Quartzsite Entegra Coach GATHERING

[Gary.Jones]

A significant subset of the RVers there bring Raz-ers or dune buggies and 4 wheelers. Luckily, they were not that evident. I have been places where the buzz of off-road vehicles zooming around sounds like getting close to a bee hive. Not here. There are mountains and there is lots of desert...... lots and lots of desert. The desert is either hard packed sand or in our area hard packed sand and small vulcanic rock so no problems with coaches sinking in.

Glen does a really nice job of accurately describing the show and the city. As a show, frankly, it is not nearly as good as the Tampa Supershow. The Tampa Supershow had virtually every major RV manufacturer there in attendance.... factory/engineer reps there to talk to directly. Quartzsite's big tent has much more fluff..... with some manufacturers there. Displays were smaller with fewer products available for sale. More purses and handbag manufacturer than I care to see. Glenn kept saying that he had an empty basement and needed to fill his new basement with chairs and grills etc. and my advice each time was to point out that he probably could find everything that he would find at Quartzsite was available at big box WalMart or sporting goods stores or on-line vendors. That was true. Virtually all of the money that I came with is still in my wallet.

The experience of Quartzsite is the camaraderie of spending 5 to 12 days with other Entegra owners, talking coaches, talking experience simply getting to know other owners. That was the main "take-away" for me, and I'll bet for most people who attended.

Glenn and Julia..... thanks for doing the video. And, I look forward to seeing 2 or 3 times the number of attendees next year. We had 16 coaches there at one time or another with 11 or 12 there all the time.

Gary

[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