Moving Day

We started tearing down the quilting machine early and were ready to roll just after 11am.  Michael took off for the new spot and I drove the car up to tell Dave we were leaving our spot but not going far.

Just a few miles away we found the perfect spot, no neighbors, quiet, beautiful scenery and wonderful phone and internet service!  Jim and Ellie made a run to Quartzsite to empty tanks, fill with water, propane and diesel before coming out to our new spot. 

About 3p we all gathered in front of our rig to enjoy some sunshine and a glass of wine.  I spoke by phone with our friends Jill and Terry who are usually enjoying some sunshine with us about now but due to work commitments were unable to join us this year.  Today is Terry’s birthday, Happy Birthday Terry!  Also talked to my brother Ross this afternoon—he was working, too. 

Ellie made some very friendly Weight Watcher spaghetti sauce and pasta tonight.  It was delicious—YUM!  After dinner we all gathered around the campfire for s’mores, another YUM—when is that WW weigh in???

Once again we have found the perfect spot to park—we are certainly addicted to this boondocking stuff—don’t think RV parks are in our future except as a necessity!

Life is good!

Three dogs in a row                 Moon coming up

Sunset on our new spot today.

A Car Show and Bar-B-Que

When you are boondocking and the faucet starts to sputter it is time to go get water—it doesn’t matter what your tank gauges say—it is time to go get water.  So, off we went to the Bouse Community Park to empty our holding tanks and take on fresh water—we went a full 10 days this time.  The Park was very busy, today was the annual fire department bar-b-que and car show—a very busy place.  There were vendors and a band as well.  After doing all our dumping and filling we tried out the bar-b-que ( have had better) and looked through the antique cars—this little car was very interesting.  It was about 3/4 the size of a Model A and totally hand made—it was drawing more attention than all the other shiny, spiffed up cars and it runs, someone said they saw the owner driving it in!

On leaving the community park, we headed out to the new boondocking spot we discovered yesterday to see if the computers would work any better.  Holy smoke, the internet operated at the speed of light—it was amazing the difference.  Michael was able to surf an auction site he hasn’t been able to use all winter—I loaded our Yahoo e-mail very quickly, it had been taking 2-3 minutes to load the e-mail.  So, the decision is made, we are moving.  But, I have a quilt on the frame—can’t move the quilting machine without taking it completely apart.

When we got back to our site in the desert, Michael, Jim, and Ellie along with the 3 dogs decided to go back to the potential new site and hike around to find the “perfect” spot.  I elected to stay and see if I could get that quilt finished.

Even though the wind was rocking and rolling that trailer at times, I finished the quilt this afternoon.  YEA—we can move tomorrow!

The guys treated us to dinner in Quartzsite tonight and it was really good.  It is raining but is forecasted to stop by midnight and tomorrow is to be another nice day. 

Searching For A Spot

Internet signal was still lousy this morning, extremely slow and in the midst of trying to use the computers a Verizon technician called.  Seems we are too far from the Parker, AZ tower to get much signal and it has been something short of a miracle that we have had any service at all!  I told the technician if I ever see another Verizon commercial—“largest 3G network, etc., I am going to throw up!”  Their network is large only if you are located in a big city, to heck with the customers outside those cities!  Verizon is only interested in selling phones and plans, not in improving their customer service.  We like this boondocking business so much we are even considering going back to using our Hughes satellite!  Then we could have internet wherever we go!  And that’s saying something to Verizon because we were pretty unhappy Hughes customers when we got rid of our satellite. 

If we did go back to satellite, at least I am lucky enough to have Michael.  Remember the flying saucer satellite dishes from the 1970’s-1980’s?  Michael taught himself how to install those dishes and sold over a hundred of them.  When the smaller dishes came into vogue, the local telephone company signed Michael on as a dealer and he taught himself how to install those satellite dishes and sold a batch of those.  So, he knows something about the technology which makes it much easier if we go back to satellite internet. 

