January 21 through January 29, 2005

Friday January 21:

It is 49 degrees under the RV at 6:30 AM.  The furnace has not come on, but it is cool inside.  Claire stirs around 7:30, and it is cool.  We decide to turn the heat up for showers, and run the generator too to save the drain on the battery from long furnace operation.  I've been working on the computer since 5:30 and it can use the charge.  Normally we would wait until after 8AM out of consideration for other campers, but if they restrict our hours, we'll have to run when they allow us to.  Today we plan to shower, move out of the campsite before noon checkout time, and park in the trail head parking lot for our 3 mile hike, then drive to Blythe for the night.  Tomorrow we will do laundry and top off water at the free Blythe City Park before proceeding for a week at the Quartzfest 2005 ham radio gathering.  The sky is mostly overcast to the east, probably from the storm moving up from Mexico.  Hopefully it will not drop lots of rain on Quartzfest....  We showered then dumped and put on water before the noon checkout time in the campground, then parked at the Mastodon Peak trail head for a 3 mile hike. I knew I had seen the California Fan Palm tree before, and it was here in this park two years ago!  Cottonwood Springs Oasis has changed water flow with various earthquakes and is nowhere near it's past flow  rate.

It still sustains some fan palms, although visitors are not allowed to walk among them like in the Coachella preserve.  I do not think either of us were too eager for the climb today.  Still, we climb up to the top, and look on the Salton Sea showing through the haze.

The water can be seen above the nearer mountains and below the hazed out distant mountains.  I was looking WAAAY too low when Claire pointed it out, and repeatedly refused to see it...BUT, it is clearly there as the camera proves.  :-)   There are so many desert flowers this year.

Rain in the desert has some real benefits...as long as you are not caught out in it or washed away in a flash flood.  :-)  This guy was not spooked by us.....

I do hope Mr Cottontail  knows for sure we are not coyotes.  :-)  I was plumb tuckered out by the end, hot, and glad Claire volunteered to drive to Blythe.  We passed by the General Patton Museum 10 miles along the interstate.  

We decided we'd had enough entertainment for the day, and continued toward Blythe 60 miles ahead.  We found the city park there in late afternoon, but, alas, the free dump station was marked "Out of Order".  I checked at first one, then another gas station for locations of a laundromat and K-mart.  The second station's young lad was very knowledgeable, and gave clear instructions to both.  The laundromat was acceptable, and the K-mart will let us stay overnight!  Life is again good!  The K-mart is more like a regular Walmart...limited grocery selection, but we need little.  Claire prepares jambalaya for dinner, then goes in to buy salt and pepper, items we had forgotten we are low on until the lady in the preserve borrowed some. She did us a real favor, as we do not want to be caught short in the boondocks!  :-)  I am quite ready for bed as soon as the dishes are done, but I make coffee.  The morning might start early and last long; it's internet day tomorrow!  We are parked under a light, and it is bright as day in the RV, but I am asleep quickly anyway.

Saturday January 22:

