Return to Tucson

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We are heading back to Tucson Arizona to a campground we have stayed at before. Back in 2018, we spent the month of March at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park. This time we plan to spend a full two months in the park. The campground itself isn’t all that special but we do like the location just to the southwest of Tucson proper. We hadn’t called for a reservation until late October but were told we would be able to get a spot for the dates we wanted. Our stop in Gila Bend at the Elks Lodge was exactly halfway between Quartzsite and Tucson so the 134 mile drive wasn’t too bad. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and were told which spot we would be in. The reservation system in this park used to be quite old school. There are a bunch of post it notes on the wall indicating which spots are booked. A strong gust of wind might undo all the effort. We found that they had upgraded over the past 5 years and now have a white board to keep track of things - progress.

Our spot this time was much nicer in the Garden View row. We got setup and settled in for some relaxation in the desert. Chris had noticed a posting in the office about a group hike taking place the following morning. We contacted the woman arranging the hike and asked if we could join in on late notice. We were told the more the merrier and were given instructions on where and when to meet. There were about a dozen other campers the next morning and we arranged to carpool to the trailhead to make sure there was adequate parking for the group. Louise had picked out a couple of different trails that started at the Sarasota trailhead in Tucson Mountain Park. She was thinking it would be about a 4 mile hike but could change with input from the group.

Diamond J Hikers Start Up Trail

It has been quite some time since we have hiked with other people, especially a group this size. It was nice to meet some fellow campers and get to know them a little bit as we hiked the Sarasota Trail and some of the Explorer Trail. We did one slight detour along the way to look at an old car that had been abandoned in one of the washes. Often a geocache hidden near something like this would have been the reason for even discovering the nearly buried car. Apparently they had discovered it on their own in past years hikes and wanted to show the new group. It wasn’t clear what kind of car or the age of the vehicle based on the limited view but I suspect it must have been some sort of station wagon.

Name That Vehicle

As we continued east on the Explore Trail, we were on the back side of Cat Mountain which come in at around 3840 feet - a good 950 feet higher than the trail we are on. At one of the breaks, I mentioned that there is a geocache hidden at the very top of the mountain and that we had attempted to do the hike 5 years ago but failed to find the trail to the top. This fact intrigued a few of the more hardcore hikers in the group, but we knew we hadn’t come prepared to do such a strenuous hike on this outing. We did scope out a side trail that looked like it might go up the mountain and I know this wasn’t the route we had tried to follow in our first attempt. We turned around and started our way back to the cars. I had forgotten how beautiful the desert is in Tucson Mountain Park but really enjoyed this hike.

Overlooking Tucson Mountain Park

View of the Catalina Mountains 20 Miles Away

Large Saguaro

Diamond J Hikers Head Back

Back at the parking lot, the group discussed the possibility of doing another hike in the future. There wasn’t a set schedule that was being followed prior to our arrival so it was pretty much free from scheduling. There was about half of the crew that was interested in making an attempt to summit Cat Mountain. We picked a time and date about a week out.

I mentioned in a previous post that we had decided that we would head back to the Western New York area for the summer. We spent a great deal of time investigating various campgrounds trying to formulate a plan. There are numerous state parks that we would enjoy staying at but since they all have 2 week limits and don’t have full hookup sites, it would require a great deal of effort to reserve a string of state parks to cover the 4 months we would like to spend in the area.

We instead looked into some of the private campgrounds thinking we could possibly book a few different ones for a month or two. This would limit our need to travel frequently and allow us to spend some time in different parts of the area. We ended up stumbling upon a relatively new campground near Waterloo New York. This would put us very close to some of the things we want to do in the Finger Lakes region of Western New York and not be too far from our old home area. We called and found out we could get a seasonal site for a reasonable rate. It would work out to be about $22 per day for the six months starting May 1 and even includes electricity. At that price, we could use this as a home base and possibly take some short trips to state parks to get a change in scenery but not end up costing a lot of additional money.

One other thing I needed to deal with was the poor TV reception we were getting with our crank up “bat wing” antenna. I got the ladder out and headed to the roof. It didn’t uptake long to realize the root cause of the problem. The coax cable that sticks up thru the roof and attaches to the antenna output was completely broken. Eleven years of sun and wind had taken its toll on the cable. It took a bit of research to figure out the best way to handle this problem. I ended up being able to crimp on some new connectors and a short length of new cable. Our TV reception improved dramatically. I suspect this cable has been slowly degrading over the past years and should have been replaced years ago.

