California Here We Come

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We were awakened at 7:30 this morning by a very noisy wood chipper.  7:30 isn’t all that early, but when we were struggling to stay asleep through the night because of all the trains passing by we could have used a sleep-in.
We decided to move on.  Yuma has many RV Resorts, not as many as Mesa, but a lot.  There are also RV parks and private campgrounds, but why pay when you can stay for free?  Our first night was free at the BLM land we found north of town.  We filled up our water tank, dumped the dirty tanks, and then went to find a gas station to fill that up before we head to California.

Early Morning Wood Chipper

 We really didn’t go very far, only a few miles, into California. Yuma is just across the bridge. So we’re now in the Pacific Time Zone.  There is a casino here with a very large parking area for RVs to park for free.  So that’s where we are tonight.  I think there are at least 50 other RVs here with us.
We’re In There Somewhere
 I understand it’s around 0 degrees back home in Minnesota… too bad, so sad.  It was 73 here today.  That awful sunshine is so annoying, it’s so bright and that darned sun is so low in the sky it gets in my eyes, and causes such harsh shadows on the pictures.
After getting settled in at our new location we went for a drive in the country, not looking for anything in particular.  We saw field after field of vegetables.  Cauliflower for sure, and different kinds of lettuces.  More, that I could not identify, perhaps artichokes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and more.
There was a lot of activity in the fields, crops being harvested.  Most were too far out to get a good picture, or that annoying sun was in my eyes.  This was the best picture I could get.  The pickers were working so fast and furious, and they had loud music playing.  I’m not sure if the music was for fun or to keep them working at that fast pace in time to the music…maybe a bit of both.  That looked like such hard work, it made me tired just watching them.
Veggie Pickers
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Yuma Stuff

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
As well as being the winter vegetable capital of the world this is also date country.  We went to visit Martha’s Gardens, one of several date farms in the Yuma area.
Martha’s Gardens
Date Palms
 Next we went to the Visitor Information Center in Yuma.  It is located at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park.  Beginning in 1864 this depot began supplying all the military posts in the Southwest, off-loading from river boats.  But when the railroad arrived in 1883 it brought an end to the Depot’s supply role.  The buildings have been restored and turned into a museum.
Also, on the grounds was a fun little holiday village under construction.  It did seem a bit out of place, but it would make a fun spot for local holiday festivals.

Restored Passenger Train Car
Quartermaster Depot Buildings
 Right next to the Depot is the Yuma Siphon.  I never heard of this before and I thought it was so interesting.  It’s a massive tunnel under the Colorado River that delivers irrigation canal water to the Yuma Valley.  Because the shaft on the California side is higher than the exit in Arizona, the water actually moves by natural siphon action.  That they built such a thing in 1912 is pretty amazing.  It’s a 14-foot diameter concrete tube through the sandstone 50 feet under the Colorado River and stretches 965 feet between its 85-foot deep California shaft and its 83-foot deep Arizona exit.  

Arizona Side of the Yuma Siphon
Where The Water Comes Out
  Then we went over to the Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza.   Named so because of the swing span bridge that accommodated both rail and steamboat traffic.  This is the exact spot where the first railroad to enter Arizona arrived. The bridge is gone, but the pivot point remains, and they built a nice plaza around it.
Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza
 After all that exploring we went back to the RV and moved it to an RV Park in Yuma so we could spend a day with shore power, dump station, and water supply.
Desert Paradise RV Resort

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Palm Canyon

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Enough of Quartzsite for this year.  We left this morning and headed down Hwy 95 to Yuma.  I was amazed at how many RVs we were seeing around Quartzsite.  They were parked in the desert for at least five miles on both sides of the road.  Some are in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA), and will probably be there thru March.  The LTVA is not free, but only $180 for the season, Sept. 15 – April 15.  But many of them are short term, free, like we were.
Desert Campers

Somewhere between Quartzsite and Yuma is a side trip to Palm Canyon.  We parked the RV in the desert and took the car down the gravel road to the mountains.  This is where we should find perhaps the only native palm trees in Arizona.  Somehow I was expecting to find a hidden oasis of palm trees, maybe a pond or waterfall, perhaps a tiki bar with those little drinks with the umbrellas in them.  Boy was I wrong.  We hiked into the canyon, they said it was only 1/2 mile hike, but I think they lied.  And it was steep and rugged.

Finally, well into the canyon, we saw a small sign on a slightly elevated area, that said “Palms” and an arrow pointing to the cliffs.  We looked up and after a few minutes of squinting finally saw a few small palm trees up high in the narrow crevices of the cliff side.  We looked around and saw more palm trees we had not noticed before.  Interesting, but a bit of a let down after that hike.