It is warm here at 12:30 AM when I awake to try my luck online.  It's 60 under the RV, and Verizon seems very cooperative here.  I get the mail and conduct necessary business, and by 5:30 Claire is up, not being able to sleep.  We move in the dark of the predawn morning to the laundromat;  we'll beat the weekend rush today!!  There is one other early bird doing laundry, but it goes FAST today, and by 8AM we are ready to move to Albertson's to shop, then on to Ehrenberg Flying J for fuel.  The fuel pumps are VERY busy, but I want to top off.  The pump is too fast to allow it to trickle as slow as it must for a complete fill.  The RV driver behind me gets impatient and offers to "help".  Yeah, RIIIGHT!   I finish anyway!   I've waited 30 minutes in line myself, and everybody has taken longer than I did...some people!  There is no water on the RV island, only on the car islands that are JAMMED.  We move to fill propane, and a camper in behind us suggests a place for free GOOD water down town.  He says the water here does not taste very good.  We move there, top off, and move on the 20 miles to Quartzsite.  The near off ramp from I-10 is jammed, so we continue to the eastern one;  it is less jammed, but frontage road takes us a half hour to traverse.  There is continued slow traffic on US95 south, and we see why shortly; a large northbound motorhome has rear ended a line of cars, and badly crushed at least two.  We are detoured out into the desert to pass, and although it is rough and potholed, manage to pass without snagging the sewer pipes.  :-))  We find the hams in their usual place, and find a nice site across the wash from the fire circle and are settled in shortly after noon.  This site has room for a dipole running along the wash without crossing any other usable parking spots.  I spend some time trying to get the two meter radio set up, and finally figure out how to get it set on frequency, and miraculously it stays there even when power is turned off.  :-))  On low power the radio does not draw enough to blow the 5 amp fuse in the cheap splitter we normally use for the voltmeter and NOAA weather radio either.  We'd better not touch the high power button though...it pinned the 10 amp meter!  The antenna is an inside HT antenna, but it works well enough.  We can listen to the announcements, and talk to the group; that is all we need.  Just after dark I notice a solitary man starting the campfire, and join him briefly.  

The fire's warmth is very welcome, but I am feeling the effects of the early morning start.  When someone else comes along to keep him company, I go back and try to finish the web page, but progress is nil; I collapse into bed ..

Sunday January 23:

I'm up early for the net, and it works fine.  I am able to finish the web page before noon, then I look for open WiFi connections, and find a weak one....and after usual WiFi difficulty, I am connected.  I'm not sure who my benefactor is....but THANKS be to him!  I take advantage of the fast connection to upload the web page, and send emails.  We decide to hike in the desert...we pass a lady sporting a ham name tag, and mention we have found a WiFi share open to the internet.  She mentions her husband Woody has a satellite dish set up, and she is not SURE we are into his, but probably we are.  She tells us where to find him...and he's sitting under a shade tarp working on a webpage when we approach.  His setup is a Starband dish connected to an 802.11g router.  We are several hundred feet away, and I'm surprised we are getting ANY signal.  He runs a number of webpages from wherever he is, spends a couple weeks at a time in one location, so the setup is good for him.  It takes him about 45 minutes to set up in a new location.  The terminal and dish cost him about $300, and service is $59/mo.  It's an interesting concept, and becoming more affordable, but NOT suitable to set up in a Walmart parking lot, fer sure!  It is vulnerable to theft, being set up on a tripod on the ground, and is large, requiring a big storage bay.  We return in time for the opening Quartzfest 2005 "Happy Hour" meeting.  We are sad to hear that Harvey, who had started this camp out 8 years ago, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in early January, and had asked Cap to organize this year's festivities in early January.  His condition was not good enough to attend at all this year....so sad.  I recall Harvey's excellent talk two years ago on improvised testing methods useful to RVers; his career was in test engineering, and he was clever at using easily available materials to determine information we often just GUESS at. He is MISSED here!  The schedule for the week looks interesting, and we look forward to the satellite internet presentation, the WiFi discussion, the geocaching presentation,  Antenna walk around, and laptop battery discussion.  It should be an interesting week, and we'll be net connected whenever Woody has his network running.  :-)  An ultralight aircraft soars in the distance as the sun sinks low.  

This is a beautiful place, and we're here for a FULL WEEK!  After dinner someone starts a campfire, and I sit enjoying the warmth until it gets TOO cool....then it's off to bed!

Monday January 24:

We awake early, find no WiFi internet, but that is sorta to be expected.  The equipment takes too much power to leave running all the time, especially at night when the solar cells produce nothing.  In the morning we have a seminar on Starband satellite internet connections that generates eager interest from most attendees here.  The demonstrator paid $1750 for his complete system, and service is $59/mo.  