There are numerous trails that start right out of the campground. In past years, I would often head out there for some pretty decent mountain biking. We headed out for a hike one morning to get a little exercise and find a few of the geocaches we hadn't found yet. There seems to always be something neat to see in the nearby desert landscape. What looks like a desolate area, often has all sorts of things going on if we simply stop and look. This area is full of saguaro cactus but given we are only 6 miles from Saguaro National Park West, it isn’t too unexpected. One of the geocaches we looked for, led us to a large spiral stone path somebody took some time to create.

A Very Young Arm Forming on Saguaro

Stone Artwork in Desert Behind Campground

Barrel Cactus with Yellow Fruit

Our next real hike was one in the National Park. The Hugh Norris Trail starts off Hohokam Road which is part of a one way scenic drive thru the park. It’s a dirt road but is in pretty decent shape. This trail is often used to get to the top of Wasson Peak. We have already done that summit from another trailhead, so we weren’t looking to repeat that one. We had other options though. One was to simply hike this trail as an out and back which would be a little more than 5 miles. But by tacking on two other trails (Sendero Esperanza and Dobbie Wash) it could be turned into a 6.6 mile loop. We felt the extra distance would be worth it to complete the hike as a loop.

Hugh Norris Trailhead

Hugh Norris is a pretty hike but it is definitely all uphill for the first 2 miles or so. From the looks of things, this trail must have been recently upgraded by the park. There were hundreds of new stone steps in place and the gravel that makes up the trail doesn’t seem to have and sections that were washed out. The views were incredible as we continued the slow climb.

Excellent Views As Elevation Gained

Sample of Major Stone Steps on Hugh Norris Trail

We were noticing two helicopters that were ferrying supplies overhead. Even though they were loud when they flew past us, their route was long enough that we only heard them every now and then. A mile or so up the trail, we ran into a worker in bright orange safety gear including a hard hat. He wanted to inform us that there were helicopters flying overhead and we should pay attention. Turns out they are taking the supplies up to an old mine shaft in order to block it off from visitors since the stay out signs don’t seem to work.

Helicopter Moves Supplies

It was definitely a wonderful hike. At about 2.6 miles in, we have an intersecting trail. Continuing east would lead up to Wasson Peak. Heading south would lead to another trailhead parking lot. We take the third option to the north onto Sendero Esperanza Trail. This leads down from the saddle point and is reasonably easy going.

View of the Valley Below

Looking Towards Wasson Peak

King Canyon Area to South

Another Load Goes By

View Back the Trail We Came Up

The trail snakes down the side of the hill and eventually ends up following a wash. A mile from the saddle point, we come upon another turn onto Dobbie Wash Trail. The wash was definitely dry but there were some sections where the sand was rather deep and made for tiresome walking. It’s about 1.4 miles down this wash before we hit Hohokam Road again.

Looking Down Sendero Esperanza Trail

In the Wash

We are still 1.3 miles from the car. In theory, there is a side trail that parallels the road so we wouldn’t need to walk on the dusty road. But each time we believe we find the hiking trail, we realize it is rather overgrown and would make for challenging hiking. It’s one thing to bushwhack through brush but quite another when the “brush” are cacti, ocotillo and other prickly plants. We end up walking the road and only have to contend with a dozen or so cars along the way. There is plenty of room to walk the road from a safety standpoint. The only real issue with the cars is the cloud of dust each one kicks up. In hindsight, it likely would have been a more pleasant hike to simply do the Hugh Norris portion as an out and back hike.

Closeup View of Ocotillo

We had a couple of days off to recuperate and get caught up on other chores around the rig before going on our next major hike. This was going to be the group hike we planned last week to the top of Cat Mountain. This peak seems to really intrigue me. Since our first visit to the area 5 years ago, Cat Mountain is one of the more prominent peaks in the area. The fact that it is right next to Ajo Way - the main road between camp and Tucson - means we drive by the place on a consistent basis. It generally runs in an east/west direction and is about a mile long but it is rather narrow in cross section at less than 1/3 mile. The view of the mountain from the road is impressive even from a few miles away where it is clear how abruptly the peak juts out of the ground. The south side of the mountain is quite steep with lots of sheer vertical faces but the profile is quite distinctive.

View of Cat Mountain from Ajo Way

The six of us meet at the campground office and head over for our attempt of Cat Mountain. We would follow the path we took last week on the north side of the mountain until make it about 2/3 of the way across the length of it and find the faint trail that starts the true climbing portion. It’s just under 2 miles to get to this point and will only be 0.6 miles more to the top but in that short distance we will need to climb nearly 900 feet - an average slope of 28%. We took a break at this spot and chatted with an older couple that were heading up the same trail. Turns out they have hiked this peak several times before and told us this was the more reliable route to the top unless you want more serious rock climbing.

