Dragons and Boulders

Palms at Anza-Borrego

This was our destination for our hike with Ken,Karen,Darcy,Michael,Jim and Linda. Same crew as Sunday. The day was so much fun, with an early morning start at 8 am, a lovely drive to Borrego and a quick breakfast in town before heading off to the State Park.  The trailhead is just at the end of the campground, and there was easy access and parking.

Yes, there were a few boulder to climb over and around, but that was fun, too. The little river valley was simply beautiful and we were fortunate to have great weather, and in particular, not too hot!!

The sands were damp in area, so we could tell that water had come down the valley in greater amounts than the little creek that we had to cross a couple of times.

Of course, it is great to hike with good friends and lots of laughs.  Darcy and Michael had not been to Borrego before, and we wanted to show them a little bit of the metal sculptures that we had taken a tour of last winter.  The hike was going to take up a major portion of our day, so we only visited a couple of sculptures, namely the dragon that goes under the road.

the road is after the 2nd 'hump'

There seems to be a bit of a wind that has kicked up after swimming this morning, so not too sure what we will get up to. Some chores, some grocery shopping perhaps. Maybe a nap.

Happy Birthday, Mom. Love you.

Flash Warning-no, not hot and we're clothed

The usual whirlwind has been happening here and we love it. After doing lap swimming and water aerobics, we were invited out to Whitewater Preserve for a hike. Such fun. You can see by the picture above, the our fearless little trail leader, AKA Coco the Rescue Dig, is staring up at someone's pocket, because he always has dog treats in his pockets.

There has been a few days of rain here in the valley, and with that rain comes the danger of flash floods. Two years ago we witnessed rain one day, then with a beautiful day the next day that is when the mud, boulders and rocks came running down the streets of Desert Hot Springs and other areas close by. So, yep, we drove out to the nearest water place, Whitewater Preserve where part of the access road was already flooded and yep, we drove through it! Ken and Michael have big 4x4's, so no worries!

Karen is pointing to the sign noting:" Extreme Flash Flood Danger", and then of course, we picked the trail leading to the river. The area around the river had been wet, but still very beautiful. The preserve has a number of stocked fish ponds with 'steelhead'. Not near the size of our ocean travelling steelhead in the north, but the water is clear with bright shallow parts to see the fish easily.

This will be a place where we will return and it is so close to our park. Sunday we are dog sitting Ms. Ellie Mae again, and Monday we are off to Borrego Springs and the state park there for another hike, but that will be a long day!

Luckily it won't be as far as walking to Canada. 2445.4 miles from this beautiful rock.

Cowboy hat people are a little rowdy!

Our days at Boomerville were so enjoyable that we will go back another time to Quartzsite and join in the fun.  We left early Wednesday morning and drove into Rose RV Park, where their were 3 dump stations already lined up with rigs waiting to dump.  Even this little chore is an adventure, that is all we have to say!

Back at the RV Park in Desert Hot Springs, the 'parking supervisors' ( buddies )arrived on their bikes, so I could escape for a few minutes to the quilting group to check in on the arrangements for Thursday. The social schedule didn't take a break, as we were invited to a potluck that evening with about 30 people. Good thing I had enough in the larder to make Asian Chicken Wings and Taco Salad to add to the table.

Thursday Donald and I started off at 6:30 with laundry, and I met the bus at 7:15 am for our big annual trip to Road to California Quilt Show, about an hour and a half from here, into L.A.  This was my second year, so having been overwhelmed last year, I was able to enjoy getting around and the whole experience. Check out BQB Paulette for some of her pictures of the show, as I didn't take my camera. BQB= Best Quilting Buddy. The day ended great with an invitation to after dinner coffee at our neighbours, Mel and Debbie's.

Yesterday was Donald's birthday! I managed to get to the pool by 7:15 to swim some laps and do some water aerobics by myself.  Then, the gals were off to Joanne's at 9:30... didn't they get enough fabric goodies at Road? Nope, most were looking for backing fabrics with coupons in hand.  In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of dog sitting our next door dog, Elly Mae. A lovely goldendoodle, all white in colour. Well, she was all white till I took her to the dog park and with our all day rain, she came home a different colour. Then, off to Coachella and Spotlight 29 Casino for the Buffet dinner and a Clint Black concert. Friends Karen and Ken joined in, since it was the big guy's birthday, which was wonderful.  Michael, Darcy and ourselves took in the concert and it was our first time with country music. He was an excellent performer, great back up band and very at ease with speaking and entertaining the crowd.  However, the crowd was quite a bit wilder than the Moody Blues concert crowd! Ah, that's entertainment in itself.

