Day 145

Day 145: Quartzsite, AZ to Laughlin, NV. Drove through 3 states today. Arizona, California and Nevada. Gotta tell you the truth, the roads in California suck (sorry all of you Californians). Lazy workers at CalTrans. Seriously, they couldn’t level the road? 49 miles of “dips in the road”, no services, no passing lanes, no marked pull-outs, no nothing! And then we finally get to Needles, CA. Gas $4.79 per gallon. Didn’t want to fill up, but Lee Todd said “better safe than sorry”. Headed out of Needles and the speed limit was 55. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! I have been on better un-maintained dirt roads. We drove a safe 35 mph. People behind us sure didn’t like us very much.
Went through the agricultural check point in California. I kept telling Lee that it was the border patrol and that they weren’t going to let me into the state. (Wonder why he thinks that I am a freak?)
We had a great time in Quartzsite. Got there too late to see all of the crowds. Most of the snowbirds left the middle of March. But the good part of going after the crowds is that we got to actually check out the BLM campgrounds and park where we wanted. The BLM long term site charges you $180 from September 16 to April 15, and $75 from April 16 to September 15. Yep, that’s for the entire season. No wonder it’s such a popular place. No hookups, but unlimited water and RV dumps.
The weather during week 1 was awesome. We sat outside until 8 or 9 pm most nights. Millions of stars. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
Week 2 weather was not as great. Two days of 97 degrees, then 2 days of 45 mph wind gusts. Blew over one of our solar panels and shattered it. It still worked, but we trashed it since we did not want broken glass in the truck.
Sold our big generator on consignment in town. Learned a valuable lesson. Don’t set the “lowest we’ll take price too low”, cause that’s all you are going to get for it. Oh, well, it’s gone and we have all that extra room.
Saw lots of lizards and birds, but thankfully only saw 1 snake that someone had run over. Note to self, dont have a dog that was bred to go into badger holes (Dinky Dawg is 1/4 Dachshund) if you don’t want your arm dislocated by the leash every time a lizard runs by.
Found the PERFECT laundromat in Quartzsite. Lots of washers and dryers, Showers (remember we were dry camping, so water conservation is a must), and a full service restaurant. We did not utilize the showers, but we did have an awesome lunch while the clothes were washing and drying. Best Blue Cheese burger that I have ever eaten.
Went to 3 thrift stores in town. The first one was obviously the local meeting place and they weren’t really interested in moving so you could actually shop. The other 2 were great though. Got me a new pair of Crocks for only 3 bucks! Sweet!
Had a great day trip to Brenda, Arizona. Bought a tee shirt, cause I had to have something to let people know that there was a town named after me. LOL.
Came back to the RV park in Laughlin to spend the next week so we can take care of truck maintenance and stuff. We have actually moved up in the world. We were in ‘Poverty Flat’ last time. Pull-through sites (except you can’t because there is a trailer right behind you). We are now on the ‘central bench’. We can actually setup Dinky’s fence, and then park next to that. This spot is as wide as 3 sites in the other spot. And it’s the same price. Gotta like that. Lots of stuff going on this weekend. Stay tuned…