Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: Quartzsite 2020

1/13/2020 – 1/27/2020 – Monday morning we packed up and headed west. Today's destination is Quartzsite AZ where we will be boon-docking in the desert. This is our third winter in Quartzsite. We will stay at least two weeks if not a little more as we will have a few extra days at the end of the two weeks before we can get into Fortuna De Oro RV Resort in Yuma where we have reservations for February and March. We headed west through Tucson then up to Casa Grande then west on I-8 to Gila Bend. The section of I-8 west of Casa Grande is one of my favorite drives with lots of desert vegetation and saguaro cactus. At Gila Bend we headed north on highway 85 then west on I-10. We arrived at our spot at the Escapee Chapters 6 & 21 gathering on Plamosa Road around 4:00. Just in time for happy hour!! This year we parked a little closer to the main group but still had a nice view out our our windows.

Escapee Chapter 6 is the Michigan Chapter and 21 is one of the Arizona Chapters. A lot of these folks we met at the Benson Escapees SKP park. We enjoyed lots of time visiting around the campfire.

On Friday, the 17th, we drove over to Blythe California to attend the BlytheBluegrass Festival. We spent the entire day there enjoying the music.

One day a group of us drove up to Parker to go to The Desert Bar. The "Nellie E Saloon" (DESERT BAR) is situated in the Buckskin Mountains, in Parker, Arizona, on land that was an old mining camp. To reach it you have to drive on 6 miles of bumpy gravel back road. The saloon is totally off grid and is powered with solar. All material and supplies are hauled in over the gravel road. We spent a pleasant few hours there and enjoyed soda and a burger.

We also went to the big RV Show a few times and purchased a couple of electric bikes. They are fold-able and have large 4” tires for off roading. The first time we took them out on an extended ride we tried them in various terrain such as the rocky desert as well as the UTV trail. Dennis took a spill trying to cross from one tire track to another on the UTV trail. He was not seriously hurt, just scraped his knee and his pride. We are hoping they will work well in Yuma to take short trips to the grocery store as well as back home in Wisconsin.

In past years we joined the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Club and took various classes. This year we opted not to join but we found a small craft store that had some beginner wire wrapping classes. One week Dennis took one and the next week I took the class. We both made some copper earrings. I liked the ones he made better than mine but we both learned some wire wrapping techniques.

January 25^th was a fun day with the group as we had pot luck brunch in the morning to celebrate the birthday of another Escapee member who could not make it this year. Jack's birthday was that day and he and his wife Rita are from Alaska. They used to winter here in Arizona but are not coming down anymore. Later in the day there was a Chapter 21 meeting then they started making Polar Bear drinks with some of the leftovers from the Polar Bear party. Later that day Bruce fried fish for fish tacos. It was a great day with lots of laughs and shared memories. However I think they made the Polar Bear drinks a little strong as we had 4 or 5 people fall down. They blamed it on the rocky terrain. Wink, wink!

Unfortunately Dennis did not get to partake in the festivities as he was sick. He came down with a fever on Thursday night and was pretty sick. He started feeling better late Saturday afternoon and by Sunday was finally over the worst of it.

The weather was really great as we had many days of sunshine with highs in the 60's and 70's. The nights were cool with lows in the 30's and 40's. There was only one or two cloudy days and even had a little rain one night.

Where we are parked: Quartzsite AZ – Boon-docking on BLM land off of Plamosa Road (33.767682,-114.170637).

Boon-docking in Quartzsite