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It just worked out that I had a vacant Tuesday
on April 3rd so I cancelled the two clients I have Monday the 2nd so we can get out of town for awhile. I am more than ready! We are planning on
leaving in the camper Friday after my only client, headed towards Sedona for
some boondocking with pen pal Mark & Bobbie Johnson. Mark writes a
heartfelt blog; wandering to out of the way places to provide his readers with
very “artful” photographs: http://boxcanyonblog.blogspot.com/
We’ve been pen pals for years, but have never
met. It so happens he and his wife are in Sedona for an art class so we will
finally have the chance to do a meet and greet and spend a little time with
them—a couple days to be exact. Mark already has a primo boondocking spot where
we’ll join them near to the village of Oak Creek. Mark has also graciously
offered to take us out to lunch as we peruse the byways of downtown Sedona and
Oak Creek Canyon and in reciprocal fashion, we will provide dinner Saturday
night with some of Marc’s incredible smoked pulled pork. How is it going to be
calling both guys “Mark” you ask? Ha; I don’t know.
From Sedona, Marc and I will leave early Sunday morning headed onward to Prescott and at least a night or two of camping in the pine treed forest at over 5000 feet elevation. Oh, to see an actual forest again! We return Tuesday the 3rd so expect some blog updates that following week as I have time to process pictures and prose.
What this refers to of course, is that we have been registering the vehicles in Arizona this week. Between the registration and purchasing of so many insurance policies all at once I figure we will be in debt for the next year! And what a month we choose, right? April—tax time too!
I had always heard horror stories about how expensive Arizona was to register and insure a vehicle but don’t listen. It’s bunk. Well, it is if you own older vehicles like us. Overall, the rates were comparable or less than Oregon’s, which has a flat rate on licensing excepting for the Freightliner, which was considered commercial, at around $700/year. We were happy to find that onerous rate drop in half here. Another advantage that Arizona offers is the option of buying a five year registration with a substantial discount over the yearly cost. Oregon has a two year plate, period.
It was an expensive week but we’re overall happy campers with the state’s fee schedule as Arizona residents.
Hooyah; Marc rolled into the yard at about noon on Saturday and was a very good sight to see. One of my clients, the one I see daily four times a week in the mornings, wasn’t feeling well all week so I ended up spending lots more time with her than normal, including working Saturday morning which put me at six days for my work week. So it’s just a lazy, slow Sunday around here with clearing skies after our brief overnight sprinkle/wind storm.
I did manage to get time to attend probably what is to be the last of the season neighborhood block party on Friday evening, featuring a St. Paddy’s day theme and lots of good food, compliments of Montana Stan and Patty. It’s always a festival at their parties although the karaoke died down around 9:30 I think; I wouldn’t know because I was fast asleep by then.
I have a chock-full work schedule during the next month that Marc will have off excepting for one period of time at the end of the month when we hope we can get away in the trailer—maybe to San Diego for a few days. Marc’s honey-do list is long, topped by installing a new heat pump air conditioning system into the park model. The vehicles need some maintenance and repair and we’re shopping for local insurance in our quest to become Arizona residents.
Busy, but mundane.
By the time he leaves it will be time to drain the spa and cover it up from the unrelenting summer sun. He will head back to Concord, CA for the next project which starts April 22.
I know, I know, the pages have become nearly silent once again. That’s because the trajectory of our lives has done a 180 since Marc has become quasi-employed. The good news is that it’s great to have a normal paycheck, even if it is sporadic. With this employer, Marc is doing restaurant remodels in three week increments, usually followed by two-three weeks off. Of course, the “off” offers no pay even though he is technically on salary. The salary however works well the other way, for the company, when they can work Marc ten-twelve hours on his graveyard shifts with no overtime pay. Once in awhile though, like what he will face come later in March, the projects will fall back to back with no breaks—thus, no time home and only one night a week off. This is a pretty grueling schedule for an old guy and makes for a lonely existence for me. Don’t get me wrong: faced with the “new normal” of life in America-the-third-world-country, we are thankful to have the job.
