Time for a catch up

 1/15/17 rolled around and with it came a travel day after our 3 month stay at Palm Creek Golf & RV Resort. Boy that 3 months went by a lot faster than we expected.

 We got right back into our routine however and had the engine fired up and ready to roll at our normal 9Am even though we only had a 65 mile travel day ahead of us. We had to be in our spot and set up before the football games started ya know LOL!!

 Our destination was Freightliner of Arizona in Tolleson on the west side of Phoenix. I know I have mentioned this route before in reverse but as you know I hate big cities and Phoenix certainly qualifies as a big city so if I can avoid driving through there I certainly will so I will mention this route again.

 We took I-10 north and jumped off on exit 167 at Riggs Road and turned left back over the freeway and followed it all the way to Buckeye RD. (Riggs RD turns into Beltline and eventually 51^st but just follow it). We then turned left on Buckeye and took it to 99^th Street and turned right. Then followed 99^th a short distance to Roosevelt where Freightliner is located.

 Even if we were not going to Freightliner I would take that route just to cut out Phoenix. (FYI if you are going east and want to do this in reverse you would take exit 132 or 133). This route takes you through so light commercial areas, a little residential and some farm land but most everything is 35 to 55 mph stuff and a lot of 2 lane highway. Just putting it out there in case you case to give it a shot.

Once we reached Freightliner I checked in at the service desk and then we made our way to one of the 7 full hookup sites they have available to RV customers and settled in for the remainder of the day.

 1/16/17 Our appointment was at 7am so by 6:30 we were up, unhooked, had the slides in and I was headed in to see Kirk our service advisor who said they were all ready for us and it should take about 2 ½ hours to take care of the 2 safety recalls we had.

 We had 2 safety recalls that needed to be done and both were pretty easy fixes it seems. One recall was to have a torsion spring replaced on the brake pedal. I guess there was a chance that the pedal would not return far enough to allow the engine brake to engage even though we never had a problem, but better safe than sorry. The second recall was on the throttle pedal assembly. It seems there was a chance that the pedal would not act correctly and not allow the cruise control to engage, again we have not had an issue.

 While they were working on the rig Diane and I headed to a little restaurant called The Village Inn for breakfast. It had good ratings on Trip Advisor and was close by but if we had it to do over again we would pick another spot. It was fine but the bacon was paper thin and we both like good thick bacon. But everything else was ok.

 After breakfast we just hung around Freightliner until they finished with it around 10, then we hooked up and headed towards our boondocking spot in Quartzsite which was just over 2 hours and 125 miles away.

 When we reached the location for the Outside Our Bubble gathering there were already 3 other RV’s there of the 99 expected so we picked a spot, set up and just kicked back and mingled the rest of the afternoon and evening.

 Tuesday (1/17/17) after a casual morning drinking coffee outside yacking and watching a hot air balloon take flight right behind our campsite we decided to drive into Quartzsite to fill a few drinking water containers, pick up some firewood and do a short driving tour to see what all was happening.

 The outing was pretty uneventful and we returned home just in time to head back out to visit our friends in the “Class-Less” group that were camped about a mile away from the Outside Our Bubble group. Many of the people we had not seen since last year and a few even longer than that.

 Not only did we enjoy seeing old friends but enjoyed meeting new ones as well AND really lucked out because Steve & Carol were putting on a spaghetti feed. Steve has a special spaghetti sauce receipt that is always a huge hit and it certainly didn’t disappoint this time either.

Steve is serving up his famous sauce.

 After sunset we enjoyed sharing a fire with everyone before finally making our way home.

 Wednesday (1/18) through Saturday (1/21) were the official “OOBERFEST” day’s so we pretty much stayed around camp and participated in planned activities and visited with a few old and many new friends.

 100 rigs signed up for Ooberfest but I think the last number we heard 72 rigs actually showed up. I’m sure a number of reasons effected the turn out. I know weather was certainly one of them. We know people that were being held back because of adverse conditions in different parts of the country and I’m sure the forecast for Quartzsite held a few away as well, it was far from perfect but not all that bad. And 72 rigs with an average of 2 people per rig created a pretty darn good crowd.

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 We had a “tire safety” seminar and a 4 corner RV weigh was offered, for a fee of course. And we also had a tech talk where David “the mastermind behind Ooberfest and a very very knowledgeable fellow” answered questions anyone might have on a variety of RV related topics “anything electronic is his specialty”.

Gathered around for a tire safety seminar.

