The Road to Quartzsite, 2025
Well, we are off! Once again we are making our annual trek to Quartzsite, Arizona for the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV Show and our second annual StressLess Camping meetup in the desert!
Although the route from home to Quartzsite could be covered in two days, we prefer to leave in time to make it a three-day trip so each day is less of a push.
We left on Sunday. We got all our work caught up during the week. Saturday we finished laundry and most of the packing. We have duplicates of a lot of things, so we don’t have to remember as many things. And so we don’t have to carry as many things back and forth. On the morning of departure our list is short: phone charging cradles (eventually we may buy duplicates of these as well), pillows, and any food we didn’t manage to eat last night or this morning. Naturally, there is also something else that we think of at the last minute, and sigh with relief that we didn’t leave that something behind.
Duplicates and checklists
While packing for this trip, I looked over every packing checklist I have ever saved. This is because we had taken all of the non-essentials out of the Mini Lite 2205S in November, before we left to trade it in for our new Rockwood Mini Lite 2506FK at Wana RV Center in Shipshewana, Indiana. Some of the stuff that usually does not leave the camper, left the camper so there was less to swap on that trade-in day. I had tried to stack everything in one place, but I was nervous that I would forget something important! For the record: we are on our second night, and haven’t discovered that we are missing anything vital. Fingers crossed!
We chose the southern route, which is a bit further in miles. On the other hand, there is a better chance the weather won’t turn ugly on us. It’s been pretty much the same at home, and on the road, and (I’ve been monitoring) in Quartzsite. That is to say: cool days, cold nights, and some wind. I know, I know, we need rain; I just don’t like to pack, setup, or hookup in the rain so I have not been sad that it has made itself scarce this year. We did have a little bit of snow in the week before leaving, and we heard it snowed on Sunday after we left. Good. Fill up the aquifers while I am gone, thanks!
We didn’t rush to get going in the morning. We finished packing the last few items, ate the last of the food in the fridge and turned it off, and got our showers. We headed out just before 10:00.
Highlight of the day
We’ve noticed that campgrounds and rest areas in New Mexico all have a wonderful feature in common. They all tend to include covered picnic areas. The covers are always adobe-looking structures, and often painted or decorated with a southwestern motif. I guess it’s good that the drive was so uneventful, that the highlight was parking next to another Rockwood at the Fort Craig rest area, which had quite a few of those covered picnic areas.
Las Cruces
The first day on the road was fairly uneventful. Essentially we just drove south to Las Cruces, where we would turn west for the rest of the trip. I had arranged to stay at a Harvest Host brewery. We parked and checked in then went out to adjust our location and put water in the tanks. We had hauled four of our Wolverine Tuff Bags with water so I carried them to the fill port from the back of the truck, and Tony worked the pump to transfer the water. We went inside for a quick test before we went back in the brewery for dinner. And that’s when our smooth sailing hit a bump in the road (mixed metaphors, anyone?).
Water Works
We could not get the water system to prime. We pumped and pumped, but the water either died’t come out of the faucets or just came out the tiniest bit and stopped. Remember, this was the first time we tried to use the water system because when we picked up the trailer it was winterized and it’s been - well, it’s been winter. And cold! We tried a few tricks and made a couple phone calls (“help!”) and finally came to the conclusion that we probably didn’t get enough water into the tank for it to prime the system.
A quick search of the area found us a KOA campground, where we could get the water we needed. We left, sad to miss out on dinner at the brewery, and went to check in at the KOA.
The KOA in Las Cruces is lovely, by the way. I recommend it. Some of the sites have really great views. In the summer there is a pool. Well, there is always a pool but in summer it’s actually open! The shower house has four individual rooms, each with a toilet, sink, and shower. And a mini-split HVAC to keep the room comfortable. The shower in the room I checked out was large and clean. We were so excited to have our own water, though, that we showered in the trailer and just peeked inside the shower room. We are unsure about other amenities, because our goal was to fill the water tank, prime the system, and get inside out of the cold.
