Terry went to the rock club in the morning and later about about 2 PM we thought the traffic would let us get to the big show without a problem. 
Yes it did and we found a parking space in the lot right next to the tent. 

Since this is Wednesday we were able to walk and take pictures and not have to put up with the crowds. 

As you can see this is a huge exposition of people selling everything form pots and pans to Canada resort vacations. 

Now I knew from the FRS reality radio network I had been listing to, there was a Smoked Turkey Legs stand, and as you can see it was popular.  Think I had one once and not sure if I liked it. May have to go back just down the road from us in La Posa North. Walk or ride the bike and check them out again. Now the big sellers were the Ice Cream stands. I think we saw at least three of them, one making it in white mountain ice cream freezers powered by antique one cylinder John Deere gas engines. They were in Rice Ranch last year and got a clue to move to the big show and charege $5 for a big cone. Me thnks they made a wise decision. A couple of bucks higher than the others but with the putt, putt ice cream machine right out in sight people we eager to buy the real thing. I didn't get pictures of these Ice Cream venders as Tery was begging for us to get in line for cones. I kept saying  NO and grabbing his arm and saying move on, and rushed us past each one. We should have stopped to lick the cream but the line made it easer to just go on by. As it got over 80 today and the big show is not over for a few more days, bet we will be back to indulge in some of this forbidden fruit. Make mine rocky road. 
 

On the outside you get to see the RV supplies and fun items for your buying pleasure. Need a blow up Bass boat, it's here. 

Much more later as I'm still getting more pictures run through Autostich. The above pictures were done with autostich. 
A free program for making panorama views from two or more pictures. Tigoa George hooked me up with the is program. 

 We next went to the General Market and found they were pretty much wiped out of most of everything. The truck comes in on Thursday to resupply and bring their sale flyer items.  Next off to the Roadrunner for milk and eggs. They also were short of products. But you know the vender produce stand next to the post office was filled with everything including milk, eggs, and so much more and at competitive prices to the sticks and bricks stores. Kind of strange as they did get a clue and were fully stocked and ready to make some money. We are finding Q to have MANY more RVs right now and the local stores were not prepared for this influx. Could it have something to do with the 80 deg. temps all week. You be the judge. 
Anyway this is the best we have ever seen it, weather wise here in January, and people are flocking here to experience the Q thing. Guess they have been reading my blog on why we come here.   Now you all come and have a great time, but in week or two get the heck, out of town and leave this  to the few who spend the entire season here. We tend to get possessive of the space around us in the desert. The BLM flyer sez you need to provide 15 feet between RVs. Are you kidding me. If I can see or hear you, you are too close. That's what they made parking lots for.  We did drive Scadden Wash 14 day free BLM camping area on the esat side of town south of I-10 and WOW the more we went the more it DID look like a parikng lot. The Escapees Boomers were at the end of the maintained road way back in and were there in force. Now this is on the east side of Q way up the hill overlooking Q. I will say they do have a great view but the drive is long way from town. Sure it is free for 14 days but for $40 for 14 days in closer with just as much room. (with water and dump) You could save that much on fuel to get in and out it seems to me. But the view higher up here is better I will say that. Me thinks that is why they love it up here as they come back every year to the same location. 

I think I might have to later talk about this heard mentality grouping thing. So the men gather outside and the wives spend the day fixing the potluck dishes for each evening meal. Wonder who, are having the true fun. 
I do think the wives do get their just rewards when they get to the big tent show, and tell their hubbys, I want that new set of cookware that the nice cute guy is selling under the bright lights.  And he goes off and buys that new must have gadget. So they both go back to the MH happy ready for the cocktail hour around the campground fire comparing whose wife spent the most money. 

No matter what, have a great time in Q, this is the best time of our lives, so enjoy...
 

Friday Jan. 23
 

A couple of more pics from the big tent show. I remember when Malia Lane was at the 2006 Class of Fulltimers here in Q. How special she is. 
She showcased her new spring shoes she was so proud of.  Now look they are selling then in the big tent area. 

And to think you don't need to gather firewood anymore. Just plug your fireplace into your propane source. How green is that?  Me thinks these are selling big time, as if you can afford this lifestyle in a big RV you can afford the propane to fire up a fake fire in the space between you and the next RV, in RV Resort parking lots. And excuse me, just how many of you have an electric fireplace INSIDE your RV. We had that option on our new 5er but went, no way. If we want a fire we can go outside. Sure a nice electric fake glow on a clod night with a inside fake fire would be nice. ( I know they do provide actual heat with a small fan) But if camping for more than a week paying metered electric rates, or boondocking this is not a so sound.  Now if you travel and stop every night in a RV park where they don't allow campfires and you are starved for this experience go for it. 

