Quartzsite bound….

It’s Monday and it is a moving day, the extra day at Lake Havasu State Park has seen a number of rigs leave and we had an extra sunset with the beautiful view across the lake to California. While the lot has opened up a little bit more, but there are still lots of rigs to move out today. Our day will be reasonably easy with only about fifty miles or so to cover, we need to refuel Thunder, we need to refill the coach propane tank, dump and refill storage tanks, shopping for the rally and to restock for Quartzsite. So to get the most out of what we have, as we finished refilling the propane, we fired the generator and Miss Laurie did a load of laundry as we moved down the road to the dump station and sat in line waiting to dump. Our timing was just about perfect with the washer being in the final rinse as I went to empty the tanks.

As Miss Laurie and I are still feeling the effects of this cold that just seems to be hanging on, we have not been the most active people around. Mr. generator was still here so it wasn’t a real quiet night and he has it running already this morning, it will be another sunny day in Arizona, we are starting in the low 40’s this morning but should be near 70 by afternoon, there will be lots of stop and go today, with lots of preparation for a week on BLM.

We made it! We are checked in to the Roadrunner BLM about five miles south of Quartzsite, at the Beaver Rally. We got here about 3 o’clock this afternoon, we are almost set up, I still have to get on the roof, to tip the solar panels to get a better harvest, again our angle is not perfect for solar but should be reasonable. Our first impression is good, everyone seams friendly, and we are parked reasonably close to most of the action. I suspect the next couple of days should be very interesting and educational

Last Day of Balloon Festival

And there was mass ascension! This is what we have waited all week for, and realistically it was pretty great, worth the wait? Ya I think so…

Sunday morning, it’s a crisp 42 or 5 degrees, it will be another beautiful sunny day, here in Lake Havasu on the lake, the event Facebook page is showing the mass ascension this morning but they showed that for yesterday as well. But this is the day it actually happened I counted over fifty balloons in the sky this morning and Miss Laurie got the good photos, mine are poor at best. Today is the last day of the festival and the only thing I know for sure is that the fool directly behind me will run his Champion generator all day. Now we have ran our generator more than usual, but only once a day to make up for what the solar can not cover.

We are not heading out until tomorrow, we expect a lot of our neighbours will move today (we hope the generator guy leaves), we have a great view of the lake and some marvellous sunsets so I just figure there will be less traffic on Monday for our big move to the Quartzsite area. I think we are a little disappointed with out Balloon Festival experience, don’t get me wrong we totally understand so much of the event is controlled by the weather. It’s not an event that will make it back to our itinerary unless it was with a group, there is just too much time between festival events, sitting in the cold, drinking five dollar cans of beer, listening to mediocre country bands are just not our thing. A group would help fill in the gaps and there are lots of things in the area to check out.

Tomorrow we head south back down AZ-95 to the craziness that is Quartzsite, we have to do a little shopping first…you see we have a shopping list from the organizers of the Beaver Rally in Quartzsite, it is a four day rally with planned meals for breakfast and dinner, we are on team 2, to assist in meal preparations for Wednesday it is not an extensive list but there will be over fifty Beaver Coaches, which means there should be around 100 people for each meal, so it is a little bigger than it may sound st first. Our shopping list consists of simple items, 2 gallons of water, 2 red onions, Grands biscuits, 1 med picata, enough salad with dressing for eight, and a desert for eight as well, something to grill on the last night and last but not least an arm full of firewood.

Looking forward to our next adventure…stay tuned