Boomerville and Seahawks

Jerry’s Posting 1-24-15

Demo of emergency exit.

Mac the Fire Guy demonstrating the best way to use fire extinguishers

Day 9 in Quartzsite:
    The week of the RV Show in Quartzsite is very much like "Sturgis for RVers". The population of the town is normally 3,600 but according to the BLM Ranger there are about 850,000 people here during this event! We went to the Big Tent, which has about 300 vendor booths hawking all kinds of RV and non-RV stuff. And yes, we did actually find some cool stuff to buy, including 3 hats, a flagpole system for the RV, some neat-o stretchy lids/covers for kitchen use, and more. There are also hundreds of additional vendors, bars, and temporary stores set up for blocks around (we've probably only walked around half of it). I installed the flagpole on the motorhome (see the pics) and we've got the 2 pennants flying that Linda made. We've also seen a variety of flying machines cruise by, including a dirigible, ultra-lights, and "what-is-that”s.
     Mac the Fire Guy: He came by and put on the "Fire Safety for RVers" class that he teaches. Very informative, covered everything from pros/cons of types of extinguishers, live demos with audience volunteers extinguishing fires (see pics), to demos of volunteers climbing out the escape-window of an RV. Thanks to him, we went home and opened our escape window for the first time to check it out. 

    Last night was the Karaoke and Dance Party by the Boomer Fire Pit. Three hours of Rock n Roll and fun times which included a Conga line, the Chicken Dance, the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena etc. In the pic they're doing the "Y" of YMCA, and Linda is just left of the lady in blue. Not Karaoke solos per se, but multiple-mike singing, so even I was willing to add some bass-line (hope no one did any sound recordings). A few of the couples were impressively good dancers. I think a lot of Ibuprofin is being consumed today by those re-living their teen years.
    By the way, I DID watch the NFC Championship game last weekend. I drove to a sportsbar in a nearby town with 80" screens. When I got there, some Seahawk fans from California saw my "12" shirt and invited me to join them (we took the pic after the Seahawks won). A lot of dejected Packers fans in the place, lol.

           

BOOMERVILLE!

Strawberry lemonade. Yum!

BOOMERVILLE! Current location:  33.649956,-114.151274   No longer an empty part of the desert, it is currently a hive of activity with over 100 RVs of various sizes and types:  The Boomers are a “Birds of a Feather” (BOF) group of the Escapees RV Club. When they have a gathering, they call it Boomerville! We heard about them at Jojoba and were invited to join them here at Quartzsite, AZ. Every year at this time, thousands of RVers flock to Quartzsite to hang out in the desert, shop at the HUGE RV and Recreation Show big tent (this week only), the several swap meets, or the ongoing Rock and Gem shows. It is quite an experience. We had planned to ‘Do Quartzsite’ anyway (“everyone should at least once…”) and check out a few BOF groups who typically gather here. So far we have only been hanging with the Boomers, they are a laid back and fun group and we seem to fit right in. Several of the people we met at Jojoba Hills are here, too, so we have already seen some familiar faces.

    Every day there are different activities that various people volunteer to host or lead. Each day’s activities are written on a white board at “Headquarters” (a pop-up with tables and information) and you can choose to join whichever interests you.  We quickly discovered that no one starves in Boomerville, as Boomers have bountiful potlucks, free pancake breakfasts, and chili cook-offs with all the trimmings.

    4:00 daily is Happy Hour whose main purpose is for everyone to gather to hear announcements, greet newcomers; find out what activities are coming up, or any things that the group needs to know about. Activities have included potlucks, stargazing with someone who knows the names (the stars are spectacular here!), yoga or walking in the morning, “Boondocking 101” where we picked up a few good ideas of how to make resources last longer, TV shows (Downton Abbey) or pictures of travels (Albuquerque Balloon Festival) shown on the side of someone’s RV. The list goes on! I got in on a gathering of crafters, all making things and showing what they were working on. I took my card weaving which was quite a novelty. The lady hosting it has a toy hauler filled with lapidary equipment and thousands of beads! She does beautiful metal and bead/gem work.

