Eric had mapped us out an alternate route to Parker that was on quiet roads. After yesterday’s freeway ride we were ready for something a little more peaceful.
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Total trip today 155 miles but only a tiny bit (Quartzite to Ehrenberg) on the freeway. We left the park around 11am and hoped to be in Parker around noon.
Exit 5 for TomWells Road.
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We go off on exit #5 to travel Tom Wells Rd. to Ehrenberg. However when we had a look it appeared to be gravel so…no gracias and we got back on the freeway. We then took exit #1 for Ehrenberg.
Turn right for Parker.
The home of the Ehrenberg Panthers!
To start with the landscape was barren and dry but somewhere over there to the west is the Colorado River.
Straight as an error and heading north.
Where there is water there is farmland and….
lots of it.
Alfalfa and then this very abnormally green/black grass of some sort.
Grain here.
Huge, unending stacks of hay and it’s all in small square bales which is an oddity in an operation this size. Feedlots and dairys would usually feed large square or large round bales.
More grain. All of these fields were surrounded by a dike of dirt and would be flooded from the huge concrete irrigation ditches. At this point Eric leaned back and said he was feeling a bit nauseous from the smell in the air. We would guess that these fields are hugely fertilized judging by the unnatural green of the crops. There would likely be a lot of herbicides and pesticides applied as well if yesterday’s crop dusting is any indication. But that’s just a guess.
As small farmers putting up 1000 to 2500 small bales a year when we were active we are always interested in hay land and what they are growing.
It’s so dry here that if you have water you can grow hay year round. We always had to fight the weather when we hayed as we are in the mountains and we get a lot of rain. Very stressful.
We wonder who buys all this hay.
From Ehrenberg to Parker the fields just go on forever. This is all Colorado Indian Reservation land.
Coming into Parker and what’s in frot of us…
….a hay truck. Looks pretty good up close. That’s going to make some horse or cow happy somewhere!
Heading west into Parker.
Town of Parker established in 1908.
Eric had decided on a hamburger for lunch and this is the place to come. We haven’t eaten here in a few years but today was the day. In the end lunch was good but it was way too busy. This is a hugely popular place because of it’s good food at a reasonable price. We arrived at noon and if we’d arrived at 1pm the crowd would have been gone. I might also remark on the size of the people eating lunch….just huge. Some so big they could hardly walk. Sad.
After lunch Eric ran me up to Safeway so I could pick up some fruit and bread. The hunt for decent bread in the USA is an ongoing problem. Most of it is just way too sweet. Who needs sweet bread…not us. We were lucky to have found a bakery in Mazatlan and we ate good multigrain bread all winter. Another thing I miss!
We would usually turn right here and head back to Quartzite but today we went straight through towards Bouse.
The last time we went through Bouse there wasn’t much of anything there and today wasn’t any different. Just another small town in the middle of nowhere.
We have left Highway 72 and are now heading south and then west on the Bouse/Quartzite highway. It is really lonely out here.
As we continue on the road begins to rise and gets a bit prettier.
We pass the occasional car.
Some sort of dark mineral.
Looking behind us and there is nobody there.
This is BLM land (bureau of land management) and there is the occasional RV off in the distance. It’s getting so hot now that most people have gone home but in the winter there would be a lot of people out there. We tried boon docking here the first year we RV’d but it was so cold and windy we gave it up. Running the generator and driving to dump and get water once a week didn’t thrill us either. Been there, done that! Okay for one night when we’re travelling. Right now we are enjoying our stay in Quartzite in the Quail Run RV park. The weather has been good and it’s quiet because…almost everyone has gone home. We try to stay flexible and this is the first time we’ve ever stayed in a park in Quartzite. There is more here than we realized but still…what would you do all winter with no beach!
Up ahead highway 95 and we’ll turn left for Quartzite.
A good lunch and an interesting ride.
P.S.
When Eric took me to Safeway I picked up a 12 pack of Bud light. We both noted that the box was quite “ compact!” Well there was a reason for that. Look at the size of the can. I’ve never seen anything like this before except for the “pequeno”, or little Pacifico bottles of beer that we occasionally get in Mexico. The Budweiser is 12oz., the Pacifico lite is 355mls and the Bud light is 80z. Are you kidding me…..I don’t know one beer drinker who wants “ tiny beers!” There was no sign to alert me as to the size of the beer only a sale price of $7.99 and I had no idea they were so small. It would take 18 tiny beers to make a regular 12 pack. Fooled me once ….but it won’t happen again!
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