View Along Trail in Tucson Mountain Park

View of Cat Mountain Ridgeline from Below

The six of us start up a few minutes after them. The trail is quite faint at points, but there are lots of rock cairns to help keep us on course. There were many steep rocky sections that made for challenging footing. I wasn’t even close to the top yet, but was already dreading the descent back down. We caught up with the other couple and made our way past them. After about 0.2 miles we had climbed almost 400 feet but hit a large rock outcropping that we needed to get past. It wasn’t like the climb was impossible but it was rather exposed with a very steep drop off if there was a mistake. I wasn’t too concerned climbing up since I would be facing the climb, but Chris realized that even if she made it up this spot, she would eventually need to come back down it and she would likely freeze with fear. The other woman with us agreed with Chris’ assessment of the situation and the two of them decided to make this their stopping point. The remaining 4 of us made it up past the outcropping and were effectively on the ridge line of the mountain.  Now we could see to the south side and all the homes and the busy road below. There were definitely some great views from this point.

The View Improves with Elevation

Made it to Cat Mountain Ridge

Taking a Break on Way Up

We were actually thinking we were close to the top since there appeared to be just one more steep point to crest. Unfortunately, I peaked at my Garmin and realized while we only had 1/3 mile left, we still had 300 feet of elevation to go. Turned out the real top of the mountain was well beyond the portion we could see. We pushed on and followed the ridge. There were a few spots where the ridge was narrow and steeply dropped off on both sides, but it was never so narrow that I thought I would fall. The biggest problem was to avoid the cactus that sometimes blocked the middle of the ridge and forced us to pick a side to get around it. We eventually made it to the very top. There is some sort of radio repeater at the top hidden under a large fake rock with a solar panel glued to it. The sign warns that the signal is monitored by the sheriff’s department and if it is disturbed, a helicopter will be immediately sent out to investigate. We decide to leave well enough alone.

Another Small Obstacle Along the Ridge

Are We to the Top Yet?

Great Views from Here

Shows How Narrow the Ridge Is

We Made It! - Radio Repeater Under Fake Rock

The other three guys find a place to sit and have a snack while I wonder over past the peak to look for the geocache. It had not been found in almost two years and a geocacher from last year had logged a “did not find” so I was a bit concerned that our attempt to get up here would result in the same disappointment. It didn’t take more than a minute to locate the container tucked under a large rock so my goal was completed. I headed back to the group and pulled out my snack. It was then I realized I had both mine and Chris’ energy bar in my pack - oops.

Overlooking Tucson Estates and Golden Gate Mountain

As we sat and chatted, the older couple made their way to our spot. We talked with them for some time. They are locals and have done many hikes in the area. Surprisingly, the husband was 82 years old! I’m not sure I will be doing this tough of a hike at that age but it’s good to know it can be done. We took the opportunity to have them take a picture of the 4 of us to prove we made it to the top of Cat Mountain before we start the long, slow descent. The two ladies had grown tired of waiting and had already started down. Our view from above allowed us to see how far ahead of us they were but we gradually caught up to them and got back to the car safely. Epic hike and glad I had a group to enjoy it with.

At Summit of Cat Mountain

Our Track to Cat Mountain Peak

Our campground is only about a 12 mile drive to Saguaro National Park West. We have done quite a bit at the park during previous stays but we still stopped by the visitor center to see if they had any ranger talk or walks that sounded interesting.  Most National Parks have pretty good ranger programs and this one had a large selection to choose from. One that sounded like a fun one was a sunset hike. We called and added our names to the list and were given instructions on where and when to meet. The planned route for the hike would cover a portion of the Hugh Norris hike we did just 4 days ago. We arrived to find about 16 visitors and 3 park rangers.

Saguaro NP Sunset Hike

The plan was to hike out the Sendero Esperanza Trail about 1.75 miles - gaining 650 feet in the process. The hike was scheduled to get us up to the saddle point with the Hugh Norris Trail a little before sunset. On the hike along the way and up the side of the hill, we stopped frequently to learn some interesting facts about the plants, animals and geology of this area. We even learned a survival fact we hope to never need to use. The barrel cactus found in this area have a pulpy inner section that is edible to humans and could provide for some fluids if we ever got in a bad situation.

