Parker 425

As we travel around the country we like to find new and unique experiences. I have always loved motor sports and have seen desert racing on TV, but I have never been to a race. When we found out that the Parker 425 was going to be held near where we were camped, we decided to check it out. In my last entry, I wrote about going to the street party on Thursday, February 2. They put the vehicles on display to let the fans see them up close and personal. You can talk to the drivers and crews also. Throw in some live music and food booths and you have a fun time.

The race was on Saturday, February 4. On Friday, I went out on my motorcycle and checked out the designated spectator areas. You are only allowed to watch the race in these designated areas. In the past, it was allowed to go anywhere out in the desert along the course, set up camp, and watch the racers come by. Sadly, there have been accidents and spectators have been injured and killed. They now have areas that are roped off  to keep the fans a safe distance from the race course, but still allow them to see some action.

The race course for this event is about 120 miles long. The course winds from the town of Parker out through the open desert in a large loop. There is a morning race that has many amateur classes. These guys are racing for trophies and fun. At 1:00 PM, the afternoon races start with the Trophy Trucks and other professional classes. These guys have deep pockets and the machines are very expensive. They have large crews to help at the pits and out on the course at designated pit areas. The race is 425 miles and ends in the dark.

We arrived at the designated party, I mean spectator area at around 10:00 AM. The morning race was well underway. I tried to take a few pictures and some video, but sadly they did not capture the awesome action.

A buggy that found some mud. Not great for his sponsors. 

As you can see in the pictures, the dust was thick. The course is full of washes and other holes and bumps. It really gives the suspension a workout.

The morning race was fun to watch, but you could tell that everyone of the experienced spectators was waiting for the Afternoon Race. We met a number of fans around us and all were having fun and getting excited for the Trophy Trucks.

You knew things were getting serious when you saw the helicopters in the air. The high budget teams have a helicopter following their vehicle around the course. I did get a decent shot of the #1 Truck. They are last years "Best in the Desert Series" champion.

The still images do not do a great job of capturing the action. I took a bunch of video throughout the day. I stitched them together in this movie:

We were not prepared to stay into the evening. The sun was hot and the dust was thick. We decided to call it a day around 5. We could see the very bright lights of he vehicles bouncing through the desert from our camp site 10 miles away. It was quite a site.

We really enjoyed the experience and would be better prepared the next time we have the opportunity to attend a desert race.

In my previous entries I wrote about buying a new inverter for the. I was able to pick that up on Friday and with Kim's help installed in on Friday evening. It works great and I love the fact that we can turn it off and on from inside the trailer. We are now ready to move on. We have been in the Quartzsite area for three weeks camping out in the desert. We are very pleased with our solar and battery systems. We really have been quite comfortable. It is now time to move into California. I will write about our entry into California and the dreaded check point in my next entry.

Thanks for reading.

Camping near Bouse, Arizona

We stayed at the Plomosa road BLM area for the maximum of 2 weeks. On January 30, it was time to leave. I had done some scouting on my motorcycle and found that the area just over a small pass was about 15 miles away and in another district. We could go there and spend 14 days if we wanted and then move right back to the first area. We could do that all winter if we wanted and some do. We are really just waiting for our new inverter to arrive and are just planning to stay about another week in the area.

I have not really found a name for this new place. It is near the town of Bouse, Arizona, so that is what I will call it. We are much closer to the surrounding mountains than in our previous spot, and it is absolutely beautiful. It is much more secluded with just a few RV's in the area.

You may be able to see the arches in that volcanic ridge. It is just to the north of our camp site. I decided that a hike to see the arches up close was in order. I have been walking almost every day since I have been in this area. It is amazing how nature does that to me.

Getting closer...

I hiked up to the shoulder of that ridge to the left of the picture above and decided that was far enough. The route to the top looked pretty sketchy and I was by myself. It was a fun and beautiful hike.

We have been very interested in one particular plant in this area. It is called an Ocotillo. They are normally brown and thorny and look dead. The rain we got about 10 days ago has caused them to leaf out. They only do this a couple of times each year.

I did get Kim to come out for an evening walk a couple of days ago. It was a beautiful evening and the sunset was spectacular. Here is a shot of the mountains to our south.

We heard that there is a big off-road desert race called the Parker 425 being held near here this weekend. They were having a street party yesterday in the town of Parker. We needed to go there to get some supplies and do laundry. They lined up many of the competitors on main street. It was fun checking out the machines. Sadly, there will not be motorcycles in this event, just trucks and buggies.

Check out the rear shocks on that buggy. 

We picked up a map of the course while we were at the street party. There are some designated spectator areas about 10 miles from our camp. I will head out in the desert on Saturday morning and try to get some action shots. It should be my kind of entertainment.

