Day Trip to Parker and Back

Yesterday was bright and sunny and a perfect day to take the Interstate RV batteries in to a dealer to have them checked out.   The closest dealer is in Parker - roughly 35 miles to the north.

Our starting point was a couple miles south of Quartzsite (E) and our first destination was Parker (B).  Parker is about twice as large as Quartzsite AND it has a Walmart and a car wash, for starters.  We headed first to Arizona Battery where the owner put a gauge on both my batteries and pronounced them "good."  With that task out of the way, we priced-shopped items at the Walmart and the Safeway grocery store across the street.  We bought groceries at both stores BUT the roasted chicken came from Safeway.  We ate some of the chicken and a 1/2 gal of ice cream while sitting in the truck overlooking the Colorado River, which runs through Parker.

We found a place to wash the "dessert dust' off the truck, then we headed out toward letter "C" on the map with our eventual destination to be back to Quartzsite via "D" Blythe, California.  And here's where things become interesting.

We headed west across the Colorado River into CALIFORNIA.  Yup, we made it into California. 

I had checked the GPS map a couple of times and noticed a "short cut" driving along the Colorado River.   We started down the road at 45 mph posted speed limit for about 20 minutes until the paved road ended in the desert but there was still gravel to follow.. so we started driving on the gravel, following the GPS.  The GPS map indicated a "sub-division" up ahead about a mile, so we went up and down around and around on the gravel through the desert and creosote bushes until we got "into the sub-division," according to the GPS.   It was a sub-division that "never was."   It must have been plotted out about 30 years ago and never developed.  We came to a railroad track and another "road" that, according to the GPS, paralleled the tracks to our destination.   One look down "the road" and we decided to backtrack the 20 minutes and go the long way on main roads.

At the intersection of 62 and 95, we came to our first mandatory California produce "checking station."  We pulled in and the officer asked where we came from.  I gave him our trip itinerary and he smiled and told us to get going.  So we headed south on 95 and along the edge of the Mojave Desert.

We were 12 miles north of  Blythe on curvy two lane road and we had just managed to pass a truck and travel trailer when we noticed a sign on the side of the road for a pull off to see the "Blythe Intaglios."

They are large drawings on the ground made by Indians... but we never found them.  The road was really rough and we decided that we'd gone far enough.  So back to the main road we went and headed off toward Blythe.

At Blythe, we got back on I-10 headed East.   Just after we crossed the Colorado River, the traffic started backing up.   It was a Border Patrol check.   We eventually cleared that and headed toward the RV at Quartzsite.   123 miles round trip and a great day.

We enjoyed the rib-eye steaks tonight that we got at Safeway yesterday - grilled to perfection over a charcoal fire.  It was a beautiful sunset too.  We feel like we are living the dreams that we had before we retired.