Yesterday we picked up our friends and went to lunch. We were looking for a Salad place on Cactus street. They told us to just go north to Cactus and turn right. Well, when you get to Cactus, it only goes left, right goes into a mountain. We checked the map and found that Thunderbird, the next street north went around the mountain and then turned into Cactus on the other side of the mountain. When we got around the mountain and back on Cactus, we missed our salad restaurant and found a Chinese one and decided that sounded better than salad anyway. We had a very nice meal with lots of items to choose from. I had more than I should have, but everything was quite tasty. We took them home about 2pm and returned to Mesa for the evening.
Today it was nice and warm about 75 for a high. Nancy and I went bee bopping on our scooters to Target and then on to a little grocery for some things for Super Bowl Sunday. We decided against steaks and settled for burgers, on the grill, and hot wings for half time with some green stuff and chips and dip. The town of Phoenix is all excited about the Super Bowl, as they should be. It takes a lot of hard work and a bit of luck to get that far and it certainly would be a privilege to play in a game of that magnitude.
We worked some on the HTC national rally in June. We already have 8 that have indicated that they will be there. So we will be getting applications out to them in tomorrows mail. We would like to have at least 20 units there. There are a lot of members that live within a few hundred miles of Pigeon Forge, TN. Hopefully fuel prices will stay with in reason and not deter too many from traveling. We have 3 already that are coming from CA and AZ. So we are expecting a good turn out.

Yesterday was just a normal day in Arizona, lots of sun and a little breeze. Otherwise we were not scheduled to do very much. We did do some cleaning on the inside of the rv. With all of the dust in the desert, we found that everything had a coating of dust inside as well as outside. We cleaned the front portion and left the bath and bedroom for tomorrow. We removed the front drapes and laundered them. What a job. Removing some hundred or so of those little gizmo's that hold the curtain to the rod and lets it roll around on the track was a pain. It will be a long time before we do that again. We were surprised as just how much dust had coated everything.
Today, we completed our cleaning on the inside and got things in order. We did some shopping and checked the weather back in Indiana. Seems they are having a serious winter storm with a lot of snow and ice with many out of power. I can remember those winters but I can tell you, it is certainly nicer here in Mesa, AZ than Indiana.
Tomorrow we plan to visit some friends and go to lunch with them and take them shopping and then take them back home.

Woke up to traffic noises and the sounds of a city beginning to move about. Gone is the beautiful sky full of stars and the complete darkness of the desert. It is back to the city life and all that goes with it.
We got the motor home parked on the RV pad and hooked up. We will be here in Mesa until the start of the Gypsy Journal rally in Casa Grande. We needed to go shopping for several items, groceries among the most important. Of course the traffic was heavy as is in this part of the world with all of the snow birds in town. We did not get back home until about 5 pm and got things stowed away and had a bite of dinner. We were all tired and decided to call it a day. Not sure what is on for tomorrow, but we will see. They are talking about some rain, but no clouds in the sky, so it will be a while before we see any rain.

