Of Horses and Quartzsite

I am sitting in California now but finally have Verizon service and the ability to stay awake at the same time.  This traveling and exploring thing can wear a woman out.   

First, I need to throw up the pictures from the Arizona riding the hills adventure.

Liz and I before our ride. The stable place offered the use of the hats and chaps.   They highly recommended the chaps because of the environment.

Liz's blog had butt shots of me...I got to watch the back of the wrangler.  I had the better view.  The young man had just taken the wrangling position at Cave Creek.  He had just returned from a visit out east with his girlfriend and her family.  He said he liked being able to earn a living outside and on horses.   

And Liz was the bring up the rear....

It was the sunset ride that we took.

Patrick said that the horses spend their summers up in Idaho taking the summer tourists on rides up there and their winter season down here in Phoenix.

The next morning as I was pulling out was another great balloon launch time.   Patrick, the wrangler, said that he figured that was a lucrative venture also.

From the campground in Phoenix Liz and I headed to visit with our friend Sheila, who winters in famous RV wintering location.....Quartzsite, AZ .  We both parked at a campground in town and used their laundry.  Later in the afternoon we found Sheila's campsite out in the BLM lands.  With Liz driving, Sheila gave us a tour of the BLM lands and the town of Quartzsite.

Remember this is still December and the amjority of RV'ers arrive in January and February.   We got to see were everyone parks and where all the vendor set up for the great influx.  I think Quartzsite might me fun for a week but I am not sure I would want to park a mile out on the BLM for the entire month.  When looking at the photos you will need to imagine the additional RVs parked through out the lands.   I liked the stones that folks laid out to define their "driveways" and their "lot"lines.

This was a small compound made up of three rigs.  Later in January some of the groups that gather have 20-30 rigs in one area....

Car in the road!  What road?    The tracks of vehicles go every which way leading off towards what have been folks sites.   Sheila seemed to know where all the main passages were.

Sheila's home place tucked up under the trees near the wash.  There were still rocks left from when Larry, her husband, had decorated the drive back to their site.  Sheila said that most folks that return to Quartzsite year after year have their favorite places and try to return to those spaces every year.  Different groups are known to gather in the different BLM areas year after year, also.

This area of the BLM seemed to have more rigs with built on attachments.

This one is primarily a utility vehicle with add ons....

And not everyone has an RV.

Come back next month and it won't be this empty.  Folks park where ever they want.

Sheila made sure that Liz and I got directions to find the Nudist section...but Liz was driving, the sun was going down and, hey, we hadn't eaten dinner yet......maybe next time.

Sheila and Shadow have a great place. We missed her offered campfire because it was getting late and was already dark by the time the tour and dinner were completed and Liz and I had another full day ahead planned.  We made it back out onto the main highway in the dark but only after having driven in and out a couple of times with Sheila's supervision.   And though Sheila's place is over a 1/2 mile off into the BLM lands, the drive was pretty straight forward.  It is easy to see how someone could get turned around trying to get out after dark from some of the areas.

Anyone driving though Quartzsite this winter better look up Sheila. 

Arizona is Worth the Drive

When reviewing the drive through Texas I seem to have forgotten the overnight in the large gravel parking lot in Fort Stockton. It was a campground but it was as bare and bleak as much of Texas.  On the plus side the laundry was inexpensive.  The down side it was still cold.....

Okay now back to after leaving Carlsbad there was the drive to Las Cruces after stopping at Camper World to get a replacement or repair on my electric cord the connects the Honda to the RV.  Somehow the cord wasn't looped as many times on the safety cables as they should have and suffered some major road rash.   The lights on the car were still working but I wasn't sure for how long or even how since the cord had certainly taken a heavy hit.   I was thankful that Camping World saw my situation and put a repair man on it right away.   As some of us have experienced Camping World is often backed up with multiple jobs.  But I made camp before dark. 

The RV Park in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was a Passport America but another large gravel lot. We did each have our own tree and pull through site.  Showers were unavailable after a certain time but I guess it didn't really matter. We had heat and all I wanted to do was get to bed and get some rest.

Oh, lets not forget the drive past El Paso on the way to CW and Las Cruces.   The summer after graduating from high school, I had applied and had a choice to go to El Paso as a horse wrangler at a summer camp or go to New Hampshire as a riding instructor for a girls camp.  I went to New Hampshire.  Driving past El Paso I felt reassured that  I had made the right decision.   I can't imagine what the heat would have been like spending a summer in the desert.  I might have met a cowboy though.....