Palm Canyon

View From Palm Canyon

On to Yuma, the Winter Vegetable Capital of the World.  We saw lots of fields of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and who knows what else.

Different varieties of lettuce and ??

Looks like Broccoli

 We stopped at a roadside vendor.

Roadside Produce Vendor

We found another free BLM camping area north of Yuma on 95 behind the VFW.  We like free.  There are no facilities here but we still have water, gas, propane, and our waste tanks are not full yet so we can do one or two more days without that maintenance if we are conservative.  Plus we have TV and Internet, so we’re good.

BLM free area

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The Quartzsite Shoppers Prayer

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
The Quartzsite Shoppers Prayer
by Elton Mellum 2012
Now I lay me down to sleep
Help me decide what to keep
Should it be the box of rocks
Or the brand new Tennessee socks
My partner says I have enough
But then keeps buying more and more stuff
My RV is running out of space
Help me Lord the truth to face
But certainly Lord it can’t hurt
To buy another cheap “T” Shirt
The auction sale is just divine
For another bid it can be mine
And the craft sale is full of things
How can it hurt to buy Quartz earrings
Lord, how can I get to sleep
With all the things I want to keep
The moon is full the stars are bright
It’s another Quartzsite night
But I must get going by dawn
Or all the good stuff might be gone
Some would say this is just greed
But Lord, I believe it’s what I need
And should it all end before I wake
Help me to decide what to take
For I suppose everything will be here
When I return again next year
Amen
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Celia’s Rainbow Gardens & Nature Trail

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We were off to see the sights early this morning.  The first sight we saw was the book store owner, Paul Winer, riding his bicycle to work.  It was cold, so he had on his coat and a hat, but no pants, just his half naked self riding his bike.  I was unable to get my camera ready for a picture in time as we drove by him.
We learned that Paul and his wife had a daughter who died in 1994 of a viral heart infection when she was only 8 years old.  The whole town worked together to help raise money for her funeral.  Her parents were so touched by everyone’s kindness that they wanted to give something back–Celia’s Rainbow Gardens came to be.  It takes up 8 acres of the 40 acre Quartzsite Town Park on the north side of the town.  With the help of volunteers, it turned into a beautiful memorial garden not only for Celia but for others who have lost loved ones. Many of the cacti, trees, shrubs and fixtures in Celia’s Rainbow Gardens were donated by family and friends in memory of loved ones.  We spent some time walking the paths and looking at memorials.  
    
A wall in Celia’s Memorial Garden
 Paths and Memorials

This little village was donated to the Quartzsite Historical Society.
It was restored  by many volunteers and given to Celia’s Garden in 2001.
Next, we set out to find “The Great Tree”, not far from the Town Park.  After driving around we finally found the trail head that leads to a Native Ironwood Tree that is said to be 1050 years old.
Well Groomed Trail To The Great Tree
The Great Tree
 Our next mission was to find the Fisherman Intaglio, the outline of a fisherman drawn on the desert floor by ancient Indians.  It’s about 12 miles by car and a small hike to the hills to see it.  I always thought these things were huge, but this one wasn’t so big.
Bouse Fisherman Intaglio or Geoglyph description.

Better seen from the air.
 Back to town for something to eat.  We noticed in the parking lot of the Subway next door a number of VW vans stopped for food.  I got 5 in this picture, but there were a few more on the other side.  Paul, I thought you would like this.
Volkswagon Vans
It was cold and started to sprinkle so we did not do any more shopping at the flea markets today.  Maybe tomorrow.  I haven’t bought anything yet!
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What a Day

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
It froze here overnight.  Without electricity it’s a little more challenging to keep warm and be conservative with our fuel, but we managed ok.  It warmed up to almost 70 this afternoon.
Quartzsite is a very interesting place.  In the summer the population is somewhere around 3,000 people but in the winter it explodes up to 1,000,000 at times.  There are several big shows, rock & gem shows, craft shows, flea markets, swapmeets, a pow wow, a car show, and a rock & roll classic car show, all going on at the same time more or less.  There are also several RV sales lots.

We started out the day early, browsing one of the market areas.  This one included a large rock show.  I’m not at all interested in rocks, but apparently a lot of other people are.

Morning shopping at Tyson Wells Market Square
The “museum” at the rock & gem show.