Saturday was to be the big Quartzfest 2009 hamfest. It was to start at 8:30am, but there were guys out with their flashlights at 6:30 looking things over. The first photo is of the main row of sellers. There were others on the next row over but not very many. There were several that came in just to tail gate their wares. We got opened up about 8:30 and did a fair amount of engraving, but we had done a little each day, so did not really expect a lot on Saturday. All in all it was a fairly good business venture. There was all kinds of parts and radio units for sale. We saw several change hands. As at most hamfests it is a buyer be ware situation and what you see is what you get. No guarantees or warranty is made with any purchase or sale. By 11:00am about everything was over and done with. Many were packing up their wares and moving on. We put our display away and by noon we were pretty well ready to leave the desert for more civilized places. We decided to go back into town and buy a pair of sun visors that pull down over the windshield to shade the sun when you are driving west into the sun in the late afternoon or east in the morning. We had looked at them previously but did not know what length we needed. When we returned we found that they had sold out of the 43" ones and all that was left was 36". We purchased a pair of the 36" ones and when we returned to the coach and opened them up we found that one was for side windows and the other was for the windshield, which we wanted. We returned to the flea market and took them both back and got our money back.
We reportedly had over 100 units in our area all amateur radio related in one way or another. There were several in other areas that came in just for the hamfest or to see what was going on. All in all I think everyone had a great time and good company around the evening bonfires. Saturday night they had a farewell bonfire and you could bring your hot dogs or what ever and cook them over the fire and enjoy the evening and see the stars that were very bright. The two previous evenings it was overcast and you could not see very many stars.
Our second photo is of the two Saguaros that were close to our coach. Very tall and stately as most are. Our area was typical of the Sonoron desert, mostly small gravel/stone, much looks like from volcanic action as it is black. There are rocks as big as your fist and others up to the size of your head. Mixed in is a lot of sandy soil and dust. When it rains the dust/dirt goes down around the rocks and everything looks like gravel but as you walk on it the sand and dirt comes up and makes a real mess when you track it into your rv on the carpet. It seems that the wind is always blowing in the desert and any dust that get stirred up just blows around and everything is covered with dust.
Sunday, we finished getting the rv ready to hit the road and got the van hitched up. We got away about 10am and needed to get propane, that was not a problem as the station could fuel 4 units at a time. We turned around and headed for the Pilot station and got in line for gasoline. Every pump was in use and as usual, the fuel flows quite slowly under those circumstances. We finally got 40 gallons in the tank in about 20 minutes. That was more than enough to get us back to Mesa so we left and headed east. We finally made our way to I10 and on our way east. The traffic was really heavy, both east and west. Motor homes everywhere. We stopped about 1pm at a rest area and it was nearly full of rv's of every description. We ate a bite of lunch and while we were eating we could oversee the automobile portion of the lot and saw a nice Goldwing motor cycle come in with a red Mercedes roadster behind. The parked next to one another and apparently knew each other and they were talking and they opened the trunk of the Mercedes and took out a map. They were looking at it and turning it around and apparently were discussing something and one of the attendants at the rest area came up and apparently offered assistance. He took the map and looked at it and turned it around a few times and showed something to them and left. Finally they got back in the car and on the motor cycle and left. Well, in that area, there is one road, I10, nothing going north and south or east and west for miles either way, so what they were confused about one can only guess. Oh, both vehicles were from California, if that means anything.
We took I10 all the way into Phoenix and to Mesa, encountering one wreck where a small SUV had apparently gotten involved with 3 or 4 other vehicles and finally turned over on its left side, blocking the left two lanes of the highway. We completed our trip at about 4:30pm.

Today it was cloudy with little sun. Some rain during the night, but ony sprinkles. We had some scattered showers during the morning and early after noon hours but then the sun came out and warmed things up considerably. There were generators running everywhere as the solar panels were not putting out much current.
They had a nice turn out for the 4X4 rally. I think 18 or 19 units. All went well with only mishap, a blow out and they had to change a tire. We noticed several units leaving today. Mostly from other areas as the hams will stick around until tomorrows big sale. We plan on leaving on Sunday as soon as we get things put away and the rig ready to hit the road. We will have to get fuel at the Pilot and then we will dump our holding tanks and get propane on the west side of Phoenix before we go to Mesa.
There were several seminars today. One on batteries, large ones for the coach and small ones. There is a new battery coming out it is a AAAA size. Quite small and made for the new small items that require power but not much room. He talked about lead acid batteries and their advantages as well as drawbacks. A good choice for the money, however. He also mentioned that you do not connect more than 4 golf cart 6V batteries in a bank as they will not take a charge. Use either 4 or 8 of them. The old standby workhorse is the NiCad battery. It will give you 100% power to the end and then it quits. Other batteries will reduce their output as their charge goes down. So it all depends on what you are going to use them for and what you expect them to do for you as to what batteries you choose.
Another seminar was on Heath Kit memories. The presenter had several Heath Kit units in his motor home and proudly showed them to one and all that were interested. Some really nice looking equipment.

