Follow Our Progress

January 30th 2004

I have some time to post a few more pictures from our visit to Quartzsite.  We're actually about half of the way back to Oregon (just north of Sacramento) at the moment.  We left on Wednesday morning from Quartzsite so we could stop in Northern California to visit with my parents for a day or so before heading the rest of the way home.

	I was supposed to get a picture of the "big tent", but by the time we returned to the area looking for some supplies, all of the vendors were cleaning up and the tent was getting set up for another event coming to Quartzsite...  I took a few pictures of the tent, but without all of the crowds around it's not all that interesting...
	During the past week I managed to pick up another 2 solar panels and get them installed on the roof.  That brings our total (so far) to 660 Watts or 55 Amps of potential power.  We've been getting around 175-200 Amp-Hours with partly cloudy skies...
	Another purchase (and installation) was this power TV antenna.  It's pretty slick and can be raised, and turned from the inside of the bus (directly above the TV).   We had been watching the 2 barely tolerable channels that we could pick up on our standard antenna for the majority of the trip.  With the power antenna we could pick up 7 clear channels and another 4-5 somewhat tolerable ones.
	The last purchase (hopefully) to complete our power supply system.... I wasn't sure if it would arrive before we had to head home, but on the last day I received a call that my wind generator had come in and was waiting for me. It's a 400 Watt generator that I decided to get instead of another 2 solar panels.  I didn't have time to finish hooking it up and do any testing.  It was getting late and we wanted to get on the road out of Quartzsite in the morning, so I had to work with Becky to get the bus ready for the road.
	Right around sunset time we were pretty much ready to go.  The solar panels are all lowered and everything inside the bus was secured for the morning drive...
	The sunsets in the desert are gorgeous.

So, this morning I am sitting at a rest area trying to get something posted here before we get back on the road...  There is a lot to say about our experience in Quartzsite, but it's hard to find a way to explain it.

In general I would describe the RV, sports and recreation show as a cross between a giant flea market and a RV sales lot.  The RV stuff was mostly junk, although it was fun to watch the RV sales guys zoom around in there little golf carts dressed entirely inappropriately (gold chains and polyester pants included) for the scenery.  It was the same RV crap that you can find anywhere and nothing exciting or new as far as I could tell.  

The 2 main vendors that I was interested in checking out (related to RV's) didn't bother to show up.  I can't really blame them though - anyone really serious about promoting an exciting new product would find it hard to stand out in the crowd of vendors peddling socks and kettle corn.  

There were a ton of vendors selling socks...  I have no clue why - I was constantly running out of clean underwear but had plenty of socks on hand, so there was no clear demand that I could see for the vast number of sock vendors.  There must be a reason, but for the life of me I can't figure out why about half of the products were being sold there.  I saw everything from carpet to African art.  I did happen to notice that there was not one single car/RV wash within 30 miles of Quartzsite, and there was a serious demand for one by all of the $500,000.00 custom coach owners.  Someone could have made a pretty penny with a car wash booth <grin>.

Although we were staying out on BLM land for free, it cost quite a bit of cash to keep ourselves comfortable.  Basic things like food and water were pretty expensive.  Water was bought by the gallon for about 20-25 cents.   It became a real chore to recycle water as much as possible so that our supply could last us for about a week.  I SO wanted a hot shower by the 4th or 5th day.  Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is covered with a thick coat of dust.  I found out the hard way that it scratches things horribly if you try to just wipe it off too...  It's going to take weeks to get everything clean and the carpet is going to have to be thrown away.  Every step on it causes more dust to fly into the air and no amount of vacuum cleaning will pull it out of the carpet.

Was Quartzsite what I expected?  Yes and No. 

The area is gorgeous and such a wonderful change from the rain and clouds of Oregon.  The event was kind of interesting, but the crowds and traffic in and around Quartzsite made getting around a pain.  If you plan to go, bring a bicycle and leave the car at the edge of town.  With the two girls that was really not much of an option for us.

There were almost no people our age.  Just about everyone we saw was retirement age, and the girls only saw a couple of other kids the entire time we were there too.  It was definitely more fun to hang out in the desert (for me at least) than to spend very much time in town at the events.

Would I do it again?  Probably not.  I'd rather go when all of the crowds have dwindled or visit other areas that are just as beautiful.  There is a lot of exploring that could be done around the area.  Boondocking was fun, but it didn't really feel all that much like boondocking when there were 100 other RV's and trailers around.  We had to move at one point because we were surrounded by 3 RVs that insisted on running their huge generators all night long...  The people we met were great.  Everyone that we talked to had something interesting to share about boondocking or full-timing.  We picked up some great tips that I hopefully will have time to share here some time after we get back home.

Well, that's all I have time for this morning.  Gotta go before I get charged for being on-ine.