NüRVers Gathering 2010: Day 1

Hill Shade has been steadily filling up to capacity with NuRVers, and today was the "official" kick-off of the 2nd annual rally! It's been SO MUCH FUN living in this temporary nomadic community...side by side with other "young" full-time travelers. There is much information to glean and endless inspiration to share.

One of our favorite aspects of a gathering like this is the diverse mix of people. There is a lot of "geekiness" here, as you might expect, because most of us use computers in some way to make a living. And there is a lot of "granola"...as many of us are vegetarian and are into sustainability. There are also many motorcycle-drivers, margarita-drinkers, photography buffs, animal-lovers, and Vibram FiveFinger wearers. Be sure to watch the video above to "meet" everyone here!

We kicked off the day at 4:30 p.m. with happy hour and announcements...and then rolled into a "crowd-sourced" Tex-Mex themed meal at 6:30 p.m. The food...oh the FOOD! It was amazing. After that, there was lot of stimulating conversation, campfire & marshmallows, more margaritas, and flaming poi spinning by Cherie!

We're looking forward to an amazing weekend...there is a lot of cool stuff planned! I have taken lots of photos already and I will work on getting them posted soon...along with a daily update. And if you've been reading our blog for any time at all, you will know that it's a BIG DEAL for me to post something the within the same day. Or the same week for that matter. So you KNOW I must really be having fun!

If you have a Twitter account and want to follow along, search for #NURV and you'll be able to see everyone's tweets! If you don't have a Twitter acccount, what are you waiting for?!

There is also a new NüRVers Flickr group that will have photos of all NüRVer events.

Our photo gallery is here and the Flickr set is here.

Desert Boondocking

Last summer, we learned about an "event" in the desert that brings tens of thousands of RV'ers each year...the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV Show. Basically, it's a BUNCH of retired RV'ers boondocking and selling stuff. For several months. In the desert. I think I saw only a handful of people our same age, but it was still fun!

We didn't care about the show as much as we did just hanging out with our friends Kevin and Angie. Kev and Ang have been on the road full time for several years and we met them through mutual friends and their website, NuRVers. NuRVers is a group of younger RV'ers who are working full time on the road or taking a sabbatical from their "normal" life. We have connected with them several times around the country and we love hanging out with them. They are the most laid back, sweet couple...and Bella ADORES them.

We enjoyed sharing many meals and campfires and just sharing life in general. It's so much fun to park your house right next to your friend's house. Instant community.

The allure of Quartzsite for us was also the CHEAP camping. It's $40 to camp for 2 weeks on BLM land. After you pay, you just go pick a spot anywhere in the great wide open. They do provide a way to fill up your tanks and dump, but this is hard core boondocking (for those of you who don't know, boondocking is camping without hook ups). Many of the rigs there have a nice solar set up. We got by with just running the generator a couple times a day to charge up our batteries and then being very conservative on running lights/water.

One of the other fun things about Quartzsite is the rallies. Many different groups get together because it's such a large open space. For example, we were able to go over to the Alpine rally and meet a bunch of other Alpine Coach owners. They had over 100 coaches there! Same goes for pretty much any brand of RV's...Wanderlodge, Monoco, Airstreams, Prevosts...they all had rallies too.

We wandered around the flea market on several different occasions and had fun checking out all of the goods people were selling. I was super surprised (and pleased) to find a gourmet veggie burger stand...amidst all the BBQ. :) After that, we took our super healthy selves down to the hot chocolate chip cookie stand. Yum. After we had those cookies the first time, they became a hard sought after commodity. Even though we tried 3 times to catch them open again, they were always closed.

Aunt Edmoe's Chocolate Chip Cookie stand...where did you go!?

Kev found a sweet bike that he liked.

The guys liked looking at spare parts.

Bella baked Angie some muffins.

Kev and Angie cooked us some falafels.

Angie and Bella had fun painting rocks.

Remember our friend Monica from our Portland and Eugene stops? She was back on the road with her kids coming from Texas and she was headed through Quartzsite. So of course, we said "Stay with us!".

They stopped and we had a fun slumber party. We love having friends over...these are memories we will cherish forever.

We followed them to Blythe for a goodbye coffee and sent them on their way...back to Oregon.

Not too long after that, we said goodbye to Kevin and Angie and headed to Phoenix. We were sad to leave them, but we will be reunited in Texas. For now...the road calls!

Photos from Quartzsite here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.