S O B in the desert

After Christmas it was back to Casa Grande for a few days to re-provision the rig and then off to Quartzsite Arizona on the 12th of January to meet up with our friends in the Montana Owners Club, most of whom still have Montana 5th wheels. Because we are still members, we are allowed in the circle and don't count as SOBs (some other brand). We set up camp out in the desert in a 420' circle with about 60 other rigs.

Circling around our camp in the morning and evening were some of our neighbors with ultralites that could sail above us with cameras. After taking pictures of our camp they came over and presented us with a series of great aerial shots.

A view of our camp and motor home group camped near us. Also scattered around the desert are small groups and individual campers. This is just one very small area of campers on BLM land. Quartzsite is the Mecca for RVers in January with thousands of trailers, 5th wheels and motorhomes camped out in the desert, enjoying the RV show, gem and mineral show, and lots of vendors of all sorts of things. RVers can find nearly everything they need or want.

Dick took some liberties and filled in 3 or 4 open sites with a little photo shop to form a full circle of Montana's and a few SOB's (Some Other Brands).

Dick got up early (1 day) and got the morning sunrise from our rig. (Actually Jackie got Dick up as she was leaving for her daily walk with several other friends from the circle.) It was a great place to get our daily exercise and enjoy the quiet of the desert.

And in the evening we shared happy hour with about 120 other people while we watched the sunset about the time a campfire was started in the center of the circle.

We watched the full moon rise in the East over the flags flown from all the rigs.

What a sight to see just after watching the sunset and turning around to watch this sight.

Great time with great people, some new friends and lots of old ones.

A view from outside the circle with some of our flags flying.

and a shot of a portion of part of the inside of the circle. From Plomosa Road one could see all our flags flying and know right where the Montana group was.

Dick spent 2 hours riding a quad with a friend in and out of the washes and had a ball. He wants to do it every day but we don't have a quad and we don't have a way to haul one (or two) around.

We had to move out of the circle to another site because our 14 days were up but we went back to travel to the Desert Bar about 5 miles out in the desert with about a dozen other rigs. This is quite a unique place to visit and our 3rd time there. We got to dance to a live band, had lunch and took a few pictures and then back to our dusty, dirty car.

Our last shot done in Black and White of the solid steel construction of this building made as a tribute to the owner's father.

We will spend another few days here and then head to a campground that has all the water we can use to take some very long showers, full hook-ups, and we'll try and clean out the dust from everything. After that we head for the US side of the Mexican boarder and hope to cross over and get some fresh shrimp and cold Margaritas.

To be continued...

Our "vacation" to Washington State

Yes, we know, it’s been several weeks since we took the time to do a posting on our Blog. It’s not that we have been so busy, it just takes a lot of time to plan what to tell and show and to put it all together.

The last we posted we were on our Christmas trip back home to Washington State to visit all the family, and did we do that.

We started right off rushing to get our rental car and heading to Dick’s nephew’s home for a DRIVER family get together. They opened their home and kitchen to all the family and we had a wonderful time including lots of good eats. Thanks Dante and Shosh for hosting the family. We could post a dozen pictures from here but will keep it to just three including a family shot.

Lots of good food and family.

And finally a long past due family photo. Sorry Uncle Dave that you had to stay and work on the boat, we missed you.

After the party we spent a few days visiting with Debbie and Rich at their home in Olympia, which included a day trip back to Seattle to visit the Museum of Flight, where Debbie got to fly a fighter jet and…

Dick got to take a walk in space.

What a spectacular museum with planes on the floor, ceiling and outside plus lots of other unique airplane related displays. If ever in Seattle we would recommend a trip to visit here.

Then it was off to visit with Deanna and Darin including Christmas with them and two of our grandchildren. While there we took in the Christmas light display at Warm Beach Park, a private Christian camp. Lots of beautiful lighted displays, a talking tree, carolers, pony rides and fresh donuts.

The lights depicting the mountains stood about 25' tall; what a display.

Before we headed North to visit Deanna and Darin, Jackie’s brother Brett and his wife Kate hosted a Christmas gathering with dinner for Jackie's side of the family (COOK). It was a real treat to see all her family many of whom we have not visited with in a long, long time.

