Quartzsite Quest

Well, Saturday was a day for discovery.  Lynda, Syd, Ray and I left bright and early (bright and early for me…they thought the day was half over), and off we headed for Quartzsite, about an hour away from Yuma.

We arrived just as Arizona's largest RV show was getting underway, so traffic was a bit heavy.  Our ultimate destination was the Quartzsite Metal Detecting Club (probably not their real name but that's what they do).  The group has a huge field and they seed it with coins, tokens and special objects that can be redeemed for prizes after the hunt is over.  About 200 of us lined up on the outside of the field and waited for the marshall to signal the start.  We had one hour to scour the field and find as much money as possible.  It was loads of fun!  Syd found $13.60 in coins, Ray found about $7.00 and a necklace and I came away with $3.60 in coins PLUS a small pewter token.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the Grand Prize token!  I won 2 gold nuggets and a 1890 Silver Dollar.  The prize was worth $200.00. 

 
This took some of the sting out of the fact that I had just finished paying $250 for several bags of gold dirt.  As I've mentioned before, it is just so much easier to pop a cold beverage and sit in the sun on your lot, leisurely sifting through bags of dirt:  no snakes, no spiders, no scorpions, no sweating, no back breaking labour.  Just hand over your wallet and voila….gold dust.

To celebrate our successes, we decided to stop at one of Quartzsite's most famous landmarks:  the Reader's Oasis, a used book store which features what is probably the world's only nude septuagenarian librarian, Paul Wiener.  I am NOT kidding about that last name.  To be fair, he was wearing a little something in a fairly strategic area.  On the day we arrived, he was also wearing a top hat and looking quite dapper. 

You know those crocheted dish cloths that everyone has nowadays…. they shrink to half their size when you dry them and are useless in the kitchen.  Now I know what to do with them:  mail them to Quartzsite to supplement Mr. Wiener's wardrobe.