Not a lot going on the last two days. Some interesting seminars on rv electrical systems, ve testing, various radio groups had speakers. Today was the antenna walk about and the antenna shootout.
Tomorrow will be the 4X4 excursion. Not sure where they will go, but I understand they will go east into the mountains and see some interesting sights that are only available with a 4 wheel drive truck. The photos are of a very nice unit with a trailer advertising Lincoln Welders. The other photos are of some interesting antenna set ups as well as the group that did the antenna walk around. Not sure who the winner was but will probably find out tomorrow.
They have a big bonfire each evening with a nice gathering of hams. Too cool for me to be out there, even close to the fire. I guess they just sit around and tell lies like most ham gatherings. Tomorrow we will get things ready for Saturday's hamfest. Not sure what all will be going on, but it will be interesting as most hamfests are. We will be here making name tags for those that are so inclined. Sunday we will get things together and head back toward civilization and Mesa, AZ for a few
days before we get ready to go to the Gypsy Journal Rally in Casa Grande, AZ. Seems like there is always something going on.
It has been cloudy most of the day and a little while ago we heard rain drops on the roof but only for a little while. Certainly not enough to settle the dust. We will see what it does during the night.

Not a lot going on here in the desert this morning. There were not any activities planned as most watched the Inauguration on TV. we get a fairly good signal out of Yuma, a little snow but that is about 80 miles away. Others have satellites that they use. We certainly wish him the best and the ability to get things straightened out and the country back on track.
We have had some interesting seminars yesterday and this afternoon. One this afternoon was on remote controlled model railroading. They called it garden rail roads. These are set up outside and are much larger than the ones we played with when kids. It was interesting to see that more than one train can be controlled by the same remote. Better to have batteries in each train than to power the track and have to vary the amperage depending on how many units you have running.
We went to town this afternoon to get some groceries, do some laundry and mail some mail. Also we made a trip to the trash refuse facility to empty our trash. We can take our personal trash there, but not large amounts.
When we returned several people came by to order name tags and we had some other work to do so we kept busy the rest of the day.
The weather was warm but clouds are moving in and they are talking about rail in the Yuma area, but do not know if it will get this far north. Time will tell what Mother Nature decides to do. Rain in the desert might be interesting to see. There is a lot of rocks and gravel here but dirt mixed in as well. There are several washes where water has washed the soil/gravel away, but how much it takes remains to be seen.

A bit cloudy this morning but the sun soon burned it away and it was warmer than usual, a really nice day. There are still a lot of units coming in. Not sure where they are going but our area is about full and others around seem to be filling up as well. Not sure what is happening closer to town. I imagine it is filling up as well. Town is full of tents and vendors that are really catering to the travelers that are coming through and those that are staying in the area.
There are two BLM areas to the north of us. You can stay for two weeks for $40.00 with no hook ups. Or you can purchase an annual pass for $180.00 and that is good from September thru March of the next year. It is good at all BLM properties in the country. So you can go from one to another without any additional charge and stay as long as you like. Not a bad deal if you need a cheap place to spend the winter.
Our photo is of a couple of really nice bus conversions we found at the Pinal Co. fairgrounds in Casa Grande at the Fiddlers Jam. We may see them again at the Gypsy Journal Rally in February.
We made a few name tags today and probably will do a few each day and them maybe more on Saturday as that is the big swap meet day here. We are just relaxing and enjoying the nice weather and the great company.

A little warmer this morning with bright sunshine, but clouds moving in this afternoon and was very clouds by sunset. The first clouds we have seen since we arrived in the desert. They talk about rain about the middle of the week.
This is the first day of Quartzfest 2009. Cliff set up his pa system out by the fire site and we all gathered for happy hour at 4 pm. There were probably 50 to 75 people in attendance. We were greeted by the Vice Mayor of Quartzsite, also a ham, and active in the ham community as well as local government. Cliff outlined the happenings of the week with VE testing, and some seminars. Sounds like a good week of ham radio activities and information.
The photos are from the Fiddlers Jam and Car show. They had a nice showing of classic and custom cars. There are car shows every week end some where in this area. I think some cars go to every show as the owners seem to know one another and enjoy the camaraderie and fun.

