It’s a Jeep Thing!

(‘Boomerville’ / Quartzsite) Friday’s adventure was a trip with fellow Boomer / Jeep owners along one of the many 4 wheel drive paths in the desert/mountain area.

We headed off in toward the mountains at 10 a.m.

Sonny and Linda, also from Illinois, had a book of Arizona off road routes and we took the a route between Quartzsite and Bouse, AZ  with gorgeous scenery along the way.

We made some stops along the way to regroup, take photos and snack.  We really liked the way the kept us together.  Whenever you came to a fork in the road, you stopped to be sure that the jeep behind you saw the direction you were going before you went on.

There was one glutch that was a bit challenging though all the jeeps made it without incident.

 

Up until that point, the guys in the 4WD truck who had joined us did a great job of staying with the jeeps, but they decided to find a way around this particular challenge.  This was a really pretty truck so I’m not sure I would have wanted to risk the Arizona ‘pin stripes’ we get from all the branches scratching the sides along the path.

There were several jeeps very similar to ours on the ride.  We have an ‘Unlimited’ which is a little longer than the standard jeep.  However, at one point, they all looked so similar that I started to get in to the wrong vehicle.

 

 

 

Yes, I have a thing for saguaros!  This noble old gentleman caught my eye because he had offered every single on of this branches up as a home for his feathered friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just over the saddle we ran in to ZZ top on a mountain bike!

 

I can’t even imagine the kind of stamina and balance  it takes to ride this 15 mile trail, which is rarely level and always covered with big rocks.

 

 

We did take the time to get a photo of the drivers and their vehicles.

 

Sonny, to the left of Ken, with his wife are from Illinois, and like us have a Jeep Unlimited.  He and Linda did a really good job of guiding the group over the mountain.  We hoping to do another route with us sometime in the next week.  This is definitely one of our favorite activities!!

 

 

To get up and down the steepest parts of the mountain range there were lots of switchbacks .

 

 

With all of our stops, it took us about 3 hours to get to Bouse.  It was time for lunch so most of the group stopped at the Coachman’s Cafe where they were serving ‘all you can eat’ fish and chips. 

We had a nice meal and then Ken and I headed off to see if our friends Paul and Sharon had arrived back at Boomerville.   We had met these two at the last RV-Dreams Rally and stayed in touch since then.

We had sent them our exact coordinates once parked and they were able to do a great job of navigating right to our doorstep.  They parked not to far behind us in one of the few remaining areas still open.  We are now nearing 80 rigs in Boomerville.

In anticipation of their arrival, I had made Ken’s Beef Vegetable Soup so they wouldn’t have to cook on their travel day.  With some crackers and cheese and a nice bottle of red wine, Keuka Overlook Cellars Triumph 2007, they provided from their home state of New York, we had a really nice evening with them in our rig.

We were surprised that they had suddenly decided to switch back to part-time RVing after finding a tremendous deal on a house in the past week in Maricopa, AZ.  While I’m sorry they are coming off the road, it will be nice have friends to visit who live in Arizona!

Despite warnings of how stupid busy it is in Quartzsite on Saturday, the first day the ‘big tent’ is open, we’ve decided that the four of us want to check out the experience.  Stay tuned next time to find out how that turns out!

Hugs, C