Quartzsite 2016

[Gary.Jones]

Only 5 coaches here now. RV Show stops tomorrow and we anticipate losing two of the five remaining coaches today, one tomorrow, and by Sunday evening, only Jim and Natalie (LVUS101) are likely to be here.

It has been a great event for those who enjoy shows, but more, enjoyed good company from other Entegra owners, and lots, and lots of great owner information being passed from coach to coach.

All major hitch and tow bar manufacturers are here and will quickly do repairs and maintenance checks. Several general repairs services are here to do repairs in their own shops or out at your coach. AquaHot corporate is here as is Lloyd DeGerald, who does factory certified AquaHot service out in the field. One of our coaches had 6 Koni shocks installed at the show in about 2 hours.

And again, thanks to Paul Evert RV for supporting our Monday night Burger and chicken dinner and with leftovers, our Wednesday evening pot luck (Brats and Burgers) dinner. Every day, a nice Happy Hour around the bonfire. Finally, great people!!

Looking forward to a bigger Entegra@Quartzsite Gathering here next year. Mark it on your calendars.

Gary

[Gary.Jones]

Only 3 coaches remain today on the morning of the last day of the RV show, and by this afternoon, all participants of the first annual Entegra@Quartzsite gathering will be gone. Great fun I think for all, and I learned that with some water conservation measures and a lot of changes of clean clothes and what we call "start-stop" showers, DW and I were able to make it 12 days with 46% fresh water, and 75% gray and black tanks. Very interesting !!!! Also, our first encounter with BLM land and BLM dry camping. Learned a lot!

Now off to Southern California and exploration of Southern California and Southern Arizona for another 2 months. Had a GREAT TIME!! Thanks to all owners who decided to come and share the experience.

Gary

[LVUS101]

DW and I just watched Gary and Dee take off for their next destination leaving us as the last Entegra couple in the desert.
Gary & Dee did an outstanding job organizing and hosting this event. Between the barbecues and the late night fire pit burns all of us were able to meet other Entegra owners and share information over the last 12 days.
This is our first time visiting Quartzsite and we look forward to the next year's event.

[livingadream]

Thank you so much to Gary and Dee for their planning and coordination of our Entegra get together in Quartszite. We are looking forward to seeing many of you in the next couple of months. We wish we could have stayed on through the weekend, but we had a party here at our house! (For those that know about the party we had 70 Oregonians in attendance at our home last night! It was super fun). Everyone travel safely and see you in the road!
Scott and Julie Ferguson

[DSL417]

Great job Gary and Dee...we'll see you next year.

[Gary.Jones]

A narrative summary and some pictures of the Entegra@Quartzsite Gathering is now up on the Entegra Coach Owners Association web page. The link for the write up and summary is the following:

https://ecoa20.wildapricot.org/page-18158

Also, that summary contains a link to the video that was shot and put together by Glenn and Julia Thomkins. If you would prefer going there directly, this is a YouTube video about 6 minutes in length. It does a very good job of capturing the essence of Quartzsite the town, and the RV show. It also does a nice job of showing a little of our gathering at Quartzsite.

Link to the YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R0csab2BMs

Thanks everyone who attended.

Gary

[TgovSr]

Gary, I would appreciate the contact information on your insurance person. We will be picking up a 2017 Anthem in the May / June timeframe and could use a good insurance person. Enjoyed following the Q-Side thread.
Lou

[Gary.Jones]

Lou

The person who is currently handling my LLC and previously handled my Monaco is a wife/husband team of Chris and Charles Yust. They sell at RV shows and specialize in motorhome insurance but can do it all. Chris can be reached at cryust@yahoo.com. Also, 866-282-5420. Chris saved me $1,300 on my current insurance. New insurance is with Allied Insurance, and division of Nationwide. She and Charles are also full-timing in a 2015 Anthem 44B so they know our coaches well.

