There is a gem and mineral show, a gun show, an RV show, multiple flea markets, etc. I read that, according to the Arizona Highway Department, as many as 750,000 people, mostly in RV's, converge on Quartzite in the winter. Most come for a week or two, but some people spend the whole winter here. I believe it. They were everywhere!!
We came for the RV show. Attendance at the week long RV show is typically around 150,000.
We camped with a group called the Xscapers. Most of these people live full time in their RV. They don't even have houses.
This is our "camp site". I marked us with an arrow. This is only part of our group.
We had fun taking part in Xscapers activities at camp. There were nights with camp fires, a pot luck dinner, movie night, and daytime seminars on lots of different things. I went for a hike with some of the other fur kids and our parents went along. That's me in the front row, 2nd from the left. Not my best side, but no one told me there were going to be photos.
We also spent time in town checking out the RV show and flea markets. Fortunately, I had my flea protection and didn't get any fleas at the market.
Sunday, January 21 - all good things must come to an end. We left Quartzsite bound for home.
In an attempt to avoid Los Angeles traffic, we went through Joshua Tree National Park. We stopped and took a quick stroll through the Cholla Cactus Garden, which is a naturally occurring concentration of Cholla Cactus in the park.
The one thing you may notice is that there are lots of clouds in these pictures. When we were at the cactus garden, it was 58 degrees and cloudy. Thirty minutes later, it was 42 degrees and raining, so we didn't stop to take pictures when we got to the part of the park with the Joshua Trees. We did see enough to give Joshua Tree National Park a rating of "need to come here again".
By the time we left the park, it was not only raining hard, but the wind was blowing, too! It was about all Dad could do to keep the motor home on the road. We'd planned to go further, but due to the weather, stopped for the night in Victorville, CA. We watched the news and the area we drove through had 45 MPH winds that day.
Monday, January 22 to Wednesday, January 24 - We arrived home on Wednesday afternoon, after overnight stops in Lodi, California and Canyonville, Oregon.
I thought you might be interested in some stats -
In 100 days on the road, we visited 20 states. We traveled about 7,400 miles in the motor home and an additional 6,000 miles out exploring in the Jeep.
Some people ask, "isn't fuel expensive?" or "don't you spend a lot of money on fuel?" The motor home averages about 8.5 MPG, so yes, we spend a lot of money on fuel. At $2,400 fuel was our largest expense for this trip. Our diesel fuel cost ranged from a low of $2.07/gal at Buc ees in New Braunfels, Texas to a high of $2.57/gal at Costco in Bakersfield, CA. We easily could have spent as much as $3.15/gal in California, but we are avid fans of the Gas Buddy app on our phones, which helps us find better prices for fuel along our route. We also planned ahead for California, so we only fueled once in that state. We have a 100 gallon tank and we filled up before we left Arizona and coasted into Oregon with a little more than fumes in the tank. 😀
$2,400 is a lot of money, but Mom and Dad would have made visits to each of their families anyway. When they fly to visit family, they typically have two plane tickets at $400 each, $250 for a rental car for a week, and $150 for me to go to the kennel. That's $1,200/family trip or $2,400 to see both of them. Makes that $2,400 in fuel look pretty darn cheap when you think about all the great places we've been and all the stuff we've seen, in addition to visits with family. Best of all, I got to go, too. Priceless!!!!
Our other big expense is campgrounds. We watch our pennies there, too. Of our 100 nights, we spent 36 nights camping in free places. Thanks to friends who let us mooch a place to park!!! In addition, we spent free nights at Wal-Marts, truck stops, a Cabellas, on Federal Government land, and a couple of cute little city parks in Montana and West Texas. We love the website freecampsites.net that helps us find wonderful places to park for cheap or free. This trip, we averaged $15/night for campgrounds.
RVing makes the food component of travel more economical, too. Mom and Dad buy groceries and cook in the motor home a lot of the time. They look at groceries as a living expense, not a travel expense. They'd be buying them, even if we stayed home. With that said, they also like to eat out to experience the local cuisines of the places we visit. This trip they spent an average of $10/person/day on meals out. Of course, I get my rationed amount of kibble, so my food bill is the same, no matter where we are.
Thought you might like to see the final map of this trip.
I hope you've enjoyed hearing about our travels. I'll let you know when we decide to set out again.
- Doolin
Late, sorry Doolin, but better late than never! Incredible trip!!
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