Check Off Another one

Ok check off our first National Park of 2016! We went to Joshua Tree National Park. This is a really cool park and it has more then just Joshua Trees, it has these really cool rock formations.

 Skull Rock.

Peggy showing the way to Skull Rock.

Taking a break on a rock chair.

 We hiked all around the rock formations.

The Big Truck next to the Big Rocks :-)

 More fun Rocks. I thought we were rocked out from Quartzsite but here we are hanging around more rocks. You just cannot get away from rocks out west.

Oh and it does have Joshua Trees too.

 



Today we moved to Orange Grove RV park in Bakersfield, CA.

It was kind of a long trip, 254 miles. I think we are going to cut down our distance to the next spot by at least 50 miles.

 This is a real nice park. The site we are on is long and wide with orange trees on it. You can pick an orange on your own site. Tomorrow we are taking our rolling home in to Camping World to get some work done on it. It is 13 miles away. Our appointment is at 8:30 am. We are going to have to get up at 6:00 am to make it. That's awful early for us.

 

Throw-Back Picture of the Blog.

  Peggy and I at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big.



Plan "B"

We were going to go to Yuma, AZ to get some work done on our rolling home but the dealer closes it's service department for the summer. That is a little strange. This is one of the biggest dealers in the state. So plan "B" we went to our next stop in Twentynine Palms, CA. Sometimes we just have to be flexible on our plans. We are at Twentynine Palms RV Resort. We have a nice large pull-thru site with lots of room for all our stuff. The town is a little small but it has a good grocery store. This is part of the Mojave Desert. The Joshua Tree National Park is here. We have not gone in to the park yet, but we will be using Peggy's "Geezer" pass to get in for free.

 Here we are all loaded up in Quartzsite.

 The Reeper and the BGE fit just right. There is still lots of room in the front of the garage.

 We found our next RV.

This was parked outside the Joshua Tree Saloon in Joshua Tree, CA. We had lunch there and it was really good and it was National Beer Day to boot.

They were smoking a big pile of ribs out in the back of the bar. They looked really good.

Oh a funny thing. When Heidi was here, she was sleeping in the garage. She saw this giant spider on the screen. She told Peggy to go get me to kill it. But the real funny thing is, it's a fake spider. We get a lot of people with this crazy fake spider.

 

So we are staying here for a week, then on to Bakersfield, CA to get that work done on the RV. Today is the first time we have seen rain this year. It does rain in the desert once in a while.

 

Throw-Back Picture of the Blog.

Heidi on the 22 Donzi. I think this was the first week we had the boat on Higgins Lake.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big.     



Good Times

Heidi was here for the weekend! We had a great time. We went to dinner Friday night at Taco Mio here in Quartzsite. Then on Saturday we went to the Desert Bar. It's a bar that's 5 miles out in the desert. It's a rough road and we took Heidi's rental car as the big truck would never make it. It takes about 20 minutes to get there. You have to drive very slow. 

Here she is at the desert bar. The church in the background is all made of steel. 

Here we are having a pop. Then we left the desert bar and drove down to Fox's floating bar on the Colorado river. It's a nice place to sit and watch some fast boats go by. Sometimes I miss the Donzi.

It's kind of cool, you can be in the desert and a short drive later and you're on the Colorado river. It was a great day to be on the water.

We had to sit in the shade. We don't want to get a sunburn.

Then on Sunday morning I took Heidi on a Reeper ride out in the desert to deer run.

We rode on some of the biggest hills on the way.

It was a lot of fun and we were glad to see Heidi. She had to go back to LA on Sunday afternoon to go back to work on Monday.

 

On Tuesday we are going to start our 2016 summer trip. First stop is going to be Yuma, AZ to get some work done on our rolling home. Last week we had to fix the fan on the truck's air. Got it done here at Best Auto. They did a great job.  

 

Throw-Back Picture of the Blog.

Danny and Heidi on the Hobie Cat. About 1979.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big. 

 

Shutting Down

We are still here in Quartzsite, AZ. The town is starting to close down. Most of the RV dealers are gone. It's kind of weird that the RV dealers come in town for 3 months, then they are gone. Most of the RV parks also close for the summer. Ours closes on May first. We are paid up to April 22nd. But we are planning to leave next week. We are heading to Yuma, AZ to get some work done on our rolling home. Then off we go on our 2016 trip, up the west coast.

 

One of the guys in the park found this fossil down in the wash next to the park. It looks like a dead bird to me.

We made another trip out in the desert. This is the Yellow Dog mine we found. It is an active mine for gold.  

 The Reeper out in the La Paz Valley Desert.

You can find some really weird things out in the desert. This is a spot called Deer Run. People bring all kinds of strange things out here. It's kind of funny.

 We went to a really cool bar on the Colorado River. 

It's a floating bar called Fox's.

Peggy got a new dust mask for riding in the Reeper. She can not pick her nose with it on.

 

Here is Fred ready to go for our weekly desert run.

The Ocotillo cactus have these beautiful orange flowers on the ends.

The desert is blooming all over the place. But you have to be careful all these things are trying to poke, jab or stick you with some big pickers! There is one they call the teddy bear cactus or the jumping cactus, it's the most dangerous one of all, if you get one on you it's a bad thing.

 

Throw-Back Picture of the Blog. 



  Attilla and Biff as a pup. Biff loved Attilla, but Attilla hated Biff.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big.

Happy St. Patricks Day

We had a great St. Patrick's Day. We went to a party at our favorite bar, Beer Belly's. They had some munchies, but no green beer.

Barb, owner and one of our favorite bartenders.

   Lots of people dressed for the party.

Some new people came in the park this week, so we had to take them out in the desert for a ride. 

We rode out to an old gold mine and this is the miner's shack.

The Big Reeper. It has been working great. I can't believe some of the hills it can climb and yet, it has a good smooth ride. I didn't even have to put it in 4 wheel drive the last trip out.

 The desert is coming alive with flowers on some of the cactus.

Jude was here for a few days. Enjoying the good weather.

Cliff and Jude relaxing after a long day of fun. What a lucky dog.

This is how they mix the Margaritas in Mexico and they are really good.

 Marj and Jack out for a bike ride. They went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Jack loves that.

 

 

Throw-Back Picture of The Blog.

Maybe not a throw-back picture, but a funny one.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big.

 

 



On The Go

It has been a busy week. Jude is here so we have been on the go. Peggy and Jude went to Sedona for a couple of days. When they got back we took Jude to Mexico.

We had to stop at the El Paralso Patio Bar to have a real Margarita in Mexico. It's a pretty cool bar. We stopped at Famous Dave's in Yuma and had lunch. I had the Brisket and it was killer good. It's kind of nice to go to a bigger city then Quartzsite.

Then on Monday we drove up to Lake Havasu City and had lunch with Cindy and Ed, who winter there. They still live back in Michigan, in the cold. We are at Barkley's Brewery, which is right next to the world famous London Bridge.

 It's not the London Bridge that you would think of but it is still a bridge from London.

The desert is starting to bloom out.



 

And some cool looking bugs are starting to come out too.

 Spring is here. The weather has been really hot into the 90's. I can take that!

St. Patrick's Day is getting close, so we are ready.

I went to the "Monkeys are Getting Restless" party at Beer Belly's.

Larry.

The Happiest Place in Quartzsite; Beer Belly's Adult Day Care.

 

Throw-Back Picture of the Blog.

A hard afternoon. Nap time.

 

Live Happy and Always Go Big.