Each January and February campers descend on Quartszite in droves for the Gem and Mineral and RV shows. David and I feel fortunate to have been 'accepted' into the annual Quartszite core family of Dan and Sue, Bonnie and Barry, John, Barb and Abby, Larry, Collin and Kathy and Mikey and Jan. This was our second year with this group and they have become good friends.
Even though we run on generators, ration our water and have dust blowing everywhere there is no lack of food. Each night someone brings appetizers and a dish to go with whatever the main dish may be. The appetizers are nothing to sneeze at and are not only very tasty but pretty pleasing to the eye as well.
Veggie pizza by Kathy
Shrimps on masobi artichoke leaves by Sue
We also had our very own entertainment. Dan is a friend of someone or another :) and came by this year to spend some time with the group. He reminds me of Jerry Jeff Walker in the way that he sings and the songs that he sings. He writes his own lyrics singing them to the tunes of established songs.
We dined in the best of places, either in our 5th wheel
Or outside by the campfire. No matter where we were we plopped we enjoyed the food as well as the company. Lots of 'fish' stories were told around the campfire.
And Jan 'stirred it up' setting sparks a-flying.
Abby and Peeko were happy to see each other again which seems pretty evident by this picture
Mikey, Jan, David and I spent three or four days 'deserting' on the roads less traveled. Yep this is one that we traversed.
Everywhere you look the scenery is different.
Gorgeous mountain-scapes
Great colors
And a miner's shack. We ran across quite a few recently claimed mines that were obviously being worked by individuals.
And a windmill in the middle of nowhere
We took Mikey and Jan's jeep over some crazy boulder ridden paths. This does not look so treacherous but that old Jeep was going over some pretty huge rocks here which is why David got out to guide Mikey over them. We were just about on three wheels here.
Oh ya, Mikey cannot resist taking that Jeep up a mountainside-oop here he is coming down already
And once he gets to the top he's feeling pretty proud of himself and his Jeep
We didn't only drive the trails, we hiked as well. We hiked up mountains...I'm not far behind the guys here
And at one point I gave Jan the shirt off of my back....only to have her make a sack out of it and she then became our pack mule. We had lots of rocks to haul back and needed both something to put them in and someone to carry them....Jan offered what can I say.
Here the guys are panning for something or other. We gave up on gold early on but did continue to find the perfect rock, after rock, after rock.
Saquaro's (swirl's) everywhere. Most are pretty darned tall as you can see by comparing Jan to it
And many are quite unique. Like perhaps an elephant's trunk
Or one that says, 'Which way do I go which way do I go.........'
And what looks to be a porcupine crawling up one
These three seemed to be growing right out of the rocks
And these are reaching for the beautiful sky
Yep Quartszite a great place to spend time in January. As fun as it was we were so ready to scrub the dust out of our pores and get to a spot where we have real electricity, sewer and water from an actual water pipe. That place would be Santee Cali. When we first arrived yesterday the dogs were damned happy to actually put their noses in grass! David and Mikey are preparing to fish one of the seven ponds/man made lakes here and Jan and I are anxious to relax in the pools and hot tub.
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