Gary

[TgovSr]

Gary, thanks for the follow up and look forward to meeting you at upcoming E events and rallies. I will be calling the Yust's......
Lou

[Gary.Jones]

Thought that it might be a good idea to publish a list of "Things Learned" for the next Quartzsite 2017 Gathering. I am sure that others learned some things that are different from those of Dee and me and please add to this list..... this will be sort of a collection of knowledge and things learned ....

1. Quiet hours were not a big deal although that might not always be true. Our encampment was done where there was a lot of room..... we did that intentionally so we would have room for unanticipated arrivals. Our location was ideal.... hard ground, small pebbles/rocks. Some other areas were on sand or dirt and so could be a lot of dust. Our rigs really do kick up the dust if over dirt. We were spaced far enough apart and far enough away from non-Entegra people that people ran their generators any time that it was necessary. I put the genny on AutoStart every night and found that I usually made it all night with no problem until the coffee pot kicked-on to brew coffee at 7:00 and triggered the AutoStart to fire up the Genny.
1.5 Our exact GPS location this year was 33 degrees, 37', 03.0" North, and 114 degrees, 12', and 37.3" West.
2. Potable water was readily available if you needed it as were dump stations. We passed both on our way to our location. There were about 6 water spigots in pairs (maybe 12 total) to feed two RVs at a time to take on potable water. There was no shortage.
3. There were two "wet" dump stations (non-potable water available to wash after dumping). Near the end of the RV show portion of the time period, it appeared that many of the people leaving were leaving with full tanks or didn't want to drive with the extra weight, and the line for the dump stations would grow to 15 units and maybe 2 or 3 hour wait. However, if you dumped early (before 8:00am) or late ~ after 5:00pm, there was no line at all and time through the process was minimal. 12 to 4 could be a very long wait. None of our coaches needed to dump before they left (and don't think any of them dumped on the way out except for my buddy LVUS101 (he was sick and musta taken too many showers....). We left with black tank still at about 60% (after 12 days) so dumped at the RV park we went to in Desert Hot Springs.
4. there were about 10 dumpsters and the BLM people kept them empty.
5. There was a dry dump station but that was for the people that were using "blue boy" portable dump units to empty their black tanks. It was amazing to see the hundred different ways that people had devised to pull the blue boys over to their dump station.... this was mainly the really long term campers.
6. The $40 feel covers you up to 14 days on BLM land. For $180, you can either spend a half year or a whole year (I don't remember which) but it would take a hardy camper to want to stay here during the summer months. I assume that most of the long-term people there were fall, winter, and spring people and gone by late spring. People generally kept to themselves. The Monaco people came over to visit us and view the display coaches and we went over to their circle to see some demos of the engine fire suppression systems.
7.5 There was some strange "territoriality" among some of the long-term campers. They would gather desert stones and define a large area of desert that they apparently considered "theirs" and even chewed one of our group out for their leashed dog violating their turf, complete with a lecture to the interloper about lack of respect for "property rights"...... apparently they lost the fact that this was all government land, they owned nothing, and there were specific rules against fences and ownership of land (maybe these were variants of the Oregon bird sanctuary people......) They didn't come over to join our bonfire.....
7. The weather was beautiful while we were there, everyday. Clear blue skies, day temp from 65-75, no rain and very dry. If you have a cold, expect to cough longer and harder than you have ever coughed in your life with the dry conditions. I managed to get bronchitis while there and needed to buy a Vicks Vaporizer to humidify the air to keep from coughing my guts up (seemingly) when I coughed. New experience for me compared to living down in the Deep humid South.
8. Gen-Turi - s were not really needed since we had such wide spacing between coaches. If we got up to 30 coaches (and needed the spacing of the Monaco group, it might be more important) but my sense is that it is cold enough in January that there aren't people sitting out next to the coaches or with windows open, and therefore not "gasable". Gen-Turi s are a good idea anytime dry camping in close proximity of other coaches.
9. Any reasonable restaurant in Quartzsite is packed during any standard meal time. We ate in the coach almost all the time except I snuck out to a Carl's Jr. several mornings while Dee slept for a monster biscuit. Otherwise, we ate at a fast food restaurant one lunch (packed, long waiting line), and at Silly Al's Pizza joint for dinner and beer. Silly Al's is definitely the place to go as there was ALWAYS a line to get in. Its a big place and they move them in and out, but there was ALWAYS a line. Excellent Pizza, Reasonably priced, and the pitcher beer was good and cold. Also ate at the Quartzsite Yacht Club.... fish and chips.... pretty good... reasonably price, locals doing bad karaoke. Other than that, good food in the coach.
10. As anticipated, people came and went. The common time to gather was the nightly bonfire. This was both atmospheric and needed as it got cool sitting out. People started gathering about 4:30 and were in full sway by 5:00. It got dark shortly after 5:00 and by 6:00 seemed to us Southerners to be as dark as mid-night at home. By 8 ish, all but the hardy bonfire people had moved to their coaches for dinner or TV. A few hardy souls would continue to drink whatever they had and chat but by 9:30, all were gone and the fire would burn itself out.
11. Light jackets were "de-riguer" at evening and morning.
12. We ran the diesel Aqua-Hot every night to keep the coach cozy. I think that this was common.
13. Darryl was definitely the guy to buy wood from. This fellow provided a huge pile of beautifully appropriate wood for the fire, dry, and caught fire with little coaxing (Pat's dribble of gasoline helped a lot also....). If Darryl is doing wood still next year, this is the "go to guy"
14. No one needed or used a honey-wagon although that could be arranged.
15. 100 gallons of fresh water was more than enough for the whole encampment unless long hot showers were needed daily. I noticed no body odor from anyone and hope that was true for me.....
16. Don't come with the expectation that this is a resort camping experience, because it isn't. The town is not much, and the show is average. Entegra@Quartzsite was pretty much what we had hoped it would be.... meeting other owners, talking coaches, getting advice and information, doing some repairs from people who have been through whatever it is. If you don't enjoy sitting in the middle of the desert, taking it easy, and talking with other coach owners, then this is not the event for you. But if it is, then this was a lot of fun.

