Sunday, December 8 to Saturday, December 14, 2024 (La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ)

We left the peace and tranquility of the Painted Rock Petroglyphs Campground on Sunday (Dec. 8) just after 10:00. Once back down to I-8, we continued west until we reached the Tacna, AZ exit. 

A huge solar farm...


Debbie (Wilson) was waiting at the pull-out area and we had a quick hug and catch-up with her. They are staying at Copper Mountain RV Park, really enjoying the activities there. It's their second winter there. A very brief meeting, but it was great seeing her just the same!

She suggested rather than go all of the way into Yuma, that we take the old highway and the shortcut through Dome Valley to highway 95 north. 
The route took us through a major agricultural area...




We just made one mistake...trusting the Google Maps directions and not the road signs giving directions to highway 95. All of a sudden the paved road ended and it was gravel road through farm fields. We had no problem turning around and returning to the intersection where we were supposed to turn...lesson learned!
Decorated for Christmas...
The road zig-zagged until it reached highway 95...and we continued north, pulling over across from the entrance to the Yuma Proving Grounds to have lunch.
Most of the highway has recently been repaved...
We turned into our "old home" La Posa South LTVA to purchase our permit and use the RV dump and fill with water. With that done, we continued on to La Posa West LTVA, and chose a spot close to the gatehouse and highway where there will be plenty of exposure for our truck. Our main purpose for being here this year is to make a final "push" to sell it.

We've seen this powered paraglider flying over the LTVAs a number of times...

Our spot for now...

Monday (Dec. 9) we parked along Keuhn Road to see what vendors were there...not many yet! Plus there are some that are there but either haven't opened yet, or are not open Mondays.

Of course, Beer Belly's Adult Daycare is open so we had to go in for a brew!

We had our brew and listened to the band play...
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, as I imagine most of our stay here is going to be. It's odd not staying in our regular area and not having our quads here, and without them, not a lot to do. That is another reason why we chose to set up camp where we did...walking distance into town.

The wind brought in a cooling trend Tuesday (Dec. 10) with only a high of 16C/60F but for the sun was still shining. That changed Wednesday (Dec. 11) as clouds came in...we also needed to put an extra blanket on the bed after it got down to 0.6C/33F! 

Our days have been filled with doing odds and ends around the trailer, getting out for some walks...and reading, a lot of reading, and also knitting for me. Of course, there are also the chores of filling our drinking water containers, propane and laundry.

A beautiful sunrise Wednesday morning...
Friday (Dec. 13) morning we packed the trailer up and headed to La Posa South to dump our tanks and fill with fresh water. We were there by 9:00 and went right into the dump...no line up! That will certainly change come January as we get closer to the big Quartzite Sports, Vacation and RV Show. They built a new sani-dump across the highway at La Posa Tyson Wash however we've been told the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is fighting with the contractor that was responsible for drilling the well deep enough to access water. Amazing, you'd think they would have confirmed available water before building a huge sani-dump!

When we returned to La Posa West, we chose a spot a little closer to the gatehouse, and away from a neighbour with a very noisy contractor style generator. We were all set up by 10:20 and enjoyed sitting outside as the sun had returned.

Later in the afternoon, we walked to Beer Belly's for a brew. There was a different band playing today...
Saturday (Dec. 14) and another chilly start to the day...10C/50F inside the trailer. Thank goodness for the furnace...and with the small space, it doesn't take long to warm up.

Other than getting out for a walk, we spent the day reading. We had a beautiful Arizona sunset...




Friday and Saturday, December 6 and 7, 2024 (Painted Rock Petroglyphs Site and Campground, Arizona)

We pulled out of West Pinal County park at about 10:00 and continued west on I-8 until we reached exit 102 for Painted Rock Road...
After 11 miles, we reached Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground, a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) site.
The campground is huge and really spread out offering sites with picnic tables and firepits...no services other than trash dumpsters and a couple of pit toilets. After driving through one of the loops, we carried onto another and finally chose site #35, a large site right on the wash...

Payment can only be made using the Recreation.gov App...luckily I had heard of this and had already downloaded the app. We decided to pay for 2 nights...$8/night plus a $1.50 service charge.

After we got all set up, we went for a walk down to the petroglyphs...a fair distance because we chose to set up camp at the far end of the campground. 
We started by reading the story boards...


And then went on the short loop trail around the rocks...

Wow...these are the most we've ever seen!






