This is a BIG country. 3,000 miles coast to coast and 1,800 miles north to south. With thousands, maybe millions of miles of highway traversing throughout. It seems unlikely, but those of us who live on those roads seem to 'run into' each other all the time. With no planning, we had two such liaisons this weekend. Of course, email and maps do help us know where we all are and be able to take advantage.

Joline knew my Mom from previous conferences. She visited Florida in January of 2003 to take me and Mom to the Prophet's Conference in the keys (yes, that's Mom, me and Joline right in the middle of the first photo). We stayed with her in her 5th wheel, and it was the first time I had seen a datastorm. I think this is where the idea for Jim's and my current lifestyle first germinated. Thanx Joline! Here's her 5th wheel "Brightwing" boondocked in the desert here in Quartzsite:



and here's Joline:



Joline usually travels by herself, but she is currently on her way to a 6 week trip thru Baja and her friend Marilyn has joined her. They made us a fabulous dinner, and we had a great time catching up. Hey! When you get 3 women together, who needs words when you have hands and facial expressions?



We'll be watching your Blog, Joline!

The next day we visited John. We met John at Life on Wheels when all the Datastorm users had a get together there. John is planning a trip to Alaska this summer and his 'old' Datastorm dish would not be operational north of the Canadian border. So, he got a new one. A BIG one. See that big disk that looks like the moon rising over the top of his rig?



That's his new 'F3' Datastorm Satellite dish.



The combination of this bigger dish (it's 1.2 meters across compared to our .74) and using a different satellite called 'Horizons 1' (our satellite is 'SatMex 5') will give him the ability to get Internet ANYWHERE in North America. Can't wait to watch your website John to see Alaska. You know, that was our original plan for our first year on the road, but when we learned our satellite dish would not work, we changed our plans.

After our totally techie visit talking about F1's, F3's, satellites, 4020s, 6000s and the like, we decided we wanted dinner to be a true Quartzsite experience so we went to the 'Snowbird Cafe'



Notice how it's a tent structure - cuz it only exists during the 2-3 months of winter season here. John tells us that the rest of the year they provide food services to firefighting crews. The dining appointments were quite elegant, as you can see. And the maitre d' was out of this world!




The food was really very good - as long as you liked corned beef and cabbage or turkey - because that was the entire menu last night! Oh yeah - and a scrumptious peach pie!
Thanx John!

See y'all on the road!