AZ - Q, Oh Where, Oh Where did my Baby (Drone) Go?

 The adventures just don’t ever stop when residing in Q with the Quartzsite Pose…

I fully admit I was never a good mom to the drone my husband gifted me shortly after we started this journey almost 2 years ago. Her and I were on a little war path from the beginning as in trying for me to figure out how to fly her. From her not wanting to connect to my phones wifi, to being stubborn about getting calibrated. She also, I learned, did not like following flight instructions as my effort for her to ‘follow me’ never fertilized. 

So sadly she spend more time in her bag then out of it and the only place I ever felt comfortable to fly her has been Quartzite as I figured she can’t get in to much trouble in the desert 🌵 

Well think again.

Yesterday I asked one of our wonderful friends here to help me out and what was my mistake is that I should have told him from the get go that she can act crazy. Unfortunately him trying to help me, left him feeling bad when she did take off to never return. No matter that I pushed the ‘Home’ button…

She went high and aimed north until we lost sight of her.

Now let’s just say that finding a drone in the desert is not easy as I thought. Lots of brush and cactuses, plus washes and ditches. Plus we had no idea how far she traveled. Since she didn’t connect once again to my phone we had no data except the controller.

The whole Quartzsite Pose mobilized and searched all afternoon, even into the night until it showed her battery going dead. I was in the end more worried about our Search and Rescue Team then my drone. There are after all spiders, snakes and scorpions out there and for the search they went into washes and scrubberies. 

So the only one to blame here in this escape of my drone is on me. We never quiet synced and I was never able to figure out how to truly fly her. Not a match made in heaven but she did deliver when we were in tune. I learned to fly her in Quartzsite so sadly I also lost her in Quartzsite. 

AZ - Q, What’s Baking?

 What a weekend. Can I claim  ‘What Happens In The Desert Stays In The Desert’? 

I hope so!

We all had a busy week and we all looked forward to a relaxing Friday afternoon/ evening. I thought my contribution would be to bake some happy brownies. I looked at my supplies and darn if my brain didn’t think I could mix it up… I did by adding two different strains and the outcome was potent to say the least. But also it came out tasting very yummy.

Elaine and Robin served up a very tasty Minestrone Soup, which my Mom would have loved. After dinner I divided the brownies into bowls with ice cream. Warm and gooey they were a hit, but the real hit started to appear about an hour after consumptions. One by one we started feeling strange and one by one we took our leave. Now it seems we all got impacted differently but here is a lineup:

Three people said their tummies felt strange and one even couldn’t feel her body and thought she was dying.

One thought time had stopped and we were stuck at 19:10 pm.

All of us (well except those who had very little or none) couldn’t stay focused or follow conversations. 

We all slept strangely, except for one who said she slept like a baby. The rest of us really didn’t sleep as cartoons appeared whenever we closed our eyes. The next day no one got out of their RV unless they had to. Like walk the dogs, garbage run… but all was kept to a minimum and napping was in order.

To say that I felt horrible would be an understatement. My goal had been to get everyone to relax and forget about their pains. 

Well, here is what I found out after talking to everyone later. The high was crazy but  no one felt any pain, even two days after. No knee, back, shoulder pain. 

So I figure in this case I can say ‘Mission Accomplished’ to a degree and fine tuning is needed, plus I did got a new nickname out of it: The Baker. 

Off to figure out new receipts but I will cut the happy ingredient down plus not mix again. 

Updates will follow (as long as they trust me and try again). That will be a challenge for sure. 

I am thinking/debating that chocolate covered strawberries might be a possibility. 

For personal consumption only of course… 

So if you want to try it come find me. 

an 

AZ - Quartzsite, Stormy Settling In

 We are settling in nicely here in LaPosa South in Q. Yesterday we went to get more water since we used up a lot the first two days by doing laundry and nice long showers. We also emptied the tanks. This alone filled up the time between breakfast and lunch as putting 100 gallons of water in Lucy does take lots of time.  A severe weather front with wind and rain was suppose to move through in the afternoon so we wanted to get it done and set back up before it hit.  

Well admittedly we were all instructed the night before by our most organized resident (Sherrie) to pull down the canopies and weigh them down in the morning with the chairs. The rest of us however decided in a strange and wacky way that in the morning it didn’t ‘look’ to windy(about 8 hours from the weather moving in). So we just all did some little adjustments and went on with our day. Shortly after Sherrie came home from work at around 16:30 everything however turned to havoc. A wind gust pushed through lifting and bending the canopies and tried to send things flying.

