Day 3: Wednesday, 1/25/17
Beaumont, CA to Quartzsite, AZ
miles traveled: 162 miles
time: 4.5 hours
The day dawned so clear and bright and sunny. This was the view from our front door in Beaumont.
9:45am No breakfast in the trailer this morning, as Tom was antsy to get on the road. So, it was a granola bar in the car. At the mini-mart at the gas station, we got coffee ... and that was breakfast. One additional short stop at a post office to mail my postcards and we were away on I-10. This will get us directly and eventually to Quartzsite.
However, by 11:30 Tom was hungry (HA!) and we stopped for a burger. The scenery now is all pure desert: sand, rocks, sage brush. Bright sunny skies without a cloud in sight. However, it isn't warm ... temps are in the low 50's. It's warm enough in a protected sunny spot but the minute you get in a breeze, it's chilly.
A cactus! An honest to goodness cactus! In the wild!
By 2 or 3pm (I didn't note it down), we pulled into Quartzsite. We found the RV park we are staying at tonight, got checked in and settled into our site. This particular place came highly recommended but, Lordy ... everyone is CRAMMED in here. It is absolutely claustrophobic. However, we do have a full hook-up, so we have electricity to charge our electronics and run our heater and lights. We also have water .. hot water!! woo hoo!
But as for ambiance? Nope, just not there.
So, why Quartzsite? Well, ever since Tom got us our new-to-us trailer, he's been scouring internet sites, You Tube channels and forum on all things RV-ing. Apparently, Quartzsite is THE place to go if you're a snowbird. It hosts the "country's largest" RV show and sales. It's also widely known for it's rocks, gems and minerals. There are on-going shows for those items.
From that description, I rather anticipated lots of vendor tents, rather like county & state fairs or Expos. We arrived at Quartzsite coming from California (i.e from the west) and when we crested the hill .... there it was. RVs and trailers and campers as far as the eye could see, spread out like a carpet on the desert. See all those little white "things" in the picture to the right? All those are RVs, campers and trailers.
Pulling into town along the main street, there are vendor tents EVERYWHERE. When I say "everywhere" that's exactly what I mean. It's exactly as I imagined ... on STEROIDS.
By the time everything was all hooked up and settled, it was close to 4pm ... that is significant, we discovered, because the RV show and all the vendors everywhere shut down at 5pm. That was OK because most everyone had cleared out and we were able to quickly walk through the main tent without obstructions. This is a HUGE tent, think circus big, that is filled with vendors of all sorts. Naturally, there was a preponderance of RV sellers ... hawking every item under the sun that you could imagine and many things that you never knew existed ... and trying their very best to convince you that you DO need it and want to buy it from them! All the other vendors are everything else ... just like at the county fairs. Lordy ... skin care products, health aids, food prep and storage, cell phone accessories, clothing, hats ... you name it, it's there.
We weren't interested in any of the RV stuff, as we have what we need right now. But it's interesting to see what's available. As for the other non-RV vendors, I was even less interested them. But again, it was at least interesting to see what was there.
Oh .. the one vendor that DID tempt me mightily was the home made brittle and caramel lady. Boy, her goodies sure looked good. However, I resisted and moved away. I did look back though ... I think they were waving at me.
Back at the RV park, we tried .. and I mean we TRIED ... to get access to the wifi provided. Our experience with RV park wifi is dismal. Typically, the more people that sign on, the more the signal degrades until it is slower than molasses in January. Hey ... it IS January! The office staff assured us that this was not the case in their park so I was hopeful.
But ... it was even worse than that. I could connect to their connection .. hooray! But then .. nothing. I was expecting a login page because I had a user ID & password to enter. But there was nothing. I fiddled around with my wifi settings and think I might have messed up something on my laptop but fortunately, Tom was able to fix whatever I did. It took us 45 minutes and FINALLY a login page appeared. After entering the required information, it stalled again. I went down to the RV park office to see if someone could offer advise only to find they had closed for the evening. Back in our trailer, I disconnected in disgust and we fired up Tom's hotspot. Wow .. instant access and throughput. I just need to make sure, when we check out, that we weren't charge anything EXTRA for the wifi.
