I had big ideas for today. Unfortunately my plans did not work out.
I left Quartzsite early and stopped at the Walmart in Parker to do some shopping. Some of
my WIN friends were in the store too. After spending some money I headed for the
Emerald Cove RV Resort. I handed the lady at the entrance booth the Family Pass Frank
had given me. The lady checked her computer and told me that my name was not on the list.
The confirmation number the lady from PRI had given me meant nothing to her.
I had a strange feeling when I called PRI. The lady had to turn on her computer and it took
a long time.
It sounded like she was doing it from a home.
I asked the lady at Emerald Cove whether I could empty my holding tanks since I was there.
They referred me to a public park nearby.
Instead of swimming in the pool and doing my E mail from the motorhome today, I am with the
group on a hill overlooking the valley and the little town of Earp.
Earp, California, is across the Colorado River from Parker, Arizona.
2-1-13
In the morning I drove up the Colorado River, on the California side, to the Parker Dam.
I went South on the Arizona side.
There are many RV Resorts on both sides of the river. Thousands of motorhomes are lined
up at the water’s edge and behind.
More WINs are arriving at our camp site.
We had a good turnout for the 4:00 PM meeting. Brad volunteered to be host of this
gathering. Nelda, Ron and George are staying at the Emerald Cove RV Resort this week. But
they are coming to the meetings and participate at the events.
Today was Sally’s birthday. She surprised us with ice cream and cake.
Charles came back from the hospital and thanked the people who moved his motorhome and car,and took care of his dog.
He ended up with two stents.
2-2-13
Today was the “Parker 425” Off-road race. I was in town at 6:30 AM to get a good parking spot.
The 277 race cars came from the Blue Water Casino and lined up on Main Street next to the Chamber of Commerce.
California Street,which is also highway 95 was closed for all other traffic.
It was still cold and I went several times to the Chamber of Commerce building to warm up.
Every 20 seconds a vehicle would take off. I had paper in my ears because of the noise.
Later I went to the race track, in the desert, to see the action. I did not get any good
pictures because I could not see the cars and trucks from a long distance. They appeared suddenly.
One of my neighbors had a radar gun and clocked some of the race cars at 85 to 95 miles
per hour. They were flying by.
I believe one lap is 140 miles. They have to go around three times. It takes about seven hours to finish the race.
On the way home I looked for the town of Earp. I found it. It consists of the Post Office, a Mini Mart and a burned out building.
The town was originally called Drennan, but because Wyatt Earp and his wife spent winters here, the town was renamed to Earp.
Most of the group went to the off road race. There were about 100,000 spectators along the race course.
Les and Nancy went for a six hour hike.
2-3-13
At 5:00 AM it started to rain. Last night we took a tub full of fire wood out of Sally’s truck. Now we have wet fire wood.
By noon the sky got brighter.
Chuck took a group on a hike at 10:30 AM. I did some house cleaning.
In the evening most of the group went to a restaurant in Parker to watch the Super Bowl on large screen television. Les, Paula, Caroline, Jeanne, Nancy and I sat around the camp fire and told stories. Jeanne spent her last year of high school in Frankfurt. Her
father worked for the US Army. Paula sang one of the songs she has written. It was a very interesting evening.
2-4-13
This morning twelve people went kayaking. Some of the kayaks had to go on George’s trailer. To move the trailer from George’s motorhome to Chuck’s truck was not easy. They used a two wheel dolly. Because the trailer, with the sailboat on top, was too heavy, one tire on the dolly came off the wheel. After fixing the tire the trailer was attached to Chuck’s truck and we took off for the Rock House Park to put the kayaks in the water.
Ted, I, and Dan were passenger in Diane,s car following Chuck and two more vehicles with kayaks on top.
At the park we watched the kayakers get ready.
Mary and Nancy were going first.
Joann always has the spirit.
Here comes Chuck the fearless leader.
George and Karen.
Trish.
Janet.
Doug.
Harland.
Rich.
The son of Trish.
The Colorado River was smooth and the temperature was perfect. We watched them going around the bend.
Three of us brought the truck and trailer and the two cars to the Blue Water Casino where the kayakers ended their six mile river trip. Diane brought us back to the camping area.
I went to the library and at 1:00 PM met Les and Caroline at Lily’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. The food was very good and plenty of it. I think Caroline will never go again because the food was served on paper plates and the silver was plastic.
Almost everybody was back for the 4:00 PM circle meeting.
Trish has set up a big tent and she shows movies every night. Tonight’s movie was “The Hunger Games”. I rather sit at the camp fire.
2-5-13
Today we went to the Swansea Townsite, which is located about 30 miles northeast of Parker. It was once a flourishing copper mining development. To get there we had to drive 17 miles on a gravel road. I went with Karen and Chuck. The Saturn does not like those kinds of roads.
There are information boards.
George Mitchell, a Welshman from Swansea built a blast furnace smelter, power plant, water system and dug more mine shafts.
By 1909 the population was about 500 people. Now only ruins of the buildings are visible.
The mine fell victim to the Great Depression and a declining copper market, and never boomed again.
We ate our lunch at the site.
Most of the group, who did not go with us, went to Parker to the 1:30 PM movie. They saw the film how Osama Bin Laden was killed.
2-6-13
This is our last day in Earp. In the morning I went to the bank in Parker. From there I went to the library.
At 11:30 AM I met seven of the WINs at Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet. The salad bar is nothing to write home about, but the choice of pizzas
was great.
Joann came back with a slice of dessert pizza. I did not know that this exists. The rest of us had to wait a while until they brought out another
dessert pizza. That pizza did not last very long either. The pizza consists of regular pizza crust with cherry or apple pie filling and streusel on top.
From Pizza Hut we went to the La Paz County Board Room where the Parker Library presented ”Along the California Trail”.
The information was good, only the presenter was a bit slow. Over the years I have gone to San Diego Old Town State Park many times but never
visited the Mormon Battalion Museum. The Mormon Battalion was part of the presentation. They were instrumental in making the trail wider for use
by wagons.
Our next stop was the Indian Museum. We learned a lot today about this area and Arizona and California.
We are 29 WINs and 27 motorhomes and trailers at this gathering. Chuck and some other people of the group did a 14 mile kayaking trip today.
They were gone most of the day.
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