Today we loaded Emmi into the convertible and took off for the Bouse Library book sale.  Hardback books were 50 cents and paperbacks were 25 cents.  We both came home with some reading material for very little money.  This was also a scouting trip—we wanted to see if we could find a spot to boondock with better phone signal.  Closer into Bouse we did find a potential spot.  We drove all the way over to Parker and found a good spot but it is crowded with other rigs and lots of four wheelers.  When we came down to this area the first of January we parked on the California side just outside Parker for the night—went back and looked there—that site also has potential.

My turn to cook dinner tonight and Jim has graciously agreed to charcoal grill the steaks.  We will have baked potatoes, veggies and a salad.  Ellie is also whipping up a Weight Watcher friendly apple crisp.

I’m off to make buttermilk margaritas, yes buttermilk!

Bouse Museum and my basil plants

 

February sunset.

Bouse Museum

We are having problems with the great Verizon today, Ellie and Jim couldn't use their internet late this afternoon and neither could we. I got the same old song and dance from Verizon when I called to complain tonight but the technician did tell me Phoenix was experiencing tower difficulties so maybe those difficulties have carried over to our area too. I cannot get Live Writer to publish the blog so I will do an amended version here in Dashboard without photos.

Ellie and Jim plus furkids joined us for our walk this morning. Next on the agenda was a trip after lunch to the Bouse Museum. A very nice museum for such a small town--we learned that there was a secret WWII training camp here and that the former mayor of Bouse was from Joilet, MT. Bouse was established in 1906 and was a thriving mining town until the late 1920's when the mines began going broke. Now it is a retirement community and a bedroom community for Parker, AZ.

Got a quilt loaded onto the frame today. Ellie and Jim fixed a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, potatoes (sweet and white), salad and sauted brussel sprouts that were great! I contributed my new low calorie salad dressing and the good for us ice cream for desert. The guys let us win the canasta game tonight!

Another great day here in the desert even if Al did send that blasted California wind this way again!

Oatman, Arizona

Our goal for the day was to attend the Weight Watcher meeting in Lake Havasu (I lost a little this week) then go north of Lake Havasu and check out boondocking spots which Michael had read about on the boondocking forum he belongs to.  Before we began our journey we stopped for breakfast in Lake Havasu.  Next on our list was the little town of Oatman.  The boondocking spots we saw weren’t anything we would want to do (too close to the road, too rough an entrance, etc.).  The Verizon phones did not work in that area either. 

Oatman, Arizona is a former mining town named for a white woman who was kidnapped from a wagon train by Indians and held as a slave for over two years before being rescued by the US Calvary.  The burros roaming the streets begging for carrots were brought to the area by miners and abandoned there.  The ones we saw all looked fat and happy, chatting us up for carrots (I brought a bag with me but  some of the merchants sell carrots).  It is just a little narrow dirt street town lined with shops selling t-shirts and overpriced jewelry.  But it was fun to see!

Many of the storefronts had catchy names trading on the burros—Fast Fanny’s, etc.

From Oatman we headed back to Parker via a drive across the Parker dam and up the California side of the Colorado River—upon entering Parker, Ellie asked Jim if he was going to eat—the answer she got, “well of course!”  So on to the Mexican restaurant—two eat outs in one day and we went to the Weight Watcher meeting this morning?? 

Emmi spent the day with Dave and we all decided to walk up to his rig to walk off some calories.  One little puppy was sure glad to see us.  It was a great day!

It's Late

Gonna be a short blog tonight, it is late and we have an early morning tomorrow. When I turned my computer on this morning it went through some heart stopping moves, black screen, etc., finally turned on with a message on the screen, "computer cannot start." Well, that was obvious, then it asked me if I wanted to run restore, well that answer was obvious, too. The computer did restart and did restore to an earlier point. But, things are missing like my download of Live Writer so tonight's blog is with the old faithful, Blogger Dashboard. This computer is only 2 years old??? But me thinks I better be backing up some photos!! and other stuff just in case.

Last night Ellie made a wonderful dinner and then we let the guys win playing canasta, then we let the guys win playing cribbage but the second game of cribbage, Ellie and I skunked the guys, finally!

We took a long walk this morning with Emmi. The desert is green and fresh again after the little showers we got. This old tree still has green leaves at the top in spite of having all its roots exposed.

Same tree showing the foliage.
Dave stopped by to chat this morning and agreed to keep Emmi tomorrow while we go to Lake Havasu.

I spent the afternoon quilting and finished this quilt for my Aunt Marg. The photo doesn't do justice to the quilt colors, it is hard to find a place in the motor home to take photos!

It was my turn to fix dinner and I made the garlic/basil shrimp dish again with a cesar salad. Desert was the Weight Watcher friendly ice cream with a little raspberry sauce and a few chocolate chips sprinkled on top--yum--best part of the meal!

Michael thoroughly trounced the rest of us tonight playing Mexican Train. Just another great day here in the desert with Jim and Ellie.

Rocking and Rolling

You know the wind is blowing when a 28000 pound motor home is rocking and rolling.  I was going out to the trailer to quilt this afternoon but thought better of it!

Early this morning I hit the road to Parker—it was laundry day.  There was one other lady in the laundromat when I walked in, yea!  While the clothes were washing I went and filled a couple of our water containers with reverse osmosis water.  There are machines all over this area in front of the grocery stores, in parking lots, etc. that dispense reverse osmosis water for 25 cents a gallon.  We tried drinking the Bouse well water which we put in our holding tanks but it really upset Michael and Emmi’s tummies. 

When I filled the water containers I noticed a hair salon—someone could cut my hair at 11am.  So, I went to Wal Mart and Safeway taking my time, shopping leisurely until time to head back to the salon.  It was the stylist’s 40th birthday today and her co-workers had festooned her booth with black ribbons and balloons.  She did a great job with my hair!

Time to head home where Michael and Emmi were just returning from their walk.  Lunch, put away the laundry and am spending the rest of the day reading and using the computer.  Emmi is sacked out on the couch and Michael is also using the computer.  We love our new router which allows both of us to use the computers at the same time.

These are a couple of recycled photos from last winter at McDowell Mountain Park in northern Phoenix.

And The Wind Blows and Blows

OK, who sent this wind over here to Arizona?  Was it you Al??  I have always been a very light sleeper, my Daddy used to say I could hear an ant crawl across the floor.  As a result for many, many years I have slept with ear plugs so noises such as wind have to be pretty loud to bother me.  I woke to the sound of Michael stumbling around, jerking his clothes on, unzipping Emmi’s crate and slamming out the door.  I looked at the clock and groaned—3am!!  The next sound I heard was the banging of the window awnings going up—guess the wind was flapping those awnings pretty good and Michael felt inclined to go outside and roll the awnings up.  He brought Emmi back to bed with him and we were all able to go back to sleep—a miracle!

Ellie and the dogs joined us for a very long walk this morning, good exercise.  Lunch then I headed to the quilting studio (ha, ha—the trailer) and started on a quilt for my Aunt.  Didn’t like the way one corner looked so I began to rip the stitching out and managed to slice my thumb with the rotary cutter, ouch!!  No blood on your quilt though, Aunt Marg!  I have heard of people who have sliced entire fingertips off with those rotary cutters—sharp little tools!

I had cooked a pot of pinto beans a few days ago so the plan was to have those with grilled pork chops, cornbread and a salad.  Mike was going to finish up Ellie’s pasta and sausages as he is not a bean eater.  Michael had fiddled around in the generator compartment today and when I went to start the generator to run the oven, it wouldn’t start.  I hauled the cornbread up to Ellie’s and she cooked it.  When she brought it back and I removed the foil—oh, no—I knew instantly what was wrong—forgot the baking soda!!  Other than flat, icky cornbread, the dinner was great.  Ellie had made a very good Weight Watcher desert that tasted like an Almond Joy, YUM!

After dinner Ellie was the winner in a game of Mexican train dominoes.  Another great retirement day!

Cloudy, cool and windy all day and we may get some more rain tonight.

Catch Up Day

Having traveled long distances the last three days we were all glad for a home day!  Woke to the sound of rain on the roof and the very light rain continued most of the morning.  This afternoon we have some pretty strong wind gusts but not enough yet to make me take in the window awnings.  These awnings are one of the things I really love about this motor home—our 5th wheel did not have them.  The awnings shield the windows from the sun without having to block the view by closing the inside shades.

