At least the rainy weather gave me a chance to get over my cold. Well during the week Mona Liza messaged me ad asked if we could get out for a hike before they left the area. Fortunately the weather was to improve the day be fore they were to leave so we decided to hike a combination of the Jacob's Crosscut, Prospectors View and Treasure Loop trails.
This was the view the day before our hike
Our view the day of the hike
Glenda and I started at the trailhead and Steve and Mona Liza started from their site at the Lost Dutchman SP. We met at the intersection of the Jacob's Crosscut and Treasure Loop. We headed toward the mountain and then made our way up the Prospectors View trail toward praying Hands.
View back down the trail of Four Peaks Mt with some snow
Praying Hands on the left
We had a great hike and wonderful conversation getting to know Steve and Mona Liza better as friends. This is exactly why I wanted to be a full time RV'er. Folks are so friendly and interesting. I still can't get enough of the landscape here in AZ.
After our hike we decided to meet for lunch. Steve and Mona Liza had been to a Chinese restaurant in AJ and Glenda and I had not had any Chinese food since being here in AZ. The food was very good and the conversation even better. I'm so glad we got the opportunity to see them again and share some experiences. Looking forward to seeing them again down the road.
Our friends Steve and Debbie are in the area now from spending the summer and fall in California with family. They're meeting RV Dreams friends in Quartzsite, AZ about 140 miles west of our park. I saw their post on FB and commented that we'd like to see them so they invited us to drive there. This was a perfect opportunity to see how they were getting along dry camping(boondocking or camping without hook ups - electricity, water or sewer) in one of the largest and most popular areas for dry camping in AZ. It just so happened that the big RV Rally in Quartzsite was going to take place the next weekend. I've been wanting to do some upgrades to our rig so we could do some dry camping in the future and Steve has his rig all set up and functioning.
I had to see what it's like there and what the rally might be like. Glenda and I made the drive on Wednesday and arrived abut noon. Steve and Debbie grilled some burgers and I brought some beers to try. The food was fantastic and so were the beers. :-) Steve gave me a quick tour of his rig with the portable solar panel, portable generator and his inverter. The inverter makes 12v power into 110v power so you can run appliances like the microwave, TV, hair dryer, coffee maker, etc. Then using the solar panel and generator you can maintain a proper charge to the RV batteries. You don't want to run them down too far or dead, of course. Steve gave me some great information on the components I would need that he had. It looks like I could do a basic upgrade for about $1100. Compared to a full solar upgrade of over $8000. I just don't know how much dry camping we might do so small steps are better.
After lunch we met some other folks camped nearby and then we decided to go into Quartzsite and check out the early arrivals before the big rally. It's really just a big flea market with all kinds of RV related products. There were also some RV dealers onsite so we took a look as some motorhomes.
What we saw wasn't even close to what it will be like this weekend when the rally gets into full swing. The rally is from Jan 16 to 24. Steve and Debbie are in an area south of the town that is for long term dry camping. It's BLM land(Bureau of Land Management). The long term areas are called LTVA(Long Term Vacation Area). There are water sources for refilling your water tank and dump stations for emptying your holding tanks. It costs $20 per week to camp there due to the services they provide. The area is pretty barren like you would expect in a desert setting. Not the most desirable landscape for a long term vacation but I guess if you're looking for cheap living this would be the place.
We had a great visit and I'm so glad we've had the opportunity to share some time in Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Arizona with them. We're both Class of 2014. That means we started our fulltime lives in 2014. Debbie is a wonderful blogger and photographer. Steve is my tech guy. Thank you so much for the invitation and information. Looking forward to seeing you again in March.
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