An Introduction to Quartzsite

To full-time RV'ers, Quartzsite is like Mecca - a place everyone wants to pilgrimage to at least once.  To some it is a mystery, to others a legend.  To those who have visited, it's either a place to stay away from, or a place not to be missed each year.  Some come for the big RV tent show.  Others look for solitude far out in the BLM lands or even in mountains off every beaten track.  But, in the end, it's hard to describe it to someone who has never experienced it.

We came for 8 days, for an opportunity to rally around with some other "Heavy Haulers" - members of our Escapees RV club who pull fifth wheels with big medium duty trucks, or even modified big rigs.  Escapees is a member-driven nonprofit organization of mainly full-time RV'ers.

This year, the Escapees are holding a rally in Quartzsite, about 4 miles up the road from where our Heavy Haulers group is meeting, so we have an opportunity not only to bond with other big truck owners, but we can also mingle with some other full-time RV'ers, too.

Our Heavy Haulers are circling up about a mile into the BLM lands, down an unmarked dirt road.  When we arrived, seven other couples and their rigs were already settled in.  We picked a spot nearby and got ourselves set up - just in time to head 4 miles down the road to a happy hour for all the Escapees in the area.  There were hundreds at the get-together, which was held in a big space circled by motor homes:

When the RV'ers aren't in Quartzsite, the desert is a pretty empty place:

After the happy hour, we joined our friends Eric and Ginny to drive over to a second happy hour hosted by the "Boomers," another subgroup of Escapees organized around the most oxymoronic of themes:  baby boomers.  Aren't we ALL baby boomers???  Here's a photo of the Boomers gathered in the desert:

Later in the day, we circled up with our Heavy Hauler friends and chatted into the  evening.  The next morning, after coffee, breakfast and another circle-up of chatting, our friends Ginny and Eric arrived in their bright orange Jeep to take us off-roading.  Below, the Jeep, with Kathy, Eric and Ginny in the background, standing by the makeshift mountain-top flag.

Here's a photo Ginny took of Kathy, Eric and David standing at the top of a hill Eric climbed in the Jeep:

All this off-roading was exhausting, so we retired to Beer Belly's, where, of course, along with very tasty sausage sliders, we could get beer.  We just missed the free beer, which is always free tomorrow:

This morning, after again circling up last night and this a.m. with our Heavy Hauler friends, we bicycled into the main section of town to get our Escapees, Heavy Hauler and Boomer badges made.  What club membership is worth it's salt unless you have stinkin' badges?

Tomorrow is the big tent RV show, and the whole world is arriving.  Here's a photo of the traffic in this little crossroads, which is otherwise nearly deserted in the summer and early fall:

One of our goals was to visit Reader's Book Oasis, which is owned and operated by the fellow standing to the left in the doorway below.  He wears mostly nothing but his books:

Inside is a book-lover's heaven.  We had trouble deciding what to buy for our reading pleasure, but decided on an edition of "Milepost," the RV'ers guide to travel in Alaska, which we hope to do in a year or so.

Cycling back across for lunch and to our campsites, we crossed over I-10.  From this vantage point, you can get a bird's eye view of Quartzsite:

More on all ouradventures in the next blog entry.