Rockin’ In Quartzsite

Quartzsite, AZ   High 68  Low 41

I convinced Jim that we were going on a self-guided tour of Quartzsite’s Public Art Event. Sixteen rocks have been painted by local artists and are located at different places all over Q. Our goal – all sixteen rocks. Goal was met.

Please enjoy.

 

 

 

This last  one is located at the VFW Post in Quartzsite.

A Lazy Day

Quartzsite, AZ   High 59  Low 38

The wind died down today to more of a breeze but it was still cold outside. I realize cold is relative so it was cold for me.

It was a stay at home and walk the girls kind of day. I also did some book readin’ and Jim fought with his mail order prescription folks. I think he finally won.

Scooter especially had a great time today because she actually got to chase a lizard.

Skittlez loved the fact that the sun was shining.

Tonight we got to have another campfire. As you can see from the number of chairs our group has shrunk. Nan came out after I took the picture and I didn’t take another one. John wasn’t feeling real good and it was best that he didn’t come out in the cold. We got a chance to visit with him this afternoon when it was warmer.

Sunset tonight was incredible. I sure do love these desert sunsets.

Lousy Internet

Quartzsite, AZ  High 57  Low 32

We are still in Quartzsite and my internet connection seems to get worse every day. Hopefully this will post. I also haven’t been able to read very many blogs. I keep getting knocked off the internet. So I am going to have to catch up with everybody when we get back to AJ.

Almost everybody from our group has moved out. Several of them went to Plamosa Road which is a free parking area north of Q. (It costs $40 for two weeks here.) We’ve been waiting for the correct hitch bolts to arrive at General Delivery in Blythe, CA so we decided to just stay put so Jim can finish fixing the hitch.

The bolts came in and Jim said it shouldn’t take more than a day to get everything done on the hitch.

It rained and rained and rained some more for a couple of days. Then we had a beautiful day and now it’s cold and windy again. The weather is supposed to start improving in a couple of days. I sure hope so.

We also had to dump. This is what the dump line has been like for about the last week. We were lucky and it only took us about an hour and a half. Notice that gray sky.

The storm clouds have made for some beautiful cloud formations and sunsets. The moon is also beautiful.

I’m not going to try and publish this to my blog. Fingers crossed.

Quartzsite Sights

Quartzsite, AZ  High 76  Low 46

Sunrise this morning. It was just incredible. It only lasted for a couple of minutes and then was gone so I was really lucky to be up and looking out the window.

 

 

              Quartzsite Sights 

Traffic

$13,000 golf carts

Heading to the blue boy dump

Fancy car

Kites

A sight you never want to see (just up the road from where we’re parked). Did not hear about anybody being injured but don’t know for sure.

Mother-in-law Ride

 

Big Tent - Way too Many People – Way too Much Junk

 

Friends and Campfires

Skittlez Update: We took her back to the vet for a recheck and he gave her five more days of antibiotics. She is doing much, much better.

Emergency Room and Pot Luck

Parker, AZ   High 75  Low 44

No, it wasn’t Jim this time. Denise has been really sick and on Monday morning when she wasn’t any better, Jim and I took her to the doctor. When I went in to talk to the nurse, I explained that Denise was having trouble breathing and the nurse said take her to the emergency room in Parker.

Sure glad the highway patrol weren’t around because we made it to Parker in record time.

The place was packed with sick people so I made Jim sit outside in the truck. Sure don’t need him picking up any germs.

The diagnosis was a severe case of bronchitis and emphysema and they kept her overnight to give her some breathing treatments.

Update: Denise is home and doing better. She’s still extremely weak and it’s going to take awhile before she’s back 100% but she’s on her way.

Jim and I finally got back to camp around 3:30. We were both exhausted.

At 4:00 was our group’s potluck. Needless to say I didn’t get anything made but there was plenty of food anyhow.

 

After we ate, the Class of 2012 Freshman lit our campfire and Jeri presented mortgages to burn and graduation certificates to all those who hadn’t previously received them.

Jim and I didn’t last very long at the fire. Home to bed.

Desert Bar

Quartzsite, AZ – High 76,  Low 44

My internet connection has been really lousy as in non-existent. Hopefully this will post eventually.

Sunday a group of us went to the Desert Bar, officially known as the Nellie E. Saloon.

Wishful thinking that Mickey will have cell phone service.

The Nellie E Saloon is located in the Buckskin Mountains about ten miles outside of Parker, AZ. This used to be an old copper mining camp named the Nellie E, but in 1975, a guy decided that he would buy the property and give the “bar in the desert” idea a try. I would have told him he was nuts but the place is a great success.

He had to haul a 50-gallon tank of water loaded on the back of his truck. Now he has a well (360 feet) that operates on solar power.

Entrance to the Desert Bar

The saloon is also powered by solar energy, stored in batteries and run through inverters.

Standing in line to get food

Bring cash because they don’t take credit. And it is rather expensive. Jim and I split a philly cheese steak (without the cheese), an order of fries, and two bottles of water for $18.

Bill building his sandwich and Vern concentrating on something.

The church is made of solid steel and the walls and ceiling are made of stamped tin. The roof is made of copper.

They are only open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5:00. And the place is packed with people who are willing to drive the horrible road to get there.

Jan, Vern, Bill, and Mickey

 Ginny enjoying the sunshine

We are finding that there aren’t near as many folks visiting Quartzsite as in previous years. The last time we were at the Desert Bar, all of the tables were full and so were those benches behind Ginny.

