Quartzsite Catch-Up

It’s been a busy week, and a lot has happened, so much so that I haven’t been able to keep up with writing about it. Let’s catch up a bit. Spoiler alert: I’m back in Quartzsite, Arizona, at my old campsite for my third “winter” here. Let’s back up a bit and tell how I got here. This is going to be a long one.

The Calm Before the Storm

Matty and Yellow Wolf left for Quartzsite Monday morning, leaving only Melinda and me still hanging out at Wayne’s. The reunion party was over. Temperatures across Arizona cooled by at least 10ºF, making Sierra Vista downright comfortable. Quartzsite, which had been hovering near 100º, was now habitable in the 80s. I would’ve left with the others and made the trip myself, but I was still waiting for trailer wheel bearing seals to arrive from Amazon.

Tuesday was a bit of a bust. After a morning of work, I took the bike to Bisbee to have lunch at the same place we ate after the Copper Queen Mine tour. There was a particular dish that caught my eye, but we decided to get pizza instead, which was a choice I certainly did not regret because it was delicious. As smoothly as that visit went, this one did not. There was a 20-minute wait to get it, which I did not expect mid-week. I took the opportunity to walk around the downtown area, which I hadn’t gotten to see with the group. After being seated, it took 10 more minutes for a waiter to say he’d be right with me. Another 10 minutes later, I walked out, without even having gotten a glass of water. By the time I got back to Sierra Vista, I was painfully hungry. Culver’s was the exact opposite and just the experience I needed, which is ironic for a fast food joint. The staff there were far more attentive and exceptionally friendly.

I picked up a few things at the hardware store, then returned to Wayne’s. I installed additional eye bolts on the passenger side of my roof racks so that all of them have them. I use different attachment points depending on whether I’m setting up my tarp awning for rain or my shade cloth for the sun. Now I can attach anything to any of the roof racks.

Late Tuesday, UPS delivered my wheel bearing seals. The tracking information had been saying they wouldn’t be delivered until late Wednesday, which would’ve prevented me from getting to Quartzsite in time to pick up my mail before the weekend, including my Halloween costume. They came through on time, though, so I was back on schedule if I hustled.

Wheel Bearings

Darryl came over Wednesday morning, and together we tackled cleaning and repacking my trailer wheel bearings. It was a mad dash of activity, and because my gloved hands were covered in grease and sometimes gasoline (great for cleaning the parts), I didn’t get any pictures or video of the process. It’s one of those things that’s easy once you know what you’re doing, and have the proper tools. I don’t, but Darryl does, so that made it simple. We might just make it an annual activity when we get together in the fall from now on.

There were a couple of minor glitches. In trying to hammer the old wheel bearing seal out of one of the hubs, I ended up hitting the bearing instead, pinching it, and binding it up. Fortunately, the local Napa had replacements in stock, so all my mistake cost was $16 and an hour to drive there and back. Darryl took care of the other hub to make sure I didn’t make this mistake again. Everything was back together by lunchtime. Unfortunately, I left my non-sunglasses in Darryl’s truck when we made the Napa run, so I had to take another hour for a motorcycle ride to go pick them up. It was a beautiful day, so this wasn’t really a problem.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up inside the trailer, packing up, and getting ready to go. I even got the bike loaded up and strapped down. One of my tires was more worn than the other, possibly from underinflation at some point. Since the wheels were off the trailer anyway, I took the opportunity to replace the worn tire with my spare, which hadn’t been used at all. The worn tire is still perfectly safe, just a bit more used, so that is now my spare. It just makes sense to use the tires with the best tread.

Melinda had left by now, so it was just Wayne and me. He made us burgers and fries for dinner on my last night there. I tried to do laundry, but we discovered that his washing machine was broken. I did take one last nice hot shower after I was done working outside.

Westbound and Down

Thursday was a long travel day. It helped that I naturally woke up early, so I had coffee, hitched up the trailer, and pulled out of Wayne’s by 8:45 a.m. I stopped at a gas station a few miles later, got $15 worth of gas (I knew there was much cheaper gas along my route), and $180 out of the ATM to cover my LTVA season pass. Spread across seven months, that amount of money goes a long way, covers my trash, water, and the dump station, and gives me a place to park without the usual 14-day limit on public land.

I noticed one of my wheel bearing caps had come off in the few short miles between Wayne’s and this gas station. I knew there was a Tractor Supply in town, so I diverted there to buy a pair of new ones. I splurged for the kind with removable rubber center caps. I learned that my axle has zerk fittings to let me grease the bearings without taking anything apart, which I’ll start doing now that I know I can. I saved my remaining solid cap as a spare. After that, I picked up a few remaining essentials at Walmart, then headed toward I-10.

It was an easy drive back to Casa Grande, even through the middle of Tucson. I knew from my drive south that gas was significantly cheaper near the junction of I-10 and I-8, and pulled off here to fill my tank all the way. That $15 of gas was all I needed to get here. I left my empty diesel jug accessible so that I could fill it, too, saving about $5 on fuel for my heater. Here, I noticed that the left trailer wheel had yet again lost the wheel bearing cap — the one I just bought a couple of hours ago. I was not happy. I put what was now my spare cap on, but suspected it wouldn’t survive the rest of the trip.

