Saturday, January 30, 2010

Quartzsite 2010 – Part 2

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Outside the MOC Circle on a nice day near Quartzsite, Arizona.

The big news at Quartzsite this year was an actual Tornado Warning on Thursday of the Big Tent RV Show! It was the first ever tornado warning that Kathy and I have ever been in! The problem, of course, is that there were no structures to take shelter in out on the desert. We all road out the winds (said to be 75 mph) and rain in our Montanas. Happily there were no reports of damage in our group. There were reports that a tornado touched down near Blythe and knocked over 3 semi-trucks. Whoever heard of tornados on the desert?

Quartzsite rain 2010

This picture was taken by one of the MOC people looking out their window during the big storm. The scene was actually darker than this, but this shows how hard it was raining.

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Part of the MOC Circle after the storm

Since the desert is wide open we can walk cross country for miles and still find our way back to the MOC Circle. Raider and I try to get in a “desert walk” everyday that the weather permited. We generally walk two to three miles and Raider gets to run off lead.

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Raider the “Desert Dog” ready to charge out across the desert.

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Raider the very tired “Desert Dog” trying to make it back to the trailer.

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Raider the “Desert Dog” the rest of the day after a “Desert Walk”.

Pictures of some interesting Saguaro Cactus we saw during  our walks:

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RVers are the masters of potlucks and will have them at anytime for any reason.

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Poor Ty wasn’t invited to the potluck but, then neither were any of the other dogs.

Overall this was a colder, windier Quartzsite visit than last year. We have spent our time sitting out the weather, potlucks, Happy Hours and campfires as weather permitted, shopping for beads, etc.

We have moved on to Casa Grande were it is warmer; although we had another rain storm our first night here. We are taking advantage of the full hook ups for long hot showers and are turning on every light just because we can. We are also using the large laundry and going to real grocery stores.

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Sunrise in Casa Grande

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Moonrise in Casa Grande

In a day or two we will be moving on to Tucson and the next stage of our adventure.

10 comments:

  1. Glad you wern't in a tornado! That must have been scary! Raider sure looks pooped! To bad no doggies allowed at the potlucks :0(

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  2. I do so envy you your long desert walks. I miss the desert!

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  3. The desert is such a beautiful place! I really love it, so much to see and wonder at. Glad you were safe in that tornado warning! A tornado in the desert! I would have been terrified in a Montana...tornados are deadly! We live with tornado warnings every springtime...a fact of life here in okla, Weird things going on, tornadoes were in California the same week Oklahoma experienced several earth quakes! (We get them all the time, just around 4.0 on the richter.) Well, enjoy the rest of your journey, such fun, fun, fun!
    Liz

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  4. Thanks for the sunrise pic, we haven't seen much of the sun for awhile although we rarely getup
    early enuf to see the sunrise if it was visible. Welcome to the
    Tornado club. We'll never forget
    our Kansas experience and still
    wonder where our wind deflector
    off the drivers side window ended up.

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  5. I bet Raider loved being able to run free in the desert!

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  6. So many great photos here...The moon shot is beautiful...but my favorites are the ones of Raider!!!
    (no surprise there, huh?)
    Hugs and belly rubs,
    Kit

    (No Grant, the belly rubs are for Raider, not you...chuckle!)

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  7. Kathy and Grant what great pictures.
    The tornado warning you all went through had to be very scary.
    The moon shot is fantastic. Wow.

    Raider the desert Dog is one lucky pooch. Running free as the wind but boy is he tired.
    HA
    Hugs HiC

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  8. Glad to know you made it through those big winds. We were flying from east to west and the winds caused us about an extra hour going to Hawaii! Heard it was fierce all across the continental US of A. Lots of snow dropped as it went toward the East and our state of Tennessee.

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  9. Hi Grant and Kathy,
    Sounds like you are having a good time. Bad weather can happen any where.
    Give Raider a big kiss from me, Fern

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  10. I should have paid more attention. We were parked with the Alpine Coach Association (ACA)group just a few feet from the Montana circle!
    Would have loved getting to meet you!

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