More rocks

P.P. Moose.  look closely
We finished with that and drove down the road a little ways, there was another flea market area.  We discovered across the highway was another flea market, and down the street from that another one, and all along main street was flea market, it was everywhere.  And almost everyone who comes here to sell or to shop arrives in an RV.  There are RV parks all around the town, as well as the free boondock areas.  It’s kinda fun just to sit and watch all the RVs come and go.
There is a local celebrity, Paul Winer, an accomplished blues musician and cartoonist, who has owned the local book store for the last 20 years.  He is a very nice and very friendly guy.  He is a nudist and wears only a crocheted “sock” over his privates.  But it was chilly today so he wore his sweater.  There were about 10 customers in the store when he decided to sing and play a few songs for us on his piano.  He is glad to pose for pictures, I chose not to pose with him.

Paul Winer

Paul’s Bookstore
We heard about Hi Jolly’s Tomb and went to the local cemetery to see it.  In 1856 Jefferson Davis imported 70 camels here along with a Syrian caretaker, Hadji Ali.  His American masters called him Hi Jolly.  The idea was to use the camels to transport freight and people across the desert Southwest.  It may have been successful had it not been for the Civil war, and Jefferson Davis changing jobs, and without his support the project was abandoned.  The camels were set free to fend for themselves in the desert near Quartzsite.  The last reported sighting of a camel near Quartzsite was in 1942.
Hi Jolly died in 1902.  The locals were so fond of him that they built a special pyramid tomb, made of petrified wood and quartz.  It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 
Hi Jolly Tomb
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Quartzsite

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We popped over to Towerpoint to say “bye for now” to Shirley before we left Mesa Regal RV Resort.  When I went to the office to tell them we were leaving I saw they were having their big flea market event, so I took some time to run through that before leaving.
We headed west on I-10 which goes directly to Quartzsite.  We had thought about going to Wickenberg, but decided that was out of the way and we’ll get there another time.  We took our time driving, traffic wasn’t too bad once we got out of the Phoenix area.  There were a few rest areas along the way that we stopped at, and chatted with other RVers also heading for Quartzsite.
Bureau of Land Management free camping area at Quartzsite
We checked in with the campground host before seeking out a spot in the desert.  By the time we finished chatting with them about solar panels and other RV accessories it was getting late in the afternoon.  We found a spot and got set up, unhooked the car, and went for a drive in to town to see what was happening.  Ugh… we should have waited until tomorrow as the sun was so bright and so low it was in our eyes so bad we couldn’t see things and it gave me a headache.  We’ll go look again in the morning.
On thing I discovered….the Quartzsite schedule of events paper that I had picked up at a visitor center somewhere last week was actually for the 2009-2010 winter!!  I didn’t see the dates!  So we’re actually here earlier than we had intended.  However, there is still a lot going on in the area so we’ll have things to see and do.  The big Sports Vacation & RV Show doesn’t actually begin until the 21st so we might miss that.  But that’s ok too.
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Big Day

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
This is our last day at Mesa Regal RV Resort, we have to be out by 11 a.m. tomorrow morning.  We have not decided exactly where we will go or what we will do yet.
There was a meeting of snowbirds from Hutchinson, Minnesota, at Old Country Buffet in Mesa this morning, so Bernie and I went to that.  It was fun to see people there that we knew from home.
We heard that Towerpoint Resort was having a private luncheon at Organ Stop Pizza today so we decided to crash it and see another show.  This time it wasn’t so crowded and the organist gave us a little more information about the history of the organ and how it works.  The pizza wasn’t any better than last time, but the show as fun.
Organ Stop Pizza
After that we went to visit more relatives in the area.  We had a great time catching up and enjoyed a meal with them too.
I think I’ve had enough to eat for a while.  Hopefully from now on we can get back into a more healthy eating pattern.
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The Help

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Again, nothing to blog about. We went to see the movie The Help today and out for dinner again.

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War Horse

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Didn’t do much today. We went to see the movie War Horse matinee with Shirley this afternoon, then TGIFriday’s for dinner.

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Nothing

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Hello Paul, this blog is for you. We didn’t do anything to blog about today.

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Fountain Hills

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Today we went to Fountain Hills, north of Mesa, to get a look at this big fountain we heard about.  It spews forth once an hour reaching a height of 330 feet.  On special occasions, the fountain can attain 560 feet.  Even though I was there today apparently they did not feel it was a special enough occasion as it did not appear to be 560 feet to me.

