Missing your dog?

 

Quartzsite police dept have this dog in custody – anyone missing their dog?  Spread the word!

Quartzsite Police 12h

FOUND DOG- We still have this sweet little girl, please call us if she is yours. pic.twitter.com/Iyd6IRrU

Quartzsite–Getting ready to hitch up!

I can hardly believe that I was in Quartzsite before the big show, and I am still here and it is all over. Not Quartzsite, there are always shows on during the winter, and many of the businesses and vendors are here for several months. But I think the RV show is the biggest of the shows, and I expect many of us will be hitching up and heading on down the road somewhere.

The big GM was getting a tad dusty from hanging around in the desert, and driving on a lot of dirt roads.  I haven’t seen a car wash in town, and would not have bothered washing it anyway as long as it was getting dusty right away anyhow.  But when the rain started to come down, I went outside several times with my big squeegee and wiped it down.  That got most of the dust off it, but I also put a couple of empty pails under the rainspouts on the rig and I had almost 10 gallons of ‘free’ water to use to wash the rest of it (no soap).  I think it looks a lot better now, and since the rains, the dust has not really recovered yet, so the wash job might just last.

I had been meaning to check out the drive and hike to Palm Canyon in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 miles south of Quartzsite, so I had a free day (!), and decided what the heck.

It is a 7 mile gravel road off highway 95 with some washboard as you would expect, but overall, a pretty decent road, and quite scenic.

I saw a strange sight along the way.  Anywhere else, this would not be strange at all, but in the deserts of Arizona, you hardly ever see a culvert on a secondary (or worse) road.  Well, for some reason, there are a few along this road.

At the parking area, I was surprised to see a tour van from the coast of New Brunswick.  Not many east coast plates in these parts, and even less from Canada’s east coast.

This one is from Campobello Island off the coast, close to Maine.

Hiking up into the canyon, there are good views back out across the valley to the west, including two blimps that were both on the ground at their bases.  Too far away to see in these photos, I’m sure.

I kept my eyes peeled for some Bighorn sheep, without success, but in this terrain you would be lucky to spot them unless they were on the move.

All I saw was these rare palm trees high up in a side canyon.

Headed north again on the highway, there was an unmarked road heading off to the west, in the general direction of the blimp bases, so I thought I would give it a go.  Unfortunately the pavement ended after 100 yards, and the ‘unwelcome’ sign deterred me from further exploration.

Need I say more.  You can’t make this stuff up – seen on the side of a propane tank!

Quartzsite–going full tilt!

 

If last week was the precursor, this is for sure the main event.  Rush hour is happening much of the day.  Traffic can be pretty slow anywhere near downtown or the main show sites, and parking is at a premium.

The wash is full of vehicles parked.  Most of it is OK, but I saw one unfortunate Class C that was bogged down in the loose gravel.  I went over to see if I could perhaps give him a yank, but even in 4WD I wasn’t doing much more than moving myself through it.  At least the ‘Toe Truck’ company is nearby.  Don’t laugh, that’s how it is spelled here. Street names are interesting here as well, including Senter Street, No Name Street, and a few others.

Surprisingly, the main event tent was not that bad when I visited it again.  Most aisle ways were actually free of congestion.  Even Bayfield Bunch Al would have been Ok there for a little while.

The ‘outdoor’ booths were doing a great business, especially the ice cream vendors.  I can’t imagine how busy they would have been if it had actually been a hot day?

The Progressive RV Insurance company was handing out swag, without even a sales pitch.  I ended up with some playing cards, some sunscreen, and a T-shirt.  It didn’t hurt that the young ladies working there weren’t that hard to look at.  I had to pay several visits, of course!

While plugging businesses I meant to include this link a post or two ago but forgot.  Hitch up and Go is the place ‘where RV’ers start their trip’, and they have a free newsletter called HitchUpandGo exPress.   Check it out and see what you think.

To aid in your shopping experience I also hit a cross section of things for sale all across this town.  Basically, you can buy ‘anything’ here.  Finding it – well, that’s an entirely different story!  Apparently, you can buy horses, pigs, moose heads, coyote pelts, old cars, new RV’s.

And if you still have a hankering for a dirty 70’s era CB radio without a microphone, – well you can buy that too .

Now I don’t mean to be judgemental here as we all know that adage about one man’s trash being another man’s treasure, but here some vendors take that to the extreme.

Perhaps some of this stuff was refused admission at the dump?  Now, I can understand some of this stuff being on sale at an estate sale on a property where it has laid unwanted for decades, but for the life of me, I cannot figure how or why someone would actually haul some of this junk from sale to sale, because it ain’t never going to sell!

Anyone want to buy a vhs player, or an analog b&w TV?

Okay, but there are LOTS of bargains on there tends to be a lot of duplication among many of the vendors.  For some reason, magnets, dental tools, bungee cords, gloves, and socks are a dime a dozen.  Okay, make that two dozen in some cases.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the situation!  (Back in camp)(Not too crowded here)

Looking north at the big tent.

Avid blog readers who are paying attention (!) may think that they’ve seen a similar shot in the Wheeling It blog today.  You would be correct in that assumption, and I had the pleasure today of meeting Nina and Paul and all three of their furry kids today when I followed my nose (and gps) out to Dome Rock road to where they were camped.  We had seen each other’s rigs at Borrego Springs, and almost crossed paths in the Yuma area a few weeks ago, but this was our first face to face meeting.  Luckily, there was not even a hiss from Hailey, and of course we found them to be the very nice people we expected.

And a couple of shots of Main street from the vicinity of the Yacht Club.  If you’ve never been here, you may not believe it, but Quartzsite has an officially recognized Yacht club – even though there is no water and no boats!

That’s it; in the lower right.  Looking west.

Looking east.

Looking south down Old Yuma rd towards our camp.  Hwy 95 is visible in the upper left.

It’s trying hard to rain a bit in Quartzsite right now!  There’s only one thing that smells better than the desert after a rain.  And that’s a desert after the rain at sunrise, with a hot coffee in your hand.

This boondocking is one tough life!

And, since the contract specifies at least one Hailey pic in each blog post -