Thom and Dar's Sabbatical Journal

January 21, 2015 Joshua Tree NP, White Tank CG 46f

First on the agenda for the day was a shower and soak. Spurred on by our friends Julianne Crane and Jimmy Smith [click here] we visited Desert Hot Springs Hotel and Spa. This facility offers affordable day rates that include soaking pools of various temperatures, a swimming pool, as well as the shower room. Ah yes, the showers and the soak were just what we were looking for.

Passing Palm Springs and Palm Desert, we headed toward the Salton Sea and down the west side to S22, the Borrego Salton Sea Way, which carries the weary traveler west toward Borrego Springs. The road, S22, goes through some dramatic “bad lands” along the way which kept our photo-specialist (Dar) busy. Her trigger finger was vibrating and it appeared the camera was starting to smoke.

Since it was getting late in the day we found a campspot (33.304, -116.280, elev 630) among the boondockers at Clark Dry Lake off Rockhouse Road. It wasn’t our ideal, but it’d do f…

Monday, Jan 19, 2015 Quartzsite/Bouse area

This camp near Bouse may be the most remote camp we’ve ever had. (33.84N; 114.04W; elev 1240) Although no other boondocker was visible from camp, if I walked a little ways away I could see two other rigs about a half mile away. And we were far enough from the highway that it wasn’t an issue either. Hard to believe we’re only 10 miles or so away from the Q-hubbub just down the road.

The Arizona desert may be one of the warmest places in the USA during January but it can still be cold, especially at night. Dry air means temps drop rapidly after sunset. And by morning, low 40s or even 30s are common. But we’re bundled up inside the little camper, not bothered that the inside of the fridge, the inside air temp, and the outside temp are all about the same. We prefer to not run the furnace after we’re in our sleeping bags - less noise, less drain on battery, and unnecessary with good sleeping bags - but come morning heat from any source is greatly…

Friday, Jan 16, 2015 Quartzsite AZ

Joy and happiness! It felt good to be back on the road again. We left North Ranch this morning and made the 90 minute drive to Quartzsite in about an hour and a half. Two objectives here… first, to spend a little time with friends Doug and Kay, and second, to attend the big Quartzsite RV show.

Winding through the Plomosa Mountains and down into the LaPosa Plain we saw a desert landscape covered with RVs, like mold growing on a slab of old cheese. We’ve been to Q before but not at show time. I don’t know… maybe twice as many (Dar thinks 10 times more) RVs as we’ve seen during previous visits. Hard to tell. But it was a lot.

We knew D & K were in the Dome Rock area so we zipped right through Q on I-10 and exited at Dome Rock Road several miles west of town. It’s possible to take the paved road back toward town but that’d be too easy, wouldn’t it. Instead, we took one of the many two-track trails that ran more or less through the middle of thousand…

Jan 14...  Congress, AZ
I’ve had a little trouble getting back in the swing of posting to this journal after our nearly week long family festival down at Casa de Cher in Sun City West. It does seem writing is a habit as much as an exercise in creativity, at least for me. I also believe it’s important to take a break once in a while, to “give it a breather”, lest one slips into repetition, minutia, and boredom. Anything one does day after day, every day, can become predictable, dull, and tedious. For example, even travel, the raison d’etre of our life right now, if done day after day, every day, causes the most hardened nomad to yearn for a rest, a break, a time to change things up, relax, and gain some new perspective.

OK, enough of that.

Our family affair turned out to be a memorable and enjoyable time. Thanks mostly to the planning and organizing talents of Dar and her sister Cher, the 9 attendees, 6 of whom traveled by air to get here, had a good time. No brawls, fist fights, or u…

Jan 1, 2015  Congress, AZ
The snow you see on the attached images actually fell here New Years Eve, but the cold air lingers a few more days into the new year. I'm writing this post the morning of the 2nd and the low temp last night was 24f degrees.

On the positive side, it's kinda cool to see snow on cacti. White capped prickly pear, dusted saguaro arms, and ice encrusted ocotillo are things you don't see or experience often.

We're in Congress for a few days before the big 90th birthday celebration for Dar's Dad happens next week. There's more family flying in, more details to finalize, and more preparations to make.