February 8-11, 2016 Tonopah to Ajo, Arizona

We headed into town to resupply. The thermometer on the bus said it was 80 degrees. We are camped in Tonopah outside of Phoenix. We will shop on the outskirts.

Nice warm day 80 degree day and John decides to wash the bus. I decided to go to the pool.

The bus at Saddle Mountain RV park.  Sunset among the palm trees.

Sunset view from our site and the moon with a fan palm tree.

I don’t think I would like to stay at this campground just west of Phoenix. A finished basket with three shells in the bottom I found on the beach and set in resin and 6 shell beads.

This is the current masterpiece I am working on. It has a piece of glass I made in the bottom, it is set in resin and some glass beads. I spent a couple hours at the rock shop at the Saddle Mountain RV resort grinding the outsides and drilling holes in some of these basket centers I had previosly set in resin. More shells, pine cone slices,  stone frogs, kokopeli’s, arrow heads a moose and wolf. I have lots to play with now.

I was riding my bike back with clean laundry on back and the bike slide on some gravel when I turned the corner and I went down. Major banged up, bruises and road rash. John pulled some medicinal frozen steaks out of the freezer to ice my numerous wounds. We don’t have room for ice, just meat and pesto in the freezer. The worst part was I had my camera in my pocket, landed on it. Got a huge bruise on my hip and broke the camera. John bought a bag of ice and drove me to Phoenix to buy another camera. What a sweet heart. I break everything I touch, but this little camera lasted 2 years. Not bad. It still works, the photos are kind of blurry tho.

The rest of these photos are from the new camera. Another Olympus Tough. We’ll see how tough it is. Another Country coach parked next to us at the RV park. You don’t see many on the road, and they don’t end up parked  by us. It is two years older than ours, but the same length and model. We toured each other coaches and compared notes.  We  took off for Ajo. Here are trip photos.  A huge motor cycle rally we drove by, then a big bike race, this was one of the aid stations, a shut down power station , and a solar complex, and green fields.

This bridge was pretty narrow and rickety looking. The coach is only 12 ft 6 inches  tall  so we fit, but it was pretty narrow.  In Gila Bend, Arizona we passed the Best western Space Age Lodge complete with a space ship on top and lots of dinosaurs.

Ajo is kind of at the junction of the road for Tucson and Mexico and the  gateway to Organ Pipe national monument.  I like the cactus welcome sign. There are numerous of these places to buy Mexican insurance. We are very close to the border. Lots of nice art around town. Downtown is a couple adobe churches and a huge square.  I will get better photos later. We may even be here for this Valentine Banquet. It is  a three course sit down Meatloaf dinner. John does not want to go, he says we can have our own heart shaped meat loaf at home.

4 years ago we were on our way somewhere else and drove through Ajo. John saw this sign for burgers and craft beer so we stopped for lunch at the 100 Estrella resturant. It is a really good resturant.  Ajo was cute, so this is our third time here. We had a drink and appitizer here tonight. It was dark, but we walked around the historic adobe town square. Most of it is empty, but it is restored and very pretty. The train station is the tourist information center now and there are a couple small shops. One of the theatre’s is a coffee shop with  limited hours.  There was a huge open pit mine here, when it left so did most of the town.

This is two photos in the square, the top one is looking up at the dome, the bottom one is John standing just under it in one of the corners whispering to me in the opposite corner and I could hear him.  Good acoustics.

February 4-7, 2017 Quartzsite, Arizona

Mid 70’s degree days, sunny, no wind. It is paradise.

We went to the Quilt Show at the senior center today. If we were going to be here Valentines day we could go to the Sweetheart and Roses Valentine Dinner Dance at the senior center. Darn, we will have to miss it. I could also get my hair done at the Cactus Curlers Beauty Salon just next door. The quilts were awesome. The first on here is the one they raffled off. I bought 6 tickets, but didn’t win. The next two were a couple cute ones.

These two quilts by the featured artist Janet Nieuwenhoff are incredible. The squares are 1/2 inch square. The first one Free Spirit has 67,000 pieces and the second one of the butterfly has 47,000 pieces.  They have won numerous awards nationwide. After the quilt show we went to another rock and gem show that we hadn’t seen.  Lots and lots of interesting  rocks.