Starting Up

We made it to the viewing point for sunset with plenty of time to spare. We were told to wander around the immediate area to find a spot to watch the sunset and then come back in 30 minutes for the hike back down the hill and along the wash. As the sun started to set, the colors on the mountains to the east got quite vibrant. The moon was just coming up and was a few days shy of being full.

Looking East Around Sunset

People Waiting for Sunset

We actually ended up with a pretty decent sunset which was nice since we had put in a fair amount of effort to get to this spot. There are about 10 shallow ponds visible to the west. The ranger informed us these are holding ponds that help to recharge the aquifers. The reflections off the water added a little bit more interest to the shots.

Holding Ponds

Vibrant Sunset Colors

Even though there was a thin cloud layer obscuring the moonlight, we all managed to make it back down the hill without incident and without the need for any flashlights. We were quite impressed with one family that consisted of mom and dad, each with a young child in a backpack, and 4 other kids all under 10. They all made the hike with almost no whimpering or complaining. Even though we had done about a mile of this hike before, it seemed quite different doing it around sunset instead of early afternoon.

A few nights later, we had another nighttime outing. This one required a little less effort since it was a group of 20 campers heading out into the desert for a small star party. One of our neighbors has a pretty nice telescope and had set it up so we could all take a look at some of the celestial objects in the night sky. It worked out well until the full moon rose over the mountains to the east and really did a number on the dark sky observations. It was still fun to get out with a bunch of  other campers.

Quartzsite AZ Again

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We enjoyed our stay at the Lake Havasu Elks Lodge and were pleased to have our slide out problem taken care of while we were in civilization. Our next stop would be back to Quartzsite Arizona for a Newmar Rally on BLM land just south of town. It’s less than a 80 mile drive to the Roadrunner Camping area. It’s a fairly easy drive since it is almost all on a state route. This will be the fourth time we have come here in mid January to attend the “Gathering in the Desert”. We were here in 2017, 2018 and 2020 just before COVID hit. We have enjoyed attending the event in the past and worked it into our travel plans for the beginning of the year. The plan is to spend 8 nights before moving east to Tucson.

Quartzsite is a quirky little town with a population of just over 2300 residents, but each winter around this time, many tens of thousands of campers descend to the area to attend rallies and go to the big RV show that is put on each year. There are several conventional RV campgrounds around town, but the vast major those coming here will park their rig in the desert and camp without any real services like water, electric or sewer. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is a federal agency that administers several hundred million acres of land much of it out in the western United States. They have a handful of areas defined around Quartzsite where they permit camping for free with a 14 day limit. There are also a couple of Long Term Visitor Areas that have a similar camping setup but charge a $40 fee to stay 14 nights. These areas come with some services though - vault toilets, trash dumpsters and fresh water fill and dump stations. For the really hard core boondockers, you can get a 7 month pass for one of these LTVAs for a mere $180 bucks.

The couple that use to organize the Gathering in the Desert as part of the Newmar Kountry Klub, have sold their rig and have passed the reins to a new crew. We were arriving a few days before the main rally was to begin in order to partake in some off road Jeep excursions. There were about 15 rigs already here when we arrived. We picked out a spot in the line that was forming and got setup. Since this rally always is at the same location in the Roadrunner area, I suspect that the 4 spots we have stayed at over the years would all fit into a circle with a 300 foot radius. The organizers had a table setup with registration information and the forms that need to be filled out for the BLM permit. They are expecting about 130 rigs to show up for the rally with maybe 30 of us coming in early for the off road pre-event.

Newmar Rigs Lined Up for Rally

Shortly after signing in, I came out of our rig and nearly took a spill on our steps. A linkage that goes between the step motor and the steps had broken and the steps now behave more like a swing. I managed to secure them so we could at least come in an out without the risk of taking a fall. The same part had broken six years ago, so at least I knew how to fix it but it might be difficult to find the very specific part for our model of steps in Quartzsite.

There was a meeting in the afternoon for those of us that were planning on going out for a ride on some of the local trails in the surrounding desert and hills. Most of the people here for the ride were in some sort of Jeep Wrangler. Some were stock units while others were lifted and substantially modified for even more serious terrain. While our Grand Cherokee Trailhawk is likely 75% as capable as a stock Wrangler, it was also quite new and has yet to get all scraped up. After discussing the intended route for the ride tomorrow morning, we decided we might just skip the off roading aspect of the rally and find other things to do before the real rally begins.

