Friday, February 10, 2017 (La Posa South LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ)

We woke up to a beautiful moon-set Friday morning...

Followed by a beautiful sunrise...

Shortly before 8:30, Dave pulled up out front and then a minute later Harry...today is the annual Quartzsite Desert Flyers Fun Fly at the Jim Colwell Field...an RC flyer's paradise (and even for those who just like to watch!). They were on their way shortly...meeting Earl and Doug at the airfield.

I finished my breakfast, showered and about an hour later after I had done the dishes, I too was on my way....to Parker for a little grocery shopping by myself.

I'll pass this over to Steve to explain his time at the RC Fun Fly...warning: if you have no interest in remote control airplanes, then you might want to just scroll down past all the pictures :)

There were lots of planes on display that weren't there to fly...

Some were even for sale... Dave thought I should buy the one in the blue box and I probably would have if I had the $20 on me :-) Maybe next year...

The event started off with an RC plane towing the flag for the playing of the national anthem...

There were even motorized kites

In this picture you can see the control surfaces and motor...

There were even a couple of real jets. I'd only seen the electric ones at previous shows here...

They are fast and hard to photograph...

He ended up going beyond the runway and into the gravel with no damage...

This fellow was a very good stunt pilot...

Note the position of the rudder and ailerons...

Hard rudder right...

They sent a drone up to film the crowd...

This is the other jet...

His engine flamed out so he's doing an emergency landing...

It was a hard landing and bounced back into the air...

Off the end of the runway...

...and into the gravel...

Nice save! With only a bent nose wheel he still has a big smile on his face...

Ugly but works!

Doug and Earl. Hey where's Red!? Harry and Dave

The crowd seemed much larger this year. There were many more people behind us and on the opposite side of us as well...

This ones real and not part of the show...

Coming in for a landing...

At least he was barely moving on touchdown...

The wind had picked up considerably towards the end of the show so there was a crosswind...missing the runway he still made a beautiful landing...

This motorcycle with the machine gun on the sidecar is here every year...

This years show seemed to have fewer planes and stunt pilots but still enjoyable. It was great to finally see some jets!

I (back to Dianne) arrived home shortly after 2:00 to find Steve sitting in the shade waiting for me...the wind had come up and he needed help to take down the sunshade and put the awning up. Once that was done, we hauled the grocery bags and cooler full of food into the trailer and I started the job of putting it all away.

Although it was cloudy and windy, it was still a very hot day...85F/29C. So I was glad when the groceries were all put away and I could join Steve outside in the shade behind the trailer. And there we sat for the rest of the afternoon...Steve reading while I tried a crochet project (which later got ripped apart).

At 5:30, we walked down to Earl and Allison's place...they had invited us to join them for dinner at the Grubstake Restaurant in town. After a bit of a wait to get seated, we enjoyed a beer...chatting and then each couple shared an order of fish and chips and popcorn shrimp. We saw Harry and Vicki walk in. They are at the far end of the row of tables...

On the way home Earl mentioned that he planned on removing and archiving a night geocache that he and Allison had put out a few years ago. We have always wanted to do this cache but it has to be done at night and well...we don't do much once it's dark outside (especially after having happy hour!). We could go with them, do the "hunting" and then Earl could remove the reflectors as we go. It's a beautiful evening...we're game to do it now! So they dropped us off at home to change shoes and grab my GPS and flashlights. A few minutes later, they had done the same and were back to pick us up.

We drove to the geocache coordinates on the other side of Quartzsite...a parking lot off the paved road. Now, this was a really cool find...rather than try to explain how we did it, I decided to copy and paste the geocache description...

The above coordinates take you to the parking area just off the paved road and the start point for your adventure. You will need a good flashlight capable of throwing a beam at least 125 meters/yards. The walking is fairly level and rolling but has all the usual desert hazards. The total length to the final cache is about 825 yards. The round trip is about 1 mile. You are looking for white retro reflectors that will be best viewed when the flashlight is held at eye level near the head. The final location is marked with big red reflectors and is not at the location of the reflectors but within a few yards. Please do not disturb the reflectors.

At each stage within 3-4 yards of the reflectors you will find a small cairn of stones, usually with a white one on top. This will be the best vantage point to scan around looking for the next stage. Depending on your light source it is possible you may see more than 1 reflector. If so just use the closest/brightest one.

After finding the final and signing the log book, just walk a short distance towards the lights of Rainbow Acres and you will intersect the dirt road. Just follow it back to your vehicle.
So with Allison and Earl following, Steve and I set off...he seemed to find the reflectors far quicker than I could. And just as described, at the reflector, there was a pile of rocks nearby where we would scan for the next one. Earl removed each reflector as we moved on. We zig-zagged across the desert until we found the last one...marked with double red reflectors. The geocache itself was just behind a bush under a pile of rocks.
As Steve was going for the box, he noticed movement...this little fellow scurrying along...yup, a scorpion! Thanks for the great picture, Earl! Steve signed the log book and then gave the box to Earl...we were the last to find! Very, very cool and we saw a scorpion to boot! What a great evening!