The Next Exit Quartzsite Rally 2022 was a weeklong gathering of RVers in the desert that was organized by Bob and Pearl Caddel of “JustPassingThru.com”. Those who enjoy following Bob and Pearl’s “Next Exit” videos on YouTube applied to be part of the group. We wanted to attend in 2021, but were too busy with our new manufactured home, and my brother’s passing. We were happy to be part of the rally this year.
We arrived Friday evening, January 21 about 6 pm. This was a day later to Quartzsite than we planned due a part needed to take care of the check engine light on Vinny. We like Velocity Freightliner Truck Center in Tolleson, AZ for routine maintenance, and not so routine issues that come up. The check engine light came on during the last part of our summer travels, so we wanted that checked out prior to our long summer/fall trip. Once again, our extended warranty came through for us. It paid for the part and two hours labor ($1400).
Saturday, Jan 22 was the first official day of The Next Exit Rally. The first community meal was at 4pm, and I was in charge of it. It was my main focus. I am so grateful to Tammy and Scott Morfey who headed up the smash burgers, Bob and Pam Spencer who headed up the smoked chicken wings, the volunteers who helped the four of them, and to Pam, Barry, Debbie, and Donna who helped me transform 200 jalapeños into 400 pepper poppers! We had fun doing it together.
It was requested to have about 10% of the poppers to be hot ones with the seeds left in them. We pulled out 20-25 peppers and set them aside. We would do these separately. To help distinguish them from the rest, we would leave the stems on these. Unfortunately, as I was looking at them it seemed to be best to leave the entire stem on just one half of each pepper. This meant the other half would be cleaned of seeds and membranes and filled as a mild popper. Therefore, we should have pulled out at least 40 peppers instead of the 25. Oh, well. Too late. Next time we will know.
Luckily, Billie, Debbie, Barry and I started cooking at least half of the poppers on several BlackStones earlier than necessary because as we finished, a rain shower blew in, followed by a bigger one. We simply turned off the propane, stacked the foil and metal containers full of poppers on the hot griddles, and closed the covers to keep them warm. Since these BlackStones were out in the open, we would have been drenched if we hadn’t started cooking when we did!
Unfortunately, the rain showers meant a major delay for the smash burgers that were also being done on griddles out in the open. But once the rain moved on through, the blue sky appeared above us, and the wind died down to almost nothing. The people were hungry, so we had them start eating the smoked wings, grilled brats and poppers that were done even though those items were meant to supplement the burgers for the meal. This provided a little time to get the now cold and wet griddles wiped down, and fired up hot for the burgers. The burgers may not have ended up as true smash burgers, due to the pressure to just get all those burgers cooked, but everyone did the best they could under the circumstances. No one went hungry! Awesome volunteers!
Sunday, Jan 23 we had a fabulous community breakfast. The bacon and sausage patties were cooked to perfection. They taste so much better cooked outside on the BlackStones! These cooks were extremely efficient! I had an over-easy egg to go with my bacon and sausage since I couldn’t have the English muffin. What was even nicer was that all I did was contribute three dozen eggs. I didn’t have to cook any of it! Due to the volume of eggs, bacon and sausage, another breakfast will occur later in the week! Nice. 🙂 I THOUGHT I took some pictures, but evidently I did not. (These are from Bob and Pearl.)
After breakfast Barry and I ventured off to the Big Tent. Since the Desert Bar is only open on Saturdays and Sundays, we hoped that it would attract a lot of Quartzsite RVers today instead of the Big Tent. We got to the Big Tent about 10 am. Our timing was perfect. Traffic was non-existent. Parking was readily available, and thus the Big Tent was NOT crowded! Sweet! A possible negative to that might be that we spent more time inside the tent really looking at some things…and purchasing. We still wore masks the entire time inside the tent.
We decided to pick up a heater for our patio in Yuma. We had been debating between a propane one or an electric one. Guess we made the decision today. The Veito carbon infrared heater has four heating levels. The maximum level uses only 1500 watts. The blade can be installed horizontally or vertically. This heater even has a thermostat that can be set for a desired heat comfort level. It has a timer, as well as a remote. The infrared bulb has a warranty for 10,000 use hours. It keeps track of the hours used! This hour-use warranty is when bought at the show. The show price includes the telescoping stand. (Online it is an additional $100.) The heater can actually be used inside or outside, and even be wall mounted if desired. We really like being outside on our patio and this should extend our time out there.
Ever wonder about those bamboo sheets that are sold at the Big Tent? Well, the opening weekend the 2000 thread count, queen sheet complete set was only $50 cash. We liked the softness, and weight of them. Since we needed a new set, we picked up one of these. (We love them!)
Monday, Jan 24. This was smoked RIBS night! They were incredible! There was not a lack of ribs either! We had multiple tables FULL of ribs! Most of the racks of ribs were prepared in the 15+ smokers the group had. Those not providing ribs brought a large side dish or dessert to round out the meal. I made cauliflower mashed potatoes. We were all stuffed! Kudos to all the cooks! This meal was AWESOME!! (Thank you, Marsha A. for the video below!)
Bingo started today. They had it everyday at 1 PM. There was quite a variety of prizes. Some were pretty awesome. Today I won a nice “lunch size”, Coleman soft cooler. This will get used a lot. It will definitely come in handy during our travels. On Saturday, I selected a beautifully crafted wood ring holder. I have it now in my kitchen. While I only use it occasionally for my ring, I use it everyday for my retainer when I’m about to eat something.
When I won a blackout, I chose the retractable 20ft, Stanley extension cord. We put it to use immediately with our new Veito heater when we got home! It also provided 3 additional outlets that were perfectly handy to power our computers or phones as needed when on the patio. Thank you to all who contributed these items, as well as all the additional prizes provided to the many winners throughout the week!
Drones were flown various times throughout the rally. Barry was one of several “pilots”.
A group of talented musicians frequently got together for jam sessions.
First gorgeous evening sky of the week:
Hanging out around multiple fires became a standard nighttime event–wind permitting. As more people came out, the number of fires lit would increase. During peak times we’d have 7 campfires blazing so that there was never anyone having to sit in a second row. Everyone had a front row seat. Ron built amazing fires! They really put out some nice heat. A little of the secret ingredient (a combo of saw dust and diesel fluid) on each fire worked like magic igniting each fire perfectly. The boxes in the picture below were full of wood for the week. As people retired to their RV for the night, the fire crew consolidated to fewer and fewer fires. These guys were dedicated to this every evening! Thank you, fire builders, starters and monitors!!
Even though we met Pam and Bob Spencer, and Tammy and Scott Morfey prior to the rally, we didn’t really know them or anyone else here. We enjoyed extended conversations with different people each evening at the fire. There were a lot of really nice people here for the week. So glad we were able to attend the entire rally. Thank you, Bob and Pearl for all your months of work that it took to make this such a successful, fun event!