From there, I left I-10 to take I-8 west and make a big loop to avoid driving through Phoenix. Google said it would take more time, but Google doesn’t account for the time you spend stuck in traffic, so overall it was probably faster. It was definitely less stressful, and that’s worth any time I might have given up. Route 85 north took me back to I-10 on the west side of Phoenix. I backtracked about four miles on I-10 east to pick up a package I had sent to Amanda’s house in Buckeye that she’d left out for me. Then it was I-10 all the way to Quartzsite.

Most of this section of I-10 has been repaved during the past year. It needed it badly. A few sections still need it. Where the tires meet the pavement, there are long sections of badly cracked and poorly patched pavement for miles at a time. I turned off lane-keep assist and intentionally placed my right tires on the white line, straddling the right groove of bumps but narrowly avoiding the rumble strip in the breakdown lane. A truck followed me for at least 50 miles, probably more, keeping a respectful distance and copying each and every maneuver I made to avoid the worst of the bumps. It was flattering to watch him follow my lead.

Finally, I took exit 19, and needed no navigation assistance to make my way to La Posa South LTVA just south of town. The old broken pavement had been removed over the summer, and the main road was dirt that stirred up a lot of dust. I pulled over just after the check-in station (which was now closed for the day), checked on my left trailer wheel, and sure enough, it had lost yet another bearing cap. I covered it up with tape, just to prevent dust from getting in for the one mile drive to my old campsite. I’ll have to figure out a permanent fix, but it was good enough for a mile, where the trailer will stay parked for a while.

While pulled over, Logan pulled up in his Honda mini-truck to say hi. I hadn’t even gotten to camp before friends began stopping by to say hello. I remembered why Quartzsite feels like the closest thing to a home I have.

Yellow Wolf was already at our usual spot when I arrived. She helped me get the trailer where I wanted it, and then I detached and parked the van alongside so I could set up my shade cloth later. But that night, all I cared about was getting the van and trailer situated. Everything else could wait for the next day.

Settling In

Another reason I didn’t set up any more of a camp was that I had to go back into town Friday morning anyway. I already had to buy my annual pass and pick up my mail, and now I had to make a trip to the laundromat as well. As I left La Posa South, I saw the office at Tyson Wash, across the street, was open, and bought my permit there. They put the sticker on my van and gave me one for my motorcycle, but not my trailer like last year. Maybe the rules changed? Worst case, if there’s a problem with me not having a sticker on my trailer, my other vehicles have them and I have my receipt, which I can bring back and get a third sticker if I need it.

As with everything this year, prices have gone up, for laundry and even for a shower. But it was necessary, and still not as expensive as the laundromat I used in Casa Grande two weeks ago, which gouged me $3 for the dryer. Most laundromats, including this one, cost 25 cents for 10 minutes, so you can just keep popping quarters until your laundry is dry. I caught up on a little bit of work while the laundry ran (I’m quite a bit behind right now with everything else going on, so I’ll be working through the weekend to catch up by the end of the month), picked up my mail, failed to find anything I needed at K&B Tools (a rarity), and returned to camp.

Only now did I begin to set up a camp, rather than a parking space. My shade cloth was the first thing to go up since it’s still pretty hot in the sun. I unloaded my motorcycle from the trailer and also got out my table and chairs. I moved my bike into the shade I created, replaced the stock windshield with the taller one I’ll use through the winter, and put my second parking sticker on it. I also installed the 20-sided dice license plate bolts I’d gotten from Brap Star, because I’m nerdy like that.

The silver dice match my black, white, and silver motorcycle well. The gold dice will match my Arizona license plate once I transfer the new van’s registration here.

I also added this warning sticker to my electrical cabinet to warn people who don’t know better to stay far away. People who understand the joke should get a good laugh out of it. Volts and amps can be dangerous, but ohms are a measurement of resistance, and not dangerous at all in themselves. But the sign looks scary to anyone who doesn’t know this!

Birgit and Tom arrived mid-afternoon, almost two years to the day after we parted ways on Route 66. We ended up hanging out in my shady spot with Yellow Wolf, talking for hours and catching up on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Willow and Gabe, who I know from past years in Quartzsite and had camped with in Butte, Montana, also stopped by for a while. It was quite a reunion. I didn’t get any more of my camp set up, nor any more work done, and I didn’t care. It was great to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in months. There will be plenty of time for other stuff later.

We watched the sunset together, a tradition going back to my first stays in Quartzsite. It doesn’t show up well in the photo, but we could actually see rays of sunlight streaking out from where the sun had just set behind the mountains. It looked very much like the Arizona state flag and is no doubt what inspired it.

That brings us up to date, on a sunny Saturday morning. Birgit and Tom have moved next to me and are getting their camp set up. I’m typing this and will focus on getting caught up on work this weekend, as well as getting my camp a little more set up. While I will be moving around the area more this winter than in past years, I will be spending at least the next few weeks here, taking care of business since Quartzsite is my legal residence. I still look forward to taking my kayak out at Imperial Dam and Lake Havasu, but for now, I’ll spend some time here, and continue catching up with my desert community. The people, more than anything, make it feel like I’ve arrived home.