Arizona COLD!

It's interesting to look down the street that Auntie Violet is parked on and see all of the sheets draped over plantings in the little yards of the park models. It has dipped down to freezing or below the last several nights. There are lots of notices on the air and in the newspaper reminding people to leave water dripping in their faucets.

It seems that Arizona housing is not built for freezing weather. Water lines are not buried, but are run up inside the walls of houses and are therefore subject to freezing. RVers are also being told to shut off their water hoses -- which, of course, are just lying on the ground.

We open all of the window shades as soon as we get up in the morning, so that the sunshine can help warm the motorhome. But, the minute the sun goes down, it starts to get get very cold and we quickly pull all of the shades, draw the drapes and turn on the electric heaters.

There seems to be some concern on the parts of local farmers, especially fruit growers, about the cold and we're hearing about fans and heaters in the orchards. The cold seems to be all across the south land spreading east from California across the deserts.

It's supposed to warm up -- but only a little -- by next weekend. I really do want to go back to wearing pedal pushers and sandals!

Time For an Ark?

Forry and I lived the majority of our lives in the dry desert side of eastern Washington State.  Our average annual rainfall at our ranch is 7-9 inches per year.  We've had an education as we've traveled the last few years about what it is like to be in areas that might have that much rain in less then a week. Last night we had lightening and thunder all the way around us for several hours -- the sky was lit up in every direction.  It rained all night and has continued to rain all day today.

This is the gravel road just outside Auntie Violet --

The New York news broadcast tonight talked about the weather system "churning around" the Ohio River Valley.  I guess that is what we are experiencing, although our friend Tom said it has been raining for 36 hours where they are in Tennessee.  We had planned to visit the Hocking Hills area today, but didn't exactly want to do it in the heavy rain. Hopefully, it will be nicer tomorrow.

Ohio was also in the news all day today with the stories about the wild animal hunt near Zanesville.  A man who had many wild lions, tigers, bears, giraffes on his farm opened all the gates and fences, then shot himself. Because the animals were roaming all over, the sheriff and his deputies spent the night shooting to kill.  Schools were closed and everyone was urged to stay inside.  By tonight, it sounds like all the animals are dead or captured (mostly killed).  Evidently Ohio has no laws about who can own wild animals...

Quartzite Day Two

Greetings from the desert!

It's been a long day. It started with a 7 AM conference call. Now anyone who knows me is aware that I am NOT a morning person. I am a member of a Search Committee that is looking for a new Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA. Most of the other members are either in the mid-west or east coast, so they were well into their mornings already while I was just barely awake... But I think it went well as a first meeting.

The Alpine Coach Association had their business meeting this morning followed by a catered Mexican lunch. It was sort of funny to see a couple of hundred people sitting around in the desert in lawn chairs earnestly discussing by-laws. After the lunch -- which was suisse chicken enchiladas, pork taquitos, refried beans, rice, chips and fresh fruit salad -- they had what they called a "gearhead" session. Basically, it was an opportunity to share ideas, problems and solutions with everyone else. One fellow started it off with a horrendous story about insurance after an RV repair shop burned down with his coach inside. I bet everyone there went back to their coach and reviewed their insurance policies!

This afternoon Forry and I took the toad into Quartzite itself. We have heard so many stories about the area that we were curious to see it. If you think there are thousands of RVs parked in the desert out here, there must be twice as many in Quartzite itself! Every half block or so there is another RV park. Some of them are pretty nice looking with pools and fenced areas while others are not much more than a flat area with water and electric hook-ups. Then there are "RV supply" places where you can get fresh water and propane and dump your tanks. We went by this one neat house that had a iron fellow in a sombrero sitting on one end of a porch bench with his sweetheart on the other. (Unfortunately in the picture, she is hiding rather coyly behind the cactus.)

And yes, Sister Dena, there are flea market type stalls and shops all over the place. They have a really big Hobby, Craft and Gem Show the end of January followed by a Classic Car Show the first week in February. The big Sports, Vacation and RV Show starts this Saturday. The big shows are in a HUGE tent at the edge of town, but there are vendors set up anywhere and everywhere there is a little bit of space.

Besides being a haven for early prospectors, Quartzite is famous for having the US army and navy's only camel post. There is a large rock cairn topped with a copper camel at the cemetery commemorating Hi Jolly (the local pronunciation of Hadji Ali) the camel driver who came to the US with the camels from Arabia. Q is also famous -- or infamous -- for the owner of the local used bookstore, the Reader's Oasis. Paul Wimer has run the bookstore from the early 1990s. Things were a bit looser then and the town was a bit wilder. It's only been the last several years that Paul has been convinced for public decency to at least wear a nether garment. When we first came into the store, he was wearing just it and his hat. When I went to pay for my books -- and get the obligatory picture -- he had put on a sweater as he said "it's a bit chilly today..." (He's a lean scrawny soul, brown as a berry! )

So went our second day at Quartzite.