OK, it’s Winter. I had to put on socks, shoes and long pants. There were a couple of rainy cold days and I needed more clothes. Now, that the record breaking torrential down pour in the desert has ended, I‘m back to shorts and t-shirts. I’m sure January will bring some more cooling weather but now that it’s warm enough for our daily bike ride I’m happier. We have the furnace turned down at night to 55° and it rarely turns on. For Karma’s morning walk (around 8:30), I try to stand in the sun as much as possible.
We have found 1 American food restaurant that we like and 1 Mexican restaurant that we love; so, eating out works for me. Surprise surprise, there are no oriental places. There are a lot of food vendors already set up with more to come in January. Vendors have snack type of offerings (corn dogs, tacos, lemonade, fried cheese curds (whatever they are), pie, etc.).
We have DirecTV installed with a portable dish/tripod. It was a challenge to figure out the setup and to get reception. The primary problem was getting the TV to the correct input mode. We had been provided a Satellite finder but returned it. Just doing it by hand is easier.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Day 187 (Quartzsite, AZ)
(Sorry, haven't posted in several weeks so this is a long backlog.)
We’ve been here now almost 2 weeks. What to say about Q, as they call it?
Interesting, unique, a bit wacky, a bit tacky – the frontage road on the south side of I-10 consists of 2% sticks and bricks businesses and 98% temporary vendors, here mainly for the winter RVers, and it looks like a big flea market. On the frontage road to the north (Main Street), you’ll find the majority of the town’s sticks and bricks businesses with about 25 % temporary vendors.
Most of the restaurants in town have the same meat and potatoes menu, with lots of fried food and a real scarcity of green vegetables. There are a few Mexican restaurants (some with no Mexican involvement at all so again a bit disappointing) - I guess I really should call them restaurants that serve ersatz Mexican food. There is one that qualifies as a Mexican restaurant and we like it – eat there several times a week – excellent chile verde and yummy beans), a pizza place called Silly Al’s (haven’t tried it yet) and 5 fast food franchises. Of course, there are lots of those temporary vendors selling food as well – but its just more of the same. There are a couple of small grocery stores, a dollar store and a Beall’s.
You get the idea!
We ride our bikes around and explore the permanent and the temporary parts of town. We’ve made a trip to Blythe CA – about 27 miles to the west (actually we had to have the truck towed there) - and another drive to Parker AZ about 35 miles to the north. Blythe has an Albertsons and Parker has a Safeway and a Basha’s (I’d never heard of it – it’s smaller than the Safeway). We have a trip planned to Lake Havasu City (about 75 miles north) where there’ll be more choices. We particularly want to find a Pet Smart and a health food store AND an off-leash dog park.
This is definitely not my cup of tea so, although we’ll enjoy our sojourn here (why ever not!), I can’t imagine ever making a second trip here. One of our goals in coming here was to learn more about RVing, get some upgrades and some repairs done.
We’ve already scheduled –
toilet repair, day/night shade repair, a fix for the truck/RV electrical hook-up that our person in Anchorage screwed up (which resulted in our having to have the truck towed to Blythe our first week here), and today we go to arrange our Satellite TV with DirecTV and DVR set-up.
We’ve yet to get out into the desert desert. Having gotten a fair amount of rain lately, the desert should be blooming. That should add to the allure of the place. In our RV park, many of our fellow residents here have elaborate Xmas light displays – also nice! And there have been some spectacular sunset - very nice!
We’ve been here now almost 2 weeks. What to say about Q, as they call it?
Interesting, unique, a bit wacky, a bit tacky – the frontage road on the south side of I-10 consists of 2% sticks and bricks businesses and 98% temporary vendors, here mainly for the winter RVers, and it looks like a big flea market. On the frontage road to the north (Main Street), you’ll find the majority of the town’s sticks and bricks businesses with about 25 % temporary vendors.
Most of the restaurants in town have the same meat and potatoes menu, with lots of fried food and a real scarcity of green vegetables. There are a few Mexican restaurants (some with no Mexican involvement at all so again a bit disappointing) - I guess I really should call them restaurants that serve ersatz Mexican food. There is one that qualifies as a Mexican restaurant and we like it – eat there several times a week – excellent chile verde and yummy beans), a pizza place called Silly Al’s (haven’t tried it yet) and 5 fast food franchises. Of course, there are lots of those temporary vendors selling food as well – but its just more of the same. There are a couple of small grocery stores, a dollar store and a Beall’s.
