Hanging out in Quartzite during early winter is not too shabby. At night it gets down to about 45 and during the day the temps reach 72 - 76 with a light cool breeze. The attitude is very laid back and friendly.
We have met some awesome folks here with the majority being long term rubber tramps (vehicle dwellers). It has been great to encounter so many like minded individuals who understand and relate to living a life on the road. There is a community that exists among the people we have met. People are happy to lend a hand, offer what they have, share what they know and you can tell that everyone watches out for everyone else. We are excited to be a part of it all and have been learning a lot.
LESSON 1: We can live without a generator.
Going to that big ‘gennie’ scrap yard in the sky!
LESSONS 2-5: Before giving up on her all together, we learned how to take apart and put back together a starter, how to test a voltage regulator (the $250 culprit part), how to measure many different things with our volt meter, how to make fireworks with spark plugs and how to creatively plug a gas line.
LESSON 6: Carry a can of pennies for safety when walking in the desert.
LESSONS 7-9: Never approach a coyote. Don’t run in front of a coyote. If you see one shake a can of pennies.
LESSON 10: “You can sprout anywhere! Even in your pocket.” – Joe, the bicycle guy.
LESSON 11: How to pan for gold by ‘Air Force’ Ricky. The skill is essentially broken down into three parts: 1. You lose your BB’s, you lose your gold 2. Classify, Classify, Classify 3. If you’re gonna buy, buy Keene. If you buy Keene, do the ripple dance!
LESSON 12: “The people at the Slabs in California are even better!” Shared by Ken (70’ish and traveling to Quartzite and Slabs for 30+ years). By better he means more variety. We like variety and we like Ken so we’ll probably wind up catching up with him at the Slabs in the next week or so.
LESSON 13: ‘Grey’ water (aka. sink water mixed with #1) does not dry up in the desert as quickly as you would think therefore dumping it a bit further from your camp is a pretty good idea.
LESSON 14: It takes a REALLY hot fire to burn #2.
LESSON 15: Darlene is a savant who can count spaghetti that drops on the floor just by looking at it.