The Fountain at Fountain Hills
 After watching the fountain do it’s thing we drove around the town to explore a bit and found this junk horse statue in a shopping center parking lot.  It was rather interesting and filled with junk, from a washing machine to a car bumper and kitchen appliances.
Junk Horse Statue

Some of the Junk
 Also, in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant we saw the beginnings of a car show.   It wasn’t to officially begin for an hour yet, and we didn’t feel like sitting around and waiting for it, so we left. 
Corvette
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Quiet Day

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

We spent part of today visiting with friends from Hutchinson who live in a resort not far from here, did a little shopping, and spent a few hours visiting with Shirley at Towerpoint. Shirley’s home is a 15 minute walk from our place in Mesa Regal.

Now I’m figuring out how to blog this from my IPhone. I think I got it. But this is why this is so short and sweet.

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Return to Mesa

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Our time is up at Distant Drums RV Park and we’re too tight to want to pay full price for another day.  So, where to next?  Southwest Phoenix (Quartzite and Yuma) might be our next destination before heading into California.  I would like to see the RV show in Quartzite but that doesn’t start for a week or so.  So, we decided to return to Mesa and hang out there while we wait.
We are members of Passport America, which allows us half price at member RV parks.  Towerpoint Resort, where we were last week, gave us the discount at that time, but they don’t honor it during January, February, or March.  However, the resort next door does!  So we will be at Mesa Regal RV Resort for 7 nights (the limit for the discount) at half price. 🙂
At Towerpoint each lot had a palm tree, but here at Mesa Regal everyone gets a fruit tree.  We have a little grapefruit tree.
Mesa Regal RV Resort
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Montezuma Castle

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
This morning we went to see Montezuma Castle National Monument.  Early settlers assumed it was Aztec in origin, hence the name Montezuma Castle.  We now know that Montezuma never came this far north from his home in Mexico, but the name has stuck.

Montezuma Castle National Monument
Interesting as it was, it did not take long to view Montezuma Castle and we went up the road to see Montezuma Well.  The well is a very old limestone sink hole fed by natural springs.  The Southern Sinagua irrigated crops with its waters.  You can still see the irrigation ditches.  There are also cliff dwellings on the wall around the hole.

Montezuma Well

We got back to the RV park early, so went for a walk on a dirt 4-wheeler trail that leads away from the park.  We didn’t find anything interesting out there, but it was a nice walk.

4-wheeler trail in the country
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Cottonwood

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
As big as this country is..it’s a small world.  My friend, Lois, from Minnesota that I haven’t seen in several years posted on Facebook that she just arrived in Sedona, Arizona, which is only 30 miles from where we are!  So I messaged her and we agreed to meet up in Cottonwood today.
Bernie and I waited for the frost to melt off our car and for it to warm up a bit before we left this morning.  It did warm up to 72 by this afternoon.  We found Lois and then a cafe in Old Town Cottonwood and had a great time catching up.  What a treat that was to see her again!
Old Town Cottonwood, Arizona
After lunch, Bernie and I looked around the town, and Lois went her own way.  There is an interesting shop in Cottonwood called the Hippie Emporium.  It’s a blast from the past.  We went inside and looked at all the beads, and tie-dyed clothing, LP records, drug paraphernalia, and such.  You can also get a massage in there.  Lovely store!
Hippie Emporium
 When we were done with Cottonwood we went to nearby Tuzigoot (Apache for “crooked water”) National Monument.  This is the remnant of a Southern Sinagua village built between 1125 and 1400.  At one time this was probably inhabited by about 200 persons.
Tuzigoot National Monument
 After walking around Tuzigoot we started driving back to Campe Verde.  Along the way we passed the “Out of Africa” wildlife park and decided to stop and check it out.  We had been seeing a lot of advertising for it in this area.
Out of Africa Entrance
 We learned that it was going to close for the day in about one hour from now, so we did not want to pay the $36 per person fee they wanted.  We did stop in the gift shop just for kicks.  Behind the counter was a cockatoo that said “goodbye” when we went in.. and “hello” when we went out.  His/her name is Tarzan, and is a sweetie.  Someone had abandoned it at the park’s entrance about 6 months ago, and they took it in, so they don’t know it’s history or even if it’s a boy or a girl.
Tarzan
We still have more to see in this area so we extended our stay at this RV park until Friday.
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Prescott and Jerome

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
 It’s hard to know how to dress in Arizona.  80’s on Sunday and frost on the car this morning.  We grabbed our jackets and headed out to explore the area around Prescott and Jerome.

Our first stop was at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.  Sharlot Hall was a Territorial Historian and had a passion to preserve Arizona frontier life and the Territorial Governor’s Mansion.  The mansion is only one of several historic buildings on the grounds.   We spent more time there than we intended to.  We grabbed a quick lunch in a local diner and hit the road again.