Busy Days in Q

Well, there seems to be thousands of rigs here in Q, some say 200 thousand or more! How do you find someone you know in all of that? Apparently you just drive towards where your own rig is parked, and there they are! Yesterday was a jam packed activity day:

* 10 am: Seminar at Boomerville on  Batteries and Solar. Excellent! Donald picked up on lots of new information.
* 10:30 (ish): Wonderful visit from John and Aileen, who are camped out at La Posa West with about a dozen other rigs.  We enjoyed visiting with their darling little Mitsey and it is so much fun finally meeting other bloggers with whom you have only corresponded with in each others' blogs. We will meet again with them!
* 12:30: meet up in town at the outdoor bar near the big tent with the group that drove up from the Sands RV Park: Rob, Doris, Michael, Darcy, Jim, Linda and our new neighbours Ken and Jan. We all had a refreshment together, then split up to do some shopping and lunch.

* 4:00 meet up and have a late afternoon refreshment with Deb, Darryl, Sandy and Doug, who left the Sands earlier in the week on their way to Phoenix.They were pulled over just east of Scadden Wash. Yes! Just driving by and Micheal recognized their rigs on the way to our desert set up. Deb and Sandy were great hostesses with bowls of edamame peas, and spiced jicama for us to try. Mmm. Sandy was talked into purchasing some purple solution for cleaning your eyeglasses, and was kind enough to clean all our eye and sunglasses before we left their company! Yes - we can all see now!

* till 5:30: we hosted Jim and Linda, Michael and Darcy at our set up in Boomerville. Jim was busy taking pictures of the beautiful sunset and mountains, as our rig looks out over the desert with no other rv's in sight!

We missed the big potluck here in the evening, but that was alright as there is another one today at 2:00! I will be taking a big taco salad, as the main dish is the Chili from the Chili cook competition.
We will also have to find time to meet up with our friend, Bob.

Lizards in your motorhome

Today we visited the BIG TENT. Nope, not the circus tent, but rather the big RV Show tent here in Quartzsite. Yesterday we met up with our good friend, Bob, who drove up from Yuma in his brand new Beaver Monterey Motorhome. Yes, it is a beauty.  He offered a lovely dinner and I think we were his first guests with lovely marinated steak, baked potatoes, carrots and dessert.  While waiting for dinner, and since the guys were outside talking to 'Bill' from the next door RV, I perused the Monterey User Manual for his rig.  A few interesting tidbits: lizards are know to go after the inverter and may short circuit it. Solution? Glue traps. Then use vegetable oil to loosen the lizard off the glue trap, and release the sad thing well away from your motorhome. ' Oh, honey, whose job would that be????'

Donald had a good time at the donut shop coffee hour with the Escapee Boomer guys yesterday morning, and I met with about 60 ladies for circle time at the fire pit.  You had to tell two things you liked to do, or were interested in, and then end with your name.  It was fun. 

It was opening day for the RV Show, and the Big Tent was busy, but not as bad as we thought it would be.  Bob wanted to check out the Aqua Hot booth, the Brake Buddy booth and of course Saskatchewan Tourism.  Donald stopped by ' Two Crazy Ladies' to have his Chapter 33 tag attached to his Escapee name tag, 50 amp surge protector guy, and of course, Flagpole Buddy, who he checks with every year without buying anything. We missed the Boomer trip to the Desert Bar today, so we'll have to go another time.

The day ended with Happy Hour back at Boomerville, then a friendly 9 person HH at our site. Sit outside and they will come!!!! There are even more rigs in here yesterday and today, so tomorrow I will have to look at the sign in book to see how many there are. Way too many to count now. Sunday schedule looks like pancake breakfast, trash run. geocaching, wine tasting and heavy appetizers, Happy Hour at 4 at the Campfire circle and then a movie/show about Dubai at the theatre at 7 pm. Yes, we have a theatre out here in the desert. It's amazing. Donald was disappointed we missed last nights show, as it was about the Burning Man Festival in Texas and apparently there were some ladies on the big screen missing some clothing items. Hmm.

Desert Dance Floors

Too many activities at Boomerville! Well, no there isn't, but we tell you, it is jam packed fun. The day before yesterday we were ALL DAY at our Solar dealer here in Q, trying to get our inverter replaced that had 3 days of warranty left on it.  The problem was with the inverter company, with whom we were on the phone for 6 hours on and off trying to get the issue resolved. Discount Solar, here in Quartzsite were truly wonderful and very patient with the whole situation.  Their customer service is top notch, however, we cannot say the same about the inverter company. 'Nuff said.

Yesterday we finally got our little site set up at Boomerville in the morning after a great pancake breakfast, then joined in at the Escapee's main area for 1 - 3 pm Happy Hour.  There were information booths set up for Smart Weigh, Western area Rally, a map of where all the chapters and Birds of a Feather groups were gathered and Mr. Evert of Everts RV spoke briefly to the group. There were about 250 people at this Happy Hour, and amazingly we met up with Liz and Roger Grant of Chapter 33 and a few of our Boomer people.

