Monday

Today we would be moving on to Quartzsite. With it so close, we were able to begin the day at a casual pace. Even so, I was still able to take a photo of the sun shortly after it rose over the Colorado River.

Sunrise over the Colorado River as seen from Earp, California

I walked down to the far end of the campground where I found a small picnic area. This small park is next to the bank of the river. It looks like it might be a good place to go fishing. Down stream in the distance I saw a man digging in the mud at the river’s edge. Whatever it was that he was digging he was putting it in a bucket.

By the time I returned to our camp area Tom was out getting ready to go to town. Since we needed some supplies from the store, I rode into to town with Tom to do some shopping. We went to a small shopping center in Parker. It seems that the shopping center is located in the location of an old casino. The casino sign is still in place in front of the shopping center, but the sign now directs people to the new casino location down the street.

I found everything I came to town to buy, but I had to look in two different stores. Something I found surprising was the fact that the prices in these stores were consistently 10 to 15 percent higher than what we pay where we live in Silicon Valley. This seems a little unusual when you consider that many of the people living in the area don’t have a lot of money.

After returning to our motorhomes it didn’t take very long to break camp. With our motorhomes ready for the road, we all said our good-byes and I took a picture of our snowbird friends. We had a nice time during our short visit.

We are ready to get on the road again

We said "Good-bye" to our snowbird hosts - we had a very nice visit

Our two-rig caravan would go through Parker and follow highway 95 to Quartzsite a few miles south of Parker. Shortly after entering Parker I pulled into a station to fill up the propane tank on our motorhome. While waiting for us Tom decided to top off the propane tank on his motorhome. After this short delay our caravan was on its way south.

I was somewhat surprised at how fast we reached Quartzsite. Our route took us through a sparse desert landscape. Just before arriving at Quartzsite we were stopped by a line of halted RVs. We were still a mile or two from the center of town. Fortunately for us Gary had given us instructions to get around just such a traffic jam.

We turned left and headed east to a side road that took us through town. We found only light traffic all the way to the Interstate Highway. It didn’t take us long to get to I-10 where we used the freeway to bypass the gridlock in town to get to our campground.

After registering at the campground office we drove back to find a place in the overflow camping area. Tom was surprised to find so many people already there. The place where he had planned to camp was already taken. There was only a small area available that would give us an unobstructed view of the desert. So, it didn’t take us long to get into position.

Our small caravan finds a place to stay on the edge of the desert

Tom moved his motorhome toward the desert stopping at the edge of the overflow area. I backed up next to Tom’s RV so as to optimize the view out the back windows of our motorhome. This made it such that the coach doors opened toward each other into a common area between our motorhomes. This gave us a nice little camp compound and provided a place for Tom to park his car between the motorhomes.

We had a great view of the desert spread out before us. The view from our motorhomes looked straight out to a range of mountains that extended to our far right. This is where we would see the sun set every night. To the left of our view was "Q" Mountain, a name that is the result of the big white letter Q that is on the side of the mountain. It probably has an official name, but I’m not aware of it.

We had arrived just in time for lunch. After having lunch, in our respective motorhomes, we were ready to dive into the Quartzsite experience. Before our trip I had purchased a pair of small FM handie-talkies. This would allow us to break up and still stay in touch with each other. I was looking forward to using my new toys. I set the handie-talkies up on the same channel and checked them out. It was now time for us to head into town.

We drove into town to find a parking place near the entrance to the Main Event. Tom dropped the women off so they wouldn’t have to walk so far. Kay took one handie-talkie with her. We "Lucked out" when Tom found a parking place very close to the road.

An interesting mascot near the entrance

I knew we were in a strange new land when I stepped out of the car and saw, a short distance away, a huge inflated structure shaped like the upturned stern of a sinking ship with the name "Titanic." Across the street from our parking place was a blacksmith shop that appeared as if it was right out of the 19th century. Right down to the 19th century phone number and web address on the Blacksmith sign.

A real old fashioned Blacksmith

Tom and I moved on toward the center of this particular flea market area. Much of what we saw was the usual flea market fair. Some areas appeared to be open-air stores. Some of the booths were unusual. At one place I bought a bundle of socks and at a tent covered area I bought a new belt. Pretty mundane stuff.

Just about everything is for sale somewhere in Quartzsite

There was a booth that seemed strange to me, it was the Cactus Corral. The tables were covered with all kinds of small, potted cacti. To me, it seems as if selling cacti in the desert is a bit like trying to sell ice cubes to a person living at the North Pole.

This booth is selling cacti in the desert

On the other hand, I saw what I consider to be some unusual booths. One place had more dead animal stuff than I’ve seen anywhere. The list of dead animal products included a large pile of bleached cow skulls - fox skins hanging from a pole - wolf skins - coyote skins - skunk skins - raccoon skins - sea turtle shells - large tortoise shells as well as piles and piles of hides. Then there were the tools of the trade. Wide selections of animal traps were on display from small snares all the way up to leg crunching bear traps.

There were several places selling dead animal stuff

There were a lot of rocks and minerals on display. There were more geodes than I’ve ever seen before. Many geodes were very big with large violet crystals. One table we looked over was covered with clusters of crystals of all shapes, sizes and colors. I enjoyed seeing a large selection of agate slabs. This was a great place for rock hounds.

This appears to be the bargain table

I enjoyed seeing the many places to buy tools. There were tools of all kinds from every corner of the world. Woodworking tools - metalworking tools - new tools - used tools - hemostats - and dental picks still does not cover the whole range of tools available. Some of the tools were real bargains while others were just junk. It is good to know what you need and what it is worth before coming to this place.

Scattered around the flea market were food booths of all kinds. The ice cream stands always seemed to have a long line of people waiting to make a purchase. Another favorite was any food stand selling barbecued food.

Food stands were very popular, especially ice cream stands

I saw a tent covered food booth with roasted corn on the cob. The corn was being roasted in the husks on a large charcoal grill. It reminded me of the roasted corn I liked so well in my hometown. So, I bought an ear of steaming hot corn and smeared it with butter. Oh, it was good. Tom decided to try an ear of corn and said that he liked it. He then struck up a conversation with the vendor telling him about some very good corn that comes from northern California.

We continued looking around for a while longer as a part of the Quartzsite airforce buzzed overhead. The sounds overhead came from a very interesting collection of aircraft. There were four or five powered parachutes with their colorful canopies inflated buy the forward movement of the craft. Then occasionally an ultralight aircraft or two would fly over us. A helicopter would make flights over the area at regular intervals. The chopper was taking passengers on short excursion trips over the valley. It was quite an airforce indeed.

It was interesting to see the various shopping areas closing up around four o’clock in the afternoon. Tom told me that in about an hour the place would be almost deserted. I was tired and footsore, so I was glad that it was time to head back to camp.

This is our little desert compound

Kay and I had barbecued chicken for dinner. After dinner we moved over to Tom and Nora’s place for dessert. We had the last of the cake from the celebration the night before. We visited for awhile and retired early. It had been a very busy and fun day.

A member of the Quartzsite air force over our campsite

We saw these aircraft a lot during our stay

I was awakened twice during the night to hear coyotes howling. At one time several of the critters howled at once so as to sound almost like a musical chorus. It was the first time I had heard such a howling.

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