How do you like my new ride?

Well....  It's not exactly mine.  And I didn't exactly drive it, but I was a passenger from my campsite to town. 

And another little toy:

The real owner of these fun little toys is my friend, Tom, who drove over to Quartzsite from San Diego to visit for a week.  Here's Tom:

I went into town with Tom on the dune buggy one day when we had some sunshine, along the wide gravelly wash that goes along Old Yuma Road right into Kuehn Road.  That was pretty fun.  It sure got a lot of attention from the men as we roared by.  Someone even took a video.  I'm clueless about these things, but I think it has something to do with the rear pipes?  LOL  There were a few discussions, but it all went over my head. 

Then once we went out to the road on the quad.  Other than that, it was just too cold for me most of the time to be zooming along, freezing.  Tom went out quite a few times, though, and took some long rides, once around the back of the mountains, and once going toward Yuma in the wash along Old Yuma Road, and the rest of the time, exploring.  So, I didn't cooperate as much as I would have in warmer weather, but he still had a great time and got a lot of hours in.

So...  Tom just got a new motor home - his first - and we've been texting back and forth about it.  After he got it back from the dealer with some warranty issues taken care of, he decided he wanted to drive over to Quartzsite for a visit, and try out dry camping for the first time.  He has solar on the roof, and a super quiet built-in generator, and his rig performed beautifully.

He had a full fridge when he arrived, but it was pretty empty when he left.  Thanks for all the meals, Tom!  But since you were the visitor, I was supposed to feed YOU!  At least some of the time, LOL.  Not complaining, not complaining.

Tom arrived late in the afternoon, and another friend, Jeanne - a lot of you know Jeanne - drove her Lazy Daze motor home to my campsite that morning to leave it for a week while she zoomed back to Austin, TX to check out a beautiful little female Sheltie who was up for adoption at the Sheltie Rescue.  Jeanne is a Sheltie dog person, and luckily after driving all that way, the dog, Farrah, turned out to be perfect. ❤  So they spent three days at Jeanne's parents' home in Texas getting acquainted and making sure they were a good fit, then hopped back in the car and drove all the way back to Quartzsite.  What a whirlwind.

But soooo worth it!  Look at those two smiling faces.  Farrah's a really good girl, and gets along with all the dogs she's met so far.  She and Katie got along great.  Yay!

Speaking of dogs, Tom's little Molly is the cutest thing you'll ever see - four pounds of cuteness:

She and Katie got along great, too.  My little Katie, who was such a scaredy-cat when we started full-timing five and a half years ago, has really come around, and is good with all the dogs she meets now. 

Here they are, guarding the doorway.  Actually they want PEOPLE to come inside with them. 

Tom's sister, Sue and his brother-in-law, Howard were in Quartzsite for a few days, too, and they came over for a visit.  I enjoyed meeting you guys, Sue and Howard, and visiting with you outside during one of our sunny days:

Tom and Sue and Howard took me to the Grubstake Bar and Restaurant for an early birthday dinner, which was really nice.  Thanks, Tom!  And then one evening we went to Sue and Howard's for a home cooked meal.  Sue is a wonderful cook and dinner was delicious!  Thanks Sue and Howard!  Boy, was I well fed this week and I have two new friends!  :)

Tom and I went over to Brian and Sue's bonfire one evening - there's usually a good group when they put on a fire, and this night was no exception.  Here's Tom standing in front of the fire, great photo, huh?  Isn't he handsome?

And here's me and Katie, she was really warm (that fire gets super hot!), so I took her bomber jacket off her, but I'm still all bundled up in four layers:

The day Jeane and Farrah came back to camp, Tom, Jeanne and I had dinner at Tom's.  We decided to snap photos after dinner, so...  here's me and Tom and Mollie:

And Jeanne and me:

Hmmm.  Didn't get Jeanne and Tom together.   It's funny - I usually don't have photos of myself in my blog.  In fact when Tom's sister, Sue, was looking at my blog, she asked why there were no pictures of me.  I told her, usually I'm the one with the camera.  But Tom has a camera, too, and I got in some of the shots! 

Our sunset on Tom's last night here:

Loading up the vehicles the last morning.  That's Jeanne helping Tom. They were discussing carburetors if I remember correctly.  Haha.

And off they go... Tom and Molly.  I enjoyed our visit, Tom - and Katie did, too!  Thanks for coming to Quartzsite to spend some time with us! 

The following evening, Jeanne and I were outside after taking a walk with our dogs and noticed this beautiful full moon just starting to come up over the mountains:

The colors were so different than the usual rising moons I see.  Just beautiful.


It's been a busy week!  I was going to do a New Years post, but I never got around to it.  So...I'm going to leave you with some photos from New Year's Eve.  On December 31, Jeanne arrived in Quartzsite from Texas, where she spent two months with her folks.  She camped by me that one night, before moving on across town, and we walked over to Sue and Brian Boone's campsite for their New Years' bonfire.  As Brian said to me one time, when I complained about it being too cold to walk over, "Have you ever left our bonfire - cold ?"  Honestly, the warmth from the fire stays with you all the way home.  It was a fun evening. 

We got there early, before it was dark.  This fire pit is so big, they throw whole pallets into the fire.

Here are our hosts after the sun went down - Brian and Sue - a little blurry.  😏 

From me and Katie, a belated Happy New Year, to you all!  May it be our best year ever!  🎇🎆🎉