Last gasp of January at Quartzsite

Sunday January 26th

The rest of the day we spent doing a few chores. Ray went to work on "his sticks" and noticed this huge spider before he picked up his stick. Wow.

Ray and I invited the neighbours, Gloria and Warren, over for roast chicken dinner. This chicken needed to be cooked and we needed help eating it! lol I bought it a week ago as a trial for my new oven and the expiry date was today. So I made Sunday Dinner, Roast Chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy and stir fried veggies.

The chicken took longer than expected in the oven as a first try so I finished it for 10 minutes in the microwave and it was fine. Good practice for other things though.

We sat down to dinner about 5:30 pm in the shade tent. A lovely warm evening with us all still in shorts and t-shirts. Gloria hate 3 helpings and Warren 2 so they must have liked it. :)

After dinner we sat around the campfire until about 8:30 before coming inside. Definitely a later night than usual to us after being sick for the last 2 weeks. A great evening and another great sunset.

Monday, January 27th

Another gorgeous morning. Unbelievably Ray and I did not get up until 7 am. I am feeling much better but Ray is still coughing quite a bit, possibly from campfire smoke last night. There is some fog this morning, an unusual sight here in the desert.

Ray headed out to Herb's Hardware for more supplies to get 3 other solar panels tipping. He bought a mounting kit and struts from Solar Bills and used the hardware already mounted on the roof so no more holes.  A quiet day for me after doing my mountain of dishes. lol   The wind however was up and continued to get stronger stirring up the dust so Freya and I hid inside the coach for the remainder of the afternoon.

Ray came back after his run into town and had a "toes up" for a couple of hours ... still feeling the effects of his cold. Dianne texted me to see the cloud of black smoke behind us some distance away. Hopefully not someone's trailer or MH burning up. By the time I took this picture it was already dissipating somewhat.

Barbecued some steaks for dinner with leftover potatoes and veggies, an easy meal. Another quiet night and into bed quite early.

Tuesday, January 28th

We both slept well and up at 6 am.  After our morning routine, Ray headed out to Herb's and Solar Bills for the hardware to tilt the remaining panels and I got ready to go shopping with Dianne to Blythe this morning once he was back from town.

Dianne and I managed to get our shopping completed in about 2 hours and were back home by noon. I invited Steve and Dianne for Happy Hour and Ray was doing the same thing with Dave and Cheryl who have moved into La Posa South Sunday. Yeah a party! I decided to have a Happy Hour today as the forecast for the next few days is for quite a bit of wind so probably not very nice to sit outside.

After I made Ray and I lunch it was time to whip a couple of appetizers. By 4 pm everyone had arrived and we spent a couple of hours catching up. Dianne and Steve hadn't a chance to catch up with Dave and Cheryl since Halifax last summer. Another great time here in the desert. Staying out of the hot sun and wind in our sun shelter.

Steve, Dave, Cheryl, Deb and Dianne

Colan was back at 4pm checking out a electrical "hiccup" we seem to be having with a 20 amp fuse that keeps blowing. Apparently, we have a dead short that he is tracking. Did not find it today but will be back Thursday morning to carry on with the "search". Also Thursday morning Betty, the locksmith, will be back to fix 2 of Ray's bay door locks that are not working well. All last minute stuff before we lift the jacks on February 7th and continue with our journey.

Here are a few pictures that Ray has taken to show some of the "Flavour of Quartzsite" for people who have never been.

Popular Watering Hole in Tyson Wells, really busy during the show.

The best ice cream with the "hit and miss" motor.

Vendors in Tyson Wells.

Anyone need turquoise beads?

How about some polished stones?

Earrings? Vendors at the Pow Wow

Inside the QIA for the Pow wow show.

The Big Tent RV Show on the first day!

Last morning of the show.

Camping in the desert.

Our "Art Gecko" campsite.

Small Group Happy Hours

And very large group Happy Hours

And the most beautiful sunsets anywhere.

Wednesday, January 29th

Another beautiful morning but the wind is supposed to come up today with gusts to 35 MPH and stay high for several days.  One of the downsides staying in an open valley in the desert.

