California to Arizona to Nevada

Before we all leave Palm Springs, I must say our last day there gives points to California.  We did a motorcycle ride climbing up to about 6000 feet elevation, giving us views like this:

       ..... then through an adorable little hamlet called Idyllwild, with shops like this:

..... and to a tiny town called Julian, which is best known for this:

..... where we HAD to buy this:

It was an apple/cherry pie.  Fantastic!

Then, to Husband's delight, we came back down the mountain on this:

It might go down as our best ride of the trip.  Thank you California!

Our next location was a quirky, dusty little town called Quartzite, barely into Arizona.  If you are an RVer, you will have either been there, or have heard of it.  It goes from a population of two to three thousand in the hot months to over a hundred thousand in the cooler months.

I am not kidding:

Yes, those are all RVs.

There are shows and entertainment, highlighted in January and tapering off through February.  We got there after a lot of people had left.  It was a do-once type of thing, with blocks of flea-markets selling everything you never thought you'd need for your RV.

Ambience and charm are NOT the objective here.

We bought a new filter for our water tank and some Kettlecorn.  That was about it.  Other than that, the town featured a few truck stops and a handful of other small businesses.  But our camping spot was great and we stayed there five nights for free!

Oops!  I just noticed this picture also shows my socks hanging out to dry.

We went to bed with this:

And woke up to this:

We did some car/motorcycle trips to Yuma (loved Yuma!) and to Lake Havasu City, before pulling up the anchor and heading on to Pahrump, Nevada.  (Ya can't help but have fun with that name.)

Why Pahrump?  Two reasons.   We found a deal in an RV park with all the amenities plus laundry facilities, and it is near Death Valley.  Oh!  And it gives us a 20% discount at Dairy Queen!  (That's three reasons.)  We did a day-trip into Death Valley, where we discovered we can boondock (rely own our own water and power) for $7/night, so that will be our next stop in the Beast.  There Husband plans to do some sunrise/sunset photography.   (Did you know that the heat record there is 134 degrees and is the hottest spot on the planet?  But thankfully not in February and we might even see some rain.)

Thoughts about Pahrump ..... it's not a big town, but it sprawls out all over.  It seems typical in Arizona and Nevada to set a sign at the city limits announcing that you are entering the town, with the town no where in sight.  You must drive another five or so miles before anything man-made starts to appear.  And in the town, there are big empty gaps between buildings.  Just empty land between the Texaco and the Walmart, and between one strip mall and the next.   And huge gaudy, glitzy, obnoxious casinos gracing every other block along the way.  Kinda weird.

And that brings us up to date.