Bottling the kombucha in my RV.

   Also a couple of times a week, several people with pickups volunteer to collect everyone’s trash and make a dump-run. Someone else coordinates to have a holding-tank pumping truck come in for those who need it, as well as fresh water refills. This place is like an instant little city where things get taken care of and people look out for each other. It’s fun to talk to experienced RVers and those who have boondocked for years and hear their tricks and tips, some of which we’ve already discovered.

My gallon jars with kombucha SCOBYs in new tea/sugar solution, ready to sit and do its thing.

Newly bottled kombucha.

    It’s not all been desert and socializing. I have also been making kombucha (bottling every 8 - 9 days) as well as kefir (daily) and cultured veggies (every couple of weeks). I am delighted to be able to continue my ferments as we travel. Mainly I’m motivated by wanting to have them always available since I love having some every day and certainly reap the benefits. It has taken a bit of planning and finding space, but it is working. They all seem to like the winter desert.

   We’ve been gone 3 weeks now and it seems like a blink of the eye! Fulltimers have told us that the 10 years they’ve been traveling seem like nothing and that the times goes by so fast. There always seems to be something to do, something to see, another place to visit, people to meet…  

On to Quartzsite

The white dots are hundreds of RVs camped.

Our first glimpse of RVs parked in the desert en masse.

Jerry: I was a little sad to leave the AGM boondocking area, as I've grown to love it here, but the next event is about to start. Every year at this time, Quartzsite Arizona is host to "the world's largest gathering of RVs and RVers". There are numerous events there, but the main RV draw is the Sports, Vacation, and RV Show (Jan 17-25 this year). So we pulled up jacks and hit the road again, leaving California behind and heading into Arizona. Linda drove the truck to do some shopping in Yuma, and I drove the motorhome to Yuma also, with the mission of finding a place to dump tanks, get water and gas. Avoiding the Chevron that charges $20 to dump (robbery), I find a 76 station where it's free. I pull in behind an older motorhome with a Michigan license plate saying "WWII Vet" and strike up a conversation with this older gent. He turns out to be a very nice guy and says he and his wife have been snowbirding to the southwest for 20 years. I tell him I'm on my first snowbird trip and he gives me some good tips, including a free place to stay in Yuma that he uses. The fellowship among RVers, particularly in the southwest, is a real bonus to the lifestyle.      So we hitch the truck back up, and head north on 95 toward Quartzsite. On the way north, everyone is required to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. They inquire if it's just the two of us and then wave us on (guess we don't look the type to be transporting illegals). We are now seeing large Saguaro cactus and you know you're REALLY in Arizona now. 

Sunset in "Boomerville"

First night of "Boomerville", catching the sunset.

     Getting close to Quartzsite, we start getting views of hundreds and thousands of RVs spread out over the desert! It's pretty amazing! (in the first pic, all those white objects are RVs). We eventually leave the pavement and drive down a dirt road to join our group of Boomers that will be 50-100 RVs. We get parked and set up in time to notice an AMAZING sunset and I go up on the roof to tilt two of my solar panels up and take pictures while I'm up there.

REAL Boondocking

      After the Jojoba resort, our next destination involves REAL Boondocking. Off the blacktop, out in the boonies, no services, no fees. Still in California, but just barely. As I leave I-8 (between El Centro and Yuma) and head north on a little 2-lane road, the first thing I see is a guy with his RV and an ATV off on the sandy acreage to the side. He gives me a big grin and a wave, he seems to know what my goal is. I wave back and keep going nearly 5 miles and then turn off the pavement onto a wide dirt road (see last pic in "Leaving Jojoba"). There are berms on both sides and no visible place in sight to turn this large motorhome around if things get bad. This is where I start wondering "Am I crazy to be doing this?". Eventually we see a few scattered RVs out 100 yards off the dirt road and come to the openings in the berms they used to get there. Farther on, the road is getting more rugged and we decide to unhitch our little truck to explore and try to find a good camping spot where the big rig can actually go. After a few "maybes", we find one we really like. Linda offers to drive the motorhome there, and she gets it turned around and drives about a mile to the spot without scraping or bottoming at all (see why I married her?, lol). We've pointed our nose to the west, tilted half our solar panels up toward the south, and settled in for some quiet time to enjoy the beauty of this area. Our nearest "neighbor" is 200+ yards away, so it's been very quiet and peaceful.

