Friday, January 30, 2015

Pacific Ocean Trip

Quartzsite is a great place to spend the winter.  I have found a campground called Brenda’s RV Resort small and just a great little place.  They have orange, grapefruit, and tangelo trees in the campground they are loaded with fruit…lots of fruit and fruit juice just for the picking.

With the Super Bowl in Phoenix that is about all that is on the local new except the rain we are having.  The locals are really thankful for the rain before the dry spring season.


I took a road trip to see the Pacific Ocean via Joshua Tree National Park in CA and have attached some of the pictures I took.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park...Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park a view from my camp site

Joshua Tree National Park a view from my camp site

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park 

Santa Monica Beach State Park CA

Santa Monica Beach State Park CA

Santa Monica Beach State Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA

Joshua Tree National Park CA
That speck on the top is a climber

And here is a better shot of the climber

The sign is hard to read but it is "Hollywood"


Santa Monica Beach






Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Quartzsite AZ

Left Atlanta on Monday 1/12/15 cold and wet day with hopes of seeing good driving conditions.  Drove all day and spend the night in Waskom TX.  And no the weather never got better in fact it continued to get cooler.  Not cold just above freezing and misty rain all day.  Tuesday same weather but the traffic was good no delays and very little road work.  Spent Tuesday night in Barstow TX.
I was on the road early Wednesday morning (before daylight) I was now in Central Time Zone crossing into Mountain Time zone.  I knew I was close to merging with I-10 that dipped south in lieu of west the direction I needed to proceed in.  My GPS decided there was a better way…I looked at the routing but not really taking a good look.  When I stopped for the night the temperature was around 30 and misty rain…now it was 30 with no rain.   So I think I done good stopping early last night to miss the possible black ice.  My GPS took a short cut that saved my 3 miles and took me through the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico through the oil fields and some rough icy roads what a trip.  I know now to pay more attention to the routing of the GPS.  In the higher elevations the temperature got down to 24 and it was a light rain and ice.  I made it through and all was well.
After I got back on the interstate and into NM the temperature starting rising and the sky cleared up.  I spend Wednesday night in Eloy AZ just east of Phoenix.  Thursday I got the truck/camper washed all the freezing rain and road grim likes to hang around for lasting memories.  I checked one campground that I found interesting in Bouse AZ but they were full so I continued on Quartzsite AZ the home of the desert Snowbirds.
Quartzsite is about what I was expecting…every type and size camper you could think of was there.  Lots of people and lots of different groups.  I happen to setup camp near a HAM radio group and was talked into attending one of their meeting.  No I did not sign off for the HAM radio license test but the lecture was interesting.


The weather here is nice in January cool nights warm days with lots of sunshine.  Plenty of hiking opportunities.  Lots of off road trails for the 4 wheelers and wide aprons on most of the paved roads for bike riding.  The primary interest in the town is RV’ing and rock/gem collecting.