January 26, 2002
This will be the last post from Quartzsite, as we leave tomorrow morning. Heading to Yuma to park who-knows-where so we can walk across the border into Mexico for eyeglasses and medications.
On the left is Barb who isn't trading anything! Beautiful jewelry and polished stones and semi-precious gems. Inside this building and for probably some 10 acres around it were more rocks. The ones inside the building were special and many had been awarded prizes of one sort or another. I found a beautiful small pendant that would have looked even better around Barb's neck picking up the blue in her eyes. For $1,250 I didn't even bother to point it out to her. But that gives an idea of the quality of workmanship in this jewelry. This was the site of the "original" Quartzsite Gem and Mineral show. The story is that a couple of guys met here by chance hunting rocks. One guy had blue ones and the other had red ones, and they swapped some rocks, agreeing to meet again next year. They did, and brought some friends who had orange and yellow rocks, and they all swapped with each other, etc., etc., until today it's the worlds largest rock and gem show. On the right are a couple of modest homes in Quartzsite with natural front yards.
On the left is another pretty yard. Remember that before the saguaro puts out an arm, it's at least 75 years old! And on the right is one of the many corners here in the desert with road signs directing whoever to wherever. Can you find the L.O.W. pie plate? It's sort of to the right of center. This particular corner is right by the entrance to the BLM land, and subsequently has a few more signs than the corners further into the desert.