Saturday, April 21, 2012

Goodbye Quartzsite, and miscellaneous photos


We've left Quartzsite.  Thank you all for your concern about us in this heat.  Yesterday late morning I decided we'd better move - it was right after I posted yesterday's blog.  What finally made up my mind was that I was going to take Katie to the local vet, who only takes walk-ins.  She's about due for her shots, and needs a Rabies shot so I can renew her license.  I wanted to ask the vet about her nose, and the way it dries out and turns brown in little spots in this heat, and if there is something I can put on it to protect her nose.  Unfortunately the vet is only open from Monday through Thursday, four hours a day.  After thinking about the temps over the weekend I decided to get to a cooler location and drive north a ways.

By the way, I DO have A/C and I did run it a few times during the day, but unless it was running continuously it didn't do much good.  It cooled the air temps down to the point that I almost needed my sweatshirt, then went right back up when I turned it off.  The breezes coming through the windows did a better job overall.

There are still many RVs there in the different BLM lots, not a LOT, there were maybe a dozen or so where I was, with others coming for a day or two then moving on.  Most people didn't have their generators running much during the day.   I assume the other BLM areas were the same.

So we drove north, and when we got to Wickenburg it seemed cooler here and I knew there were a couple of good places, one BLM in particular,  to park.  I hoped we could stay longer, we have a fantastic site!!, but it's still a bit too hot for us, so we're going to drive north a little more until we find cooler weather.

Here are the extra photos that I liked, but didn't get into the previous blogs in Quail Hill and Hi Jolly.


This is the beautiful water in the canal near Imperial Dam.  When you are camping in the desert, it sure is nice to have something like this nearby.


 Katie liked it, too.


When we were in Yuma to get our escrow docs notarized, I stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch.  It's the first time I've eaten at that restaurant, although I've read a lot of raves by bloggers.  I ordered a fish dish with tarter sauce and cornbread muffins and three sides, coleslaw, baked apples and sweet potato casserole:



I didn't bring my camera into the restaurant, but it took TWO to-go packages to bring back what I didn't eat, and it was enough for two more full lunches.  REALLY A LOT OF FOOD, AND GOOD!!!  And my lunch was less than $10.  :)

Katie was very interested in the burros when they came by.  I said to her, "Do you hear burros?," and this was her response.  So cute!


Shortly after we got to Quail Hill, there was a fire over the ridge - it worried me a little, but the smoke was gone in the morning.


I always sit in the dinette bench seat facing front, but the way The Palms was positioned,  I wanted to see the water across the road, and had to change sides to get that view.  Katie was NOT happy with the change.  Her bed is always in the corner of the other seat, where these storage books are in the photo below, and I was sitting next to them.  I put her bed on the other bench seat and she wouldn't get in it.  She was kind of at loose ends, didn't seem to know where she wanted to be be, and finally found the edge of the seat back and slept with her nose in the corner, behind me.  Poor baby, don't you feel sorry for her?

I have to admit I wasn't as comfortable in my new seat, either, and when I moved to Quartzsite, I went back to my usual seat.  Here's Katie, happily back in her usual spot, too.  :)


These are some of the quail here in Hi Jolly BLM.  They were under my window eating the seed, but two of the males were pretty protective of the same spot and had a little tussle:



This is a quail in the tree next to our site.  They were flying into the tree and eating the tiny yellow flowers.  These are the same flowers the burros were eating at Quail Hill.  This guy did a little flight thing to get this flower and I caught him just right with it in his beak.


I liked this photo of the squirrel.  It was late afternoon and he was searching for food when we went outside and Katie made a short (leashed) dash in his direction.  He ran like lightning across the wash and screeched really loud for along time.  He was MAD!  I sat in my chair and read for a while, then he slowly, carefully came back over the wash and climbed a dead tree stump and looked around to see if he was safe. 


I put out some seed in a plastic bowl I found by the wash.  The squirrels were having a seed fest, but the quail seem to like the seed thrown on the ground better.


And finally, when I switched back to the "new" blogger, I got this message at the top of my screen.  I switched before and liked the new format, but this message worried me and I switched back.  I guess I'm stuck with the new format now, but I have this message each time I go into my "Design" area.  The suggestion that I switch to Chrome doesn't work, as I get the same message in Chrome. 


You'll probably have to click on the message to read it.  Are any of you getting this message?  I don't see that I'm missing any parts of Blogger, and so far am having no problems.  It seems to work the same as the old format.

That's it for today.  Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!  :)