Quartzsite 2011 Recap

Once again, the RV America Quartzsite Trailer Trash gang had a friendly get-together during the big RV bash in Quartzsite, Arizona. Folks came from all over the United States and Canada to share good times, fellowship, good munchies, and even libations now and then.

It is always a pleasure to have "newbies" join us to see just what the "Quartzsite experience" is all about. We realize that Quartzsite is not everyone's cup of tea, but we encourage every RVer to at least try it once. Saddle up and come join us next year—same time, same place. Everyone is welcome.

Shown, below, is a copy of the RV America post that proclaimed what fun we all enjoyed.

Quartsite 2011 Recap.

Yet another annual gathering of the RV America Quartzsite Trailer Trash Gang is now history. We all had a great time, shopped 'til we dropped, had a few libations now and then, and chowed down on wonderful munchies put together by the assembled crowd.

Our tried-and-true old timers Virg/sharon and Karl/Sandy arrived early and did their best to "reserve" space for 10 to 14 rigs in the La Posa North BLM camping area (which frowns on trying to reserve more space than you can occupy). They did a great job of keeping possible squatters out of the chosen RVA area.

Once the entire group had finally arrived and assembled, we had quite a good turn out--five RVA old-timers and five newbies. This year, we had old-timer representation from Washington, California, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, and West virginia. We had five newbies join the RVA get-together (two from California and three from Canada). Mike/Linda badgered two California newbies into joining them in Quartzsite; Virg/Sharon befriended yet another Canadian couple (this time from Ontario) who also joined the gang; and Chuck/Lorraine managed to snag two other Canadian couples (from British Columbia), so we had a good mix of northern hemisphere couples.

During our stay in Quartzsite, we also had drop-in visits from RV friends from California and Wyoming.

As usual, Mike/Linda were able to find the hidden hookups that always lurk near the RVA camp site. One newbie wondered why Virg/Sharon didn't grab it since they were there first, but Virg graciously mentioned that they always saved the hookups for Mike and Linda. Another newbie asked if he could get some water if he ran out (first time dry camping). Of course, we said he could grab some water, but he managed to get through our campout without needing more water.

Even though one of the newbies was camped right next to us, he never put two and two together -- with Mike/Linda having electric and water hookups but still needing to run their generator to recharge Mike's electric scooter!

The evening before the Trailer Trash gang ritual of initiating the newbies into the RVA Quartzsite Trailer Trash Gang, we had 28 folks lined up for the wonderful munchies put out for our grazing and gratitude.

This year, Linda added a new element to the initiation ceremony. In the past, we have presented each newbie couple with a Quartzsite Trailer Trash hat (which are getting more and more scarce and difficult to find). In the past, a few of the ladies had expressed their dissatisfaction in not getting a memento of their RVA campout experience. Leave it to Linda to solve the problem. This year, each of the ladies in attendance received a beige colored sun visor that had been specially embroidered with "Quartzsite Diva" on the brim. The new addition to the Trailer Trash initiation ceremony was warmly received by all in attendance.

We had great campfires most of the nights, but the wind came up rather strongly on two occasions, so we all decided to retire to various get-together rigs for card games, domino games, or whatever each group wanted to play. Linda delighted both the oldies and newbies by putting her special copper pipe and garden hose gismo in the camp fire -- making the flames turn various shades of teal, green, royal blue, and sometimes even a bright white. (Wonderful to see, but difficult to photograph).

There was, of course, talk about the cancelled bi-annual trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, but everyone understood the risks of heading south of the border with the current instability between the various drug lords. It was agreed that we would hopefully be able to resume our south-of-the-border excursions again in 2013 (if the Mexican situation stabilizes).

For those of you interested, here is a brief (from me?, ya sure) description of this year's Quartzsite experience.

The RV show (the big tent) and Tyson Wells is in good shape, with the usual number of vendors and lots of people browsing. Sadly, the Main Event has just about disappeared -- with only one short row of tents behind the usual brick and mortar stores on Main street. Now that Main street is a paved four-lane road, there is much less congestion than in the past (but also many less folks). The rows and rows of vendors that used to line both sides of Main street are almost non-existent.

The usual purveyors of RVs brought hundreds of new and used motorhomes and fifth wheels into town for the perusal and tire kicking rituals of many RV folks.

The La Posa North BLM camping area was not nearly as full as several years ago when many more folks came to be part of the Quartzsite experience. However, some of the RVA TT gang noted that the BLM area was more crowded this year than in the last two years or so -- but nothing like some of you oldies remember back at the turn of the century!

Many of the TT gang are headed to Yuma and will be getting together once again to drive out into the boonies to experience the difficult-to-describe "Eerie Lights of Yuma."

All of those in attendance at the 2011 RV America Quartzsite Trailer Trash Gang camp-out seemed to have had a good time.

All of the RVA Trailer trash "gang" hopes that you will add Quartzsite to your travel plans for 2012.