Quartzsite, first week of January 2020

January 1st, 2020

Wednesday morning another lovely sunrise, not as good as two days ago so no pictures. Both Ray and I got up feeling wonderful. As it was so cold yesterday we really only had 2 drinks each for the 4 1/2 hours around the campfire, so no fuzzy heads for us. lol

Yesterday's walk took me by the "North America" that people made out of rocks. Very cool. You really need a ladder or drone to get the full effect I think. Originally done in 2008. Most of the white rocks come out of the wash.

My walking partner.

Started out with a relaxing morning, with coffee and Bailey's. A great New Years Day morning. Not much on the agenda today other than putting up our First Up tent for a windbreak. It will be nice to have a quiet day as we have been quite busy since arriving Friday, Dec 27th.

Unfortunately, we seem to have a problem as of last night of our batteries holding their charge. Came home last night and they were down to 12.4!!! What .... anyways we turned on the generator for 15 minutes and brought it up to 12.6, turned off the fridge and went to bed. Got up at 5 am and we were down to 12.2 so turned on the generator again for 15 minutes and then went back to bed. Yowser....

In the morning we got up and went to start the generator but the fuse was tripped again on the generator itself. Ray went out and cleared it and everything worked fine. All day the batteries showed full with the solar. After the sun started setting we were back to 12.4 at 5pm so I started the generator up again. We went back to full charge in only 20 minutes? After shutting the generator off it slowly decreased again down. We will have to get this checked ASAP. What now! The fridge will be turned off again tonight. Fortunately it is cold overnight.

After a leisurely morning, Ray and I got out the First Up Shelter and secured it. We measured  for how big a windscreen we would need and then we headed out to Kuehn Street at Tyson Wells. We  toured a few of the vendors, looked at wind/sunscreens and especially checked out firewood prices. Everyone seems to be $8 for an apple box of wood this year, a $2 increase compared to 3 years ago.

After that we went to Silly Al's Pizza for lunch. Always great food. I won't have to cook dinner tonight with all the leftovers. lol

In Victoria, BC, Kristi and Jason went golfing with his parents. Looked to be a beautiful day there too.


Back home we relaxed in the sunshine and actually ended up in shorts. lol

That was our New Year's Day.

January 2

(I put a bunch of stuff in the post re the batteries/fridge so I can remember down the road to reset the fridge if this ever happens again. :) )

Woke up at 5:30 but managed to fall back asleep for another hour. At 6:30am the batteries were at 12.5 so definitely turning off the fridge and water pump helped overnight. We will have to test the batteries today to see if we have one that failed before getting someone to have a look. Also don't know why the fridge was working so hard all day yesterday. I turned the breaker off on it to reset it's computer too. We shall see how today goes.

It turned out to be a lovely warm day at 64F, but the wind came up in the afternoon. Ray and I put up the windscreen on the First Up Shelter and that helped for a sitting area for me so my face was out of the sun. Ray of course, snuggled up to the motorhome in the sunshine.

I ran the generator in the morning long enough for the fridge to go down to temperature and then the sun on the solar kept the batteries full all afternoon. Ray checked the batteries and all of them showed 6.6 so they are okay too. After shutting off the generator I turned the breaker off for the fridge for a few minutes and then back on. This seemed to reset the fridge's computer as it cycled on and off after that as it should.

Ray went into town and picked up some more door latches to fix the closet door so the light does not stay on. Also bought some more LED bulbs as we had a few flickering. While he was gone I did the dishes and prepped dinner for the InstantPot. The rest of the afternoon outside reading enjoying the day.

For dinner ... Beef Short Ribs, yumm. Ran the generator while the InstantPot was running and at 6pm shut it off, batteries full.

When we went to bed, batteries 12.7, at 1 am, 12.6 and when we got up at 5:30 am we were at 12.5. So I have no idea why we had such trouble yesterday and the day before, other than resetting the fridge and possibly the icemaker working overtime? Turning off water pump at night so it can't make ice overnight anymore.

Friday, Jan 3

This morning I picked Dianne up and off we went to Blythe for Freya's Vet appointment and do a little shopping. Managed to get all the groceries purchased before Freya's appointment. The Circle H Veterinary Hospital staff are great. Turned out that the antibiotics worked ... her gland is fine today. What a relief.

After her appointment we stopped at Denny's and Dianne bought us lunch. My turn next week in Parker. lol

Once we got back Ray and I sat outside in the sunshine for a couple of hours before Happy Hour down Dianne and Steve's way.  A glorious warm afternoon at 66F. At 4 we drove over to Steve and Diannes ... turned out the Happy Hour congregated at Jim and Barb's so Ray went back home to grab our chairs.



As the sun lowered down, Ray and I were slightly underdressed and had to get a blanket from the car. :)

For the weekend, Jason and Kristi invited friends to our Lakehouse. There were 7 adults and 2 kids apparently. Everyone had a great time in spite of the rainy weather. For the 2 young uns', Kristi dug out all of Garrett's old hot wheels track and cars. The lego bucket was dumped out multiple times too. Glad I kept some of the kids toys in storage. Lots of fun running around in the boat in the garage.

I only know the girl in the green shirt besides Jason and Kristi. Elysa and Kristi met each other at Simon Fraser University about 15 years ago and have kept in touch ever since. Jason and Kristi on the far right.