 We had a movie night. David & Brenda have a huge projector screen about as large as the front of a motorhome they set up outside and everyone enjoyed a movie called “Get Hard”. NO it was not porn!!! Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell star in the movie and I think it came out in 2015 so I’m sure many of you have seen it but we had not. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea with some vulgar language and some adult related scenes but we had a good laugh watching it.  

 

Dave & Brenda manning the donut table.

Donut morning

 And without saying most days were finished off around the campfire. Well in this case 3 campfires. With the large number of people in attendance we decided 3 fire pits might work well so everyone could get a front row seat by the fire and conversation could be held amongst everyone at that particular fire. Roaming from fire to fire was encouraged.

The band was setting up by the coach to the right and everyone was gathered around 3 large fires getting ready to party. 2 smaller fires were also burning a little ways away for those that didn’t want to be right by the band. A great night.

Of course a gathering of RVers wouldn’t be the same without a potluck. You can imagine that with 72 RV’s we had a ton of good food!!

 After our potluck and after the sun went down we set ablaze 5 fire pits and a live band “Notes from Neptune” that David & Brenda hired started playing for our entertainment to cap off the event.

Gathering around for a pot luck.

The screen is set up for movie night.

 From the people we saw stumbling towards their RV’s after the event I’m guessing everyone had a pretty good time. But I’m sure it was just the rocks and darkness that made people walk so clumsily LOL!!

 Sunday (1/22) Ooberfest was officially over and a few people packed up and headed out but the majority hung around like we did.

 We took a short drive about just to break away from home a while but made our way back in time to for the kickoff of the first game of the day and spent the rest of the day watching football with only a small amount of socializing mixed in.

 Monday (1/23) we decided would be a good day to make it to the “Big Tent” so we didn’t waste any time getting through our morning routine so we could be there by 8:30 so we wouldn’t have any problem finding a parking spot, the show opened at 9.

 We wandered through the show until about noon, every year we go through the tent and every year we become less impressed and this year was no exception.

 As the days went by more and more people rolled off into the sunset leaving fewer around the fire each night.

 Saturday (1/28) those of us remaining (4 rigs) decided to make a run to the Desert Bar outside of Parker. Diane and I were the only ones in the group that had been there before so we led the way.

 The weather cooperated and I think everyone had a good time.

 After the Desert Bar everyone made their way home and once again the day ended around a fire.

 Sunday morning (1/29) rolled around and it was time for us to lift our jacks and make a move after 2 weeks of boondocking so after saying our “see ya down the roads” to the remaining few we headed into town to spend 1 night at Quail Run RV Park with full hookups, so we thought.

 We had been around 5 or 6 people at the OOberfest that were suffering from the flue/cold going around plus we spent time in town at the Big Tent surrounded by thousands of people and I’m sure some of them could have been bug carriers as well. Taking those things into account plus the fact that I normally come down with 1 good cold per year about this time so I was doomed. Yup, Saturday night I started with the symptoms and they were coming on fast. And yes, I kept my distance while saying our “see ya down the roads”.

 Once settled in our full hookup site at Quail Run we started dumping tanks, doing laundry and a good deep cleaning. As we worked I kept getting worse and worse until we finally called it a night.

 Monday morning I was a mess, in fact so much so that Diane decided to see if we could extend our stay one more night to give me a chance to recover a bit. With luck we were able to stay without moving. Not much to report for that day because I stayed in my chair 95% of the day napping off & on.

 Tuesday morning though not perfect I felt much better but guess what!!! Diane stated coming down with the same bug, holy crud, literally.

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 We decided to go ahead and move back out to a boondocking spot out in the desert where we could hopefully get some space between us and our closest neighbor so we could go through our coughing spells, sneezing and moanin & groaning in peace and not bother OR contaminate anyone else.  So we drove to La Posa South just a few miles out of town, paid our $40 for a 2 week stay and found a hunk of ground and settled in. Because the Big Tent event finished up the crowds have dwindled and it was pretty easy to find a spot that we didn’t have anyone close to us which was nice after being in such tight quarters during the OOberfest event. We parked closer to our neighbors there than we do in any campgrounds throughout the year, there is just something wrong with that picture LOL!!

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 Wednesday (2/1) and Thursday (2/2) we pretty much hung out close to home healing except for a short visit with our friends Jeff & Tina who would be leaving the area on Friday.

 We decided because they were leaving we would pick up a Pizza and sit outside at their camp site and visit instead of going to a restaurant, neither Diane nor I were up for a closed in area with people just yet.

