Feb 19, 2023 Day 4 Quartzite, AZ

The weather is beautiful this morning, sunny with blue skies and puffy white clouds. We both commented we felt the camper shake once pretty hard sometime during the night but wasn’t sure if we were dreaming. Since we both felt it, I looked if there were any earthquakes last night and there was one in Baja California which is a couple hundred miles due west of here. I think it’s a possibility we felt it.

We had a leisurely morning drinking coffee, but I happened to spot a bird and since we haven’t seen any here, Ron got the camera out to get some photos. We were so glad he did! It was a pair of Mountain Bluebirds!! The males have the turquoise blue feathers on their backs and their neck and belly are pale blue. They do not have any red on them like their cousins, the Eastern and Western birds have. The female was brown and white with similar patterns but no blue.

He also spotted another bird, and this is the Yellow-Rumped Warbler. It is our first photo of a Warbler and excited to capture a few photos of it. We thought we had captured most of the birds in Arizona but excited to get a couple more – especially these two.

We decided it was time to visit Quartzite and check out the Rock and Gem Show. We were also interested in seeing where the RV Relief station was where we can dump our tanks and refill our potable water. So far it doesn’t look like our refrigerator is using much propane here but not sure if the propane tank gauge is working properly. We have a thermometer in the refrigerator and keep checking it to make sure it’s staying at the correct temperatures.

The town of Quartzite, well, I am scratching my head on what’s the attraction. The Rock & Gem show has many tents and displays, with people who are selling their rocks and gems. I assumed these were from Arizona, but most are from other states and international countries. We are novices when it comes to rocks, gems, and crystals, but I always wanted to buy a geode with crystals inside it and thought I’d pick one out that appealed to me. I found one that was reasonably priced, and the vendor gave me a tutorial on the rarity of the black crystals on it. Regardless of if he was being totally truthful, I like the stone and Ron does too and the price was reasonable.

There were other booths and lots of crystals, rocks, gems, and jewelry but overall, it was kind of like a carnival with rather unsavory characters running the booths. We decided its not on our list to visit again.

In reading about Arizona’s oldest tree that is located in Quartzite, we decided to check it out and get a few photos. It’s an Ironwood tree that experts determined is over 1,100 years old. It’s remarkable that it can survive the desert climate with little to no water and temperatures of 130 degrees in the summer and live for a millennium.

We were glad to get back to our desert campsite and relaxed the rest of the day. I fixed some sloppy joes and red potatoes for supper, Ron washed up the dishes and we are planning to run the generator to watch TV while we charge up our devices tonight.