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