Parker Dam, CA

Yesterday we drove to the Crossroads BLM campground about 7 miles south of Parker Dam, CA. We were only on I-10 for a short time, then cut off onto Hwy. 177 and 62……80 miles of nothingness. The town of Rice is near the end of that stretch but it’s just a stop sign and one convenience store. (I assume there’s more to the town somewhere else) This CG is right on the Colorado River, and only $2.50 a night with the Federal Geezer Pass!! I had hoped to go a whole month without spending anything on camping fees but I didn’t. quite make it, I only went 29 days. I’m here for 4 days so technically I only  spent $2.50 for a month, that’s pretty good.

We didn’t quite make it into the actual campground; it was full so we are parked just outside it in a gravel sort of overflow area.  Me and all the Big Rigs! There’s another A-Frame camper in the campground though, a Rockwood. That’s funny, I was just thinking yesterday that I hadn’t seen another pop-up camper the whole time I’ve been out here. Yesterday a nice man came by and asked if I wanted his riverfront site on Saturday when he leaves, but I’m planning on going to the annual Quartzsite Bloggerfest in the morning so I won’t be here when he leaves. Darn! I’m sure that site will be grabbed up quickly, even though it’s tiny. He’s traveling in a 1970 Bolens camper (one of the original fiberglass “egg” campers)!

On the road in we saw a couple of these signs:

I haven’t seen any burros yet, but I hope to. There’s a lot of burro-poo right behind our row of campers, so they must come around here a lot. Boy I think it’d be hard not to feed something so cute; good thing I don’t have any carrots or I’m sure I’d be tempted to be bad. I hope they come back while we are here!

It’s colder here than at Joshua Tree….got down to 38 last night and apparently I’ve been spoiled, as I thought 50 degrees in the camper was too cold. I got up in the middle of the night and turned on the little heater for an hour or so. Funny, a couple weeks ago I thought 50 degrees was just fine. The sun is rising earlier and earlier all the time though, and the camper warms up nicely as soon as it starts to hit the big side window.

So the annual Bloggerfest in Quartzsite is tomorrow from 1-4 pm at LaPosa South LVTA area. It’s for bloggers and also anyone who wants to maybe meet their favorite blogger!  (Blogger-stalkers; alert!)  I want to go; I hope I go!  I am the world’s worst introvert, I say I want to do things like this and then at the last minute I just can’t bring myself to go, especially when I don’t know anyone there.  So we’ll see.  Quartzsite is about 3/4 hour drive from here but I don’t want to camp there; I picture it as a complete madhouse of thousands of campers. Maybe I’m wrong and I’ll want to go there next; who knows? Many of the BLM areas around there have fees though, either $40 for 14 days, or $180 for the whole season.  That’s too rich for my budget; I have to stick to the 14-day free areas.