Well, I think I now know on day #3 what I don’t like about Quartzsite!   From the scientific evidence I have gathered, all the dust on the earth and moon comes from Quartzsite.  As you drive around in the early part of the season, the untouched roads and pathways look much like cobble stone walkways. But after about the tenth car drives over the same road, it suddenly turns to brown dusty dirt. 

And in some spots, (probably past mud holes), those areas become deep dust pits.  It is much like driving through water or fine sand, except the dust rises up off your tires into a cloud that covers yo, and the vehicle disappears.  Then Travels through the camps like a bad demon.

And the worst thing that can happen is you are walking along the road near one of these dust pits and a car goes by.  You suddenly disappear from earth and are replaced by a brown mudman (Like a snowman, only made out of dust).  I was leaving for activities and watched this gentleman and his one fluffy toy poodle walking along the road when a car came by a mud pit and they disappeared to be replaced by a brown man and a chocolate dog.

So that is #1, And I have to say Akela does not like it either. As soon as he comes into the trailer he tries to shake it all off!! So, number #2 is the lack of showers.  Yes, the Wolf Pup has a shower. But it is only good for about 3-4 uses before you have to empty the waste tank.  And for me, that requires hooking up, unleveling and driving through 3miles of dust, to wait in line for 30-60minutes to have my turn at the dump station. So currently I am attempting to ration showers to 1 every 4 days. 

By some chance of misjudgement, the first 3 campsites I am going to AFTER Quartzsite also do not have showers.  Very poor planning on my part.  Driven by being cheap!

The good things about Quartzsite is they have lots of available water. I carry two 5 gallon jugs in my car so we never run out.  And a lot I use for washing gets dumped on a little bush who looks like he can use a drink. For those who might not know, the BLM regulations say you can not dump water from holding tanks out in the desert. But incidental water from cooking or washing is ok if efforts are made to spread the water over a large area and to not coat any vegetation.

We also think the area and the people (especially the people) are fascinating.  And that includes their RV’s and modes of transportation.  It is across the board people from every class and occupation. There are brand new $500,000 Class A’s here and run down 1950 trailers held together by duct tape.  There are also 200-300 tents and SUV campers.  Buses (classics coaches and Skoolies) decked out or used as is! 

The RTR (Rubber Tramp Roundup) also attracts 200-300 people from everywhere.  There were many fancy vans, remodeled ambulances, utility trailers of every size and configuration.  They have an awesome “open house” for people who want to show off their “homes”.  The idea behind RTR and the large majority of people are “Vanlifers”. But there were also moogs and tundra vehicles and fancy Overland builds.

I’m learning though that the biggest attraction to attend Quartzsite is the groups people blend in with.  Where I camped was way out in the “Back” and pretty much alone.  As the week progressed more people came into my area and they seemed to all collect in one big spot.  It was a group that always camped together from Oregon and the “Leader/Sr Member” had been coming for 10yrs as a snowbird from Portland.  The other people had joined the group over those ten years and they just always camped together at Quartzsite.

There are also like minded groups like the “Skoolie” group which is 12-100 people learning how to make a skoolie from a school bus. There is also a group “building” a van. Another group is working to install solar. And many, many more.  The hardest thing is to find them, though they are all somewhere on Facebook.

And I really have to say that that the town of Quartzsite is really no little po-dunk village.  It is a fully equipped town with police, library and every fast food place you could ask for.  They have many gas stations and their prices are actually cheaper than PHEONIX or many of the neighboring towns. The hardest thing is to decide is what place you want to get gas, or propane, or groceries, or any number of regular stuff in town. 

As a first timer we are just learning our way around, and the “regulars” are beating me out getting to all the good stuff. It makes it a bit harder to do a video when it gets crowded. So much of the “videos” are going to be slide shows with narration. Hope you get the idea of the place. As we get our bearings we will do videos of the fun stuff, don’t worry. We are here 14 days!! (3 showers)!

Well, we are going to make this short as my furry friend is being a real pest and wants to go play.  Now that the temperature outside is above 50, we can go and explore.  We will let you know what we find. 

Most likely the videos of Quartzsite and this adventure will be in late February as editing is harder and a bit jumbled with all the stuff I am trying to see and do.  So keep watching the videos i did of the trip out here. That has a lot of great stuff (Akela says so!).

For those of you that are faithful reading of this blog, I give you a great video sneak peak. This video won’t be released until February 13th. But here is a link that allows you to watch it eaqrly. Take a look at one cool campground. And actually one of the very best campgrounds and sites we stayed at I am still trying to edit it down to 30minutes.  But it was a great trip!!

Stay safe, Get out and go somewhere!
Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast