January is my least favorite month because a) Daylights Savings Time screws up my internal clock, b) short, cold and rainy days (good for the drought, bad for sculptors ☹). But there is one really good thing about January: the Arizona Gem Shows!!!!
First of all, AZ does not do Daylight Screw Up Your Life Time – which is wonderful!
If you love rocks, beads, rare gems and all sorts of oddball junk, Quartzite is an easy 7-hour drive just across the Colorado River. There are “shows” all over town throughout January. I call it “Road Warrior for Seniors” – since you often are dodging elderly desert denizens zigzagging through traffic on three-wheeled motorbikes, thinning wisps of grey hair flying (no helmets, natch – Arizona law..).
“Pow-Wow” is the big weekend (checkout Quartzite Gemshows for details), but I prefer to go after “Pow-Wow” when vendors are packing up to head home or onto the Tucson Gem Show which is the first two weekends in February. People are eager to make deals – wanting to offload weight for the trip home. If you don’t have an RV or camp, you need to book a room in Blythe (20 miles west of Quartzite).
BTW, so far as I know there is NO REAL POW-WOW during Pow-Wow. The first year I went, I had my windows down, listening for drumming or singing. I was directed to a huge parking lot filled with vendors. There were a few Native American vendors, but don’t expect a Pow Wow or any yummy frybread.
Quartzite is funky and fun. I can pop over for an overnight trip and not feel too guilty buying more stone when I have rather a lot sitting in my yard... Oh, I also get to eat at my favorite Mexican Restaurant where the Moran family celebrated pretty much every birthday, death, whatever when I was growing up out there: La Paloma on Foothill Blvd. Fruit Exit off the 210. Yummy.
I digress….
The Tucson Gem Show, on the other hand, is one of the premiere gem shows in the world. For gaping, gawking, and even gawping, Tucson takes the cake. Since 2017, it doesn’t have the international vendors (or buyers) it once had, because so many of the vendors are from countries the Trump administration has banned or threatened and the vendors aren’t able or willing to risk coming. These countries have some fabulous stone and are certainly missed – but I am hopeful in 2021 we might see those vendors back again…😉 Another reason to VOTE…..
Also, for those who loathe day light savings time as much as I do, Arizona is on the “correct time” and it is a joy to be shopping for stone in the Quartzite desert as the sun goes down after 6pm!