Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year in our usual fashion, catching some shut-eye between the covers. Most relaxing.

We did a few walks around in our area, al-la, in the flea market. Lots of stuff to look at, but not really what I need or want. It is obviously not a new material area, but we've only found two vendors that have any type of LED lights. In other words, it is not a hot item. The other problem is how are you going to judge the amount of lighting in the middle of the day. So far I'm very happy with the lights I've acquired. I have decided that I need to measure the current draw over a range of voltages. The one vendor claimed that units that are rated for 12 volts will pre-maturely age and go dim if subjected to a higher voltage. His lamps were rated for a voltage of 11 to 16 volts, where as my lights are rated at 12 volts even.

The other thing I've noticed here in Quartzsite are the number of “rock, stone, mineral or whatever you want to call it” vendors. Plus most aren't dealing in small stuff. You're talking about using forklifts and having it on a pallet. Big stuff. What I'm curious about is what do these guys do with their excess? It looks like they have busted it out of the packing containers and disposed of all of the shipping materials, so how do they handle it for the next show? Are there really that many folks that pay good money for a piece of uniquely colored rock? Perhaps, but certainly not me.

On the southeast quadrant of the intersection here is what is called Rice Ranch. This past summer, they installed 200 to 400 new full hookup sites and Guess what? Hardly any of the new sites are being used! What really amazes me is that they haven't reduced the daily or weekly rates. It certainly appears to me that half of something is a lot better than all of nothing. I'm sure happy that I don't have to face my banker on a deal like that. What is obvious is that all of the Quartzsite owners are in it together. The current price everywhere for dry camping is $7 a night. Is that called inflation, going from $5 a night to $7 a night. The bad boy in me says, “I hope they get burned because of their greediness!”

Yes, I'm enjoying the close proximity to the flea market, but I haven't spent a dollar today either. Sandy finally went for a walk at 4 pm, but only after I leaned on her pretty hard that she needed to get out of the motorhome a little bit today.

Gene