Virgin River Gorge in Arizona

As we headed a little further north, we stopped at this beautiful campground in the very northwest corner of Arizona. The Virgin River has cut a canyon here on it's way from Zion to Lake Mead.

Here we are among Joshua trees, desert flowers and cactus, surrounded by canyon walls, with the river flowing behind our rig.

The campground was really crowded.

It's not all fun and games, a little maintenance is necessary from time to time.

Around and around they go.

King of the hill.

View through a Joshua Tree.

The Virgin River, colored brown from the silt washed down from further upriver.

Some very tiny flowers.

Desert Marigold.

Beaver tail cactus in bloom.

Awesome!

Lake Mead Rec Area

Here we are again at the Lake Mead Recreation Area. When we arrived a few weeks ago, we met up with friends at Government Wash. It's wonderful to be part of a loose-knit community of friends. Even though we are camped in a dispersed camping area, there is someone here who looks after our rig when we are away and worries about us when we are late in returning. We plan things together from time to time, but mostly we each do our own thing. We have stayed here several times before, but there is always something new to discover.

We enjoyed watching this Vermilion Flycatcher all one day as he cleared the area around our rig of many insects.

Amazing colors!

These coyotes ambled by our site one afternoon.

When this one spotted us standing outside, it let us know he was aware of our presence.

The view from our rig.

Another gorgeous sunset.

Looking across the sky the same evening, we watched the full moon rising.

Our New House

This is our new (to us) home. We changed from our 1994 25' Prowler to this 2002 31' Dutchmen. We spent about a month looking and finally settled on this one. After a very busy week and a half of moving and advertising the Prowler, we sold it in just a few days. The new rig has more elbow room which makes it nicer when we have someone stop by for a visit. It also has many more windows which gives us much better view of our ever changing back yard. We have already made some changes to the inside and have more planned. We also installed the solar panels on the roof, so we can keep getting our electricity free from the sun.

Our old truck will continue to do the towing until we can replace it with a more capable one, probably a diesel.

We have a nice new kitchen has already been tested making stuffed manicotti shells when our son Christopher came for a visit and for chocolate cake to share with friends. It has sleeping for the two of us and when we have an overnight guest they get the air mattress and sleeping bag.

This slide out area has sustained the most changes so far. We changed the couch that was to the left, with our 2 lightweight chairs we had bought for the other rig. Larry took out the dinette booth seats to the right and will be replacing the dining table when we find the right one. The two office chairs are from our old rig and we plan to add 2 more to match.

This is the rear living area where we plan to build an entertainment center in the left corner to accommodate our new 40" HDTV and our electric fireplace. In the right corner we will put in a computer and ham radio desk.

Q Mountain on Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day, two other couples hiked with us up to the top of Q mountain. It's not far from where we are parked. What a great day! All these pictures were taken from the top. Q mountain is not very high, but gives a nice view of the area.

Looking down towards the center of the big metropolis of Quartzsite.

RV's scattered in the desert.

Doug & Terry, Dayle & Tom, and the two of us.

Looking down toward our three rigs.

Zoomed in a bit, can you see us know?

Home Sweet Home

Beauty in the Desert

Life in the desert is good. Every day brings new surprises.

The full moon rising.

The sunset across the sky from the full moon.

This female hummingbird is one of our frequent visitors.

One of the rare rainy days here produced this amazing double rainbow.

The other half of the rainbow

The sunset later on the same day.

Car Show at the Big Tent

When we first arrived here in Quartzsite, the big RV show was going on. Since that has ended, they had a craft and car show this last weekend.

The Big Tent

Desert Patrol Vehicle

Just to remind us that we are in the desert, there is an occasional saguaro cactus growing in the flea market area.