In checking the schedule for Monday there will be a seminar on Direction Finding, Winlink Systems, RV Electrical Systems and Amateur TV (Ham TV). Hopefully I can attend one or two of them, if I am not too busy making nametags.

Not a lot going on today, just several rv's coming in, some driving through our area and some staying. Several areas are filling up. We went to Quartzsite this morning to see what was going on. We finally found a parking place and had to go about 2 blocks back to the flea market area. There is everything there for sale from soup to nuts. Several food booths but were they expensive. Most sandwiches were 6 and 7 dollars. One place had 2 hot dogs and 2 drinks for $5.oo but they were skimpy and small drinks. Lots of typical flea market items, mostly from China. There were several rock places and some beautiful quartz that had been sawed and polished. Many geodes that had been split and very beautiful on the inside. Most of the geodes came from Brazil. One guy was selling meteorites. I have never seen one, but he said they were real???
We probably saw 3 or 4 hundred booths in this one section and by the time we had looked through most of the flea market on the north side of the street it was time to get out of there. We did stop at Subway for a sandwich and headed back to the rv and get the Honda started to put some charge in the batteries.

Another day just like yesterday only a little more wind but very nice. Not a lot going on today except more units coming in. Here is an old Gillig bus conversion. I do not have any idea how old it is. The second photo is of a unit that I did not recognize. I was not bold enough to go around to the front to look at it from that angle. The third photo just goes to show you that you can take all of your toys with you when you travel. A motorcycle on the front, truck, boat outboard and trailer on the trailer and who knows what else is in the rig. It is a big diesel pusher but I bet he does not get very far on a gallon of fuel.
I finished the work I was doing making a new cable that goes between the motor home and the van that controls the brakes on the van. I also changed the receptacle on the van with one that had a good spring on the cap so it would hold the plug better.
We are charging the house batteries with the charger powered by the small Honda generator. It powers both the charger for the motor home as well as the charger on my power chair all at an idle. Not sure how long it will run on a gallon of fuel but we will see. I have 4 hours on the tank of fuel so far. Surely it will run out tomorrow, sometime.
May go into Quartzsite tomorrow to see what is going on. It may be busy here next week towards Friday and Saturday. Will be interesting to see what all will be going on.

We are in our own little world here in Quartsite, AZ. As you can see in the photos they bring all sorts of equipment with them. Talk about solar panels, this guy really has some big ones. Ham antenna and a rotatable tv antenna. The other photo shows some of the rigs in our section. Some with wind generators
and solar panels and many variations of ham antennas. In the next day or two there will be so many rv's in here you can not stir them with a stick.
Evelyn went into town this morning and things are really getting congested. Traffic is moving at about 5mph and no one seems to be getting anywhere, at least not very fast.
There are many modes of transportation here, 4 wheelers and dirt bikes are common. You can make good time on them as you can run off the road and pass all of the vehicles that stay on the pavement. We will venture into town one day next week and try to see what all is there. May take more than one day as there is a lot of territory to cover. All we will need is a parking place. We have already seen a lot of interesting things. There are mobile RV repair units everywhere, one place has hot showers $5.00 each. I bet you do not get much hot water for $5.00 but it would be better than nothing. There are only a few campgrounds in the area and they fill up a long time before now.. Otherwise, you just park in the desert, haul in your water and haul out your waste. You have to be careful what you do with your trash as you are not allowed to put it in any city receptacles as you are subject to arrest and a fine. I understand next
week there will be a place we can put our trash and it will be hauled away. So you have to be careful of how much water you use so that your water tank does not run out and your holding tanks do not get full of you have to fight your way into town in all of that traffic and take care of your business. No one wants to do that.
I am recharging the batteries in the coach with a 10A charger that is powered by my Honda 1000 watt generator. It is quite cool in the evening and during the night and the furnace comes in very handy. We operate the electric blankets with an inverter so that keeps us comfy during the night.