From Las Cruces, in the morning I was determined to make it all the way in to Tucson.   Breakfast was at a McDonalds in Deming, NM.  There are several RV parks in Deming and it might have been prettier out side the city limits in the desert but the town appeared tired and I was glad that I was moving through.

The drive becomes more interesting as I moved closer to Arizona.

From a rest stop.

I decided to stay over night at the Pima County Fairground.   They are located on the outside of the city limits can you tell by the sign along the road on the way in.  The campground was pretty empty so most of the sites could be pull through.   I did unhook to go find a laundry as the one in the park closed at 5pm.  I think Mitch's choice of the State Park beat my choice hands down but I did get some laundry done and discovered some of Tucson's streets.   And considering how tired I was I am not sure I would have made it any farther as the Fairground is east of the city,

And, yes, there really were cattle ranging along the highway

The next day on the road towards Phoenix, I made a trip over to visit and tour the Biophere 2.  I encourage you to look up the facility on line and read the history. Originally build with private funds and used for research, it is now owned and operated by the  University of Arizona.  

The largest building houses the rainforest.  There are multiple biomes within the facility and all are now sources of study.  

These buildings in the center housed the original Biopherians that spend almost two years locked in the facility.  

Walking under the different areas and observing the mechanicals that are used to control the water flow and temperature I couldn't help but think how interesting my father the engineer would have found all the planning and pipes.

This pool is considered the ocean and has wave action and a coral reef.

The rain forest.

The local sheriff's patrol practicing their underwater retrieval skills.

These three buildings used to house the "farming" area that were used to feed the scientist that were locked in.  The are now being set up to run experiments regarding water.   Each building has platforms built on a slant to study how water moves through different materials under different conditions.  Everything can be weighed and monitored and measured.  I kept thinking about professors writing grants and going for tenure.

Not a bad setting, eh?

And then I made it north of Phoenix to Cave Creek Campground.  It looks just like one would think Arizona should look like.   Hey, even in Ohio, you could find Arizona Highway magazines back in the 50's and 60's.

My neighbors across the road.... look up between the car and the Airstream at the top of the hill.   More cowboys....?  I had to watch them for awhile to determine that they were not art work set up on the hill but actual horses and riders gazing out at the sun set.

Stuart and I took a hike up the trail past the Clay Mine.  It reminded me once again that folks can set off to study or discover one thing and stumble on something quite different.  I know that the original builders of the Biophere 2 were thinking to study one thing one way and found out information they didn't even know to ask about before hand.

Scruffy Stuart is showing a need for a bath and a some clipper time but he found an interesting sight!

The nearby horses just waiting for someone to come rent them......

From Liz's camp site.

Audrey spent her Friday getting  a bath and later a trim with the clippers.  Everyone got their nails trim and complains were made but I don't think any of the other campers heard the protests....(Audrey.)
Saturday, Audrey and I deserted the two boys and went in search of one of the city parks in Phoenix for a nice little UKC dog show.  Audrey turned 6 months old on Friday so this was the first opportunity for her to enter a show for real.   Many of her English Cocker friends were in Cleveland at the big Cleveland Classic AKC Dog Shows.   Cold and snowy or sunny and about 70 degrees? Hum, let me decide.  

I just liked this gentleman with his Rottie and the dog hut.....His mother breeds Rotties and has shown them for years in obedience and conformation but due to health issues can no longer take them into the ring.  Her son shows them for her now.

Here is what the bling looks like.  Audrey did get ribbons for her breed and a Group 4 in the first show but considering that we hadn't practiced since leaving Ohio and we had never practice gaiting on grass (and was only 6 months old) she did pretty well and did remember some of the right moves.  She didn't get much in the way of feedback from the two judges but them they may or may not have had much of an idea what an English Cocker looks like....with UKC one is never sure.  A couple of the other competitors that did know what an English Cocker looks like really liked her head and how she carried herself.  Well, how she carried herself when she wasn't trying to sniff the grass.

Saturday night, Alice from the WomenRV forum came to dinner with Liz and I. She drove us up to the small town of Cave Creek.  We tried the Horny Toad Restaurant for dinner.

But first we walked down the street to be tourists.  Alice and Liz take in the parking lot next door.

And we took pictures of the parking lot next door....for our friend Sharon.  The parking lot was full of chrome and bikes.

Across the street was the trained buffalo gazing out on the early Saturday night crowd. He walks up to his overlook by the ramp.  

And another cowboy.....but we didn't hang around to watch the evening shows.

Liz, me and Alice....and another cowboy....

See those riders over on the trail.....

That is going to be Liz and I in the next blog.....

But until we go over to the stables Liz and I walked some trail on our own. Okay, our own plus dogs....