Drinking water in Quartzsite and on the road [split] Quartzite question

[Qxxx]

I am contemplating whether I want to go to AZ this winter, or just stay home due to the plague being handled so abysmally poorly in this country. This is a serious, possibly life or death decision for someone my age. (I wish I were in almost "any" other country right now).

A major consideration I have is on how to get water. I can always go into the box stores and buy the gallon containers, but I wish to avoid those stores as much as possible. I know the various places around Quartzsite, Parker, etc, where they have water machines outside, for roughly 25-cents a gallon, so you don't have to go into the stores.

So I am wondering where people, especially full-timers, stock on water as they travel around the western states mainly, other than by going into the stores per se. How do you find outside water dispensers in different areas?

 

[MrNoodly]

So I am wondering where people, especially full-timers, stock on water as they travel around the western states mainly, other than by going into the stores per se. How do you find outside water dispensers in different areas?

Faucets at local parks, at campgrounds, service stations, rest areas, dog parks, springs, streams...

 

[Qxxx]

Thanks, noodles. I take it, then, that you haven't seen many outside pay water dispenser stations on your continuous travels. ??? For the places you mentioned, I would probably want to run the water through filters myself, especially for streams, lol.

 

[B and C]

I use one of the blue RV filters (found in the RV section at Walmart) when filling from a water spigot. I haven't done the lake/stream/river for drinking water.

 

[Qxxx]

So, yer still alive to talk about it Brian, lol.

 

[B and C]

So far, so good. Here at the S&B's, I drink city water straight from the tap (not the filtered fridge water). Never could figure out why people pay big money for filtered city tap water in bottles. I more fear the chemicals from the plastic bottle leaching into the water! It is made from petroleum unless they found something else. Water in different parts of the country tastes different, that is for sure.

 

[Sofisintown]

I drink city water for the past 20 years, after I filter every drop of it myself.

 

[Qxxx]

If only I could take my water tap along when I go on the road. In the meantime, I still wish I could find a listing of water dispenser stations, meaning filtered not tap.

 

[Sofisintown]

If only I could take my water tap along when I go on the road. In the meantime, I still wish I could find a listing of water dispenser stations, meaning filtered not tap.

All Walmarts have filtered water stations, Q.

 

[wayne49]

Quartzite has to have a lot of those water stations. Lake Havasu and Parker the same.
Pahrump does.

 

[B and C]

In Quartzsite, the Pit Stop has an outdoor kiosk dispensing filtered water.

 

[Qxxx]

Wayne, yeah I mentioned that in my initial post, and I have used those dispensers, but this winter I am considering camping elsewhere than in that area. Places with 100,000 and more RVs might best be avoided. The Walmart in Parker was always packed elbow to elbow. And the green bottles of propane were usually out of stock. I did use the water machines in Q, E, P, and LHC.

Sofi, yeah I believe you are right, but those machines are usually inside the stores, aren't they, which doesn't help in avoiding the crowds. Aw who knows, maybe covid "will" disappear after all is said and done, and the whole thing is just smoke.

 

[PineyCruisin]

Qxxx, you are voicing my major concern when hubby and I take to the road and head west from NJ. He is *extremely* high risk for bad outcomes with COVID. We had started planning this trip for 3 yrs and had decided 2020 was the year to take off...and as our luck would have it....the pandemic. 

After much thought, we still have decided to go thru with the trip, because we plan to stay isolated as much as possible for his sake,  taking all necessary precautions (I am the one who does all the public shopping when needed and when I do, I have read so many medical journals and studies to try to assure as least exposure as possible). But, showering in public/common areas is the one thing we can't seem to get around. Don't know how to get around it since we are doing trip in a conversion van without a shower system. 

As for the water....I, myself, had wondered this since that in the past we rarely dry camped but are planning to boondock as much as we can out west. We decided to purchase a Berkey Travel Size filter because had heard that gas stations and other places where you make a purchase usually allow some gallon jugs to be filled. Oh....forgot to mention that they frequently have spigots outside building which would solve both our COVID paranoia.

 

[Qxxx]

We had started planning this trip for 3 yrs and had decided 2020 was the year to take off...and as our luck would have it....the pandemic. 
...

Hello, Cruisin, I see we share similar sentiments, and both do similar research. There are several major facts to remember: 80% of cases are in people under 60YO, but 80% of deaths are in older than 60. Upwards to 50% of infected people show no symptoms, so mostly live everyday life as normal but are the primary spreaders. And almost every country in the world has closed its borders to americans, for good reason.