So Marc just landed in Santa Clara, CA in his galvanized ghetto directly from Mesa, AZ and most of the new projects will take place in CA until June. Hum--that’s at least a long three months for me to think of things I can do in Yuma’s ever-increasing heat (besides work) to occupy myself. Nothing much is coming to mind. Cats and finances tie me down from doing any of my own wandering out of town so I guess I’ll just sit here, grow older and travel vicariously on my computer. So don’t worry if the blog goes silent; it’s really not a very exciting life I lead at the moment.
While I drool over my pen pal Mark’s latest blog and video, where he and wife Bobby are hiking to the top of Mt. Wrightson—somewhere in southern Arizona where I have not yet trod, (Box Canyon blog) I have just finished up my first day without Marc. He is off to do another restaurant remodel, starting in Mesa for a couple weeks, and then being sent directly to the Bay Area for at least one, possibly two more remodels. With no way to tell when we’ll see each other, I’ve tried to stay busy with cleaning and grocery shopping to take my mind off things. Since Marc doesn’t want me running around in the desert by myself, my world becomes pretty small when he leaves. No more neat camp-outs for awhile.
Fortunately, I have a busy week coming up. Helping Hands is throwing its second seasonal big yard sale and I will have my long time friend coming to stay to help out and visit. We’ll both volunteer Wednesday and she by herself also Thursday, since I still have to work most of the week on all my scheduled cleans.
Yuma is hopping lately; full to the gills with snowbirds and starting to bloom with wildflowers. We’ve enjoyed over 80 degrees the past few days but now it looks like a storm system in California is going to cool things down just a bit. That’s a good thing; mid 80’s in mid-February is just too soon!
Friday
The boondockers are surprisingly scattered like pearls upon a sea of rock and cactus. We expected Quartzsite to be chock full this time of year, but even across the small mountain range east of Quartzsite on old Hwy. 72, headed towards Bouse, they dot the landscape like ants foraging for food. We’re surprised some of them made it into their spots given the ruggedness of the terrain and the small dirt tracks that the area is riddled with. This is ATV heaven.
We’re here not only for a nice camp out, but trying to follow the trail to some good rock hounding areas, my current passion. Arizona is filled with areas of great mineral wealth and although we came here hoping to find the “the giant piece of ribbon candy” of minerals my book touts in this location, after two days it still eludes us. But I’ve maybe gotten close. For some reason when photographed out in natural light, the small crystals known as druse don’t show their iridescence they way they literally glittered in this specimen to the naked eye. Regardless, iridescence does show up; in piles of tailings of hematite, pyrite and other materials as we peruse mine site after mine site. The day’s cloud cover leaves us with a blazing sunset.
Saturday
Rock hounding is a popular pastime for many RVers in the area and the territory shows both lots of dig activity and also the ubiquitous stakes denoting someone’s mining claim. I have already found several as yet unspecified minerals including some fossil ferns from the Jurassic period known as dendrites, which appear as small black fern-like imperfections on a red, shale type rock. I’m excited; it’s a major find for a brand new novice.
We while away Saturday until lunch bouncing along bumpy bypasses leading through wash after wash, stop after stop, and bucket after bucket of “finds”. Marc gets bored and target practices as I dig. I find it a fascinating adventure and the topography in this section of Arizona is striking, especially in evening. The expanse of so much open vista just melting into the horizon 50 miles away is breathtaking.
Sunday
We leave today but not before a sleep-in morning followed by a big breakfast and another try at the “ribbon” as I guide Marc back. I am certain after re-reading my book and studying the very poor black and white photograph that we inadvertently passed our spot yesterday. The reason? The author has written the directions backwards to the way we came in through a long wash. There in front of us, this hill we topped and went down the far side—should be the ribbon and room enough for one vehicle to park. We scramble out of the truck and Eureka--it’s there, as we go crazy among all the beautiful specimens, covered in druse crystals. We spend a couple of hours working the ridge, lugging piece after piece of varied rock back to the truck, consisting of barite, red jasper, orange and yellow agate and hematite. I spy some lavender bands contrasted with browns and white—throw them in too! It’s amazing how the colors and the minerals vary from rock to rock as we advance up the slope. The “rough” as they call this natural rock, is never as pretty as when it is cut and polished of course; our ultimate goal. My imagination has no problem picturing that though as I weigh the merits of each piece I pick up. Back at camp, it is quick to hitch up and pack up with this small rig and then it’s one last hill climb out and we hit the highway for home.
