Friends and Family

One of the downsides of taking off a year to travel around the U.S. Is being away from our family and friends. We miss them already but as was expected we are making new friends and occasionally running into family-almost literally.

Jim & Juanita Pettet

We had traveled north from Quartzite to Parker for a Wal-Mart visit and were in the produce section when I saw a familiar looking lady. When I called out, “Juanita” and she turned around I realized it was indeed my cousin's wife. They were staying in their motorhome in the Lake Havasu area but were coming to Quartzite the next day. We made arrangements to meet and had a great time together over a meal before our paths separated again.

Roadrunners

We hadn't seen a roadrunner until we got to Quartzite. Then every Friday we would see from 10 to 40 of them at a time in a group. The Quartzite Alliance church has a group who regularly take their jeeps and other 4WD vehicles on an outing into the desert for scenery, collecting rocks, and just visiting. They call themselves the Roadrunners. The chairs circle around a fire and roasting hotdogs is a popular activity using super roasting sticks made from old golf clubs with the head replaced with two or three prongs. I've got to have one of those (Monte?). We joined the group almost every week while in Quartzite.

Chuck & Frieda Hamilton

We met them at the first Roadrunner event we attended and discovered that Frieda had been a missionary to an MK school in Brazil as a retired teacher and widow. Later after marrying Chuck they went on several short term mission trips including to Kenya and India. They live in Portland but spend the winter in Quartzite. Chuck is a rockhound and has a favorite petrified wood site. Pearl and I talked him into taking us and we found a few pieces while Chuck unearthed a beautiful piece. He is the master!

Bert

Bert with her two pieces of petrified wood

Our daughter, Roberta, had planned for months to join us for a week in Quartzite. She flew to Palm Springs where we picked her up from Quartzite. We had already been in Quartzite for a month and would see an area every day that we had not visited--there are certainly several hundred and maybe thousands of vendors of all kinds scattered around the area during the winter. Bert only had one week and wanted to include rock collecting trips, bead and jewelry shopping, and see & experience everything available!

We made three different rock collecting trips and she came back with pounds and pounds of agate and jasper along with two excellent and large pieces of the petrified wood. Bert had only carry-on for her flight. After picking out only her best rocks she still had enough to fill two USPS Priority Mail boxes with about 35 pounds in each box. Pearl and I had already recognized that if we took her to the petrified wood site she would undoubtedly find large pieces to be stashed away in the motorhome for the rest of our trip. She did. It would be interesting to hear conversations of future campers staying near the little wash where many pounds of rock and agate from far distant places are now found.

When Bert received the boxes of rocks back in Sublimity OR all was well except for one corner of one of the boxes—the one where the rare earth magnets she had purchased for her husband (Monte) were located. Those strong magnets had already pinched/bruised both Pearl and Bert. I envisioned the box stuck to some metal object enroute and a USPS worker calling for help as he tried to pull it free.

Allen & Carol Strand

Carol was married to my brother many years ago and was a welcome part of the family. Today, married to Allen, we still consider her family (and Allen too!). We knew from earlier conversations that Allen and Carol were considering buying a travel trailer but were surprised to read on Facebook that they were in Yuma for a month or two in a new trailer. It was a special treat to get to meet with them and spend a few hours together in Yuma.