The best thing about January 1 is that it is the end of the holiday season. The annual Christmas holiday season depresses me, so I am always glad to see the end of it. However, January 1 is a great day—the start of a new year! I love waking up knowing there is a fresh slate awaiting us! Where will we go this year and when? Explore the Pacific Northwest again? Go East to Maine? A cruise to Alaska or Hawaii? Wow, our options are limitless.
We still have to work around Larry’s kidney doctor appointments. We have gone from semi-annual to quarterly appointments and then back to semi-annual last year. He has monthly lab tests done to moniter how well his kidneys are functioning. We feel blessed he is well enough so we can travel.
Quartzsite is dry and warmer than Texas. The winter climate here reduces the aches and pains growing older brings. It’s a good thing we enjoy Quartzsite!
The snowbird season has started. This photo was taken at our site December 3, 21012. It was easy to get in to the laundromat, gas station and stores.
And today’s photo:
Those rigs are a very small fraction of the number of RVs dry-camping out here in the desert. More will be pouring in each day until the Big Tent show starts January 21. The 2012 snowbird season swung into action just last week—about January 3rd. The vendor booths are multiplying like rabbits and the shoppers are doing their thing--spending.
Our neighbors, Fred and Arlene arrived just before New Year’s Eve. We have been neighbors on and off since the 1970s. Arlene is my adopted sister—it is good to have our family with us.
Fred carries his four-wheeler on top of his truck. He designed and built the rack to transport his quad. Here is how he gets it down:
He used to ride the quad up—and down the ramps. Now he is working smarter—by using the winch on the front of the four wheeler to raise and lower it. Thank heavens!!! We used to have heart attacks worrying about him. Good thinking, Fred.
Quartzsite has a very active model air plane group with their own dedicated airport. We stopped by to watch one morning:.
The planes are much quieter than I remembered. Larry thinks they have electric motors/engines now. Up, up and away—soaring like a bird.
Meanwhile, back on land, we are still being challenged with fixing the camper appliances. Larry’s fix on the hot water tank only held a week and then he had to go buy a new computer board. Luckily, RV Lifestyles, up on Dome Rock Rd., has a varied complement of RV parts. They had our hot water heater board in stock, so I didn’t have to miss any hot showers! I am willing to give up a lot out here—but not regular hot showers.
A week later, the refrigerator started turning itself off every few nights—usually just after dark! We carry doses of Larry’s Procrit for his anemia—and beside being expensive, it needs to be refrigerated. We can’t be without refrigeration. He fiddled with it—like the water heater—and it worked for another week. Finally on Saturday, in desperation, we set off to RV Lifestyles again to pick up a new ignition board as well as a back-up Dinosaur computor board—and they had both in stock. Larry installed the new ignition board and it is working, yippee!. RV Lifestyles has saved our bacon (or our standard of living) this year.
We took a a photos of some of the Rvs. Next posting, I will talk about the variety of vendors in Quartzsite, but until then, here are some of the unusual RV campers. Yes, some folks do have it all and bring it, whatever their particular “it” is, with them:
The Santa-mobile above is from Canada. I suspect the car rides inside the lower door in the back.
Are the fences for privacy or wind-breaks??? That is a lot of work.
A horse trailer converted to mechanical horses? If you have anything with wheels, bring it to Quartzsite. It will fit right in.
Anyway, we hope you are enjoying your new-year’s clean slate and making lots of great plans for 2012.
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