Desert Dwellers

Leaving the hotel in Blythe around 8 a.m., we had exited California within ten minutes and entered Arizona, where we switched back to Mountain Time and lost an hour.  Just inside the border, we stopped at the Arizona welcome center rest area and found a couple of letterboxes.  With little on our agenda for the day except driving the 160 miles to our Phoenix area hotel, Ken asked about roadside attractions along our route.

HADJI ALI (aka HI JOLLY)

Thanks to the Roadside America app, we soon exited the interstate and rolled into the funky high desert town of Quartzsite (pop. 3,643) fifteen miles from the state line.  Our first stop was the Hi Jolly Cemetery.  Formerly known as the Quartzsite City Cemetery, the graveyard was renamed for Hadji Ali, a Syrian-born Greek who immigrated to the area as part of a military transportation experiment in the mid-19th century.

Under the leadership of Secretary Jefferson Davis (the same one who later became president of the Confederacy), the War Department was charged with surveying, defending and supplying vast swaths of land ceded to the U.S. in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War.  Believing that most of the Southwest was a barren desert, Davis approved an experiment to import camels to use as dray animals.  In 1856, some 80 camels were imported from the Middle East along with knowledgeable camel drivers who were hired to teach soldiers how to manage the animals.

One of these was Hadji Ali, whom the fumble-tongued soldiers took to calling Hi Jolly.  Able to survive on a minimum amount of water and plants they found growing on the desert, the camels served their purpose well.  Efforts to persuade Congress to expand the program failed in the atmosphere of growing tensions that led to the Civil War.  Once Davis left the federal government, the experiment was abandoned.  Some of the camels were left on the desert to fend for themselves, the last surviving descendent found in 1946.  Having adjusted to life in America, Hi Jolly remained and operated a mail and transport service using camels and worked as an Army scout before retiring to Quartzsite, where he tried his hand at prospecting.

ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT HOMAGE TO HI JOLLY

When he died in 1902, Hi Jolly's burial place was marked by a simple wooden stake.  Thirty years later, the Arizona Highway Department, wanting to preserve this unusual episode in state history, built a pyramid monument of native stone and petrified wood, topped with a metal camel silhouette.  According to locals, the Hi Jolly monument is the most visited place in the town.

WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD HIDING PLACE.

We found the story just as fascinating as the highway department and decided we needed to plant a letterbox there.  In searching for a spot to hide a small treasure in the cemetery, Ken uncovered a surprise.  Near the grave under a pile of rocks that looked like a promising hiding place, he found…a letterbox!  When we had consulted our letterboxing app for boxes along today's route on I-10, we limited search results to those within five miles of the interstate.  Apparently, this was a bit outside that range.  After finding this gem, we conducted a "nearby" search and discovered there was also a second Hi Jolly letterbox in the cemetery.  Clearly we didn't need to add a third, so, after finding the second, we moved on.

ARIZONA IS CERTAINLY A BETTER PLACE FOR THE CHOSEN ATTIRE THAN ALASKA.

Another Quartzsite quirk that Roadside America tipped us off to was the naked bookstore owner.  Yes, naked bookstore owner.  Since his store sounded interesting and we were on the trail of unconventional attractions, we decided to go by the Reader's Oasis bookstore.  Owner Paul Winer had gone on a cat food foray before we arrived, though we questioned the urgency when we saw his pudgy 25-pound gray tabby who apparently rules the bookstore.  (On the other hand, in his typical attire, he would be wise to please the feline since he is vulnerable to a clawing.)

ALMOST EVERY INCH OF THE READER'S OASIS IS COVERED IN MERCHANDISE.

While the naked proprieter was out shopping, we talked with his assistant, a slender young woman with a long braid who had been working there only a few weeks.  According to her, more than 225,000 items are packed into the store with at least 200,000 different titles.  We spent a few minutes perusing the vast and eclectic inventory of books, magazines, dvds, videotapes and and all manner of items crowded but neatly organized into the small space.  Finally we decided to write off the bookseller in the buff and move on to look for a couple of letterboxes around town.  Little did we know that one of them would bring us right back to this spot.

THE LETTERBOX WAS NEAR THIS SIGN AT THE ENTRANCE BUT WE HAD TO EXPLORE MORE.

In search of a letterbox, we found ourselves in a place called Celia's Rainbow Gardens, a 20-acre plot that covers the northern quarter of the town park.  This combination botanical garden/nature trail/memorial park was like nothing we had seen before.  After finding the letterbox, we wandered through its paths marveling at its pastiche.

ONE OF MANY PERSONALIZED MEMORIALS

Quartzsite and the surrounding area are well-known to rockhounds as the location of a large variety of colorful rocks and minerals.  Many grave markers in the cemetery, including that of Hi Jolly, featured a display of native stones.  Celia's Gardens were no different.  Along the rock-lined paths, we encountered one after another heartfelt memorials local citizens had built to honor their deceased loved ones.  These were not graves, just remembrances.

OPUNTIA MICRODASYS  (FAMILIARLY KNOWN AS ANGEL WINGS OR POLKA DOT CACTUS)

Throughout the gardens were beautiful examples of desert plants labeled with their species information.  Some plants were featured in their own special areas; others grew within a memorial.  A  small, rustic amphitheater hand built with native stones had been added recently.  We were fascinated with this unique park and had many questions about its origins.  Imagine our surprise when we noted on the signage that the young girl Celia, the gardens' namesake, had the same last name as the naked bookseller.   That took us back to the bookstore to learn more.

With the temperature hovering in the mid 40s, Paul Winer—who had returned with the cat chow—was bundled in a fuzzy holiday-themed fleece jacket against the cool, but maintaining his usual attire further south.  He informed us that the under-sized Santa hat he had strategically placed below his waist was called his "Panty Claus."  When we asked him about Celia and her garden, he confirmed that she was his daughter who had died of a heart infection in 1995 at age 8.  We wanted to learn more about the park, so he called his wife Joanne and put us on the phone with her.

After the people of the town were so generous with their outpouring of sympathy and concern after their little girl died, Joanne explained, she and Paul wanted to do something to express their appreciation.  When they approached town officials with the idea of planting a tree in the town park in Celia's memory, they learned of a botanical garden/nature trail plan on the books which had never been implemented.  Joanne offered to take on the job of organizing volunteer efforts to make the garden a reality.

When others saw the small memorial the Winers made to Celia, they loved the idea, and soon other creative exhibits were installed as an homage to many of the town's departed.  There are no burials in the gardens but you can learn a lot more about the deceased from these quaint personal tributes than from most traditional headstones.  A constantly evolving and locally beloved project, the gardens have expanded from their original eight acres to cover twenty.

RV'S ON EVERY CORNER

As we drove around Quartzsite, we couldn't help noticing the hundreds of RVs parked around the town.  Outside the bookstore the first time we arrived, we met a retired couple from Colorado who were hawking copies of their self-published books.  When we remarked that the town seemed to have more than its share of RVs, they enlightened us on the lifestyle and Quartzsite's special place among RVers.  The wannabe authors explained that they are "boondocking" on public lands outside of town.  That means they park their RV for free in the desert and have no electrical, water or sewer hookups.  Their vehicle has enough resources to boondock three weeks at a time before they must renew their supplies.

BOONDOCKING NEAR QUARTZSITE  (Photo from liferebooted.net)

With a population well below 4,000, Quartzsite is home to some 70 RV parks with more than 6,000 spaces.  It relishes its reputation as the "boondocking capital of the world" with millions of acres of BLM lands surrounding the town.  In winter, the small hamlet's population explodes with the arrival of the snowbirds in early January.  Apparently there's an affinity between RVers and rocks.  During January and February when the town hosts a dozen major gem and mineral shows, the RV population in and around Quartzsite peaks at more than 250,000 people.

Riddle me this:  If someone can pay upwards of $400,000 for an RV and $40,000+ for the SUV they're towing behind it, what's the big thrill in saving a few dollars a day by parking free in the desert?

Pondering this and other mysteries, we decided it was time to move on.  We arrived in Quartzsite about 9:30 this morning to check out the Hi Jolly monument.  By the time we left, after a picnic lunch at a BLM site where we found another letterbox, it was after 2:30 and the sun was sinking toward the horizon.  Fortunately we had only a couple of hours to reach our destination for tonight in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.

Tomorrow we'll check out the faux Arizona State Capitol and decide where to go next.

FRIDAY, 24 DECEMBER 2016
    •  Started in:  Blythe, CA
    •  Ended in:  Tempe, AZ
    •  Miles driven: 190  [trip:  5,764]
    •  Weather:  46° to 54°, overcast and windy
    •  Letterboxes:  Found 9  [trip:  F100, P14]
    •  Walked:  2.5 miles  [trip:  96.8]
    •  States:  CA, AZ  [trip:  8]
    •  Counties:  3   [trip:  113]
    •  Towns:  8   [trip:  250]
    •  RVs in Quartzsite today:  4,127
    •  Naked booksellers in Quartzsite:  0  (whew!)
    •  Books we bought from the Coloradans:  0 (though they were pitching hard)