Remember Jedediah, the pilot?
Well, that's who I thought of as I stood in this desert, watching this fly over:
The rest of the day was not nearly so interesting!
Today was 'chore' day; clean the trailer, get the laundry stuff ready, and explore the services available in Quartzite.
I found a couple of small grocery stores, a craft store (I needed thread and some other supplies for the sock monkeys in making for my twin grand-nephews), a hardware store with RV supplies (a couple of small repair items needed after my cupboard failure of a couple days ago).
Herb's Hardware reminded me of my local hardware store in Portland and, just like home, as I described each item, the guy knew exactly what I meant and found each item in little obscurely marked bins. $1.29 for what I needed and then another $12.50 for "Oh, that would be handy".
Apparently, today was laundry day because both laundromats I found were jam packed - guess I'll wait on the laundry.
I found two places to get a haircut but both look like the kind of place I might leave with a 50's style blue rinse and a perm - so, I'm kind of waiting on that chore too.
So far, Quartzite is living up to it's reputation
As far as I was able to find in a couple hours of wandering around, Q consists of two main streets; hwy 95 going N/S and, well, Main St., which parallels I-10 going E/W. Both are lined with RV parks, RV lots, RV supply stores, gas stations, restaurants, and blocks of swap meet and craft vendors. South of town are 4 LTVA campgrounds ($180 for the season, or $40 for two weeks; there are water, garbage, and sewage dumps in these campgrounds) and west of town is Dome Rock campground, a free 14 day area with no services. Just south of I-10 is a frontage road (Kuehne) which consists totally of huge RV show tents and the accompanying craft, food, and various 'other' vendors. It's amazing in kind of a weird way. I didn't take the time to wander around today, but will before I leave (maybe leaving my wallet in the trailer).
The last thing is really the first thing
I woke up this morning with a red glow lighting up the trailer windows. My first thought was that something was on fire outside. I jumped up and looked out the window - and saw the sun rise. No place does sunrise and sunset like the desert.
Beautiful sunrise photo! I would get up early every morning to have one of those to start my day. Your city tour sounds rather surreal. Have fun exploring.
ReplyDeleteSpent some time yesterday was wandering thru some of the swap meets and vendor areas - the rock and gem show is just ending, so there was a lot of pretty rock! The rest (4 areas, each bigger than Saturday market!) And I only saw 2 or 3 really quality things (besides gems). There were a couple of guys doing nice leather work, a knife maker who also did flint napped knives with horn handles, and a gal who had some really nice altered t-shirts And denim shirts (might have to go back to that stall).
DeleteOutside of hang gliding, your first two photos look like the ultimate feeling of freedom to me! Wish I had the opportunity -- and the nerve -- to try it!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed looking at Q over your shoulder.... but I loved that glorious sunrise best!
That sunrise has been unmatched since! I'm still getting used to my new camera. It doesn't like taking pictures of sky - apparently, it wants something more concrete to focus on. So, I have to use a manual setting, and I'm not very good at that - but I liked how the sunrise turned out and was glad I captured it before the sun got to high!
Delete