Much more about the venders in that area later but on to Rice Ranch. or I should say some of these are on the north side of the road and not technically in Rice Ranch.

They were open for a couple of days and now on Wednesday closed. Not many people in Q yet. Last year they were deep in the Rice Ranch vender selling area and had a triple vender lot. This year they are right up front on Kuehn  Rd. the main frontage on the south side of I-10  and a with much smaller vender presence. They shoud do well at this location. We will be stopping here. We would have the other day but Terry pleaded for Indian Fry Bread Tacos at the stand across the road. The things you have to put up with to get food in Q. 

Desert Rat Cafe. They are back for another season. We stopped by last year and looked at their menu and thought it was kind of exotic for RVers that can just as well go into town and sit down at a stick and bricks. They have spent big bucks on tables and chairs which they brought back from last year. We never saw people storming the place for lunch or dinner last year. Will get a menu later and post it if anyone is interested. We do hope they do well as they do present a classey setting, just if people want this kind of setting we think they tend to go to a stick and bricks. Seems many people are looking for a snack not a full meal walking the vender areas. But what do I know... they came back so let's hope they made money and came back for more. 

Right behind the Desert Rat Cafe and (out of the way, hard to see from the road) is this Kettle Corn place, now looking at the sign they also sell burgers and fries. They may do well with corn dogs as there are several kettle corn places around town already. We wish them well....

Just south of the above two is the Indian Fry Bread place that has returned form last year. They seem to do a good business. Next door to the west is an Ice Cream place. 

Down the line to the east, front row at Rice Ranch is this little gem.  Fresh Apple Pie
The sign on the back of the trailer blown up so you can see it. Hope they have sugar and fat free ice cream to put on top of their sugar free selections. 

The Bad Boys Cafe is also back from last year. We never stopped there but will do so as we hear their breakfasts are very good. They have a new sign out front advertising Sweet Potato pancakes. Now if it just said German Potato pancakes. 

This is just in the Rice Ranch  area south of the interstate and east of HW 95. Later we will explore Tyson Wells also on Kuehn  Rd. to the west.  A Gyros food stand vender is setting up there now that will be a must stop.  More later with Gyros yogurt sauce dripping down our lips from those. 

The one thing we found last year was many of these food venders (with the enclosed trailers) are right off the state and county fair circuit and feel they can continue to charge the same prices  they did at the summer fairs. 
NOW this is the winter season and they should realize this is a different market and may have to lower their prices. After all it is their off season. I Think? The ones that offer reasonable prices last year had lines in front of them and the others had no customers.You would think they would learn real fast.  Us winter RVers are a frugal bunch.  Especially THIS YEAR. After all the sticks and bricks cafes in Q have been here for years and know what will bring in customers and have to compete with the fly by night food venders. So it should be a food war as far is prices are concerned. 

Next some of the sticks and bricks and the food and venders on Main Street. 
Exploring Q so you don't have to.

Friday Dec. 5

The above BBQ vender has been open but we see no customers whenever we drive by.  And a reader I am sorry to say stopped by the Apple Pie place and didn't give a it good review. They said  Liked Taco Mio (on main street) and will, no doubt, return often; not so with the apple pie place.

As we drive the Q loop (now with no traffic) we spotted this truck.   My Oh My.  A showers truck. Don't know if they have set up yet, or where, but we will search them out if they are still in town. Did a Google search and found them at VandenPlas Sanation, Inc.  Now the rest of the story of why we wondered why they would stop in Q. A few years ago another company set in La Posa North offering showers. A large truck and they didn't have many customers as we could watch them from our 5er window.  They just didn't understand this wasn't a weekend event with tent campers like at a NASCAR type event who need and want a shower as she sez to him if we are going to sleep in the same tent you WILL get a shower.  But here in Q  99% live in self contained RVs with showers, even in the BLM. now if you are very dirty and your gray tank is full and your hot water heater is not working GO FOR IT!
By the way the sticks and bricks Laundromat across from the RoadRunner grocery store has showers. 

OK not done yet... On the north side of Rice Ranch is this vender. 

Dog Obedience/Agility Training Classes 
Now is this a vender space lot fee vs. money maker. Look at me chastising a great vender idea... BUT I was always known as the "Reality Checker" in my former work life. Now just how many retired RVers are having trouble with their longtime pet that it needs training? Or are they willing to spend as must be big bucks for this service. What happens when old fido falls off the ramp and breaks a leg.  NOW the disclaimer... If this is for you go for it and hope the vender does well. I did give them a plug after all. (You can read the phone number) Hope they send me a pet finders fee. Think of all the work they did building all those ramps, etc. 
 

Now for today we drove up to Parker on an outing. Stopped at BoA. The outside ATM wouldn't take deposits. So had to go inside and wait in line. Next Safeay where we ran into a few rock club members all wondering  the aisles in awe at the high prices for food staples.  We did find T-bones for $4.99  50% off. When are food prices going to come down with deflation like gas? 

