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!  🎇🎆🎉

A little local Quartzsite color

Aren't these hummingbirds gorgeous?  The first one is a Costa's Hummingbird male, and the guy with the red head is an Anna's Hummingbird.  I love it when I can get them with the sun shining just right to show off their colors.  These were taken right after a rain, so there were drops on the window where the feeder was, but still, they came out really well.  :)

Here's lookin' at you, kid!

Here's our current campsite - Home Sweet Home!

Kate and I went into town the other day and walked around the Vendor Tent areas - there are already a lot of them set up.  This first vendor, K & B Tools, has just about anything you'd want.  All kinds of tools and toys, it's where I got my new water pump and many other things over the years.

The food outlet store - TONS of things to buy, many of which are outdated or soon to be outdated.  But cheap.  I get Keurig K-Cups here every year.  Super good prices and most things last well beyond the dates shown.  I never get dented cans, though. 

Hat and jackets for sale - some nice looking hats:

Lots of kitchen things.  I was looking for an old-fashioned egg-beater, and the owner said he got a bad batch and wasn't selling them this year.  I continued to look around, and as I was leaving, he came running after me, "Young lady, young lady!"   LOL - I got a kick out of that!  He said a customer heard our conversation and found an egg-beater on one of the tables, so he gave it to me - FREE.  It still had the $10 tag on it.  Wasn't that nice? 

Here's Katie laying on the back of the couch in front of the window feeder - "Mom, that bird keeps bugging me!"

We had a beautiful sunset again the other night.  If I ever start painting, and I plan to, I'm going to pull up some of my Quartzsite sunsets and try to use them as guides.  I love the foreground in this one - which actually ends up in most of my sunsets from this campsite.  The bushes, Saguaro cactus, mountains, and then the sunset.  Can you imagine some of the photos I've posted done in water colors?  Or oils?  Seems like the Western sunset sky would be better in oil, and the softer Eastern sky in water colors.   I just remembered - I have a program that will do that - think I'll check it out and I'll post some next time from that program.  😊

From me and Katie - have a great weekend, everyone!   💕💗💕

*** Third Annual Blogger-Fest - Scheduled for January 28, 2017 ***

What's wrong with this picture? or....

One of these things just isn't the same:

I thought is was so funny how the bees were all lined up at their own nectar opening.  Supposedly this is a "bee proof" hummingbird feeder.  Yeah...  I don't think so!

This Costa's Hummingbird was just beautiful in the full sunshine - full head/neck feathers of royal purple.  Couldn't quite get it, though, with the camera. 

This was yesterday's sunrise, really pretty:


It looks like yesterday was the last warm, sunny day for a while. Today we had overcast skies most of the day with a temperature of 75 f, tomorrow should be 71 f, and then we go down to the 50s for a few days.  Rain was predicted, but it doesn't look like it's coming this way.   Still, no shorts for a bit - pull out the jeans and sweatshirts again.  I sure do love wearing shorts!

And that's about it.  There's not much going on lately, but I can always count on sunrises, hummingbirds and sunsets.  Things should pick up in a couple of weeks, company's coming.  :-)

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!   🌥🌤🌥

Visiting with neighbors, my new hat and drones in the sky

George and Suzie invited me for dinner Friday evening - I was dying to taste one of those dinners I keep seeing in George's blog - especially the salad.  So I walked over to visit them on Friday for happy hour with George and Suzie and their neighbors.  All three couples live in the same place in Canada during the summer, and here they are neighbors in Quartzsite, too, for a couple of weeks!  I wanted to get a group photo before everyone started heading in different directions.

Clemson the Dog, Bill and Pat, Melinda and Jerry, George and Suzie. 

You can find their blogs here:  Patsy, Bill, Jerry and Melinda, George and Suzie.

The sun was bright - Suzie had given Melinda a hat, which she said she wouldn't wear, so she brought it over and gave it to me, and I love it!  Perfect for these bright days in the desert.  🔆🔆🔆

As I was walking up to their rigs, I saw Bill flying his drone.  These things are pretty neat!

When it was about time for dinner, the other couples headed for their campsites and George put a pork loin roast on the grill.

Wow, what a great dinner - I'm not much of a meat eater, and only wanted one slice of the roast, which was delicious.  George's salads have a little lettuce and lots of other things, my favorite kind of salad.  He put quite a bit on my plate, which I said I'd never finish...  Oh, yeah.

Gosh it was good!  As you can see... my empty plate:

Melinda and Jerry had a cherry/apple pie from town, and gave half of it to George and Suzie for our desert - thanks Melinda!  It was really good.

We visited for a while, then I walked home before it was dark.  Perfect timing!

When I got home I noticed Sue and Brian, behind me, had a blazing fire going.  I didn't bring my camera, but will next time.  They don't have campfires, they have BONFIRES!  So I put Katie's Bomber Jacket and leash on her, grabbed a light and we walked over for a visit.  Nice and toasty.

Speaking of Brian, I heard a drone outside yesterday, and there was Brian's drone flying around the area.

In fact, I was just outside and there was another one nearby - I don't think it was Brian's, so another neighbor must have one, too.  I wonder if they are allowed over the nudist area?   Humm.

And here's a beautiful pastel sky when the sun set the other night:

 Another perfect day in the desert!  From me and Katie, have a great evening, everyone!  😊😀😁