Quartzsite, Out and About.

Here in Quartzsite there are an abundant things that will occupy the warm winter days. We opted for a RV park with full hookups for our month right in the middle of town. 

We like it here at Scenic Road RV Park, near town, quiet and loads of activities if we care to indulge.

If you'd like more space, although not guaranteed, you can park for free just out of town on the BLM land. Some land is 14 days free, others are $40 for the two weeks and yet still other spots that cost $180 for 7 months.

We went out to visit with the SKP Boomers about 8 miles from town. SKP is an organization mostly devoted to full time RVer's and the Boomers are SKP's in the baby boomer age. Donna is talking to some of the organizers of the rally. There were 122 rigs camping here...just of this group.

All these RV's are dry camping (no services) within a few blocks of town. Now, you might think these are the "freeloaders", as in Romney's 47% speech, but let me tell you something...there is some money down there in them hills. Just the dark blue motorhome in front was most likely $900,000 new and still way over my budget even today.

Shopping, one of Donna's favorite pastimes, it is much easier when you have your own personal "carry all". :-)

If you can't find what you are looking for in Quartzsite, it hasn't been made yet! Lets say you have a hard to find fork that belonged to dear grandma's flatware box  handed down many years ago. Even if the company had gone out of business before you were born... I'll bet it's right here on this table, and this is only one of the many booths that cater to flatware.

Here in Quartzsite if you see a group of cars or people in one place then something either must be free or really cheap. I mean... admit it, most of us are on a fixed income and just waiting for judgement day, but here at La Mesa Rv.....

Every morning between 8:00 and 10:00 La Mesa gives a wonderful "FREE" pancake breakfast with juice or coffee. Now this is no a one time offer, you can come everyday if you wish...now you know why there are 200,000 grey headed people spending the winter in the middle of the desert.

Quartzsite, Arizona

Heading to Quartzsite, Arizona

After a two week stay in Las Vegas, that lasted a full two months, we are ready to hit the road...finally. Our stay at Callville Bay coincided with some of the coldest weather they have experienced in the last twenty years. We ran water all night long but every day as it warmed above 32 degrees we'd see fountains of water from broken lines other campers.

Quartzsite has a summer population of 4000 but when the northern states and Canada come down for the winter, (snowbirds) the town swells to over 200,000 folks and tens of thousands of RV's in every shape and size. One of Donnas and my favorite place is Silly Al's. It was so crowded that I had to park across the main road in Quartzsite.  

Silly Al's is famous for their pizza's. Donna and I have been coming here for the last three years and it is no exaggeration that I have been thinking about this pizza for the past three months, it's that good. Along with Amber Bock draft, I would put it up against any of the many cooking shows that Donna watches.

One of the reasons the snowbirds flock here are the thousands of acres the BLM allows free, or very nominal, camping fees. Some of the areas have a much higher density than you would find in downtown LA, but if you look around you can actually get an acre or two by yourself. 

Everyone understands the concept of free camping, but the "nominal" fee I was alluding to is $180 for 7 months camping on BLM land...hard to beat that price. If you arrive early enough you can actually get a very scenic spot for the winter.

Because most of the BLM land is "open range" with no services such as power, water or sewage, your rig must be self contained and you'd better have a power source such as generator, solar or wind generation. When your tanks fill up this spot is a "must" for dumping, fuel, water and propane.

For a couple of personal reasons, we decided to spend the month here at Scenic Road RV Park. Monthly is only a few hundred dollars for the 30 days, but if you want to spend the season it also is a reasonable rate of $1200 for 6 months...and it is downtown.

Near our park is the "The Grubstake Social Club". We have not tried it yet but the place is super crowded every time I had driven by.

I did stop by to check out the Grubstake's happy hour and found the bar three deep in grey hair.

Because of the snowbird population there are huge shows every day. This is opening day at the RV show. which is a tent the size of a football field, but since they are all retirees no one was in a hurry or pushing. Besides the RV show there are rock show,, gem shows, classic car shows and a host of others.

Think of Quartzsite as a swap meet on steroids. No kidding, there must be a thousand acres and many more booths selling everything under the sun. New or used makes no differance. If you want a used toilet, I saw 20 or 30 of them. It is so big I suspect that is why folks spend the whole winter here.

Lake Mead National Recreation Monument.

    

             The landscape around Lake Mead is surreal in some spots. Since we still have doctors visits lined up to the middle of January, might as well make the best of it and look around.

  

     Gypsum Canyon is one my favorite canyons to photograph, within a short hike.

 From the photograph above you would think there might be an earthquake fault just 20 feet in front of me, but depending on whether it is morning, noon or sunset, the view constantly changes.

At times we have seen Bighorn Sheep in this wash, sadly not today.       

                                         

Some sunsets are beautiful,

some are dry and clear,

and this moonrise produced a huge moisture ring...and yes, it rained for two days starting that night.  (Jupiter is at 7:30)

Last day in Florida

While I always try to squeeze as much in the day as possible this blog actually has a couple days combined.  Duane's family and I took a Sunday trip to Tarpon Springs. There on the sponge dock we were filled with information about the Greek sponge divers.

