V1N1A

Quartzsite, as some people know, is the gem and Mineral Capital of the world, for the last 2 weeks in January and the 1st 2 weeks in February. At this time of the year, the desert "campground" swells to a quarter of a million RVS and a million people. All this in a town that probably has a couple dozen buildings which are not campground related.

Sharon and I spent 5 days there this year, on the desert, with friends we had met a couple of years ago in Boston. Camping in the desert, without hook-ups, is a real experience. Conserving water and burning your garbage every day, is another experience that everyone should enjoy at least once. We enjoyed a small taste of the excitement, even though it was not during the shows, but several weeks later. There were about 100 shops still open and selling at bargain prices.

We have tentatively decided that we will return next year, during the shows, with the rest of the crazy people. It should be a very different experience. We're hoping we can last a whole month while the shows are in progress. We'll see.........

It has become increasingly more difficult to keep in touch with family and friends during our winter sojourns into the south. For those of you who have our Message Service number, perhaps this will give you a better idea of what we are doing on a monthly basis, instead of whenever we manage to return your call. We have wrestled with this idea for some time trying to figure out a way to keep the family and friends, who care,

informed of our whereabouts, and what we are doing. For the most part, this newsletter will hopefully take the place of most letter writing on our part. We have been extremely lazy this year about keeping up our letter writing, and this was a way that we could keep you up to date, with a method that was designed specifically for you.

For the campers and travelers, we will tell you about the places we have

been, and the places we think deserve a visit by everyone. The National Parks we have seen and visited will also be included because they are my primary visitation goal. (To visit every National Park in the U.S.) We will also list the offbeat places we have been which will include camping spots out of the ordinary, eating spots, and of course, the occasional fine restaurant that we seldom visit.

So sit back and

enjoy a trip to the South for at least the span of this newsletter. We'll try to keep this up, at least for this year, but as you can see by the Jan-Feb edition, there may only be one more letter before we return home. If you like this idea, don't forget to let us know. In the meantime, please read on.............and don't be surprised if you find yourself on these pages in the future.

By Sharon

The day finally came, Jen and Tom had their baby. We waited for the call on our cellphone. It came at 10am, February 17th, while we were camping in Huachuca City, Az. After hearing everyone was doing fine, we were told his name was Brady Thomas.

He was a healthy 7lbs 14oz and was 20in long.. Jen said he is light complected and precious as can be. Can't wait for pictures.

For the past month we have been staying at the Valley of the Sun RV Park in Marana, Arizona.

We have been searching for long-term parks, at a reasonable rate, to supplement our Coast to Coast system . C2C is hard to reserve out here because of the sheer volume of people wishing to get into the parks. When we reserved this park, sight unseen, we were pleasantly surprised by the friendly people, and the facilities of the park. I am sure we will return here again someday.