Since stumbling upon what I’ve come to find out is chrysocolla out in the desert, I’ve developed a sudden and ardent interest in learning more about rocks and minerals. What better place than right up the road in Quartzsite—that den of 100,000 wintertime RVers and probably 1000 vendors, many of whom sell rocks and minerals from all over the world this time of the year.
Traffic was light as I left at dawn which is now late at nearly 7:30 for the 85 mile drive. Arriving before the masses I was able to immediately meet and question a couple of purveyors who were very helpful in trying to identify the specimens I took in to them. From the barrels and barrels full of it I noted throughout the day, chrysocolla is fairly common in Arizona and is a very low grade form of copper. It can take many forms and colors of turquoise to vivid blues, often appearing as though it is just a paint spatter on the rest of the rock. It is fairly soft and must have stabilizer added in order for it to be useful for jewelry making.
The first step for many jewelers and beaders is to purchase cabochons of all sorts and sizes offered by all the rock purveyors. A cabochon is a gemstone without facets that is highly polished and has rounded edges. Many of the vendors cut and polish their own but some also come from far off countries. Many will be found unadorned but others are wrapped in silver ready to be made into necklaces and available to the average person to just place on a chain to wear, as I did with mine when I got home and had the perfect bead chain to match. Cabochons are sold by the piece and also by grams of weight. My piece went for $2/gram so cost $20 as an example. Seeing tray after tray of such beautiful artwork made of rock is very tempting, but could get expensive. The average cabochon shown in this photo ran between $35-45.
All vendors usually offer what they call “rough” and finished product. Rough is the rock as it is mined or gathered, often times very nondescript on the outside but holding surprising beauty inside. These are offered by the piece, pound, bucket or even the entire pallet full for those who wish to cut and polish and fashion their own art. Depending upon the size and characteristics of the rock--bookends, thin slabs for specimen display, candlesticks, urns, or figurines are all made. I was astounded to see just how many customers jumped from dealer to dealer looking for just the right “roughs” to take home. Rock hounding, art, and jewelry making is very big business!
So big in fact, that a lot of the vendors are from overseas. There were Ethiopian opals with very obvious Ethiopian sellers. There was a fabulous section from Australia, filled with the most unusual rocks and the lilting accents of Crocodile Dundee’s pals who were ever helpful to the buyers. Probably my favorite sight of the entire day was this huge slab (from Australia) with lead running through it that shimmered and shimmied in the sunlight like something molten. As I recall, I think the price was about $10,000.
Of course at this time of year, Quartzsite isn’t all about rocks. There are hundreds and hundreds of vendors catering to the masses of RVers with everything for sale you could possibly think of. They ply their trades in several areas with names like Tyson Wells, Rice Ranch and the Main Event and are spread throughout the main drag which parallels the freeway. A person would need several days to get through it all. Need a walking stick? This guy brought a bunch of raw diamond willow sticks out from Wisconsin and Michigan and invited you to purchase one and carve your own! Prices are shown on the end of the stick. He was doing a booming business I might add. A person could enjoy a gastronomic delight as I did for lunch. Yeah, the Deep Fried Vegetable stand did it for me as I gorged on fried artichoke hearts, usually a hard find in any area excepting the Salinas Valley of California. Across the way they were firing up the BBQ for BushRods tri tip sandwiches and ribs. For those wanting to skip lunch and go straight for the refreshments there was a down home style outdoor beer bar.
All in all, considering it was a day without Marc along, I still had a wonderful time and learned a lot more about rocks and the specimens I have found. Now I’m itchy to find more.