We got to see all kinds of cool rocks we had never seen before. I had never seen raw opals before. Look at these cool crystals. I love goldstone. Here is gold , blue and green goldstone. I thought it was a naturally occuring mineral, but it is glass. I have sheets of adventurine green and blue glass for fusing too.  The car said it was 77 degrees. Lovely day. I bought some tiny abalone shells, about the size of quarters and some carved full sized abalone with peacocks and love birds on them for future baskets.

A couple shots from my evening bike ride. Once you get away from where every one camps there is lots more vegetation and it is wilder. Very pretty. Not sure what these circles are.

A cut off tree limb that looks like an eye in it, a couple saguaro skeletons and thorns and a live saquaro.  I set some fun things in resin for the baskets. A mid sized abalone shell, 5 tiny ones, two green stone frogs, two stone lily pads with frogs, two arrow heads with blue and red chips, 3 kokopeli’s with blue and red chips, a moose and wolf bead and two of the carved abalone inards on the far right.  Still need sanding and drilling.

It clouded up late this afternoon. Some nice clouds on our 3 mile hike and we only got a sliver of sunset.

Another day beautiful another sunset. A few saguaro with the moon also.

This afternoon we went to the Paul Winer concert. Paul  played concerts and clubs for 25 years- 1965-1990 as Sweet Pie.  He started performing again in 2010.  He does a comedy routine and jazz piano. Very entertaining. Above is the sell out crowd at 5 minutes before the show opened. We were the youngest people present.

Paul runs a great used book store in town. He is a practicing nudist and this is how he shows up for work at the book shop. It was more shocking to see him in clothes for the first time.  Buddy, the man on the harmonica has played with Paul since they were nine years old. The others are part of the band here in Quartzsite.

After the concert we had dinner at the local pizza place named Silly Al’s. Good thing we got there early and got a seat, it was packed.These were on the bulletin board at Silly Al’s, events we will miss since we won’t be here. The 3rd annual Quilt raffle Pig Roast, also the Blythe Fire BBQ Throwdown. Many activities at the Throwdown including A Corn Hole Tournament- what the heck is that?? I finished another small basket to take to the art show next month. I made the beads separatly and attached them to the basket.  I am learning some bead work to use in my basket. This is the first one.

January 27-February 3, Quartzsite, Arizona

Sunny, high of 67 and not much wind.

John spent the day rewiring the bus so the car can get some power to the battery when we are towing it. We have to leave the key on to unlock the steering wheel so the wheels turn. The battery is many times dead when we get to our destination. It only took two extra trips to town and all day. I spent the day in my lawn chair in the sun working on baskets. The two larger white ones took 3 hours each. I set a goal to make hour baskets. The one I am holding and the small one I stopped at one hour. The lower photo has them done. The bear one took two hours to finish and I still have some beads to sew on. The little one took 1 hour 45 minutes. So much for my hour. I am working on making some smaller basket that I can sell for less for the art show in March.

Sunset over the dispersed camping. After wiring all day John BBQed chicken for dinner. What a man.

Sunny days, 70’s and no wind. We can hike or bike  from the campsite, Or just sit in the lawn chair. It is lovely. Sunset and the night there were no clouds, just sunset colors on the bus.

Once again John cooked, he pointed out tonight that it was 4 nights in a row. John cooking a roast at sunset  with the sliver moon above him. And another sunset.

Gem World is this giant wearhouse full of cheap beads. One of the reasons we come here. I didn’t do too bad, only a box of beads for the baskets. The pine needles have finally dried and are now too dry, so I boiled some in glycerin again. These needles are going to be the most handled and processed needles I have ever used.

Sunset tonight was beautiful. These jet trails are really weird looking.

Working on baskets. Learning new techniques. The top one I was working on a new stitch and a new way to put in bead, the lower left I was learning the Frigit stitch and the lower right more new stitch and bead placement. The second photo is the one I am working on now. New spiral stitch and going to do the frigit stitch in all the open windows. There are shells in here. A few I set in resin and a some shell bead I bought.

Still having cool jet trails at sunset. I think we are on the route between LA and Phoenix, but they are high enough that we don’t hear them. Bike riding on desert pavement.

It is so pretty here and I love the saguaros.

Sunset was kind of feathery tonight.