Quirky Quartzsite

Quartzsite is quirky. There are several little places that many folks might think strange. I admire people who have an inspiration and actually follow through with it – the ones with a passion who say “Full Steam Ahead” and follow their own drummer.

There is a RV park in town called Hassler's RV Park. The man, Mr. Hassler, who used to own it took old metal and turns them into sculptures with which he decorated his RV park. He used a lot of horseshoes for many of the sculptures. They were funny and/or interesting.

Joanne's sister started collecting gum wrappers in the late forties and Joanne, a current resident of Quartzsite has continued the family tradition. You have to call and make an appointment to come to her house to see the Gum Museum. It is located in a residential neighborhood, behind Joanne's house in a building about the size of a two car garage. It is really quite amazing, aisle after aisle of gum wrappers most arranged in year order. Not only are there domestic gum wrappers, but quite an extensive international gum wrapper section. You will also find a few gum-related collectibles such as gum ball machines, gum pillows - basically anything that has to do with gum. Joanne was a lovely older woman who absolutely glowed with pride as she showed off her collection.

If you look at websites and periodicals to find what there is to see in Quartzsite, the Number One attraction is the Hi Jolly tombstone located in the Quartzsite cemetery. I'm not sure why it is such a big deal but I dutifully went to visit Mr. Hi Jolly.

Life in Quartzsite was rather Jolly (see what I did there?).

A friend gave me this t-shirt.
 I thought it was very appropriate and I'm sure that all who know me will agree.

Our little campsite

I must end with some sunsets taken from the campsite because Arizona definitely has their sunsets going on.

Quartzsite - The So-Called Mecca For All RVers

 Quartzsite, a sleepy, dusty little town with a population of about 3,600, that is unless you are there during January and February. It is a popular RV camping area during the winter. In January/February there are nine major gem and mineral shows and fifteen general swap meet shows which draw upwards of 1.5 million people. That's right - 1.5 million people.  I wanted to get there before the rush, I don't really want to be around a lot of people, many whom are maskless, so I arrived in mid-December when people were just starting to arrive. While there are a few RV parks in town, the big deal is the ability to camp out in the desert on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land for either nothing or near to nothing. Huge communities spring up.  

I have a friend named Jon who has been full-timing for about four years. He was a neighbor when I was growing up and went to high school with my brothers. He was camped out in the desert and I joined him and his friends. They had found a spot that was not very crowded, the nearest other camper was at least maybe a football field away.

One thing about Jon and his friends, this was not camping out with hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. For my welcoming dinner,  we had salmon and shrimp and the meals just kept getting better and better. I have had to up my game quite a bit when it came time for me to cook for the group.

We decided that we should go to the Kofa Wildlife Refuge and hike the Palm Canyon Trail. Kofa stands for King of Arizona. The Palm Canyon Trail is named because at the end of it there is the only major native group of California fan palms in Arizona. You hike the trail and off in the distance, in a slit in the rocks are the palms. It was a easy, fun hike and when we got to where the palms were, most everything was in shadow except for the palms. There weren't as many of them as I thought.

The road into Palm Canyon

The Canyon

Looking back onto the road into the canyon

And there they are: California Fan Palms

Back in town is Celia's Rainbow Garden. Celia was eight years old when she died of a viral infection. More than 200 people attended her funeral. Her mother received permission to establish a botanical garden in the city park. The memorial garden has grown as many residents of Quartzsite have created memorials for their loved ones in the Garden. Some of the memorials were straightforward, some were very whimsical. An interesting note – Celia's father was Paul Winer (now deceased), known far and wide as the Naked Bookseller. His Reader's Oasis bookstore is still in business, but probably isn't the same with out Paul.

My travel buddies - Jon has a 45 foot fifth wheel, Linda has a 16 foot Airstream
Talk about extremes

Another Arizona sunset

Journey To The Center Of The World

 

Yes, yes, I know it is hard to believe but I have been to the Center of the World. But let us back up a bit.

The town of Felicity California was established in 1986 by Jacques-Andre Istel, who also became the mayor. Istel is considered to be the 'Father of American Skydiving, as he is considered to be widely responsible for popularizing parachuting in the US. I think he made his money in investment banking, I was told that the museum has received no grants of any sort, it is truly a labor of love. As far as I could see, the totality of the town  consists of a main building, a few rental units  and is on track to being considered as a World Heritage Site. Oh, and of course there is the gift shop. The museum consists of dozens of granite panels, gathered together in rows over 100 feet long. Each individual panel weighs over 500 pounds. Etched on the panels is a historical record of humanity as chronicled by Istel.

Istel named the town after his wife Felicia who is now 92 years old. She greeted me and gave me an introductory overview of the Museum. I have to say – she was a spry older woman – I had to run sometimes to keep up with her and she was sharp as a tack. She took me to a pyramid and unlocked the door. I was allowed to go inside and stand on a small circle which is the legal Center of the World. As I stood there, I looked thru the Museum up to a small chapel on a man made hill. I was told to make a wish and after Felicia carefully noted the time, I received a certificate saying that I had been to the Center of the World. I am allowed to come back at any time, with my certificate, and go to the Center of the World and make another wish.

How this became the LEGAL Center of the World

Getting Ready To Enter The Pyramid

And Here It Is!!!
The Center of the World

Looking up to the tiny chapel

Looking Down From the Chapel

There is a Rosetta Stone so that people or aliens in the future
will be able to read the history of humanity

One of panels in the Animals of the World section

I think this row might have been all about the French Foreign Legion

There were other sights to see:

An arm from Michelangelo's painting

The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 with this heavy iron steps.  In 1983, the steps had become very worn from the millions of people that walked up them and needed to be replaced. Besides being worn down, these heavy steps were causing the tower to sway.  Istel bought this section which came from part way up the tower and brought it to the US.  

