Blogging visitors!

We had made arrangements to have visitors over yesterday afternoon, so we took advantage of our free time in the morning to go for a hike to the top of the little mountain beside Pilot Knob LTVA.

It's a relatively steep hike, but from the time we left Sherman to the time we were at the top was only 45 minutes. We took a different route coming back down.

Not the smoothest day

Sometimes everything goes according to plan, and sometimes it doesn't!

Yesterday was a "doesn't" day!

First problem was that we didn't get the earliest start, and that was nobody's fault but our own. We set out just after 9:30am, and the plan was to ride our bikes on the dirt road that goes around the mountain and hooks up to the road going across the border.

Quartzsite to Yuma

We packed up and hit the road yesterday morning. We had bought a 14 day LTVA (long term visitor area) pass for $40 ($50 CDN) so that we are able to camp on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property for 14 consecutive days and be able to use their water and dump station facilities.

So, the first thing we did when we left was to empty our holding tanks, and fill with fresh water.

The highest mountain overlooking Quartzsite

It was a rare rainy afternoon here in the desert yesterday. We had been told to expect just enough rain to make your windshield dirty, but we got a lot more than that.

Fortunately, we picked a window of time to go for a hike where it just spit on us a little bit. We left Sherman at about 9:50am, and set out to hike the highest mountain overlooking Quartzsite!

What we bought at the RV show

One of the reasons we came to Quartzsite was that we figured we might get some deals on things that we need and want for Sherman. A few repair and maintenance items, and a few things that we simply wanted. But we had a list, and we've now crossed quite a few things off that list!

So yesterday morning, we drove back and parked so that we were walking distance to the show, about 1/2 a mile away.

A fun afternoon visiting with other RV'ing bloggers

A few weeks back, I think we were in Mazatlan at the time, I read on somebody else's blog that there was going to be an "official" gathering of bloggers during the time of the Quartzsite RV show. The date was to be January 24th.

We were already planning on being in the area around that time, so decided we wanted to meet some of the folks we regularly read about.

The Big Quartzsite RV Show

Okay, so the big deal here at Quartzsite is the RV show taking place this week. We're here partly because Sherman needs some repair and maintenance items and this seemed to be a good place to get them, and at a decent price.

Overall, I'm a little disappointed so far.

You just have to give your head a shake

We were up early yesterday. We wanted to do a load of laundry while at the RV Park, but although the laundry room was open at 6:00am, we didn't have any change! So we had to wait for the office to open at 8:30am.

By the time we got it all done and were ready to leave, it was 10:30am!

A new computer!

We left the Home Depot in Nogales, and our first stop was for gasoline! Sherman's tank was running dry. I used gasbuddy.com to check out the lowest fuel prices in the area, and found a nearby station at $1.759 per gallon ($0.582 per litre CDN).

Man, that is getting to be some cheap gas!

Hello Arizona!

Yep, we crossed the border yesterday afternoon. Sherman has never been to Arizona before! Can you imagine, we've been traveling in a motorhome on and off for eight years now, and we've never explored Arizona...the winter RV'ing destination of the world.

So, that's why we're here...to explore Arizona (and maybe some of California and Nevada) over the next couple of months.

A nine hour driving marathon!

Holy cow, what a day we had yesterday.

We knew it might be a long day, because we were going to try to get to Hermosillo. It was going to be a 433 km (268 miles) drive, and part of it was through the mountains. What we didn't realize was how slow going that would be!

To the bottom of Basaseachi Canyon

We set out yesterday morning at about 10:30am for what we figured would be a three or four hour hike. Turned out that we were gone for five and a half hours! Pretty quiet for the morning part of the hike, and when we got to the bottom of the canyon at the base of Mexico's highest waterfall, we were the only ones there.

The highest waterfall in Mexico!

Yesterday, we drove from Creel to Basaseachi Falls National Park. It's not a long distance, only about 130 kms (81 miles) so we didn't leave until about 9:30am. But I knew that it was going to be a slow drive. The road used to be just a narrow dirt road through the mountains and it was only paved within the last 5 years.

Sure enough, it took us almost three hours to do 130 kms (81 miles)!

Six days to Quartzsite

Hard to believe that in six days we'll be in Quartzsite, Arizona. We're still 1,300 kms (800 miles) away! But, using our normal driving average of 200 kms per day, we'll be there no problem.

So yesterday, we drove from Areponapuchi back to Creel. Only 50 kms (30 miles) but it takes an hour because the road is pretty curvy. We decided to stop for the night back at the old KOA campground in Creel.

Spot the dog!

One of the local dogs has taken a liking to us, and so when we went for a 4 hour hike into the canyon yesterday, we had some company. We nicknamed him Spot, because of the large black spot he has on the left side his back. Spot was a great hiking companion.

We do sometimes miss having a dog with us, but we're still quite happy to enjoy other people's dogs for the time being.