Almost half the hill on this one side is covered with them all the way to the top... 
Steve took a 2:13 minute video of the petroglyphs...
View looking back as we head back to the trailer...
Another view of our huge site...
We enjoyed happy hour outside overlooking the wash...
No clouds but we still had a very nice sunset...

Well, we had checked out the petroglyphs yesterday, so we really didn't have anything to "see" in the area Saturday (Dec. 7). But we had paid for 2 nights, so we basically had a "down day", getting caught up on some blog updates, and reading. Now if we still had our quads we could have explored some trails right from the campground. It was another beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid 70s F/ 20s C...with a light breeze. 

Steve took his drone up and took a video of the area...

It was such a lovely evening, Steve decided to get out the campfire-in-a-can...the first time this trip! I had made spaghetti sauce earlier, so all I had to do was cook some noodles and heat up the sauce...we ate our dinner outside enjoying the fire as the sun went down. Not quite as brilliant a sunset tonight as last night...
And the view the other direction...
And that ends our time at Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground...tomorrow we are off to Quartzsite!


Thursday, December 5, 2024 (Travel to West Pinal County Park, Maricopa, AZ)

We pulled out of our site at Kartchner Caverns State Park at 9:30 and after a stop at the RV dump, we headed back to I-8 going west back towards Tucson. Our drive today is about 2 hours with our destination West Pinal County Park, just off of I-8. We chose this campground because it is close to the Dwarf Car Museum and we should have time to check it out this afternoon.

We stopped at Fry's in Tucson for some groceries, ate our lunch and continued up I-10, passing Picacho Peak. We stayed at the State Park there 6 years ago with Dave and Leslie...and Steve and Dave hiked to the very top of the peak on Hunter Trail...This difficult trail begins in Barrett Loop on the north side of the mountain and ascends to the peak. This challenging trail winds through rugged terrain typical of the Sonoran Desert. Expect steep sections and the need for steel cables in exposed areas (gloves recommended). If interested you can check out their amazing climb. 
Various views as we pass by...

We arrived at the West Pinal County campground at about 1:30...
We selected site #7, a big pull-through (no services, just a covered picnic table). The very friendly campground host popped by, we chatted with her while I went on the Pima County website to pay (payment must be made online - $10/night plus $3 service charge). We found out from Lisa that the Dwarf Car Museum closes at 4:00, so we quickly unhitched the trailer, leveled it...and headed to the museum, about 8 miles away.

I will pass this over to Steve now...
My brother and sister in-law (Dianne's brother) posted pictures of their visit here years ago and I figured if we're ever in the area I've got to see it...


These Dwarf Cars are all hand made. We started off watching a video of how Ernie builds his cars from scratch, from spoked wheels, grills, steering wheels, fenders, and bodies...he does it all. Many of his cars have Toyota engines and running gear cut to size. In order to build these cars he also has to build his own dies and molding equipment to shape his creations. What an amazing and time consuming talent this man has! In the video Ernie says that one of his street legal cars has 57,000 miles on it...probably many more now!



This 1940 Mercury Coupe has always been an all time favourite of mine...love the looks of that front end!
Interior...

Rear view of the cars above...



Rear views of the above cars...


Interior of the car above...
 

A 0:07 video...84 year old Ernie Adams fires up his car...
Apparently many people have contributed a lot of the items attached to this car!😂
1:03 minute walk around video...
I wish I had remembered to get a better photo of the darker car as it was the very first car Ernie built and it's made from nine refrigerators...WOW!
Even a motorcycle collection...





This was very cool!
Ernie and a friend built the very first 5/8 scale all metal Dwarf Race Car starting a new class of race cars. In 1992 they became known as Legend Cars based on the 5/8 scale Dwarf Cars but are fibreglass. 

The very first Dwarf Race Car...

Just some non car related old stuff...
Even some famous people have been here...(other than us.) LOL! I only recognise Jay Leno and Brad Garrett. Ernie's daughter in-law Ginger used to run her barber shop in the museum... 
Quite the toy collection too!

Outdoor workshop ...
Looking across the yard. Family cemetery on the left...


Rust Rooms are the Rest Rooms...




A full scale Ford Edsel...
Well that was very cool and well worth the $5 each entrance fee ...time to head home.

Waiting for sunset...
I was hoping for a colourful sunset for a 2:02 minute 360 degree drone video but it was a little darker than I expected and the horizon washed out...
But I did get the sunset on my phone...