“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Dalai Lama
It’s been a pretty uneventful week here in Quartzsite, AZ. The weather has been just about as good as it gets, with high temperatures in the mid to upper 70’s by afternoon and then cooling down at sunset, perfect for a campfire and a good night’s sleep.
I’ve gone on a couple of daytime explorations with Matt in his side-by-side. One day we ventured up a steep mountain. It was a bit scary getting up to the ridge, but the view from the top was magnificent.
Quartzsite is getting more crowded with each passing day. In early January there is a big RV show in town, and sometime that month there is also a huge gem and rock show. I still feel quite lucky to have my secluded spot at a dead-end road, but there are more and more people when I go down to get water or dump trash. In the beginning of the season, it was extremely rare to pass any other vehicle without exchanging a wave or flashing a peace sign. As more people arrive, there seems to be more unfriendly people from cities and they don’t bother acknowledging each other. They are in a hurry to get someplace and seem to consider anyone else on the road “competition.” It makes me sad, but I’m glad I had nearly 2 months here with fewer, friendlier people. I may move after Christmas to either KOFA or over to Ehrenberg when Quartzsite becomes too much of a tourist trap and when the “others” outnumber my tribe.
I’ve had lots of internet issues this week. I suspect it is from too many people trying to access the limited towers here in Quartzsite. Calling Verizon is always a lesson in futility. You have to navigate their phone tree, which asks questions and gives you choices of answers that have nothing to do with your issue. It takes a very long tine to figure out how to get a live human being to talk to, and when that finally happens, it is always an over-polite woman in India who tells you they understand your frustration, promises that they will fix it and then tells you to unplug your device and plug it back in, before putting you on hold for 10 minutes and coming back and telling you to unplug your device again and try rebooting it. I spent 2 hours on Thursday with such nonsense before the woman on the Verizon end of the conversation told me she would “expedite” my issue to a higher level of tech support. Clearly Verizon and I have quite different ideas of the definition of “expedite” and “Higher lever of tech support.” Service continues to be sporadic. I took a ride yesterday and tried my wireless router and it got a good signal down close to the visitor center. I suspect that there are just too many people watching something on Hulu or The Disney Channel and the infrastructure here in Q just can’t support them all. When it gets too bad, I think I’ll just move.
Friday night Matt and I laid outside for a bit watching the meteor shower before he went off on a date. I stayed out a bit after he left, and saw a half dozen meteors. I think the main show started after midnight, and I was sleeping soundly by that time.
Saturday morning Matt was going into town to do laundry and asked if I wanted to join him. I did and although I didn’t have many dirty clothes, I washed my bedding and my massage table sheets. Laundry is a chore I dread, but it goes so much easier with a friend AND the people in Quartzsite Laundromats are SO friendly. Everyone talks with everyone else. I’m not sure how many are nomads and how many are year-round residents, but everyone is chatty and there is lots of laughter. It makes an unpleasant task much nicer.
Lessons From The Road: I think much of the full-time nomadic community winters here in Quartzsite. Many start wandering in as early as September and some of us (those who have arrived way to early in the season when it is still triple digit temperatures) wander in sometime in October. The second wave-snowbirds- starts arriving after Thanksgiving and continue to flock in through the beginning of January. This second wave seems to have a lot more unfriendly people, at least by nomadic community norms. They drive fast down dry, dirt roads, creating a dust storm that chokes anyone driving behind them or living along that road. There are many roads that are just one car wide, and it is common courtesy to pull over and let smaller vehicles pass through if you are in a giant bus, or towing a large 5th wheel. The snowbirds seem to live by the motto “I was here first” and will nearly run you off the road, and then drive 5 m.p.h. in a 20 m.p.h. zone, holding up a long line of faster moving vehicles. They stand out. They don’t wave. They don’t talk to you if they are next to you filling water or dumping trash. There is an air of entitlement, and they mostly give off a vibe that they are better than you. I don’t enjoy them, and try my best to avoid them and not let them influence my day.
I’m not sure this counts as a lesson, but I sure have been noticing and appreciating Cosmo this week. He’s really come into his own. He’s quite often able to be off-leash, and he gets better each day at responding to my commands. He stays nearby, comes when I call him, and goes to the van when I tell him to. When we sit outside, I often have him on a long rope, just to be sure he won’t wander off if my attention drifts to something else. When inside the van, he usually lays next to me, his head in my lap and I scratch his ears. He is, without a doubt, the best partner I’ve ever had.