Quartzsite and beyond

Camping at BLM in Quartzsite

Quartzsite, Arizona is a mecca for many RVers.

It began as a town of about 3-4000 in the desert, north of Yuma and close to the California border. Now thousands of RVers gather here, some passing through but most staying for weeks or months. A few weeks ago at a mineral and gem show, someone told me there were more than 200,000 RV's there!

Desert near Quartzsite

When you first approach 
Quartzsite, you wonder where all those RV's are since all I could see was 
desert, sand, some bushes and mountains in the distance. Then I began to see RV's scattered in the desert and this increased as I got into town where there are numerous RV parks. Some of those were so packed in , you could just see a small space between them. The town is set up for RVers with many RV sales and services. There was also an "RV Pit Stop" where you could fill up with propane, use the dump station, get water and some RV supplies, all at a cost of course. It would have cost me around  $20 to dump and fill my water tank so I decided to get it later after leaving since I was still OK. 

One of many flea markets on the Main Street

Sign on courthouse door!!

The main Street of Quartzsite
The town had everything you could possibly want including many stores, bakery, gas stations, shower and laundry facilities and fast food places.
There were RV's in sight everywhere.

I then drove to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management ) sites of which there were several. They are owned by govt and people can dry camp there for up to 2 weeks for free or for long term for a fee (can't remember amount but is very little)
There are no services and you just drive to any place in the area that suits. A lot of travelers stay there and I loved it! ( hard to explain that!)
While at Quartzsite, I went to "Solar Bill's" to check into another solar panel.He's the solar guru and was extremely helpful giving me much useful advice and helping me choose the right panel (not the most expensive, and I got a good deal!)
Since I dry camp so much and I don't have a generator, this makes a huge difference in providing me enough electricity for all I need)
I also visited a library to catch up on e-mail and chuckled when I saw I had to walk through the courtroom to get to it!
Oops, got my blog messed up I think!
After Quartzsite, I drove on to California. It will be a while before you hear about my adventures here as I'll have no services for 2-3 weeks while dry camping.

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear , but the triumph over it." (Nelson Mandela)