looks like I'm in for a cold spell

Well protected. This fruit of the Cholla cactus is actually eaten by some folks, and you'll recognize them by all the Band-Aids on their hands and arms, but these aren't ripe yet they need to be yellow before their ready to eat.

It's getting cold in Quartzsite, and it looks like it's going to be that way for almost a week. Mid-50s in the daytime and 30s and 40s at night is not good. I checked the weather forecast for Yuma which is south of me and right on the Mexican border and it was going to be only a couple degrees warmer which is not enough to make a difference. It's normal to have to deal with some cold weather in the desert every once in a while, but usually not for this long.

I looked up "The Big Show" on the Internet and found out that it starts on January 19th, I thought it started earlier than that, so it looks like I have more days of peace and quiet in Quartzsite than I realized.

I kind of like the Dome Rock area where I'm boondocked now. It's a pretty area because it's not just a flat plain like a lot of the other areas. And at the moment I can only see six or eight RVs in any direction I look but that will certainly change the closer it gets to The Big Show.

The downside is some parts of Dome rock are fairly close to Interstate 10 and as anyone that has camped close to an interstate can tell you, they're amazingly noisy. But noise doesn't bother me and when the Arctic Fox is closed up I can barely hear it anyway. The other problem is it's a longer drive from here to the Walmart in Parker than it would be if I was staying on the north side of the interstate out on Plomosa road or somewhere like that. It's not a huge difference but it means I have to drive through the traffic in Quartzsite which at times can be annoying.

                                   theboondork

This bad boy is called a Tarantula Hawk and has one of the nastiest stings in the world. Ordinarily I wouldn't get this close to anything with that reputation but one of his wings was broken and he couldn't fly. I guess that's what happens when you spend your day wrestling huge hairy spiders. if you click on the picture you will get some information about the Tarantula Hawk.