Day 24: I got down on my knees: Quartzsite, AZ to Blythe, CA to Quartzsite, AZ

We had some rain last night. The van was ready to go in case it got heavy as we are parked in a “wash”. A wash is effectively a dry creek. We didn’t want to be like Alexander Supertramp (I think he was still Chris McCandless then) when he lost his car. The rain was refreshing and brought that nice smell of warm summer rain we miss up at our latitude during the winter.

Morning walk was a wander through whatever geological feature we are parked on. We can’t figure out if this is natural with modification due to human use or completely manmade. We have googled a bit, but shall do more later. I awoke at 0.0 Amps but waited until 2.0 Amps to get up. There was still a bit of rain around when I started my walk and we had a lovely rainbow.

After walk time it was still too windy but I flew the drone anyway. This is our van with nothing behind us.

Before we set about on our adventures, we packed up. Amy liked the green “carpet” even when folded. We got that “carpet” in 2004 when we had our first RV thing. It may be on its last trip as it is shedding a bit too much.

Mission #1: California Dreaming. Blythe, CA is only 20 miles from here so we hit the road to cross the Colorado River (not the one in Texas that we also crossed) and touch California. We went to a park in Blythe but it was pretty flooded and they wanted $5.00 USD to use the park. So we went down the dirt road and parked next to the park to take some pictures and let Amy have a walkabout. Water levels were pretty high in the river. I assumed that Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg would be at the border to greet us, instead, it was an official looking fellow from an appropriate government agency that waved us through.

Mission complete, back to Quartzsite for mission #2, explore Quartzsite and grab a few things. We fuelled up and met some of the contestants from “American’s Next Manson Family”. They were a group of youth of some age traveling in an SUV. They were parked at the gas station and approached customers with a jerry can as we were filling our tanks. They then asked for us to contribute some fuel. I declined. The rest of the troop just walked back and forth between their vehicle and the grassy bit at the front of the gas station. Guitar often in hand. I’m all for their sense of adventure, just not sure I need to fund it. That was probably more legit than when an 8th grader approached me years ago as I entered the local Walmart and asked if I would donate to their graduation trip. Hard to not say “WTF?” to the little fellow.

Did we get our tuned healing crystals? Yes we did. Our healing crystals are proven to have the same efficacy as all other healing crystals. I was selected by goodnite and sleeptite selected Mrs Milddogs. I hope we are allowed to bring them across the border.

We stopped at the grocery store for a few things. Then the book store that the naked guy used to run. Now his wife runs it and she wears clothes. Turns out she is from St Thomas, ON and has cousins in Sarnia, ON. Liz bought a book from the cowboy author that was there. It is “free of cussing and sex”.

Last stop of note was the Sally Ann store as our melamine dinner plates were not holding up well. They were formerly our boat plates but lacked the fine boat smell. Mrs Milddogs found a few “new” ones and a couple of steak knives too.

We debated going to different BLM spots for tonight but in the end came back to the same spot we were in last night. We have the same distant neighbours. Hi neighbours!

Dinner was chicken fajitas. It was really windy so I bodged a windscreen for the Blackstone out of tinfoil. A bit wasteful but it worked. Amy liked the table set up.

Post dinner we went for a sunset walk.

We shall not discuss the success of Mrs Milddogs’ outdoor shower.

Tomorrow, so what’s up tomorrow? Northeast to the Sedona area is the plan. Rain should have gone through by the time we arrive. BLM land is our intent. We still have plenty of fresh water and the grey and black tanks are reading empty.

The van has indicated it needs an oil change. I’ll have to do that in Flagstaff, AZ on the way north. I thought about doing that in Phoenix but bailed on the idea. Oops.

Quartzsite is interesting. We are not here at high season. We did not attend any seminars so we don’t know which size of poop bucket is right for our van (watch Nomadland). We did park near another Travato (our van) at the Sally Ann.

Going to have to start planning the route home soon. Show me the way to go home… <- that’s warm enough and free of snow.

Out!