our visit to Quartzsite...

After leaving Lake Havasu AZ State Park, we drove south to....Quartzsite!!!

I keep saying that Q isn't really our thing, yet we have found ourselves here for a few days each year!

We pulled into our usual spot - out on Plomosa Road, a few miles north of the little town of Q. This would be our new 'spot' - dry camping for the next 4 days or so... no services out here in the desert; no electricity, no water other than the 110 gallons that we filled up with at Lake Havasu, no sewer hookup...

It is said that the little town of Q boasts a population of 2,100 during the scorching summers, and that number grows, primarily due to the influx of RVers and the vendors they draw, to over 3/4 of a million during the peak of the season, which is in January. The draws of Q are many and varied - during Jan, a couple of the biggest draws are the Rock and Mineral Show and also the big RV show (21-29th this year).

Our view...

Q (to us) is just a big, open, level valley full of catus, shrubs, and sharp rocks. (last year we had to change a tire here) One of the draws for us is the RV parts store. We spent parts of several days checking out different areas of vendors. The boys bought some great wood swords and I found a couple of books. We went back to pick up some more swords the next day for gifts, and found that their price had doubled. You never know what you will find in Q - you can often bargain with a vendor to get a better deal, but also, they may find their wares selling well and decide that they can still sell them at a higher price. Maybe he didn't know that (probably) all those swords that he had sold the previous day had been to 1 family! LOL! (and we didn't buy anymore at the jacked up price...)

This year, we would not have gone down to Q except that there were at least 4 other full-time families there. yeah!

Since we have been on the road, 2 and a half years, we have only met ONE other fulltime family.

This year, we spent 4 days at Q, meeting 3 other fulltime families. We were surprised to find that Quartzsite has a very nice playground! And we had a lovely afternoon playing there with the other families' kids last Saturday. The little girls played on the equipment; Bethy was very sweet to watch them so I could visit with the other moms. The guys spent their time on the basketball court, joined by a 20 y.o. young man from the community.

On Sunday, we went to First Baptist Church there in Q, running into a shop keeper that we had met in the vendors. And the kid that the boys had been playing b-ball with was there also :)

We had a great visit to Quartzsite - and are so thankful that the other families took the time to meet with us. We hope that we will get to meet up with them down the road yet again.

We knew that a few other families were in Arizona also - at a Thousand Trails park near Prescott.

So, we pulled up our jacks, and took our nearly full tanks and hit the road hoping to catch them before they moved on.

Funny how we find ourselves making new on the road traditions whether we realize it or not - like Quartzsite - we have been here each year for 3 or 4 days. Another tradition seems to be the Outlets at Anthem (just north of Phx.) - we came over to Pheonix and then hit the interstate heading north towards Flagstaff. The outlet mall seems to be another of our unintended traditions - we have stopped here each year also. This time, we hadn't thought ahead to the fact that we would be driving right by them. And just at lunch time too! So, we pulled in, made lunch (love toting my kitchen along!), and then stopped in at a couple of our fav stores. We found Jake and Eli new shoes on a major clearance (love!), and then Vaughn and Jake hit the road in the 5er to make sure that they would get to the campground before dark.

The littles staked out the playground equipment with Eli supervising, and Beth and I (with Caleb), went to a few stores. Caleb, coming after 3 girls in a row, and growing as fast as he has been, doesn't have enough clothes to last between laundromat visits. We like to have a week's worth of clothing for each person as I like to do laundry every 5 days, but sometimes it's a week before I get to it. We went to my favorite store for the little girls, Naartjie, and found some clothes for Caleb - already marked down 3 or 4 times, and then another 40% off -got him 5 outfits for about $5 each! ~and had a lot of fun shopping with my Bethy ;)

Then we were off too - trying to catch up with the 5er...which actually reached the campground before we even left the outlets! oops! LOL!

This is our 5th Thousand Trails park, and this is our current view...

Where we are having a lovely time meeting and getting to know the other families that are here!

We are enjoying being back in familiar territory! It's funny how Arizona has become one of our favorite places; much different than that first year when we initially came to the dry desert and couldn't fathom why anyone would choose to live here!

We are enjoying sunny 65 degree days, but we have to unhook the water and drain the hose at night as it has been getting down to the low 20s.

We will be spending our weekend visiting the nearby National Parks, both of which we have not been to before! Jr. Ranger badges, here we come :)