Sorry I have gotten so behind but it’s been a busy few days.  On Wednesday the Class of 2014 girls had a women’s lunch and we had a great time talking about how the lifestyle is impacting us more than a year in.   It was a terrific conversation in an interesting setting as Cori offered us entrance to the local yacht club.  A yacht club in the desert, you say?  That doesn’t make much sense, you wonder? Understandable, as that was pretty much all of our reactions.  Greg’s parents had done some research on Quartzsite knowing that their son was going there (and how cool is that?) and bought Cori and Greg a membership to the Quartzsite Yacht Club.  Some enterprising soul started the Yacht Club many years ago and for $30 you can become a member.  Most yacht clubs across the country have reciprocal arrangements and now Greg and Cori can gain entrance to yacht clubs everywhere they go.  Yep, they are fancy like that. The yacht club has a membership of over 10,000 people and is billed as the largest (by membership count) yacht club in the world.  There must be something to the reciprocal arrangement because the place itself is your basic bar.  The prices on food are reasonable and although the burgers aren’t that great, the fish and chips was excellent and it was fun for the sheer novelty if nothing else.

Afterwards, we discovered the Hi Jolly cemetery was close by.  Deb loves old graveyards and Hi Jolly’s grave is the most visited spot in Quartzsite. We were instructed on how to find it by a local and after asking twice more along the way we finally found it.  For the most visited site in Q it’s not that easy to find and the locals like to gesture vaguely and say, “Walk until you see the pyramid,” which isn’t entirely accurate.  Still the story was neat and the grave very unique so I am glad we went.

And as if this much excitement wasn’t enough in one day, Barb decided that she wanted to check out the naked book store guy.  Yes there is a book store here in town and the gentleman who runs it is pretty famous for running the place in a loin cloth.  I had visited the bookstore when we first got here and was thrilled it was a cold day and he had his clothes on, but things have really warmed up since then.  And since Cori was driving and I was pretty much a captive audience, off we went.  They both went inside, but I stayed outside and looked at a $1 per book section.  Of course, they just couldn’t leave it at that (it’s always the quiet ones you need to watch out for) and encouraged him to come outside and say hi.  Let me just say here, there are things in life you can’t unsee, so please feel free to close your eyes and scroll past the next picture.  Also, keep in mind the front picture is waaaaay better than the backside.  I am still somewhat scarred by that view.   And it’s important to note he loves having his picture taken, practically demands you take a pic with him, so I am absolutely not sharing anything he doesn’t want to be seen. He’s also a pretty good blues musician.

 

As much as I have been enjoying the quirky side of Quartzsite, I was really missing nature.  Yes we are in the middle of the desert but La Posa South hasn’t cleared out that much, plus Lee and I haven’t had any alone time in the three weeks we have been here.  We have noticed we start getting a little snippy with each other when we don’t take time for each other, so I planned a nature date for us at the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.  Cibola was number one on my list of things to do near here because it is on the Colorado river and is a haven for wild birds in winter.  So off we went and although the visitors center was closed it was awesome.  They have a 3 mile auto tour and a 1 mile nature walk.  They ask that you stay in your car and go very slowly so you will not spook the animals. The variety we saw was amazing, and I got numerous first time bird pictures!!

After the auto tour we still had some time and decided to go and see the Intaglios near Blythe.  Intaglios are made by scraping away darker rock and then pushing down the stone underneath.  These results in a depression full of light stone which holds up remarkably well over time.  They are hard to see from the ground and these particular ones were first seen and reported by light aircraft.  Due to some damage being done by four-wheelers the government has put them behind a chain link fence to protect them.  Deb recommended Lee taking his drone there and I am so glad we did, because he was able to not only get aerial photos but also some cool video.  The place was pretty far down a dirt road and there was only one other couple there besides us.  It was really neat though and I am so glad that we got to see these important historical artifacts.

It was wonderful getting out with just the two of us and being surrounded by nature.  Have to make sure it doesn’t go so long before we do this again.  Next up we are going out to an old mining town with Cori and Greg so stay tuned.

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