Deep Fried Alligator and Rock Smuggling

During my trip to Phoenix, I was lucky enough to sneak away from my work obligations for a road trip to the Gem and Mineral Show in Quartzsite, AZ with my friend Jane. If you have not heard of this event (which I'm sure you haven't), basically everyone in the free world loads bunches of beads, rocks, and other various into their RV, heads to Quartzsite and spends about 4 months peddling their goods out of a big tent. It's fabulous. And it wreaked havoc on my resolution!

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and each got a sandwich and a donut. After eating them I said, 'Why didn't we get a dozen donuts? One just ain't cutting it'. Keep in mind that I love DD and there aren't any in Fresno so I have to get my fill on trips such as these. Her reply was 'I don't know, why didn't we?' We drove for a little while longer and the freeway sign said we were about to pass another one. What did we do? We stopped at that one and got another dozen.

We had the best intentions of eating every last one by the time we got to our destination, but thankfully after we each had one more we started feeling slightly ill and couldn't eat any more. That freed us up to walk around the dusty desert hunting for beads that cost next to nothing.

I found plenty, and when you add up a lot of beads that cost next to nothing, they end up costing quite a bit. I bought about 20-30 pounds of them and hauled them around the event for a couple of hours, which I'm sure helped to develop the buff biceps I've been wanting.

 

Soon, our donuts were digested and were getting hungry for lunch. Choices are limited at the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Show and pretty much anything you find that is edible is deep fried fair food.

 

Hmm, what shall I choose?

 

Certainly not these....

Sadly, these sounded fantastic and it is what I chose. I gigantic brick of curly fries drenched in cheese sauce. After adding some salt and ketchup, they were perfect!

As you can imagine, I didn't feel great about my food choices that day but it sure was fun! Although the day was horrible for my body, it was great for my spirit. Getting to hang out with my good pal Jane after not seeing her since August, and spending the day shopping for and making art...well it just doesn't get much better than that.

PS I had to take my beads on the plane with my carry on because my suitcase would have greatly exceeded the 50 pound limit if I put them in there. I was a little nervous about going through security with 30 pounds of beads in my bag but they went through just fine. Who knew!?!