One other thing we needed to start thinking about soon was “where are we headed this summer?” I knew people around the campfire at the rally would ask and we didn’t really have an answer. Given we had most of this past summer’s camping sites for Colorado reserved by this time last winter, we were really behind on the planning. I suggested two options to Chris for consideration.

One thought was to recreate the plans we had made for the summer of 2020. We were going to head north to Canada and check out the Rockies, some of the national parks and do things like the Calgary stampede before heading west to British Columbia. That trip was cancelled when COVID caused the border to be closed. The second option was to head back to western New York. We had spent over 30 years in the Rochester area before leaving for our current lifestyle in 2016. We made a brief stop in the area for a couple weeks as we were heading to Maine in 2018 but we haven’t been back since. After some thoughtful consideration, we decided it would be nice to head back to our old stomping grounds somewhere around Rochester. Of course, we still needed to make concrete plans and reservations if we have any hope of pulling that off, but this will be a discussion for future blog posts.

We have spent a total of 40 nights camping here during our prior 3 visits to Quartzsite, so we have seen much of what there is to see in the area. But we had a couple of days to kill before the rally starts so we need to come up with something. One day we headed into town to do a little sightseeing. There was one small park that we had been to before to attend a geocaching event and we discovered there was a geocache there we hadn’t bothered to do. The monument there is in honor of Hi Jolly. This man was the caretaker of a group of 70 camels that were part of an experiment on using the beasts as part of the war effort in the 1850’s in this part of Arizona.

Hi Jolly Monument in Quartzsite

On another day, we dusted off the mountain bikes and headed out for a ride on an ATV trail with a series of geocaches hidden along it. As you can see from the included geocaching map, there is no shortage of geocaches hidden in the area. The smiley faces are ones we have found, but it’s clear from all the green and blue pins representing ones we haven’t found, we will likely never clear out all the caches in Quartzsite! Our ride looked to be about a 13 mile loop along some trails we haven’t explore previously. It was a nice ride and we only ran into a few ATVs along our route. The pictures from the ride give a sense of how vast and remote the desert lands are here. By the time we made it back to the rig, we had gotten in a 15 mile ride.

A Plethora of Geocaches Around Quartzsite

Along Our Bike Ride

After a few days, our area in the Roadrunner BLM was starting to fill up with lots of Newmar motorhomes. The weather was rather chilly so it looks like some of the fair weather campers might end up skipping the event. Starting on Wednesday afternoon, the rally kicks off in earnest with happy hour followed by a spaghetti and meatball dinner. All the attendees brought their camp chairs to the area around the fire pit and we all enjoyed a nice meal and got to know some of the folks.

The next two mornings, we had various speakers scheduled to give presentations to the group. We sat in on most of the talks since many of them were on topics or products we were interested in learning about more. One of the couples that was sitting next to us for most dinners and talks told us about the fairly extensive solar system they had installed in their rig. I was a bit jealous since we have been considering adding solar panels and switching from our flooded lead acid house batteries to lithium batteries for some time, but weren’t finding an installer we were feeling confident with.

A Group of Owners Listen to Presentation

We knew a system that would do what we want would be rather pricey. We weren’t looking to make the addition to “save money”, our goal was to get much greater flexibility when we do dry camp, be it in the desert like our current location or simply at an Elks Lodge that doesn’t have electric hookups. Such a system would eliminate or at least greatly reduce the number of hours we need to run the generator to recharge our battery bank. For reference, we find we need to run our generator twice a day - usually around breakfast and dinner - for about 2.5 hours at a time in order to bring our eight 6 volt batteries back to a full charge. For this stop, I estimated that we used $8.50 per day in diesel fuel so it’s not a lot of money. But if the solar panels could charge the batteries in the course of the day, we wouldn’t need to listen to the generator and could have a more peaceful stay when boondocking.

We asked the couple about where they had the install work done and were told back in Nappanee Indiana which is the town where Newmar motorhomes are manufactured too. Then they mentioned that one of the talks coming up was from the folks that did their system. Turns out that Solar Energy Systems LLC sends a rather large team and lots of parts out to Quartzsite and have a location at the RV show where they do some install work. Our rally hosts had contacted them and setup a presentation on the second morning. We listened to the talk and asked our new friends some more detailed questions of the capabilities of their system. We even got a tour from them of their rig and the setup. It was rather impressive what they could do and on most days their battery bank would be fully charged by mid afternoon.