We are all including Dave having a cookout this afternoon late.  Jim volunteered to make a run into Parker for a few needed items.  Mike, Emmi and I took a walk and before we got back the rain got a little harder, just enough to get us fairly wet!  I whipped up some quick veggie soup for lunch (saving all my points for tonight) and made some Weight Watcher friendly spinach dip—I’ll let you know how it turns out. 

When Mike rolled the awning up the other night the strap became tangled and sucked up inside the awning—uh, oh, now there is no way to get the awning back out.  Jim and Mike climbed up on the roof and shoved the awning out with their feet while I stood on the ground and looked for an appearance of the elusive strap—found it and was able to get everything back in it’s place.  Success!

Michael woke this morning with a sore neck and shoulder so he and Emmi are examining the backs of they eyelids.  I have been reading cookbooks and surfing on the internet.  We are trying to figure out where we are going next. 

The desert is becoming so green and the moisture we got sure helps—we even have green grass on the desert floor in places!

A big thank you to Al from the Bayfield Bunch for suggesting Live Write and to Ellie for showing me the ropes.  I love it!  Inserting photos is so much easier than with Blogger Dashboard.  Just have to figure out how to make it auto save!

A Trip To Yuma

Ellie and the dogs yesterday on the hike.

Michael took Emmi up to friend Dave’s motor home just before 8am this morning and then we all jumped in Jim and Ellie’s car and headed for Yuma.  Someone had told us about a great flea market located in Yuma.  But, there must be something wrong with us—I was expecting a flea market—lots of good old stuff, instead it was a huge setting for a lot of vendors selling new junk!   And expensive junk at that!

On to Famous Dave’s for another great lunch, Ellie & I had a smoked salmon cesar salad and the guys had the usual burgers.  Sam’s Club was next for oranges, garlic, sausages, etc.  The guys had to have one last stop at Harbor Freight then we started the long drive home.  We did sneak in a small ice cream stop, too.

We have been discussing where we are going next, maybe a stop in the Wickenburg/Congress area then somewhere around Sonoita or Sierra Vista.  Lots of planning to do.

Nowhere to go tomorrow, we don’t have to get up to an alarm clock, YEA!  We are having a cookout with friend Dave tomorrow afternoon. 

As we were driving back to our spot in the desert, Ellie spotted a new rig first and in a fairly loud voice said, “OH, NO!”  Scared the rest of us to death, first thought was; maybe their rig had been broken into, but oh, no meant that there was a new rig within sight of the Castle!  Territorial isn’t she???

Palm Canyon

A few weeks ago The Bayfield Bunch took a day trip to Palm Canyon just south of Quartzsite.  Al’s beautiful photographs inspired us to take that trip today with Jim, Ellie and all three dogs.  We got an early start and after arriving at the “Palms” we were so glad we did.  We enjoyed experiencing that special place with no one else around but us.  It is an awe inspiring creation, not only the palm trees but the canyon walls themselves. 

The canyon is very narrow and steep limiting the amount of sun and providing some moisture in this arid land allowing the palm trees to flourish.  No one knows how the palm trees came to be in this canyon in the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge, there are several theories—perhaps seeds were carried by birds or coyotes.  However the palms came to be in this canyon—it was a spectacular site.  It was very cool and shady up inside the canyon and as we were coming down, many people were going up—again, so glad we came early.

Michael wanted to get a little  closer to the palms and you can see his red shirt in the third of the photo above with the palms directly above him—gives you a perspective on how steep and high that canyon really is.

The entrance to the canyon.

The hike to the palms is a little steep but short, the dogs enjoyed it and so did we.  After a little refreshing snack we headed back toward Quartzsite and our spot in the desert stopping to visit the Bouse Fisherman.  It is a Geoglyph, a Native American storytelling site. 

It was a little hard to visualize the fisherman as he is drawn on the above interpretation sign—the lighter colored spot is  his head and body with the legs at the top of the photograph, the white rocks to the left of the photograph are the tip of his spear.  The sunshine was  just a little too bright to get really good photos.

By this time we and the dogs are hot, tired and hungry and headed home to the coolness of the rigs.  After lunch I practiced looking at the inside of my eyelids as Ellie would say. 

