December 29-30, 2022 Gila Bend, Arizona

 64, cloudy and a bit of rain. We drove all of 70 miles to Gila Bend for the night.

Gila Bend Welcomes you. Home of 1917 nice people and 5 old crabs. Arizona's solar capital, where solar panels outnumber people. The bus parked at the Sonoran Desert RV park. We came here to plug in and recharge the batteries. We use mostly solar when not plugged in, but John thinks a good deep charge once and a while helps. Also do to laundry and I am baking bread since we are plugged in. nice park, very clean. But right off the highway, so highway noise and a railroad track. 

Lovely pool here. Not quite warm enough for it today. Nice mountains around town. 

I had high hopes for sunset with these cool clouds, but I guess some near the horizon blocked the light, this was all we got. 66 and mostly sunny in Quartzsite. Downtown Gila Bend is home to the Best Western Space Age Lodge, complete with a UFO roof on the lobby. We ate lunch once at the Space Age Restaurant and the food was pretty mediocre, but the menu items had cool spacy names. 

Fuel was only $4 a gallon with John's Kroger card. Not bad. Our generator and furnace both run on diesel from the tank. We used both a bit since the last fill up, so our miles per gallon were not great, but it also includes the utilities. Rain on the plain as we headed north.

We stopped at the Eldorado Hot Springs in Tonopah on our way. The grounds have seen better days, but the water was wonderful. In Quartzsite we stopped at the RV Pit stop and got propane. This place is huge, has 4 propane filling spots and about 10 water filling spots, with deep well water  or reverse osmosis water since the water this far south on the Colorado River is so polluted with and has so many mineral salts in it it tastes horrible and the salts ruin your plumbing. And they also have dump stations, every thing an RV will need. Quartzsite can have up to 100,000 RV's wintering here. I love the safety sign- You only blow up once!

We are staying at the Plomosa Road BLM free dispersed camping area. You can stay for 14 days free. It is a huge place. Most of it is this desert pavement, with washes running though with greenery. The desert pavement is a surface layer of closely packed, loosely cemented pebbles and cobblestones where the wind has swept away the smaller particles. You can drive big rigs on it with no problem. 

The bus in our camp spot. 

Beautiful mountains to the south east. I was riding my bike around and all these headlights started coming at me. I pulled over, not sure where they were headed. It was a herd of ATV"s headed back to their 'compound'. Groups circle their rigs like the old wagon trains did with a fire ring in the middle.

Sunset had some wild clouds. I love tis one with what looks like hair on top.

More sunset. 

December 26-27, 2022 Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

 80 degrees and sunny.

This is the best one so far. 1 3/8 in across. Beveled polished dichroic glass with a beaded bezel. This one you really need to see in person, it so many different colors. Neighbor doing some late Christmas decorating. 

Cute little bud on an organ pipe cactus. Saguaro with arms. 

Crescent moon on an organ pipe looking south. Sunset. 

Really pretty colors tonight in sunset looking west. This one is from our front door.

75 and partly sunny. We hiked the Palo Verde trail to the visitors center to stock back up on chili chocolate. John approaching the cholla forest.

Cholla forest. Ocotillo blooms and a cholla fruit.

Organ Pipe cactus and Mexico at the south end of the park.

Cool clouds today. We thought sunset was a bust from the clouds on the horizon, but at the last minute it did this. 

64 and mostly sunny. It started raining last night and we woke up to rain. They predicted it to rain all day. But the black clouds went  away and it was a lovely sunny rest of the day.

I put the finishing touches on Tortoise in a Basket today. It is 7 x 7 x 1 1/2 inches. Made from dyed and natural pine needles, polyester thread and hand made beads from necklaces John bought in Chile years ago and now live in the garage. I should have brought more with me, they are great on baskets. The center is a tortoise about 2 x 2 x 1 1/2 inches  piece of glass I cast  from recycled wine bottle. It is 1 1/2 inches tall, so it is a thick piece of glass.  It came out cute.  John spent the day making broth from the Christmas turkey he smoked. He put is on to boil early, before I got up and believe it or not the smoke odor was so strong I could not breath and got up early. So he had to take it outside. The turkey had a very spicy rub, so the broth beside being smoky will be spicy. 

We walked the campground today and wrote down all the campsites we like. Usually we drive around all 200 sites a couple times and pick one. They started this year that you have to reserve and pay for your site online. Can't just pick one and buy it in the campground. They just put reserved on all the campsites and we were very confused when we got here this time The walk around the campground is actually a few miles and the scenery is wonderful. Brittle bush blooming in the campground. The perimeter trail round the campground.

We are leaving tomorrow. They only let you stay 3 weeks at a time. We love it here. So relaxing. The saguaro by our campsite with the sun behind it and a few clouds. By sunset most of the rain clouds were gone. I caught this one. 

And another of the cactus right by our site at sunset tonight. 

December 25, 2022 Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

 74, sunny with a light breeze.

 

I made these two small baskets. Made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and glass centers I fused. They are each 7 x 1/2 inches. 

When this cactus wren saw me pointing the camera at it did a little dance. I worked on baskets in the shade/sun  and John read. Very relaxing here. 

Sunset with the sliver new moon and closer to the saguaro cactus is either Saturn, Venus or Mercury. they were all in the same area. Christmas day was sunny and 75. I awoke to John smoking a turkey for dinner. 

Finally got a photo of a curved billed thrasher. They a skittish and don't pose well. This one is through the window, I rode my bike around the campground to check out rigs. Loved this  beautiful 5th wheel. It even has a porch. 

 European Scania. These puppies are rugged. Huge tires, high clearance and luxurious inside. They are built for the African back country.  If I had one I wouldn't camp in a campground, you could 4 wheel into a back country site. I saw this fire and thought at first it was right over the ridge, but I think it is Mexico and the wind blowing toward it, so don't think it will come our way. 

Another burly heavy duty backcountry rig. The Prevost that seem out of place. They are million dollar custom coaches. Mostly all electric and need to plug in. No hook ups here and they are in the no generator area. I am almost done with this little toad in a basket. It is 6 x 1 1/2 inches. The glass toad is cast from recycled wine bottles. Glass and clay beads.  

The toad in a basket has a turtle and  2 more toads  on the edges. The toad looks black with no light behind it, but wine bottle green with light. Christmas dinner in tonight's backyard. Smoked turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, gravy and kale quinoa salad. And of course pumpkin pie for desert. Yummy and very nice to eat outside.  

Cactus dancing with the sliver moon. It has the moon in it's hand.

Crescent moon with the aliens in sunset.