January RV Trip

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA

Nick and I headed east to Quartzsite, Arizona for the big RV Show and the "Endless Flea Markets" last Thursday, spending the first night in Indio, CA.
We arrived in Quartzsite midday on Friday and picked our spot near some of these other RVer's. We were on the north side of Interstate 10, not far from where everything was happening. Talk about affordable--$5/night!! It's a unique camping experience if you've never been out there. You just get off Interstate 10 at one of the several exits and pretty much park anywhere you choose!!! There were RV's as far as you can see, on both sides of the freeway.

There isn't much to say about the small town, nothing really special, but from January till March every year thousands of people flock to this desert community, to see Rock and Gem Shows, Flea Markets, people watch and every kind of gadget you can imagine!! We shopped these vendors for bargains for a couple of days, finding some goodies we just couldn't live without!!

(The RV Show is in the big tent seen in the picture above, left middle)

Besides all the great bargains you can find and the interesting people you see and meet, there are some beautiful views of the sky!!
No smog in Quartzsite, but the traffic in many places in Arizona, here and in the spring training towns of Surprise, Goodyear, Peoria and the like, almost rivals the LA freeways at rush hour. These towns get thousands of visitors every year, but most of the Arizona roads can't accommodate the numbers of people who venture there for these big events!!

We left a day early(on Monday rather than Tuesday) to try to beat the rainstorms predicted for the Southwestern states. We hit some rain on our journey home but not much. The pouring rain actually started right after we returned home-which made for some difficulty in unloading the motorhome.

A favorite site of our family's, when heading to the river or Laughlin or Palm Desert to visit Nick's parents back in the day, is the windmills east of the Palm Springs area, pictured below.
The winds blow them 'round and 'round even when it rains!!

"home-mome!"

For those of you not familiar with this word, "Home-mome," it's a Gigi word, pronounced the way it appears, both "o's" the long 'o' sound!! Gigi (almost 21 months) is talking so much these days and it is fun to listen to her (although sometimes hard to figure out what she is saying!). Often she mixes up the sounds of letters in words and the order of the syllables of words, or she just makes up her own words. So, the weekend of Jan. 24th, Nick and I took the "Home-mome", otherwise known to the rest of us as our motorhome, out to Quartzsite, Arizona. Every time Gigi asked mommy where Yaya and Papa were over the weekend, she repeated Nicole saying, "home-mome!"
Here's Nick with the dogs outside our "home-mome" in our "open-space campspot." No one was anywhere near us-talk about privacy.

Over the years we have heard a lot about Quartzsite, but never made it out there before now. I'm not a desert lover so it never thrilled me, but I decided why not check it out. Afterall, it isn't the summer so it can't be too hot! We've heard "millions" of RV's go to Quartzsite from January through March every year.

Talk about a lot of RV's--they are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, as far as one can see. Most are just parked anywhere, off the highway, in the desert, by themselves or with other RV's in circles, similar to the old west days of wagon camps! Much of the area surrounding Quartzsite is BLM land and rving-camping is free or maybe $5.00/nite!

You may be asking what's the big deal? Well, there are also hundreds of different "swap meets" and "street fair" type vendors selling any and everything you could possibly want, from kitchen gadgets, to arts and crafts, rocks and gems, jewelry, clothes, hats, food, and more. It's also a great place to people watch. We saw rigs from all over the United States.

Every couple of weeks there are specialized "shows" and while we were there it was the Big RV SHOW, selling everything imaginable for RV's. We spent several hours walking around the RV Show the first afternoon and the next morning we walked around one of the many "swap meets." The weather was perfect, warm and sunny in the 70's with a light breeze, but quite cold at night. One man told Nick you probably couldn't see all the vendors in 2 weeks time! It really is a happening place, a place we want to return to, if only to check out all the "great deals we have to have" and people watch!!

On Sunday we left Quartzsite and drove to Yuma to stay a night at the Yuma Lakes RV Resort (one of the 6 belonging to the membership we have with Colorado River Adventures-our home base being the KQ Ranch in Julian).


Nice, HUGE RV Resort with about 800 hook-up sites, pool and spa, clubhouse with activities and meals, a small miniature golf and fishing in the lakes!!
One thing Arizona has is beautiful sunsets!!