You get the idea!
We ride our bikes around and explore the permanent and the temporary parts of town. We’ve made a trip to Blythe CA – about 27 miles to the west (actually we had to have the truck towed there) - and another drive to Parker AZ about 35 miles to the north. Blythe has an Albertsons and Parker has a Safeway and a Basha’s (I’d never heard of it – it’s smaller than the Safeway). We have a trip planned to Lake Havasu City (about 75 miles north) where there’ll be more choices. We particularly want to find a Pet Smart and a health food store AND an off-leash dog park.
This is definitely not my cup of tea so, although we’ll enjoy our sojourn here (why ever not!), I can’t imagine ever making a second trip here. One of our goals in coming here was to learn more about RVing, get some upgrades and some repairs done.
We’ve already scheduled –
toilet repair, day/night shade repair, a fix for the truck/RV electrical hook-up that our person in Anchorage screwed up (which resulted in our having to have the truck towed to Blythe our first week here), and today we go to arrange our Satellite TV with DirecTV and DVR set-up.
We’ve yet to get out into the desert desert. Having gotten a fair amount of rain lately, the desert should be blooming. That should add to the allure of the place. In our RV park, many of our fellow residents here have elaborate Xmas light displays – also nice! And there have been some spectacular sunset - very nice!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Day 184 (Quartzsite, AZ)
Today is 6 months since we left Anchorage!!! We still love our home and are happy we ‘hit the road’.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Day 171 (Quartzsite, AZ)
Having toured the community in an hour yesterday (we drove very slow and had lunch too). We think we will like the quaintness and characters of the desert.
I got up early this morning to get to the local medical center early as the doctor is only in town 2 hours on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Well, the truck failed to start and had a “wrench” symbol. So, I got one of the bikes down and started pedaling. It was about 2 miles with a slight incline so a good cool morning for the ride. The doctor comes out of his Blythe, CA office and when his office told me he’d be there 8:30 to 10:30 it was California (Pacific time) not Arizona (Mountain time). So, I was first in line and an hour early and he was late anyway. So, I have met some of the other retired residents. They told me their stories as we waited for the doc and his staff to arrive.
I got up early this morning to get to the local medical center early as the doctor is only in town 2 hours on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Well, the truck failed to start and had a “wrench” symbol. So, I got one of the bikes down and started pedaling. It was about 2 miles with a slight incline so a good cool morning for the ride. The doctor comes out of his Blythe, CA office and when his office told me he’d be there 8:30 to 10:30 it was California (Pacific time) not Arizona (Mountain time). So, I was first in line and an hour early and he was late anyway. So, I have met some of the other retired residents. They told me their stories as we waited for the doc and his staff to arrive.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Day 169 (Quartzsite, AZ)
On the way from Yuma to Quartzsite, AZ at about 90 miles north of the Mexican border, we had to go through US customs. Seemed a little strange to be in the middle of nowhere, having not left America to be going through Customs. I will have to say compared to the Canadian and Northern US agents at least the questions asked this time seemed to make sense. Did we have anyone in the back and were we American citizens (passports were not requested)? Other than to appreciate our beautiful dog, they did not seem concerned about her health records.
We arrived in Quartzsite Dec. 1 and got settled in at Holiday Palms RV Park on Main Street. The park is rather - well, I guess, ‘plain’ is a good word but its appearance is helped by dozens of palm trees. There are lots and lots of full-time residents with elaborate set-ups adding outdoor ‘rooms’ and such. There are fake lawns everywhere.
OK, Quartzsite is small small small. Though when all of the other snow birds get here it is said to be a small city of RVs and “mature” (age-wise at least) citizens. The crowds are expected to peak around the start of January though it looks like others are coming in with us today.
We arrived in Quartzsite Dec. 1 and got settled in at Holiday Palms RV Park on Main Street. The park is rather - well, I guess, ‘plain’ is a good word but its appearance is helped by dozens of palm trees. There are lots and lots of full-time residents with elaborate set-ups adding outdoor ‘rooms’ and such. There are fake lawns everywhere.
OK, Quartzsite is small small small. Though when all of the other snow birds get here it is said to be a small city of RVs and “mature” (age-wise at least) citizens. The crowds are expected to peak around the start of January though it looks like others are coming in with us today.
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