This is gonna be a pretty short blog because we finally made it out to the desert of Arizona. This is hands down our favorite place to winter. It’s stress free, peaceful and free. All of the Southwest is amazing. The land is vast. It just goes and goes as far as the eye can see. Plus once you hit Quartzite, you are surrounded by other like minded people. Rv Travelers and campers. We timed it perfectly too. The Big Tent opens on January 18th and we arrived here on the 16th. We got here later than expected on the 16th because there was a delayed construction traffic jam of an HOUR on Interstate 10 so we decided to pull into the High Jolly area and just camp up towards the front by the road. Normally this is not something we would do. But being it was dark, we just wanted a convenient spot. The High Jolly is a little too crowded for us but not nearly as crowded as the land that’s over by the Big Tent. For one night, either spot is fine.
Next day we went to the RV Pitstop to load up on water and then headed to our normal spot at Plomosa Road land. All of these locations, by the way, are free.
We headed out to the Big Tent on Monday. It was a pretty windy day but atleast the sun was out. We stopped at Beer Belly, the adult daycare place to listen to some live music and relax. We also went and checked out the rv show as well.
We took two showers while in Quartzite. One at the Laundromat and one outdoors in our shower tent using our new BougeRV hot water heater. This hot water shower that we have now is pretty awesome. I just wish it was a little less windy and a little less cold for the next time we use it. The laundromat shower is so clean and reasonably priced at 11 dollars for 20 minutes. That includes soap, shampoo and towel. Plus the guys that work there are super friendly.
On the 7th day, we headed south to Yuma, Arizona which is right at the border of both California and Mexico. Greg made an appointment in Algodones, Mexico to get some dental work done. We spent the night at The Q which is an Indian owned casino right down the road from the Mexican border. The Indians also own a huge parking lot on the American side where we parked the van for $10 and then walked across the border into Mexico. The town has hundreds of dentists in walking distance if the border but Greg chose one that was on the other side of town. They sent a shuttle van to get us and take us to their place. Greg had to call from the American side parking lot and they asked him what he was wearing and sent a photo of the spot on the Mexican side where the shuttle would meet us. They also sent a photo of the van that would be meeting us. They spoke perfect English so that was helpful as well. If you have ever been to a border town, it can get a little crazy with people trying to sell you things. This shuttle made that stress nonexistent. We had to wait about two minutes and only one guy harassed us trying to sell us Botox treatments. So we took the shuttle to the dentist, filled out the paperwork and Greg went inside. They did a thorough exam and explained all the options. Greg just needed a filling refilled that had fallen out and also got a cleaning. He was very happy with the work. And will go back again next year to continue with some other issues that the doctor pointed out from his consultation. The price for exam with X-rays and a cleaning and a filling was a total of 40 bucks. We highly recommend this place. Del Rio Dental.
We were there about an hour and then they drove us back to the border where we stood in line for an hour. All in all it was a very productive day. After the dentist we went food shopping at Target and the headed to the sidewinder BLM land for a couple of nights. This is located in Winterhaven California, east of San Diego. The smoke from the fires could be seen from our spot.
We got some van chores done while there. I oiled our counter top and Greg cleaned the rooftop solar panels. From there we headed to Why, Arizona where there is some nice quiet public land among the Saguaro cactus.
It is really so peaceful when you camp among the cactus. We did a couple of nights in Why and then headed a bit south to the Organ Cactus National Monument. We had been here before. The hiking is great and the campground is very well laid out plus they have Ranger Programs at night in the Amphitheater and that makes me feel nostalgic all those years traveling when Kenny was a kid and all the National Park Ranger Programs we attended.
We did our second night in the Alamo Canyon Primitive Campground which was 3 miles down a dirt road. Talk about seclusion and dark skies. It was amazing. We took a 2 mile hike to the canyon where there used to be a homestead. It was a great hike. If you’ve never been to this area of the country, we HIGHLY recommend IT. It’s magnificent.
We are currently at the Ajo library to send out the blog using their WiFi. The calendar below shows how much we spent on gas and camping. Lots in gas and not so much on camping. That’s another reason why we like it here. Most of the Camping is free. It’s amazing how
Much open land there is for people like us to enjoy. Our total for the month was $158. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me. And all things considered, the $514 gas bill isn’t too bad either.
The Van Stops Here 