Quartzsite has been everything we had heard. There are parts of town where the traffic is so slow a little old lady in a walker could out walk it. There are areas where there is no parking, so everyone parks in a sandy river bed. The parked cars and trucks stretch for a couple of miles. The big RV show tent can be so crowded that you probably wouldn’t hit the ground if you fainted. It is true that if you are looking for something for your RV, if it isn’t here doesn’t exist. The entire town of Quartzsite is one giant Flea Market that goes on for miles and has at least a half dozen different “main” locations. There seems to be acres of Gem Stone Bead vendors. (Kathy and the other beaders from the Montana group have been having a field day looking for and buying stones for beading).
Every imaginable RV group has a rally site somewhere in the desert around Quartzsite during the week of the “Big RV show”. For a radius of 10 to 20 miles around Quartzsite, the desert is covered with RVs of every description. Having said that, Quartzsite is fun as long as you have the right frame of mind and aren’t in a hurry about anything. Out on the desert it is quiet during the day and there seems to be plenty of room for all of the RVs and no doubt thousands more. At night you hear the hum of the generators until about 10 PM.
We came to Quartzsite to experience the event that is ‘Quartzsite in January’, to meet in real time many of the Montana Owner’s that we have only “talked” with on the forum and to pick up a few of those RV items that you can only get in Quartzsite or a major RV show. It is surreal to be sitting out on the desert 10 miles from the nearest town or power pole and watch satellite TV while using the microwave. We have been very happy with our new stabilizers that take the movement out of the trailer when someone is walking through it.
The Montana Owner’s group has been a lot of fun. We have had a few people leave the circle each day and new people arrive each day so the circle has stayed about 22 trailers, but the actual number of attendees is about 60 people.
When we first talked of coming to Quartzsite we were going to come for a “couple of days” to try it out. Once Kathy heard about all of the beading vendors we were going to stay “a few days”. Now we will be staying at least 8 days and maybe longer. Talking to several people, we found some that arrive here in October and stay until mid-March. We are not ready for that, but now understand why people come back year after year and stay longer and longer.
One thing that Quartzsite seems to be lacking is birds. We have seen 6 birds in 5 days, 4 house finches at a feeder, 1 dove as a flyby and 1 American Kestrel on a wire.
Kathy must be in paradise at the flea market!!
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