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Sunday December 24
The
venders are building their booths getting ready for the January crowds
they hope will show up, to spend, spend,
and
spend some more. K & B Tools has gone all out showcasing solar lights
with humorous slogans and small
animals
as part of the ground light. I love the boondockerss that bury a
look-a-like power pole next to their unit
and
have their power cord plugged into it. I guess I need to get and get more
pictures.
Found
this interesting sculpture next to the main event vender area.
Randy's @ Tyson Wells has
been here for years. He had to move from Rice Ranch when Beaudry bought
the north side and sent
them scrambling. See he had a new sign made. He had a great spot, bet he's
not
quite as happy where he
wound up this year. We wish him well. He sells hamburgers after 4 PM for
$1
And to Beaudry RV what can
we say, another huge RV dealer that came in and took over.
And the billboards! What
does that say. Stop at our place, as we have figured out how to cheat the
state
of AZ and the city of Quartzsite.
And with using a picture of the statue of liberty in the ad to boot!
In the fine print on the
sign it sez: Restrictions apply See dealer for details.
It's Christmas Eve
and we hope all is well with you, and yours,
and that you are able
enjoy the season wherever you're at.
Take care... Like Red Green
of the 'Red Green show on PBS' sez:
We're all
in this together.
Monday December
25
We
read the paper and got ready to go to out to dinner at noon at the Palo
Verde Cafe.
We
got there at noon and people were lined up outside as the doors had not
opened yet. So in we went with the mob to
find
out they didn't have our reservations. Oh swell... They offered to put
us in the lounge with other non reservation people.
Fine,
just so we got served. The waitress comes in and proclaims we are the special
group since we didn't make reservations.
Off
to the side we explained to her that we had made them, but they lost them.
So off we start on the special Christmas
dinner
experience. We both ordered the Prime Rib special for $16.95. Our server
MO was fun and we thought this would
turn
out to be a nice time. She had warned us the turkey was all white
meat (must have been a turkey loaf) Well, it went down
hill
fast. The homemade chicken soup Terry had was cold with no flavor.
I
had a salad and it was plain old head lettuce with a saltine cracker on
the side.
Then
came the prime rig dinner. The mashed potatoes and dressing were covered
with turkey gravy.
They
used turkey gravy on both the ham and prime rib dinners. An ice cream scope
was
used
to dish it up. The mashed potato (baked was not offered with the prime
rib) had large chunks in it and the dressing
was
dry and hard. The prime rib was cold. We both ordered it med. It was well
done, no pink in it at all.
It
looked to us, it had not been freshly sliced and maybe even came to them
already cut and they just nuked it.
People
next to us had them take it back. But not being picky we just ate away.
The veggie side was just soft green beans
right
out of a can. To top it off it was hard to tell if the ice tea had any
tea in it. Final damage $35.42 + $8 tip.
It
wasn't the servers fault. Our server MO was the only good part of the experience.
So
do you think we will ever go back to the Palo Verde cafe?
Up the street Otis Pizza
was open... if we had only know.
We also drove by 'Sweet
Darlene's"and now in hindsight, that would have been a much better choice.
I think they were about
the only other restaurant open in Q today. And you didn't need reservations.
We had called both and went
with Palo Verde. That's what life in Q is all about "The Experience of
It All".
The entrance to the Main
Event all decked out for the season. This is right off the west I-10 Q
exit road.
After dinner we took a drive
out in the desert for about 20 miles and came to this mine being worked.
ATV's
are popular along with short wheel base 4x4s but many of us can't pull
these things around with us,
so
it came to use, that someone should offer 4x4 back road jeep tours around
Q. We don't see that being done.
The
rock club has 4x4 trips for it's members but you still have to have a short
wheel base 4x4 to go on them.
Our
big dully diesel just won't cut it when you get why back in on the mine
roads. You can rent ATV's etc.
but
a tour of mine roads might be better as you wouldn't have to figure out
the routes to take.
Oh
let us not forget the weather. It is just perfect today. About 70, clear
skies, and no wind.
Tuesday December 26
On
Sunday I talked about K & B tools showcasing solar lights with humorous
slogans and small
animals
as part of the solar ground light. So we got a couple of pics today. All
these things are solar powered.
This is Tuesday and this
is the sunset.. WOW Enjoy
This
is what people live for, boondocking in the BLM. Just look at the sunset
and think what it must look like in person.
Wall
to wall sky.. Now get yourself down to Q and spend a spell in the desert
BLM.
This time of year it gets
cold when the sun goes down so you need to time it with a campfire.
Recieved a new shipment of
Alarm
It units today and sent out the ordered units via USPS.
After the not so great dinner
(see the above cafe review), we recovered with Terry doing a 'top chefs'
job making
French Onion soup. Toasted
French bread and Swiss cheese and lots of onion. Yummmm...
I hate giving him compliments
but that was great. We think we are going to do a prime rib
(at home) for New Years.
Looking
for storms for Wed. and Thurs. according to the forecasts.
We
can take a break from gorgeous weather, for a few days, to get ready for
the New Year.
Would
love to see some RAIN in the desert!
Wednesday December 27
Today
has been cloudy and windy and would you believe at 5 PM it is raining.
Went
to the post office again. Our mail forwarding service sent our mail over
a week ago and still
nothing
has showed up in Q. I even called them to make sure it was sent.
