Arizona

In the Desert Again (Quartzsite, AZ)

I’m behind on the posts again as usual… this one brings you up to date on Friday and Saturday:

Friday evening we met up with our friends from Oklahoma again at the Casa Grande Elks Lodge for Spaghetti dinner.  My mom, stepdad, brother Steve & Cheryl also joined us.

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(L to R) Jerry, Mom, Steve, Cheryl, Jim, Stilla, and Marilyn.

We had a good time… some liked the spaghetti, while others not so much, and the margaritas could have been better.   But the company was awesome 🙂  It was great that my family was able to join us and its always fun to be with Jerry & Marilyn.  We hope to link up again with Jerry & Marilyn in Quartzsite next week.  We also plan to meet up with my mom, stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after the Rally in Quartzsite for some 4-wheeling fun on the ATV’s.

On Saturday we finished packing up and headed on over to Quartzsite for the Alpine Coach Desert Rat Rally… a three hour drive from Casa Grande:

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Coming into Quartzsite on Hwy 10.  The big RV show tent is visible in the distance on the left.
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Exit onto 95 north.
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Left turn into Quartzsite to follow 95 north.
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Town of Quartzsite sign.
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Right turn coming up to follow 95 north.

This is the main place to take on water or dump tanks in town (below).  We filled up with water (~100 gal) in Casa Grande before we left and the waste tanks are still empty from five weeks ago before we left for Germany, so we passed on by.

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Yup… the Silverado’s still behind us.
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Right turn onto Plomosa Rd. about 6 miles north of town.
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RVs everywhere.

We followed the ACA signs that our Rally Host(s) Frank & Dessa Halasz had strategically placed.

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Pulling into the Alpine Coach Association (ACA) designated dry camping area.

We pulled into the same general spot we remembered having last year.  Less than ten Coaches here so far.

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Front window view from our parking spot.

As usual, the first thing we do after parking the Coach is to open the engine door to let the heat escape.  If we forget to do this the bedroom gets uncomfortably warm from the heat rising off the engine.

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We decided to leave the ATV on the truck until we get a chance to run back into town to top off the fuel tank.  I noticed that we forgot to fill it up before we put it away the last time we rode it.

 

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By the way… the hitch extension, aka “Louisiana Guard Dog®” that my brother Ronald helped me modify, kept the ATV securely in place.  Today’s trip was the first time we got to test it out.  Thanks again Ron!  I blogged about ‘beefing up’ this combination hitch extension/ATV holder (HERE) when we were in Westley, CA at Ron & Terry’s house last year during Halloween.

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Hitch extension doubles as ATV ball hitch mount.

And here we are… back in the desert again looking forward to the Alpine Coach Association’s “Desert Rat Rally XV”!  All the Alpines should be here by Tuesday when the Rally officially kicks off.

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Check back for my next post about our Sunday trip to the Desert Bar near Parker…