Pussy-toes
Antennaria rosea

I've finally gone over to the dark side and set up a Facebook page! You can click on the link at the left-hand side of the page, or click here to be taken to my page.

We had a nice visit yesterday from friends Mike and Mary (who live across the street from the house we used to own here in Quartzsite). On Monday, we had lunch with Boomers Donna and Bob. We had not met them before, but it's always great to meet new friends!

Otherwise, we've had a pretty quiet stay here. We've made one trip to the new Wal-Mart in Parker...it's a bit farther to travel than going to the Albertson's in Blythe, but it's also a lot less expensive to buy food there. We do shop at the Blythe Ranch Market, next to K-Mart. It's less expensive than Albertson's, but they don't carry a lot of the stuff we usually buy.

This morning we were sitting at the table working on our computers when we saw a Gila Woodpecker sitting on the fence behind us eyeing the hummingbird feeder on the back window. Pretty soon, it flew over and hung from the feeder, dipping its long tongue in the holes, lapping up the sugar water. The picture didn't come out too well because I was shooting through the window and the feeder is in the shade.

We took Maxx to the vet yesterday to have blood drawn for another Valley Fever titer...results should be back by the end of this week. We also had the vet check the lump on Maxx's rear end...he's had a lump there for quite some time, but it's gotten a lot bigger within the past month or so. The doctor said it's a tumor, most likely a benign one. So we're going to have it removed on December 1 and, at the same time, have Maxx's teeth cleaned.

Happy Halloween!

Monday when we left Pahrump, we headed southwest on SR-372 (Nevada) and SR-178 (California) to Shoshone. From there, we picked up SR-127 south to Baker where we stopped to fill up with diesel and have lunch at the Famous Pancake House (which we think used to be a Denny's...or, at least, something other than a pancake house).

We then drove south on Kelbaker Road through the Mojave National Preserve, stopping for the night at a boondocking spot about a half mile or so north of I-40.

The Granite Mountains:

Tuesday, we made it to Quartzsite. No one was at the small RV park where we wanted to stay, so we called and left a message on their voice mail and parked out on BLM land west of town for the night. The next day, we moved over to Running Lizard RV Park where we'll stay until near the end of November.

White mariposa lilly
Calochortus eurycarpus

Well, here we are still at the Escapees park in Pahrump!

We were planning on leaving last Monday, but the wind picked up and was supposed to blow through Wednesday, so we decided to stay another week. While we were here, Earl took the truck into town to get the oil changed at the Grease Monkey. Other than that, we had another quiet week.

This park has a nice, very large, dog run not too far from our site where we take Maxx for his "walks." The couple across from the dog run has a Boston Terrier that is often out in the run at the same time as Maxx, so Maxx has another dog to play with (although, at 14 years, Maxx isn't much into playing). Earl got to talking with the couple and told them about our plans to spend some time in Yuma this winter so that we can go across the border to Algodones for Earl's dental work. They gave us the name of the dentist they use as well as an eye doctor they've used. I will solicit other recommendations on some of the RV lists to which I belong, but this is a start.

We WILL be leaving Pahrump today...the wind is nice and calm. We're probably going to head toward Shoshone and Baker and drive through the Mojave National Preserve to I-40. From there, we'll head east to US-95 and south to Quartzsite...not all in one day, of course. We probably won't make Quartzsite until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Butter and eggs
Linaria vulgaris

We spent just two days in Death Valley...probably would have spent longer, but when Earl went up to pay for the first two days (using the automatic credit card machine at the entrance to the campground), he didn't read the instructions closely enough and ended up paying full price ($12 per day) instead of the Golden Age Passport/Senior Pass price ($6). So, instead of $12 for the two days, we ended up paying $24. Since I wasn't willing to sink even more money into staying, we left after the second day.

We've been spending the last week at the Escapees park in Pahrump. This town has grown since we were last here (in 2005)...at least we don't remember there being a Super Wal-Mart in town back then, and we drove into Pahrump the same way we did this time, from Death Valley, so I think we would have noticed it.

We haven't done a lot since we've been here other than grocery shopping. We did spend one morning driving around town just to see what was here, but mostly we've been taking it easy.

We'll be leaving tomorrow morning to continue our trip south toward Quartzsite. Don't know where we'll stop tomorrow night.

We're currently at Scotty's Junction having lunch. After lunch, we'll head west on SR-267, past Scotty's Castle and into Death Valley...where we'll have no cell phone reception or Internet. We'll be staying at the northern-most campground in Death Valley, Mesquite Springs, probably for 2 or 3 days.

When we left 20-Mile Beach yesterday morning, we stopped in Hawthorne to fill up an empty propane tank and then stopped in Mina to have lunch at Socorro's Burger Hut where the food was surprisingly good!

Last night was spent at Miller's Rest Area west of Tonopah. This morning, we stopped in Tonopah to fill up with diesel ($2.659) and get groceries.

Woolly mullein
Verbascum thapsus

We stayed an extra day at Cascade Meadows RV Resort north of La Pine because of the snow. On Monday, in order to get ready to leave, Earl got the ladder out and scraped all the snow off the slides and then he got on the roof and scraped the snow off it.

We stopped for diesel in La Pine on our way south ($2.739) and had lunch at the Subway in Chemult. We spent the night at a Passport America park in Klamath Falls...actually several miles west of Klamath Falls. The RV park was part of a mobile home park and golf resort. It was touted an an "RV resort," but that's a laugh! Let's just say it's not someplace we'd stay again.

On Tuesday, we continued our trip south, traveling SR-139 to SR-299 into Alturas, California, after stopping first at the Wal Mart in Klamath Falls to do grocery shopping. We stopped to fill up with diesel ($3.059) in Alturas, and then continued heading east on SR-299 through the Warner Mountains to Cedarville, California. We drove through their RV park planning on staying there, but all the sites were pretty small, so we stopped at the BLM office in town to find out if there was any place we could spend the night as we traveled south on CR-1. The woman we talked with pointed out an area in Nevada on the gravel road that heads into Wall Canyon.

Once across the California/Nevada line, CR-1 changes designation to SR-447. We found the Wall Canyon road and pulled off several hundred feet to a flat area beside a windmill. We had a great view of the valley from this vantage point!

Overnight, though, it got really cold! If we're in an RV park hooked up to electric, we'll run our electric heater on it's lowest setting during the night, but when we're boondocking, we can't do that. We also don't run our forced air furnace at night, mainly because it draws so much battery power, so when we got up in the morning, the inside of the rig was in the 30's! Brrrr....

On Wednesday, we continued our trip south on SR-447 to US-50 where we headed east to another Passport America park in Fernley, Desert Rose RV Resort. This one was really nice...someplace we'd definitely come back to.

The next day, we drove into Fallon to pick up a few groceries at Wal-Mart and get diesel ($2.699). We stopped at the fairgrounds to have lunch and then continued our trip south on US-95 to one of our favorite overnight stops, 20-Mile Beach along the western shores of Walker Lake north of Hawthorne.

View from 20-Mile Beach
Mt. Grant near Hawthorne, NV