Tomorrow, the plan is to explore and see what the rest of the town ... and vendors .. are like. We certainly did see, on the drive in, lots and lots and lots of rock, gem and mineral vendors. All these other vendors are as crammed together, cheek by jowl, as those in the big RV tent ... they are just outdoors.
Sadly, there are no fabric or quilting stores in Quartzsite. Apparently, there are a couple in nearby towns, but they aren't on our way and aren't on our agenda for a day trip. That's OK ... I don't need any NOW. In a few weeks, I will be going to attend my annual quilting Retreat and will get my fill then. :-)
Beaumont, CA to Quartzsite, AZ
miles traveled: 162 miles
time: 4.5 hours
9:45am No breakfast in the trailer this morning, as Tom was antsy to get on the road. So, it was a granola bar in the car. At the mini-mart at the gas station, we got coffee ... and that was breakfast. One additional short stop at a post office to mail my postcards and we were away on I-10. This will get us directly and eventually to Quartzsite.
So, why Quartzsite? Well, ever since Tom got us our new-to-us trailer, he's been scouring internet sites, You Tube channels and forum on all things RV-ing. Apparently, Quartzsite is THE place to go if you're a snowbird. It hosts the "country's largest" RV show and sales. It's also widely known for it's rocks, gems and minerals. There are on-going shows for those items.
By the time everything was all hooked up and settled, it was close to 4pm ... that is significant, we discovered, because the RV show and all the vendors everywhere shut down at 5pm. That was OK because most everyone had cleared out and we were able to quickly walk through the main tent without obstructions. This is a HUGE tent, think circus big, that is filled with vendors of all sorts. Naturally, there was a preponderance of RV sellers ... hawking every item under the sun that you could imagine and many things that you never knew existed ... and trying their very best to convince you that you DO need it and want to buy it from them! All the other vendors are everything else ... just like at the county fairs. Lordy ... skin care products, health aids, food prep and storage, cell phone accessories, clothing, hats ... you name it, it's there.
Oh .. the one vendor that DID tempt me mightily was the home made brittle and caramel lady. Boy, her goodies sure looked good. However, I resisted and moved away. I did look back though ... I think they were waving at me.
Back at the RV park, we tried .. and I mean we TRIED ... to get access to the wifi provided. Our experience with RV park wifi is dismal. Typically, the more people that sign on, the more the signal degrades until it is slower than molasses in January. Hey ... it IS January! The office staff assured us that this was not the case in their park so I was hopeful.
But ... it was even worse than that. I could connect to their connection .. hooray! But then .. nothing. I was expecting a login page because I had a user ID & password to enter. But there was nothing. I fiddled around with my wifi settings and think I might have messed up something on my laptop but fortunately, Tom was able to fix whatever I did. It took us 45 minutes and FINALLY a login page appeared. After entering the required information, it stalled again. I went down to the RV park office to see if someone could offer advise only to find they had closed for the evening. Back in our trailer, I disconnected in disgust and we fired up Tom's hotspot. Wow .. instant access and throughput. I just need to make sure, when we check out, that we weren't charge anything EXTRA for the wifi.
Tomorrow, the plan is to explore and see what the rest of the town ... and vendors .. are like. We certainly did see, on the drive in, lots and lots and lots of rock, gem and mineral vendors. All these other vendors are as crammed together, cheek by jowl, as those in the big RV tent ... they are just outdoors.
Sadly, there are no fabric or quilting stores in Quartzsite. Apparently, there are a couple in nearby towns, but they aren't on our way and aren't on our agenda for a day trip. That's OK ... I don't need any NOW. In a few weeks, I will be going to attend my annual quilting Retreat and will get my fill then. :-)
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