Frerx Adventures: Benson, AZ to Quartzsite, AZ (Boomerville!)

(Quartzsite, AZ) On Sunday, we were intent on having another down day in preparation for our move to Quartzsite and our first boondocking experience.

After morning dog walks and coffee, Ken was getting antsy to get the day moving and so took off to the laundry room with the basket full of 3 loads. Within minutes he was back because the Co-op laundry room was packed. Not in a waiting mood, he threw the laundry in the back of the jeep and headed for town.

While he was in town I blogged, walked the dogs and organized the meals list and a really big grocery list for foods and supplies we needed for Quartzite.

Ken enjoyed the Laundromat since as usual he found several people to talk to.

When he returned I headed off to Walmart with my list, while Ken did the basic rig checks like tires, tanks, generator, etc.,

We had some great Salmon burgers we’d picked up on our Trader Joe trip and then Ken was checking out the route, while I picked up a book JoAnn had given me, “The Birth House” and soon it was midnight and I was having trouble putting the book down.

Our intent was to try to get out of the Co-op and on the road as early as possible. Well, while we did better than our usual 10:00, by the time we did our final pack up, walked the dogs twice, said our good-byes to JoAnn and Doug and Fillmore, and paid our electric bill for the 4 days their. We had not been careful with our electricity and had been running 2 electric heaters, the electric water heater, electric skillets, etc., but was surprised that our bill averaged $7 per day.

Ken decided to do the ‘bypass’ around Phoenix, and so we really did not hit any hard traffic for the 300 mile trip, and with the exception of a diesel stop 84 miles outside of Quartzsite we did it without interruption and were surprised with getting almost 11 mph which is a new high for us for a longhaul.

Now for those, like us who have never been boondocking in the desert and never been to Quartzsite, the end of this trip was a bit of an adventure. When we pulled off the Interstate and started down the instructions I had for finding our group, it was not long before we noticed a large Escapees group just off the outer road….wow, that was easy, but no, that was the general Escapees group where Molly and Bob and Donna and Keith were parked. I knew when I saw them that we were not at our destination since they weren’t staying with the Boomers group. We stopped long enough to say ‘hi’, drop off the goodies from Trader Joe’s that Molly had wanted and to unhook the jeep.

I then took the lead and continued down the instructions to find Boomerville, me driving the jeep, Ken following in the motorhome. The roads were very rough and considerably farther off the beaten path than I’d expected. Since Ken was perturbed that I had him driving off-road in a 40 foot motorhome without being certain where I was going I decided I’d better call Laurie Brown (of Laurie and Odel) to be sure I was somewhere in the vicinity. Laurie was very helpful and pointed out an especially nice spot we could set up.

We did some basic set up and then went over to the 4:00 happy hour. There are already about 45 rigs with this group and more coming in all the time. I’m glad we got here early because the spot we have is close to the fire ring that is the center of the group activities but still has a lot of privacy with our patio view over a part of the land where no boondocking is allowed. While Boomerville takes a bit to get to compared to where a lot of other people are boondocking closer to paved roads, there is a lot more open desert all around us which is really, really nice.

So we’ve just ran the generator while we made dinner and got the batteries topped off. After a surprise Skype call from my sister-in-law, Judy, we got absorbed in computer time for awhile. Without our booster, our 3G Sprint access is not all that great here, but with our booster we max out on bars so I’m glad to see I won’t be totally cut off from the world!

We will be taking the dogs for their late night walk and then hitting the sack early since we are both tired and want to the join the group for pancakes at 8 am tomorrow morning, followed by a desert hike.

I’ll leave you with a view of the sunset from our patio