Quartzsite – Blog II
Monday, January 26, 2010: Ed left yesterday morning for Phoenix, flying from Phoenix to SLC to Chicago. When he called last night he said it was 26 degrees when he got in the car in Chicago – he will be ready to come back to Arizona for sure. For grandpa and I it was a lazy morning – I fixed breakfast and did the dishes and then we both went outside and soaked up some sun. The temperature didn’t get above 58 but sitting in the sun and out of the wind feels really nice. When I got up to go inside to get ready to go into town that afternoon I left my jacket sitting on the chair and my cell phone hanging in the chair pocket, figuring that when I grabbed my jacket, I would grab my cell phone too. As I was getting my shoes on, grandpa brought my jacket inside – I told him thanks and put the jacket on and grandpa laid down for his nap and I forgot totally about my cell phone. I hopped in the razor to go do some laundry and head to a fun bead store I had heard about.
Halfway to Quartzsite I realized that I had forgotten to get my cell phone and I had promised to call grandpa about 4 pm. It was 2:30 then and so I figured I would just do the laundry and head back to camp. I was driving down an ATV trail that ran parallel to the highway, cussing the big bumps at each ‘wash’ where they had pushed the sand off the road and partway up the wash. I went up one particularly steep bump and as I crested the top of it there wasn’t any more hill!! Sure enough, I high centered the Razor!! So I got out and found a stick about two feet long and an inch in diameter and started digging out the back wheels and under the main part of the ATV. I dug for a good 15 minutes when a border patrolman came by and saw me digging away and stopped to help. He had a shovel and we both dug for another five minutes when another border patrolman came by and we decided that if they pushed I might be able to drive off the hill – yep, that worked. I thanked them and headed on into town – but at that point I realized that the trail had more ‘cliffs’ in it – so then I drove alongside the road – Ed had said that I should follow the trail until the highway speed slowed down to 35 – which meant about five miles of trail first. I spent another 15-20 minutes trying to find my way around on the trails and over bumps without running into more cliffs. I finally made it up to where the speeds were slow enough for a highway legal ATV and then it was easy going after that. I got to the Laundromat and got my four batches of wash going and then got out my computer and got online – free internet!!! Great! As the clock inched closer and closer to 4:30 I started worrying about my dad wondering why I hadn’t called him at 4 like I had promised. Finally I facebooked Kecia and asked her to call - then I finished folding the dried clothes – once batch was still damp so I put an extra couple quarters in the machine. By the time I got everything dry and folded and put in garbage bags to keep the trail dust off the clean clothes it was almost 5pm - Here I am standing out in the parking lot turning my computer on to see if Kecia had agreed to call grandpa. NOPE! So then I facebooked Kelly because he had also commented on something I had said – I asked him for the same favor. Then I packed up my computer and got in the Razor and headed back to camp. I tried a different trail this time and found a lovely gravel road heading due South – I followed it for miles and miles as it turned slightly East toward the mountains….more and more and more! The sun was dropping farther and farther in the sky and I didn’t want to still be riding in the dark. Finally I saw a trail heading South again and I took it….pretty soon it was going West and then North – I finally came out in the campground to the north of us – I had gone in an almost circle. That campground is where the 35 mph in town started!!! So I drove across the highway and tried the trail on the West side of the highway – again it started really good and then took me back to the main road! UGH!! Finally I got past where I had high centered the machine going into town and got back on the trail and got back to the trailer in the dusk and the cold….it was almost 6pm! It had taken me a whole hour to drive 8 miles! Poor grandpa had been so worried – I had promised to call at 4 pm and here it was 6!! My cell phone was still sitting out in the chair waiting for me!
So I put the laundry away and fixed dinner and we watched “Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion”. We enjoyed it – lots of old time songs.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – We both slept in this morning. Yesterday’s trip had really worn me out! We had to go into town again today for grandpa’s PROTIME test – to check the level of Coumadin in his system. I had already decided to ask the camp hosts HOW to get into town. So after lunch we both bundled up and headed out – when I stopped at the gate house I asked them which trails were viable since the rainstorms. They said probably to go all the way up to the mtn and then find the connecting trail North – ugh. Or else I could go West across the highway almost to Tyson Wash and take the old El Paso road north. I then mentioned that my ATV was street legal – with seat belts and horn etc and they said – then you can take the main road – if you have a license plate and insurance you can drive on the road. I said, “But I can’t go 60 mph and they said – that doesn’t matter – you are legal”!! So we headed due North through town and to the clinic. We got there along with a whole lot of other people there for the same reason. They do ProTimes on Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 3:00 pm ONLY. So we got in line with the rest of them – dad’s level was too low (his blood is too thick) – they faxed the results to Dr. Lee and I will call him in the morning to find out what we need to change the Coumadin levels too. This means he will have to go in for another test next Tuesday again – we were hoping to wait two weeks between tests. Quartzsite has a beautiful new clinic in town with a full time doctor - its four times bigger than the old clinic was. And there is a pharmacy on the back side of the clinic. It’s amazing to me that it has taken this long to get a pharmacy in Quartzsite – this year is the 44th year that the rock and gem show has been held – 44 years of getting bigger and bigger with all these old people here (and Ed and I are some of the younger old people!!) and no pharmacy within 20 miles!!