 We had a very nice visit even though relatively short before saying our “see ya down the roads” and heading home.

I think we will hit the fast forward button at this point so this update isn’t a daily journal of our entire 4 weeks in Quartzsite LOL!!!

 Once again I spent my birthday camped in Quartzsite which works out pretty well for me because I don’t like to do the big birthday thing. Maybe when I hit one of the big birthday numbers like “100” I’ll feel its party worthy LOL!!!

 Diane and I took a drive to Yuma one day for an outing and to Lake Havasu on another. We had been to both places a number of times but they were both good for a day trip.

 We also once again watched the Super Bowl while boondocking in the middle of the desert. I think that makes 3 now we have watched in the desert. And what a game right!!!!

 And after FINALLY starting to feel better from our colds we were able to attend a Happy Hour with a few RV Dreamers. We sure missed out on a number of gatherings with this group of friends this year but were happy to at least make it to one evening.

 And I was able to attend a RC Airshow with our friends Steve & Harry. Of course any time I can get to an airfield I’m a happy camper!!!

 We also made it a point to go see if our “HAPPY” that we put in place between two cactus during our first stay in Quartzsite in 2012 was still there, AND IT WAS!!! If I remember correctly we put this in place in Dec. of 2012.

 Those of you that have visited Quartzsite and camped out in the desert can probably appreciate how amazing it is that it is still intact because of everyone scavenging for rocks like these to make fire pits. We would like to think people see the “Happy” and get a warm and fuzzy so they leave it in place.  

 Quartzite sure has not been a lucky spot for us the last couple years it seems. Last year I thought I was going to die here while passing a kidney stone (I think) and the year before we both caught the crud during our stay. Then this year we had a water pump go bad, lucky for us I have been packing around an old spare that had a slight leak that I was able to plumb in to at least get us by but we will need to buy another new one when we get to civilization again. There is a RV parts shop in Q that had one but they wanted $95 which is $35 more than we can buy one from Amazon for. We would have bought one if we didn’t have our leaky spare but sure would have pissed and moaned about it. And then of course we both caught the crud again this year but those things were not the worst of it, we also got word that Diane’s mom had passed away.

 Those of you that have followed the blog might remember that Diane’s mom finally decided to get old a couple years back and moved in with Diane’s brother and had been on a steady downhill slide ever since until the brilliant and beautiful person we all knew disappeared really leaving just a shell of what once was.

 She was always so full of life and enjoyed every minute. We can remember caller her late in the evenings many times as we were snuggle in for the evening only to find out she was out on the town handing out fliers at a Trailblazers game or acting as an usher at a local theater well into her late 80’s. More than once this would happen and we would just look at each other at our age and say how pathetic we were compared to Diane’s mom LOL!!!

 Heck she wanted to go bowling on her 90th birthday for crying out loud LOL!!! And we did. She only bowled one game but still that’s great.   

Of course it’s a very sad time but we can’t help feel happy for her knowing that after such a full life it had to be hard being trapped in a body that just wouldn’t cooperate any longer, but we really don’t think she was aware of anything during the last year. She will be missed.

 Diane’s mom’s last wishes were to be cremated and to not have any type of service. And because she had thought things out ahead and already made arraignments with a mortuary there is no real need for us to make a trip to Oregon at this point. It seems strange but with family all spread out and her wishes being what they were it just works I guess.

 Our original plan was to hang around Quartzsite until February 16^th and then make a move but between leaving a place like Palm Creek where we were leading such an active life every day and coming to Quartzsite where we pretty much stayed dormant along with everything else that has been happening we decided to heck with it and make a move sooner. That’s part of the beauty with this life style, if you don’t like what’s gong on where you are get those wheels rolling and go somewhere else.

 We decided to lift our jacks on Saturday (2/11) and travel about 100 miles north east to a small town called Congress where we will spend 5 nights at an Escapee Park called North Ranch. We have never stayed at this Escapee Park so it should be interesting.

 After our stay in Congress we will lift our jacks again and move to Gold Canyon for 4 nights so we can attend a huge RC Airshow in Apache Junction. From there we have absolutely no real plan, maybe Tucson, maybe Casa Grande, maybe to another Escapee park outside Temecula Ca. or maybe we will see how the weather looks and slide north through Prescott and St George Utah. We honestly don’t know.

So for now we are nestle into our new home for a few days and after a good cleaning of the coach AND OURSELVES I’m sure we will have some exploring to do.