The demonstrator shows great courage to attempt to align the terminal in front of the crowd.  I watch the procedure for alignment; it takes a long time and is not always seem straight forward, and predictably it does not go exactly as he expects.  His test instrument is not working and probably has incorrect software loaded; he updated it before the demo to have the very latest ....  A few others jump in with assistance and soon it is working.  Woody suggests a place selling on E-Bay that will provide a terminal only for around $300, but you must buy your tripod and accessories yourself, and you need a computer running all the time dedicated to the terminal (he uses an e-machines desktop).  The $1750 system has a stand alone modem that does not require a dedicated computer.   Starband is supporting mobile users officially now, while Direct TV is not, thus lots of RVers choose them;  still, folks do seem to like their Directway systems too, as their system is equipped to help you set up without a phone call, as required by Starband at present.  Starband is going to an automated system soon too, one satellite only, and moving all mobile users to that one.  Starband is not doing too well financially, operating in bankruptcy, but is reputed to be doing better now....??  For our needs, I think if I were to do ANYTHING, it might make more sense to spring for a new phone and accessories for high speed Verizon cellular internet service on the America's Choice plan.  Then I would have to pay for those relatively rare occasions I was off network, but we have not found any of those on this trip.  It would allow free connect minutes every night between 9PM and 6AM local time wherever we are in the USA if we are on a Verizon network tower.  It would CERTAINLY be cheaper to pay 65 cents a minute for the rare roaming calls we would make than $59/mo for satellite service, and there would be no setup required to use it either.  It would not work well in Canada, Alaska or Mexico though...decisions, decisions!  I know I would find the setup so onerous I would seldom do it, though....as usually our stops would be for one night only.   The WiFi discussion is interesting, but the presenter could add nothing that made my difficult WiFi connections to the internet more predictable...they seem like "Black Magic"...with STRONG emphasis on "Black".  There are some computers that Woody could not get to connect through his system at all...at least mine connected after a lot of fiddling.   After dinner there was a fire again.

Jenny was serving S'mores...   She has the graham crackers and chocolate ready, and I work hard to fish my own marshmallow from the bag....  WOW, never thought we'd get dessert here!  :-)  This is the first time I've had s'mores, and I'm grateful for Jenny's tactful suggestion that I might find it best to toast my marshmallow first....DUHHH!  

I had almost as much trouble as Gordon with my sorely mangled marshmallow, but at least I managed to keep it on my stick!  :-) Jenny and Tim are full timing with their parents and attending a private "Home School" they do by mail.  They really are delightful young folks who relate very well to adults.  It shortly got cool for me, even with the fire, and my eyelids drooped at the same time.  I left it to others to assure the fire was out and returned to hop into bed.

Tuesday January 25:

This morning I slept in, knowing there would be no internet early. I was awake at dawn to hear Orville announce on the radio that donuts had arrived.  He had a fire burning brightly, and it was quite welcome in the cool of the morning.  In the desert, it cools all night, and dawn is usually the coolest time of the day. Claire and I were among the first, but most folks showed up a bit later....

There were plenty for all.....  At 8:30 AM there was a very good foxhunt seminar, interesting to me as an intellectual exercise only, as we do not have handi talki radios.

 It can be seen that there was a lot of interest however!  Following, there was a geocaching seminar, of great interest to us as we've previously considered using our GPS to find hidden caches by their latitude longitude coordinates as we travel. Other hams here are into this in a big way!