Up until now, we were having trouble finding a company that we felt confident in doing such a major upgrade to our rig. But after listening to the presentation and getting first hand information from a client, we felt this might be the time to make the change. We spoke with the company’s owner and gave him the rundown on what we were looking to accomplish and he did some rough estimates on pricing. We weren’t positive we wanted to have the system installed out in the desert even though that sounded like it was a possibility. We told him we were working on our travel plans for the upcoming year and that we could swing through Indiana in late April. He penciled us into their schedule and told us he would follow up with a written estimate in the coming weeks. One added perk is that this solar install would qualify under one of the clean energy credits the federal government is offering. Thirty percent of the total system’s cost would end up being a tax credit. I’ll have lots more on this topic in future posts.

Back to the rally itself, we had a couple of nights with entertainment. Both were solo artists and they performed on a flatbed trailer as a stage. The music started before sunset but extended into the night. In the desert, the temperature drops pretty quickly once the sun goes down. And since the days have been rather cool, it was outright cold at night.

Music by Rocky

Decent Crowd for the Music

And the Sun Sets

A Fire to Keep Us Warm

One of the meals was a pizza party. A local vendor was able to supply 80 pies for the group although it did take them 2 trips from the shop in town to deliver them in a warm condition. Another evening brought a chili contest. There were at least 20 entries plus the hosts had made a huge pot so there was plenty for all.

Chili Cookoff Table

On the Saturday of the rally, a good portion of the group was going to head out to a place called the Nellie E Saloon or its more common name - the Desert Bar. We had been here back in 2018 out of our stop in Lake Havasu City for the fireworks festival. It’s quite an unusual place and we were looking forward to going back after 5 years. The plan was for all those wanting to attend, try to arrange car pool options and leave the rally around 10 AM. We ended up getting in touch with some friends of ours we met back in 2017 at a casino in Tucson who happened to be camping in a different BLM area on the north side of Quartzsite. It had been a few years since we had met up with them since we have been in Florida for the past two winter seasons and they are snowbirds from Washington state that drop down into the desert southwest. We got coordinates from them - we first met them because they are avid geocachers as well - and we arranged to meet them at their rig and bring them along.

Metal Artwork at Entrance to Desert Bar

It is a very bumpy 5 mile dirt road back to this remote, off grid bar. We got there early enough to grab a table and chairs and scoped out what the food and drink options were. We had a lot of catching up to do with them but managed to get a sense of what they have been up to. The Desert Bar seems significantly larger since the last time we were there. They do seem to get a rather large crowd with many of the visitors taking alternate routes in their ATVs. A band was just setting up as we finished our lunches and went to walk around. There were a couple of geocaches but only one of them was very close. Our friends had already found this one in a prior visit but agreed to accompany us over some of the ATV trails to the cache so we could sign in.

Some of the ATVs Out Back

Behind the Stage as Band Starts

View from Geocache Location Near Desert Bar

The time seemed to fly but we decided to head back with a quick stop at a larger grocery store than Quartzsite offers. We got back to our friends spot and sat around chatting some more until we realized we needed to hustle back for the chicken dinner that was being catered that evening for the rally. The rally ran smoothly with one exception. Nearly 40 rigs that responded with a “will attend” did not show up. But since much of the food was catered in and had to be paid for in advance, the original cost per rig was based on all the people showing up not just 75%. Those of us that did show up agreed to add some extra money to the kitty so the organizers didn’t have to deal with the shortfall. We all agreed that there needed to be a better way to somehow pay upfront to coax all people to show up if they registered and if not at least defray the costs.

We didn’t have much happening on Sunday. The RV show had started over the weekend, but we had walked the big tent with hundreds of vendors in past visits and we weren’t really looking forward to the massive crowds so we decided to skip it this time. Our friends drove down to see us again, mainly to pick up a hat that mistakenly was left in our Jeep unnoticed. We sat and chatted some more before we said our goodbyes.

A Sliver of Moon Sets Over Quartzsite

We enjoyed our time at the rally and are really looking forward to having solar and new batteries installed in a few months. I needed to tie up the broken steps before heading out. I had found a replacement part while in Quartzsite, but the weather was not cooperating and I wasn’t in the mood to lay on the cold ground with 30 MPH winds blowing. Our next reserved spot is in Tucson for a full 2 months.  The drive is nearly 270 miles so we stop at the midpoint in Gila Bend at the Elks Lodge. We had stayed there once before back in 2020. They do not have any utilities but there is a large fairly flat gravel lot to park for the night. We had the place to ourselves and was a relatively quiet evening. The weather was much improved here so I crawled under the rig and with Chris’ help got the steps working again. I hope this new part lasts for as long as we own the rig.