We did it! And what an experience, totally heightened by hangin' with the NuRVers for sure.
Above are some pics of our NU friends we hung with during the month at Quartzsite...
Kev & Angie: our fearless organizers, Kev started the NuRVers & got us all together, but they both were incredible hosts to all of us - amazing meals, hunker-down time in their 40', 4 slide motorhome & all around good fun (also burners)
Sam & Tracy: tie-dyed from head to foot at times, these crazy, fun-loving burners also entertained us in their 40' rig & they had the fabulous grills that they cooked extraordinary meals on for us
Schelby & Tom: bay area folks, not full-timers but long-time burners, joined us for NY'ers eve & brought some fabulous appies with them & a NY'ers cake!!
Maria and Brian: a cute young couple who just started full-timing from Kansas dropped in for the night and then returned a week later to spend a couple of weeks with us. We met up with them & Sam & Tracy post Q for a great sushi dinner in Scottsdale & we are planning a golf outing with them on Friday
Alex & Charon: our "Carney" friends who are sword swallowers, fire throwers & Charon is also tatto artist
Jim & Renee: joined us at the end, long-time full-timers who have a great blog Live.Work.Dream
And of course all of the pets! Malomar, Dottie, Odie, Ernie, Buddha, 3 legged Wyatt & the two very freaky hairless cats that were amaaaaazing!! I think we were the only ones without one, but that was fine by us...
We went out for meals, drinks, enjoyed the daily sunsets - which sometimes were 360 degrees, biked into "town", shopped, played drunken silly games and just thoroughly enjoyed each & every day!
Some pics above of our amazing happy hours, breakfasts & dinners...totally unplanned. Kev called them "crowd-sourcing", I call them YUMMY! About 4-5 pm each day someone would stroll outside to start the fire, or bring out appies or drinks...and one by one, as we were finishing up our work day, we would slowly join the group around the campfire & start to discuss meals....and then miraculously we would have another feast! Occasionally one of us would announce, we have dinner taken care of - woo hoo!! Some mornings, usually weekends, Sam would be outside with his awesome fire-pit grill cooking up a breakfast that would take over an hour to eat, Maria cooked us up a great egg scramble TWICE & then there was the morning that Angie, our brunch angel, arrived at our door with the most wonderful eggs benedict por deux!
A couple of pics of our fun...most of the time the camera/phone was nowhere in sight! We hared a mini-hash just to show everyone what we were constantly talking about, Bill & I went on a few hikes & it was my first real experience with the desert landscape, one day it was actually nice enough for some to set up work-stations outside under our canopy. On a trip into Blythe, CA - just over the border Bill spotted an AECOM sign (his firm) & found out they had a little field office there in a building with an old furniture store!
More pics of our fun - the BIG RV TENT SHOW, bringing a million rvers (or so they say), the entire town is one big flea market & strolling from tent to tent was a favorite past-time...I was happy to finally get a big flag pole to fly our hash flag on with a cool solar color changing light on top & Bill finally got the Mexican wrestling mask he had been coveting! The Beer Belly Bar was the only place at the Show to buy beer & they also had a bunch of TV's so Maria & Brian could follow their fav Kansas basketball team.
We went primarily to meet the peeps I have been online with for 6 months or so but also to save some $$...now we accomplished the first objective, but let's take a look at the 2nd...
$200 Gas to keep our generator going (electricity)$ 80 BLM camping fees for 4 weeks
$ 65 Propane (for the fridge, hot water & heater)
$600 Groceries & Booze
$200 Dining out
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$1145 - compared to....about $1500/mo for campground fees, food & entertainment, so aside from the $400 we spent on the catalytic heater (which we will use all of the time as it is more efficient than our furnace) we did save a few bucks & we ate like kings. This is one experience than can never be duplicated!
THANKS to all of you who joined us on this "wild ride"!!