I got the notice last night that my package has arrived in Quartzsite. I will head over there on my motorcycle and pick it up. I just hope they didn't put it in a huge box. We will then check out the race on Saturday and then move into California on Sunday. We have really enjoyed our peace and solitude out here in the desert. Now we will go to the other end of the spectrum and visit the Los Angeles area. Wish us luck.

Hanging out in Quartzsite

We arrived in the Quartzsite area on January 16. We parked in the Plomosa road BLM area. We were amazed how many RV's there were parked out in the desert. Little did we know, that the number would increase steadily over the next few days. I think the number hit a peak the following weekend. We still had good spacing to the next rig, but there were large groups parked right next to each other all around us. There was the Montana owners group, the Outside the Bubble group and the Escapees Solo group to name just a few. Some of the groups had well over 100 rigs.

One cool thing is there are people out here that have some awesome hobbies. I am envious of the RC flyers and drone flyers. We also have ultra light flyers and a hot air balloon.

This guy landed right by us.

That is millions of dollars of Motor homes

We have stayed quite busy since we have been here. There are a number of projects that I wanted to accomplish while I was stationary for a few weeks. As I mentioned in my last post, we have a place to have packages sent, so I was ordering away. I had a few items on the truck to resolve and I needed to do some more work on the motorcycle. The good news is as of this writing, I have all but one of my projects completed.

Our good friends, Bob and Roxanne from Wisconsin came into town around the 21st. We really enjoyed seeing them again. We went to the big RV show together and were amazed by all of the strange things at the show. The funny thing is we both fell in love with the same trailer. The new Momentum by Grand A Designs is awesome and may be our next rig, in about 5 years.

Bob and Rox came over to our place for dinner one night and we went over to their place on Sunday to watch the NFL playoff games. They were of course rooting for the Green Bay Packers, but they sadly had a bad day. We still had an awesome day and a great meal.

We have been running our new solar system and it has been fantastic. We only ran the generator twice in two weeks. The only problem is we had one of our two inverters fail. I had been wanting to get a larger one that is a Pure Sine Inverter with a remote on/off switch, so that is what I ordered. We have decided to stick around the area for another week to wait for the arrival of that package. Come on Amazon, don't let me down.

I needed to refill my perscriptions and the closest Walgreens is in Lake Havasu about 70 miles away. We made the drive there and we are glad we did. The drive is mostly along the Colorado river that is heading down to the gulf of California from here. It is a beautiful oasis in the desert. This is also the home of the London Bridge.

The Colorado River on the way to Lake Havasu

The bridge was moved brick by brick from London. You can still see bullet holes from German strafing during WWII. 

After getting my motorcycle fixed, I went for a fun ride out in the desert. I was blasting along some two track and I am happy to report the DR is running better than ever. Here are a few shots of the awesome scenery.

Last Saturday, they had the 3rd annual Blogger Fest at La Posa South BLM area. We met a number of other bloggers. We really enjoyed meeting Jim and Barb of jimandbarbsrvadventure . I have been reading their blog for a while. They are also younger retired full timers. We got an invite for lunch today from them and had more time comparing notes and learning from them. We took some silly pictures in a large chair at the outdoor restaurant called Beer Belly's.

Today was moving day. We had stayed 14 days at the BLM area on Laposa road and that is the limit. I am not sure if they are enforcing the rule, but we decided we needed to dump tanks after 2 weeks anyway, so we took care of that at the Pit Stop in town. Then we went further out Laposa road and over near the little town of Bouse, Arizona. It is beautiful out here and very quiet. There are a few other rigs, but only about 10 in a very large area. We will hang out here and wait for that package. Camping for free in the desert is Awesome!

Quartzsite, Arizona

We arrived in Quartzsite on Monday, January 16. We have never been here before and were not sure what to expect. I had read a bunch of other blogs of experienced Q people, but it never is what you have in your mind. They have plenty of RV parks in town that are not expensive, but also not our thing. They have lots of BLM camp areas that have a 14 day limit and are free. They also have some Long Term Visitor Areas (LTVA) that have a fee of $40 for 14 days or $180 for 7 months, but they have water and dump stations. We were contacted by a guy on RVillage that was looking to do a Dual Sport ride and he was staying in the Plomosa Road BLM area that is about 7 miles north of town. We decided to go out to Plomosa road and check it out. When we arrived we went to the check in area and were greeted by a very friendly camp host that gave us the information about the area. We filled out the form and got our free 14 day pass. We drove in a couple of miles and found an open spot along a small draw. The ground was dead level. We have been in plenty of improved campsites that were not this level. We have a great view of the surrounding mountains and although there are hundreds of RV's in this area, our closest neighbor is about 100 yards away.

It is really hard to get a shot of this area that really shows the size and the spacing of the rigs. I think a drone shot would be best.

