On Sunday we went for a drive west of Q out past Rainbow Acres and came out south at La Paz Valley and came back to Q from mile marker 99  HW 95.  A nice easy drive where you can get great views going by several old and working mines.

Now on Monday it was a very nasty day in Q wind and cold rain. High might have hit all of 50. Up north in Kingman the reports were 6" of snow and I-40 was slow going. It can stay up there thank you.  At sunset the clouds to the west opened up to let a bit of sun through to produce this double rainbow. 

There is Derek and John's MH on the right with the ham radio tower on the back. 
We saw about ten minutes of sun today and this was it, at sunset. 

At least the the desert dust is cleaned from the  5er.  Now later this week when it warms up...  We will get our new ladder and get to the task of waxing a clean unit. See rain in the desert is good for something. Blooming wild flowers next month will also be a result we can look forward to. 
Terry is making lasagna for supper, with béchamel sauce. We started talking about goulash but lasagna sounded much better.  It is still windy rocking the 5er.  Terry just suggested this is not all that bad as it was warming up way to fast and we needed a cold spell, to slow the onslaught of hot weather we will see already just next month. We have a juggling act to preform as it gets hot here, and still too cold in northern New Mexico at Navajo Dam. in early April. After Terry works I mean plays so hard in Q all winter he needs his time for fly fishing. Oh, about a month or so.
 
 

Wednesday Feb. 11

Derek and John have been boondocking across the road from us in La Posa North as they decide their next move. They were here for the RRV rally during the big tent show. Left to explore the Slab City over by Niland, CA and when that turned out not to be to their liking, came back to good old Q. 
We enjoyed getting to know them better. These two guys are open and sharing and are very easy to be comfortable with. You get that feeling you have known them far longer than you have. But from our blogs many feel like family before we even meet, don't we.  They left today for Palm Springs as a base where they have good friends where they can park while Derek (on the left) is analyzing his next opportunity as an IT computer programing specialist. We will miss having them around. Take care guys... We will see you down the road. Escapees Hugs to You.

(I stole this shot from their blog)

After they left, we went to Blythe, CA to drop off a package at UPS. Little did I know the large UPS lot with a sign that sez Customer Service Center also had another sign on the building  that said OPEN 9AM to 10 AM  Monday - Friday. 
One hour a day. What kind of customer service center is that. 

BUT I Ron saved the day as I thought I remembered that ACE hardware had a sign about picking up UPS packages in their lumber order service area. I sent Terry in and they took the package without question. Now we don't have to run down a UPS truck and talk the driver into taking our prepaid shipping label package.  Now that is out of the way. It was returning a defective slimline fluorescent light that needed to to be returned to NuWa. (Hitchhiker) I asked Terry if he knew about the ACE drop off. Before he could answer, as I knew the answer...  I said Am I good or what!  What could he say... I laid it on by asking him it, again...
 

Since we had a hard time finding chicken in Q at the local food stores last weekend, (it was raining and clod and homemaid chicken soup or somthing sounded good) and as we were in the new Blythe Ranch Market, they had large whole chicken fryers for 99 cents a lb. It is now in the oven and will be done after we watch American Idol. Terry just gave me a chicken liver to munch on. WOW. We also bought catfish and pollock fish for a great price. We all know we need to eat more fish. And in Q that can only happen only on Friday night Fish Frys. And we don't need it deep fried in oil, now do we. But it was very tasty last Friday night when we did just that with John and Derek at the Grubstake. That was fun.

We are looking forward to our  Rock Club field trip outing next week to the Dodge Philps Bagdad Mine tour on Tuesday. 

It's a 140 mile trip from Q and when we get there they load us up in 12 passenger vans (36 people max) and show us around for 2 1/2 hours. Must wear long pants, no open toe shoes, and need sleved shirts. You can bet we will have many pictures and verbiage of this event. 
 

Monday Feb. 16

Monday and the weather is turned to cloudy and in CA it is all out rain. Now they can use it but when we checked the weather for Baddad. No not that place, but here in AZ where the above Dodge Phillps Mine is loacated. 

Weather for Bagdad, AZ
So we decided not to go on the field trip on Tuesday. (See the above pictures of the mine).

Now after we cleaned the truck out. The back seat is even clean as we were going to take our friend Tad with us. I used Armor All on the the dash and bumpers and trim, etc. . Looking good so guess not a total loss. Now if I can just keep Terry from filling the back seat up again with rock club play toys and rocks. 

Think we made the right decission as it is starting to rain in Q. It will get nice again and as Tad said we can go up to the mine on our own and get on a tour anytime at a later date.  Why go when the weather is crummy and we won't have fun doing it as it is a 140 mile drive. 

 Rumor spreading around Quartzsite.

It's not a wildfire but you can see the smoke.  I know, I know this place lives on rumors.  But this is one that would change the entire town and area and not for the better unless you you want to spend time here as it reverts back to a dry spot in the raod. 

The rumor is Kenny King might not bring back the Big Tent Show next year.  Just contemplate what that would mean. 
I have emailed Kenny from my email contact list to my last known address for him so he could reply to this rumor, and have not heard back yet. All contacts to reach them are gone from his site. 
If you go to the Big Tent web site it apears with only generic info. No contacts or links to sign up for anything in the future.  Many of the pictures don't even come up. 

If No Big Tent show in Q. this town might dry up and blow away. 

It already has a love hate relationship atmosphere to it. You either love it here, or hate it. 
It could turn into Slab City north. Wrap your mind around that.
Many of the BLM areas could close for camping, that has been on the table for years. 

Now why might this happen...  It's the economy stupid, of course. 
And the other thought behind this is the city has been pushing venders to put up permanent buildings and not use tents. They have been pushing this concept for a few years now to the venders, and that is not just viable when only used for a few months a year. They just can't get over they want to make this place Palm Springs East. We don't think this town has the water to do that. 
 And just where would the city of Q be when the winter visitors don't come back and find another more welcoming location. Their revenue stream would dry up and could it survive on property taxes that are already out of site. 
This is like the midwestern city whose main manufacturing employer closed up and moved out of town to like Mexico. Most cities would do anythiong to keep that entity viable and happy. Now at this time, all this is just rumor, we hope. 
We wish Kenny King and the big show well (and hope it is here in Q for many years to come) and also the city of Q and all the people who call this place home year round or just for the winter season. 
But seems to us everything, is a changing, and we have not seen anything yet, on how our lives will change. Now that's the word of the year... CHANGE.  Are YOU ready for it. 

We will report more as we hear it.  But for right now enjoy life with the ones you love. Because that is the only thing we can still count on. Tonight at least... 

UPDATE:  Tuesday afternoon...
Just got a email back from Kenny King the promoter of the Big Tent and he sez he is not going anywhere. Also his web site got corrupted and he is workig on it. 
So Quartzsite relax... times they are a changing but just at a little slower pace for now. 

I'm not half as negitive as this video report. 

RVers Disappear from Quartzsite in 2009

 
 
 
 

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