Back to Quartzsite

Sunday, 13 January 

Last week, Sprinty took some time off from traveling every day, and spent about 90 hours in the same spot without moving so much as one inch.  We selected the dry camping option, so Sprinty was heated by the sun during the day and propane at night.  The solar was able to do an adequate job of keeping up with the power usage.  By the time we got underway this morning, the batteries were down to 50%.  This is the third time we have gone 4 nights dry camping completely on battery power without running the underhood generator at all.

While we enjoyed our coffee and donuts over at the main building, we saw the volunteers having fun trying to stack the empty donut boxes higher and higher.  We learned that they served 365 dozen donuts over the four mornings, and had run out of donuts just after we got ours this morning.


We said our goodbyes to the Roadtrekers we met and headed out about 8:30.  Upon leaving the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio, CA, Sprinty started the longest leg traveling in an east direction of this trip that started over two months ago.  We headed for Lake Tamarisk Golf Course in Desert Center, CA.  This was the 9 hole course we tried to play last Sunday but it was closed due to standing water on the course.

We elected to walk as it was a flat, compact course.  When we arrived, the golf shop was not open and we found an honor system for paying the greens fees.

It was an okay course.  The fairways were a little narrow in places encouraging well placed tee shots, and the greens, while in good condition, were a challenge to read.  Darrell opened with a par, which was to be only one of two pars he made all day.  Kris just kept gaining strokes on him such that by the turn, it was clear who was buying.  The only unknown was by how much.  By the end, Darrell was happy to have averaged bogey for the last nine holes, and not lost a ball.


After golf, we continued east, stopping at the Starbucks in Blythe, CA for Kris to pay up.  After a quick stop at the grocery store, we continued east to The Scenic Road RV Park in Quartzsite, our base for the month of January.

We walked to Silly Al’s Pizza on Main Street for our Sunday pizza, something we have not been able to do as often on this trip.  Silly Al’s has a saying, “if you haven’t been to Al’s . . . , you haven’t been to Quartzsite.”  As expected, the place was packed.


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