We are in our place out in the desert where we will be until a week from Monday. It was a bit cool last night, down in the mid 40's this morning but the sun came up bright and warmed things up quickly.
We had planned a trip for the day to Lake Havasu City to see the London Bridge. When I attempted to put the lift out, it was dead. Nothing worked. We checked everything we could think of, finally took the cover off of the power unit and checked the voltage and there was 12 volts at the solenoid. I had seen a red led light on the control board when the unit was operating properly, but no red light this time. I was checking for power when a couple of our neighbors came by and offered to help. I told them what I had done and one guy said, let me get another guy, he is an electrical engineer. So he did some checking and we found a fuse on the circuit board, but it was good. We kept checking and finally found an in line fuse that was bad. I did not have a 5A fuse so we replaced it with a 15A and the red light came on and all worked as it should. The only thing I can think of is that when the lift was stowed under the floor and we closed the
door, the vibration cause the fuse to open up. A 5A filament is very small and it would not take much of a jar to break it. The 15A fuse has a much heavier filament and it should not be subject to that type of problem.
We finally got on the road about noon, stopped in Quartzsite at the Post Office and then an RV shop to get some more 7 conductor wire for the van brakes and then on toward Lake Havasu City.
The first photo was taken from the London Bridge looking north up the Colorado River. The second photo is of the Parker Dam generating plant showing the water rushing out from the turbines. The dam runs from California to Arizona at a very narrow part of the river. The mountains on both side appear to be granite and the walls are quite steep. All along the Colorado River there are homes, condos and rv campgrounds where ever there is enough room to build on. Most are quite beautiful with great views of the river and mountains.

This is the Ford photo that I lost.

We spent the night in Gila Bend, AZ. We were informed that there was an area where we could park overnight for free next to a Texaco station. There is indeed a large parking area next to a closed station however there were 4 units parked there with oversized loads that would not be moving until morning. It appeared that they would let them idle all night.
Across the street was a relatively new Shell station with gas, diesel, lp gas, a free dump station and a nice campground. If you are a member of Escapees, you can camp for $9.50 with full hookups. It is back off the road behind the fueling islands and was very quiet. That was certainly better than listening to those 4 big diesels idle all night.
The photos are from the Custom car show at Casa Grande. you can double click on them to enlarge them so you can see better. The Ford was pretty nice and the John Deere/Davidson was a sight to behold. The queen seat is an implement seat and the fuel tank is an old milking machine. What an imagination one must have to build a unit like this and then be able to make it operate in a reasonable fashion.
We are currently in the middle of the desert near Quartzsite. South about 7 miles and then west on a dirt/sand/gravel road about 1.5 miles. We are hear with several RV's that belong to hams with all kinds of antennas and solar panels, one wind generator and not sure what else. They were wanting name tags before the engine cooled. The real show does not start until the weekend and runs all next week. As we came in we could see units parked 2 0r 3 miles away and I would estimate there were maybe 3000 units. They say there will be in excess of 10,000 units parked all over the desert. They are expecting over 100 units in the ham area alone. So, we will see how that works out.