Sunday afternoon the house was tidied, main water shut off and temps for the heat pump switched to vacation mode. Kristi has arranged for our housekeeper to come next week and clean the house for her. Smart girl. Glad that the house is being used as that is why we bought it. Apparently all the rain saw the lake rise 1 1/2 feet in 72 hours. Kristi tells me that the water is 2" from the bottom stair to the beach.

Saturday, Jan 4

Puttered around, Ray cleaned the fantastic fans, I cleaned up the inside of the coach while we waited for Colan to come and check out door awning so he could order the correct part. While he was here we got him to check out the solar system too. Apparently our inverter and Blu Sky system is fine but it seems that we have 2 solar panels that are somehow off line, either dead or bad connections. Colan will be back on Monday to check the connections before ordering new panels. We have decided to order at least one new one to give us a total of 8 solar panels anyways. If we have to replace the other two as well, they will be tilting and higher wattage. We usually won't tilt the panels but here in Q at this time of year it will really make a difference so less generator time.

After Colan left we decided to go for lunch and try out the Grubstake. Nope the food still wasn't great this year so we will pass on going there again. Food choices so far here in Quartzsite seems to be limited to Silly Al's Pizza where you can be guaranteed a good pie. :)

Next up we decided to walk a few rows of the vendors in Tyson Wells before meeting up with Steve, Dianne, Earl, Allison, Cec and Jim at Beer Belly's.

A great couple of hours and then we were back home enjoying the warm sunshine. The car said 70F on our way in to camp. Yeah ... first day I wore shorts all day this trip.

Shopping in Tyson Wells, booth after booth with whatever you could possibly want. lol This picture was taken the day before.

At RV Lifestyles Ray saw these cool 1945 Willy's jeeps.

Deb, Ray, Jim, Cec, Allison, Earl and Dianne with Steve taking the picture.

When we got back home Dianne let us know that there was another HH gathering at the campfire. The amount of people arriving is growing daily.  Pretty soon we will need two fires. lol Off we went with our drinks and chairs.

.Left to right around the circle starting with Steve in the back...Guy, Sue, Barb, Jim, Lisa, Dino, Roger, Cindi, Cec, Jim, Bill Sandy, Kate, Dave (friends of Roger and Cindi), Ray and Deb...

Sunday, January 5th

Another gorgeous morning. I ran into town first thing to fill up a propane tank and buy some milk. Made it 9 days on one 20 lb tank for the Big Buddy Heater. Back home by 9:30. We decided to check out the gem show for an hour or so. What interesting rocks Mother Nature has made. They seemed to come in every colour of the rainbow. There are lots of rocks tumbling away and one booth even had a huge saw cutting into a petrified log making slices. Some rocks came as far away as Australia.

Back home for lunch I received a F/B message from friends, Pam and Bill Freckleton. They were on their way down to Yuma for their winter stay and wanted to spend the night with us. No Problem. I quickly busied myself with stretching my original dinner plans to 4 people. Smoked chicken thighs.

They arrived shortly after 5 pm and Ray directed them into our campsite, situating them so they could drive back out tomorrow without unhooking their car. We all relaxed outside while our dinner was cooking. After eating it was back out to our "campfire in a can". A great evening of catching up.  We'd not seen Bill and Pam for two years since we were at Dad's house. Of course I did not take any pictures at dinner. Yeesh ...

Monday, January 6th

Monday morning everyone was up bright and early. As soon as it was light enough to see, and after hugs goodbye, Ray managed to finally get a picture.

Deb, Pam and Bill

They were on their way at 7:15 am to Yuma. Apparently Bill has a scheduled golf game with some buddies he does not want to miss. A great visit and we will see them a couple more times as they will be driving up here to see the rock and gem show as well as the Big Tent.

Colan came by at 11 am and checked the 2 non-functioning solar panels. One was a wiring issue which he fixed and the other at that time of day was being shadowed by our satellite dish. So we are only getting one new panel that tilts. We dodged a big bullet!

The rest of the day we puttered around. 

Tuesday, January 6th

I was out the door bright and early at 7:15 to get our 2 weeks of laundry done. The girls at the campfires have told me that the laundromat is getting busier and busier. I hate waiting so I went early. Managed to get everything in the washers and then went for breakfast at the attached restaurant. It was my lucky day. Someone earlier had bought 2 breakfasts to pay it forward and they chose me. Probably because I only ordered a small breakfast under $5. But it made my day, and by 9:30 I was back home with that chore done.

More cleaning and maintenance on the coach happening. Ray has been working on cleaning all the seals. Called my guy in Mesa regarding an appointment here in Q for my new range install. He texted me the appointment request with Dometic so hopefully the coach will go in on Saturday, the start of the show, at 8am. Fingers crossed this actually happens. 

Ray went into town to buy supplies for the big Weenie Roast tonight. More people to meet and greet. A beautiful sunset. 

An additional picture that Steve took from the back of his truck.

"At 4:00 everyone started gathering at the fire pit....we had quite the group...24! Starting at the bottom, and going left around the circle: Cindi, Deb, Ray, Cec, Jim, Dino, Lisa, Sandy, Bill, Sid, Kathy, Sue, Les, Jim, Steve W, Diane, Debbie, Sue, Guy, Roger (standing), Barb, Steve M, me..."

That was our week. A lot of fun.