Jerry’s posting 1-14-15                   There's gold in these hills, lol. The dirt road we came in on is called the "American Girl Mine Road" (reminds me of the American Girl dolls, my daughter had one). Anyway, there was a gold rush here around 1877, and in the years after there has been commercial mining off and on, depending on the price of gold. We can see trucks going in/out the current operation quite a ways off. I'm not a rock-hound, but one of the first things I did here was walk around our site for about 20 minutes and pick up some samples of the interesting rocks just laying around. Here's a pic of my "rock collection".

Jerry’s posting 1-15-15

We drove the truck into Yuma for supplies today. And yeah, the motorhome was still there when we got back. The temperature in our RV has reached a comfortable 82 degrees the last two days. There is generally a little breeze here so you can adjust the temp by how much you open windows, very nice. I could get used to having January like this. I'm amazed by how clean this area is, I've wandered over many acres and have only seen one cigarette butt, and you have to search quite a bit to find any scrap left by people. I'm very impressed by how the folks using this area are doing the right thing ("leave it cleaner than you found it"). We are enjoying the sunsets every night, it's quite a show here. Hard to capture the glory with little photo skills and point-n-click action, but you can get the idea.

Leaving Jojoba Hills

  Jerry’s post 1-12-15

I did snag some of the lemons before leaving Jojoba! Here's a pic of my stash. I didn't even begin to make a dent on the loaded trees there. 

Fortunately, we were invited to watch the Seahawks-Panthers game with two other couples at one of the couples' nice 5th wheel RV. It was a great Seahawk party and chance to get to know more Jojoba folks. The hostess brought out some limoncello she had made (involves soaking lemon rinds in vodka). It was very good, and that encouraged me to go pick some more lemons. I quickly learned that lemon trees have these sharp things that try to snag clothing and skin, but managed to survive.

Here's a last look at the southern part of Jojoba from a hill we hiked up to the top of.

Linda’s Post 1-12-15

Sunday we left Jojoba Hills after being there for a week. We debated the several options for going south from there and settled on Hwy 78 through Julian and south on Hwy 79 to I-8. I had asked some ladies in the sewing room what they thought of that route and they said they’d rather be the driver since that narrow and winding road could be a nail-biter at times. I got to see up close what they meant! It is a beautiful drive and the change in terrain was fun to see. Many campgrounds along the way. Many turns, some of which turn right back around on yourself. Seeing the signs that shows curves with a 15 mph added to it had me hanging on. No pictures of that section of road! I’m thinking we won’t be going this way again any time soon. Narrow and no margin for error, but a full two lanes and paved. Definitely a road best traveled by motorcycle. It actually turned out to be helpful that it was totally overcast and rained on us here and there. No sun stabbing us in the eyes as we negotiated all those crazy turns.

It took much longer than we expected to get through the mountains from Aguanga to I-8. We weren’t done with mountains, however, and one section of I-8 we drove the 6% downgrade at 35 mph. (As posted for trucks). By the time we got to El Centro and stopped for gas it was already dark. Our GPS was less than helpful in finding a gas station for a big rig, so I got on the internet (love having a hotspot as we go!), checked Google, looked at them from the satellite view and found a truck stop. Those are nice because you know you can get the rig in and out and not have crazy corners to try to negotiate. There were about 20 semis parked so I asked if we could park for the night and they said, “sure, no problem!” That’s all I wanted! I was so tired I didn’t care where we were. Besides fighting another cold and feeling it, I was not willing to push ourselves, get out to the desert and try to figure out where we were going in pitch black darkness! Quite the contrast from Jojoba Hills--semis all around us coming and going and running their engines. Earplugs are helpful.

