Weekend in Quartzsite

When I thought I’d be spending the winter in Chicago, one of my biggest regrets was not being able to attend the annual View-Navion Rally at Quartzsite.  It was a fun rally last year in a really unique place (the town of Quartzsite becomes the third largest city in Arizona during the month of January each year due to all the RVs that converge there for rallies and the RV show & flea markets).

So, when I learned I’d be working in Tucson, a weekend trip to Quartzsite was a must!  But first, I had to make a pit stop to the Mercedes dealer in Tucson to get the View’s oil changed.  Incredible place—not only free wifi, free beverages and snacks, and comfy chairs in the waiting room but large picture windows overlooking the shop which, itself, featured spotless white floors.

I seriously wondered if the mechanics there ever got grease on their hands!  With all these amenities, I thought for sure I’d be “paying” for it with the repair bill, but surprisingly, the cost here was $75 less than my Dodge dealer had been charging me in Chicago!  Wow!

We arrived to Quartzsite after dark and, thankfully, saw the same rally signs as last year pointing our way to the gathering of View and Navions.  The next morning revealed a spectacular Quartzsite sky:

And our View parked on a nice level spot in the desert with about 30 other Views and Navions!

My blogging friend Evelyn and her husband Steve (of Travels with Evelyn and Steve)  arrived and parked their View, Tulip, next to us

I took them out for a quick little offroad drive in the Tracker to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, a few miles south of Quartzsite.  They live in Colorado and are considering getting a Tracker of their own.

In the evening, we had a nice impromptu wine and cheese party around the campfire and enjoyed yet another gorgeous sky at sunset:

The next day, Evelyn, Steve and I walked up to the RV show and flea markets to check out the latest infomercial and RVing gadgetry. The only thing I ended up buying was a $3 Coke (yikes!), but Evelyn and Steve found a few good deals on RV items they were needing.

By afternoon, winds began to blow the slow dust into a heavy-duty dust storm, so the evening campfire had to be cancelled as everyone rode out the winds inside their rigs.

I took advantage of the calm and sunny weather the next morning to head back to Kofa NWR to drive the Queen Canyon 4WD trail and look for big horn sheep.  This trail was about 15 miles south of Quartzsite and a nice easy ride with gorgeous views (but, unfortunately, no big horn sheep were spotted).

Back at the rally, I got a parting shot of Evelyn, Steve, and their dog Molly in front of Tulip.  Note on the side all the country flags of where they’ve been with their View!  Tulip was certainly the “most traveled” motorhome there!

It was great fun finally getting to spend time with them in-person!

I also enjoyed meeting a few other WinnieViews blog readers including Ed from California, and Steve from Tucson.  The weekend was over far too quickly and I really had wished I could have stayed a few more weeks.  Guess there’s always next year!   Thanks to Byron for putting together such a fun rally!