Your Guide to 2024 RTR: The Ultimate Nomad Event! Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Quartzsite AZ
Our dear Bob runs down what’s going on in ten days, not too far south of here.
I’m considering making the run maybe. Money, weather …
The main event is January 14-19. But …
The two/three days before that is the Women’s-Only part of the gathering. You know who you are and why you might want to consider it.
The day after, on the 20th, is the Job Fair. You can get a real good idea of what that means right here.
Do I want a job, even one I could do from the tentative home of a recreational vehicle? Probably not … but it depends on the job. I still love the Park Ranger idea, for example. And apparently the Park people in various forms do show up down there to recruit, so …
Fact is, I don’t think I want to ever be a truly Full Time RVer or vanlifer, and I think that (YouTube hype aside) there are very few people who really are. Even the Bob himself has land now, up near Tusayan.
The main thing I actually want is to be free to travel without ever having to pay the insane prices for some more or less icky motel room ever again. Even the best of such rooms are a crude and ridiculously expensive life hack. I want my house, and I want my mobile house and bed and kitchen too. Screw the sound of people arguing next door and strange stains on the inevitably nasty carpet, especially for a per-night cost that exceeds what you’d pay for a luxury condo you had a mortgage on yourself.
Quartzsite is also home to some LTVAs, Bureau of Land Management spots where you have access to things like water and trash barrels at least (plus some of the warmest January weather in the country) for the grand cost of $180 per seven winter months. The main tricks to making it work are a really good onboard solar system, and in most cases a ten gallon blackwater tank capable of at least theoretically holding onto your poop for a little while.
I’m a studyin’ on it.
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The title of this post refers elliptically to a somewhat political thing I watched today. Click at the risk of your own peace of mind and possibly your love of Dolly.