Not too much on the agenda today, maybe laundry, then again maybe not. lol

Ended up picking Dianne up and heading for a short visit into town. A short stop at Quiet Times for our package from Tiffin and into the grocery store for mushrooms. Back home dropped Dianne back off and the rest of the afternoon we spent inside catching up on some TV programs. It was too windy to stay outside. Earlier Ray finished tilting the last of the 4 solar panels. It certainly makes a difference in how fast the charging system works during the day even when it is cloudy. A week from now he will have to put them all back down as we hit the road again. lol

Thursday, January 30th

Betty the locksmith will be here first thing to fix the locks on 2 of the bay doors and so will Colan, the RV Tech to find our electrical short. Hopefully today completes all of the things that needed to be done. Received the replacement hubcap from Tiffin so Ray can install that as well.

Dianne and I headed out at 8am to get our laundry done and have breakfast. Normally we both just do our own by ourselves but with the wind gusts she cannot hang her clothes to dry ... she said they would end up in Yuma! lol so she came with me.

Back home with that job done by 10 am. Next time I do laundry will be in our rig plugged in! Colan was unable to find the short for the lights above Ray but he did figure out a couple of other things, including a 12V plug in the basement that was not working/shorting to unhooked it. Also our bedroom reading lamps are now working ... apparently the light bulbs were not screwed in far enough. They are really hard to get in and I guess Ray did not apply enough pressure to turn the bulb. Problem averted. Colan had to go off to another job and said he would come back later this afternoon.

At 12:30 Ray and I decided to go to Silly Al's Pizza for lunch. On the spur of the moment we drove by Dave and Cheryl's to see if they had lunch already or wanted to come with us ... they came.

We all had a great meal and shared a pitcher of beer ... thanks Dave, while Cheryl drank her wine. Another great visit.

Colan came back around 4 and stayed for a couple of hours trying to figure things out. Here's the electrical "brain" of the coach all apart. Lucky for him the toilets clean! lol

Colan did find the "short" and it was the 12V plug in the basement, which is bent and shorting out so he completely disconnected it. The lights over Ray's chair turned out to be a wire that Ray did not connect again when he replaced our light over the table ... Colan suggested that maybe that was the issue and it was. So all is good in Kastle again. lol So now we pay some money to Colan for "Stupid". lol

Friday, January 31st

Heard from Kristi this morning. They have landed safely in London England and are waiting to be let into their apartment rental for the week. Hope they have a fabulous time.

Today we will hang around camp puttering around and we invited Dave and Cheryl for a Short Rib dinner. Hopefully it is not too windy this afternoon so we can eat outside. After the next two days, the forecast for the next few days it not that great ... much cooler and windy. Beats the forecast at home with temps of 46F , 5 inches of rain in 2 days and 2 inches of snow on Sunday! Hopefully the lake levels don't come into the "flood the yard range".

Ray finished adjusting the tilts on the solar panels. I puttered prepping dinner for later. Saw the Goodyear Blimp fly by again. It sure moves slowly across the sky.

The wind did not come up as predicted so we were all able to sit outside for our Happy Hour with Dave and Cheryl and then have dinner in the shade shelter. We started out with Mai Tai's and then moved onto wine with dinner. After dinner it was Cheryl's brownies with Port and then Carolans. 

Dave's 2 pictures next.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at 'Chez Deb'. Look at all those fresh veggies, Jim!!
The best short ribs I have ever had!

After dinner we got the campfire in a can out and sat outside yakking until 9 pm. We all had a fabulous time and needless to say we're not feeling any pain! lol

Looked at our security camera at home and the lake is risen really high. The news says that Vancouver Island received rainfall in January of "biblical amount of rain"! Sure shows now. I hope we don't get flooded into the basement. We have a flood alarm so Price Alarm's will notify me if that happens. Hopefully it doesn't. The debris on our stairs was not there yesterday! Looks like water on our neighbour lawn. They are a few feet lower than us.

Heard from our neighbour. They have water up to their basement door but not inside as of yet. Fingers crossed that the lake level starts going down this morning as predicted.