We have moved on from the Pinal Co. Fairgrounds and are currently in Gila Bend, AZ, on our way to Quartsite for the big RV and rock show.
Here are some photos of the cars in the car show over the weekend. Here I am admiring the 1954 Buick Special 2dr HT just like the one I had, only mine was maroon and white. Sure brought back memories. This was the first year for the vertical valve V8. The special had the 150hp version and the century and others had the 200 hp engine. The special would get off the line quite well.
The other cars were all very nice. Some were still in primer, but they were looking good and ready for color. There were 3 or 4 bucket T's with beautiful chrome engines, one with a tri-power intake all chromed up. Many were in original condition and others had minor modifications and/or custom touches. The only thing I found incorrect
with the 54 Buick was the headlight bezels had been painted red instead of being chrome, but otherwise it looked pretty stock. There were a few Corvettes and Thunderbirds as well as several 3 and 5 window Fords.
There were several special interest vehicles there as well. I will show you photos of them as time goes on.
I did see an interesting thing today. We were getting fuel for the motor home and I heard a Harley fire up. It was a 3 wheel Harley with packs on behind the queen seat and an extension on the back with a trunk on it. The trunk only cleared the ground by about 6 inches. As they left, I noticed a white curly haired dog laying across the guys lap with his hind feet hanging off on one side and I assume the head hanging off the other. They were really loaded and ready to hit the road. We were at the edge of Casa Grande and they headed west toward Yuma, maybe they were going to Quartzite for the action. What a site.

Photos for Sunday blog. I seem to have lost them in my original.

The Old Time Fiddlers Jam had a lot of things going for it. One of the big attractions was the Budweiser 8 horse hitch. The horse appear to be a smaller team than we are used to seeing. However they are certainly beautiful animals. They only appeared once here on Saturday. Sunday they loaded up the wagon and the horses and took them somewhere else to show today. They left two of the horses here in the special stalls and then returned late this evening and unloaded the horses for the night. I assume they will load up in the morning and hit the road for their next show.
We listened to the music inside the big building as the groups rotated. Most only did 3 or 4 numbers and then they would be replaced by another group. They probably rotated throughout the day and appeared two or three times during the day.
The food vendors were all busy with lines of 20 or more. The Kettle Corn man was busy popping corn all day and his wife was selling it as fast as he could pop it. $5.00 for a fairly good sized bag and $8.00
for a large one. A bit pricey for me, but they were buying it as fast a
s they could make it. The other vendors had all kinds of things from burgers, Italian sausage, Curly fries, BBQ, turkey legs, most anything you would desire. Of course there was all kinds of drinks including beer. Other vendors had western hats of all kinds and there were two Silversmiths in house that would make a bracelet with your name in it as well as rings in sterling silver. A bit expensive apparently as I overheard a conversation and they were talking $80.00 or so. Not sure what they were talking about but that sounded like a lot or money. I even saw a Tupperware gal there selling her wares.
We watched some of the tractors pull again today. They were antique tractors, some had been restored and looked like new and others were original but still running good and pulling that sled as best as they could.
Many of the motor homes left on Saturday evening. Most of the rest left on Sunday. There are only a few left with us staying tonight. We will be leaving tomorrow for Quartsite for Quartzfest. That is a hamfest that runs the week of January 17 thru the 24th.

It was cool this morning and the locals had their jackets on. The snowbirds were in their shorts and shirtsleeves. We have some really nice motor homes in the lot. 6 or 8 GMC's, a couple that really look like new. I will post some photos of them.
Our photos today are of an old Ford that has about everything on it. It still runs like a sewing machine and starts quickly. There is even a mother-in-law seat, from a farm implement, on the front bumper. There is a rooster in the box on the rear bumper. There is a sign on it that says "My wife dresses to kill and she cooks the same way". There are three similar cars here but this one is very interesting.
I watched the antique tractors pull. They all pulled in rotation little and big. There was one huge Oliver 99, probably from the 4o's that had a diesel engine. The owner had put a turbo charger on it and boy would it sing. It made a full pull every time, what a monster.
The show opened at 9am and they were standing in line to get in. There was plenty of food to eat, blue grass music all day in the main building. There was a couple of shows on the main stage and a classic/custom car show as well. There were old tractors on display as well as the Budweiser 8 horse hitch that paraded around the grounds and through the crowd. everyone really enjoyed the beautiful horses.
I spent most of my time watching the antique tractors pull as well as listening to the different musical groups on stage in the main building. The show was to close at 5pm and by 4:30 the crowd had thinned to only a few and everyone closed up and went to their respective unit for the night. Tomorrow at 9am it will all start over again.