After we left the doctor’s office we drove through the back roads of Quartzsite to get back to main street and I finally got to the little bead shop I had heard about. I left dad in the ‘car’ while I ran inside – they had some nice prices and some pretty beads – I only had ten minutes though so I didn’t buy too much. I got a some real pretty strands of malachite, and goldstone and a couple other natural rock chips too. We stopped for a hamburger at McDonalds and then headed back to the trailer. I kind of kept an eye on the traffic behind me and when there were several cars I would pull off to the side and let them speed by so I could stick to my 40 mph. Grandpa was tired and took a nap when we got back – I read.
This evening grandpa read while I made a necklace and three back pack charms. I have started making little beaded charms that hang off of purses or beach bags or back packs. Hopefully they will sell well. Grandpa has now gone to bed and my neck and shoulders are aching from bending over doing beads.
Because we ate in town I didn’t have to make supper tonight – about 8 pm I suggested maybe some popcorn and grandpa said he would make it. So he went outside in the dark to start the generators – I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to tell him NO – you can’t ….so I sat inside the trailer and worried that he would have some problems – and he did. Evidently when he bends over like that (to pull the cords on the generator) his left knee sometimes gives out. I guess he landed on the ground but got himself up and got the generators going – I was almost ready to go out and check on him when he came back in.
After he made the popcorn he said something about going out again and turning off the generators. I told him let’s leave them running – they should be running out of gas pretty soon – Ed put gas in them Sunday evening and we’ve had them going for three nights now on the same gas… I suggested that we let them run out of gas tonight and we would put more gas in tomorrow. Grandpa asked if Ed had left the gas can out and I said yes. He said okay, we will refill them tomorrow. It wasn’t even two minutes later when he stood up and started putting his coat back on – I asked him where he was going. He said “to put some gas in the generators”. I sweetly said, let’s just wait till tomorrow, okay? He thought that was a good idea.
Wednesday January 28 – lukewarm – felt good to sit out in the sun as long as we were away from the wind.
Thursday January 29 - Drove into town in Razor to go to Relief Society and worked on Humanitarian projects. The sisters meet every Thursday from 9-12 and quilt, and make teddy bears and stuffed yarn balls, and picture books. I worked on the picture books, pasting pictures onto pages which we then inserted into plastic sleeves – ten pages (both sides) to each book. No words – only pictures. Each page covered one subject – mtns, or oceans. or domestic animals, or wild animals or children at play, or music etc. Nothing Americana or religious, etc, nothing scary, and no adults unless they were interacting with children. Thus the picture books can go anywhere in the world and can be used to stimulate a child’s imagination. Then I found the salvation army – I bought a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt that I am going to cut apart and make an apron with on Wednesday – with Patty’s purple hat group. Then I stopped at the big tent craft sale – mostly it is the same vendors that were at the RV show!! (And Saturday the same vendors that are at the Antique Car show!) But there was one booth that had necklaces – I bought some just for the beads. As I was paying for them I overheard another lady say that there were bags of broken necklaces for $1 each. So then I bought a couple of those too. I went back to the trailer and started making backpack or purse charms with the beads – I have made a bunch of them to sell at the Purple Hat Sale this weekend.
Friday was a quiet day – sitting out in the sun (away from the cool breezes) reading and making necklaces. I have made four hats hoping to sell them at the Purple Hat sale too. I have made necklaces, charms, and hats – hopefully there will be someone there to buy something!
Saturday – January 30 – I had to run into town again today to get some oil for one of the new generators. I stopped at the big tent sale again and the jewelry lady was still there – I bought $12 worth of broken necklaces and made a bunch of stuff with them tonight. The weather was GORGEOUS today. It got up to 70 degrees and the cool wind was just a really slight breeze. SO NICE – in fact we almost had to move our chairs into the shade!!!! Tough life!! It’s about time. I wouldn’t feel bad if it stayed like this for the next two weeks.
Its 3:30 am and I haven’t really slept at all yet tonight – its because my neck and elbows are aching so badly – too many hours spent playing with jewelry and I am bound up tighter than tight. I finally gave up and grabbed my computer and will catch up on things before trying to sleep again.
Sunday the weather was gorgeous again - the cool wind blew a little more than yesteray but it was still really nice. Its monday now and cloudy and cool breeze still - only up to about 62 but still quite comfortable.
