February 2nd Parker, AZ

Today started out early enough that we can let our friends all know we actually saw the sun rise! Yes it was early, but we wanted to get up the hillside to see the 1st racers from the Parker 425. We figured out after about 40 minutes we still had plenty of time before they got to our location. We ran to the motor home and got a few additional layers on. Of all days it was a bit cloudy the first few hours, but it turned out to be a pretty day with plenty of sun.

I will add some action pictures Bill took of the Parker 425 just above our camp ground. A couple the RV's actually sit below the mountain ridge the racers went up that they fashioned plywood over their windows to insure no breakage as these guys can throw plenty of rocks as they come plowing thru on the trail.

Saturday Sue and Jim came over and we drove out to the The Desert Bar. It was an interesting place. It is located just out of Parker located in the Buckskin Mountains which once was an old mining camp. The owner previously owned a bar on the river for which he lost his lease and he purchased the land where the mine once was. The inside of the bar is unique in many ways. It's windows are from old glass refrigerator doors, the bar stools are made of steel, the bar top is brass and the ceiling is stamped tin purchased from a factory in Missouri. The bars only electricity is solar power stored in batteries and ran through inverters.

They also built a "church" made of solid steel and the ceiling is the same stamped tin as in the bar.

The bar has an outdoor area used as an outdoor bar and cooking area with cooling towers. The cooling towers work similar to evaporative cooler except it doesn't have a fan. When you wet the pads on top, cool air falls and you get a nice cool airflow.

January 24th, 2013

We traveled from Quartzsite to Parker AZ where we caught up with friends Sue and Jim we met at Amazon in Fernely, NV.

They are here for a few months relaxing before they start their Camp Hosting at Lake Tahoe. WOW I think I might be a bit Jealous. The area is gorgeous and I can only imagine how nice it will be when the rest of the nation is burning up.

We met at Tommy's Paradise a local place for all you can eat fish last Friday, it was a busy place but pretty effieciently ran and the food and company was good.

This Saturday we are going out into the desert to see "Desert Bar" a man created a bar out in the middle of no where and is totally powered by solar. Built on the grounds of an old mine and is only open from 12PM to 6PM on Saturday and Sundays prior to it becoming too hot to be there. I understand there is also a church there where weddings and other events are held, no church services. I am sure it will be a picture op.

We made our way to Lake Havasu and took in the London Bridge too

We are about to experience the "425" where there are over 200 off road racers competing to run a race thru the desert and the course is 425 miles long. We've seen a couple photo shoots of the cars and some of the racers. Not to mention all the trailers with cars and road teams to support the desert race. I think this little town is really going to become very busy.

I am going to attach a couple pictures that we have taken while here.

                                          Blue Water Resort and Casino

                                           Photo shoot with racer and car

                                          Downtown Algodones, MX

                                            Racers preparing for the 425 race Saturday

                                          Colorado River

                         Burrows are all free roaming in the area, maybe leftover from mining days?

                                              London Bridge

                                                               London Bridge

                     Art Deco Parker Dam, the deepest dam in the world 75% of the dam is below water over 320' tall

January 17, 2013 Quartzsite, AZ

We made our journey from sunny Palm Springs, CA to also a sunny Quartzsite, AZ. We are staying on Bureau of Land Management land where we are dry camping (i.e, no water, no electric or sewer). We've had to move from our camping location we had picked from the vast desert to get water as we had gotten here w/o a full tank.

We have attended the RV show or a just one big swap meet. You can buy anything here imaginable from RV supplies to rocks and gems.

We've taken pictures of an area near I10 looking over the area to illustrate the number of RV's here.

Many come here with clubs, Wander Lodge a high end motor home manufacture. There are many who also like to come here to make use of their ATV or four wheelers.

A night or two after arriving a motor home behind us caught fire and burned to the ground. We were startled when we heard an abrupt knocking on our door. The man at the door ask for a cell phone cause his RV was on fire. We dialed 911 and some 15 minutes later a fire truck showed up. I guess they were able to keep it from completely melting, I will include a picture for your comments.

We plan to spend another couple days here and then we are going to head out to our next destination which is undetermined at this point.