It Never Rains In California???

That song may have been correct for the last few days, but this morning, when we were going to leave, man it poured.  Our site was not cement, not gravel, it was dirt.  Was being the important word.  This morning, it was shoe sucking mud.

Fortunately I keep an old pair of shoes in the closet, so I was able to schlep around with out doing any damage to nicer footwear.

We got out of the mudhole, er site, and headed on out way.  Destination:  Quartzsite. 

Eventually we came out of the rainstorm and headed on down the road with a stop at a Flying J to fuel, dump the tanks and get propane.

We are thrilled with our fulltime lifestyle and the new adventures it brings.  Today we got an adventure that was something we never experience before and was not thrilling.

We ran into extremely high winds and a first for us, a genuine desert dust storm. 


The blowing sand was blinding at times and the wind pushed us around quite a bit.  I was glad the Journey handled well despite the heavy gusts but we grimaced when hearing the sand hitting the sides.  We were expecting to have all the paint sand blasted off the body.  :cO

Of course, our important stop at the Flying J was right in the middle of the dust storm.  Fortunately the blowing sand lessened, but the winds kept up.  As I was fueling the Journey I was watching trash barrels, mats, even fuel pump metal panels blow around.  Despite all the debris, we were able to get the fuel and propane tanks filled and the black and gray tanks emptied.  Marti even helped me by keeping her foot on the dump hose end where it entered the sewer drain.  We didn't need an "accident" with the wind blowing as hard as it was.

A quick stop at a nearby Walmart for some cold cuts and we were back out on the highway fighting the wind and blowing sand.

After a while, the better part of valor became obvious, we had to get off the road.  The winds and blowing sand, along with the nutty, speeding drivers made our decision easy.  The next good place we could find we'd stop.  We were more than a hundred miles from Quartzsite and we'd fight the weather all the way only to find ourselves trying to get into one of the BLM sites at night.  Not a good scenario.

We called a nearby campground and it was booked full (surprise) so we looked for an alternative and found one, a casino right off the highway, 29 Spotlight Casino. There were a bunch of RVs in the huge parking lot already, so we joined them.  The posted rules allow a 24 hour stay so we were golden and very glad to get off the road.

Safety first, it is a good stop, RVs are still pulling in and the prime rib at the buffet was delicious!

Sorry, no pictures, the aircard signal is weak. :c(

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