Parker, AZ

Sorry about the late post, but either our hotel, or room - or both - were located in a very weak signal area and I couldn't even start the post. We have good signals now, in Laughlin, so everything should be on schedule the rest of the trip.

We left Yuma on time yesterday and were surprised at the beautiful drive between Yuma and Quartzsite, our first stop. We saw lots of nice agriculture and mountains along route 95 north. The contrast between the green fields and brown mountains was different from most places we've driven in AZ. Here is a shot of a church that we saw just before getting some shots of the fields and mountains:

 

 

and the green fields with the dark mountains as the backdrop:

 

 

 

We only went about 15 miles or so when we saw a dark cloud that looked very familiar to us - a sand storm. We drove through this storm which brought back memories of a trip we made to Mexico several years ago and were scared to death. This one wasn't nearly as bad, but was bad enough:

 

 

It didn't last very long, and before we knew it, we were back into clear skies again. The entire day was filled with high winds, everywhere we went. We still enjoyed the many different views of the rugged mountains:

 

 

At about noon, we arrived in Quartzsite, and the RV's were pulling into sandy areas off the highway the entire way through town. We stopped at a food mart in town and took this one shot of the many "junk" displays that this town is famous for:

 

 

Actually, there are some terrific buys in Quartzsite for gems and antiques. This is the busiest time and the town grows to several hundred thousands of people and RV's for the months of January through March.

 

We drove through the wind the rest of the way to Parker and to the Blue Water Resort and Casino:

 

 

We checked into our room and were happy to see the location of the room - that is, before trying the Internet connection. We had a great view of the marina and the Colorado River:

 

 

and we also had a nice, private patio outside of our room:

 

 

The really good news is that we enjoyed the casino and left with almost as much as we started with - thanks to Josie and her lucky hand again.

 

We had a terrific buffet breakfast this morning before leaving - $5.50 each - and we left with calm winds and clear skies for Laughlin, with a stop in Lake Havasu City along the way. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about our fantastic day today...