Goodbye Quartzsite, Hello Hot Springs

We left Quartzsite yesterday, after visiting the RV show in the big tent one last time. It was an expensive stop. Steve has been talking about getting a little portable Honda generator ever since we started rv-ing. The Royal Palms has a generator, of course, that we need to use pretty much daily when we’re not hooked up to outside electricity, which is almost all the time. The generator powers the microwave and the electrical outlets that we use to run Mr. Coffee in the morning and the air popper in the evening. We also fire it up when the batteries run down, especially when it’s cloudy and the solar panels can’t do their work. It works just fine, but it runs on propane--two days of cold and/or cloudy weather where the solar panels aren’t working and/or we need to run the furnace, and we are out of propane, which we need to run the fridge and the stove. Hence, the need for an additional generator--one that is light, quiet, and efficient, and doesn’t use propane. The Honda fits the bill. It weighs less than 50 pounds and “sips” gasoline. A gallon of gas will last 12-15 hours with light use or four hours with heavy use. Unfortunately, such efficiency doesn’t come cheap. We paid $1000, which is a pretty standard price, I guess. It works like a charm, though, which is the important thing, since propane can be hard to come by sometimes, but gas is always available.

I can’t leave Quartzsite without talking about the bakery. We spent a lot of money in there, visiting it almost every time we went to town. The Quartzsite Bakery is housed in an old double-wide trailer, with tacky Western murals painted on the side. A sign out front proclaims “We’re Open! Get Your Buns in Here!” There are always cars parked out front, attesting to its popularity with both the locals and the snowbirds. Inside, there’s a big display case with an amazing variety of doughnuts, muffins, cookies, and pastries. The kitchen is in the back, and besides all the pastries, they make at least three kinds of bread every day, and eight or ten different kinds of pies. They have a few mismatched tables and folding chairs when you can hang out with your friends and have a cup of coffee and a cream-filled Bismark or an apple fritter or a sunshine muffin( carrots and coconut and raisins and bran) or anything else in the display case. Yum! They open early, and by noon, half the case is empty, which is when I took the photo.

We are now camped in the long-term area at the Holtville Hot Springs. We had hoped to go to our favorite spot back in the short-term area, about 3 miles from the actual hot springs, but this area got hit with the same storm we did up in Quartzsite, and the dirt road is a series of mudholes. Steve was worried about getting stuck, and reminded me that Good Sam Emergency Road Services would only pay for one tow-out per year; we decided not to chance it. We’re hoping it will dry out later in the week so we can still move out there by the weekend. Meanwhile, we are camped close to our good friend, John Ruch, and his dog, Heyyou, and it’s a 5 minute or less walk to the springs for a good soak. Life is good.