Actual steps from the actual Eiffel Tower. 

3:10 To Yuma

 

I crossed over from the southeast corner of the state to the southwest corner of the state. I decided it was time to get a mail drop from back home plus I wanted to order a bunch of stuff from Amazon so I stayed at the Blue Sky Ranch RV Park – a 55+ “resort” in Yuma. As far as I can tell, an RV resort means that besides the normal full hookups, you have shuffleboard, pool, hot tub and planned activities. All the planned activities were canceled due to Covid. It also means that you are crammed in tighter than tight. We happened to be parked across the street from the dog park which was a tiny little patch of green grass where all the little tiny fou-fou dogs could get off leash. It seemed to be “the” place for all the55+ guys to hang out together.

Yuma is the home of the Yuma Territorial Prison which has been featured in several different westerns, mostly in the fifties. It was originally supposed to be located in Phoenix, but when the Territorial Congress all left for lunch one day, the Yuma representative crossed out the word Phoenix and replaced it with Yuma and history was made. The prison operated from 1876 to 1909 and was known as both 'Hell on Earth” and the “Country Club” depending on who you talked to. It seemed that the prison superintendents really wanted to use the prison as a rehabilitation center and make it livable so they installed flush toilets, a library and trained the inmates for life after prison. The prison also had the very first telephone in Yuma. Since the prison had all of these amenities, the townspeople of Yuma , who had none of these luxury items called it the Country Club. If you were an inmate, you had a totally different view based on the extreme heat, the hard work and the high death rate because of illness. Mainly tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid.

The first prisoners had to build their own cells

Six people to a cell

And here they are

Oh No!!! Trouble in River City

The Colorado River separates California and Arizona. Yuma, which is right on the border has created a lovely park, the West Wetlands. Miko and I walked along the river and it was lovely to see greenery and water. They had a massive playground for the kids which they called the Castle. I wonder why.

The Castle

I'm not sure what this footprint is.  MY shoe is next to it for size.  Frog?

The mighty Colorado River

Martha's Garden is a Medjool date farm. Again my timing was an issue. I was a week too early for the date trolley tours. Instead I watched a home made slide show presentation on how one grows dates. I was surprised at what a hands-on, time-consuming process it is. I had a date shake which has been on my to-do list in like forever. The flavor was good, but the consistency reminded me of a Wendy's shake. There was a lovely garden to sit in surrounded by the date trees.

Medjool Date Palm Trees

A Lovely Garden to Enjoy My Date Shake

The Date Shake

Speaking of fast food, I ate at my first Jack-In-The-Box. I googled the best thing on the menu and ordered a burger and curly fries. I think the grease level was pretty astronomical. It was a couple of hours before I felt a little less queasy again.

Getting Your Bisbee Funk On

Bisbee Arizona – it is a different town from what I've seen in the rest of Arizona. It sits in the hills, on top of what was vast amounts of copper and other minerals. It was quite the boom town until the mining company decided to shut down the mines in 1976. It was the typical small town story where once the company store shuts down, the town dies. Bisbee rose from the ashes when the hippies arrived. You could buy housing just for the cost of paying back taxes. Once the hippies came, artists followed and then came the tourists. The town is struggling once again because of Covid, but the history has made it an interesting town. Another fun fact, I was told, was that Bisbee is at the same altitude as Denver so it has actual seasons.

I met a woman who decided to move to Bisbee from Vancouver.  She had sold her house, put things in storage and drove down in her camper van to Bisbee.  She had lived in Bisbee in the seventies (remember the hippie stage?)  Those houses that you could buy for the cost of the back taxes were now going for a quarter of a million dollars.  I got to virtually house shop with her. I just love house shopping when I don't have to put up the bucks.

Bisbee from the Queen Mine RV Park

This is Main Street.  Not too much happening, Bisbee seemed pretty much a ghost town

I stayed at the Queen Mine RV park.  It was located right next to the Copper Queen mine and only a matter of walking down the hill to get into town.  On one side of the park, you had a mountain, on the another side you had Bisbee laid out in front of you and on the third side you had the Lavender Pit which was an open pit mine, impressive because of it's size.  Bisbee is a very walkable town, providing you like hills.  The streets are narrow, there was no way I could drive my truck through town.  At least not the way I drive.  So the location was great.  

Speaking of hills, every October, Bisbee has the Bisbee 1000 - The Great Stair Climb.  they map out a route that contains different staircases where the number of steps is 1000.  Last year, the fastest person did it in about a half hour.  The slowest came in at two and a half hours.  I am in Bisbee for four days - I decided that was probably how long it would take me.  I actually only climbed about two thirds of the steps - I might perhaps have taken a day off from climbing here and there.  

Climbing Steps

I also took a tour of the Queen Mine.  That was fun, you put a hard hat on, they give you a little light, put you on a little train and take you into the mine. 

All family groups are socially distanting and masked

This was the commode that they used in the mines.  Empting this was considered the best job in the mines and usually went to an older miner with seniority.  Nobody would sit next to you at the bar because you might have had a slight odor, but you sure didn't have to do the back-breaking miner work.

There was a small town called Lowell, right next to Bisbee.  It was only one street but they had parked all of these old cars up and down the street.

The Greyhound bus had seen better days but it was still stellar in it's own way

No matter where you walked, there was always something interesting to see.

Or perhaps a little un-nerving

Even the statutes were masked.  Bisbee passed an ordinance or something that said if you were on the streets of Bisbee you need to wear a mask.  They took it very seriously.

Found this in an alley

The RVs are a tad bit different

I actually cooked for Thanksgiving.  Yes, it is not traditional but boy was it good!!!