Yet another circle around Quartzsite Arizona

If you drew a circle around Quartzsite about 200 miles in diameter that’s where I’d be, somewhere.  I went from boondocking near Congress and Wickenburg again, back to the town of Quartzsite, and then returned to Plomosa Road BLM where a friend is camped.

Sunrise Date Creek Mts Congress

I really like the desert landscape inside the circle around Quartzsite with Congress high on the list for decent weather, remote, an occasional sunrise, not too many close neighbors, bird watching, brilliant sunsets, nearby friends, and close enough to services, but the signal sucks.  That’s a deal breaker for me.  I even dug out my old Wilson booster but it didn’t help.  It could be really out of date.

Sunsets

Choices for the day: 1) fuck the whole signal problem and just write and process photos for the next two posts which will have to go out from somewhere else. 2) Pack it up and go to Wickenburg, not appealing but could be planned for the next day.  I lazily chose #1.  Then remind myself to just relax and go outside into the 64° Arizona apricity, set my chair out of the wind and read awhile, or just stare off into the desert horizon.  I am treated to the most glorious sunsets.

Desert Jackrabbit neighbor

Chris helped me ID the mystery dark bird in my nearby Saguaro bird condo.  A Starling who seems to only spend the night in the nesting hole. The neighbors look in occasionally during the day.  Also a thrasher appears to have moved into the penthouse.

Sunset

The decision to move becomes more pressing as it approaches time to dump and fill once again.  Has it already been two weeks?  Well, close enough to get prepared to boondock for another two weeks.

But first a trip to Wickenburg where I bought some more books at Goodwill and a few groceries.  I actually made it to camp along Vulture Mine Road before cooking pizza for late lunch.  I have been known to prepare this meal in the parking lot as the frozen pizza large enough for leftovers is too big for the freezer.  I didn’t drive far off pavement on the terrible rutted and rocky road as I only planned one night.  A Cactus wren taunted Sierra hopping around within sight out the door and just below the steps.  Sadly, even out in the middle of nowhere, nearest neighbor 100s of feet away, and I still listened to and felt the drone of somebody’s music.  Too much weird.  That night as I stepped out to photograph the sunset I slipped off the step and did a slow motion fall on my left side.  The worse side, with a shoulder in need of replacing but it’s a bad time to be in a hospital.  Did manage to save the camera.  And after taking inventory made it back onto my feet with only a small cut on my palm, scuffed elbow, and desert dirty clothes.  Could have been worse.  Just scary, and a reminder to be even more careful.  I don’t want to be afraid of being out by myself.

Big bonus for Vulture Mine Road is the awesome signal staring up at a huge tower.  I planned to finish and schedule the next days blog post but for some reason Open Live Writer wouldn’t talk to my website.  I hoped that wouldn’t be a new norm and thank goodness the problem has since gone away.  But that night I had to cut and paste which took even longer than my already slow normal.

Went into Wickenburg in the morning to pickup mail, topped off diesel and add just a few more groceries.  Then off for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Quartzsite’s Shady Lane RV Court—at January’s increased price of $37 and still a good deal—and parked in my usual space.  I’ve gotten to know my neighbor who is permanent for the winter season.  After hooking up electric and sewer and throwing away garbage I enjoyed a long hot shower.  I realize these are the same activities we all do in a S&B (stick and brick = house/apartment) but when boondocking there’s no current bush (other than the sun), garbage service, or in my case almost endless hot running water.  Sometimes, it’s just the little things that make me smile.

When checking in, I mentioned to Breezie that I liked their first RVer video on FB and volunteered to be interviewed.  So we recorded in the park’s rec-room that night.  Finius and Breezie are awesome and fun folks.  Get to know us all better by watching the video.

Tippy welcomed me to camp

In the morning I didn’t hang out because there are lots more people in the smaller circle around Quartzsite as the “Big RV Show” with huge tent had started.  Instead I drove north of town and back to Plomosa Road BLM to meetup with Paul, a canyon friend and fellow part-time RVer.  It’s been a year since the Grand Canyon alumni crowd met up south of Quartzsite but this year the gathering was diminished by folks not traveling for obvious reasons.

This camp is not too far east of where I was the beginning of January but on the north side of the road instead of the south and still offers great views of the Plomosa Mountains. Pulled in around noon and Paul and I sat outside in the sunshine visiting all afternoon. He made a delicious Broccoli soup for dinner.

Paul has the knowledge, skills, and ability to fix stuff and he solved the sticky door problem, rewired the 12v plug, and redid the sagging screw for my curtain wire. Then we spent another afternoon outside chatting the day away.  No, I still haven’t done anything with the sagging camper corners.  That’s a big fix.  Sigh…

A Facebook memory from ten years ago gave me pause, my previous 5^th-wheel sold and going out the driveway after six years living in it and my “new” to me 36-footer with three slide-outs. I like the space but don’t want to tow that monster all over the place. I’m having a hard enough time moving myself anywhere in the truck camper and am grateful most everything works good enough to live in. Yet I wonder what has happened to my wanderlust. I currently am pretty happy just hanging out in the desert under big skies in my chosen circle around Quartzsite. Driving much distance is getting more difficult with my bad shoulder.

And so I spend more time inside on the computer and I’m starting to figure out the pattern for power use off the camper battery charged by solar.  Unless it’s just absolutely gray and possibly raining, I have charge all day for phone and laptop plus a few hours into the evening.

Of course gorgeous sunsets prompt me out to take far too many photos.  I find the camera weight also causes pain in my shoulder.

Last week’s post went out about socializing in the desert but I couldn’t open it.  Comments came to my email so others could see the post, at least for a while.  Seems my entire website went down for no apparent reason.  After kind of freaking out, talking to my blog mentor, and others, with power slipping away, I gave up, shut down, and when I went back hours later all was well.  I should learn to let go of those things sooner.

Morning light shinning down on Quartzsite

The next day, a couple of Paul’s friends from Colorado rolled into the southern circle around Quartzsite with their RV.  We made arrangements to meet in town the next morning and explore the “Big Tent” RV Show.  But due to gentle rain overnight continued into morning I wasn’t sure we’d go and look at RVs for sale.