The Nomadic Life

We awoke this morning to unusual sounds.  Looking out the window across the RV lot we saw this hot-air balloon being inflated in the casino parking lot.  That was a nice view to start the day.

Balloon Rise at Sunrise

After breakfast we left Yuma and headed west on I-8, entering into the Pacific Time Zone.  The Official Center of the World is only a few miles beyond the Arizona/California border.  We stopped here last year and had to stop to see what had changed.

Museum of History in Granite

Two-inch thick granite walls have inscribed everything that Jacques-Andre Istel thinks is worth telling future generations.  This is a work in progress.  For $3 you can watch the video that explains the whole thing and then walk freely about the grounds.

A Work in Progress

Museum of History in Granite
Literacy for Millennia

History carved in granite

For $300 you can have your own name engraved here too! or anyone else’s.

I thought this was a fascinating project.  It will take several years to complete it, but when it’s done it will be there for future generations.  The walls are engineered to last 4,000 years and become “the one book that survives.”  They hope that in the future thousands of walls will be built by our successors.

More information is at www.HistoryinGranite.org

For an additional $2 you can go inside this pyramid and see the actual spot of the center of the world and get a certificate to prove it.

There it is, right there, the official center of the world and we were there.

This is a section of an old spiral staircase from the Eiffel Tower. It’s here for no particular reason.

We’re in El Centro, California, now, spending the night in a Walmart parking lot.  There are six other RVs here with us at the moment.

• Fuel expense:  none
• Camping expense:  none

In addition to all the lettuce and other vegetables growing around the Yuma countryside dates are another big crop.  The Imperial Date Gardens is one of the largest distributers of the Medjool date in this country.  They also ship internationally.  Today they were offering a free tour of the facilities so we went to see.

Imperial Date Gardens

Our Tour Guide Explaining The Field

Our guide explained how the dates are grown and how they’re picked.

Then we moved over into processing building.  The picking season is over so the workers are gone, but our guide was very good at explaining the process.  They do not do tours when the workers are there.  Then we sampled.

The Date Sorting Room

Our travel expenses for today:  NONE

A few pics from our day:

This is just one of the yard-sale or estate sale type vendors here.

Get your coyote or fox skins here, and more!. Elk antlers in the foreground.

Alligator feet, badger feet, coyote claws, coyote leg bones, porcupine feet, bear knuckles. and much much more.

A little naughtiness here. Honestly, this is the only non-PG rated stuff I saw today. Hope I don’t get censored here.

Loads of interesting stuff.

Here’s a truck for you, Paul.

This is just a small fraction of the RVs here, and they’re still arriving.

I guess this must be a problem here?

Enough said.

Expenses for today: NONE

There are some interesting sights here in Quartzsite.

Wheel Rim Camel

Buy Your Flags Here

I cannot explain this one

I heard this guy tows a VW too.

Our expenses for today:  NONE

Arizona is in the midst of a cold spell.  It was 25 degrees here when we woke up this morning.  When it warmed up a bit we saw that a few spaces down in an unoccupied space the water spigot was spewing forth.  It had frozen in the night and when it thawed it let loose.  It was too far away to get a picture out the window and too cold for me to want go outside to take a better picture but we did call the office and report it.  I suspect there were others we didn’t see.  It’s supposed to be 27 here tonight, but 20 overnight at Quartzsite, so we’re still in no hurry to get there.

We did some shopping and some cooking and TV watching, but other than that we just hung out in the RV, waiting for the weather to warm up.

Sunset at Cotton Lane RV Resort in Goodyear

There are hundreds of 55+ retirement communities around the Phoenix area, most of them in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.  We’ve spent the last three weeks in three different resorts here.  Very nice places for snowbirds to spend their winters.  From my observation, the most snowbirds here are from Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, with a few other states thrown in.  All the people here are so very friendly and will stop and visit with you, and they all seem so happy.  Such a contrast from regular city living.

Good for them.  I guess we’re just not ready for this winter lifestyle yet; we’re getting the urge to move on.  We’ve had fun catching up with friends and relatives in this area, there are actually quite a few people here we know.   Also, our discount week ends today so we checked out of Valle del Oro and headed west.

But, the weather has taken a cold turn, freezing overnight for several days.  Our plan is to get to Quartzsite where we will camp for free out in the desert without any electricity, but seeing as it’s so cold we are dragging our feet about that until the weather warms up a bit.

Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying at Cotton Lane RV Resort in Goodyear, Arizona, just west of Phoenix.  It’s only about one hour’s drive from where we were but it’s a step in the right direction.

Cotton Lane RV and Mobile Home Resort, Site #13

This afternoon we drove the Jeep to Sun City to visit Joan, Bernie’s cousin.  It was a good time, nice visit, good meal, and she sent us on our way with bags full of grapefruit and lemons from the trees in her yard.

Here are a few pictures from last week:

A Cousins Reunion Last Week

Mountains

Mountains

Our expenses for today:  $66.26 for two nights here.

The “daily” post has been missing for the last week or so.  We are fine.  It’s just that since we arrived in Mesa we’ve been visiting with neighbors and friends and relatives, doing some shopping, and walking around the resort, and eating too much.  It was nothing I felt compelled to blog about, just everyday life.

Of course we are watching the weather back in Minnesota, kinda missing the zero degree temperatures, the ice, and the feet of snow (but not really).  It’s been cool here, 60 in the daytime and sometimes 32 overnight.

Our discount club membership allowed us to stay at Towerpoint Resort for the limit of one week, then we moved next door to Mesa Regal Resort for the limit of one week, and now we have moved to Valle del Oro Resort and will be here for the limit of one week.  Next Saturday we plan to leave this area and go west towards Quartzsite and Yuma, Arizona, and then on to California.

Mesa Regal Resort, space #1160

Valle del Oro Resort, space #1542

All three of these resorts are large, with approximately 1500 units in them and with many amenities and services.  While we were walking around the grounds I stopped to take a picture in the rose garden.

Roses

Gas expense for today: $99

Lodging:  $157 at Mesa Regal last week,  $143 at Valle Del Oro for this week.