Annnnd they're off!!!!!

Yesterday, when we took our little drive around Bouse we discovered the Parker 425 Desert Race was on, and that there is a stop check area of the race right here.  As I write this at 8:26 PM, we can still hear the vehicles roaring away in the desert.  We managed to find our way to the stop check point about 9:00 this morning, and found out most people were there at 6:30 - 7:00 am!  It was loads of fun to watch and talk to some of the spectators.

 

 

"Bad Attitude"

  

 I took about 130 pictures.  Some of them went by so fast!  I was envious of those photographers with their big cameras and huge lenses, but most of their conversations were about how dirty their cameras were getting from the dust and what a problem it was!  Later in the afternoon, we were regularly dusted by the vehicles roaring by.  I must say there was no need for hairspray today! Our hair felt like glue!

All day long we thought about our two grown sons, and how they would have loved to have hung out with Mom and Dad today. 

Like Bayfield Al, we are perusing the maps and travel books and wondering where we should head off to after here .....

I'm an Art Show winner

Don here:  Just thought I would mention that I have been reading a few other blogs about the cold weather lately.  A number of Rv'ers are experiencing frozen water pumps or putting lamps in their water closets to prevent freezing.  All of our water lines have been centrally located in one area of the 5th wheel, with a heat vent in there.  So long as the furnace is running, we do not seem to be experiencing any frozen pipes. This 5th wheel was touted to have a "polar pak' as part of its' insulation features, in other words made for 4 season camping.  Now, 4 season camping does not include the real winter conditions in Canada ( or even perhaps 20F in the desert ), but we seem to be making out fine so far.  Must be warmer tonight - it is 8 PM and the furnace hasn't started yet!  

Of course, I could have just lucked out, because today I was lucky and won a prize!  We went into Bouse and to the Art Show at the Community Centre.  I won the door prize! I was eating my cake and having coffee at the time, and they announced on the loud speaker that it was me, but I had my mouth full of cake and they told everyone that on the speaker!  Of course, you are going to ask what it was: a box of kleenex (new) in a Christmas cotton gift bag.  Well, we can always use kleenex!  Kim bought some very nice desert themed cards.

Morning hike - looking northwest

Lots going on here tomorrow!  Community garage sale, another day of the Art Show, Ham and Potatoes au gratin at the Community Hall for lunch ($6) and another big event we will tell you about, if we get to it!  Stay tuned....

Bouse!

We slept in till past 7:00 am on Thursday.  Could it be the colder temperatures in the morning?  Thursday morning was -7C, but not that wind.  The afternoon warmed to about 16 C on the sunny side of the fifth. Friday morning was -2 C. Whoo wee, bring back those warmer temps!

Donald made an appointment at the GM dealer in Parker, Arizona for 2:30 Thursday, so that was his big chore.  I stayed back and cleaned windows, bathroom and floors. The dog and I took a little hike around the closest hills to take some pictures of our busy campground.

view from inside 5th to the north

Hey, we have the slides out! The wind must have moved on.

Speaking of neighbours, Janna and Mike ( Tin TeePee/LogCabin ) dropped by Thusday morning on their daily walk.  We also met the lovely Miss Emmi and she was happy to meet our Ally. We will try to get together for more conversation this week. Friday morning, we met Rollie and Gina, just starting off on their early morning walk. We filled our propane tanks in Bouse and had a 5 minute drive tour of the town.

Our Verizon MiFi shut down on Friday morning, and we had a bit of a heart stop over that.  It felt like we were completely cut off, and our research chore and home contacts would be very hard to do.  Luckily it came back in a couple of hours, and this is why the daily posting is late! We are not convinced that this is the best option for our internet, however, it has been working well to this point.

This is a beautiful place and very peaceful.  Calm before the Vegas hub-bub.

Freezing our Butts in Bouse

We were joined for lunch at Stone Cabin with some ATV'ers

Yesterday we travelled from the Imperial Dam LTVA to Quartzsite.  Our $40 for 14 day LTVA Pass had come to an end, so we said goodbye to Bob with our thanks.  Ha! Seems like we are going in circles by coming back to Q when we have the whole Southwest.  Now that we are enjoying our solar set up and understanding more of the 'numbers', we stopped to ask a few more questions and get some insulation added to one of the cut outs for where the wires go. 

However, it was late in the day when we left Q, so travelled as far as Bouse, and stayed the night at Bouse Community Park for $10, which allowed us to load a full tank of water in the morning.  And man! Is it cold!  The wind was a HOWLER, so we kept the slides pulled in. 

Is that ice on those water lines?

The morning was no warmer, but we headed off on a side road to a free area and chose what we thought was a pretty good spot.  Hmmm.  We are behind a bit of a hill, which is better for the wind, but that means we get less sun at the end of the day.  Ah. Trade-offs. We are also at the END of the possible road.  Yes, we travelled on a dirt road to the end of the track - for those of you who know Donald and his clean white truck, this is pretty radical.   We have an awesome view. We are hopeful to meet some new fellow RV bloggers here, too. Pictures of the view on tomorrow's post if I can stand being outside for more than 5 minutes.  We were talking that the high Chilean desert must be like this - dry, clear skies and freezing cold!  The weather report says warmer for the weekend.

Ole!

In the US, the pink building, Marys Pharmacy, is Mexico.

One more thing to do and cross off this winter's list: walk across the US border to Mexico and have a cerveza, or two.  We did have a margarita each later in the afternoon, and they were mm mm good!  The parking lot just next to Algodones was busy when we arrived, but we easily walked across and even when we left, the lineup was only about 15 minutes. 

As always, new things are interesting and an adventure.  Algodones is four streets of dentists and eyeglass stores with the usual street vendors.  So, what did we support the Mexican economy with our purchases? A new stained glass window for the 5th, saving about $70.00 over the Quartzsite price, and a silver ring for Kim, which we probably overpaid on.

Green sustenance before coming back across the Border

Bob also managed to get a cool Saskatchewan Roughriders Poncho/blanket that now adornes his motorhome couch.  Not one vendor had a BC Lions anything. Hmm.

A great day and tomorrow we head back north to Quartzsite to ask a few more solar questions at Discount Solar and then head a little more north. Its supposed to get cold and in that case, we might have to find where we have packed our pants. Not too spoiled.