The entertainment was also terrific, the fellow sang songs from the 50's and 60's and a few country songs thrown in. Of course, you make do in the the desert as there were a couple of desert dance floors. Keep that dust down, you crazy dancers!

Back out to Boomerville for a quick one hour nap/rest and then Happy Hour #2 here at 4 pm.  There are about 60 rigs here participating, so the happy hour/campfire circle is big! Big enough for a sound system so the 'announcer' of the minute can be heard.

Last evening were were invited by new Boomer friends to dinner out at the Main Street Eatery ( great place) with fun conversations between the 4 couples.

As of 8:30 this morning, Donald is out the door to meet the men of Boomerville for 9 am, as they are headed to Sweet Darlene's Bakery in town for coffee and donuts.  I will be holding down the fort, hopefully to see or hear from our friend Bob who came up from Yuma last evening. Then there is Ladies greet and meet early this afternoon.... then another Happy Hour..... then.... then.....

view from our front door

looking towards Boomerville

Boomerville

We have arrived at the Escapee get together in Quartzsite, and have set up our little area, but only for a short while as we are off at 8 am back to Discount Solar (again). Our inverter problem still has not completely rectified itself, and the 2 year warranty will be up soon.  So, best to get everything on record of the problem.

We had an easier drive that we thought it would be.  The weather forecast was calling for 60 mph wind gusts and a High Wind Advisory, but once we were past Indio, it wasn't that bad.  We took on fuel, propane and lunch at the Flyin J in Ehrenberg, because it was an easy stop, everything was there at one place and it was before the mayhem of Q.

The welcoming committee of one fellow from B.C. greeted us as we stopped at the welcome tent. There is a Happy Hour at 4:00 ( which is 15 minutes from now ) and we will grab our nametags and join in!!!

Quilt pic's and Harbor Freight

After this mornings time in the pool, we decided that today was a good day to get out of the 5th wheel and a bit of a drive. First stop was Joanne's of course, as I needed some special thread for a table topper quilt.  Then, off only Highway 111 to Souplantation for lunch. We had gone there with 4 other couples on Christmas Eve, and with a coupon in hand, it was just as good today.  Of course, it is always nice to drive through Indian Wells, with beautiful grass boulevards, roses planted in the gardens between the driving lanes and the incredible fountains and landscaping of the gated communities. Since we have not driven very much in this area, we continued for a bit on Highway 111 after lunch, and lo and behold the new Harbor Freight store just about jumped out at us. I advised Donald he had better check it out, especially since there were big tents set up outside, likely with some tool deals. Now, why this brand new Harbor Freight didn't build next to Joanne's, I have no idea. Likely a mistake on behalf of the marketing person. Or, cheap rent in Indio, where they did locate. Donald said the store was big and with wide aisles, very nice. I read my quilting magazine, in the warm sun coming in the truck windows, while he was checking HF out. For our Canadian readers, HF is like Princess Auto.

Speaking of quilting, I promised pictures of the latest projects, so here goes:

Valentines Runner - teaching/leading class on this Jan 30

mini twister. block size small than a nickel.Never again!

Christmas wool felt kit

 

Today I will be working on a batik table runner and finishing the binding on a large batik quilt.  Tonight is some fun, as I am on a team with some swimming buddies for Trivia Night at the clubhouse. Donald will be enjoying football and our wonderful English dramas on T.V.

Nah, we're not missing the snow.

It seems like I start so many blog postings with ' where does the time go?'. While the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs area remains pretty darn cool at night, the sunny mid mornings and afternoons make up for it.  Donald looked up the temperature for Palm Springs for yesterday, 2012 and it was 81 F last year.  This year in 2013? Well, a balmy 61 F. Of course, we cool weather Canucks can hack it. Well, maybe those who have just newly retired and making their way south for the first time. Now, for the rest of us... come on Mother Nature and warm up the spring.

We did golf yesterday, and I think the almost daily swim laps and aerobics are helping with the long drives.  Donald might have to join me, as he is ready to throw out his special 'driver'. He said he needs new grips on it.  I suggested duck tape with the sticky side out. Hmmm... he was not amused.

Dinner out last night ( No, Mom - this was the first dinner out this winter, we don't do it all the time ) with Mel, Deb, Margo, Roger and Rick and Paulette.  You will have to check Rick's blog posting for the fancy picture from his fancy camera. I think those people look like they are having too much fun.

Donald headed off to Pancake breakfast at the hall this morning with Rick, and Paulette and myself headed out at 7:15 am to Monica's Quilt Shop for the annual garage sale there. Some bargoons, but not a lot.

I have been quilting like crazy with the Clubhouse group, and there are a number of new quilters.  I have been asked to teach an easy project, so a few have their fabric requirements in hand and I will be doing this with them after we get back from Quartzsite.  Pictures next post.

Just so we don't feel like we need to stay in the Shuswap this winter, our neighbours graced us with a reminder....

Metal roof, some snow has slid off