It's fun to watch second cousins see each other for the first time. We wonder what they are thinking. The one on the left, Jackie's niece's daughter, is actually older than the one on the right, Deanna's daughter. She may be tiny, but she's tough, or so we're told. Those two had fun together and so did the other second cousins. Too bad they live so far apart.

And yes another family picture to share.

Then it was off to Michelle and Jason's for a few days to spend some time with more of our beautiful grandchildren.

A fun time rocking to tunes in the basement.

Well we got 5 of the 6 grandkids. Daisy was standing next to Dick taking her own pictures with her new camera. We also got to see Molly, our oldest granddaughter, ride her horse, but no pictures of that. She is quite the horsewoman.

We headed back to Jackie's brother's for 2 days and then back to the airport and a plane ride back to Arizona.

Thanks to all for sharing your time and families with us. We continue to miss you all but it is a lot warmer here.

We spent a week or so in Casa Grande after our return and are now in the center of the universe in Quartzsite Arizona soaking up lots of sun with a great group of people (the Montana Owners). Lots of beautiful sunrises and sunsets to share but that will have to wait for another posting.

Love to all and
to be continued...

From Texas to New Mexico to Arizona

After finally leaving Texas we made it into New Mexico and one of our stops was Rockhound State Park near Deming. We have been there before and really enjoy the view from the side of the mountain looking west toward town. At night the lights from the city and surrounding area light up the distant valley, yet it's out in the country and very quiet and peaceful.

One of the nights we spent there mother nature decided to show off what she can do and Dick was able to step out of our MH and get several beautiful sunset pictures.

No red filter here just the sky on fire. Or that's what it looked like.

A few days before we took a trip in the late afternoon to White Sands National Monument.
Very nice visitors center and talked to a Ranger that came from Eastern Washington. We did not realize that this park was in the middle of nowhere and just about ran out of gas! We had to travel another 10 miles past the park to get gas and then back to the park.


We had the AC running in the Jeep but it looked like a snow storm had just came through.

Very difficult to get good pictures with white sands and white clouds but we gave it our best try.

People were out there sledding, just like it was snow.

On the way back to our MH we ran across another beautiful sunset behind the mountains.

Before we departed Texas we took a car tour of various old Churches. While we saw 8 or 9 Churches of various sizes and religions we will only post a few in our blog due to space only.

All Churches were open for viewing with no one around so we were able to see some beautiful art work inside.

Most of the Churches are well over 100 years old and have been brought back to excellent condition.

We spent about 2 weeks in Arizona and then got on an airplane and are now visiting family in Washington State. The MH is in storage and we will be back there on the 3rd of January. We'll spend some time re-stocking and then plan on going to Quartzsite for a few weeks to camp with the Montana Owners Club as SOBs (some other brand). We both love being here with the family but can't help remembering how warm it is in Arizona. Luckily CC is still in Arizona with Robbie and Alice (who we hope will give her back!). It's cold here.

To be continued...

Louisiana swamp critters...

While in Louisiana we spent quite a bit of time visiting and touring some of the swamps. One day we took a boat tour through a large swamp and river. It was exciting to see what we would see and get a shot of. You can see the water height changes by the color on the trees.

A great blue heron was just sitting there asking to have his picture taken. What a huge beautiful bird.

This guy was just lying there watching us as we floated by. He measured about 12 to 14 foot long.

Another day we went for a drive along a lake (looks like a swamp to us) and Jackie spotted this guy sitting in the trees as we drove by. Really blended in with the color of the tree but we did get several good shots of him.

Turtles are really hard to get on film. If they see you move, they are gone back into the water. Finally did find three on the log.

We think this is an Anhinga that was just about ready to take off heading for the top of the trees but still in view of Dick's camera where he got some more pictures of him (her).

This fella (gal?) was relaxing in the sun on a floating log. These guys we spotted while walking down the road.

What can we say? What do you think? Picking flowers or a vegetarian?

Interesting what you can see if you look further into the swamp.

Several pictures of Egrets. Hard to get a good shot with those wings flapping hard.

Just at sunset.

Looking for dinner.

Aren't they beautiful?

Hope you enjoy a little different blog with just some of the critters we shot while in Louisiana.

We finished our tour of Louisiana and headed west through Texas (888 miles) and are now in New Mexico for a week or so and then will head to Arizona.

To be continued...