Good bye Quartzsite and MOC...

Sorry about the delay in postings but we hate to run the generator just to keep up with the Blog.

After almost 3 weeks we finally decided it was time to find some place to camp with power and water so we could do some laundry and take a "LONG" shower. So today we departed Quartzsite Arizona and headed for Snowbird RV resort in Fort Mohave Arizona. We pulled into the park and walked to the office to check in and this is what happened and we posted on the Internet (http://www.rvparkreviews.com/) to warn other campers. (Jackie wrote it.)

We have been camping for years, full-time RVing for the past nine months, and we have NEVER experienced the unprovoked rudeness that we received today. When we arrived at Snowbird RV Resort in Bullhead City, AZ we parked our pickup and 5th wheel and went in to the office to register. The man at the counter was on the telephone and handed me a form to fill out. I was half-way through the form when his wife came out and said she would take over as men can only do one thing at a time. She asked how long we would be staying and we said one week. She took the form from me and stated the amount. I said that we are members of ACN and her response was “Why didn’t you say that at the beginning? Did you not read the rules in your book?!!” We responded that we were sorry, but she continued to rant and yell at us, saying she can set any rules she wants, she owns the place, and we could just be on our way to some other place, ripping up the form I had filled out and throwing it in the garbage. Let me say that we did not say anything rude to her – we were just shocked that such rudeness could be unprovoked. You can bet we will not go back there, and we will post this information so others do not either. (I have to say that just reading this again makes me mad -- I was shaking for an hour after we left there! Jackie)

We continued up the road and are now at Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino in Laughlin Nevada and plan to stay a week here and then head for Lake Havasu, but more on that when we get there.

The Montana Owners Club rally (MOC) was just fantastic. What a wonderful group of people to share conversations, meals and a huge campfire every night (especially for Jackie and CC. We had to check the truck to make sure we had CC when we left -- she was the hit "dog" of the rally.). We even had an outside Super Bowl party yesterday afternoon. Complete with lots of food and great company. We renewed old friendships and made lots of new ones with a total of about 35 to 40 rigs that came and went. There were still several rigs there when we pulled out today.

Before we departed Quartzsite we spent another day at the gem and mineral show and looked at acres and acres of rocks, both rough and polished and turned into some beautiful jewelry.

This is just one of the tables with polished and cut rocks at the show.

This is just a typical rock that had been cut and polished. I set it up as a desktop background and after doing it I got a cloth and tried to get the dust off the computer screen only to find that the dust was on the stone and not on my computer.

In the morning Jackie would get up and head out for her early morning walk (which toward the end of our time there she convinced Alice to join her) and Dick would grab the GPS (hand-held, that we got from a fellow MOCer at the beginning of the rally), get on his bike and head out into the desert to just see what was out there. He would stop and pick up rocks and bring them back. He purchased a tumbler so he can polish them and hopefully make some jewelry. This is a self portrait that he took one morning while out on his bike.

We won't talk about the times he was dumped from his bike while trying to ride it in and out of some of the washes and over the big rocks. He only ended up with a few scratches but really enjoyed the solitude miles from civilization in the desert quietness. It was great to have the hand held GPS so he could find his way home.

Dick never knew what he would find on his rides; one time he ran across part of an animal skull and was wondering how old it could be until he found two wood screws embedded in it. Another time he ran across a grave piled with stones and a head stone labeled "ZIPPER" and a short distance away was the remains of what looked like an old camp complete with a rock garden and paths made up of rocks. Could be an old hippie camp from times gone by.

One day 5 couples went to Algodones Mexico to look for items for our rigs. More on what we purchased later when Dick gets some pictures finished. It was Dick's first trip across the boarder and Jackie had been to Tijuana one time before.

We parked on the US side of the boarder and walked across into Mexico without going through any type of boarder patrol. We spent lots of time looking at stained glass at several places and this is our friend Robbie pointing out one of the several that he liked.

It was fun walking the streets and taking pictures of the various items for sale. Every vendor tried to stop you and sell you something. The price was "almost free", just ask any one of them.

You could find just about any kind of hand made jewelry you could think of.

Metal work, pottery of any color was available.

This is the side of one of the shops; we thought it was quite an original way to decorate the side of the building.

The only problem was that to get through the US customs, we left at the peak time of the day and ended up in a line that took us just over 2 hours to get back to the US. If you look close you can see Jackie holding some of the items we purchased and this was taken after standing in the line for over a half hour (like that back shot?). The Mexicans would walk up and down the line trying to sell whatever they could and it worked as we watched several people purchase items. The smart ones waited until they were at the boarder crossing so they didn't have to cary the items for very long. It was very sad to see all the women begging or trying to sell a piece of gum for what ever they could get.

We finally made it across the boarder and had about an 80 mile trip back home. We just say it was a fun and educational day. Our thanks go out to Robbie and Alice who acted as tour guides.

Last Saturday we took a ride to Bouse Arizona and found this back yard of a house all in bloom with beautiful weeds. It was sure nice to see some color after all this time in the brown and dusty desert (which really is beautiful when you get to know it).

To be continued...