Never in my life have I seen 8 humans rush out of their RV’s so fast trying to save what we could. Now we are in the desert but the ground is covered by rocks, some sharp rocks. This didn’t stop one of us (Jeff) racing out to help being barefoot. So 8 of us saved what we could and we have to do a damage assessment later.

No matter our ages we still don’t listen well…. 

So let’s see what troubles we can cause today……

AZ - Quartzsite - Home - Day 1 & 2

 We made it to our Quartzsite Pose Home late afternoon on Feb 3. It was a beautiful homecoming as the whole group welcomed us, 7 strong, and with us here now 9 of us. They had prepared an incredible dinner and cold drinks. How fast this year went by, and we had missed them all so much, Jeff, Sue, Shelly, Sherry, Robin, Elaine and a new friend we met this year, Mark. 

Ron even mentioned several times how good it was to be home. It is so hard to explain the freedom one feels to boondock in the desert with friends. No restrictions just pure freedom and peace. To be unplugged from societies imposed restrictions is something I wish everyone could experience at least once for a few weeks. There still is freedom out here but it’s a loosing art and one has to work now on finding it. Quartzsite still gives glimpses of it.

Anyway, we did find our spot in the circle on day 2 and were able to set up. We also both loved getting long hot showers in. Lucy got a new water pump that Ron put in a few weeks ago and the pressure is wonderful. That also means we might have to get water sooner then usual but we can wring it 😉

Today, Day 3, I will get to go to Blythe AZ to pick up groceries and some other items we need to restock on. Then our fun can start as I want to get hiking and biking in this time. 

TX - SAT - Beautiful Friends

 What made our time in San Antonio magical was seeing beloved friends. One said something that hit home: we have family, and we have family that we make! How true…..

My friend Heidi and her son Dylan took the long drive down from Fort Worth to spend and afternoon/evening and the breakfast with me before heading back home. I had so much fun exploring the River Walk with them and the laughter was the best.

Then my friend Trudi (we met at the AA Flight Academy in January 1996) invited me for a yummy German lunch, followed by her stepping in to help Ron and I move after realizing the help we were suppose to get was not able to. She saved Ron from hurting his back as her snd I were able to do the heavy lifting. Lucky me got to meet up with her one more time when she showed me the former area of the Pear Brewer. We had yummy French pastries and equally yummy Cappuccino.

Next but not least my beautiful friend Kim took off to spend two nights in New Braunsfeld with her pup, sweet sweet Pika. We had a most wonderful 12 hours together, talking and exploring a bit. This visit was so good for my soul. Oh and we did order incredible good Egyptian Food, the balaclava was especially good, light, fluffy and not to sweet. 

So yes our time in San Antonio was super productive and we got all our checklist items done but I am most grateful that I had time to be with people I love and adore. 

On The Move! TX & NM

 When Angels travel ….. or is it little devils? We plowed through TX and ended up in Fort Stockton, TX for our first night on the road after leaving San Antonio. The drive was pretty uneventful and we stopped once to get Diesel, next to have lunch and later Coffee and Cake. When it came time to stop we found a Picnic Area which was empty when we pulled in at 17:30. It was strange for us to see an empty rest stop and we were a tad on edge as it was in out in the boonies, but when I took the pups for a walk in the morning there were 7 semis and one van there as well.

Today we pushed on and made it to New Mexico. The drive through El Paso was as always interesting but uneventful. The one downside was that we faced Cross Winds the whole way. It was a workout keeping Lucy Lou straight and we saw many semis bouncing all over. Some more then others which made me think that some were empty. We are heavy so that helps….

Tonight we are spending the night at the Lordsburg NM Visitor Center. It is beautiful and clean. We had our coffee break at the Las Cruces Visitor Center which was equally nice so our rest stop experiences in New Mexico have been good.

Oh and I am jumping all over the place but we did have a sand, rain and windstorm for about 20 min today which was not much fun. We also saw two immigration checkpoints on I-10 East and we had one going West. Ours going west however was a bust as the lights were on but no one was there. So we all just funneled through it. 

Yesterday when we stopped for the night I was so tired I fell asleep at 20:00. My sleep apple health app told me in the morning I got 8 hours and 57 min of sleep in! 

It is now 19:37 and I think I might be not that far behind tonight either. Driving all day in windy conditions is exhausting. As always I am in awe of all the Truck Drivers that face this day in and day out. They are amazing.