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Steven L
Fletcher & Fran Crawford full time RVing Travelog:
January 21 to March 1
(Our home at
Quartzsite. AZ -LaPosa South - LTVA)
The
phenomenon of Quartzsite Arizona so amazed us in '99 that we
had to revisit it to see if what we had experienced was
real. I think there were even more folks there this January
than there were last year. We had gotten to La Posa South...
actually Tyson Wash... earlier last year... before the RV
Show crowd had materialized. This year we got there on
opening day but managed to go from north to south on Highway
95 without too much trouble. We were trying to get there and
get reasonably settled before the RV Club Online's Virtual
Campfire get-together Saturday evening. We spent the day
Saturday doing household chores. I took a walk and Steve did
some woodcarving then we headed for town about 3:30, not
knowing what kind of traffic delays we encounter on the way
to the meeting at Love's Truck Stop. We planned to stop at
Bird's Mailing Services and get snail mail and email squared
away. All the RV parks in town seemed to be packed full and
the BLM land was a veritable sea of RVs but for some reason
the traffic moved steadily.
Bird Mailing
Services was out of business. Bummer. It had been so
convenient last year to go in there and plug into their
telephone line to download email. We had noticed a place
called Boondockers Supply on the highway we came in on so we
went over there to see if they had any mailing services. For
five bucks a month we could have our mail sent to their post
office box and they would pick it up and put a coded sign on
the porch of their building so we would know to stop and
retrieve it. They also had a computer so that folks could
read their email for $2 per 15 minutes and another phone
line so you could download email onto your laptop. We signed
up for the mail service and then went to Love's, filled up
with fuel and waited to see when Virtual Campfire members
would show up for the get-together. Around 20 people showed
up for the gathering and chatted for a while at Love's then
some decided to head for the Chinese Restaurant for
dinner.
The
restaurant was crowded and noisy and we had already eaten
dinner so we just headed home. That was two days after the
moon had been full and the eclipse had taken place. The moon
was still huge and it was so beautiful to see the desert sky
with no city lights to dim it.
We had our
telephone in Yuba City forwarded to our wireless and we got
a couple of calls from wrong numbers and a sales person.
Since the phone seemed to work I tried to call Bev, the
editor of RV Companion and they were behind schedule getting
to Quartzsite. Said she would call us when she got here. I
also talked to Lorine briefly but she said there was a lot
of static at her end.
Sunday
morning I decided to walk to the public phone to see if it
had a place to hook up to with the powerbook. It was further
than I thought and I never did get there but I did find the
place where the music jam is held on Tuesdays. We had looked
and looked for it since our arrival but couldn't locate it.
Then I had to try and find where we had parked our house! I
didn't realize I had walked as far as I did, so I kept
thinking I had passed by our house already... but I finally
was able to see it! Whew!
Steve fixed
some loose siding on the RV in the afternoon and I visited
briefly with our neighbors to the east. They are from
Kansas. I went to bed early that night and read until my
flashlight batteries died. My television doesn't do 12 volt
and there is no radio reception where we were. Monday was
overcast off and on and I went up to the roof to take a
panorama photo of where we were parked. It was hot on the
rooftop.
When I came
down Steve was doing his wood carving so I walked over to Ed
and Ruth Pallan's rig to visit with them for a while. They
are from the Virtual Campfire group and were parked about a
quarter mile west of us. Steve had dinner ready when I got
home.
 Tuesday is music
jam session day. We go whenever we can. Spent the morning
sitting and marveling at the folks who line up for a couple
of hours in order to use the dump station. We are
continually amazed at the quantity of people out here on
this desert... loving it! Being dyed-in-the-wool people
watchers we parked down along the main road which also leads
to the dump station and water supply. In the afternoon there
were 225 people at the jam session. It lasted from 1 until 4
or 4:30.
Wednesday
was our turn to pack down the house and head for the dump
station. We had diligently watched for a slack time so it
only took us about 45 minutes to an hour after we got in
line. We dumped, disposed of the trash and filled the fresh
water tank and headed home. After dinner we decided it was
probably as good a time as any to go to the laundromat. Get
all the big chores out of the way in one day! The wind blew
hard all day but it made for a really clear, starry night.
We could hear coyotes barking and howling in the
distance.
The wind had
died down by Thursday morning. We headed for town to check
mail and scope out a few RV parks that might have space and
telephone availability. A visit to Rainbow Community behind
the Dome Rock was in order. Last year it was just getting
started it seems but it has really grown now. The beautiful
rainbow brick walls certainly add to the looks of the whole
place. A lot more lots had RVs on them and a lot of houses
and storage building have been installed. We asked at the
office about rentals and the woman told us that was possible
although a telephone would take a while to be
installed.
On the way
back to town we detoured up a dirt road to an old cabin to
see what it was all about. The area around it is all staked
out with mining claims. The cabin is just an old stone
structure that no one inhabits any longer. There were two of
them. One obviously newer than the other. It appeared as
though someone had tried to shore up the early one to keep
old age from claiming it. We explored the 14 day BLM land
east of town stopped by the RV Show for a quick look and
then headed home. The email situation has still not been
resolved.