This morning it was an easy hour drive to our piece of desert and I was so glad to be doing it in the daylight! Not only were the views fantastic, but scouting around to find just where we wanted to spend the next few days was better done in full daylight and in the truck. Snugged up against the mountains, it is so beautiful and peaceful here. We took so many pictures! And then the sunset put on quite a show so we had to get more of that, too. It was pleasantly warm, but not too warm today. Thermometer inside read 73 degrees mid-day, but with the windows open and a gentle breeze blowing through it was quite comfortable. I am so used to warm temps being combined with getting dark late in the summer that the 5:30 full darkness keeps taking me by surprise!

American Girl Mine Rd off of Ogilby Rd 

After all the fun and socializing at Jojoba Hills, I’m actually a bit relieved to be off by ourselves for a few days to catch up on things and rest.

The coordinates for where are currently are:  32.837858,-114.817858   If you put that into Google maps search window, it will show you where we are camped. 

Activities at Jojoba Hills

Jojoba Hills Park is such a fun place! We have extended our stay to Sunday which will make it a week. Not only are there many things to do and get involved in, but the friendly people just draw you into whatever is happening. We went to a Happy Hour unexpectedly this afternoon because we were wandering around taking pictures of all the beautiful cactus gardens near the Club House at the right time. We enjoyed talking with several people and increased our understanding of various aspects of the RV lifestyle. We have found “Our People”! J It is a great deal of fun to be around others who have the same love of RVing as we do.

The Art Center is near where we are parked which is very handy. I have visited there several times not only to work on things on my own but to take a watercolor class and a drawing class. I have learned so much! I am inspired to continue working and honing my skills.

 I also visited the sewing center and helped a neighbor by hemming her skirt, plus I sewed two more leg covers (rash is still with me, but slowly healing). 

I have also taken advantage of the exercise room which is very well equipped, and afterwards enjoyed the sauna and a shower. One day I read magazines in the library (and nearly fell asleep), went for a walk, and joined a group of people for a potluck dinner. And all of that is only scratching the surface. I have yet to try the miniature golf, pickleball, air gun range or the games room. We will have to come back!

Jerry's fun at Jojoba Hills

Jerry:

This is the third day I've been jogging around in this resort, swimming in the pool, and hanging out in one of the hot tubs. I'm loving the upper 70's sunshine and might even get in shape with this motivating environment, lol. Linda has been enjoying the Arts Center (painting), the sewing center (19 stations), exercise room and sauna. The members here have quite a life, I'm just glad they let me join the fun for a week. I'll miss the pool when I go camping in the desert after this, heh heh.

Our Journey Begins

It is a very long drive from home to here. 1300 miles long. So far. Very. Long.

Going over the Siskiyous. Road was clear, thankfully, we crossed over between two storms

Now that we are finally at a place where we can stay for a few days, we can relax a bit and start enjoying ourselves. We are at Jojoba Hills SKP Park in Aguanga, CA near San Diego. It is a beautiful place and the people are so friendly. More about that, later.

         

Mt Shasta in the background of this rest area. Best view from a rest area I've seen yet!

Our road adventures so far have included figuring out how to keep important stuff from freezing in 18 degree weather (Portland area) with no hookups (also known as dry-camping or boondocking), dealing with the Winter sun shining in our eyes (baseball caps are wonderful!), mountain passes that go for hours (The Siskiyous), getting in and out of gas stations that are not configured for 38’ RVs pulling a truck, finding a place we had planned to stop unsuitable (up in the mountains and too cold) and having to add another night’s stop. All in all, a pretty good trip down.

Parking overnight in a casino parking lot.

In one day we went from wearing warm hats and wool socks, to AC and sandals—while driving past lingering snow near LA! People here enjoy telling us about their big snow that we just missed. I’m good with that! I prefer the 75 degree days and 40 degree nights we are having now.