Made It To Quartzsite

 

Thursday morning we left Saddle Mountain and drove 60 miles west to Gateway Ranch RV Resort in Brenda, AZ, about 15 miles from Quartzsite. We stayed overnight there since it was going to cost us $20 for dump and fresh water at an RV park in Quartzsite, anyway, so for $25 we got to spend the night, use their nice laundry room, charge everything up, dump our tanks, fill the rig and our jugs with water, and top off our propane. We also managed to squeeze in a bike ride on the BLM land right behind the park.

I still marvel over the use of the word “resort” when it comes to RV parks. The clubhouse is being remodeled so there was only one small bathroom with no hot water, so we didn’t even get to take a nice long shower. And it is right next to Hwy 60, which is a very  busy road .

But at least there are nice dirt roads for walking or biking in the scenic desert just outside the RV park. That is always a plus!

We plan to join the Lazy Daze group next week at the La Posa South LTVA area, but we wanted to spend a few days with the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) folks whom we met in Flagstaff last summer. They are staying about 5 miles southeast of town in one of the free BLM 14 day stay areas, and it is not at all crowded. We found a quiet spot off a short dead-end road with nice views but not far from the main group area.

Late yesterday afternoon we went for a walk with some of the group and their dogs.

There’s an interesting mix of people at these gatherings, both singles and couples, from folks living in tents and cars, vans, truck campers, all kinds of trailers, class Cs like ours, and even a class A motorhome. Bob, the founder of the RTR, espouses frugal living and getting together occasionally with other like-minded people to share ideas and socialize. We have really enjoyed visiting with the people we’ve met at the RTR.

Today we’re making our first trip into town to order batteries for the Lazy Daze and buy a couple of new camp chairs, after Jim fell through to the ground a few days ago on one of our old chairs. Our batteries seem to be doing okay, but the original owners picked up the Lazy Daze in March of 2007, so they are almost 7 years old now. We figure that’s a reasonable life span for batteries, and don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere and have them fail, which is what happened to Debbie in California last fall. Jim found a place that has great prices on Trojans so we figured we may as well replace them now before we absolutely have to.

And we are still slowly working on cleaning out cabinets and getting rid of things, always with plenty of unwanted help from the cats. This is the area behind our TV, which lifts up for access.

Also the weather has been absolutely wonderful so far this month, and looks like it will continue for the next 10 days. Highs are in the upper 60s to low 70s, lows in the low 40s, mostly sunny, and no wind. This is the best weather we’ve experienced in the Arizona desert and hope the rest of the winter is as nice. If you want to try boondocking in Quartzsite, this is definitely the year to do it.