Friday we
went to town to be able to get better reception on the
wireless phone to call a couple of RV parks on the river
below Parker Dam. One had no space. The other might have
three available by Monday... one of which could have a phone
turned on. We planned to drive up there the next day and
check it out so we filled our propane tanks and headed
home.
Saturday we
had a quick breakfast and set out to do battle getting
through the traffic in town. Finally got through and headed
north on 95. I had had a dream about staying somewhere on
the west coast of Arizona along the Colorado River so we
went up to check out Castle Rock Shores, the one I had
called about space.
Castle Rock
Shores is about eleven miles north of Parker, AZ, between
Buckskin Mountain State Park and River Island State Park.
When we got there, Marla, the manager, said she had just
been notified that someone was moving out the next day and
their telephone would but turned off Monday. We could have
the space. We accepted.
Now we
needed a local ISP. On our way back to Quartzsite we stopped
in Parker to see if we could connect with one but the only
one in existence around here was closed for the
weekend.
To get back
to Parker we had driven down the California side of the
Parker Strip to see what had changed. The Blue Water Casino
building is finished and beautiful, but we wonder why they
put it out of sight of the highway. It overlooks the river
and certainly offers hotel stayers a great view, but only a
big lighted sign indicates it's whereabouts along Highway 95
north of Parker.
There was to
be another get-together of the Virtual Campfire group so we
headed back to Quartzsite. We stopped along the highway
where some Canadian folks were having a bit of battery
problems. They said they thought they had everything under
control so we proceeded on.
 (the new tailgate after a little
paint and the trim from the stock tailgate)
We had been
having some tailgate trouble (getting it down after it had
gotten bent while Steve was trying to hitch up) and a
neighbor told us there was one for sale down the road.
.After the GT we headed home and figured if we were going to
hitch up the house we needed to stop to buy the tailgate if,
perchance it was still there. It was.
Sunday
started out beautiful. The main portion of the RV show was
over and people were moving out of the area in droves. The
line at the dump station was worse than ever. Steve worked
on the tailgate and it fit, so we were back in business. We
decided to pack down, dump the tanks and go to a 14 day area
north of Quartzsite to stay overnight and be on the other
side of the big traffic jam that would happen the next day.
We parked overnight in the Hi Jolly 14 Day area. I fixed
dinner and we are watching television not wanting to unpack
computers etc. for one night. I tried again unsuccessfully
to call Bev (from this side of town). Steve called his
mother.
Later that
night... around midnight... we were 'treated' to a real live
cop show! We were parked right by the gate to the area and a
small pick-up truck came zinging in and pulled up against
the fence across the roadway from us. He was closely
followed by four sheriff or marshal units that screeched to
a halt behind the pickup and they all jumped out of their
cars and got down behind the doors! About that time I was
wondering where I could go if this was going to be a
shoot-out. Steve was in the shower. The fellow in the truck
got out and put his hands way up high in the air as three
other units sped into the park. They cuffed him and put him
in one of the units and then a couple of them left, but the
others waited until a tow truck came and hauled the little
pick-up off. Never did find out that that was all
about.
Monday.
Moving day! Everyone seemed to be bailing out of Quartzsite
and out of the Hi Jolly area... going north, some... and
going south, more. That's good. We headed north to Parker
Dam, AZ and Castle Rock Shores. We stopped in Parker to get
subscribed to an ISP and 'Peggy' said the owner required us
to bring in the computer to have him install the
information. He was not there at the time and we didn't want
to drag the computers out of the house anyway. We groused a
bit and she relented and gave us the information. We paid
$24.95 for a month's service and headed north on 95 again.
Passed up the opportunity to shop at Safeway because it
would be a mess to try and put away stuff in a packed down
house.
 (click the photo to see an pamoramic
view)
When we
got here Marla the manager, was busy with other folks and
said we should just go park and get hooked up and then come
back to the office and register later. We got hooked up
between a couple of small scrawny citrus trees. The water is
hard... bigtime... according to folks who live here.
"Actually," said one woman, "if you don't mind the smell,
the taste and the sediment that occurs, it isn't bad water!"
We decided to use bottled for drinking. We'll have to
contend with encrusted pipes in the house, but I don't want
encrusted pipes in my body!
 Our house is
situated east/west with the door facing north... not good by
Indian standards but should work down in this little canyon.
I doubt they ever have really strong winds here. We're only
100 yards or so from the river and the spaces are wide
enough that we don't feel cramped. The river flows east to
west here and California is directly north of us across the
river. We are a couple of miles down river from Parker Dam
which holds back Lake Havasu. The water is calm and Great
Blue Herons, seagulls, mallards and loons seem to love it.
The park is home for lots of birds of various kinds but so
far the most prevalent are some vocal, brazen, shiny, dark
blue, iridized boat tail grackles... at least they are not
crows. We headed out to do some grocery shopping get gas,
and wash the truck. I had the door open until about ten pm
because it didn't get cold. Sunsets here are
extraordinary.
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