Quartzsite, AZ

Unbelievable! Quartzsite is a sea of RVers and fleamarkets, with a touch of RV shows and gem shows mixed in. We arrived at the Sunsetter RV Park last Saturday (January 16) and our jaws have remained in the dropped position ever since! The physical area is total desert with very little rain, although it did rain much of Sunday night and all of Monday. Supposedly there are 2 more rainstorms coming through this week, which has surprised the weathermen. The only tv we get is satelite...no cable, and no antenna stations...which means no watching the NFL playoffs. Oh well...we can catch up on our reading!

We spent all of Saturday setting up and cleaning...we'll be here for 2 months so most everything gets unpacked. Sunday we walked to the RV show, which is HUGE!

Ed bought a new wax (he's a wax fanatic!) and some awning clips that we have to return because they're the wrong size. I bought a gold chain for a ring that I wear around my neck and some hand cream. That's it...no new RV! There were alot of used RVs and some new ones, but after looking through enough of them, they all seem the same. I think we'll keep ours for awhile...it fits us!

Sunday night we went to the only Catholic church in the area. Now picture this...there is only 1 service at this church...no Saturday night mass, no weekly mass, no Sunday morning mass...just Sunday night at 5:00. Now add to that the fact that there are over a million RVers in the area for about 3 months and many of them are Catholic. That church was jam packed! We stood along the wall and the service was a little long because all of these people took the sacrament! There were even people sitting in the kitchen! Next week they're adding a Saturday night service...good move!

After church, we found a restaurant that wasn't too too crowded, called the Grubstake. It's a local bar and restaurant and the line was long and the waitresses were getting a little edgy...but we snuck over to the bar and grabbed 2 empty seats and had our dinner at the bar. The bartender was originally from CT and Westerly RI, so of course we had an 'in' from the very start! Great food and Ed had one of his favorite beers...'Arrogant Bastard'...no kidding! It's hard to find this beer so he was ecstatic when he saw they had it on draft!

Yesterday was laundry day...the only laundromat in town is owned by the people who own our RV park so it's right next door to us. Didn't help us tho...when we walked in, of course it was packed! What else do you do on a rainy Monday?? We managed to find 3 double frontloading washing machines and we were in business! The whole washing/drying process took about 3 hours...not too bad. In the meantime, we went in search of toilet paper. Not such an easy task when you have to buy fast desolving toilet paper made especially for RVs. You'd think with RV dealers on every corner and an RV show going on, and 2 little markets close by, someone would have RV toilet paper...guess again! So after the laundry, we headed west to Blythe, CA, which is another small town about 22 miles from Quartzsite, but it has an Albertson's food store and a KMart...ahhh! Stocked up on everything we needed for a few weeks, including, thankfully, toilet paper!

Throughout this trip, I've been keeping up with an old highschool friend through Facebook. Dawn and her husband Jeff have been RVing full-time and they are in Quartzsite until Wednesday or Thursday (or Friday depending on the weather). They're staying on BLM land with a well-known group called the Escapees (SKP for short). So last night, after more than 20 years, they came over to our RV for dinner after they spent the day at the RV show. We had such a nice time catching up and talking about this RVing lifestyle. They're very laid back and easygoing and we really enjoyed the evening...thanks for your company, Dawn and Jeff! We're looking forward to seeing them at their happy hour tonight...we'll have a chance to see the BLM drycamping lifestyle!

We've also been in touch with 4 or 5 other couples in our travels who are or will be in Quartzsite this week and next and we're looking forward to getting together with them.

Today we're going back to the RV show to exchange our awning clips, and then we'll stop at one of the many fleamarkets for awhile. Oh yes, I'm hopefully getting a much needed haircut...I can't wait! It's a sunny day right now, but the forecast calls for more rain...that's ok, the whole state of AZ needs rain!!

Gotta go and get ready for a busy day! Love to all!