I've had my van for 3 years now and have traveled for approx a year of that time. In the past I did fine with buying water by the gallon in the box stores (or using the many outside machines around Q), but am looking for a better alternative this winter, and am planning to spend most of the time elsewhere than Q. I will probably get 1 or 2 5-gal jugs, plus a filter. Hence looking for water machines ... wherever they may be.

The past 3 winters, I've spent about 1/2 the time in the general Quartzsite area, so know all of the places. Water machines are everywhere. You "can" stay in the La Posa LTVAs without having a neighbor within a few feet. You can also boondock in Ehrenberg and Scaddan Wash in Q without people too close. Another good boondocking area is American Girl Mine near Yuma, as you can spread out there. Places I've boondocked around Parker and Havasu tend to be "very" busy.

My previous showering scheme was to every 5-6 days go to the laundromats in Q and E, and in between to wash down every night using a wash pan. This works pretty well. I'm still trying to figure things out for this winter, especially as the showers mentioned have terrible ventilation. By time you get your clothes on, you're sweating like a fiend. Nice breeding grounds for bugs.

 

[highdesertranger]

please everybody when getting water from a spigot on a building, get permission first.

highdesertranger

 

[bullfrog]

We have used the water spout at the rest stop on I10 just before the dunes. I have a short hose with the blue Camco filter then when we need drinking water we put that in to the Berkey. Showers in the past are folded tarp on the floor with a tote as a catch basin and a suspended shower curtain, a cooler full of preheated water heated and pumped by a Coleman hot water machine. Wife demands a shower every three days maximum. Walmart is still bring out orders to be picked up I believe. Quartzsite still has outside water machines at the fill and dump place. State parks have full hook up sites.

 

[bagabum]

Some of you are talking about driving to take a shower. I have had every kind of DIY shower you can think of. My shower now is to heat 6 qrts of water on a stove to 108 deg F and shower in a folding dog bath. A  DIY sheer shower curtain with pulleys  on a  track ring mounted to ceiling contains the splash. Shower nozzle is a  square plastic cup (repurposed) with several holes drilled in the bottom. I love it. I wouldn't walk across the street for a free shower I like it so much. Easy to do in my box.  Now, on one of my much smaller builds, I did this, van people might consider this or modify as needed. I took a flexible [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]6' x 6'  [/font]rubbery vinyl tarp (it's hard to describe, not the polypropylene cheapy  tarp) and now made 4 hanging hooks in this tiny cargo trailer . There was a grommet in each corner of tarp. I made a color coded cord with a loop on each end  to attach to 4 hooks in the trailer. [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif](no fuss, user friendly) [/font]The tarp would lay on the floor and you would kneel on it and stand on it but the sides became  the walls and held the water as you showered. Color coded cords because the tie points were not a perfect square. Heat your water, shower, dry off, now step out and grab all 4 corners and set in bucket, get dressed and dump water. It worked perfect  Never spilt any  water, splashing was within the 6'. Maybe this can help someone.

 

[DiANA R]

When I was at RTR last year, I had a pop-up tent set up next to my van with a porta-potty in it. But I dreaded going inside the tent for you-know-what during the mid-day when the sun was out cuz it was cooking in there! Got really warm in the tent while I was doing my business. There's not much shade at the RTR spot unfortunately. I mean seriously, how much shade can a lonely cactus tree provide, haha!

I love the sentiment on the bottom of  your posts caseyc :shy: diana r

 

[MrNoodly]

Thanks, noodles. I take it, then, that you haven't seen many outside pay water dispenser stations on your continuous travels. ??? 

I've seen them but haven't needed them. They're around, very common in the desert. Don't sweat it.

 

[Qxxx]

Thanks, I figured as much, don't worry be happy. 3 Little Birds. 


But being a injanear, I always endeavor to do some proactive research ahead of time (speaking of redundant repetitions). So went to the ground and pound. google mapped on 29 Palms grocery stores, looked through the pictures, and found a nice Glacier machine out front Stater Bros. Bingo. Then googled Glacier water and found this. 7,000. Plenty of redundancy. 

https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-news/water-pollution-vending-machines-unsafe.htm
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] Glacier Water is the state's biggest operator of water-vending machines. The company operates more than 7,000 machines in California and more than 14,000 nationwide and maintains its water is safe.[/font]