It's Friday night and we are eating in as we thought about going out  for the fish fry events around  town, but we figured the wait time would not be worth it. So Terry is cooking hush puppies,  fish fillets in the oven, and shrimp cocktails.   NOW he did almost burn us out when the oil for the hush puppies overheated.  It didn't burst into flames, but close to it, and it took all our efforts to air out the 5er. YES there was considerable YELLING on my part about how he could do better watching his cooking stove . Enough said. 

Now as we realize we are still in one piece and after a big hug,  feeling better and watching HD TV. Life is good in Q if you survive the small stuff. 
 

Sunday Jan. 25

We have been busy meeting and greating freinds from the rock club and walked around the QIA POW WOW today. 

The Pow Wow is a celebration of all things rock, gem and mineral. Rockhound vendors and shoppers flock from around the world to sell and seek treasure — from raw stones to fine finished jewelry.    More than 400 booths fill the nine acre QIA showgrounds during the five day show. Displays include the latest in rockhound equipment; sphere-polishing machines, automatic gold panners, metal detectors, jewelry making supplies; and the resulting beautifully crafted jewelry. Pow Wow vendors bring a mother lode of gemstones, geodes, gold, opals, sapphires, silver, turquoise and more. Some vendors bring freshly mined stones in their natural state; others sell jewelry, from fine to funky!    Demonstrations include silver smithing, wire wrapping, gemstone carving and faceting, silver and gold chain making, beading, flint knapping and gold panning.
   Quartzsite Roadrunners Gem & Mineral Club hosts rockhound field trips daily. Join the hunt for agates, jasper, birds-eye and banded rhyolite, limonite cubes, desert roses and fossils. Sign up at the Gem Club booth, near the north-west corner of the QIA Community Building.

Plan on doing more on this event on a post on Monday but had to share a post I did in rv.net as it related to the nasty things RVers do to this area when they come to camp in the BLM and don't understand or care about their actions. 

RE: Gray water to Black water transfer? 
Orig. RV.NET forum link

The orig topic was how to get gray water to their black water tanks.  But degraded into why not just dump the gray on the ground. Some places welcome that they say... 

My Post...
So from the above posts, many think dumping gray water is great for watering.  And also here in the desert in Quartzsite, AZ in the BLM. Now what they don't understand is gray water is full of dishwater soap, grease, and food scraps. Black  would be a better choice if we thought about it to, dump as it is ALL natural. All creatures do it and they don't spread dish soap and grease all over the place when they poop. Guess which one will degrade naturally. You got it. So the bottom line... spreading your gray around is worse then dumping so to speak your #2. 

See the article Mark Nemeth (now Escapees Technical Advisor)  did on how to pump your gray to your back tank in this article he wrote. 
We do the dish washing tub and dump it in the stool. Or black in 70 and our gray is 35. They need to turn that around. But all Rv seemed to be that same way with the tanks big for black. Guess they think we must be full of it so to speak... and do the #2 much more than we shower or wash dishes. 

The bottom line so to speak here in Quartzsite, AZ is the water pollution problem. Septic systems were the norm since day one and now the ground water, what little there is of it is not fit for use. Rainbow Acres has had to drill many wells to ever get more usable water as is the same story for much of the town. The town now has city water water from very deep wells. Many of the RV parks resisted from hooking up to city water and sewer. So you wonder why the RV rates have gone up.  But with thousands of RVers staying in the the lands around here for about 6 months each season and for the few who don't respect or understand, the roll they play, with gray water pollution by dumping it in the desert. It bubbles up so to speak and is killing plants and wildlife. It may as you think soak in but later after it rains, it  bubbles back up and is toxic. People who visit this area should care about all this. 
Happy campers, care about how they impact the area they have fun in. People are doing better but, not enough are taking the time to learn about these things... We in our blog want to encourage this lifestyle and show the best of what we have found doing it. 

Ok I step down as I'm not the perfect camper by any means but we do care about when see people who don't respect the great outdoors they claim to love. Spending big bucks for RVs and then they come and trash the very area they recreate in. 
 
 

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