In the middle of this madness, we found a Riverside County Park, Rancho Jurupa (Passport America). This gated park had a beautiful fishing lake, 3-point hook-ups, and shade trees throughout, We found historic downtown Riverside absolutely charming. It felt like a slice of small town America.

The visit with our friends included a tour of their true California ranch home, an exploration of their garden which included lemon, lime, and orange trees ladened with fruit, and a quick swim for Molly in their swimming pool. Being unheated, it was a tad cold for her. We were surprised to learn that limes are actually yellow and lemons are more orange yellow, but both trees have thorns on their branches!

We then headed east to the Mohave Desert to visit friends who formerly lived in Pittsburgh. They serve with RVICS (RVers in Christ’s Service) and are spending two months at Ironwood Camp doing construction. I’m always surprised when I see lone houses or small communities in the middle of this brown, sandy dustbowl. Ironwood Camp has a permanent staff of 40 people, and a church and Christian school on site. Over the summer, they can have 400 young people from small churches  in Arizona and California. All their food is cooked from scratch, and being 4 miles back a sand road, I can only imagine how they get that amount of staples delivered. It was another opportunity to see God at work through His people.

In Quartzsite, the desert was covered with rocks and stones. In contrast, the Mohave Desert is all sand and the mountains different colors.

Imagine our surprise to find Twin Lakes Campground (Passport America) in the middle of the Mohave Desert owned and operated by an Oriental lady. Ahhh, the discoveries one makes when traveling. Though one lake was dry, the other was full of ducks, fish, and these geese who gave Paul a hard time.

We headed back to  Arizona hoping to be able to get a site Buckskin State Park, but alas arriving on a Friday it was not to be. Paul had wanted to drive up from Parker to Lake Havasau to see the sun shining on the mountains, but we’ve put that on our list for our next visit. Instead, we pushed another 2 ½ hours to get back to Tonopah, AZ, where we stayed before going to Quartzsite. The  Saddle Mountain RV Park is Passport America and Good Sam with paved roads, nice-sized gravel sites, cement patios, and all hook-ups. We could easily stay here a month sometime in the future. In just the month we had been gone, we were surprised and excited to see spring arriving in the desert with a definite greening of the shrubs and trees.

Note: For those of you who might have found the photos in the albums took too long to load, we have reduced their size. They load much quicker now.

Panoramic view of a Quartzsite sunset from the top of the motorhome.

Quartzsite is located in western Arizona, just 20 miles east of the Colorado River. This town of 1,900 plays host to more than a million people a year, most during January and February. At this time of year, 2,000 vendors of rocks and gems and everything else imagineable create one of the world's largest open air flea markets. In addition to vendors of all kinds of merchandise who peddle their wares in swap meets all over town, during the last week of January there is a huge tent filled with vendors of mostly RV-related merchandise. There are also many promoters of RV resorts from a lot of different states. Finally, there are hundreds of  recreational vehicles  brought in by several large dealers in the southwest. How they get them all there, though, is a mystery.

Although we had extensively researched Quartzsite, where it is reported that 250,000 RVs converge on the town and adjacent desert, you just really have to see it to believe it. As we approached the exit on I-10, Quartzsite and the surrounding desert were already peppered with RVs for as far as they eye could see.

We wanted to be in Quartzsite during the Sports Vacation and RV Show the last week of January. We arrived late Thursday morning with full water and propane tanks and empty grey and black water tanks. We planned to stay with the Escapee Boomers' group on BLM land. This area of desert allows 14 days of free camping but without any hook-ups. It's called boondocking or dry camping. However, finding your group in the desert requires that you recognize the signs.

We loved our location in Scaddan Wash because we were close to the mountains and they were beautiful as they changed color throughout the day with the sun.

We were also high enough to see the town in the distance. (That's one of the things we've noticed about the west. In many places it is so flat...you get a great view of the horizon but no view of the area right around you.)

The show itself was fun but in some ways disappointing. To be sure, there were no bargains in products OR fair fare. (A smoked turkey leg was more expensive than the ones in Disney World!) There was every product imagineable for your RV and then some but no appreciable show discounts. The one thing we would save with a purchase was paying double shipping since we have to have everything forwarded by our mail service.

There was one item we have been considering for some time, and we did purchase it. The Campfire in a Can is a great alternative to having to carry or purchase firewood. Additionally, many places are so dry that campfires are prohibited. However, the propane version should pass muster since gas grills are allowed. On top of all that, It's lighter weight than the firewood and kindling we were carrying.

We also took some time to explore the area around Quartzsite. We were surprised to see these hay fields with desert mountains in the background.

We noticed as we traveled from Phoenix to Quartzsite, that there were a lot of dairy farms, but different than we're used to seeing in the east. Instead of grazing in pastures, the dairy farms keep the cows in feedlots where they are fed from large bales of hay. We saw many 18 wheelers on the interstate piled high with hay bales. Now we know where the hay was being grown. We passed many fields being worked by CRIT Farms. We learned that CRIT stands for Colorado River Indian Tribes. The 3,500 active Tribal members include the Navajo, Hopi, Mohave, and Chemehuevi Tribes. Through their innovative approach to agriculture, they successfully farm 15,000 acres of alfalfa, cotton, and duram wheat among other things. They have become adept at growing different crops in different seasons. They work fields that look sunken with dirt walls around them. This, in fact, is part of their irrigation system. Between fields there are canals with water drawn from the Colorado River.

Quartzsite is also the location of an interesting sidelight of Arizona history. In the mid 1800's, Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War at the time, approved a plan to experiment with camels for freighting and communication. The desert became home to 74 camels and their caretaker, Haiji Ali, whose Arabic name was promptly changed to "Hi Jolly" by the soldiers. Although the camels proved their worth, the experiment was abandoned because they scared the burros, mules and horses. Hi Jolly remained in the United States and is buried  in the Quartzsite cemetery.

To experience Quartzsite is to see an eclectic mix of people, recreational vehicles, vendors, and lifestyles. Check out Photo Album 012: Quartzsite for more pictures of  our interesting encounters.

After nine days of "roughing it," we were ready for some hook-ups... electric blankets at night would be especially appreciated in those 30+ degree nights. Additionally, Margery began having a reaction to all the dust and was having trouble breathing. Off-road vehicles are a BIG thing in the desert and there is a lot of dust pollution generated by them as well as from the road traffic. We discovered there are a lot of dirt roads in the desert! In many cases, just the main roads are paved.

So what's our verdict on Quartzsite? We are definitely glad we experienced it, but a visit every year is not a necessity for us. There are many people who full-time with dry camping as their norm. Some people camp in the desert from September - April for just $130 for the season. This would not be possible without the installation of solar panels on your rig to charge your batteries and more than two batteries which come with the rig.

We enjoyed desert camping and look forward to trying it in more solitude, but we're thinking 5-7 days are enough even though we could probably make it 10. We likened dry camping to the weekend camping we did for so many years...fun for a time, but it's nice to go home to the conveniences. As our motorhome manufacturer so aptly says on each one they built...we're "roughing it smoothly." :)

We left Quartzsite and headed south to Yuma on our quest for suitable snowbird roosts.