March weather has been a great improvement over December, January and February. It has been pleasant enough to be outside for a change. It was a wet winter and we're starting to see lots of flowers poking up. This could be an epic wild flower season.

Desert Gold RV has a "fesitval" called Crazy Daze with many activities. We participated in a short desert "poker run" and off road "challenge course". Our poker hand was poor. The challenge course had prizes for fast, medium, and slow speeds. They had pre-runners do the course at fast, medium, and slow speeds for benchmarks. Those closest to the benchmark won. Glory, we were closest to the slow time and won. It was a fun day. Sitting on the neighbors poarch, watching the blindfolded golf cart races, this chuckwalla showed up.

Hugh received a book of Quartzsite area trails for his birthday. We haven't scratched the surface yet, but did the "Banded Rhyolite Run". The bands here seem very linear. We've seen some where the strata is curvy and twisted, pretty for jewlery. The wildflowers are coming out. These are called Scorpion Weed and reportedly are like poison oak/ivy. We picked a few nice bouquet before finding this out. No ill effects, go figure.

We went on one outing with a gathering of off-road vehicles. This was a 35 mile loop going over Preachers Pass. The pass is a very steep trail which we negotiated going down. It is amazing what these off-road side-by-side UTVs can negotiate. It was a great outing and we'll surely go again. They say we shouldn't go out into the desert with only one vehicle, in case one breaks down. This will take some adjustment since we've wandered the wilderness with one vehicle all our lives. Or we could just take our chances?

The cactus are really blooming. This one, same at top of page, is an Argentine Giant (Echinopsis candicans). The blooms, which come out at night, are 6"-8" across, and last only one night. This one is right in our RV Park. Beautiful.

March feels a lot like spring. Hugh was down with a bad cold the second half of March. He's on the mend though, another few days hopefully. We're aiming to commence summer travel near mid April. Several loose ends to tie up, then hit the road. The plan is to spend summer visiting New Mexico, but all plans are tentative.

Safe Travels.

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