 The item being held up is a "micro" cache container; since the GPS accuracy is 10 yards, I begin to see that this is not just learning to use the GPS...but learning to search an area visually as well.  The presentation was followed by practice.  I was surprised at the length the participants go to hide their caches.  I volunteered to find the first one, and walked over it several times before noticing that the color on a cactus was a bit too green...and tipped it up with the GPS...it was NOT a cactus at all, but a container that LOOKED like one   Cap, one of the presenters, who had hidden it just picked it up with his fingers on the spines...I cringed, but they were soft "look like" spines, and he unscrewed the bottom to give access to the logbook inside....   These guys do NOT play fair!!!  :-)))  The second one Claire tried to find unsuccessfully, then handed the GPS to Tim, who suddenly picked up some stones laying on the ground to reveal an Altoid box attached under them.  Leave it to a kid!  :-)) The stones covering the lid almost totally obscured it.  I asked and was told that completely burying a cache was illegal, something had to be showing...but in this case the part showing looked exactly like the stones it was laid into.  I'm not sure it was not buried by MY rules...but the stones on top were considered a part of the cache....it just LOOKED buried.  :-)  Later in the afternoon we went looking for other caches in the area and found them all...but not real easily.  This was the easiest....the marker stood out clearly, with nothing else within the accuracy of the GPS.

The clue was "Well protected from the elements" and when we peeked under the sign, up in the peak attached by Velcro was the film box cache.  We signed the log, replaced the cache as we had found it, and proceeded on our way to the next one.  We found two more....all the "unofficial" ones that had been placed for our practice here in the area ;   official ones are registered with the geocaching organization at www.geocaching.com/, where participants find locations of caches to hunt.

The one on the right in the ammo box was interesting; it was filled with trinkets, and you could take out one you liked and put one in it's place.  This was a fun time, and we had a 2.5 mile hike finding the practice caches as well.  Later in the afternoon was hobo stew, preceded by some humorous "Clowning Around" entertainment by AC....

Bob and Nan prepared the stew as usual, and Bob served the first helping to all 180 hungry participants....

This is GREAT stuff, and I oinked down four bowls.  The challenge was getting up out of my chair afterwards.  :-)  Bob let out the secret of how he prepares for an unknown number of eaters...each must bring a can of vegetables as the price of admission.  The volume of a can exceeds the serving scoop size, therefore there MUST be enough to go around once, with some left over.  CLEVER!!  This was a huge crowd to feed....

Everybody was happy with the quality, and there was more stew than we could eat.  There was a free electronics hobbyists magazine (February 05 Nuts & Volts) distributed with an article about building a micro-powered electronic device to destroy warts electronically using "Crane's frequency" stimulation of the wart...and they claimed it worked.  I photographed the article so I can find it again if the magazine is lost.  It might be of interest some day!  As dusk fell I waddled back toward the RV fully stewed.... with hobo stew that is!  :-)  Tim and his dad were starting the evening's campfire.  Tim started it like a pro....and said it was the first he'd ever started by himself.

 It was really hard to believe it was his first....it was blazing high in no time!  I was too full for campfire tonight!  Bed came right away...

Wednesday January 26:

It rained continuously after midnight.  It was not real heavy, but steady; we thought some about the dry wash behind us rising to float us away, but I peeked out through the back window and saw in the dim light that there was only a foot wide water stream at most...back to sleep!  In the morning I tried the internet, found the WiFi router accessible, but not the internet.  I assume the satellite terminal is not connecting due to the rain.  I hear on the 2 meter radio that others are connecting...Oh, no;  trouble on MY computer.  :-(  I had installed two pieces of software; AVG antivirus (a free antivirus program that appears to work better than Norton; it found two viruses that have lived with Norton for years) from www.grisoft.com   (select the link for free version on left side of screen...it gets free updates regularly too) .  I also installed ARRL's "Travel Plus for Repeaters"  a map based program that provides a list of repeaters by geographical area, and will generate a list of repeaters for any travel route you plan with it.   I hope these did not break my WiFi connection... but I know I connected since I installed AVG antivirus;  it checked my incoming email yesterday.  I mess with all settings I can think of on the computer, then decide to use the time to update the log and web page.  I can connect tomorrow....  :-))  The rain stops, and we walk almost 3 miles, avoiding the puddles in this "desert".....  :-)

We use the GPS to find our way back...there are no reliable landmarks out here...every cactus and dry wash looks like the last one.  :-)  We carry spare batteries too....  Toward the end of our walk, rain started falling again, and we donned our rain jackets.  It is quite different to be dodging mud puddles out in the desert, but there are big benefits from the rain too.

