SUNSET

Another beautiful end to a wonderful day. Jim and I went to some of the swap meet today and tracked down a couple of Todd's friends, Mac and Cory. They are down here to sell motorized bicycles. It was great to see them again.

I said some of the swap meet because the tents of stuff goes on for miles. Most of it is not anything I want so we won't be going back unless somebody wants us to go with them.
We did get some firewood for the bonfires we're going to have when the gang gets here. I can hardly wait to roast some marshmallows.

Then we came home and Dave and his pup, Millie, came over to introduce themselves and say hi. Dave is parked way out in the desert because he likes being able to let Millie run loose. Up here where we are, there are too many people and other dogs so ours are always on a leash. We had a great visit and Jeri came over to join us for awhile.
After dinner Jeri, Jim, and I came outside to watch the beautiful sunset. And once again, I had Jim take a ton of pictures. I had trouble picking out the ones I wanted. But I hope you enjoy these.

HI JOLLY

Hi Jolly was a Syrian cameldriver who came to the United States with 33 camels that were to be used by the U. S. Army in the deserts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in 1856.

The camels would have been a great success except for

problems during the civil war and it was decided they would not be used any longer.

The camels were turned loose in the desert of Arizona and survived for several years. Hi Jolly died in Quartzsite and is buried in their cemetery.

SKITZ & SCOOTZ

Our girls love to be warm. So Scooter claimed the dashboard with the sun streaming through.

Skittlez loves the heat vent with a blanket over it. She sits under it like in a tent until she gets too hot and then she lays on top of it.



They loved being able to sit outside in the sun with us today when Dave and his pup, Millie, came over to say hi.

SUNRISE AT QUARTZSITE

One of my favorite things about the desert are the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I can't seem to see enough of them. And the good news is - almost every day they are beautiful.

So, of course, I drive Jim crazy - did you get a picture of that - or how about that angle - or how about one of Jeri's rig - then our rig. But he just keeps saying "yes dear".

LA POSA SOUTH

This is the area we staked out for our group. (Notice the orange and yellow markers.) This is on BLM land and is about 3 miles from the town of Quartzsite.

Our site is within walking distance of the trash dumpsters and we can just look across the road and see how long the line is at the dump station. In otherwords about as perfect as you can get out in the middle of the desert.

Jeri & Terry are in the Monaco motorhome and we parked apart from each other in order to more easily claim this territory.

As you can see the weather was perfect today. Sunshine, no jacket. What more can I want. It is really quiet and peaceful out here. I'm sure as more and more people arrive, that will end. But at night it is amazingly quiet. And dark. Real dark. Really, really dark.

This is our fire circle. Notice that load of wood. But Jeri says it's not enough so tomorrow we'll get more.

ORGAN STOP PIZZA

Before we came to Quartzsite we went to dinner at Organ Stop Pizza. Heads up everybody - this is a definite MUST DO. In fact, it is a definite redo for us. It is located in Mesa, AZ on Southern Avenue. We went with my sister, Judy, her husband, Don, and our friend Paul. (Don is not asleep - just enjoying the music.)

Sounds like just an another pizza joint from the name but the only thing pizza joint about it is that they serve pizza. The main attraction is a Wurlitzer Organ. And not just any organ - the largest Wurlitzer in the world.

This is a theatre pipe organ which is very different from a chuch organ. The theatre organ sounds like an entire orchestra with theatrical sound effects. During the late teens and early twenties, all movie theatres installed theatre pipe organs for use with silent films. This Wurlitzer was built for the Denver Theatre and was installed in 1927. However, with the advent of the talking picture show and the great depression, organs were no longer used and a fire caused extensive damage to the organ's relay.

Organ Stop purchased the organ in the early 1970's and took on the task of rebuilding it. It was then installed in their original location in 1975. Several additions have been made to the organ over the years and it now has nearly 6,000 pipes with the wind required for its operation provided by four huge turbine blowers.

The current location was built expressly for the enjoyment of those of us who come to eat and listen. The organ is installed in four chambers at one end of the restaurant with a 43 foot ceiling to provide unbelievable acoustics.

The organists are amazing. How anyone can learn to play an organ this huge and can multitask with their hands and feet going in opposite directions at all times is just beyond my comprehension.

And speaking of food - the pizza is pretty good. The spaghetti was horrible (I don't eat pizza because I don't eat cheese). So next time I'll just get a salad.

2010

It is now the 6th of January and I have not posted to my blog. I think I need to make a New Years Resolution that I will be more prompt with my postings. But I've also decided that I may just refer you to Jeri's blog if she'll let me post her blog address. She does an excellent blog and I love reading about our adventures together on hers. We met her and Terry in Mexico Beach, FL and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with them again in AZ. We all love to try out unique restaurants and are here at Q together.

To catch you up - New Year's Eve we watched the ball drop in New York and went to bed. We are such party animals. The next couple of days we did grocery shopping, laundry and got ready to go to Quartzsite, AZ for the largest RV Rally in the world. We arrived here yesterday and we are going to have such a great time.

It's not really a Rally but with a gathering of 100,000 or more rigs and a million people, Rally is a good name for it. I'll be posting a lot more about Q so enjoy.