"Dance at own risk" - Quartzite, Az

I never suspected that dancing was such a dangerous activity

Even in my mother's home, a memory care unit that she used to refer to as 'God's waiting room', dancing is encouraged at every turn.   But, here at the Senior Center in Quartzite, I guess they're a more cautious lot.

No Smoking I can understand, but dancing??

The Senior Center was hosting a great concert

Last year, I met Paul Winer, the owner of the Readers Oasis bookstore here in Q, also known as the 'naked man' bookstore.  Paul is a nudist known for often wearing only sandals and 1 sock (use your imagination).  Turns out that Paul's previous career was as a musician and he and some friends put on a great evening of boogie woogie/blues and humor. You can hear a bit of Paul's music and read more of his story on Paul Winer "Sweet Pie" - My Nothing   He was accompanied on tuba and trumpet by Buddy Apfel,

In case you're wondering, Paul was dressed for the performance - even starting to play his first piece before he realized he was still wearing gloves!

Getting (almost) lost in the vast, untracked desert.

During the day, the trailers along Plumosa Road look almost organized.  There are a number of BLM roads that fork off Plumosa and wind out into the desert, crossed by vast expanses of 'desert varnish', patches of green lining the washes, and other, smaller 2-track spurs sprouting up kind of randomly. Throughout, there are RV's - singles, small groups circled like wagons, larger groups lined up row after rows like a suburban neighborhood.

However, coming home after the concert, with no street lights and most of the trailers dark, we realized that finding OUR trailers after the first 2 turns off the road was not going to be so easy.  It turned into a group effort, "I think we've gone too far", "try over to the right".  Fortunately, we didn't run over any cactus or get stuck in a wash before finding our trailers.  Now, I understand why some RV's sport colored lights up high on flagpoles - a great way to find your way home after dark!

There are probably a hundred motorhomes in several very neat rows here.

They even erected this HUGE tent with tables, chairs, a stage and sound equipment!!

Not exactly wilderness camping

Lots of people in Quartzite this time of year (I hear that the summer time population of 3,600 swells to over 200,000 in winter; In Jan-Feb, Quartzite receives over 1.5 million visitors!  Traffic isn't as bad as I had feared, but there are lines in the stores, and the hum of generators is omni-present.

But, I'm having a great time meeting and spending time with Julie's friends from the Escapee's Doves group.