Farewell to our Quartzsite Friends!

It is really hard to believe it has been 2 months since we parked in the Arizona desert. Sadly it is time for us to move on. Quartzsite started out as a place to spend the winter at minimal cost while staying warm.  But over the past two years it has turned into something totally different. Now for us, the cheap living has become a secondary benefit rather than our main reason for coming here and it certainly is not about the warm weather (it really has not been all that warm). Now it is all about the people. A place to reconnect with old friends from across the U.S. and Canada and a place to meet new likeminded people.

This year has been filled with both. Although we cross paths with some of our friends during the summer months, winter in Quartzsite is where we usually count on seeing many of them. This year was no exception.

First, two random pictures......

I caught this picture when the dogs were outside in the sun waiting for Barb to come home

I took this picture of North America with the drone.

It is made out of rocks and is probably 40'x40' 

It was really great having Vicki and Harry as neighbors. Although we met last year we really never got a chance to get to know each other. This year we were able to have several get-togethers and know them better. (You will note that most of these pictures were taken by Steve, I was really bad at taking pictures!) If you want to read more about our adventures (with many of the same pictures) over the past couple of weeks, check out Steve and Dianne's blog as we did something with them almost every day.

Vicki and Harry

 We also reconnected with George and Nancy who we had not seen since our Alaska adventures last summer. We both had busy schedules the time they were here but we managed to get together once and of course I forgot the camera!

Dale and Ruth were the first people we connected with when we arrived in Quartzsite having several happy hours before they had to move on to better cell coverage areas.

Ruth, Tazzy and Dale

Then there was Deb and Ray, BC residents who promised us a gourmet tater tot dinner but in the end invited another couple when they had to move on and we were not available their last night in the area.

Where's my tater tots?!?!?

Les and Sue convinced us to join Escapee’s. They get the award of having the most unusual pets in the form of fish. The last time we saw them was in Homer Alaska last summer. We were able to get together with them several times and never fail to have a good time and the happy hour our last night there was the perfect way to cap off our Quartzsite adventure.

Les and Sue

There was a handful of people we were only able to see once; Dave and Maxine, Alan and Donna, and couple of people long time blog readers that we met for the first; Butch and Donna (don’t forget to send us your contact information), Dale and Chloe (thanks for the beers!) as well as Cindy and Roger, Jim and Brenda (see you in Tucson!), Guy and Susan, Rick and Kathy (thanks for the fire!) and last but not least Shawn and Kim.

Kathy and Rick

Shawn and Kim

(l-r) Brenda, Jim, Susan, Guy, Roger, Rowdy, Cindy and Missy

The last week was a whirlwind of activity Silly Al’s with Steve, Dianne, Harry and Vicki.

Our Silly Al's adventure

Beer Belly’s twice, once with Shawn and Kim and again with Steve and Dianne.

Daisy and Dakota even made it to Beer Belly's!

Another beer sampling, the last one was so good we decided to up the ante and tried 16 different beers followed by some incredible T-bone steaks and crème brulee! That was a fun but crazy evening.

The line up

Steve starting us off with the first beer

Barb torching the crème brulee

And finally one last ride with Steve and Dianne, we did the Deere Run and Diablo Pass trails. I stole virtually all these pictures from Steve’s blog, thanks for the pictures Steve!!!!!

We met the owner of this mine, a Wisconsinite who lived near our old stomping grounds!

A meth cook gone wrong?

Deere Run Resort is just a mix of furniture out in the desert

Our tentative plans for next year don’t have us over this way at all so who knows when we will see many of these people again. It is bitter sweet departure leaving our desert friends but we have something to look forward to…..we are meeting our son Forrest and his family down in Tucson for a month in the desert there!