Boondocking in the Arizona Desert

Sunday, January 16, 2011

From Quartzsite, AZ

We left Benson SKP Park about 8:45 Saturday morning for the 315 mile drive to Quartzsite following Bob & Molly.  We will be parking in the desert with a group of Escapees that will be hosting a huge Happy Hour on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. 

As we got to the west side of Phoenix, Bob  & Molly peeled off at a Wal-Mart for a little re-stocking of their pantry, so we continued about 50 miles on down I-10 to a rest area to wait on them.

We arrived in Quartzsite shortly after 3pm, found the location that we will be parking while we are here.  About 10 rigs are already here, and about 10 more are expected, to help with the Happy Hour.

Everyone gathered up about 4 to visit a while, then someone suggested we order a bunch of the $1.00 Taco's from one of the Vendor Stands.  So someone took orders from everybody, and a couple of the guys took off to pick them up.  Great Tacos, too.

Bit first a quick explanation of Boondocking for our non-rv-ing readers.  Boondocking is spending time in your coach or other type RV in area with no hook-ups.. no electricity, no water, no sewer, no WiFi, no nothing..

In order to sustain a boondocking experience for very long, you must be prepared.  Now Donna and I have spent 1 night occassionally in a Rest Area or even a Wal-Mart parking lot. But we are about to spend about 10 days here in Quartzsite boondocking.

We have fresh water storage of over 100 gallons and two waste water tanks  for the gray and black water.  We have 3 large batteries to store power and  an inverter to convert the battery power to electricity for the appliances.  We have a generator to also generate electricity and at the same time charge the batteries.  Some of the other folks here also have solar panels to help charge the batteries.

We met some folks nearby, but not with our group, from College Station, Tx and they invited us to join them at their campfire.  Since they also have a Foretravel indentical to ours we had a lot to talk about.

Sunday

I was up early this morning to try and catch the first rays of sunlight coming over the mountains behind us.  I even got a few pictures of the sunrise.

 
The sunrise at Quartzsite

Later we drove over to some of the vendor areas, and checked out a few of the hundreds of vendors.

 
One of the larger vendors.

Before returning to our coaches, we drove a few miles south of town, and off into the desert, where we found Howie and Nora, two good friends that we last saw in Rockport last March. It is always so great to re-new our friendships.

I will end today's blog with picture a our view late this afternoon as the sun set over the mountains to our west. 

 

 

Comments

[Kathy Donley]

Great pictures! Know that you will have a fun, fun time. Wish we were with you, but reading about it is the next best thing.
Hugs

[Barb Williams]

The sunrise and sunset pictures were great - What a pretty way to start and end the day. Have a fun time in the desert!! Hi to everyone there
Barb & Bob

[arlene sullivan]

Very pretty pics.. Look forward to seeing you Wednesday..