January 12th we headed for Arizona, a state we had never visited. As we drove we noticed many mountains looked as if someone had taken a knife and cut off the tops. We knew the flat tops were called mesas but wondered how they were created. Again, we’re used to the sharp, rugged Rocky Mountains which were created by upheavals from continental plates. In California and more noticeably in Arizona the land was once a sandy ocean bed. As the waters receded they wore down the softer rocks leaving the harder, flat ocean bed on top of the mountains they created.
As we headed for Quartzite AZ, just before we crossed the state line, there was a highway sign “State Prison – Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers”. OK, we’ll keep our eyes open and the door shut.
We had heard that ten months of the year Quartzite is a small desert town of 4,000 people. January and February it explodes with thousands of RVs dry camping in the desert. No kidding – thousands of RVs!
In early January there is a Rock and Gem Show with hundreds of booths and an incredible variety of unpolished and polished rocks and gems. In late January there is an RV Show with dozens of RVs for sale and all the accessories you could ever want, whether you knew it not. Between shows there are still a few hundred booths with everything from rocks, jewelry, Avon, RV parts and accessories, kitchen items and, of course, food.
During these 2 months over a million people visit the shows. We didn’t want to be in the middle of hundreds of thousands of people at the big shows. We arrived between major shows and still spent a day checking out the booths and sampling the food and beer. Those were enough crowds for us.
We spent 2 nights at Desert Gold RV Resort in the open desert. There were only a few saguaro cactus to break up the skyline. They are the cactus we associate with the desert and they are as impressive and spikey as everyone expects.
That night the moon was almost full and cast incredible shadows from the cacti and a few palm trees. What a big, beautiful sky and moon.
We saw in the resort newsletter that there would be a breakfast the next morning from 7:00 to 9:00. We went to bed looking forward to someone else preparing breakfast. At 8:00 we arrived at the clubhouse with our appetites in high gear only to see the tables cleared and everyone leaving. Oops! There is a time zone change between California and Arizona and we missed the sign. Back to the RV for cereal and toast.
We have crossed time zones many times. This trip we only drove about three hours and had to adjust our clocks an hour but the sunrise and sunset did not change appreciably. Usually we travel far enough that the length of daylight changes as well. It was disconcerting that only the clock changed.
On our second morning we walked down the highway for breakfast. As we were eating I could hear bits of conversation from a table behind me. I heard the word Vermillion which is a town 40 miles from Wainwright AB where I grew up. When we left, the other group was standing outside near their vehicles with Alberta license plates. I had to ask if I had heard correctly. Yes, one couple was from Wainwright. They had known my mother, father and stepfather and I recognized them from Mum’s conversations and the United Church where we attended. It is indeed a small world when we look and listen.
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