Quartzsite, part 2

Back in Quartzsite, back at Scadden Wash.  Laundry’s done, groceries bought, water tank filled, waste tanks dumped, propane and fuel are full.  This time we’re parked in close by a main road, so we can watch all the different rigs that come through.  The RV Show starts this weekend, and we’ll be making some decisions on solar power, batteries, a catalytic heater, and no doubt see many things we’ll wonder just how we’ve ever survived without them.

Walked the vendor booths this afternoon and chatted a bit with our favorite vendors – Don and Mary from SD.  They sell jerky, pemmican and cheeses.  It was good to see them again.  We found the RV mat we wanted and carried it home with both of us on the scooter.  That was interesting.   And our neighbors, Ron and Claudia brought over homemade apple pie with French vanilla ice cream.  Perfect ending to fried chicken and mashed potatoes (add that just for you, disinherited daughter! J )   

Looking forward to meeting some FtF families next week.      – Dana

Joshua Tree

January 3rd we decided to go on to Joshua Tree NP.  Thanks to the Peel's, we knew to dump the tanks and fill up with water first, because the only southern campground was closed (so no water and dump station available), due to flooding in September (3 inches of rain in 3 hours; moved large cement tables around, damaged most of the campground there and Kent's favorite hiking trail, along with 1/2 mile of road.)  FYI: All camping inside JT is paid dry camping.  And only three of the campgrounds have water fill and a dump station.  For more info on JT, see our Favorite Places link.

We ended up at one of our favorite BLM sites just out JT's southern entrance.  A little less than a mile off the interstate, it's scenic and quiet, but still has a phone signal - an important issue to a worrying mom (plus Kent's dad was in the hospital, so it was needed.)  It's a nice, free place to park, but since most of the hiking is in the northern part of the park, we decided to check out a bit of BLM land between Twenty-nine Palms and Joshua Tree entrances up north.  We stayed one night but wouldn't go back - felt safe, but it wasn't too close to the park, and very rough to get into. 

Our campsite at Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree

Moon rise between the rocks

So we ended up staying in JT - and it was great.  In 2010, with the 5th wheel, we were "too big" for any available sites, so we just drove back and forth through the park to the southern BLM land.  This time, we had room to park (Jumbo Rocks campground) with our short RV, and it was easy to take the scooter around to wherever we wanted to hike.  (Kent did ride out each day to check for messages.)  We visited Keys Ranch (a paid tour), Barker Dam, Lost Horse Mine, Desert Queen Mine, Keys View, Hidden Valley, Skull Rock, Wall Street Mill, Ryan Ranch and some other sites and trails not in their literature.  The first weekend a high school classmate of Kent's came with his wife for a daytrip, and we got to introduce them to one of their California masterpieces.  It was good to meet you, Bob and Karen!

Buffalo Rock inside Hidden Valley - Joshua Tree

The main house at Keys Ranch - Joshua Tree

Stamping Mill at Lost Horse Mine - Joshua Tree

Keys View - Joshua Tree
The dark horizontal line is the San Andreas Fault

We knew our batteries needed replaced, but had hoped to get a couple more weeks out of them until we got back to Quartzsite.  But that was not to be ... so we've moved back out to southern BLM land, where we could run our generator as needed (limited hours in JT.)  It cut our hiking short, but we're getting the bathroom painted!  Plus we're back to phone and internet, and that's a good thing. 

A beautiful blue desert bird.  The were about two
dozen flitting from bush to bush.

Skull Rock - Joshua Tree
I wonder why they call it that

As before, our time at Joshua Tree was too short, too many trails left to explore or revisit, so we will just have to come back again!          - Dana

On our way and Quartzsite Part I

Happy New Year!  We spent (as usual) a quiet New Year's Eve.  We arrived in Quartzsite, AZ, December 31, and set up in Scadden Wash, way back in the desert away from other RVs, just taking a couple of down days.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We certainly did - Christmas Eve services at church, then our traditional dinner, and Christmas day with the family.  We were with the kids/grandkids in Moline, IL - just love watching the little ones at Christmas.  (We gave both of the one-year-old grandsons toy workbenches, since they love to help Goomba with projects, and they ran around with the power drills running all day. Should have given their parents batteries!)

On December 23, the doorbell rings - a daily occurence this time of year.  I open it, expecting UPS (I'm sure we are personally responsible for creating seasonal jobs at both Amazon and UPS).  But no - IT'S MY PARENTS!  They have contrived with the kids to come and surprise us for Christmas.  Just the night before I had been talking to Mom, telling her we'd arrive at their house the 26th.  So we had a 4 generation Christmas (Kent's dad was there, too) and followed my folks back to Missouri, where we spent a couple of days.
December 30 we toured Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Kent finally got his Senior Pass for national parks, and it's already paid for itself just in entrance fees that day.  We took the two self guided routes, which were amazing, and were thankful for an elevator for the return trip (754 feet) to the outside world!  We also discovered that this is another place where no matter how many pictures you take, they never do justice to what you saw.