While we were setting up, the main slide failed again. I knew it was the shear pin again and now knew exactly how to fix it. That took me about 20 minutes and I now know that some more adjustment is needed. I will just keep playing with it to get it perfect.

I went to town to pick up my package of my bike parts. As I said in my previous post, I found a small shop that accepts packages for $2 per package. I went in and the owner was a bit frazzled. She asked me if I knew anything about computers. I said well I actually do. That was what I did for 33 years. To make a long story short, I was able to fix her problem. She was grateful and would not let me pay for my package. I told her I was going to have a number of other things shipped in and would pay for them. She told me that my money was not good in her store and would not let me pay for any of them. How cool is that?

I took advantage of the quiet times in the desert to get a few things done on the bike, truck and trailer. That work pointed to some new parts I needed. I have ordered them and am now waiting for some of them to arrive.

Our first impression of Quartzsite has been very good. We like the laid back vibe of this place and will write more about it as we explore more and hit the big tent show. We have friends coming in and we are really looking forward to seeing them again. I will write more about our experiences in Quartzsite in my coming posts. As of this writing, it looks like we will stay here about 3 weeks.

Time in Tucson

We ended up spending 5 nights at Tucson Mountain Park. We really liked the park and would love to go back when we are in the area. We feel that we barely scratched the surface of the things to see and do in the area. When we decided to go to the Tucson area, we were thinking that we would do domestic things, but we also did a few things that were interesting a fun.

My first order of business was to go to Tucson and buy the parts I thought I needed to work on my motorcycle. I also got propane and some parts to do some maintenance on the truck. It was time for a new air filter and a few other things.

The fastest way to drive to Tucson from the park is through Gates pass. You can not drive on this road if you are over 12,000 lbs. When I drove it, I could see why. There are some overlooks up there that provide some nice views of the valley we are camped in, which is actually an ancient volcanic caldera. The mountains are interesting because of the forest of Saguaro cactus that goes all the way to the top.

I was able to find all that I needed and enjoyed the day in the city.

I worked on my bike and was very concerned when I pulled the oil drain plug and 3 gallons of fluid came out when there should have been about a half gallon. I determined that there was a problem with my carburetor, which overflowed with fuel and filled the crankcase. This became a very long process to get sorted out. The good news is once again I was able to use on-line forums to gain excellent information and was able to order what I needed. I had it all shipped to a little store in Quartzsite that accepts packages. How did I know that? I will tell that story in my next entry.

We decided to take a drive over to Saguaro National Park and go to the visitor center. They have an excellent slide show. We then took the driving loop and did a few short hikes.

We learned about how the native Americans in this area saw the Saguaro as their dead ancestors and they thought of them as people. Many of the cactus do look like a human form with arms.

We took a short hike to see some petroglyphs at Signal hill. That was cool to see, but we wanted to hike some more. Kim decided to take the cactus wren trail. After about a mile we determined that we were going out into the desert and to our certain death. I made the executive decision to turn around and saved our lives. Yeah, that is how it went.

It was actually a nice cool day and it was a fun walk out through the desert.

On Sunday, we decided to go to church at the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. This is an old Spanish mission dating back to 1691. The present church was built in the early 1800's. The church was renovated in the late 1990's. The alter piece is all hand carved and amazing.

There is a large square in front of the church and they have booths set up to purchase some food after church. The church is located on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian reservation The church has a unique relationship with the local tribe. The booths are an opportunity for the tribal members to earn a few dollars and provide a lunch for the church goers. We tried the Indian taco and some Fry bread. They were both very tasty.

I love those very unique experiences.

On Monday, January 16 we left Tucson and made a long drive for us. We drove all the way to Quartzsite, Arizona. That was almost 250 miles. We did not know what to expect. I had read a great deal about the "Quartzsite experience", but we were a bit apprehensive. I will write all about this unique place and what we think in my next entry. It was much different than Kim or I expected.

Tucson Mountain Park

On Wednesday, January 11 we left Kartchner Caverns SP and made the short drive over to Tucson. We went up to Tucson Mountain Park - Gilbert Ray Campground. As we drove up this road we were amazed by all of the Saguaro cactus. It is actually like a forest of tall cactus. This campground is a park run by Pima county. It is $20 per night for 30 amp electric. They do not have water at the sites, but there a a bunch of water outlets that are threaded for hose connection around the park. We parked right next to one and were able to fill our tank as we needed water. They have good 4G Verizon signal and only one channel on OTA TV. We really liked this park and decided to stay for 5 days to get through the weekend. One thing to note is this park has a 7 day stay limit.

