RTR and OOBerFest
Thursday, 17 January
When we went over to the clubhouse for the movie, the RV park owner, Jeff, was getting things set up. Darrell thanked him for allowing our friend Jean to plug in at our site earlier that day. Darrell went on to say that Jean might be wanting a site for the night so she could charge her batteries all night. Jeff said he thought he had a site or two, which Darrell passed on to Jean. Jean was able to get one of the few vacant sites in North Quartzsite, in Quail Run RV Park,.
This morning, over breakfast, we sent emails and texts to Jean checking up,on her. We went over about 9am to Quail Run RV Park, about 1/2 mile north of The Scenic Road RV Park, to see her and go over a few ideas.
We then went back to the RV Park as Jeff had arranged for the Assistance Fire Chief of the Quartzsite Fire District to give a talk on what happens when you call 911. The talk was very informative. While it had specifics to La Paz County, much of the procedures are typical of emergency services. Some things we learned:
- the fire department actually responds to a low percentage of fires, around 20%
- they get about 100 calls per year for snake removal
- a helicopter ambulance flight is $60,000
- how the 911 responder works, and why they have a required set of questions they go through when you call
We certainly hope we won’t need to experience emergency services in Quartzsite (or any where else). We were glad we made that part of our day.
Next up was to return to the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous as Carolyn of Carolyn’s RV Life, on of many we follow on YouTube, was holding a meet and greet at noon. As we had been there, we were familiar with the routine of getting there, including driving on the worn path in the desert along the paved road as it was a lot smoother. We got to meet Carolyn.
Afterwards, we walked through parts of the RTR area. We noticed that there were a lot fewer campers than we saw on Monday. We enjoyed getting a nice long walk in for the exercise as well.
Our next event was OOBerFest located in the Plomosa Road BLM area.
Like the RTR, we knew where to go as we had scoped out the location on Tuesday when we tried to join the Escapees for the Happy Hour. The gathering is organized by David and Brenda Bott who have a web site (and Youtube channel) called “Outside Our Bubble” (https://youtu.be/vNGyGHDcNnM). They full-time in a nice Tiffin Class A motorhome. Somewhere along the way, we started watching some of their videos.
David and Brenda gathered in the Quartzsite area with a few friends several years ago. One of their friends dubbed the gathering as the OOBerFest for Outside Our Bubble festival. They had so much fun, they decided to do,it again the next year. David being the extreme extrovert extended an open invitation to anyone following them to attend. No cost other than to bring firewood.
After we left the RTR, we stopped by one of the many vendors in downtown Quartzsite and purchased a cardboard box (repurposed Chiquita Bangalore’s box) of firewood for $15. When we arrived at OOBerFest, we saw there was an opening in the RVs that had parked so as to create a 100 yard by 100 yard square courtyard, and a huge pile of firewood in the center. We decided better to drive the box of firewood to the pile than to carry it. Needless to say, Sprinty made quite an impression entering the large circle of predominately Tiffin Class A motorhomes.
Photo of Sprinty by the firewood pile:
After we dropped off the firewood, David and Brenda came over to welcome Sprinty (and Darrell and Kris). They provided a quick overview of how things worked (all boondocking, all firewood was community firewood) and suggestions of where to park Sprinty.
We exited the courtyard as it seemed there was no place for Sprinty left in the circle, and scouted out someplace. We then saw a guy walking over to us who invited Sprinty to park next to him as there was a small amount of room, but not enough for a large Tiffin. He had parked his truck in the spot to keep large rigs from trying to park there, and moved his truck so Sprinty could have the place. So Sprinty got a courtyard spot after all. We would find that warm welcome was typical of all the OOBers.
Here are two panoramic photos trying to capture 360 degrees of the OOBerFest courtyard.
Here is a link to a short video panning the OOBerFest circle:
Steve, the guy who invited us to park next to him, and his wife Deanna were from Washington state. On the other side of Sprinty was a fifth wheel toy hauler with Dominic and Natasha and their kids from Ontario. Meeting some others, it seemed like some were full-timers while others made this part of a vacation. Unlike the FMCA rally, the people we met seemed to be more in their 60s, with several younger than that (compared to FMCA where the general age seems to the 70s).
At 5pm, David and Brenda had to welcome session and everyone gathered in their chairs near David’s RV, because that is where he set up the sound system.
David went over the seminars planned and other activities, and emphasized the gathering was about having fun and meeting each other. A show of hands showed that about half the people gathered were first timers to OOBerFest. David said 156 coaches had RSVPed.
After dinner, Darrell wandered among the many fires (wood burning and propane fire pits) meeting and talking with people.
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