WE WOKE UP IN CALIFORNIA & WENT TO BED IN ARIZONA

CAMPFIRE COLORS

Another beautiful sunny California morning with a big fiery sunrise beaming through our windshield. Not sure exactly when the decision was made to pack up & head for Quartzite but I guess we just kind of hit on the idea about the same time this morning & before long we were in the process of putting solar panels down, awning up, ground mat & chairs away, etc. Planned to drive over & say good-bye to Butch but he beat us to it when we heard our dogs barking. There was Butch & Kapeesh coming over a rise to see how we were doing. Had us big chin wag for quite awhile & then it was good-bye. Always a sad time for me saying good-bye to people & leaving favorite campsites but soon we had the big wheels rolling & my focus was shifted forward to the new adventures ahead. SAYING GOOD-BYE TO BUTCH & KAPEESH

Dumped the tanks in Borrego & took on fresh water. Hitched the car up near the Kiwanis booth just off Christmas circle & headed out of town. Bye bye Borrego Springs & thanks once again for all the great memories over the past 18 days. Sure hope we get back to see you again.

We decided to take a different route to Quartzite & have us a look at some roads, mountains, & scenery we've never seen before. Down through Ocotillo Wells & on into Brawley. We were both needing a good Wal-Mart fix & we had heard there was a new 6 month old Wallyworld in town. What a great looking store because the outside is done in a southwest architecture theme. I did take a picture of the place, & by the way, we asked, & yes it is RV friendly so it's ok for an overnighter folks.

BRAWLEY'S NEW RV FRIENDLY WALLY WORLD

The scenery east of Brawley just kept getting better & better as we followed highway 78 northeast. Saw the kids on countless dune buggies, ATV's & dirt bikes as we drove through Glamis in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Looked like the Sahara desert with hundreds & hundreds of off road vehicles bouncing over the dunes in every imaginable direction. East of Glamis the highway narrows with no shoulders so you really have to keep your eyes on the road. One wheel off the pavement & your toast. No chance of putting the rig on Auto Pilot & slipping back to the washroom on this road. No sireeeeee!! The further we traveled, the greener the desert became & it was nice to see some actual trees beginning to appear. Soon we would be seeing Saguaro cactus in the landscape again. Really missed them in California. The many majestic mountain ranges along this road just added to the magic of the desert landscape. What a beautiful country this is. OFF ROADING IN GLAMIS

We climbed aboard Interstate 10 just west of Blyth & rolled right through town to the east side where we crossed the State Line into Arizona. We had half a tank of propane & were down to about a quarter tank of gas in the rig but wanted to wait until we crossed the State Line before filling up because of the much cheaper fuel prices in Az. Hadn't thought about the Flying J being the last gas station in Arizona before traffic headed into California where gas prices were much higher so the place was packed with vehicles. We had to get on the end of a long double line up for the pumps but surprisingly enough my impatience didn't get the best of me for a change & within about half an hour or so we were again back on I-10 & eastbound for Q. LONG LINE-UP AT THE GAS PUMPS & THERE'S KELLY UP THERE TELLING THE DRIVER'S TO SPEED IT UP:))

There's a point on the interstate when you come over a rise & Quartzite appears in the valley below. It's from here that you first see the vast spectacle of thousands & thousands of RV's spread out for miles in every direction across the desert floor. We've seen this before but it's always impressive. It was 5 P.M. when we rolled up to the main intersection of Quartzite & the traffic was surprisingly light. We figured it was because all the RV'ers were home strapping on the feed bags because if I remember correctly, the many vendors here close at 4 o'clock. Nice unexpected traffic break for us.

Figured we might as well head to the area that we had stayed at here the past couple of years simply because we know our way around the desert here. About 6 miles south of Quartzite on highway 95 is Roadrunner road & that was our exit off the road as we headed northwest out into the desert.......& hundreds & hundreds, & hundreds of RV's. But, like I said, this was familiar territory so we knew where to head so finally found us a reasonably quiet spot. Nobody near us on three sides but quite a few rigs to the northeast. Oh well, this is January in Q so that means people, people, people. Probably about 5000 people per square foot once you get right into Q itself so I'll be spending the majority of my time right here at the rig with the furry guys:)) Kelly can go into town & do battle with the crowds & go toe to toe with the vendors & merchants. She has a lot more patience for that sort of thing than I do & besides it's a very considerate thing for me to do by staying home. That way she doesn't have to worry about dragging a complaining husband around everywhere or seeing him reduced to a whimpering pile of mush in the crush of the milling hordes of humanoids.

We're able to pick up some television channels here but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. For the past 18 days we have been without television & it wasn't until we turned on our television to-night that I realized how great the past two & a half weeks have been. No gloom & doom news, no phony cop shows, no ram jam hokey local commercials, & no "happy gang" jokesters on the local news channels. I had really taken a liking to our nightly DVD movie nights, which brings me to last night's movie, "The Straight Story." It's the true story of Alvin Straight who drove his lawn mower, towing a trailer, all the way from Iowa to Wisconsin to visit his ailing brother Lyle. This is a simple movie with no Hollywood glitz & glitter. No overblown & over the top hero figures. No stupidity, no bad language, & no phony characters. Just a simple movie with a simple story. Can you tell I liked it:)) Especially loved the instrumental violin & guitar sound track.

I uploaded the Borrego Ranch photos from yesterday to the web album this afternoon & have also uploaded some photos from to-day. I took a series of pictures with a 135mm telephoto lens of our campfire last night & have decided to include them all in the album because of their colors. Ok Al, back yourself away from the computer & go to bed..................please!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/