We did stop by after Safeway at Bashas' an older established store in Parker and they did have very good prices on meat. Beef Chk Rst at $2.99, Beef Top Srln at $1.99, and 80% ground beef at $2.99. So the new 5er large fridge is filling up fast but still room in the huge freezer where most of the meat went. 
So tonight we are back relaxing around the new Sony 1080p LCD flat screen TV.  After the bank visit to BoA caught a glimpse of my checking account balance... think Christmas has already been spent. 

On our way back from Parker, AZ we came back down through the "CRIT" Colorado River Indian Tribes area looking for fishing areas and roads along the CO. river. 

See  the  CRIT   link.

We drove west on Patrich Rd off the main north south Mohave Road south from Parker. When we go off the main HW we found many fields of what we think were onions as we still headed west  looking to get to the banks of the Colorado river on the AZ side to find the CRIT fishing lake and campong areas per their web site. . Per the map we were west of Posten.

We did found bee hives hidden off the road.

We did find the CO River but not much of any type lake for fishing or a camping area. Guess you just sort of pull off on the side and do your thing. You might want to check with the CRIT people so you don't get in trouble as I think there is a fee to camp. See their web site link above.

They have built a cable tram so they can get to the other side, so we think they can check the water level stations. Why they need to get to both side is a question. Water levels and how much water they can extract from the Colorado is a critical calculation along this river for water usage. Water is life here.

We were surprised of the extensive roads that run along the river on the AZ side. . We think according to the river maps you might be able to camp along this side of the river in these sections. 

On the west side of the CO. river on the CA. side are many vacation homes that we think the land is leased also by CRIT. We found NO development on the AZ. side of the AZ side of the river in this area.   See the CRIT fish and game maps of this area which also lists camping spots. We didn't see any place with signs for camping or the fishing locations. Pretty remote as they say... enter at your own rick. 

Have a great Friday night. 

Monday Dec. 8

A few somewhat unrelated thoughts tonight. Of course on Sunday we got the Arizona Republic ($2.50) and as always after we are done reading it (now more like scanning the 10 lb. of Christmas ads) we stop and and visit with the BLM hosts and give them the paper. You know it is very important to do the Q business loop and check out the back streets for any new real estate deals. Have to keep up on the pulse of the city. (Such as it is.) Would you believe the lot prices have come down about $15 K. We think they are still delusional in what they think their sacred ground is worth. Now when they hit $25 K we will think about it. Then back at the BLM ranch it was time to do the dump thing. 

Plug in the macerator pump and it all goes up and in the 50 gal. tank for easy dumping. 

We have a quick release on the black hose so no need to leave it attached to the pump. Clear hose sections so we can see what is going in and going out if it ever gets clogged on both side of the pump. Knock on wood that should never happen. By the way we do not put TP in the flush. That little statement when it comes up, will get people posting big time on the forums, so we just say we don't do it and not that it matters. Just what we do. This whole setup works so nice for us.  No Blue Boys for us. When doing research I found someone many years ago who had a web site with a setup like this and I said we can do that. I showed it to Terry and said build it. We like to say learning from others and sharing is what the Internet is all about. That is one of the reasons I started the main Hitchitch.com site. No reason to reinvent the wheel. Or explore an area if you can read ahead of time what someone has already reported about it. Let alone meeting the wonderful people who share their travels and lives. Now back to taking a dump. Did I phrase that right? 

If you have not read our article on how we made this work see how
we did away with the Blue Boy   How we deal with gray and black water.
When we see all those people pulling and trying to lift their blue boys we just cringe. Sure they may not have room to carry a tank like this so to each their own. Just be happy out there however you do it. 

We have been here like a month and no campfires yet. What is wrong with us. You would think we were in an RV park. So time to get the rocks out from under the bush where we stored them from last year and build that fireplace, and a reflective fence behind it.  It was a nice little fire. Now we need to go and stock up on another load of wood. We do have a nice stack just off the side of the picture below so not to worry. We are not close to running out. The wood in the shot is just what was left after were broke up one pallet for the that fire. 

This picture doesn't show it (think we took the picture on Saturday) but we added more sod on Sunday to our desert lawn between the 5er and the other sections. Now we can keep out some of the dust and pebbles from tracking in. And walk to the basement storage bin and not get in the dirt. We got a 10X12 section of grass for $32 at the "The Other Store" south of the K & B Tools place. It is run by the mother of the kids who run K & B. 

Now a shot of at last Terry, Terry  bread that does not have sourdough stuff in it. Just a great lolf of whole wheat. 

Now you remember that nice pumpkin on the picnic table, it is now mush. And later Terry made from scratch a pie and took it over to Opie the faceting instructor at the rock club and a permanent resident of Q.   Anyone who lives here in the summer deserves a treat. It is well know at the club he loves pies, so Terry wanted to treat him. He is one cool person and a treasure of the club. 

