Browsing At The Bookstore

Just down the road a half hour is the town of Quartzite. We are told that during the months of January and February this town with a population of 1900 sees hundreds of thousands of visitors arriving daily to check out the rock and gem shows, the numerous RV shows and swap meet vendors. Since there are not enough RV parks for that many people and because some of them like to "rough it" the desert surrounding Quartzite is scattered with RVs of all sizes just parked for a day, a week or possibly even the whole winter. For my Eatonia friends, that would be like parking out at Eyre Park for a couple months. (But not anywhere near the hall or any other form of civilization).

Today Senor Ping and I decided to see what the main attraction was in Quartzite. We stopped at aroad side flea market and browsed through the stalls, picking up a few bargains. We saw a few vendors with lots of rocks for sale. Why would you want to buy rocks when there is a whole desert and surrounding mountains full of rocks for you to go and pick yourself? We stopped at Carl's Jr, Allan's favorite lunch spot, and had a bite to eat. We noticed that many of the people looked like they had been out scouring the hills for gold and had just come to town for supplies (and possibly a shower).

And then we noticed a book store and decided to stop and check out the used book selection. Colleen had given me the title of a book she has been looking for and I am always in the market for something to read. Sad to say, I didn't find the book Colleen wanted, nor did I find anything that caught my eye. Well, I guess I should add nothing that caught my eye to read. What I did see was the "bookman". Maybe this is what is drawing the hundreds of thousands of people to Quartzite each winter. Do you think if Eatonia had a "bookman", it, too, would draw huge crowds of RVers and tourists from across the country? Well, I took a photo and maybe I'll talk to town council when I get home and they can suggest someone that might want to take on this business venture. There might be few that wouldn't mind running the bookstore during the summer months but can you imagine December or January?