Saturday, January 26, 2013

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.

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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.P1247298

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.

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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?

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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!

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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. 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 Winking smile.

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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.

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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!

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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)

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Looking north at the big tent.P1227215

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.P1227210

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.

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Looking east.

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

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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 -

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11 comments:

  1. Hey Ivan, we were probably not too far away from you & your hoovering helicopter if you were flying it over Quartzsite between the hours of 11 a.m. & 5 p.m. Friday. The Q's OK to visit for a short while but sure wouldn't want to live or stay anywhere near that downtown morass of people & vehicle congestion. We generally stayed about 6 miles south of town.

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    1. You haven't spent enough time here to really know what the town is like. It's not all rocks and rv sales, a lot of musicians gather here every year for the "jams" all over town.
      And you do have to be tough to stay the summer!

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  2. By the way, it was one year ago today that you & I went a Jeepin through the desert near Bouse Arizona while Kelly & Wandering Willy went to Parker for a fiberglass kit to repair our broken satellite dish......

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  3. Love your blog, and fabulous pictures. Wondering if I can borrow one for my blog, the aerial one and give you a link back to your blog. Thank you kindly. DearMissMermaid AT aol DOT com

    Don't forget to post pics of the kitty! :)

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  4. Great pictures as usual, and your cat is still beautiful too.

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  5. Your area looks much more crowded than LaPosa South. Love your "sky reporter" photos!

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  6. Great pics and information regarding Q! Thanks.

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  7. Thanks for sharing your pictures, we are missing the Q this year, first time in a long while. Hop to get that way next year again. We like to park in laPosa West walking distance to the big tent and vendors makes it pretty easy.

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  8. LOVE those panorama shots. Fabulous! Cheers for coming by to meet us too! It was lovely to meet Hailey as well.
    Nina

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  9. Nice photos as usual !! Thank you Please keep going !!

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  10. This was fun...we live in Montana. Spent 16 winters in the Parker/Quartzsite area, but have been staying home the last 3 winters. It brought back pleasant memories to see the happenings in QZ this time of the year. We miss those days, but the time comes when we need to stay home. Thanks. Shirley

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