U. S. Inaugural History

Quartzsite, AZ

How much do you know about the history of the inauguration of our President? I knew next to nothing so I decided to put together a post for my own edification.

George Washington’s first inauguration was held on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first to be sworn in as president in Washington, DC, which only officially became the federal capital on June 11, 1800.

Inauguration day was originally on March 4, four months after election day. The March 4th date was so travelers could avoid bad weather as most of it was done by foot or horseback. Letters had to mailed to prospective appointees and replies had to be mailed back. Roads were often impassible. After rapid transportation and communication came into being the March 4th date could be moved to January 20 and the passage of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution in 1933 made the change permanent.

When Inauguration Day falls on a Sunday, the chief justice will administer the oath to the president either on inauguration day itself or on the Sunday privately and the following Monday publicly. President Obama’s inauguration will take place on Monday, January 21, 2013. The President will take a private oath of office on Sunday, January 20.

The only inauguration element mandated by the United States Constitution is that the president make an oath before that person can "enter on the Execution" of the office of the presidency.

At 12:00 noon on January 21, 2013, President Obama will recite the Oath of Office as follows

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The Inaugural Address

On Thursday, April 30, 1789, George Washington gave the first inaugural address before members of the US Senate and the US House of Representatives in the senate chamber.

Through carefully chosen words, new presidents have used their inaugural addresses to assess the state of the nation, offer a synopsis of their plans for the four years of their terms, and offer a vision for the future beyond their terms.

Some of the most famous expressions ever uttered by US presidents have come out of the addresses.

In Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address he said: “With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds . . .”

Franklin D.Roosevelt’s address in 1933: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

John F. Kennedy’s 1961 address: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

After women were finally granted the right to vote in 1920, Warren G. Harding, in his 1921 address, stated: “With the nationwide induction of womanhood into our political life, we may count upon her intuitions, her refinements, her intelligence and her influence to exalt the social order.”

I had the privilege of living in Washington, DC for many years and I attended President Reagan’s inauguration in 1981. As he paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue we learned that the 52 American hostages held in Iran for the previous 444 days had been released. It was an exciting day for me.

The Legend of Red Ghost

by Marshall Trimble, the state’s official historian.
Most folks will tell you camels are not found in Arizona’s high country. Truth is, the U.S. Army introduced camels to the Southwest back in the 1850s, using them as beasts of burden while surveying a road across northern Arizona. But, the Civil War interrupted the great camel experiment and the camels were turned loose to run wild—and therein lies the basis for the legend of Red Ghost.

This picture is from the website of Joe Parzanese at: http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=3. If you want to learn all about other great stories please visit his website at www.weirdca.com. 


The story begins back in 1883 at a lonely ranch near Eagle Creek in southeastern Arizona. The Apache wars were drawing to a close. However, a few renegade bands were on the prowl, keeping isolated ranches in a constant state of siege. Early one morning, two men rode out to check on the livestock leaving their wives at the ranch with the children. About midmorning, one of the women went down to the spring to fetch a bucket of water while the other remained in the house with the children.
Suddenly one of the dogs began to bark ferociously. The woman inside the house heard a terrifying scream. Looking out the window, she saw a huge, reddish-hued beast run by with a devilish-looking creature strapped on its back.
The frightened woman barricaded herself in the house and waited anxiously for the men to return. That night they found the body of the other woman, trampled to death. Next day tracks were found, cloven hoof prints much larger than those of a horse, along with long strands of reddish hair.
A few days later, a party of prospectors near Clifton were awakened by the sound of thundering hoofs and ear-piercing screams. Their tent collapsed, and the men clawed their way out of the tangle just in time to see a gigantic creature run off in the moonlight. The next day, they too, found huge cloven hoof prints and long, red strands of hair clinging to the brush.
During the next few years, stories of the Red Ghost grew to legendary proportions. One man claimed he saw the beast kill and eat a grizzly bear. Another insisted he had chased the Red Ghost, only to have it disappear before his eyes.

The creature made its last appear­ance nine years later in eastern Arizona. A rancher awoke one morning and saw the huge animal casually grazing in his garden. He drew a careful bead with his trusty Winchester and dropped the beast with one shot. An examination of the corpse convinced all that this was indeed the fabled Red Ghost. The animal’s back was heavily scarred from rawhide strips that had been used to tie down the body of a man. Some of the leather strands had cut into the camel’s flesh. But how the human body came to be attached to the back of the camel remains a cruel mystery.
Hi Jolly
Jefferson Davis, as secretary of war, approved the plan to experiment with camels for carrying freight in the Southwest desert. Major Wayne of the army and LT. Porter of the navy bought 33 camels from the Near East and shipped them to Texas in 1856.

With the camels came their caretaker, Hadji Ali, whose name was promptly changed to Hi Jolly by the solders. In 1857 the war department abandoned the camel experiment and the camels were turned loose to shift for themselves on the Arizona desert. 
According to Hi Jolly, the experiment didn’t work, not because the camels didn’t do a good job, but because they scared prospectors and their mules. He said the camels were lonesome for the caravans of their home country and every time they sighted a prospector’s mule train they’d make a break for it. There wasn’t anything compared to the fright those ugly, loping camels threw into mules. Finally the prospectors raised such a fuss the government just gave up and let the camels go.
Hi Jolly was grieved to lose his animals but he took up scouting for the army and also did some mining. He died in Quartzsite, AZ on December 16, 1902, at the age of 64.
We visited the Hi Jolly Cemetery today with Mickey and Ginny.
Hi Jolly’s grave