02-05-2018 thru 02-11-2018
Monday
– Today we packed up and headed a few miles south of Quartzsite to
Palm Canyon Road. The first part of the road is surrounded by BLM
land where you can camp free. Further in you enter onto the KOFA
Wilderness Area. Here there are a few marked camping spots which are
free as well. I was given the chance to drive today. It was
uneventful until we reached Palm Canyon Road. This road is gravel and
very bumpy. After having our teeth rattled for a mile I turned off
the road to a likely spot on the right. Initially I drove into a
rather sandy spot and I had to put the truck into four wheel drive to
get us out. Whew! Need to be more careful next time. We found a nice
place to park and set up the camper. In the afternoon we drove up to
the parking lot and trail head to see the Palms. It was not quite
what I expected as the palms were way up the side of the canyon. It
was a nice hike non the less and we got a bit of exercise.
Near
where we are camped there is a Kokopelli Spiral that someone made. A
search on the internet told me that it was recently made by some
unknown person. Dennis and I walked the spiral both ways and left a
polished rock in the center. Maybe it will bring us good luck!
Tuesday
– We went back into Quartzsite in the afternoon. Dennis made a
couple of cabachons out of a slab I purchased last week. While he was
doing that I went shopping at Desert Gardens for more slabs. So many
pretty rocks, so little time! I purchased 3 slabs.
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Future projects |
Wednesday
– Moving day again. Dennis has more dental work he wants done so we
wanted to be closer to Yuma. We headed for the Imperial Dam
Recreation Area which is a Long Term Visitor Area. It was very
crowded and dusty. Neither one of us was excited about staying there.
There was a dump station and water so we utilized those then left. We
went back to the Quechan Casino near Algodones.
Thursday
– We went to Algodones to Dennis' 10:30 doctors appointment for his
crown. Afterwards we purchased a couple more bottles of booze and I
purchase another blanket. The line to go back across the border was
much longer than last time we were here. We were in line about 20
minutes. Later we went to a road side market and purchased some vegetables. We bought 3 yellow peppers, jicama, a melon, broccoli, 2 romaine lettuce, three large onions, 1 spaghetti squash, brussel sprouts and some roasted peanuts for $18.00. Made chicken fajitas for supper. Yum!
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Algodones |
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Fajitas! |
Friday
– In the morning we went back to Algodones to the dentist to finish
the crown. Later we visited the Arizona Marketplace. This is a large
covered flea market type shopping. There were vendors selling cloths,
RV supplies, food, produce and everything in between. We have a
coupon for 3 free days at Fortuna De Oro RV Park so we drove there to
check it out. Looks pretty nice so we will go there sometime in the
next week. After that we attended the Silver Spur Rodeo at the Yuma
Fairgrounds.
Saturday
– In the morning we went downtown Yuma to watch the Rodeo Parade. I
thought there would be more horse units than there was but still a
nice parade. We stopped back at the camper then headed west on I-8.
We visited Slab City near Niland California. This is an old Marine
Corp base that was shut down and is now managed under the BLM. There
are only roads and concrete slabs remaining. The area is occupied by
people living in campers, tents and homemade shacks. There were areas
where people had dumped there garbage. Not a real pleasant place to
be. The one bright spot was Salvation Mountain. This interesting
piece of folk art was constructed by Leonard Knight. He labored for
30 plus years to create a message for the world to hopefully see:
“God is Love”.
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The dark side of slab city |
We
spent the rest of the day driving around the Salton Sea. The Salton
Sea was created by accident when back in 1905 when a levee broke flooding
a giant desert playa. The sea used to be a mecca for all kinds of
water sports however the lake level is dropping. Water is being
diverted from from land around the Salton Sea reducing runoff into
the sea in order to prevent Lake Mead from shrinking to disastrously
low levels. There are a couple of state parks along the north east
side of the lake that we checked out. Very nice parks but because of
the lower water level in the sea, people are not coming to them as
much anymore.
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Salton Sea |
Sunday
– We decided to move today to take advantage of our 3 free night at
Fortuna De Oro RV Park. It was a short 22 mile drive and we go there
before 11:00. Did some shopping in the afternoon then went out for
supper to Foothills Eatery.
Where
we are parked: Quechan Casino RV parking lot – Gravel boon
docking area adjacent to the casino. No facilities except for a few
dumpsters. The Casino security patrols the area which is nice.
Where
we are parked: Fortuna De Oro
RV Park – Site 899 – This is a very large RV resort with all the
amenities: Golf, boccie ball, shuffle board, pickle ball and tennis
courts, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar. Also lots of
activities in one of several clubhouses. We are staying free for 3
nights. RV site rates: Daily $42, Weekly $275, Monthly $675 plus
utilities. There are other rates for extended and fall only stays.
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Our site at Fortuna |
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Boccie Ball Courts |
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Neat metal statue at the RV park |
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