Quartzsite wrap up...

I'm back here in Mesa tonight, after spending the day getting ready and then traveling back here...  And then emptying the motorhome to get it parked over in the storage lot...  Its really in the way if I leave it here at the house..  My driveway is sloped and way too short for the rig to be parked in front of the house..

Things happened so fast while I was parked with the Class-less Escapee group, that I fell into bed at night without the energy to blog.....

So let me mention the events that happened day by day...

Wednesday  Mimosa breakfast for the ladies...  A big camp fire that night for folks to meet and greet... There were other activities, but I was busy dealing with the tow bar folks in town..  Also I was purchasing and fitting LED light bulbs so my batteries would be so flat..

Thursday  Quesadilla Party  This was quite the fun event, as there were gas grills set up with an assembly line of folks making the quesadillas...  You picked your ingredients and type of tortilla and they made your scrumptious treat right before your eyes....  While you were loading your plate with    side dishes, the grill was browning your tortilla... And at the end it appeared...  This was also Margarita night, as all the fixings for the drink were on hand.... I heard that they went thru 7 gallons of the mixer... and an undisclosed amount of Tequila...  Folks were complaining the next morning by the wake up fire...

Also that night they had a pinata.. It was in the shape of an Escapee house on wheels... It had to be custom made.. And it was full of candy...  They didn't blind fold the batters, but it still took quite a while to knock the bottom off of it and spill the candy... The first batter was an 87 year old fellow and he didn't hit it hard enough to break it open...  And then several of the gals had at it, but eventually is succumbed.

The Pinata hung there for several hours before the party began...

IYQ on the forum  (Les) Saying let me at that thing...

But he had to listen to some friendly coaching from Paul before he swung  He never did break it..

Friday was a  Junk Swap meet and Hot dog cook out on the fire..  This was a fun event, as we all went thru our rigs looking for stuff that we didn't want any more...  During the day, the treasures stealthily appeared on the big tables in the center of the camp...  Then at 3:30 sharp, they began the swap meet part of this event...  We drew numbers from a hat, and then had to go make a selection from the big table in the order of our numbers....  One of the things up for grabs was a coleman gas grill, so this wasn't just frivolous stuff...  At the end it was a free for all on the stuff left over... Things that weren't taken will go to the thrift store up town... I got a coffee thermos and a rack for lawn chairs on the back ladder...

There were two of these flying go carts that kept buzzing our camp...

I also became inspired to make a roaster pan full of baked beans for the Hot Dog feed...  I used canned beans but added some ground sausage to the mixture.. And a big bottle of bar be cue sauce.. That turned out to be popular, as they scraped the bottom of the roaster pan clean...  I didn't add my usual amount of hot sauce as I knew many of the folks were from Northern states where such things aren't the norm...

Saturday   Desert Bar at 10:30 AM  on Saturday morning.   We  all met for the trip to the Desert Bar North of Parker...  It only opens on weekends during the afternoon and it took almost an hour and a half to get out there...  Its about 5 miles out onto a very narrow, high clearance road East of the highway...  It wasn't just gravel, but rather very large rocks and steep curvy hills..  There were places where it was one way traffic...  That gave the Jeep an opportunity to shine as it fairly thrives for a chance at a trip like that...  One of the other Escapees jumped in with me, so we followed in a big group of trucks.  The one ton dually ram that I was following was jarred so hard that the gals inside weren't too sure they wanted to ride back out...

From the parking lot the bar was down in a draw..

The front door, but there are no walls... All electricity was provided by solar... Lots of solar...!

But we had to leave after only one hamburger and a beer...  The Blogger fest was beckoning..   Straining the speed laws, I made it back only 15 minutes late for the get together..  I was amazed at the number of folks that arrived.. Sandie and Jeri had decided to set it up right out by the road, where everyone could see that they were at the right place...  That worked well.

Waiting for the official part to start...

I think more folks knew me than I knew them...  That made me feel somewhat like I didn't belong to the group, but I spent the time trying to connect all the folks I was meeting to their blogs... Al and Kelly arrived, and I was happy about that, as they knew more of the people than I did...  But then that's why we were doing this...  To get to know more folks... I've added a ton of blogs to my reading list since Saturday, so I will know more folks for next year....!  Of course all I had to say was the Roomba Blog, and everyone had seen that blog....

From my vantage point once the activity began..

Sunday was the Italian supper night, but I didn't hang around for that gathering....  I'm sure that it would have been scrumptious, but I was worn out by then....  I've spent the evening here running the washer, trying to get the desert dust out of my clothes....  And Biscuit is on the list to get bathed as well, because until she is cleaner it won't do any good to clean everything else...