Day 23: It’s dollar drink days: Apache Junction, AZ to Quartzsite, AZ
He, hold on there buddy, you were going north. I know, I know. I’ll explain.
Up at 0.4 Amps (~0700) because one of us did not close the bedroom widow and blinds on their side of the bedroom. Yup, it was me. But the breeze was nice! I decided to attempt the siphon draw again because it was partially cloudy, earlier and a bit cooler. I met these two younger fellows. One I shall call fake Aedan. Fake Aedan had a stuffed backpack that he was carrying because he wanted to practice so he could go camping some day. I made it ~250 m further and ~ 64 m higher in elevation. I hit the half point in my water supply and could see enough of the trail ahead to call it and get back to the van. The walk down some of the terrain was more challenging that the walk up. I passed a pair of young women that were wearing flat bottom running shoes and sliding all over the place. It was a lovely 6 km walk (we had moved sites and were further from the trail head). This is the last report for this trip on walking at Lost Dutchman State Park. Yay!
We discussed the next destination while looking at weather forecasts. We had planned to go about 45 minutes north and hang out to let the rainy weather pass in Sedona. But then we checked the forecast for Quartzsite, AZ and decided to go there. Its population is 7,436 RVs for every citizen of Quartzsite. They have a lot of public land so we used iOverlander and FreeRoam to pick our spot once we got to town.
Before we left, we filled the van with water at our site and used the dump station on the way out. I had a few incidents. First, somebody before me left their hose adapter in the dump tube so my hose would not fit in. I grabbed some pliers from the toolbox (which doubles as Mrs Milddogs foot rest) and removed said adapter. I left it there in case someone needed it. Second, it was windy and my super shade 2000 hat blew off and landed in the water around the dump station. It is now my poo hat. I grabbed the rinse hose and gave it a good going over. Does this make me an official shithead?
We stopped at McDonald’s (first one of the trip) because it is dollar drink days here in Arizona. And I love McDonald’s fountain coke a bit too much.
Drive was uneventful and as scenic as ever. Phoenix seems to be as large as Toronto. We had to go from one side to the other. We stopped at a rest stop to walk Amy and Mrs Milddogs got a hotdog from a vendor.
We arrived in Quartzsite around 1445. And meandered down past the end of the road and carefully picked our way through the area until we found a spot we liked. We backed in to have the small trees block us a bit from the wind and sun.
I tried to fly the drone but it was way too windy for the little fellow. Got him hack to earth safely and put him to bed.
I put the camping shower bag out in the sun for possible future use. We are in a large area and can see 3 other campers each about 300-400 meters away. I used the spotting scope to make sure the license plates were not “AXMRDER” or “EATCDNS” or “URTRGET”. Hey, remember that terrible TV show called Bumper Stumpers? It was Canadian and they gave you license plates you had to decode to win a 3 day supply of Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat!). Here is a link if you dare. Mad Dash was a far better show!
Dinner was lovely left over steak made into a “hash” with potatoes and fried veggies. Post dinner we took Amy out for a walkabout. There are little thorny sticks here that seem to love my sandals. Some of them penetrate right into my foot. I pulled 14 thorns out of one shoe.
Shower. OK, there are no services here and I don’t want to use the water we have in the tank. So I hooked up the solar shower Mrs Milddogs got for her birthday and had a lukewarm shower outside, hopefully out of site of our neighbours. I waited until the sun had set behind those clouds. It was a fine shower, except I dropped the last piece of boat soap. It had split in two at a recent shower and once half B hit the ground in a public shower, it was dead to me. Half A had gotten pretty small so I picked it up and trashed it. Here is a picture.
Bonus, updated map.
Tomorrow we are probs going to explore Quartzsite a bit. Perhaps find Frances McDormand. Maybe attend the “how to poo in a bucket in your van” seminar. Or maybe find a healing crystal specifically tuned to us. The crystal picks the wizard. We may come back here or explore some of the other BLM land. Maybe we will do a bit of dreaming. Who knows?
Tranquility base here.
