Quartzsite

(Once again I can't get the pictures and the captions in the right places. Sorry) Hey Blog Readers, yes, we are still alive. The lack of new blog posts this month was due to the fact that we spent the entire time at Boomerville, outside of Quartzsite, AZ. This is an area of the desert where lots of RV’s filled with members of the Boomer group of our Escapees RV Club gather every January. This year there were over 128 rigs there. In the town of Quartzsite, there is a big white tent set up where there are lots of vendors selling items which might or might not be of interest to RVers. This year the hot items were LED lights for RVs. These little lights are expensive, but they use very little electricity, and throw off a lot of light. We bought several LED light bars to replace our florescent ones, and our friend, Herb Steffenski installed them for us. That is another thing that happens a lot at Boomerville – friends help each other with RV repairs or improvements. Everyday there is a 4PM Happy Hour meeting by a big fire pit, where announcements are made about upcoming events, and new people introduce themselves. Then there is socializing. Our group of friends was located way down on the end of the gathering and we had our own little firepit. When it was warm enough, there was often a fire in the morning with friends having coffee and talking, and then another fire after the main meeting. The first part of the month there was a very bad cold spell, and water lines even froze in Quartzsite. We were running our propane heater almost non-stop and went through 5 gallons of propane in 5 days! Luckily, it warmed up after that spell, and we mostly had sunny days and comfortable temps. Towards the end of the gathering, there were 2 days of constant rain, which was unusual for the desert, and which pushed a lot of the Boomers out of camp, since the activities were nearly over. I didn’t take tons of pictures this year, but I did document a few of the things in which we participated. A surprise visit by Nancy and Jerry Hurley was delightful.

Our friend Nu Young came over and taught some of us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls. This is a picture of Nu, with Anke, Ann & Sam in the background.

This is a picture of the spring roll when it has been assembled but not rolled up yet.

Here I am with the first spring roll I made. We ate them with peanut sauce, and also a lime and fish sauce combo that Nu brought over.

When it was cold or rainy, we had Happy Hour gatherings in our rig. Here are Mike, Sam, Ann & Herb.

Looking the other way at the Happy Hour we see Mike, Anke, Elaine, Nu & Dana

One day Ron & Carol Leonard stopped by and we had a nice visit with them. This is Ron wearing a funny pair of glasses he had just bought in Quartzsite.

For Herb & Anke’s anniversary, we had a big potluck outside. This is Elaine, Dick & Carole Schneider, and Carol Leonard.

In this picture we see lots of the other people who attended the potluck.

Afterwards everyone gathered around the fire pit located in front of Mike & Marilyn’s RV.

Some of the other Boomer events were a chili cookoff, and an auction of donated items with the money going to the CARE center at Escapees headquarters in Livingston. This is a picture of part of the crowd at the auction. Over $3,000 was raised!

The party for Elaine’s birthday, and some other people’s upcoming birthdays, was held in our rig, and also Mike & Marilyn’s rig. Here are Dana Young, Paul & Judy Johnson, Elaine, Sam & Nu.

In the front were Jil Mohr, Ann & Mick Meilicke, Bill & Gisela Pollock, and Herb.

George & Diana Ruelens had hosted us for 4 days when we were in PA last summer. We were happy to see them again at this gathering!

Even though Boomerville is over, we stayed a few more days and had some time with Nancy & Tom Vineski, Mick & Ann, and Mike & Marilyn. Today we left and are driving back to Park Sierra. We need to make sure we got our visas back from the consulate for Myanmar, because we fly to Bangkok on Feb. 19 to begin the 2 Intrepid tours we have booked. We also need to organize our rig for storage on our lot, and get ourselves packed and ready. Perhaps these blog posts will get more interesting once we start traveling internationally again!!