Dinner Time
Those goals being met, we still didn’t know what we would eat for dinner. Tony found a Mexican restaurant with good ratings. Normally for single-night stays we try to stay hooked up, but the site was barely long enough and we needed to get out for food, so we unhooked and went to dinner.
We ate at Andale’s Dog House in Mesilla. For those who are semi-familiar, this is right across the street from the main Andale restaurant. But with hot dogs. Apparently a few other menu items are different, but hot dogs and draft beer seem to be the main benefits of choosing the Dog House side of the street. Oh, plus they welcome dogs.
The food was really terrific. We did not try the draft beers because Tony is on antibiotics (he had a tooth extracted last week) and I just wasn’t really interested in a cold beer. In hindsight, it’s maybe better that we didn’t eat at a brewery; imagine the temptation!!
First Night
We got back to the trailer and tried to warm up. After playing with water in the cool late afternoon, we were both chilled and kept turning up the heat. We used both the propane furnace, and the electric fireplace. The fireplace really takes the chill out of the room and we really enjoyed using it in the 2205S. We still do enjoy it, but have to be careful. You see, when the fireplace warms up the room that has the thermostat, the furnace doesn’t run. Then the bathroom and bedroom get really cold!
Although we slept in the 2506FK on the way home from Indiana in November, we didn’t use the water so our experience was very limited. We chose campgrounds with shower houses and didn’t do any cooking. After all, we couldn’t wash dishes. We did try to buy paper plates so we could microwave some food, but could only find those plastic ones and those aren’t really microwave-friendly!
Passing the Tests
So, really, yesterday was the first night of really using the trailer and testing all the systems. Other than the water thing (which, admittedly was pretty much user-error), all systems are working flawlessly and we are very comfortable in our new trailer. We are, in fact, working tonight in our dinette. This workspace was a main reason we chose to upgrade our trailer after only two years.
Day Two
Monday’s drive was similarly uneventful. We made a stop at the Akela Flats Bowlin travel stop and saw the new addition, a desert robot. We made a pit stop and bought some fudge, and I filled my coffee cup, then we got back on the road. In Lordsburg we stopped at a Loves for another pit stop. We were hungry so Tony got two corn dogs and I got three chicken drumsticks. I liked them so much that I got them the next day as well.
Alive in Tucson
We were able to keep our Harvest Host appointment this night, since all systems were go! We watched for Tandy and Carol as we drove through town, but didn’t see them :-)
We stayed at the Aquabear Swim Club, a facility for swim lessons, swim team training, diving practice, and even includes a couple of hot tubs. Public can use the pools after training, but that goes until about 8:30 each night. By that time we were snuggled into the trailer and didn’t want to change and go back out in the cold.
We had our first camper meal, boudin and grits, and set up our computers to get some work done. We turned in early and got a good night’s rest.
Destination: Quartzsite
Today was the third of three on the road to Quartzsite. The day was a little bit more entertaining, if you can call it that. Of course we made a couple of pit/gas stops. Also, we saw what must have been a terrible accident because a helicopter had landed on the highway, assumedly to pick up an injured party.
About 40 miles east of Quartzsite, we hit the parking lot otherwise known at construction on Interstate 10 westbound. We sat for long periods of time, and drove slowly for other periods. All in all, that last 30-40 miles took over two hours. We were so close and yet couldn’t seem to reach our destination!
Finally, we got through the construction traffic and made it to our destination. We are managing the seminars for the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV show and we have a camping site inside the fence, behind the seminar tent. We got our name badges and parking tags, then followed Kim to our site and got settled in.
We filmed this week’s podcast episode, then called our friends Cindy and Paul to see if they were free for dinner. Cindy was, so she met us at Taco Mio. We were a bit torn between their fabulous fish & chips, or tacos because, you know, Tuesday. Lucky, they have fish tacos so we had the best of both worlds!
Here for a while
So, that was our journey to Quartzsite. Relatively uneventful, other than the water problem, which we solved with a minimum of cussing and swearing. We are so excited to be back at the Big Tent. And to have our meetup in the desert after that! We hope to see a lot of you here!
