Day 4: Thursday, 1/26/17
Quartzsite, AZ
miles traveled: 0 miles
time: all day!
Today we moved out from the RV park we had been staying at and relocated to Hi Jolly campground, which is BLM land (Bureau of Land Management).
This is public land (no fee for staying there) but there is a 14 day limit and there are no amenities. After that time, you must leave for a certain number of days, then you can return. So what people do is, if they want to boondock so they don't have to pay at an RV park, they just flip-flop between BLM land campgrounds.
Every so often, they go into town and pay a nominal fee to dump their tanks and fill up on fresh water. Alternatively, some people will pay for one night at an RV park to do the same plus use the park's shower facilities. We are just here on BLM land for the one night, then back to the RV park .... for the use of their amenities!
We had a shopping list of items to get ... groceries, "household" stuff. Then we wandered on over to the vendor tents. We were told there is a hierarchy of vendors. The big bucks vendors are inside the RV show tent. The next tier are the vendors that have their own tents just outside the RV tent, kinda like houses backing up against the castle wall. The third tier are the tented and non-tented vendors directly across the street from the RV tent. And the low men on the totem pole are the vendors on the other side of the freeway. That's the low-rent district. :-)
Since we were in that vicinity, we started in the low-rent district. My *goodness*. Honest to goodness, this is genuine junk. Rusted junk. Disreputable junk. Stuff you really wouldn't pay to haul away. I am *amazed* that the vendors make any sort of money there at all. You want to feel good about the state of your garage? Come see these tables. These have got to be full time vendors because their merchandise is spread out on many, many tables. They couldn't possibly move all of their merchandise every night; perhaps they just tarp it. I must say that they *are* very well organized. There is just SO MUCH STUFF that your eyes tend to glaze over.
There is the saying that one man's junk is another man's treasure and there is something true about that. But I would venture to say that 99% of the stuff out here is 100% junk.
In an interesting segue, one of the vendors here had a Singer Featherweight, complete with case and some accessories. Her merchandise was very nicely laid out and was of a higher class of junk than the others. :-) The price tag on the Featherweight was $450, so she absolutely knew what she had and what it was worth. I didn't buy it. :-)
Then we wandered over to the second tier vendors. Do you remember the tacky and useless stuff sold at state fairs? That's the sort of stuff that is being sold. Occassionally, there is a vendor that is catering to the specific RV crowd; there was one vendor that was HUGE and had just about everything you could think you need for maintenance purposed for your Rv, trailer or camper. Now *that* place was useful.
Another vendor had a computerized router to make custom wood signs for you. You chose the graphic, the words, the font ... he'd put them into his software to arrange the elements then the complete cut file was sent to the router ... which accurately cut the wood sign for you. It was mesmerizing to watch.
We didn't stay out too long into the afternoon ... although it was sunny, a breeze was also blowing. DANG, that made it COLD.
Tom was chatting with one of the RVers here ... he has a 5th wheel stored full time in Quartzsite, where he lives for 6 months. The other 6 months, he travels (sans 5th wheel) back up to Idaho. Tom wasn't sure if he had a house up there or another mobile home, but he switched back and forth between the two places.
Most of the year, Quartzsite is a sleepy little town. The streets, stores and services are geared for that. But come January, with the RV show, this place explodes. The traffic is awful; parking is luck of the draw. All the RV parks raise their rates because this is the time when they make their money ... not that I blame them at all. When we come back through Quartzsite in early February, the RV rate will be almost half of what we paid for one night now.
Honestly, we've seen everything there is to see in Quartzsite. We not interested in rock hunting or geocaching or off-roading. I did visit a craft & bead store here ... and I must say that it has a LOT of beading supplies! Small amounts of knitting/crocheting and counted cross-stitch supplies and very little scrapbooking/card making supplies. What dies and template they did have were on the expensive side. But they did have a LOT of classes offered.
Since we are here for one more day, perhaps I can persuade Tom to go on a road trip up northwards. There are 2 fabric stores in 2 adjacent towns. The road trip will give us something to do and see those towns that we wouldn't otherwise visit.
Quartzsite, AZ
miles traveled: 0 miles
time: all day!
 |
| view from our door at the BLM site |
This is public land (no fee for staying there) but there is a 14 day limit and there are no amenities. After that time, you must leave for a certain number of days, then you can return. So what people do is, if they want to boondock so they don't have to pay at an RV park, they just flip-flop between BLM land campgrounds.
 |
| view from our door, the other side |
We had a shopping list of items to get ... groceries, "household" stuff. Then we wandered on over to the vendor tents. We were told there is a hierarchy of vendors. The big bucks vendors are inside the RV show tent. The next tier are the vendors that have their own tents just outside the RV tent, kinda like houses backing up against the castle wall. The third tier are the tented and non-tented vendors directly across the street from the RV tent. And the low men on the totem pole are the vendors on the other side of the freeway. That's the low-rent district. :-)
Since we were in that vicinity, we started in the low-rent district. My *goodness*. Honest to goodness, this is genuine junk. Rusted junk. Disreputable junk. Stuff you really wouldn't pay to haul away. I am *amazed* that the vendors make any sort of money there at all. You want to feel good about the state of your garage? Come see these tables. These have got to be full time vendors because their merchandise is spread out on many, many tables. They couldn't possibly move all of their merchandise every night; perhaps they just tarp it. I must say that they *are* very well organized. There is just SO MUCH STUFF that your eyes tend to glaze over.
There is the saying that one man's junk is another man's treasure and there is something true about that. But I would venture to say that 99% of the stuff out here is 100% junk.
 |
| One vendor made very attractive metal "yard art" |
Then we wandered over to the second tier vendors. Do you remember the tacky and useless stuff sold at state fairs? That's the sort of stuff that is being sold. Occassionally, there is a vendor that is catering to the specific RV crowd; there was one vendor that was HUGE and had just about everything you could think you need for maintenance purposed for your Rv, trailer or camper. Now *that* place was useful.
Another vendor had a computerized router to make custom wood signs for you. You chose the graphic, the words, the font ... he'd put them into his software to arrange the elements then the complete cut file was sent to the router ... which accurately cut the wood sign for you. It was mesmerizing to watch.
We didn't stay out too long into the afternoon ... although it was sunny, a breeze was also blowing. DANG, that made it COLD.
Tom was chatting with one of the RVers here ... he has a 5th wheel stored full time in Quartzsite, where he lives for 6 months. The other 6 months, he travels (sans 5th wheel) back up to Idaho. Tom wasn't sure if he had a house up there or another mobile home, but he switched back and forth between the two places.
Most of the year, Quartzsite is a sleepy little town. The streets, stores and services are geared for that. But come January, with the RV show, this place explodes. The traffic is awful; parking is luck of the draw. All the RV parks raise their rates because this is the time when they make their money ... not that I blame them at all. When we come back through Quartzsite in early February, the RV rate will be almost half of what we paid for one night now.
Honestly, we've seen everything there is to see in Quartzsite. We not interested in rock hunting or geocaching or off-roading. I did visit a craft & bead store here ... and I must say that it has a LOT of beading supplies! Small amounts of knitting/crocheting and counted cross-stitch supplies and very little scrapbooking/card making supplies. What dies and template they did have were on the expensive side. But they did have a LOT of classes offered.
Since we are here for one more day, perhaps I can persuade Tom to go on a road trip up northwards. There are 2 fabric stores in 2 adjacent towns. The road trip will give us something to do and see those towns that we wouldn't otherwise visit.
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