 The flowers spring up everywhere in large numbers .....  I return to the RV and delete a number of superfluous waypoints in the GPS (it took reference to the book to find out how....),  then worked on the log and webpage until 4 PM "Happy Hour" meeting time at the fire circle. It started raining again, and the scheduled Winlink talk is postponed.  AC is selling CDs for $15 to support Winlink...I'm not really sure what it is.  Later I find it is a ham radio email network....I had considered it two years ago, but decided it did not meet my needs as commercial messages are not allowed, nor are encrypted messages.  The cost of equipment is high too, so I decided to continue spending my money on cellular internet.  I need the cellphone anyway.  Woody confirms he has done nothing to his satellite or WiFi setup, so I am left to figure out what has gone wrong in my computer to block access to the net.  We have left over soup for dinner, as a few heavy showers pass over.  A rainy day in the desert, fancy that!  After dishes are done we run the generator again, then to bed for me!  Claire watches a bit of TV.

Thursday January 27:

 It is cool, 51.5 degrees under the RV at 6:10AM. The moon shines bright and it cooled off a lot after the rain passed through.  I resolve to uninstall the networking Client for Microsoft Networks and TCP-IP, and reinstall.  The net problem appears to be in the networking section of my computer, as I get to Woody's WiFi router fine.  Although all looks OK in my networking setup, I've seen this before, and reinstalling is all I can think of to do to fix it....I seem to recall that solution worked in the dim distant past.  I'll wait until after 8AM when the satellite terminal is operating to do that, so I can tell if it helps.  The antenna walk around is already under way when I join the "parade".  Claire has already joined the ladies coffee.  

The antennas are interesting; this may be the PREMIER place in the nation to see elaborate RV antennas, as most of the folks here are avid hams and spend a lot of effort on their RV antennas.  I guess I've already made up my mind HF from the RV is not worth the hassle for me UNLESS normal communications methods break down.  I see nothing here to change my opinion;  all the antennas look like a lot of work to use the way we move almost every day.  I'll carry the HF rig and dipole antenna which can be strung up in case of major disaster...and fervently hope that never happens.  We find the two meter rig IS worthwhile for it's local info, though.  This gathering is much more enjoyable with the two meter communications available.  I might work on installing it permanently near the drivers position...the antenna will not require any setup to use it, and it will not look much different than the antennas already on the coach.  I hope I can find a manual for the radio though...  :-)  Nobody here seems to have one. The venturi vent covers for the waste tank vents on one coach are interesting.

