Boomerville in Quartzsite

After our visit to Slab City we headed back to Yuma for a couple of days to run errands and get the rig ready for Quartzsite, arriving at Boomerville on Jan 13.  We are always to busy when we are out there with our friends!

Lisa demonstrated her RV spinning wheel; here is Glenda spinning yarn.

The Escapees RV club has a Happy Hour for all SKPs in Quartzsite.  A good place to find out where all the other SKP groups are camped, meet new friends, run into old friends and listen to music!!


The Blythe Bluegass Festival fell in the middle of our time at Boomerville, so we headed into California for 3 days.  First stop was groceries and laundry.

What a great sign.  You know us RVers are always looking for an unlimited supply of hot water, so this was really a disappointment!!

This "banjo" was made from a washtub!

Audie Blaylock and Redline - always a hot band!!

The Bluegrass Quilters always have a great quilt show.

The show was interrupted by an RV fire.  It took only 5 minutes from the start of the fire until the rig was completely destroyed.  It was very sobering and made us re-evaluate our emergency plams.  The bluegrass family took up a collection to help the victims of the fire and raised over $3,000.  It was great to see how everyone came together to help.  Nobody was injured and the other rigs were moved out of harms ways very quickly.

We also got to spend some time with Vince's Uncle Kay and his wife Betty while in Blythe.  And our car is getting a new front end. Betty's grandson is a Chevy mechanic and is helping us out.

Then it was back to the Arizona desert.



The annual "Geraldine" contest is always a fun time!!

The always popular wine and cheese tasting in the desert!

Bob mixes up the pancakes with his Black & Decker!!



Gretchen flipping pancakes!

Fritz relaxing after a hard day of running around in the desert looking for lizards!

We raised almost $2500.00 for CARE with our annual auction, bringing our total raised to over $14,000!  Seminars held around the firepit included Safety on the Road, Crafts, Military Campgrounds, iphones,Dutch oven cooking, etc, etc.  And of course, potlucks, chili cook off , and daily Happy Hours.  We stay very busy!!

Left Quartzsite today to head for Georgia.  Vince's dad is had a stroke in August and is not doing well so we decided to cancel the rest of our Arizona plans and head east. 

This is a picture of Boomerville taken from the air.  We had 130 rigs there this year!

And of course, a desert sunset!!

Finally Catching Up

Here are my excuses for being so lax on the blog; too busy, no cell service, computer issues, dead computer.  Good excuses if you ask me!  Yes, my computer is dead, but the Geeks say they can transfer all my files when I buy a new one.  So for now I can use Vince's. 

Since we arrived at Yuma, we have 

been geocaching with friends Don & Glenda and Tommy & Margie

celebrated Margies birthday at Olive Garden with all you can eat soup and salad

had a pre-Christmas Happy Hour with Boomer friends

eaten our way up and down the street of the Sommerton, AZ Tamale Festival, where they had all the regular tamale fillings along with pineapple, strawberry and mango tamales.  Yummy!!

Christmas was celebrated at Lake Mittry outside of Yuma with 20+ Boomer friends.  I cooked a turkey in the Dutch Oven, it was moist and delicious.  We also think we have started a tradition of the "Christmas Ladder"!

Good friends, good food, great weather - Merry Christmas to all!

Then it was off to Pasadena to decorate Rose Parade Floats.

Don, Glenda & I working on the City of Glendale float, gluing cornhusks on the back of the circus wagon.  The glue was the stickiest, messiest glue I have ever seen, and the longer it was on your hands the stickier it got!

Glends & I helped cut and vial thousands of roses.  The flower tent was a beautiful place to be!

Attaching chicken wire to the Loyola Marymount University float with hog-ring pliers and getting blisters!

Glenda and I gluing mums on the circus wagon.  I also had glued the white button mums on the spokes, but they later changed them to yellow.

The center of this medallion is filled with cranberries, each one individually glued on by me, Don, and Glenda!!  Seeing the floats come together, all the voluteers, flowers, etc, was a very interesting process and being a part of it was really fun, lots of hard work, but fun.  I am so grateful to have been able to do this, something I have wanted to do since I saw the parade in person when I was 8.  Thanks you Gretchen for this amazing experience!!







And here we are living on the streets of Pasadena, keeping warm, guarding our chairs, and awaiting the parade!

After the parade we pointed the rigs back towards Arizona with a stop at Joshua Tree National Park.  Joshua trees, huge rock formations, historic sites, hiking trails, and a chollo cactus garden are among the many things to see in the park.

Chollo cactus - also called Teddy Bear cactus, because they look deceptively soft and cuddly!

Then on to Slab City outside of Niland, Cal.  This was a training camp during WW11 for Pattons desert troops and all that is left are the slabs where the buildings once stood.  Many snowbirds spend the winter there.  There are also quite a few homeless families that have nowhere else to go.  The area is well organized into a community with a stage for performances, library, kitchen and church.  We parked close to the Tiki Bar and were entertained with an impromtu jam session one night, great music.




Next to the Slabs is Salvation Mountain.  Built by Leonard, a Korean vet, out of donated paint, hay bales, concrete, and anything else he could scrounge, it is now on the National Register of Folk Art and an extremely interesting place to visit.  Leonard is now in a home and a group is trying to raise money to keep it alive and safe.  Hope they do!



Of course we did some geocaching while at the Slabs and Salvation Mountain!

One more shot of roses!!

We are again in Yuma AZ, where I have been beading with friends, we have been spending time in the hot tub, having meals with friends and just relazing.

Tomorrow we plan to go up to Quartzsite and the annual "Boomerville" gathering.  I really am going to try to be more regular posting on this blog, at least so the postings won't be so long, but I cannot make any promises!