Like I reported last post about a shower service, we now find they have set up north across from Rice Ranch, and ready to provide showers to the multitude who will as we believe, never show up. Like I said before this has been tried before i, Q with out much success. RVers for the most part, have showers IN their RVs. Now maybe they know something we don't about the economy and are planning on an influx of groups who are willing to pay to shower. Maybe next year. 
Now if history repeats they could be right, back in the great depression this area, we believe was a stopping point for desperate people who were trying to move from the dust bowel conditions and were turned back at the California border and stayed here in desert camps. When we have a campfire here in the LTVA BLM I wonder if others might have done the same thing in this same exact spot.  Thinking of  what we do now in our RVs with conveniences they would never have dreamed about.  I hope we as a country we don't have to ever resort to that kind of existence in the years ahead. Now I will want to do more research on this as am pulling this from my ice filled with vodka glass brain cells. 
Time for a shower and the 2 two hour last episode of Boston Legal.

Take care out there....
Ron

Tuesday Dec. 9

The day broke sunny but a bit windy. Not as in south RGV Texas (should we say WIND) standards. Just a mild breeze but it stayed cool today... a little under 65°  for temps.  I have had to change to blue jeans which is just against my nature. (My jeans tend to slide down and I have to pull them up). Terry sez he has a set of suspenders I can use but am not at that point in my life just yet. I just pull them up above my natural waist, up higher on my belly and don't breath in.  I can't get away with wearing them on my hips or lower like the kids of today. I'll wear a sweatshirt and not give up my shorts at any cost untill it gets cold. But it is getting to be mid December and as we are hearing from Terry's family up north we still have it off easy.  In central IA today a 1/4 in. of ice and now wind and 6-12 in of blowing snow with failing temps.  Below a shot from the Des Moines Register newspaper. 

They have a generator to power the farm as they do loose power at times in the winter. (Last winter with ice storms taking down power lines, it took weeks for power to be restored) 
I would like to say I can't even remember what this is like but the images do came back to me. I can now if I try to remember the -30° or more below and trying to get my car to start and get into gear. (And that was in a garage) and later after work. The tires at those temps have a flat spot and thump, thump down the road. That's just nuts and those thoughts are making me feel better as I type, thinking we are if lucky, hope to never have to put up with that again. 
But it does bring people together and if your car doesn't start others are there to help. And I  loved to use our snow blower when we were in our house, to go to the neighbors and do their driveways if they were late getting home from work or if we were up and out early before they could get to it.  The worst part was clearning your driveway and then the plow came by and pushed it shut again. Not just a little bit, but big time. Many times I just tried to ram through it with the car. Thinking, will deal with that when I get home tonight.  We trust you are warm and comfy tonight and don't have to deal with any of this stuff. If not get your butt down to AZ and out of the nasty weather. Sure some of you are staying till after the holidays so you can be with family. Get over it and go SOUTH. 

Having Texas Cornbread casserole for supper. Sort of a chili sloppy joe thing with cornbread topping crust. 

Wednesday Dec. 10
Another post by Ron (What else do I have to do in Q)

Ok in two weeks it is Christmas eve. Just look at your calendar if you don't believe me. It is right there on your  toolbar lower bottom right.  Ya, I know you know where it is at, but are you ready to crank up the tension and stress knowing yet another year is here and you have a choice to get in gear and spend and ship, or calm down and say not this year am I going to fall again for this guilt trip.  Might just be you don't have the money to even do it this year. See the economy did it for you, so you could cut back and have an excuse to say to those you normally give to why (not this year) or at least convince yourself that is a valid reason. Good luck. 
I have said this in the past, gift giving at Christmas is for the kids (or nephews we love). For the rest of us adults when we want and need things we just seem to go out and get it anytime we want. Do you wait for Christmas. I didn't think so. That's why they put Best Buy ads in every Sunday Paper all year long. 

Sure some of us older RVers do remember when we waited a whole year to get a present at this time. Because we remember when that was the only time we could expect a gift of any kind. You've been there and remember not just now, but in times past this country has gone through lean times. Now we may just be in for that again. I remember ONCE in the mid 60s my parents came to me once and wanted the $100 I had saved so they could pay a bill. Farming in Iowa was not great in that time frame. Looking back that amount of money was a huge amount to me, as compared to today. We lived in a large nice farm house and I never felt we were the poor folks in the neighborhood and we wern't. 
This time of year triggers a kind of remembering thought processes of broken relationships for many and of parents who have passed. The whole gamit of lifes events. I kind of dread it, and then again also cherish it. Not sure this is a 5 step or a 12 step proccess.  Just know the Salvation Army will not be a part of it. 

 I don't think you have heard the last from me on this tophic, as it is only Dec.10 and we ALL have many more emotions to work through this holiday season. Statistics indicate this time of year is the best of times and the worst of times, for people, all depends. 
You take care...
 The best news is Jay Leno is going to prime time... 
 
 
 

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