New silverware

After Marilyn's mother died we were temporary custodians of her two sets of silverware. We got pretty spoiled - we had one set in the bus and the other in the house & we used them. Then the rightful owner came along and we had to go back to using stainless steel. But its hard to go back so we said to ourselves that we would wait until we got to Quartzsite and then shop for an estate sale of silverware.

So last week after we got set up in Q we started looking for silverware, among other things. Sometimes Q can get pretty overwhelming but this year we had enough time that we could spend a few hours each day wandering around the flea markets and, when we got tired of it, go home. Its hard to describe how big this flea market really is. Its spread out over a variety of locations but, if you moved it all together in one spot, there is probably 7-800 acres of flea market centred around Quartzsite.

Early in the week Marilyn found a set of silverware but the guy wanted $250 for it and we really didn't want to spend that much so we kept looking. We had bought a decent set of stainless flatware as soon as we got to Mexico so that we wouldn't feel any pressure to buy something until we found the right set. We thought we were done with the flea markets on Thursday but Friday turned out to be a really nice day & we both wanted to go back to the RV show so we went in for one last trip. After we had Marilyn's birthday lunch at the rib place outside the RV tent Marilyn headed off to look for a red scrubby and a cat harness. I wandered around a few junk vendors that we hadn't seen yet and there it was - a set of about 45 pieces of 1847 Rogers "Adoration". It was in really good shape, not a complete set of 8 but 6 or more of most pieces. And the price on it was $37.50. So I got busy and negotiated and ended up paying $30 for the set complete with the display case. Since then we've found a few completer pieces on ebay and we are back to eating with silverware. The completer pieces should catch up with us in Las Vegas if everything goes according to plan.

Saturday morning we left in the twilight so we could miss the traffic through Quartzsite. We stopped in Parker for breakfast at what looked to be the local coffee shop. The parking lot was full and there was only one booth left when we walked in. I love going into small town coffee shops as a stranger - everybody looks at you and you can hear them asking "who is that???"

When we got to Lake Havasu we moved into Crazy Horse campground where our friends Dave & Elaine Coney from Kenosee Lake spend the winter. We'll spend a few days here before we move to Las Vegas to get Marilyn settled in while I fly to Winnipeg for the CAAR convention. We've got a pretty impressive spot here - the beach and lake are directly out our front window. Jorgito is having fun chasing birds from one end of the rig to the other. Occasionally the grackles walk around on the roof and that really gets him going.