Home away from home!

It has been fun to ride around out big camping area and see how some of the people have set up their homes away from home. I took some pictures and I hope you can appreciate their beauty! Remember please, this is a DESERT...a very dry desert!

These people have created a border of large rocks - most of them are about 8 to 10 inches in diameter...so they have been gathering rocks for some years. You don’t find these lying around in the desert - you have to travel to and through the mountains surrounding the Quartzsite town. I am sure that this arrangement has taken years to create. They probably have been coming back to this very spot every year for a long time. I particularly like the large piece of driftwood from which they have hung the basket of flowers and have placed a wooden sign with their name on it.

I took three pictures of this household - they have used solar lamps to delineate ‘their’ property line. I counted 48 lamps!! It is probably so bright around that trailer after the sun goes down that they can’t even sleep at night!

These are some of the many desert landscapes created to add beauty to their areas - You have to give them credit for creativity because there surely isn’t much to work with!

Another ‘front yard’. Notice also the fenced in area - they probably have a small dog that likes to play outside. Also - note the satellite dish!

This is the house that made me decide to create this blog!! Just as I was ready to take a picture a jeep pulled into the yard and I didn’t want to upset them by taking a whole slew of pictures so I only took the one. This area is huge with rocks lining the driveway to the trailer, a second driveway to the garage; the big garden area in front and rocks lining both sides of the road leading farther West! It is saying “this is our house!!!!!!”


This is a huge rock picture - (the rocks on the top of the picture!) we didn’t get off our bikes to go figure out what it is a picture of but there have been lots of hours put into it. Interestingly enough, there is no trailer spot near it. Its simply there!

This one was the most amazing. This guy is actually growing a garden!! We stopped and talked with him. He is from the West Coast of British Columbia. From the Frazier Valley - I think we were supposed to know all about that place. He says its near Vancouver and it has mild summers and mild winters. A gorgeous place to live!! He drove down by himself the first part of December and set up his tent and planted his garden. It has gained him some notoriety which is fun. He says he has lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and green peas growing. He has already eaten some of the lettuce. He drove an OLD toyota bus all this way and was there alone. He talked about how he had to cover the garden several times during December to keep it alive and also one or two nights in January (this week being one of those times). He had wind breaks on both sides of his tent. He said a harsh wind came out of the South one night and ripped his tent pegs out and damaged his tent somewhat but he was able to repair it. So he put up the black mesh wind break. Then the wind did the same a couple of weeks later from the North so up went the white wind break on the North. He says he hasn’t had any trouble since then. He said that next year he will probably build a small greenhouse to protect the garden and help it grow faster during December. This was his first year in Quartzsite and I told him that he just plain didn’t give himself long enough to have everyone tell him he COULDN’T grow a garden in this desert!! He laughed and agreed. He told me that he had to water it twice a day - realize please there are no hoses to drag over and turn on. He has to drive up to the water and fill his jugs and bring them back for the garden. Interestingly enough - he had no shower or toilet facilities for himself. But his garden was well cared for.

We have seen lizards, a chipmunk, a jack rabbit, and a couple of coyotes while we've been South this year. Also, each night about 11 pm we are seranaded by a whole passel of coyotes - since I am warm and protected inside my trailer I can really enjoy listening to them.

We will be leaving :-( this warm mecca on Friday morning, probably spending that night in Beaver and then heading North again on Saturday until we arrive home. We are definitely NOT ready to face the ice and snow ... you can bet when we finally retire we will stay All of January, February and MARCH!!! You will see us for Easter! I do miss you all and you are ALL in our prayers every day. See you soon.


mom