Quartzsite AZ - 2019

After a long days drive (60 miles), we arrived at the Grand Design RV Rally outside of Quartzsite Arizona and plan on staying there from 7 - 15 Jan 2019.  We are camping on BLM land but I guess in some locations in Arizona, you have to check in with the camp host to get a 2 week pass.  That's right, you can only stay in one spot on BLM land for 2 weeks, then you have to go (I think) 25 miles as the bird flies, then you can camp for another 2 weeks.  I guess if you didn't go the whole 25 miles, you could just tell the ranger that the bird you were following was drunk and flew in zigzag patterns.  The area itself wasn't bad.  It's all level with little pebbles everywhere.  A lot of open space.  It was relatively quiet too, except for the generators and Coyotes that wanted to run through camp.  They talked as much as geese when traveling through.

Anyway, after we got checked in, we headed to the rally point where we checked in there.  They had the rally spots split, where the RV's using generators parked in one area, and the solar snobs parked in another area.  They were expecting about 150 RVs, so I guess it was a big rally.   The spot we picked was a little narrow (compared to a lot of other spots) so we made it a little wider (shh, we moved the cones over a little).  The cones were there so they knew where we were located so the Grand Design Repair techs could find us if we had issues.  We were also asked to bring a bundle or two of firewood for the bonfire that they were going to have on the last night.

The rally itself wasn't for a few days so we had time to goof off a bit.  So we went into town and checked out the flea market that goes on the whole winter every day...I think.  On Thursday, we checked into the rally and they gave us a nice little welcome package that included a nice umbrella, name tags, some tickets for food and some other nick nacks that I don't remember.  Anyway, it was nice.

So during the Rally, they had seminars with vendors and other RV'ers talking about disk brakes, suspension, roof maint, axle maint, and a general questions and answers with the Grand Design RV Techs.  They also had several new Grand Design trailers available to view.

For food, we had a potluck (more about that in a second), a giant corn dog (it had to be 14 inches long) that was amazing, and some tacos that was really good also.  OK, about this potluck.  Based on your last name, you were asked to bring either a side, entree, or desert.  Terry brought a entree of Taco salad of sorts.  They had 6 tables and your food was assigned to one of the tables.  Each table had sides, entree, and deserts on them.   When it was time to eat, they split the crowd up into 12 sections (2 per table) and everyone got food and was eating in less than 15 minutes.  Remember you are talking about 300 people.  I thought that was just amazing!  But of course I wasn't assigned to the table that had the taco salad in it.  When I went up for seconds, I went to get the taco stuff and it was all but empty, so I only got a taste of that.  I can say that all the food was real tasty though.

While there, we met some people from Canada and found out that Canadians can't stay in the country over 180 days...unless they go to Mexico and that resets the clock for them.  Seems weird, but OK I guess.  At the end of the rally, they had a big bonfire.  I think the space station thought the earth was on fire...it was that big!  Anyway, here are the pictures we took of the Rally.

After the rally, we are heading to Lake Havasu City for a week to do laundry and check out the area.