HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
For all of you who think we are crazy to be living in a RV and roaming around the country—we still love it!
We started the new year by moving the RV from the Indio Elks lodge at $25.00 a night with full hook-ups, to the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio. We must have traveled three miles! We volunteered again this year to help Dick and Sue Engle with the signs at the WMHA rally. (Western Area FMCA) Irv and Linda were there to help, also. It has been three years since we volunteered at this rally, and we really enjoy working with Dick (who is the captain of sign volunteers), and helping to make and put up signs, (We have to take them down and put them back in storage, too)
Because we go in early to get things ready, we end up with full hook-ups for the entire show. We pay the fee to attend the show, but nothing extra for the hook-ups. A great deal for just volunteering. No wonder they have about 900 volunteers! Everything from parking, security, decorations and vender appreciation dinners. It is quite an operation to put on a rally. There were 1260 coaches signed up to attend and 1250 made it So if there are two people to a coach, that is 2500 people. That doesn’t count the people who park their coaches in parks or at the Elks and just come over for the show. It was a big crowd.
We went to a number of seminars, but mostly just helped with the signs and enjoyed the nightly entertainment. We also did some shopping at the Vendors Tent!
We stayed an extra three nights at the Fairgrounds after the show, for the special rate of $15.00 for full hook-ups. Frank is still having some physical therapy and has started working out at the gym. He is doing so well, and feeling a lot better.
On Wednesday our time at the fairgrounds was up, so we headed to Quartzsite, AZ. We have heard so much about the winter camping in the desert and a group of Elks we belong to were having a pre-rally get together, so we thought we would see what it was like. We have four days before Frank’s next appointment and it’s only about 120 miles east on I-10. Nice to be mobile! Off we go for another adventure.
We got as far as the AZ border and pulled off at the Flying J to fill up with propane and diesel before “boon docking.” Good thing we pulled off. There was a bad accident 5 miles into AZ and traffic was stopped back to where we pulled off. So, we filled up, parked and took a nap! No hurry—we’re retired. By the time we were ready to head down the road the traffic had cleared and we finished driving the 25 miles into Quartzsite.
We had a general idea of where our fellow Elks were parked, but even the GPS wasn’t sure because we didn’t have any street number.
We followed the signs to find our fellow Elks. And this “rock hound” was there to greet us at the driveway. We finally found the campsite and it was really out in the “pucker brush.” Because of the delay on the road we missed happy hour and the auction. Oh well, nothing we really needed.
That’s our group ahead, not a very tight circle of Elks. We parked at the end, hope the Injuns don’t get us. The circle had two rows.
Our closest neighbors circle of RV’s was a little neater. All the RV’s faced in towards the campfire. Look at all the flags flying high in the wind. Can’t miss this campsite.
There were a few “loners” that parked off by themselves. Just them and the Saguaros. Every thing was flat and level. It was graveled, but very dusty. We only had one windy day. The rest of the days were cloudy in the morning and sunny and nice during the day. Sweat shirt in the morning and “T” shirt in afternoon. Campfire after dark!
We had heard so much about Quartzsite and the big swap meet from other RVers that we just had to go into town (about 8 miles from where we camped). and check it out for ourselves.
Below is a photo of the roofs of the tents set up for the swap meet. Each vendor has a space and there are rows and rows of vendors. I took this picture as we were crossing on the overpass of I-10. There is a traffic jam each day getting across the bridge.
Above, if you look just below the mountains, you can see the roof of the “big tent.” Inside there are more vendors set up. The weekend we were there was the big “RV Show,” with lots of vendors selling things for RVers. The next “Show” is the Rock and Mineral Show and it will highlight things for that venue. The big tent is used all winter for different “shows.” While we were there it was so crowded it was hard to get down the aisles. I’m sure the vendors did very well, as I saw a lot of people carrying out bags. So much for the recession.
All through the area there were lots of dealerships set up to sell. We saw a lot of used vehicles, and new vehicles from previous years that were never sold. It has been rough times for these RV dealers, and they were all about dealing and selling these units.
No comments:
Post a Comment