Rally Over here at Quartzsite

Things are winding down here at Quartzsite. Every day more people are leaving. We are allowed to boon dock here for 14 days and many came earlier than we did, so the circle is getting quite sparse. Many more will leave today, and we are trying to decide if we should leave tomorrow or stay until Wednesday, our official last day. It has been a lot of fun, but we are looking forward to some alone time until we go to Bakersfield to see my nephew, Andres and his family. We haven't seen him in 17 or 18 years, so we are really looking forward to seeing him and his wife and children. I promise I'll have some pictures for the family back home to see.


Back home, my cousin Jim, who is only 62 and has been fighting Esophageal Cancer, is now on Hospice. The doctors are now saying they can't do any more for him, so now it is in God's hands. Jim is a fine Christian man and is ready to meet his Maker, but it is so difficult for all of us who love him. He is now at home surrounded by his family.


Many people here in Quartzsite and people who have heard about the circle we formed here, have asked how we got such a perfect circle. My friend, Carol explains how it is done on her blog. She informed me the other day that we are the stars. She demonstrates how we were guided into our parking spot. Check it out on the link below:

http://www.reflectionsfromthefence.com/search/label/Montana%20Circle

More of Quartzsite

Standing by our site looking down at the circle from inside. Notice all the flags

Al took this picture and the next few pictures from the rooftop of our Montana

This was the official first day of the rally. We all dragged our lawn chairs out to the middle for an informational meeting.

It is so hard to describe Quartzsite. It is kind of a nothing little town that spring alive during the winter months. There are some permanent stores here in buildings, but a lot are in tents. We have only visited a few areas. There is much, much more. Lots and lots of junk, but some good stuff too for good prices. It's just kinda fun being there.

We were entertained by Rocky Watson. He was gooood!!!

Tent after tent

Row after row

Lot's of RVers here, in fact it's mostly RVers!

The Circling of the Montanas

This is a very quick post, as I wanted everyone to see the overhead view of our Montana's Club group who are boondocking here with us in the desert in Quartzsite, AZ. Not quite everyone had arrived when picture was taken. If you go from the break on the bottom left and count over to the right, we are the ninth one. It is pretty impressive to see how evenly spaced we are. There are hundreds of thousands of people boondocking out here. We are unique with our circle. This is such an unbelievable experience, that it would be difficult to put into words or even in pictures. That has been lots to do here. We have get togethers every evening at 5 and everyone brings food. Every night there is a campfire. Lots and lots of shopping here and unbelievable bargains on anything and everything. Flea market atmosphere. I'll put more pics up in a few days.

Tombstone, AZ

This is the old Bird Cage Theatre. The Bird Cage was one of the most famous night spots in the west during it's haydays from 1881 to 1889. It was described as the wildest, wickest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast. This museum is well preserved, and very authentic. It was closed and boarded up for over 50 years, and it then became a historical landmark. Everything it is was intact, and its contents were only affected by passing of time when it was reopened to the public in 1934 as a historical landmark.

This hearse is considered to be Tombstone's most valuable individual antique. It is trimmed in 24k gold and sterling silver. Almost everybody in Boot Hill Cemetery was transported by this hearse.

This is the room where all the gambling took place. It was down on the lower level, and is called the pocker room. In this room the longest poker game in history took place. It ran continuously for 8 years, 5 months and 3 days. Today the poker table still stands as it was left.

We found this poster very amusing. Actually this was for sale in the shop, but I think there was an original one displayed in the museum.

Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp. They were very good actors and put on a reenactment of the famous gunfight. The gunfight at the OK Corral took place on October 26, 1881. Three men were killed in the 30 second battle, and three of the lawmen were wounded. Wyatt was the only one not wounded in the fight.

Picture was taken on the road on the way to Tombstone. Love the rocks here!

This picture was also taken from the road as we drove by going 65 mph.

This photo was taken in back of the courthouse in Tombstone. Both of the Al's closely examinded the trap door from underneath. I guess it's a guy thing! LOL

This was an authentic stagecoach from the 1880's and still operating in Tombstone. There were others stagecoaches, but this one was the only one that was from that era. We didn't take a tour in it because there was so much to see, we didn't really have time. Next visit, for sure!

Streets of Tombstone. They have some live reenactments taking place here during the half hour before the show.

Visit to Boothill Graveyard

These are the graves of the outlaws killed by Wyatt and his deputies

There were lots of headstones that were interesting to read. This was one of my favorites.


We spent three days in Tombstone, AZ with our friends from the Montana group, Carol and Al. We stayed at Wells Fargo RV Park which was located right in town and you could walk into town easily from there. We had a great time visiting with Al and Carol and taking in all the history of this famous town. The whole town of Tombstone is really a museum in itself. We enjoyed walking the streets there and visiting a few of the museums. We visited the Courthouse, the O.K. Corral, The Bird Cage Theatre, and Boot Hill Cemetery. We also took in some of the area around Tombstone. That will definately have to be a future post.

We are now in Quartzsite, AZ boondocking with a bunch of our Montana Owner friends. It got up to 84 degrees yesterday and is already up to 78 today and it's still morning. There are going to be over 60 rigs here when the Rally officially starts on the 22nd. We are seeing old friends as well as new. We are parked between Ron and Rose, who we have met previously and Carol and Al. Once things really get underway here, I will put up some pictures of our setup here. You will be amazed. So long for now!