 I'm tempted to buy some form of enhanced vent cover that will keep negative air pressure in the tanks so fumes cannot escape into the coach...   I return to work on the computer, and removing Client for Microsoft Networks, and TCP-IP in the networking section of control panel, then reinstalling them has it working quickly.  Why did I not think of that before?  DUHHH.  There is lots of email piled up, and by the time I get it downloaded, it is time for the LED presentation.  Gary is mainly interested in LED replacements for incandescent bulbs in running lights on pickups and trailers for safety reasons; he figures if a breakdown occurs at night while towing, the 25 to 30 amp drain of all the flashing lights in a towed rig quickly depletes the battery, leaving the rig vulnerable to being hit.  I guess I am not as concerned about that, as the generator in the motorhome can help keep our batteries up in that case.  I am interested in LEDS for interior lighting.  Gary says white LEDS are bright enough, but he does not like the "ghostly" characteristics of the light.  A few folks mention the addition of other color LEDS (red, and possibly blue) to the white lighting package.  I mention the commercial light I have with 6 white and 3 red LEDS to fill in the spectral holes in the white LEDS to make the light more natural looking.   Soon Paul is talking about laptop computer batteries. I thank him for recommending AVG antivirus, and he is not surprised it has found viruses Norton missed.  He stresses 4 cycles of full discharge and recharge for new or even used batteries that do not give enough charge life.  Memory is not a big thing with lithium batteries, but is still a small problem with NiMH.  NiCad batteries have this problem but are seldom used in modern laptops.   Jeff drops by to visit when the seminars break up.  We had contacted through a Yahoo RV group, and were both coming here.  We chat about his satellite internet system, and his experience with his computer programming job disappearing to India.    He is not as fortunate as I, being too young to retire with medical benefits or pension when he was laid off.    He is about to sell the house and become a full time RVer to cut expenses.  His wife can work on the road in her nursing profession.  He plans to write a book about his experiences and vision of the future.  It is scary to be working, needing your job to pay the mortgage and expenses, but having the continued existence of that job out of your control.  I've felt threatened that, way ten years before I retired, and lucked out; my job lasted long enough to draw benefits.   I do hope it all goes OK for him.....  We go to the 4PM meeting (tomorrow is a 4 wheel drive through the desert and mountains, something we are not equipped to do; we'll bike to town instead).    Dinner tonight is pork chops, wild rice and Brussels sprouts.  After the dishes are done I join the campfire group.  It is cool tonight, and we enjoy the fire's heat.  There is lots of chat about interesting stuff.  I'm particularly intrigued to learn that solar cells put out less current when they heat up, so air circulation around them is good.  Dick has a cabin in the Idaho mountains, and is interested in internet by Verizon cellphone.  We talk a little about it, but I must remember to give him more info tomorrow.  We have a LED flashlight "shoot out".  My Walmart Brinkman 2 AA cell flashlight with the lens in front of a single LED is not as bright up close as the multi-cell lights common here, but in the distance my beam catches stuff beyond the range of the bare LEDS.  I'm content that mine will have better battery life and be more useful for my application (walking outside at night) than the bigger multi LED lights.  I do like my two LED unfocused light for typing in the dark on the computer...it's wider beam illuminates the keyboard better from the close distance of my head strap. I use rechargeable batteries in it, so battery life is not an issue.  I get over a week of heavy use (at least 3 hours a day) from it on a charge anyway. The group breaks up around 9:15, and I return to find Claire running the generator and watching TV.  She's preparing for me having enough power for my computing in the early AM.  :-))  I'm very quickly in bed.

Friday January 28:

It is 49 degrees under the RV at 4:30 AM.  I awake to work on the web page.  I'd like to get this one up using Woody's shared  satellite terminal via WiFi  before the group breaks up this weekend.  Since this is donut day again, I need to work early, before Orville gets back with the fat pills at 7:30.  :-))  It is not quite 7:30 when the radio breaks squelch and Orville announces a fire is burning and donuts are waiting.  I grab coffee and hurry over....waking Claire on my way out.  She says she'll be delayed a bit...  :-)  The early birds are gathered around the fire and PLENTY of donuts are again tempting all of us.

 It is a bright but cool day dawning, and the fire's warmth is welcome.  The group grows steadily as folks awake.

We spend time around the fire until the 4 wheel drive group gets ready to leave, then we prepare our bikes for a trip to town.  Rt 95 is not pleasant to bike, but at least northbound we have a 2 foot shoulder outside the road edge white line.

 The passing motorhomes do not brush us back...at least not TOO close!  :-)  We do not have much patience for the crowds in the Quartzsite flea markets this year;  we do find the toilet facilities much improved over two years ago, with numerous porta potties, but find nothing we want to buy except ice cream.  We get our ice cream and retreat behind some trailers for a quiet place to eat, then decide to head home.  The shoulder on the southbound side of the road was less than 6 inches, and we decided to bike the unpaved ATV trail back home.

