Sunday, January 24, 2016

Out of Quartzite....

We arrived in Quartzite thinking we would only be there 4 to 5 days, but ended up staying 10 days.  Our time spent there with good friends Steven, Linda, Michael and Liz was so comfortable.....we essentially all went our ways during the day, but would convene for our semi regular (some evenings the wind cancelled our fire) sunset fire.....just as we did at Ocotillo and Borrego Springs.

I spent early morning putting what little stuff we had deployed away, then around 1100 hours drove to our friends, Chris and Cherie's (Technomadia) encampment to give them a short tutorial on bicycle tire repair....Cherie's front bicycle tire had sprung a leak and needed patching.  I left them with a short list of essential bike maintenance tools (patch kit, crank puller, pedal wrench, multi tool, bike pump) they should acquire, and a complimentary patch kit for future puncture repairs.  As always, parting is bitter sweet, but we know we will see them again on the road.....it is inevitable!

I was back at our encampment by 1300 and finished getting the trailer ready for the VW insertion, and stowing the solar panels for travel, then we said our 'until next times' to Mike and Liz before rolling our wheels just before 1400.  I drove very slowly over 3, or 4 dips in the dirt road as we made our way back to pavement not wanting to undo the excellent windshield replacement done by Nomad Glass with any unnecessary torquing of the frame.....as instructed we waited a full 24 hours before rolling our wheels.

We had a shortish 130 mile drive to make to Wittmann, AZ where we spend anywhere from a week, to several weeks each winter visiting our good friends Tom and Darlene.  Tom has built a large 'garage' to park his 2002 Newell in when not in use, and has added 50 amp electrical service, water and sewer for visiting Newell friends.  He and Darlene had just finished spreading crushed granite around the 'garage' to make everything more level in anticipation of our arrival.  Tom is doing most of the finish work on the inside and outside himself to keep the final cost down.  As a result he is still a few months away from having everything finished, but he is slowly getting there.  Just since we were here last year he has made a lot of progress!

We arrived around 1630 hours and were quickly escorted by Tom to our site for the next week.......

The new windshields stood up to our first drive


The building behind our Newell is the garage Tom built for his 2002 Newell....it is enormous!

First Wittman sunrise Sunday morning

.....we had dinner with, and spent the evening with Tom and Darlene before heading back to our coach for the evening just before 2200 hours.

Thanks for stopping by!

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