Things are getting underway here at the Old Time Fiddlers Jam. The Budweiser horses are here and in their stalls. There are two that were outside but they had not yet had their bath. They even have a portable water heater that they use to make sure that the wash water is at the correct temperature. They certainly lead a pampered life. Will be interesting to see them perform on Saturday.

There was a light crowd today, but that is to be expected, being Friday. The vendors finished setting up this morning but were not doing very
much as it was quite cool and none had coffee or other hot drinks. I bet there will be coffee tomorrow as it is supposed to be cool again tonight.

The entertainers were hard at it most all day. The music is provided by the Desert Country Musicians. This is several groups that play together and they take turns on the stage and do 3 or 4 numbers and then another group takes the stage. We watched for a
couple of hours and saw some grooups that were very good and some that were not so good. They are all dressed up in their country outfits, jeans and western shirts and hats. The gals had on their western dresses. None of them looked like they would be traveling in a million dollar motor home that was parked out beside the building. there are some very nice rigs here, many are bus conversions and some are quite old GMC motor homes from the 1970's. There is a couple of old Fords, 1929 and 1930 models that are really a hoot. I will get photos of them

Things are picking up at the fair grounds this morning. The Budweiser Clydesdale semi's came in. They set up the stalls, all of the horses got a bath before they were put into their respective stall. These are not the big team but appear to be a younger group of horses, still in training. We will see them perform on Saturday. The food vendors were busy setting up. There will be most anything you want from hot dogs, BBQ beef & pork as well as turkey legs. There is a hog on a log. Not sure just what that is but I will check it out tomorrow. The crafters and those selling all types of merchandise are setting up in the big building. So it looks like a nice show in the making.
The first photo is of a group playing blue grass which is not unusual for a show of this type. They will be performing on stage as well as various other places and even like this in the camping area.
There are a lot of older units here, like this one. I also saw some GMC units come in. One looked like new. I will check them out tomorrow and get some photos.
We are limited on power here, only 20A and that is shared with about 5 or 6 other units so the use of electric heaters is limited or someone will trip the circuit breaker and someone will have to get up and go to the end of the line and reset it. Not me, in the middle of the night. Will just use the furnace and let the 110 maintain the batteries, etc.
The day was sunny but cool. You needed a jacket if you were outside very long. Supposed to be about the same tomorrow.

Today was another nice day in the valley. The sun was warm but there was frost on the roofs around the neighborhood, so apparently it was in the low 40's during the night.
We had the motor home about ready to roll. Just a few last minute things on the check list and hook up the van and we were ready to go. We headed south through the town of Gilbert, past Joe's BBQ place but it was too early to stop again. We made the trip to the Pinal Co. Fairgrounds, a little less than 50 miles. You can go down I10 but it is a few miles to pick it up and then you get off a few miles from where you want to go, so it is about as quick to cut cross country and see what is going on as far as agriculture is concerned. We say Milo that had been cut, some that had not. Still cotton in the fields, apparently because the Gins were busy and the price was down. We say hay about ready to cut and some just coming up. There is no off season down here, they sow, grow and then harvest something most all of the time. If they can get water to it then it will grow all year around.
The photo is of our lunch bunch at Joe's BBQ yesterday. Nancy Burkhart has been our hostess for the last month or so. We did pick a bag of her oranges before we left to enjoy while we were gone. I think we had 12 of 14 all total which is pretty good. Some live 40 or 50 miles away so it takes time to get around in this city. There is really a lot of traffic here. US60, aka Superstition Highway, is 6 lanes wide with additional off and on ramps. Most of the streets are 4 to 6 lanes wide, the 4 lane have a center turn lane. Speed limit generally is 45mph. So the traffic really moves, a bit fast for me in congested traffic but you just hang in there and go with the flow.
We are here at the fairgrounds a couple of days before the opening of the Old Time Fiddlers Jam. Things are picking up as units are coming in, many are vendors and some really nice coaches are here already. Probably be many more in tomorrow getting set up to do their thing. I may do some engraving as well, we will see how it all works out.