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By Katrina Kane, on November 27th, 2011 The other snowbirds have arrived at Mayflower County Park and other RV parks in the California/Arizona border areas. Sites are still available but the games and social functions have already begun. We had our first ice cream social and it was most excellent! We had our choice of 3 flavors of ice cream and fresh toppings of bananas, strawberries, and of course, chocolate syrup. To heck with choosing, go for them all. Mmmmm! The Thanksgiving potluck also went very well with plenty to eat for everyone.
Algadones across the border in Mexico still had light traffic and very short lines when I went through a couple weeks ago but should have more activity now so get ready to start waiting to see a dentist or come back over the border.
BLM land is getting a lot of rigs out there already. I had hoped to be one of them this year but unfortunately am still in need of solar panels. Working on that. I expect to see even more rigs boondocking this year with the economy still in the crapper. I lost my job too recently.
More and more vendors are arriving in Quartzsite and opening up their stores. KB Tools and the RV store are open. The LED guy we bought lights from last year is back. Some of the grocery tents are open. Seeing several places opening early this year including one of the Main Event vendors. This may be a very busy season for them. The consignment guy is getting lots of stuff in and selling well. We may sell my extra scooter over there through him. Should go fast. The Oasis Bookstore is open and the naked guy is naked again this year. Last year the poor fellow had a cold and had to wear clothes. Oh my. 🙂
Mayflower Park has raised their monthly fee from $250 to $275 this year due to renovations done last year. It’s still a great deal with electric, water, and sewage pump outs included. Some folks are looking around though at other FHU places a little farther away from Quartzsite and are finding some good deals.
The local college is in some financial trouble and has shut down the satellite campus with adult classes some snowbirds used last year. I’m told they are trying to get the classes going again on the main campus soon as well as some online classes.
Geocaching is alive and well here. I have been seeing numerous folks finding the one I resurrected last year (Eric’s Cache) though the owner still has not replaced the container nor has anyone else. I may run back over there and fix it myself. I did go out night geocaching on 11-11-11 just so I could sign that magic date in the logs. Found 2 lamp post caches and 1 at the local bait shop. I was wondering where the bait shop was. That’s just one of the benefits of geocaching. Looks like the geocaching app on my smart phone has finally been fixed by the developer so I will have to try it out now. Looking forward to 12-12-12.
By Katrina Kane, on October 25th, 2011 FINALLY! I was beginning to wonder if we were going to get everything done in time to leave Utah which has turned quite cold. It has been a long expensive summer with having to replace the fuel pump, alternator, and battery in one car, the fuel pump in my SUV, parts on the RV air conditioner, the trailer main power cord, and the trailer batteries. On top of all that, I lost my telecommuting job. This has been a very hard year and I see no sign of the recession getting any better either. At least we can have a warm winter back in Blythe, CA again. We did manage to pare down the storage unit with sales at the local flea market and move my brother’s stuff into a smaller and cheaper unit. Got rid of some other bills too.
Coming down was very nice since we did not even try to caravan. I got to drive alone like in the old days, listen to MY music as loud as I liked, and stop when I was ready for gasoline and lunch. Cell phones let us keep track of each other at stops. We spent one night in Mesquite, NV at the Oasis RV Park. Like any casino campground, it is a glorified parking lot but it was certainly adequate with spaces long enough to pull through and stay hitched up as well as full utilities. Unfortunately, the Oasis Casino closed 3 years ago so no fun there and we had to walk down the street to the Casablanca Casino to register for the RV park. I saw several RVs and big rigs parked across the street in the now empty Oasis parking lot for a free night of boondocking. Me, I like electricity and air conditioning too much.
The next day we drove on down to Blythe via US95. It was certainly an interesting drive through Las Vegas and then the desert on a two-lane road. At one point the speed limit dropped to 5 MPH and a sign showed a turn. They are not kidding! The road just ended and you have to make a sharp left turn onto the freeway there. Glad we didn’t hit that at night!
When we arrived in Blythe, it was 95 degrees and we had friends from last year already waiting for us in the county park. It’s good to be home (winter home) again. We seem to have come a week or two early. Not too many other snowbirds have returned yet and it is hot but that will all change very soon. We got a very large corner space right behind our friends who had home-made apple pie ready and waiting. With our chairs setup together in the shade behind their 5th wheel, we are happily enjoying watching all the birds here in the tree across the road and the gopher tossing dirt out of his hole below.
The big question on everyone’s mind seems to be whether or not the one trouble-maker will be back this year. He had said he wouldn’t be but people are creatures of habit so anything is possible. We all have our fingers crossed for a trouble-free stay this year.
By Katrina Kane, on October 20th, 2011 Ready to leave but I wanted to share some great final photos and moments. Below is Lakeside RV Park office. Their well-used pool is behind it and excellent laundry room is on the left side. The park is just a few hundred yards from Utah Lake State Park and wonderful paved bike/pedestrian trails next to the lake, river, and farms. A small airport is across the street and we have been having a lot of fun rising our little scooters on the trails and out behind the airport next to the lake. There is a paved road out to the control tower. Sunsets have been gorgeous!
   
We enjoyed watching huge fish leaping out of the lake to eat the bugs as well as beavers making their dens in the lake shallows and farm irrigation ditches.
The area was flooded when we got there but that made it all the more interesting and eventually cleared. As the water went down, lots of small treasures could be found along the shore, remnants of items lost by boaters. The most common item was sandals. Apparently, boating and sandals do not go well together. Someone decided to start retrieving the sandals, one here and one there, and started a collection along the side of the bike trail. The idea caught on and eventually, we had a nice collection of one of a kinds. I contributed to it as well. No sense to it, just fun and seemed like the thing to do with them.
I got in some geocaching in the area as well. There are bunches around there. I found a nice fat ammo can at the state park with lots of antiseptic wipes in it free from the state. My new scooter made it possible for me to do the bike trail caches. I definitely need a mount for my GPS on it now.
For more pics click here.
By Katrina Kane, on October 14th, 2011 The summer heat has finally broken and a chill is now in the air. Snowbirds everywhere are feeling the urge to go south for the winter and news is reporting that Yuma, AZ and other warmer winter destinations are getting ready for the grand annual migration starting next week. My own feet are starting to get itchy again and my friends from last winter are on my mind. Â I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone again.
Before we can migrate, we had to fix our car and SUV. The car was in storage for a long time. The alternator was going out on it when we stored it. We also lost the fuel pump and battery while it was sitting. Getting it up on a Uhaul car trailer was loads of fun. We had to buy an electric winch and straps from Harbor Freight to pull it up onto the trailer to transport it back to our campsite to repair it. Repairs are now completed for it. My SUV also decided to act up this summer and leave us stuck a few times until more gas was added. The fuel pump was going bad in it too. It has now been replaced and seems to be fine. Â Hint: rather than jacking up my SUV to drop the fuel tank, we backed it up onto two sets of RV levelers.
Time to ready the trailer for moving day. Poor thing is designed for warmer desert temps, not freezing snow. There is very little insulation in the walls and the sewage tanks are fully exposed. Not going to be easy to move with new scooters added and other “stuff” to transport. Have to bring in the awning and clean up all the stuff that is covering our desks. That’s what happens when you sit somewhere for several months.
It’s funny that it turned cold so fast because the air conditioner just died recently. We could smell the burning smell as soon as we opened the door when we got home. Thank goodness we are near a good RV parts store, State Trailer Supply, Â that was able to order the new parts in for us. We were stuck in 4 days of intense heat until the parts arrived but we made the best of it. Ice cream helps! The weather changed just within a week or two of the repair. It figures.
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