The Saguaro National Park has two districts. We were within a mile from the Tucson Mountain District. This park has many miles of hiking and mountain bike trails. We were looking forward to visiting the national park and we also needed to go into Tucson to get some of the domestic kind of stuff done. I also wanted to sort out what was going on with my motorcycle.

The view out our back window

I took a short hike around the park and got a few nice pics of some cactus. The thorny plants are kind of growing on me.

The mountains in the distance in this shot separate this park from the greater Tucson area. It makes you feel like you are way out in the desert when it is a 20 minute drive to the city.

The weather was a bit unsettled while we were in the Tucson area. We had some warm afternoons with cool nights which we expected. We also had some rain which is rare for this area.

One thing we did like was the sunsets. We had some really nice ones.

One thing I wanted to mention was what we found in our site when we arrived. Another full time RVer and blogger had written their logo and web address on a small rock and left it on the picnic table. They had stayed in the same site a week or so before we had. I sent them a note and they responded. I have now added them to the list of blogs I follow. I won't publish their link without permission, but what a cool way to connect with fellow travelers.

We did a few fun things while we were in Tucson. I will write about that in my next entry. We are in the Quartzsite area now and are planning to attend a blogger fest on January 28. I hope to meet some of the other bloggers I follow.

Kartchner Caverns State Park

It has been a week since I last posted and it seems like a long time since we were at Hot Wells Dunes, which I wrote about in my last entry. I am writing this on January 17. Yesterday we arrived at Quartzsite, Arizona. Most RVers know of this place. We are camped here all by ourselves and totally surrounded by thousands of RV's. All at the same time. It is a very unique feeling, but I will explain in later entries. First, I need to get caught up.

We left Hot Wells Dunes on Sunday, January 8. We went about 90 miles to a Kartchner Caverns State Park. We were very impressed with the facilities when we arrived. Maybe it was just that we had been in the desert for the past two weeks without hookups, but this place is very nice. The visitor center is the nicest I have ever seen at a SP. We did not have reservations, but had looked on line and it looked like they had plenty of availability. When we arrived, the lack of a reservation was no issue at all and they quickly got us checked in. The cost of a Water and Electric site is $30 per night, which is a bit high, but there is no day use fee or anything else. The campground is very well maintained. Here is a shot of our site:

The view from the campground is some large hills/mountains.

It is funny how we act after plugging in to the sweet nectar of electricity. We use the toaster, we use the heat just because we can. We felt a bit crowded, but only in comparison to our desert camping spots. The sites are very well spaced.

On Monday, we decided to take a tour of the caverns. There are two tours and they are about an hour and a half each. The cost is $23 per person per tour. We went for the Big Room tour.

We have toured many caverns in our travels and this one is very different. This cave was only discovered about 40 years ago and was not open to the public until about 1990. The cave has been very well preserved. There are airlocks going in and out. You can not touch anything inside the cave. We really appreciate the effort to keep it as it was found. We saw what can happen to a cave if you let people do what they want when we visited Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana. That was just sad.

I have no pictures of the cave, because they will not let you take a camera inside. Maybe it is because we have seen so many other caves, but this cave was nice, but in my opinion not overly impressive. There are many intricate formations, but not the size and grandeur of Carlsbad. You are also on a very closely monitored guided tour, which felt a little regimented. The guide was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed the tour, but we decided that we did not need to do the second tour.

On Tuesday, we decided to take a driving tour of the area. We drove south through the town of Sierra Vista. We stopped and got a card mailed it to our grandson Will. Happy Birthday Will.

We then did some shopping and had lunch. I guess that is what you do when you are back in civilization. We then headed south to the town of Bisbee. We were told by our friends to check it out when we are in the area. Bisbee is an old mining town and we enjoyed walking around and looking in the shops that were open on this weekday. It was pretty quiet and there was not much going on. Here are a few shots:

The open pit mine at Bisbee

We have to admit, we are not very good tourists. We like history, but it needs to be told in a accurate and balanced way. We generally like to look around a town like Bisbee for an hour or two and we are ready to move on.

We then took a very interesting drive through the mountains and out to Tombstone, Arizona. If Bisbee was a tourist town, Tombstone was double that. We did the same two hour walk around and enjoyed walking through the buildings and shops. I really liked some of the Native American art. I guess part of the issue is that we are not going to buy anything, so shopping seems a bit pointless. Tombstone is of course home to the OK corral and the famous shootout. It kind of tuned me off when you had to pay to see the corral.

I really liked the old courthouse

I really don't want to sound negative. We had a great time on this tourist day. We want to take side trips like this and see all of the sites. You never know what will interest you. To some people, this is what they like. To us, we would rather see a bit older history and more natural beauty.

We made one more stop before we made it to Quartzsite. We decided to make a stop near the big town of Tucson. The good news is that we were in a great park right next to Saguaro National Park. I will write all about that in my next entry.