Tag Archives: Jeep

Day 3 – Desert Rat Rally XV (Quartzsite, AZ)

Not a whole lot of commentary on today’s blog post… most of the pictures will just have to speak for themselves.  We’ve either been ‘on-the-go’ or got too busy socializing for me to spend much time on the blog today and I don’t want to get behind.  Plus, the internet connectivity slowed waaayy down here with all the folks sharing the bandwidth.  So here we go…

Here’s the rally agenda again (below), but instead of attending the scheduled Safety Meeting, we joined our friend Frank Krauland in his Jeep and went on a 4-wheel drive trip with 5 other couples in their Jeeps.

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Updates on the whiteboard in front of the rally tent (below).

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This morning’s donuts… ya gotta get there early to get some 🙂

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Ultra-lights buzzed around over our coaches early in the morning:

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Alpiners socializing in the morning sun just outside the rally tent:

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Safety Meeting (below) with Mac the Fire Guy (←link to his website).  We’ve attended a couple of his seminars before at other venues and he has a booth in the “Big Tent” at the rally show.  If you get the opportunity, you’ve got to see his presentation.  We passed on the meeting today and went Jeepin’.

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Stilla and I jumped into Frank’s Jeep and we spent the day off-road… follow along:

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Airing down the tires.

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Old abandoned house we stopped to visit.

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We stopped to check out an old mine:

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Looking for Gold ?

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We stopped at the ruins of another cabin with a mine pit (shaft) nearby.

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We checked out the mine shaft.

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Lunch.
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Roadside lunch break.

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Friends Greg & Marcy Vaughan.

We finally found “Dripping Springs” 🙂  But it wasn’t dripping today.  A really beautiful location.

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Cabin ruins at “Dripping Springs”.

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Indian (er… I mean Native American) petroglyphs at “Dripping Springs”.

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The 4-wheel drive crew (most of them) posed for a pic at “Dripping Springs”.

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Time to head back…

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But first we stopped at “Moe’s Cabin”.  A popular stop for 4-wheelers and off-road vehicles:

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“Moe’s Cabin”.

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I put a new card on the wall with the others.  Our old card from last year was still there 🙂

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Inside Moe’s Cabin:

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Moe’s gravesite (?)

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Hwy 10 bridge (below) where the smaller ATV’s can cross under the highway.  We skirted the highway in our larger Jeeps.

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Some of the Jeeps aired their tires back up with on-board air compressors before getting on the highway back home.

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A couple of us had to stop at the Chevron™ in town to air the tires back up.

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Frank airing up his tires.

What a great 4-wheel drive trip.  Thanks for the ride Frank!  We’ll have to come back to some of these trails again with my mom, stepdad, brother Steve & Cheryl when they get here Sunday with their ATV’s.

We made it back to the Alpine Coach rally site off Plomosa Rd just in time for Happy Hour!

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Norm Cannon came prepared for Happy Hour 🙂

The pizzas arrived courtesy of Silly Al’s Pizza (←link) in Quartzsite.  If you ever get a chance… it’s really good, but good luck finding a seat for more than a couple people if you visit the place during the RV show week 🙂

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Happy Campers:

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After filling up on Silly Al’s pizza and salad, we had live entertainment by Art Michaud.  His website (←link) says that he has a repertoire of over 1500 songs and has over 30 plus years of musical experience as a One-Man-Band/vocalist extraordinaire utilizing both acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizer, bass pedals, drum machine and vocal harmonizer for background vocals.  I think everyone would agree, he was really good and provide for awesome entertainment until late in the evening:

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Party time!

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Great times… Great people… 🙂

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The crowd slowly dwindled down and we finally called it a night.  And what a great night it was 🙂

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Alpine Coach “Yard Art”.

A couple more Arizona sunsets from Quartzsite:

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Sunset reflection off the side of the Urban Escape Vehicle.

Join us again tomorrow to see what’s going on…

 

FCRV Rolling Springs (Colorado City KOA)

Friday was another wash & wax day since I was so rudely interrupted by the exploding expandable hose that I talked about in my previous post.  I decided to get another pocket hose from WalMart on Friday after doing some research on-line.  It seems that no matter which version of expandable hose you choose – there are many negative reviews on each.  The pocket hose is cheaper than the x-hose and this time I saved the receipt.  Anyway, I finally got the whole coach washed… it’ll take awhile for the waxing though – one section at a time is the best approach 🙂

On Saturday, we decided to go see the folks in the camping group we belong to – the Rolling Springs Chapter (FCRV).  So we jumped into the Silverado and drove down to the KOA in Colorado City where the group is having their weekend campout.  We “crashed” the party and got caught-up with folks… especially my Dad and Stepmom.  This KOA is about 65 miles South of Colorado Springs.  We stayed here with the group once last year.  Nice campground, but of course at KOA prices…

When we arrived around noon-time, most folks were out enjoying the local sites so we hung out with Biff & Linda Anderson outside their Monaco Coach (we still had our folding chairs in the back of the Silverado) until my Dad and Stepmom Elaine got back.  It was great catching up with them… Biff & Linda were especially helpful to us before we started our trip up to the Pacific NorthWest back a couple/few months ago… they provided us invaluable tips on routes and best places to stay because they had been before.  Thanks Biff & Linda!  It was great seeing you again.

Finally, my Dad & Stepmom Elaine arrived back at the CG.  It was really good to see them again too!  We haven’t seen each other since late July when we convoyed together to Lake Tahoe and spent an awesome week together at the Sugar Pine Point CG with some cousins that live in California.

This is the first opportunity we had to see Dad’s new Jeep!  He hasn’t gotten the baseplate installed yet to tow it behind his “FRED”.  That’s short for Front Engine Diesel.  It is made  by Gulfstream and the model is the Crescendo.  Elaine drove the Jeep down from COS, following Dad in the Coach.  Next time, I’m sure he’ll have it set up to tow.

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Dad “Bill” and his new 2014 Jeep Sahara

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Nice Jeep Dad!

Of course as soon as a hood goes up, others come by to check it out too 🙂

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I got to test drive it.  We all piled in and went over to Graneros Gorge which is just minutes South of the CG.  Although we didn’t need 4-wheel drive – it was still fun hitting the dirt road to get there.  Here we parked near the edge of the gorge.

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There are the remnants of a gazebo on the edge.  At least that’s what my research determined this was.

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View down into the gorge.

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And here we are looking down into the gorge.  You can see Dad’s new jeep in the background.

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I posed for a picture near the edge… Stilla kept telling me to take one step back…

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We got back to the CG in time for happy hour with the group.

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It wasn’t long after happy hour was over and we all gathered together again inside the community room for our traditional Saturday evening potluck.  Tonight’s potluck theme was chili.  We had every sort of chili known to man and as usual there was more than enough to go around.

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Again, it was fun seeing all the great folks again in the Rolling Springs Chapter of FCRV.  C U all next time!

I started this post yesterday morning (Sunday) but just now (Monday) got it posted due to interruptions.  We picked up our son William and his girlfriend from the airport in Denver (DIA) on Sunday evening and have been running around all day today doing some sight-seeing and shopping… but I’ll do a separate post on that shortly…  I need to post this one first.