 It was rough, but at least there was nobody in big vehicles passing within 6 inches of our handlebars...  :-)   We were happy there was no rain when we crossed this big dry wash...

It obviously carried major water at times, and recently too!  We are feeling the effects of the MUCH longer than usual ride by the time we come within sight of our campground.  When we get back, I check the GPS;  we've come 15.5 miles.  No wonder I'm ready to rest!  We attend the 4PM meeting, and I find my thighs cramping painfully.....and rising from the chair is NOT fun!  We are both ready for early bed tonight!

Saturday January 29:

Today is internet time and I rise early to use the net by cellphone before the flea market starts.   I hear a lot of activity on the radio, and go out in the predawn dark to look…one light vendor is setting up, BRILLIANTLY lit up.  There is little other activity, and it's COLD!  I go back to await first light.  Next time out, there are lots of things to poke through.  Cap is looking around with Boots shivering lightly in his arms, even WITH his jacket.

 Boots is nice enough to let me touch his head once without growling, but then I find more pleasing places to pet him.  :-) .  I find a cigarette lighter socket wye in a junk box, and give $1 for it.  It would cost $4 in Walmart, and I do have occasional use for a second one.  I looked for an NMO mount for my 2 meter antenna...none here.  I found some surplus military meter test leads, good quality soft rubber insulation, $1 for three, and I grabbed them.  I would have to change one end for a banana plug, but the good WIRE is hard to find.  I went around many times; it seemed the flea was smaller this year, perhaps due to the warning put out that BLM did not allow sales of new goods without a permit on their land.  The venders seemed to be almost all  individuals selling used gear.

 One vendor came in late with surplus stuff from a commercial radio shop; I bought my NMO mount, and what was said to be a continuous duty solenoid I wanted as a spare for my battery relay.  I took time to check the coil current when I returned to the coach, and it was over 2 amps...YIKES, 25 watts into that sized thing will GLOW.  I returned it, and got my money back.  I looked for my 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna... Awwww, I must have taken it out of the RV.  I returned quickly to the commercial radio seller and bought a 5/8 wave 130 to 174 MHz antenna on an old commercial mount for $2.  It should work if I can figger out how to install it.  Dinner was the last hurrah cookout...and Claire planned baked potatoes with chili.  We baked some with the microwave, but tried a couple "murphys" dropped right onto the coals at the edge of the fire too.  They came out blackened on the outside, but flaky done on the inside and quite edible, but I was already full.....  The group remained around the fire quite late....  moving to avoid the shifting smoke.  Tim did a GREAT job burning the remaining paper goods so we did not leave a mess behind us.  We returned to turn in immediately.  Our dishes could WAIT until tomorrow!!

Plans:  Quartzfest 2005 ended Saturday with the flea market and Last Hurrah cookout.   Sunday we will leave the Roadrunner area needing a place for water and dump (possibly a campground in Quartzsite offering overnight dry camping with dump and water for $5), then will check out a free hootenanny by the Escapees Music Rovers we saw advertised at the Slabs.  It is starts Sunday at 3:30PM, and continues Monday and Tuesday, on some Quartzsite dry camping BLM land, 3.5 miles east of I-10 x 19 on Frontage Road, then right (south) on a dirt road for 1.7 miles to an area near the boomers (look for the Music Flag and Rovers sign).  We'll see if we can find it...sorta like a geocaching puzzle to be solved.  :-))  We enjoyed the Slabs music, and the music in Mountain View AR last spring...so this should be fun too. When we leave the Quartzsite area sometime within the next two weeks, we'll head north toward Las Vegas and Death Valley at a leisurely pace on the slower SR95 road on the Arizona side of the Colorado river.  Beyond that, plans are weather dependent.  We want to see new areas further north, but it may be too early.  Claire plans on a TaeKwonDo event in Ohio in early April.  We're looking for an early spring.... after this winter y'all in the north have earned it! :-)  

Until next time....ENJOY!   We are!