Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Saying Goodbye to Quartzsite

Sunday-Thursday – February 19 thru 23, 2017

Well the bad weather of Saturday forced Harry an I to stay and clean the RV. The dust in the desert is out of control!! I made the list of tasks for each of us and we completed hours later. Harry woke up this morning making the comment “This RV looks like NEW meaning just like we bought in 2014.

Sunday we needed to get out of the RV! Luckily our friends Dianne/Steve and Ruth/Dale suggested and provided us with a pamphlet to visit the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. Really was a great day to walk the trails and see many birds and even a burrowing owl.

The visitor’s center introduced us to the wildlife we might see in our travels. Harry was even offered a passport book for stamping that they were told to just hand out. All refuges in the country by state are listed. Hit them on the right day!!

Our first trail was the Desert Trail. Very short but definitely identified many of trees/cactus/bushes. We kept hearing birds but could not focus in where they were located. We found out later on another trail just where the birds were located.

We hopped into the truck and started the “Auto Loop”. We stopped to explore the “Cornfield Nature Trail”. This is where we saw birds we heard from a distance. Hard to catch great photos of birds flying but, I tried very hard. We visited the observation lookout seeing many water fowl.

The volunteer at the visitor’s center told us to make sure we looked for the burrowing owls along the loop. She told us to look for piles of rocks along the loop?? Hmmm…. BTW she is from New Hampshire and her New England accent was evident. Well as we finished the Cornfield Trail a couple informed us that they saw a burrowing owl and approximately where to look along the drive. Well, it did look like a small pile of rocks with flexible drain hose sticking out. The map told us along the loop where to look for these rocks hoping we would see what this is all about. Lucky us – after seeing many piles of rocks there was an owl. This owl was amazing to watch – looking all around as if his head rotated 180°. Not a very big owl with a light brown color.

On our way out we happened to see Sandhill Cranes. They were all throughout the fields.

The end to a great day was stopping in Blythe CA for a visit to “Rebel BBQ” suggested also by our friends. What would we do without friends??????

Our last stop was to “Smart and Final”. I have never been to this store and was amazed at the bulk items and produce.

President’s Day and we are off to Mexico by way of Yuma. Last year we visited on a Sunday and many vendors were not opened so we are trying a weekday. I found a Sunflower themed stained glass window to insert into our RV door – Thank you Rick and Gloria for directing us to a great vendor. Harry was able to get an eye exam and new glasses. We enjoyed lunch at an open garden type restaurant.

We will be saying goodbye to several friends this week. It was good to see so many friends while here in Quartzsite. Tuesday night we enjoyed a Happy Hour at Les and Sue’s (more like a dinner). Thank you Les and Sue for the great food!! Last night we had Dianne and Steve over for a goodbye dinner. Great to have them over for the evening.

On our way to Phoenix for a month to enjoy some Spring Training. Geoff is flying in to join us as well as playing in a 4 day Disc Golf Tournament. Hopefully we will be meeting up with some friends from Merced as well.

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”

Mark Twain