I'll probably be here about three weeks but not worth buying the season pass for $180. I just got the 2 week pass for $40 and will get another unless I depart sooner than expected. The weather couldn't be nicer, easy breeze and warm. First really good weather since we left home. I picked a nice site by some trees, most have been taken but we're close to our usual haunt near the big top in Chickadee Flats. I hope Lou and Dawn like it when they return. They seem to have spent some of the money they collect on fees here to pave some of the main road sections as you enter the camping area. Nice Should reduce some of the dust.
Tuesday: (01/13) Today, I returned to my normal retirement atire, shorts. Those long pants were needed when the weather never got above the 40's. Not when the suns up we're enjoying high 60's. That's the way it should be! I looked around the Main Event and nearby vendors today.
This vendor may look like he's taking a dognap but don't try to steal anything from his booth.
Dinner was a Mediterranean pizza at Silly Al's. There are far fewer people and vendors here this year. Last year there was a reduction and even more so this year. Last year n RV vendor pushed people out of part of the Rice Ranch but they are gone this year probably due to bankruptcy. There are still lots of RV's to buy from the dealers that are here.
Wednesday: (01/14) I had breakfast at Sweet Darlene's this morning. It's one of the great restaurants here in Quartzsite. I then browsed some of the RV's at the dealers along Main Street.
Lou and Dawn returned. Lunch was a slice of apple pie with caramel sauce. Fortunately the apple pie vendor returned this year. It was good, again. We met Ray and Marge there from Santa Cruz. They are avid metal locators and Dawn is interesting in doing that so they provided some training on the proper methods and equipment.
Lou and Dawn then scoured the vendors along West Main Street.
For dinner, we enjoyed some of the $1 burgers from Trina's in Prospectors Panorama.
Thursday: (01/15) Lou and I explored RV's today. At our first stop at Paul Evert's, we were shown a VERY nice 2000 Monaco Dynasty.
It's been garaged all it's life and only has 43,000 miles. Still a baby.
It's only a year newer than our current RV but in excellent condition and very well built as well. Has all the bells and whistles. The storage is well designed, no wasted space. It's only a 36 footer but that's 7 feet more than our current RV. And the price is amazing. Now we only have to resist the temptation until some other wise buyer grabs it before we, I, loose control.
Friday: (01/16) Breakfast at the Desert Rat Cafe at Hwy 95 and Kuehn. I had a nice breakfast burrito, Lou had biscuits and gravy and Dawn had oatmeal. All very good. We then explored both sides of the Kuehn Street West of Hwy 95. That completes most of the vendors with a first look, we can now explore in more detail, then ones we liked when we recover our strength. Tomorrow is a big day. The big RV show starts. People have reaally been arriving since Wednesday and it's getting somewhat crowded. Not as much as years past but still a big crowd.
Above left is one of the hundreds of vendor tents. Above right is an interesting old pickup seen at one of the vendors.
Dinner was some of the $1 hamburgers from Trina's, again.
Saturday: (01/17) Today the RV show opened. It's pretty much the same as years past, same vendors, same too crowded opening day, but a new tent. Instead of the three adjoined tents that blew down in a windstorm a couple of days after the RV show this year it's a single big tent. I arrived about 9am an walked in the rear end saw a crowd a couple of booths in and discovered why the interest. They had catalytic heaters for really ridiculous prices. I thought it was the tax. I bought a 3000btu heater fro $35. They had 6000btu for $45. These are discontinued and factory refurbished heaters but who cares. I've wanted to try one out but there doesn''t seem to be anyplace in our little RV except above the dash when we're parked. Now I can try it out and if it doesn't work, not much lost. If it works but isn't quite big enough we can get another and know it will work. Of course, the regulator, hose and fittings will cost more than the heater? Before going to the trouble of installing a gas line to the front of the coach, I'll test it with a gas bottle. Should give a good idea of how it works and about gas consumption. It will be nice to eliminate the battery usage for heating if possible.
After buying a big box item immediately after entering the tent, I looked rather quickly at the rest of the show. Lugging the box around made me deecide to preview the rest of the show. I was back at the RV by 1030.
I opened the box and looked at the new heater. Looks good but until it's fired up I won't know for sure. I read the manual. I now know about what's needed to complete the installation. I moved one of the overhed light fixtures from th hallway to the bedroom. The switch broke on the bedroom fixture a coupe of days ago and I haven't been able to find either a matching replacement fixture, a suitable switch nor a suitable fluorescent fixture. We don't use the hall lite much so that defers the need for a quick replacement.
I looked at the generator. It started sputtering last night. It is probably either a polluted fuel filter or bad gas. I filled the tank in Parker. The RV didn't complain for the 45 or so miles on to Quartzsite but then neither did the generator have problems until several days later. The generator was serviced just before we left so should be good since it's normally just ignored. I couldn't get to the fuel filter, I'll have to check a manual first. I don't want to destroy it. I did check the air filter and it was new so it was actually serviced. The solar is working fine so just a slight conservation action will keep us going with little generator need for now.
I also did a little house cleaning and tweaked the solar panel angle some. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon playing at the computer. Lou and Dawn were out doing some further fleamarket looking on Main street near the Post Office.
I fixed some spaghetti for dinner and we enjoyed a walk around the desert looking at the stars and campers before settling in to a campfire at home. We topped the evening watching three episodes of Cold Squad, a detective show from Canada. Really good show, too bad it's no longer made it's from 98-04'. Only this first season is released on DVD but the 3-6 seasons were on one of our local TV stations. Cold Case in the US stole the idea but just doesn't do as good a job of production.
Sunday: (01/18) A very easy morning. Slept in, listening to the great Quartzsite radio station KBUX, 94.3. They play a really good selection of older music from the 50's - early 70's. Took our third set of showers. Six showers is about our holding tank limit. Breakfast was fried olive loaf from the Quartzsite General Store market and fried eggs with toast.
Here is a better, daylight, view of our campsite.
We're all off again today. I visited the RV Show tent. There were very few people looking around, quite different than yesterday morning.
About 3:30 Lou fixed lunch, dagwood sized ham sandwiches. After lunch Lou and Dawn guarded our campsite while I pulled the RV out and drove South to the dump site. There was no line at 4pm. Last year we got up early and waited in a long queue while having breakfast. There are fewer RV's here this year.
A couple of recent sunrises. The one on the right didn't amount to much in the way of orange but was still nice. We enjoy hearing the coyotes in the middle of the night and early mornings.
A couple of recent sunsets.
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