Rendezvous

The Fiberglass Trailer Rendezvous is the event that originally got me started going to Quartzsite. It's grown tremendously over the years and now draws trailers from all around the US and Canada. It's schedule conflicts with another event, so we went for the 'pre' gathering.

When we first started attending, Casitas made up the majority of the trailers in attendance, and they still have a significant portion, but...

Escape trailers made in Chilliwack, BC are becoming a bigger and bigger percentage of attendees. This photo has at least one of each of the sizes that they currently have in production.

This Bonaire Oxygen is very rare. This example came from Ontario, Canada.

In addition to visiting with friends, and making new friends, we did find some time to get out and wander. This saguaro reminded me of a puppy trying to balance a ball on its nose.

I found some rust I'd never seen. I'm assuming this was a foundation for some sort of mining equipment, but I couldn't find any information about it.

Brittle bush was blooming, so in spite of the unusually cold weather, sneezes won't be far behind.

Six days went by way too fast. When I left there was well over 100 trailers in attendance and the event didn't officially start until the next day.

It Pays to Have Friends

One of the joys of attending a geocaching gathering is the some of the folks bring their "senior wheelchairs" as they're known in Quartzsite,

or their jeeps. One afternoon, we headed out to explore some of the country west of Dome Rock. I'd already visited some of the caches but this was an opportunity to see more of the country.

Of course, we stopped along the way to locate geocaches and sign the logs.

This is typical - people checking their phones or GPS to see if they're getting close while tripping over the unseen geocache.

The organizer said no pickups, and I understood why. Much of the road was easy, but there was a corner, a rough spot through a wash, and a couple "friendly" trees that would have been problematic for me. Much easier to ride in the organizer's RZR!

All along the way, there were signs of early mines, with cairns to mark claims,

and a couple spots where deep shafts had been created. Two that I noticed had been covered by BLM with steel structures that cameras and birds could navigate.

The other thing we noticed were a couple graves, purportedly places where early miners died although names were now unreadable.

I suspect there are more than just these two, given the rugged country and the potential for amazing heat during the summer.

Another day, four of us joined up to find some new caches. Much easier working together, although I'll admit I met the fellow 2nd from the left while out snagging some First To Find a few days prior. Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Arizona represented here.

With that geocaching gathering done for another year, it was time to head back into town to everyone's favorite place - the RV Pit Stop. Filled the LP tank and emptied some other tanks before...

setting up camp on the west side of town for the next gathering. This time, we're joining the early version of the annual Fiberglas Rendezvous. We've been attending this gathering for years and it continues growing. On Friday, one full week before it is scheduled to officially start, there are already over 40 trailers here, and that's just where I lost count.

You Never Know What (or Who) You're Going to Find

After 10 days or so on the north side of town, I moved the Scamp to the south side of town in preparation for a gathering.

It doesn't seem that that sunrises and sunsets are quite as brilliant, but the sunrise is still worth getting up for!

I went into town first thing on Saturday morning to take one last past through the "big tent." Things were MUCH quieter than they had been on the first day of the RV Show. Still nothing that I needed, but I did get more info from the gal that was looking for summer workers in Alaska.

The big reason to move south was to be positioned for the Escapees GeoCachers event that is always scheduled for the week after the Big Tent.

They meet for four days to teach new folks interested in trying geocaching, to compare notes and make recommendations, to tell stories that may or may not be true, and to geocache in the surrounding area.

Numbers vary from one day to the next with most of the days limited to people who are members of Escapees.

Yesterday morning, I teamed up with another fellow to see if we could find some caches that had just been published. Sure, there was a presentation scheduled in camp, but there were First to Finds that needed to be found!

We managed to be First to Find five of the six new caches southeast of town while others headed to new caches west of town.

Not only that, we were back in plenty of time so that we didn't miss the snacks!

Not only have I found some fun caches this week, as we were standing around talking late yesterday afternoon, I discovered that one of the other attendees and I share some mutual friends. Turns out, she lived down the road a bit from a gal I dated in high school. Small world!