Saturday I spent most of the day relaxing and doing nothing. It was the first real break I’ve gotten since arriving in Quartzsite, being finally caught up on work. I did take a quick bike ride out Plomosa Road all the way through the hills to Bouse, then back to camp along a different route. Other than that, it was a lazy day.
Yesterday filled up quickly. I took another bike ride, this time up to Parker, across to California, and up to Parker Dam along the Colorado River. Although there are signs warning about wild burros on this road, I’d never seen any — until now!
Fortunately, they were on the side of the road, and the opposite side from me. Burros seem a little bit smarter than deer, who are prone to running right in front of you just as you have no hope of avoiding them. These burros stayed where they were, and were not a threat. Still, there are reasons why I don’t go anywhere near as fast as my riding abilities would let me on the street, and this is one of those reasons.
On my way back toward Parker on the Arizona side, I made a detour out Cienega Springs Road, home of the Desert Bar. I visited two seasons ago on my KLR but had not yet taken my V-Strom down the “primitive road,” as it’s marked, to get there. Without knobby tires, it wasn’t as planted in patches of soft gravel, but it handled the ride just fine. Honestly, you could get a regular car down there if you took it slowly and carefully, but mainly you see trucks, Jeeps, and UTVs out there. In addition to the road there are numerous off-road trails crisscrossing the area, so this is a popular stop for off-road enthusiasts. I had a chili dog and a Coke (no beer, I wanted my wits to be at 100% for the ride back to the pavement), then went back the way I came. I brought my GoPro strapped to my old helmet along for the ride, and plan to make a video of this adventure. I snapped the burro pictures straight from this video.
As soon as I got back, I picked up my friend Moon Flower from her camp, then brought us to the Dreamers Camp for dinner. She’s part of that group and invited me to join her, as well as sample the potatoes she grew herself back home in Oklahoma. (I’m glad I have saddlebags to carry all that stuff!) The camp is named for Jamie and the Dreamers, a nomad band that has collected other musicians and like-minded people to camp together. I heard them perform at the Lit Cactus on Halloween, and it was fun to hang out with them and their crew. Other friends I know passed through, and I made a few new ones as well.
At one point this converted school bus came roaring up, stopped suddenly, and asked “Where’s the drum circle?” “Right here!” everyone called out. The hippie bus pulled in and found a place to park. Welcome to Quartzsite!
The sunset was pretty amazing, too, with clouds in the western sky to reflect sunlight after the sun sank below the horizon. Conditions like these are when the best sunsets happen.
I brought Moon Flower back to her camp, returned to mine, and walked over to Paisley’s for her nightly campfire. I enjoy smaller groups like that to giant groups of strangers, like at the Dreamer Camp or what the Lit Cactus has become these days. Finally, I returned to my van for the night and slept well.
I was back to the grind this morning, not only with work but also with collecting a bunch of paperwork to get printed out at the library. I have a lot going on in that department right now, including getting my van registration transferred to Arizona. I think I’ll be ready to tackle that later this week as long as work doesn’t keep me too busy to break away for a few hours while the Arizona DOT office in Parker is open.
Smokey Da Van 