So, there you have it. I am sure that others who attended learned some other things, so please contribute and add to the "knowledge base", and see you next year.

Gary and Dee

[TNTBaker]

We fervently hope to be in attendance next year! Loved watching Glenn and Julia's video and really are looking forward to meeting everyone. WE LOVE to boondock and love the enforced "nothingness" it affords. It's like when it snows and you have to stay indoors with the kids on a no-school day... it ends up being a great time. Cheers!

[LVUS101]

Originally Posted by TNTBaker

We fervently hope to be in attendance next year! Loved watching Glenn and Julia's video and really are looking forward to meeting everyone. WE LOVE to boondock and love the enforced "nothingness" it affords. It's like when it snows and you have to stay indoors with the kids on a no-school day... it ends up being a great time. Cheers!

TNTBarker, we look forward to seeing you guys next year. Gary and Dee did a great job organizing this group and we had fun.

[Gary.Jones]

Todd and Teresa

Nothing would give us more pleasure than you guys being part of our gathering this coming January. Please plan on it. I would hope that we get everyone to repeat who was there last year and another 15 or 20 and you sound like you would fit right in. I think you have a handle on it. Pat Bauer (President of ECOA) and I have been making plans already to announce and advertise the Gathering much earlier this year, and hoping we can get some (several) factory Reps to join us this year. The calendar shows that once again TAMPA RV SUPERSHOW is immediately before the Quartzsite show and overlaps a couple of days with Quartzsite, but it would be easy to fly from Tampa to Phoenix and still catch the main part of Quartzsite. We will be publishing preliminary information on Quartzsite soon for long range planning. The gathering will commence on Friday, Jan 20th. More later. Hope to meet both of you and your new Cornerstone ...... Now that is a really exciting future event! Congrats!

Gary

[DSL417]

Long time from now, but we'll be there for at least a week next January.