Quartzite, AZ

We had heard things about this desert town through the RV forums and Trailer Life Magazine. It seemed to be a "snowbird" town, but filled with a different sort of character. Our route on I-10 to Phoenix would take us through Quartzite, so we stopped to take a look and satisfy our curiosity.
We missed the first exit for the town, but one mile down the highway was the second exit. That was the size of the town, one mile long. The main street of town ran parallel to the highway, from one freeway exit to the other. There was town only on the north side of the road, and to the south the scrub desert stretched out for miles. The town did not extend any farther in any direction. There were restaurants, businesses and a few RV parks along the main street, but over half were closed for the season.
It was late enough, and we were curious enough, so we found an open campground that charged $10 a night. We parked, did some laundry, and asked the guy who checked us in where to get a beer and some ESPN. He directed us to Crazy Al’s, a local bar just down the road.
It was still happy hour when we got in, so we got a couple drafts and started talking to a guy on the bar. He was waiting for his wife, the bartender; she worked for the season while he just hung out. The season for Quartzite was from November to March, and peaked in January. The thing that makes Quartzite different from other snowbird destinations is you can get a permit from the US Bureau of Land Management for about $100 for the season, and camp in the desert. You just pick a spot and park it. There are no hookups, so you drive into town to dump your tanks and get fresh water, and live off your batteries and propane. Many people have solar panels for electricity.
Because it is so cheap to camp there, people come from all over to spend the winter in Quartzite. The guy told us in the off season the local population numbers about one thousand. Most businesses are closed, and all that remains is a gas station and one restaurant. But during season, the population swells to two million, most of whom are camping out in the desert. The town is booming, with some businesses open twenty-four hours a day. There are flea markets every weekend, and RV rallies and fairs.
Most of the folks that were still around were the last of the seasonal workers, winding down the town. Even the Crazy Al’s bar was due to close in less than two weeks.
We drove off for Phoenix in the morning, hoping to someday see Quartzite during the winter season.

Destinations

Destinations
Many years ago a lady contacted us in Honolulu looking for Howard. It turned out she was a cousin on the Tocman side of the family, and she lived for several years in Kane’ohe to be near her daughter. Jean Marcus and her husband Ralph became part of our Hawai’i Jewish family. Ralph loved kids and honored us by witnessing Makana’s trip to the mikvah at the Pearl Harbor temple. We lost track of the Marcus’ when they moved to Sun City, Arizona.
We were driving through California in early April, and Howard thought we might visit his cousin, Jean Marcus, for Passover. He had to contact someone at the temple in Honolulu who had a current phone number for Jean. We discovered that Ralph had passed away a couple years ago, but Jean was still in Arizona and had a boyfriend (that kind of information travels fast among those ladies)! It took us a couple of weeks to reach her, but the travel days were going to make it possible to see her. It was kind of awkward to call out of the blue after so many years and invite ourselves over for Passover, but Jean insisted. She had already planned a Passover get-together with her friends, only one of whom was Jewish. We aimed for Phoenix, to arrive for the first night of Passover.

Morongo Indian Casino, CA

We don’t know how this happened, but we ended up again at an Indian casino on a weekend. It seemed that every person within a hundred miles was at this casino. Every single slot machine was occupied. All the table games were filled up too. The poker room had a waiting list for the Texas Hold ‘em, and all this on a Sunday afternoon. It was late afternoon, and we decided to stay overnight in the parking lot, no hook-ups, but Lei could gamble a little and Howard could watch baseball in the snack bar. This overnight parking happens a lot at casinos. You may not have hookups, but the food is cheap and the casino wants you around to come in and gamble. Most casinos have huge parking lots, and besides the RVs, you’ll often see truckers staying over for the same reasons.
The casino had over five hundred slot machines, a bingo room and a poker room. There were some other card tables, but Lei could not find an open seat at the Pai Gow.
So we slept our rig, and were awakened by the big semi-trucks leaving, and construction noise from the new ten-story hotel and casino being built by the Morongo tribe. We had a big, inexpensive breakfast in the morning, and set out for Arizona.

Destionations

Our second destination was Colorado to visit with Lei’s friend Jan, who was bringing her Australian boyfriend over to get married (good on you, David!). Although the actual wedding and reception was very small, we agreed to take Jan and David camping in the new RV while we were all in Colorado. We set up a camping date of April 22nd, which would mean about twenty days to travel the one thousand miles from LA to Pueblo, Colorado. In the meantime, Jan’s sister, Holly, planned a get-together for all us folks that couldn’t attend the wedding. Lei called it the “Pueblo Party for Banned Relatives”, which just added more guilt and stress for Jan. The Pueblo Party was scheduled for April 15th, which instead gave us two weeks to travel from Los Angeles to Pueblo.

Malibu RV Park

We were in LA to pick up the computer and spend some time visiting with Paul, Mariko and Mele. The drive from Leo Carillo into West Hollywood took one hour in light traffic, which was more than we cared to endure. It was quite a culture shock being in the city again, with people and buildings everywhere. And in the cities, RV parks are far and few between, so Leo Carillo seemed to be our only choice. The problem was that Paul had tickets to a Dodgers’ game, and we would arrive back at the campground after they had locked the park gates. As we drove down the coast into the city, we saw a park built into the hillside overlooking the sea, Malibu RV Park. It’s just mile from Pepperdine University. Being a private RV park, the daily rate was higher that what we were used to, but there was a nice view, complete facilities, and no closed gate after hours. We were assigned a “mountain view” site up the winding road on the hill, but because none of the “ocean view” sites across the road from us were occupied, we had a great view of the Pacific.
This was the “fanciest” park we had stayed at for a long time. There was a small pool, computer room, game room, playground and a big, clean bath house for long, hot showers. Howard especially liked doing the laundry while looking out at the ocean. We stayed at this park from Thursday to Sunday, and didn’t use any of the facilities except for the showers and laundry. Howard did a run down the highway, but only once, due to the big hill he had to run up at the end!
We had lunch one day at a fish and chips place just down the road from the park. Did some shopping at the supermarket near Pepperdine, and snacks and beer at the Dodger game. We tried to keep the expenditures down due to spending more on the campsite. That was pretty hard to do given that the price of gas averaged $2.30 per gallon!

Destinations

Our second destination was Colorado, to visit with Lei’s friend Jan, who was bringing her Australian boyfriend over to get married (good on you, David!). Although the actual wedding and reception was very small, we agreed to take Jan and David camping in the new RV while we were all in Colorado. We set up a camping date of April 22nd, which would mean about twenty days to travel the one thousand miles from LA to Pueblo, Colorado. In the meantime, Jan’s sister, Holly, planned a get-together for all us folks that couldn’t attend the wedding. Lei called it the “Pueblo Party for Banned Relatives”, which just added more guilt and stress for Jan. The Pueblo Party was scheduled for April 15th, which instead gave us two weeks to travel from Los Angeles to Pueblo.