1/22/16 RV and Rock Show in Quartzsite, Arizona

 John's brother-in-law, Craig, is a serious rock hound who Deb reveres as she too is a rock hound but more at heart than in deed (because John won't let her fill the RV with rocks like Lucy did in the 1953 movie "The Long, Long Trailer").  So when Craig suggested we meet at the POW WOW Rock, Gem and Mineral Show in Quartzsite, Arizona on our way from San Diego to Tucson, of course Deb said YES.  About 6 miles outside of town we noticed numerous RVs parked randomly in the desert. The closer we got to town the more we saw until literally, there were RVs filling the desert as far as the eye could see.  Little did we know we were about to participant in what is billed as "the largest gathering of RVs and RVers IN THE WORLD"! The Arizona Highway Department estimates that "750,000 to 1 million people (mostly in RV's) come to the sleepy 

Typical Quartzsite  Scene

little desert town of Quartzsite (population 1,900) every January to attend one of America's biggest RV Shows, streets lined with open air flea markets and numerous Rock, Gem and Mineral Shows. Hundreds of thousands of RVs crowd the Bureau of Land Management property surrounding Quartzsite, it's 65 RV parks and much of the open space on property owned by the local businesses and homeowners." This 2 mile by 2 mile town consists of a few small general stores, an assortment of restaurants and LOTS of small businesses targeted to RV needs including these two.
   

        

Deb and Craig spent several long blissful days among the hundreds of rock vendors; Deb perusing...Craig purchasing.  Deb did buy a bunch of "ghost town desert glass" which consisted of large hunks of old glass frosted and colored beautifully by age which was supposedly found in ghost town dumps.  She plans to hang these bobbles from a piece of cactus wood for a decoration on our future deck (which by the way now has a roof on it).  

 

Note Trucks Down In The Valley Behind Deb's Head

One day we joined a caravan (sans RV) to Brenda, AZ where we tested our trucks 4x4 Off Road package on a 5 mile trek through the desert.  In the foothills we prospected for red, white and blue jasper which was everywhere and Deb picks up a cool cholla (choy ya) cactus skeleton which she will bleach and decorate with some of the jasper, geode and chrysocolla we prospected.  The wagon master told a story about going out into the hills with a pocket full of marbles.  When you pick up a rock you put down a marble and when you've lost all your marbles you're a rock hound.  John says this describes Debra to a "t".