At the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.
The drive from Prescott to Jerome is incredible.  It’s a well paved but windy mountain road that takes you up into the snow elevation and has spectacular views.
At Prescott

Snow in the Mountains
Well up into the mountains is the little fascinating little town of Jerome.  It used to be a copper mining town.  It has a very interesting history.  It went from about 15,000 inhabitants to being a ghost town and now it is a National Historic Landmark and a thriving community of writers, artists, musicians, historians and such.  Because we spent too much time at Prescott now we had to boogie so as not to be driving down mountain roads in the dark.  We would have liked to have stayed longer and explored it more.  Oh well, maybe next time.
Jerome
Awesome view going down the mountain from Jerome.
We made it back to the RV just after dark, then went over to the Cliff Castle Casino across the street and had dinner.
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Camp Verde, AZ

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We said goodbye for now to Susan and Wally and Moko and Mya at Anthem, AZ, and drove up Interstate 17 to Camp Verde.  Not a long drive, about one hour, and the scenery was fantastic all the way.  You know you are in the mountains when you start seeing runaway truck ramps.
I-17 from Anthem to Camp Verde
 We found Distant Drums RV Park and will be staying there.  It’s a member of the Passport America network, so we can stay for half price, but only for three days at that price.  Then we will decide what to do next.  After getting settled in we went in to town and found the Visitor Center and scoped out what there is to see and do around here.
Susan…. Marble is more than a “pillow pet.”  She can walk; I caught her in the act!

Marble Walking

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Glendale, Arizona

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Happy New Year!
We walked the dogs with Susan and Wally again this morning.  Moko and Mya are sweet little doggies.

Moko and Mya
Wally told us about this German restaurant in Glendale they knew of that was having a German buffet for lunch so we decided to go there and check it out.  Something new for us, the food was good, and we stuffed ourselves.  We had to walk it off, so we walked around the town.  We found the town’s Christmas tree and see that it was decorated with hand made ornaments made by the local children to commemorate Arizona’s Centennial.
Glendale Tree
More walking.  There was a statue I liked.  It’s Sam Stout, one of the Territorial Sheriffs.  Territorial Sheriffs and Arizona Rangers served Arizona in the early 1900’s helping preserve the peace, making the frontier a better place to live.  This sculpture symbolizes the fearless courage and moral strength our peace officers have always strived to achieve, both then and now.
Sam Stout
It just kept getting warmer and warmer.   A bank sign said it was 82F.  My iPhone app says it was “only” 80F.  I think it’s a little bit colder than that back at home in Minnesota.

Later, we were discussing motor homes and travels; we discussed driving to Hawaii.  I guess it MIGHT really be possible! haha.. I found this picture on the Internet:

I WANT ONE OF THESE
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Crown King, Arizona

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
We joined Susan and Wally in walking their dogs around the RV park first thing this morning.  It’s looking like it will be a beautiful day.  We noticed six hot air balloons passing silently by.
4 of the 6 balloons we saw this morning.
Somebody at the RV park had been creative and made up a mock graveyard.  We enjoyed reading the funny markers.
Graveyard
Oops!
After the walk Wally drove us to Crown King, an old gold mining town in the mountains.  It was only 50 miles, but took nearly three hours to get there through beautiful, but narrow windy rough mountain roads.  We would never have gone if he did not have a Jeep to get us there.  THANK YOU WALLY for your driving skills.

Spectacular Views 
Narrow Mountain Roads  
We liked this sign by a small town on the way up to Crown King.
The elevation is nearly 6,000 feet, there is snow up here.
When we finally arrived at Crown King, we saw lots of 4-wheelers and 4 wheel drive pickup trucks, but no cars.  I think it would be foolish to try to drive a car up here.  We did see more 4-wheelers out riding around in the desert mountain area.  It’s a popular thing to do in Arizona.
It was kinda cool up there and we could see that they had had snow, it was piled up around the buildings and in the shady areas.  The dirt streets were muddy from the snow melt.
4-wheelers at the saloon

There are a few shops and food places here, and some lodging.  We had lunch at the Crown King Saloon, Arizona’s oldest Saloon and Brothel.  ok, well, it’s not a brothel any more, and the food was very good.

Crown King Saloon

Back down the mountain.  It was a long rough ride, but we enjoyed it anyway.  It is such beautiful country.
Wally dropped Susan and I off at the grocery store to get supplies for dinner while he and Bernie went to wash the Jeep, it got a little dirty today.

While we were waiting for the guys to come pick us up we saw more hot air balloons rising from the field next to the shopping center.

Hot Air Balloons Again

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