Mesa to Quartzsite to Gila Bend

Jerry picked me up the the Allegiant Airlines terminal in Mesa about 2:30 PM on Thursday, January 20.  We stopped for groceries and it was about 5 PM when we were driving past Tonopah, AZ on I-10.  We stopped for a bite to eat and found out about the hot springs there.  Well, that's just what we needed!  A wonderful oasis in the middle of nowhere with palm trees, lots of different tub sizes and temperatures.  $15 an hour each but worth every penny!  We soaked, had a glass of wine and crashed right in their parking lot!  While soaking, Jerry regaled me with the tales from his batching experience while I was in Missoula.  Lots of hard riding on interesting mountain trails in the Tonto National Forest and fording a waist-high river to get to the Verde Hot Springs.  WOW - he had a ball - no wonder he needed that hot tub!

On Friday, we got settled in at Quartzsite with the Boomers (part of our Escapee RV Club) in "Boomerville" - an area about 7 miles out of Q - out in the middle of the desert.  We ended up with 130 rigs attending during the 2 week period.  We had everything from potlucks to trash can turkey dinners, wine and tasting, geocaching, 4-wheel drive excursions (and Jerry on his two-wheels), personal safety talk, tee-shirt braiding, slide shows, lots of hugs with new and old friends.  Fortunately, our weather was awesome - no wind and temps in the 60-70 degree range!  We only went shopping one way in the huge RV Show tent and bought some new orthotics for our shoes and traded in our mifi for two palm pixi plus phones which act like wifi hot spots and will give us 10 gigs for $10 less than what we had been spending for 5 gigs.  This is with Verizon which is who we have our phones with.  Awesome tent special!

Ate out twice at Grubstake's - a fun tent in town.  Once for my birthday and once with 3 other couples.  Great fish and sliders!  While at Q, two of our original solar panels quit working - luckily we were right there where we purchased them and they were under a 25 year warranty.  So, Jerry took down the defunct ones and we replaced them...an afternoon task.  Yippee - back in business.

On Sunday, January 30, traveled about 2 hours to Gila Bend, AZ - stayed in an RV park to do laundry and dump our tanks.  Then moved on Monday to the Elk's parking lot where we had orientation on Monday night and on Tuesday night, Jerry was initiated into their lodge.  Many of the Elks lodges have inexpensive RV parking and this will come in handy in our travels.  Left there on Wednesday in heavy wind and very chilly temps and traveled to Parker, AZ (4 hours).  We're here on Shea Road about 8 miles out of town, perched near the banks of a wash.  The Parker 425 Road Race will be Saturday and the various kinds of souped up vehicles will be "flying" through the wash.  Attended last year for the first time and had fun.  So far only 5 other Boomer couples here.  Had about 20 last year...  Went into town with Betty and Duane.  The guys walked around and looked at the car show - many of the vehicles which will be racing were there including Robby Gordon's #77.  Betty and I took in a flea market and did grocery shopping.  Back in time for happy hour at our rig with 5 other couples.