Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Quartzsite Property

The Quartzsite Gathering has typically been Friday, Saturday, and Sunday following Super Bowl. I've been settled in on Dome Rock Road since the Thursday before Superbowl Sunday. While trailers were starting to gather, I went looking for project property.

I found some view property with great character and potential. Two stone buildings.

The smaller building was built primarily of 6" concrete block (I'd never seen 6" block before) with 6 to 8 inches of rock masonry veneer.

The rock was nicely finished on the outside, and the builder had carefully used white quartz to frame around the windows and door openings as well as the corners of the walls. The inside walls of this building were finished with smooth plaster.

The other building had rock walls with a relatively smooth outer face. The walls were single stacked

and the inside surface was left very rough! Most rock cabins I've seen have used a double stack wall so that both inside and out are relatively smooth, with the center core filled with mortared rubble, making a stronger wall.

The bigger building had a large window facing southeast. Not sure if the builder used no header, or if the header failed, but it was obvious that the window had redefined itself and was now going to feature an arch.

Perhaps the best feature of this building was the expansive view to the northwest seen through the building. The northwestern wall had totally failed.

Like I say, project property. Since it apparently sits on BLM land, I'm sure no one will be tackling this restoration any time soon!

Meanwhile, back at Dome Rock, the trailers are gathering quickly. On Thursday the 4th there were about a dozen. By mid-day on the 8th there's likely more than 50. I've seen lots of Casitas, 7 or 8 Escapes, several Scamps, 3 Olivers, a Play-Mor, a Trillium,

and this fiberglass teardrop that seems to be holding its own for claim to the smallest trailer here.

The Escape 21s and the Olivers are currently holding the large end of the spectrum unless a BigFoot 25 shows up to trump them.

The best part of the day was when this Escape TA showed up. Be still my heart... There is a BigFoot single axle 5th wheel on site, but unless someone has a tandem axle BigFoot 5th wheel with the winter package (very, very rare and now 30 years old) the Escape TA is the nicest little 5th wheel around.
While I'm drooling, the eye in the sky is keeping an eye on everyone as they work against a quartering headwind on their way to LA.

If you haven't figured it out, the blog posts are running around 10 days or more behind. There will be a couple more from Q, but you'll just have to wait for them.

2 comments:

  1. John, enjoyed you and BJ's company immensely! Not sure if we are going to make it back to your part of the world this trip. Maybe you should show BJ the Smokey Mountains?

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    1. I'd love to do the Smokey Mountains some time. BJ's cousin is making Louisiana sound pretty good this time of year as well.

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