Quartzsite is a tiny town off of Interstate 10 in the
middle of the desert in Arizona. In past years, we have blown by it on a
regular basis as we worked our way south and I have always had to pick my jaw
up off my lap at the infestation of RV’s in evidence. Every winter, MILLIONS of
people come here with their motorhomes to boondock (camp) in the desert.
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| Just a small cadre of Boondockers |
This year, because there was a Ham Radio event taking place
that Chris wanted to attend, we stopped and stayed for 3 days. To say that this
has been an “unusual” experience is an understatement in the extreme.
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| Some RV Parks will only allow newer vehicles. This one did not! |
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| And right after the above RV came in, this one arrived! |
We do NOT “boondock” (parking with no amenities) so I made
a reservation in an RV park that, while pretty basic, is nice enough. The
spaces are quite large and level and the staff is very nice. The park is right
on one of the main roads so all day long vehicles (more often than not RV’s)
are roaring into and out of town. There is no TV (cable or antenna) but that’s
not a huge loss for us since we are big on reading and we can get MSNBC on
Sirius Radio. We have our own hotspot so it doesn’t matter that the WiFi is
impossibly slow (as reported by others who tried to use it).
As soon as we exited I-10 we were overwhelmed by the
traffic…3/4 of which are bus sized vehicles zooming from place to place. With
few traffic lights and a speed limit of 45mph through town getting to the RV
park was a bit of a white-knuckle experience. Once we were parked and driving
around in the car, we quickly discovered that when the traffic isn’t racing, it’s
mostly at a stand-still and creeping forward one car length at a time.
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| The Gem Show set up as seen from a traffic backup on the overpass. |
Apparently set up to exacerbate the visitor problem, there are
numerous very large activities scheduled during the winter months. While we
were there, there was a huge, week-long RV show taking place (as if there weren’t
already enough RV’s in residence), a 2-month long gem show and a swap meet that
went from one end of town to the other. Oh…and the Ham Radio Fest. Turns out we
had just missed a Pow Wow and a hot air balloon event.
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| Hi Jolly's burial place. |
One
of the highlights in Quartzsite is the
burial place of a guy named Hadji Ali. Seems the locals had trouble pronouncing
his name so they called him Hi Jolly. Hi Jolly was an Ottoman citizen who, in
1856, was hired to be a camel driver in a U.S. Army experiment that failed
partly because the burros, horses & mules that were also used by the Army
were afraid of the camels and partly because the congress declined to continue
funding the project (sound familiar?).
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| THE LAST CAMP OF HI JOLLY BORN SOMEWHERE IN SYRIA ABOUT 1828 DIED AT QUARTZITE DECEMBER 16, 1902 CAME TO THIS COUNTRY FEBRUARY 10, 1856 CAMELDRIVER - PACKER SCOUT - OVER THIRTY YEARS A FAITHFUL AID TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT 1935 |
The animals were auctioned off in
California and there are none left in Arizona tho’ in my opinion they would
have no trouble surviving here. So, old Hi Jolly is buried in Quartzsite and is
now a tourist attraction.
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| One of the fancier graves in the Hi Jolly Cemetery. Note the lantern...in case the spirit is afraid of the dark. |
Another big attraction is the Reader’s
Oasis Bookstore. Its claim to fame is the owner, who is a nudist, and is “on
display” along with the books. We love bookstores in general but this one
sounded exceptionally interesting (at least to me) so we made sure to stop in
for some “browsing”. Unfortunately, the store was closed because the owner
& his wife were home with the flu. We were in luck, though, A couple of
local authors were set up on the front veranda selling their books. In the
spirit of supporting local “talent” we purchased one book from each. Rising Sun,
The Giant Warrior by Buddy Hanna, billed as the first in a continuing series.
This book is in large print for the 60+ crowd. Humor Around Horses is by Stu
Campbell and he assured us that these short stories are all true…and are the
perfect length for reading in the bathroom.
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| The Bookmobile (home?) of the bookstore's owner. |
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| The bookstore was closed but local authors were set up in front to sell their tomes. |
Time was short so we didn’t make it
to the Stetler tungsten mine or to Joanne's Gum Museum with its “large
collection of gum wrappers from around the world”. Since we have decided that Quartzsite
was an interesting stop neither of us is driven to return those will be filed
in the “opportunities missed” box.
From Quartzsite we have moved on to
Phoenix…a different kind of madness.
