It's been a quiet time on the western front. Last half of December and the first half of January was quite cold. Not cold by northern standards (here lows in the 30s, highs in the 50s), but living in a small trailer it gets old not living part-time outside. But it seems to have warm up the last half of January.

Also been rainy. Well, rainy for the Sonoran Desert. Seems to take a week or so for the country to dry out after a good rain. We've had four or five good rain storms so far this winter and the desert is green. Grass is growing all over, very different and unexpected. It may be an amazing wildflower year.

Hugh continued some work on Dora (our Escape 19 trailer). He mounted a small electrical box on the rear outside and routed the internet antenna connection there. A much cleaner installation than wires hanging free.

The second half of January are very busy and crazy in Quartzsite. The "Big Tent" is open with many vendors of RV related products, very crowded to just get around in. Large circus tent sized space. Along with this is a large RV show, and a great number of "flee market" and "cheap stuff" booths. Add in all the rock/mineral vendors and traffic, it's crazy. Very hard to get an overall view without a drone, but here's a surface shot.

We did one excursion into the "wilderness". On the Internet we saw pictures of a mine that looked interesting with partial directions to it. A marvelous way to start a trek. It is just south of Hwy 60 between Salome and Aguila. We were able to find the hole in the ground with mines dug out around the base, the mine.

Not sure what they were mining, a lot of gold, silver & other metals in the area. We found lot of tar bearing black rocks around. The dogs were real good at collection and transporting the tarrish stuff into the car, a mess. We found Harquahala Mountain and considered driving up it, but the narrow steep jeep road didn't seem wise with Larry. So we passed on that but did find the trailhead. All in all a very successful trip.

We went to an RV Forum trailer rally just south of Quartzsite, in the BLM LTVA (Long Term Visitors Area). Not much going on but gave us another view of the LTVA. It's a large area where snowbirds can stay the winter for a couple of hundred dollars. Minimal services (garbage and dump stations), very dusty and noisy. But a lot of people spend time there.

The local roadrunner keeps coming by. May have something to do with Denise feeding it hamburger?

Denise is getting very good at finding and picking up rocks and crystals. We have no clue if they have any value, other than to us. She found these within a mile of our RV Park.

Denise is getting good at wirewrap both found and purchased stones. Quartzsite seems to be a premier shopping location for rocks/minerals. Shinny polished ones for little $ (up to high $).

But probably the most exciting news is our new side by side. It's a 2017 Kawasaki Teryx-4, a four seat side by side off road vehicle. It came used with a windshield, rear window, winch and skid plates. We think we got a decent deal on it. The four seater will allow Cooper and Ruby to come along comfortably. Haven't had it past the back yard yet, likely today. We don't have a trailer so travel with be "local" but there are tons of trails reachable. Trails extending far beyond any day trip. Teryx should expand our reach into the desert greatly.

We'll have to find storage in Quartzsite to store Teryx, but that'll be OK.

So, stay tuned for desert adventure. Life is still good down here in the desert.

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