Here we are at a rally for people with the same brand of motor home as we have; an Alpine. We are in Quartzsite, Arizona. This is a somewhat flat stretch of the Sonora Desert. This is where a rather large group of “Snow Birds” hang out for the winter. They camp out on the desert on BLM land. (That is Bureau of Land Management) We are camped with about a hundred other Alpine coaches on the desert. Other groups and rallies are doing the same thing all around us until the desert looks like one gigantic RV park. The official census for 2000 places the population of Qartzsite at 3354 people. The unofficial census in January and February swells to about a million people. I drew a box on my DeLorme map around the area that I think represents the active campground area and it is something around 40 square miles. Now I did the same thing around the urban area of Portland Oregon not counting the outlying communities like Gresham, Oregon City, Tualatin and Beaverton for example. It has a similar size and the 2000 census lists Portland at just over a half million. The town of Quartzsite is a little larger than Scappoose. During the day it is one seething mass of humanity. The streets are slowly moving parking lots. There are huge flea market sales lots all over town and a flood of people seep from one tent to the next looking for bargains. I have been told that when night starts to set in the Snow Birds evacuate to the desert because they don’t like to drive at night, and the town becomes quiet again.
Today Judy and I hopped on our bicycle and rode out into the desert, away from Quartzsite, to visit an intaglio called the Bouse Fisherman. You can view a website devoted to these intaglios at Bouse Fisherman link.
This site shows aerial photos. My photos at ground level cannot do it justice. We did get to walk around them and view them from just outside a low protective fence. All of that and we only had one flat.
We are meeting lots of people doing the same thing we are doing with the same motor home. We are hearing about all the things that will go wrong and how to fix them. Everyone agrees, however. The Alpine is a really great motor home and they would replace it with another Alpine if it burned up. (A personal aside for Dave and Jeanie McKay; we met Randy Wellette from Guaranty RV and he indicated you folks are really enjoying your new coach, and he isn’t holding a grudge for you selling us your Alpine. I hear you had to remove the satellite dome to get the new one in your garageÂ…oops.)
It is time to send our love to all of our friends and remind you that you can review these stories at any time on our web blog at www.dinsmore-enterprises.com and when I post them there I usually post a photo or two covering the subject of the day.
Gary and Judy
