Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Quartzsite Has Many Sides

We spent 3 nights at Boomerville, and enjoyed renewing friendships and meeting some new folks. Here are some of the views from our motorhome.

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We picked a site away from the fire circle, but it was fairly unlevel. We managed to drive up on 4x4’s and Don put blocks under the jacks to add stability. And we had to use an extra, portable step to get up to the motorhome’s entrance.

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Our daily gatherings for announcements and socializing took place under clear skies and with warm temperatures.

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People have been saying that Jan Moore and I look like sisters for a few years. Sue Pace took this picture of us (thanks, Sue!) and it got lots of comments when I posted it on Facebook. One friend insisted that we must be twins! I’m flattered, because Jan is not only a beautiful woman but a wonderful, fun person to be with, too.

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We enjoyed some spectacular sunsets.

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Don and I braved the crowds and visited the Big RV Show Tent on Sunday, the second day of the 9-day show. When we arrived about 9:30 am, it wasn’t too crowded and we found a good parking place. Inside the tent, we did a little shopping, found what we wanted, saw some friends, and had lunch, then left before the crowds got too bad. Don had his favorite smoked turkey leg, and I had a pulled pork sandwich.

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While we were in town, we picked up the motion-sensor light he had ordered, and he installed it later.

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Frank & Gloria King encouraged their friends Jack and Colleen King (not related) to try the RV life and come visit Boomerville. The 4 of them are involved with an organization called Support R Soldiers, where they send packages of goods and greetings from home, along with a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag signed by everyone in the group, to soldiers deployed. What a nice service they provide!

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Jack & Colleen had such a good experience, they joined both the Escapees RV Club and the Boomers group. Now Colleen is trying to figure out a way to retire early so they can become full-time RVers!

Yesterday we moved to a full hookup site in an RV park on the east side of town. It’s a very different way to enjoy the desert.

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We don’t have the open areas for desert views, but we still see the same skies when there are nice sunsets. And we have a large, level site with small gravel and no large rocks to stumble over. And we have electricity, water and sewer! I caught up all our laundry, vacuumed and mopped the floors, cleaned the toilets, baked cookies and didn’t worry about watching the level of the batteries or water tanks. Don used the California Duster on the outside and the motorhome is showing its usually shiny exterior now. He emptied and flushed the holding tanks, and fixed a couple of small “honey do’s.” He even made one of my favorite dinners – pork chops with marinated, carmelized onions!

Today we had a new See Level tank monitor system installed. It uses sensors placed on the outside of the tanks to avoid problems such as toilet paper causing incorrect readings from the inside sensors. It also reports levels in percentages rather than Empty, 1/3, 2/3, Full, like the standard sensors. Now we’ll know more accurately just how full our grey and black holding tanks are, how much fresh water and propane we’re carrying, and even the level of the batteries (although we have other, better gauges for that). Sorry, I failed to get pictures of the process.

But here’s how the display looks when I pushed the button for Black. The right side of this display (Battery Voltage, etc.) is now non-functional, just left in place to avoid having a hole in the panel, which is inside an overhead cabinet.

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We spent part of the afternoon talking with Marshall & Ulli Krause, who are fellow Escapees and Boomers, and are considering buying a Phaeton motorhome similar to ours. They came over to see our rig and had lots of questions, and we tried to give good answers. Again, no pictures.

We ended the day by having dinner with long-time good friends Larry & Carol Jennings. And I got the waitress to take a picture.

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Carol and I each had a chicken salad, both of which turned out a little different than we expected. Larry had a chicken fried steak, and Don had a huge portion of ham! There’s enough ham left over for at least a couple of meals.

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Carol’s hobby is creating beautiful ceramic pots, and she gave me this one, similar to the one that won her a ribbon at a recent show, as a special gift. Thanks so much, Carol. I’ll enjoy it for many purposes and lots of years!

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4 comments:

  1. Thanks for being so diligent in blogging. Love reading it.

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  2. Hey sis! You are being too kind. You are the beautiful one inside and out. And that red bowl is gorgeous. Hugs, J

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  3. Interesting sensor setup. Our grey tank sensors work o.k. but the black tank sensor is a lost cause I'm afraid.

    That was quite the ham dinner! Wow!

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