Quartzite, AZ ... Day 3

Sunrise on Day 3 in Quartzite started at 33 degrees ... Yes, a bit chilly, but nice and toasty in the RV. After breakfast, I traveled back to the city, 6 miles north of here, to drop Cousin Frankie's towbar off for service and safety check, at the 9am opening bell. As it turned out, his 8-year old Blue-Ox was ready for a replacement rather than a rebuild, as age and active use had taken its toll on moving parts. Luckily, the Blue-Ox folks had two demo units and cut Frankie a screaming deal on a new one ... like a 50% discount! Right place, right time!

So, back to camp and prep for the day's activities. Today we drove to a place called Palm Canyon, about 14 miles south, then 4 miles East on a gravel road to the canyon.

The road up to the trailhead was actually not bad at all. Lot's of cactus and other interesting desert landscape. I stopped a few times to take some pictures, included below.

On the trail, which meandered up and down the side of the canyon, walking wasn't too terribly challenging, just good exercise. A pix of Louise and our Daughter Christina on the trail. Then a pix of the actual palm trees on the side of a cliff in the canyon. I'm not sure how they got there but, yes, actual palm trees. I'm thinking some bird must have dropped seeds up there at some point, as there is no way anyone could have climbed up in that crevice, except for a mountain goat, maybe.

Maybe a little hard to see, but here is a look at the palm trees up on the side of the canyon wall.

Then, a view back towards the West from the top of the trailhead.

Back at camp ... I hooked up with Randy-K7AGE, Mike-KJ7LPO, and a couple other guys from Grass Valley Group days. I hadn't seen these guys for over 10 years, so it was a treat to sit and visit, and catch up on life experiences.

Later, Birton-N6UG from Rocklin and I attended a "talk" on antennas by Bill Mader-K8TE from New Mexico, specifically on radials v.s. counterpoise ... Interesting to have "definition" and/or terms assigned to things I somewhat already knew about. At my age, that happens a lot, just saying, maybe my memory isn't as good as it used to be, or maybe my life experiences have covered many, many things at this point?

So, that's it for Day 3 (or is it day 4?) and I'll wrap this one up with a link to ALL the pictures we've been taking. Enjoy, and stay tuned. More to come.

Link to the pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Va6NPiVqSthgxWE77

Dennis in Quartzite, AZ.