Hi Jolly

We left our spot at Picket Post a few days ago, and headed down to Thunderbird Farms to visit Lorrie and Trish. They were good enough to give us a place to park for the night and we had a great pasta dinner in town.

I had a new antenna for our cell booster sent to their place so we should have that fixed in a day or two. Early the next morning we hooked up to Dogpound Anywhere (DPA) and hit the road west, while Trish and Lorrie headed off to Vegas and the festivities surrounding the NFR and the World Series of Team Roping.

We were headed out towards Quartzsite to meet up with our friends Bill and Margaret from Dease Lake, I used to stay in their RV Park in Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway while I was working up there for a few years a decade or so ago. We have been meeting them down here in the desert for years and although it has been a couple since we last crossed paths, it was like it was just yesterday. Good friends make it easy to pick up just like you had never been apart.

Quartzsite is an interesting town, probably deserted in the summer but this time of year it is starting to come to life and by this time next month it will probably be a madhouse.

We are in the 14 day BLM camping spot just north of town called Hi Jolly, although we are usually somewhere in the desert this is not our normal kind of spot and later in the winter it will be jam packed with folks living off the grid but jammed in cheek to jowl. Those who know us know we like a little more space, like a half mile between us and others, but for now this is pretty good, the nearest rig is a couple of hundred yards away and we have a spot kind of tucked out of the way and Max and I can slip off into the desert for our rambles.

This morning we had to run into town, Brenda needed sugar for her tea, and thought we would grab breakfast at Mickey D's. It was jam packed with folks but the service was quick, but for the record this was the most expensive McDonalds I had ever eaten in, and that includes the one in Moscow's Red Square. I guess they figure if they only have a few month's in winter to pay the bills they should make hay while the sun is shining.

I did get the antenna mounted on the roof but the cell service is great here anyway and our Verizon Jetpack is working well so we haven't turned it on as yet, but we will find places where it is a necessary part of the rig.

Well that is it for now, stay tuned and we'll update when we have something interesting to say about our journey Down the Road from Dogpound.

The day begins