Wednesday Dec 14, 2011

Bright sunshine awakened us this morning and we had a leisurely time deciding what to do.  It’s hard for me to realize that this is the third day I’m telling you something about the Camel Corp!  Just a flicker in my mind, and a whole new experience has opened for us.  Kryn said Hi Jolly’s burial site was near here.  We had seen a brown sign telling us there was a museum on the main street in town.  Bless Dan’s heart.  After years of marriage he has learned that if his wife sees the word museum he may as well stop.  Both of us carry books or magazines in vehicles with us at all times.  Yeah!  Today is Wednesday and they are open.  Outside there was a large display of the miniature town of Tyson’s  Well (the name before quartz was discovered).  The gentleman who built the depiction of the town also had a model of his birthplace home in …Farmville, NC.  North Carolinians have left their mark all over this great country.  All the building are built using indigenous stones.  The museum is an old stage coach stop and post office from the early 1800’s.  Mining equipment, rail carts for the lode stones, and chains with ore buckets, gas lantern head gear, picks, shovels,  all kinds of tools were displayed. 

There was furniture made from the Saguaro  cactus ribs and a baptismal fount (made from the same material) was for the Episcopal church, the first church established in the area.  Then, of course, there was Hi Jolly.  We learned that he was Greek who had embraced the Islamic faith and came to the US to be the camel driver for the US.  There was a picture of his wife and him on their wedding day, a picture of him with a newspaper article about him, and a larger one of their son.   As we left the museum the docent told us how to get to his grave site.  It seems they found him dead in the desert beside his favorite camel, brought him to Quartzsite and buried him in the local cemetery.  His monument is a large pyramid with a camel on top.  We were also invited to attend the ceremony on Dec. 17^th as his grave site becomes a National Register landmark.   No more about Hi Jolly (until I can find the information I have on him that tells me his adopted Islamic name!)

From there we went to one of the hundreds of flea markets that pepper the town.    It was Dan’s time to go hunting and finding things he loves.  I had my Kindle with me and had a super time as I read and he went looking.     I’m not sure he saw everything he would like to have seen, but I think he had a good time.  Rocks and tools, petrified wood and kitchen implements, books and carpets,  leather goods and iron wheels, antique cars and tractors, gem stones and minerals of all kinds,  cloth and women’s clothing were there.  They even had cowboy boots and moccasins.  Flags from everywhere were for sale, too.  I could see all this just sitting in the car and looking up every now and then.

If the area is not a flea market, it is an RV Park.  One park right after the other is to the north, to the south,  to the east, to the west and we’re in the middle of them all.  We did see some wild life today, thought.  We were perusing one of the parks when Dan saw it and stopped the car so I could get a picture.  I silently rolled down the window, making no sudden movements.  I did not want to alarm my prey.  Carefully I raised the camera and took measured aim, hoping and praying I could get a picture before the wild  thing bounded away.  I was rewarded with my quietness and carefulness with two great pictures.  Success.  We have pictures of identifiable wild life.  A cottontail bunny rabbit!  Just call me a qualified safari , big game hunter.  If I could roar like Tarzan, I would have!  What a feat!

Arizona has land set aside for camping.  You are allowed to stay on some state lands for two weeks at a time.  That is as long as you may stay “dry” camping  in one area, but you may move 25 miles away and stay there for another 14 days.   Perhaps other states have this policy, too, but it was a new concept to us.  We found Greasewood bushes, Paloverde trees, Ironwood, and Eucalyptus today.  What an array of wonderful trees and bushes!  We have a phenomenal world to love and tend.

This is the most unique town we’ve seen.  We have been told that from January through March, we may as well bypass the town because there will not be a place for us to camp.  The local census as of 2010 was around 1500 permanent residents.  In January the population increases to over one million.  They come essentially to swap what they have for what they don’t have, trade in their camper for another one and to see what’s new in the field of camping..  It is the largest swap meet in the US and one of the largest RV camping display sites with people coming not only from our country, but an international event.  Perhaps we’ll drive through  on our way back just to see the added congestion!

Good-night to all and blessings, too!

Traumatized trailer troopers