Carlsbad Main Entrance

The lighting highlights the beauty of the cave

Stopped our stagecoach here for a bit

After lunch in the parking lot, we stopped briefly at Guadalupe Mts Natl Park
(Salt Flat, TX) and stopped at a former Butterfield Stagecoach Station. The
rest of the drive was pretty standard - including the part in Phoenix where I
say "There's Ikea" and Kent says "Yup" and keeps on driving.  (In his defense,
he usually stops when I say something like that.)

NewYear's afternoon we decided to explore the desert a bit on Kent's new toy - a Honda Elite 110 scooter.  What a blast!  We rode lots of trails south of Dome Rock, learning to avoid soft dirt (this is definitely not a dirt bike, but was often a dirty bike with all the dust!)  While riding, Kent got a call from Greg Mulac, so we took off to meet the Mulac's and Peel's.  We found Peel's campsite and spent a couple of hours getting to know some fellow travelers on a beautiful afternoon.  What a wonderful life!          -Dana

Stormy skies

During the summer when Missi and Kathi were with us, we had "date nights" with them.  This particular evening was Kent and Kathi's turn, so Missi, Lindsay and I had been doing some swimming.  After Lindsay was put to bed, Missi and I went back outside to cover the pool.

The skies were stormy and threatening looking, and I was keeping a watchful eye to the west.  This was making Missi nervous, but nothing like when I told her to drop the cover and run get Lindsay out of bed while I opened the basement/cellar!  The sky had turned a nasty shade of green.  We stayed in the basement during a violent hailstorm, and worried about Kent and Kathi.

All was fine, no tornado appeared, and Kent and Kathi made it home safely soon after. That was our first, but certainly not last, visit to a basement during tornado season.  It was good to know that Missi could respond so quickly, and without questioning, when needed!  

Christmas

December 10 - I didn't have to get up to go to work!  Lindsay and I spent a lot of time baking cookies and making little crafts (one-year old variety) and decorating and reading and playing.... being a stay at home mom was a nice change!

We spent Christmas at home with Missi and Kathi and Kent's folks and little brother Rob.  Although technically Lindsay's second Christmas, it was the first she could really understand and enjoy the packages.  And there were plenty to enjoy!  

 It doesn't take little ones too long to catch on to presents, does it?

Lindsay and daddy exploring

"Hug Me" baby saw many repairs through the years

My parents made this display when I was a kid, but
 we didn't use it much.  It just wasn't the message we
wanted to emphasize to our kids about Christmas.

Lindsay and grandparents (Kent's parents)

                

Career Status

So while we were in Missouri for Thanksgiving, my mom and I were talking.  She told me how she hated working when we (my brother and I) were babies, taking us out in the cold to grandma's in the morning,* and how she was sometimes so worn out she couldn't tell if she was sick or just tired, and how she was afraid I was at the same point.  So she made me (us) an offer - if we could manage so I didn't have to work, she would buy Lindsay's clothes to help out financially.

hiding from Grandma

talking with Uncle Doug

bet Grandpa's asleep before me

Grandma doesn't spoil me

On the way to work Monday morning, we got to talking about could we make it financially, and decided that we could.  I double checked, and I had enough in-service time, so I gave my two-week notice that day.  And we were all much happier.  My original office had disbanded (our special projects were finished) and I had been put in a new colonel's office (nice man, but a job with a lot more politics) and I really missed being with my baby.

Of course, Kent stopped going to California so much, so there wasn't that travel.  But he also started working 10 hours of overtime each week, so we didn't even notice a pay "cut".




*side story - Once when it was to be a particularly cold night, Dad and Mom took us back to Grandma Adams' house to spend the night so they would not have to take us out the next morning (mom was always a little paranoid about things).  My other grandparents' farmhouse caught fire, and they couldn't find my folks to go out there, cause they weren't at home, they were at grandma's with us.  The sheriff tracked dad down and told him, and they hurried out to the farm.... in time for dad to push the old piano that grandma wanted rid of into the fire!  Firefighting help was just neighbors, but the horse trough and well were frozen, so there wasn't much to do but watch it burn.  

Happy 1st Birthday!

I'm terrible at party planning.  I've always known this, but it's even more glaringly apparent looking back through old pictures.  So, sorry kids........

Lindsay had been sick so her first birthday was an extra quiet affair.  Her grandparents and some family friends joined us for the Butterfield tradition of chocolate cake, served picnic style on a white sheet on the floor.

Maybe someday we'll get the video transferred from VHS and can link it here... that's where all the pictures are!

the birthday girl!

snap links, blocks and...

stacking rings.. what more could you want?

just about partied out