Many
times while standing in line we see people bringing mail to the counter
that had been placed
in
the wrong box. The venders in Q have a great time selling caps and T-shirts
that say
"I
Survived the Quartzsite Post Office".
I
also must say the counter clerks are friendy and take time for each person.
They are just overworked.
Terry
is cooking a cabbage roll dish and we are relaxing listening to the pitter
pat of the rain on the roof.
Thursday December 28
Above you showed you Otis
Pizza. Right next to him is this fast food vender.
They are all along the main
street west.
They have set up several
in a row with Wi Fi while you eat.
Dustyfoot.com
is in this area also. A seller of satellite internet service.
On the south side of I-10
on Kuen St. west of Tyson Wells is the Desert Gardens show area.
It is filling up fast. In
this location it is mostly lapidary equipment and supplies.
As
you head south on HWY 95 south of I-10 right across from The big show grounds
is
Ken's Big Tent Auction. He was on the north side of Kuen in Rice Ranch.
Another transplant
that
had to move to the south side of Rice Ranch now right next to the BLM area.
You
can see one of the rvlogin.com Wi Fi towers in the background.
I got the above shots when
we went in to get propane and gas for the generator.
It has been cloudy and when
we woke up this AM is was still trying to rain.
No water in the washes but
it did settle the dust.
We had gotten used to day
after day of perfect weather, so this reminds us how great it has been.
Terry is cutting up beef
stew fixxins for the cast iron chicken cooker to place it in the oven.
He was going to do date
bread but decided the oven was to small for both.
We did get our mail today,
so it was just very late in the system and not lost. Thank you Q post office.
If you guys would just stop
sending all those Christmas cards!
On Friday My
Home Address Inc in Emery is going to go to the
Hanson County Court House
and get our vehicle license plate tags.
I think it is a good deal
for $10 each they do the leg work,
pay the fees, send them
off to me with the bill. I might be able to contact SD myself but
this makes my life easier.
Ours are due in January each year.
Friday December 29
Would you believe not much
going on today for us in Q.
Terry went to the rock club
and I read. I had some angina and took it easy.
Guess our minds are on the
upcoming weekend and New Years.
We don't get into football
big time BUT their are 15 games about to be sprung on us. Sure we will
be watching
several of them. That is
per USA Today sports page, our daily paper, I love to read each morning.
It should be in a paper
dispenser right next to the entrance gate very soon.
Won't have to drive into
Q to get it. The Arizona Republic is already available in a dispenser but
we only get that
on weekends. It really sucks
big time. If I want a good paper I go to www.desmoinesregister.com
or other online papers.
I can get the USA Today
online just like in the paper format, but when we are done with the hard
copy,
we take it over to the BLM
entrance station volunteers. We have done that every day since we got here.
They work hard for us all.
They LOVE getting it and the AZ paper, and we love giving it to them.
Heading to Blythe on Sat.
to get supplies for the celebration.
Wonder if we go for a Prime
Rib cooked at home or not?
Going to check the meat
prices in the Q General Store.
They are competitive and
have a great meat department.
When in Q everyone knows
for meat it is the General Store.
Not to be outdone the RoadRunner
food store has also made many upgrades and also has
some very good prices and
a nice selection with new checkouts.
They just had eggs for $.49
and (they added a better meat dept.) hamburger for $1.99 and $2 off each
bottle of booze.
That's drawing them in to
be sure...
But Ya know none of them
have light or no fat anything, or low salt. The winter visitors
still have to go out of town
to stock up on healthy food
items. Like no low fat or light done right salad dressing, or healthy choice
soup, etc.
They booth have had lettuce
for $.69 a head but no dressing you can (or should use on it).
We would still rather spend
our money local, than to give it to Albersons (in Blythe, CA) when we can.
The local stores are doing
better and we like that.
Saturday December 30
We
went to Blythe for goodies for New Years and got out of Albersons for $143
Ouch...
Why
do we do that? Well there was the champagne and wine, a big package of
good steaks, veggies, dip and cheese.
I
forgot what else as it is now stored away, never to be found again. Just
last week we did the same thing for Christmas.
Another few vender food stands
you can find in Q
Now if you need a cap here
they are.
We remember how Q was when
we got here in late Oct. A vender tent city has
sprung up where for most
part of the year is just vaccant lots in the hot desert where
only the hardy can survive.
The venders seem to move around from year to year.
Many spots in the Main Event
are not filled as of yet.
We think the venders know
where the good deals are at to set up shop.
We can see the venders have
moved to other groupings where in years past their was no activity.
That's what free enterprise
is all about, we guess.
We see food venders goruping
together. That way people remember where the food is,
and can choose when they
get there.
Traffic was heavy on Main
St. getting on and off the freeway as they call it out here.
We always try to stop short
and give the big trucks turn, and even stop early and hold traffic for
them.
The on off ramp and overpass
road is narrow on the west exit here in Q, and they need extra turning
room.
Some cars stop right up
on the white line and that is not enought room for them to make a safe
turn
without running over little
cars front ends. They have a hard time dealing with tourists, snowbirds
and such,
so we try to give them a
break. They always give us big wave, or salute and they notice we are looking
for
that acknowledgment. A small
social statement by us, that just might carry over to how they treat other
RVers down the road. They
can see with a 5er hitch in our truck bed that we are almost one of them.
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