The Organ Mountains, Les Cruces, New Mexico

We stopped at an RV park near Les Cruces, NM for a couple of days. The mountains here are beautiful. They were nothing like what I am used to seeing in the Northeast. Totally different, but to me just as beautiful, as you can see from the pictures above.

We met up with friends of ours from the Montana Owners Club, Carol and Al, who were staying in Les Cruces. After having a really nice lunch together at a Mexican Restaurant in Old Mesilla, they took us for a ride up to Dripping Springs Rd. to the Visitor's Center run by the National Park Service. It was so hard to get good pictures of these mountains until we got up there. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was going down, and it made for perfect pictures. Thank you so much Al and Carol for a very enjoyable day.

Fort Stockton, Texas

On our way west we stopped for a couple of days at Fort Stockton, Texas. Yes there is a fort here, and we did drive to the parking lot, looked around, and sorry to say we were not impressed. So, since we only had one day to tour the area, we decided against going through the fort this time.

Road Runner sign claims to be the largest in the country, as far as Road Runner signs go.

This is the Visitor's Center. It used to be an old train station.

These metal figurines are on both sides of the visitor's center.

Rocking-Horse Oil Rig displayed on Visitor's Center grounds.

We visited The Annie Riggs Memorial Museum. This was a hotel built in 1900 and now owned by the Fort Stockton Historical Society. There were many exhibits from earlier times in Pecos County. We really enjoyed this. Below are some pictures of some of the exhibits.

This was the lobby. Showcase displayed some items for sale and Al found a really nice belt buckle for only $11.00. I managed to find a really neat kitchen magnet for my collection.

This is the parlor. Notice the two pianos.

Dining room. Hard to capture in the picture all the beautiful pieces in this room.

I just loved the charm of this old kitchen.

These are remains of a Whoolly Mammoth.

There were so many arrowheads displayed in this one room. These are only some of them!

Anyone looking for a saddle?

Courtyard and a restored buggy from the early 1900's.

Enjoying our Last Couple Days Here

Emma (left), Ellie (right) and Elisha (front) taken in Emma and Ellie's room.

Everson (left) and Erik (right) putting a Star Wars puzzle together on Erik's bed

Fresh Produce Co-op day! A few baskets of produce are still waiting to be picked up.

On Sunday, we plan on leaving the comfort of our family here in San Angelo, and head west toward New Mexico and Arizona. It has been a wonderful visit. I decided I needed to take a break from blogging during our stay here. In fact, I even put the camera aside because I just wanted to relax, take it all in, and really enjoy the holiday.

Today, I was in their home, and I snapped a couple of pictures of the kids for the Aunts, Uncles, cousins and friends to see how much they have grown since last year. They are all getting bigger, and Emma is now taller than me! She will be 14 in March and is still into Ballet! She goes to ballet practice 5 days a week and for several hours at a time. She is very serious about it, and is becoming a very good dancer. Erik (12) is still playing basketball. This really is his passion, and he hopes to be in the NBA when he grows up. Meanwhile, he also enjoys playing with Legos along with his brother, Everson. Ellie (10) is still as cute as can be. She also is in ballet and loves other sports as well. Everson (7) is really growing up. He loves sports and also enjoys Legos. He especially likes anything relating to Star Wars. Little Elisha is now 3 and has changed the most of all the kids. We saw them all briefly in September, but what a change in him since then. He talks much more fluently now, and likes playing with his sisters and his brothers. He seems to have many interests in many different things. He has quite a personality and keeps us all in stiches.

Twice a month, on Fridays, Deja has a fresh produce co-op at her home. She has several friends that go in on it, and she and the kids divide everything up between several different baskets for people to pick up. I got over there a little late, but there were still some baskets left to be picked up, so I was able to get a picture. Nice when you can get fresh fruits and vegetables for a reasonable price.

So we will miss everyone here when we leave on Sunday. But, it's nice to know we have a place to come every year that is a second home to us.

Christmas San Angelo Style

This sign was in downtown San Angelo. They don't worry about being politically correct here. I find that very refreshing.

This was on the lawn of the County Courthouse in San Angelo. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that this tradition is still alive and well in Texas.

The Christmas and New Year's holiday is now over and, the kids are back to their schooling and a more normal routine. We've had a great time here these past few weeks and being with family for Christmas, made it extra nice. We had an Italian dinner with Doug, Deja and kids as well as Deja's family on Christmas Eve. Deja's uncle from San Antonio came with some friends and his friend, Frank entertained us all by singing and playing his guitar. He had us all singing along and even yodeling. The kids especially enjoyed this, but we all had a lot of fun.

The kids all came over to our little house on New Years Eve. Their Mom and Dad went out to dinner and we invited the kids to come for dinner and a little party. We all watched the movie "Despicable Me" together and had a great time. Unfortunately, the party ended at 10pm and we didn't stay up to watch the ball drop.

On Sunday we all went to church and it was a special occasion because Everson (7) was baptised. I missed his 3 older siblings baptisms because we were in NY and still working. He was happy to have his other grandparents, Trish and Tom there as well.

We will be heading toward Arizona in another week. We have never been further west than here, and are anxious to continue on toward New Mexico and Arizona. I guess the weather hasn't been so great in Arizona lately, but we are hoping it will improve by the time we get there.