Our tour guide claims to be the last diver on the famous "Tarpon Springs" sponge boat. The cajun host gave us the history of the sponge industry. Tarpon Springs was the sponge capital of the world until a blight in the '50's decimated the sponge beds. 25 years later they were back in business pulling the animal skeletons off the ocean floor. 

Frank, our demonstrator, is of greek and Italian heritage and wore the old style divers suit. The suit and helmet, with a mandatory shoulder weight set, added 172 pounds extra to whatever Frank weighed.

It was explained to us that there are more than 3600 types of sponges in the world but out of all those only 5 sponges are harvested. Frank said that he can cut the skeleton off correctly and go back two years later to harvest another one just like it.

 Frank goes down to the depths of the ocean looking for sponges. Well, actually we only went out 1/2 mile and Frank was probably in 10 or 15 foot of water...but it looked good anyway.

Early the next morning, my last, I drove by the old Yulee Sugar Mill ruins. Sugar was milled here with the use of slaves until 1864.

This part of Florida was perfect for growing the sugar cane. The cane was cut and run through the steam powered rollers above to extract the cane juices. The other process of heating and drying were also done on the property.

I got all excited when I saw this signage because they also described it as 

birding trail. 

Apparently I am the only person in Florida who gets excited about either

 birding or trails?

Nothing instills confidence, like a garage built in the stomach of a 

Apatosaurus. 

The clouds or fog come in an out of the beach area very rapidly.

Go down the coast a mile or two and it clears up...for a while anyhow.

Sitting here at an airport tavern thinking to myself that there should be a glass of white wine right next to this red...my wife drinks white.:-)

Florida party time.

Florida is notorious for it's party atmosphere and while Duane and I have tried in the past to fit in, this time we were a bit more subtle and well... older.

The draft handles are almost becoming as important as the liquid that comes out. I had to try this one because of the handle and also my wife likes blueberry beer. handle was great, not so the beer.

The waterfront bars in old Homoassa were awesome. Kid friendly, dog friendly, friendly prices and great food. Duane bought dinner so I started on the first round of drinks. Two drafts and one wine = $6...what? Got to love it.

Most of the bars like Leon Neon, The Freezer, Monkey Bar and High Octane have lots of open areas because of the weather and some shelter when needed.

Some have been built around the trees, as this one in Tarpon Springs, called The LagerheadZ Bar and Grill.

Besides the chilled, large and 50 cents each oyster you can get a $5.00 pitcher of Yuengling Beer, the oldest brewery in America...

you might also want to try some of the Freezer's half snow crab and slaw for $10.

Well I did say we tried to fit in and here Duane is trying very hard. Although he protests that he is not a tequila drinker, he "doth protest too much". 

We closed one bar and out lasted the band at another before calling it a night and then got up 5 hours later to play golf!

I'm pretty sure that by the end of the night we did make a monkey of ourselves, but had a blast doing it...till next time.:-) 

Florida in December

I took a week off from the "ole ball and chain" (just joking dear) to visit my best friend who moved back from Thailand with his family a few months ago. Crystal River is home to quite a few manatees which have become a favorite of mine along side coyotes and wolves.

Since it's almost Christmas I will start out with a Ruditee. This larger than life manatee is posing as Rudolf the Reindeer at the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. 

The Kings Bay bridge, a very small residential bridge, is one of the best places to watch the manatees go from their springs...which is a constant 72 degrees...to the gulf. When they swim under you it looks like a thousand pound torpedo, silently gliding by.

A mother and calf heading out to the gulf for some delicious water grass to feed on. The calf will stay very close to his mother up to two years.

Tiara (EP) and Jed (WHAT) join me at the bridge to photograph some of the manatees. Tiara counted 21 going under us in the 40 minutes we were there.

Tiara and Jed are Tas and Duane's children.

It is common to see the snorkel and pontoon viewing boats at the mouth of  Crystal River and the gulf delta. I believe the manatees are a real American treasure and Florida has taken steps to insure the species safety and survival.

Out west I can't seem to get very close the Great Egrets but here in Florida they are so common that this one, at the end of a fast food drive thru, is trying to collect the necessary $3.99 for lunch.

Sandhill Cranes use Florida as a winter haven, much like the Canadian snowbirds do in their trailer and motor-homes.

Great Blue Heron are a regular visitor on the golf courses because they all have ponds, canals or small lakes that are abundant with fish.

This is the Florida Double-Crested Cormorant and an unknown (to me) gentleman in 1832 wrote a great personal reflection about the bird here. I believe it may of been Charles Darwin but could not find any such facts that would attribute it to the article. I have a very good friend named Nona who might research it for me...this is her expertise. 

There were many more birds and even some monkeys that I photographed but the picture were not up to my "National Geographic" quality. :-) Maybe next time I'll bring a camera other than my phone.