After Oro Valley we traveled west toward Yuma, AZ. We didn’t see much in Yuma so we continued and crossed the border into southern California. We stopped at another casino which was just 2 miles from Los Algodones Mexico. Many Americans travel there to access cheap dental care and prescription drugs. It was late afternoon by the time we got settled but we decided to take a quick drive to the Mexican border to check out the situation as we were planning on going into Mexico the next day. I wanted to have my teeth cleaned and Tom had a little work he wanted done. We parked our Jeep on the US side and followed the fenced-in sidewalk right across the border into Mexico. Most of the shops had closed for the day and there were not too many people around. We saw the signs for several dentisits and pharmacies and decided we could just come back the next day and pick one. We looked around and did not see any signs for the border crossing back into the US so we just re-traced our steps and took the same sidewalk back to our Jeep. No one stopped us to check our passports or to ask us any questions. We thought it was kind of unusual and it certainly did not say much about our border security!
The next day we went back, parked the Jeep and walked into Mexico again. We found a dentist and got our dental work completed for less than half of what we would have paid at home (even with my dental insurance!).
OUR MEXICAN DENTIST
Los Algodones is a cute litle town with lots of shops and restaurants. We did a little shopping and were pretty successful at bargaining with the merchants. We learned very quickly that if you find something you want, you ask the price. When they give you the price you hesitate and begin to walk away and the price begins to come down. After a little more negotiating you end up paying about half of the original price! Tom bought a leather belt, I got some earings and then we tried the highly recommended shrimp tacos for lunch. When it was time to go home we followed the crowd and ended up waiting over an hour in a line to cross back into the US the way we supposed to go the day before. This time they did check our passports and our shopping bags!
GOING HOME THE RIGHT WAY!
After relaxing for 3 days at the casino ($5.44 per night!) we traveled just 175 miles to our next destinantion, Indio, CA.for a big Western Area RV Rally. This was a huge Rally with over 1,200 RV’s parked at the Riverside Fairgrounds. During the day we attended seminars about “RV stuff” and shopped at the many, many vendors. We bought a few things including a 5 flag holder for the front of the coach and 4 flags from our “Home” states (MN, OH, MA, SD) plus an American Flag.
Every evening they had entertainment. The first night they had a Western Band that was excellent. The other 2 nights were a couple of Las Vegas Show performers; not as good but it was all fun and we met quite a few other full-timers! We even joined the Full-Timers Chapter of the FMCA and hope to hit one of their Rallys sometime. While we were in the area we also did a little exploring and checked out the Palm Springs and Palm Desert neighborhoods. We even found the Hotel California!
WELCOME TO THE ....
From Indio we traveled back into AZ to a town called Quartzsite. This is a town in the middle of the desert with a population of around 3,000 people for most of the year. However, from January through March about 200,000 or more RV’ers roll into town for 3 big shows: an RV Show, a Rock & Gem Show and a Classic Car Show. In addition to the shows, there are hundreds of other vendors who set up shop for the season.
Quartzsite has always been a gathering spot since the westward progression of the settlers, miners and prospectors when it became a stage coach stop along the route. One miner while digging for gold found water instead and the area soon developed as a supply center. It was named Quartzsite because of the quartz ore found in the area. I found my own piece of real Quartzsite quartz while walking in the desert with the dogs!
KATHY"S QUARTZSITE QUARTZ
There are several RV parks in Quartzsite but many RV’ers choose to dry camp in the desert. We opted for the desert camping and found a great spot with plenty of room for Abbey & Jameson to run and explore. Although Quartzsite has a reputation for very windy weather, we lucked out and had 10 days of great weather! Last year during the big RV Show they had torrential rains and a tornado touched down not too far away. We are happy our trip was this year!
Quartzsite also has an interesting bookstore owned by Paul, a former boogie woogie blues musician and almost nudist. (Almost X-Rated photo included!) He has a collection of over 180,000 books and also stocks a smaller sampling of music and videos. Tom found 2 books he had been searching for and I found a mystery novel in the $1.00 section!
Since we were not spending any money on camping fees, we decided we could eat out on a few of the nights we were there. Although we can’t really rave about the quality of the food, the entertainment was great. Silly Al’s had pretty good pizza and karaoke or live music every night but our favorite place was the Quartzsite Yacht Club. In the 1960s a businessman from California bought an old building in Quartzsite and opened it as a restaurant. As a joke, since it was in the middle of the desert, he decided to call it the Quartzsite Yacht Club and the sign above the door said “Welcome Aboard ~ Long Time No Sea!” If California ever has the BIG earthquake, it might become ocean front property! They now have over 7,000 members! Tom & I joined and we got a T-Shirt, a hat, a memberships card and a Membership Certificate suitable for framimg! Our membership entitles us to reciprocity with many other Yacht Clubs and some members have actually used their card to get a free boat slip in other parts of the country!
For a small town, Quartzsite has a big model airplane club with an excellent flying field. Most of the pilots were ‘snowbirds’ but there were a few locals. They have a paved 600 foot runway with a cross runway, a helicopter pad, and bleachers for the spectators. Tom got in 3 successful flights before the winds picked up toward the end of our stay.
RELAXING AFTER ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT!
After Quartzsite we traveled north and across the Colorado River to join some friends we had met in October at the Balloon Fest. They live in Hemet, CA but they were going to be at an RV Park on the river for 2 weeks and gave us a Free Guest pass to join them. We got 3 free nights of camping and $100.00 for fuel for listening to their sales presentation about buying a membership in their park. We listened politely but declined the offer!
And now we are in Lake Havasu City, AZ in a great state park right on the other side of the river. They even have a dog beach so Abbey & Jameson are “Happy Campers!” Tom found another great model airplane club here with another great flying field. Last Saturday we went to a “swap meet’ at the Club and Tom bought another plane to fly. This one is a Piper Cub and has pontoons so he can fly off the water! He has been wanting one of these for a long time! He is still working on putting it together but hopes to have it in the air very soon! You’ll have to wait for the next update to hear how he does!
See you down the road!
PHOTOS