We capped off our day by heading over to the Mexican restaurant in Parker for a delicious meal and then on to the casino where I had beginner’s luck coming home with money in my pocket! 

It was such a good day spent with great friends visiting a special, unique spot in the desert.

Another Girl’s Day Out

Ellie and I took off for Lake Havasu City this morning early but Jim beat us out the door with their laundry by about 30 minutes (Michael are you watching???) We were headed to the closest local Starbucks and the Weight Watcher meeting which was very gratifying to both of us! We enjoyed that latte with pleasure!

After the meeting we headed off to the mall and the pizza place for a delicious lunch. We browsed a couple of stores finding one or two things we couldn’t live without before heading to Home Depot. I bought fresh basil at the Safeway in Parker the other day and it was icky lasting only a couple of days. I was in search of basil plants which I found today. It was such a pleasure to wander through the outdoor garden center and see all the plants and flowers blooming when we won’t see such a thing before May in Montana!

After a stop at Wal Mart for Ellie’s prescription and the Safeway for a few groceries we headed home.

When I stepped into the motor home I saw that the driver chair was turned back around toward the windshield for driving instead of just sitting—when I asked Michael if he went anywhere today his answer, “yes, I went for a joy ride.” I came real close to buying that answer BUT—he took the rig to dump the tanks and fill with fresh water knowing we had the next two days all planned for excursions.

Ellie fixed the most fabulous supper tonight, grilled sausages, peppers and onions with pasta—so good. I filled in with a cesar salad and we enjoyed a glass of wine or two in celebration of our successful weight loss this week. After supper the guys and the girls each won a game of cribbage while watching the USA win a gold medal in downhill skiing, YEA!

Another wonderful day in the desert!

Emmi tormented BoBo and Jazz incessantly all evening! This is a photo of Jim’s.

Another Gorgeous Day

Off for a nice long walk and Jim joined us today.  It got rather warm before we returned and all our tongues were hanging out by the time we returned to the shade of our rigs! 

I managed to get my Aunt’s log cabin quilt finished and Michael painted another landscape—the one he did yesterday turned out very nicely and so did today’s!

Michael drove into Bouse to mail some things and picked up the local “White Sheet.”  If there is a free want ad newspaper around he will find it!

Ellie and I collaborated again on dinner—we had warmed on the grill filet mignon steaks leftover from our Valentine’s Day meal, roasted white and sweet potatoes, grilled asparagus and squash and the rest of Ellie’s wonderful Weight Watcher friendly chocolate cake.

Ellie and I are off to the Lake Havasu Weight Watcher meeting tomorrow early—Michael and Jim are holding down the fort. 

And speaking of fort, Ellie is getting very territorial about her little piece of the desert—I was sitting in their rig late this afternoon discussing supper plans and a rig came up the road, Ellie says, “a rig!!!  oh no, they can’t park here.”  We love it!

Warm Weather Returns

When we arrived in the Quartzsite area in early January the weather was perfect—mid 70’s in the daytime, never freezing at night.  Then we had the torrential rains about the second or third week we were here and the days became a little cooler, in the upper 60’s, and stayed that way until yesterday and today.  The weather was just perfect today.  Ellie and the two furkids accompanied us on our walk this morning.  Jim stayed behind to get the rig ready for emptying and filling.

Isn’t that the cutest little puppy??

I decided today was the day to clean the rig which I did before lunch.  After lunch I started the generator and altered two pair of jeans for myself—no I haven’t lost that much weight yet, the jeans were always just a little too big.  I am pleased with the results, not a perfect job but good enough for me to wear in the desert!

Ellie and Jim took the Castle into Bouse to empty holding tanks and fill with fresh water—we are so amazed and so very pleased that they have taken to boondocking—who would have ever thought they would still be here two weeks later??  And we are very glad they are—Jim and Ellie are the kind of people who are so easy to be around!

Here comes the Castle back up the hill.

Dave stopped by and asked us all to come up to his rig for margaritas this afternoon.  Jim loaded some chairs into his car, Mike popped some of his famous popcorn and off we went.  For a single guy Dave really did a nice job with the happy hour—great margaritas, good munchies.  We sat outside until the sun went down and it began to get cool.  The coyotes serenaded us too making all three dogs sit up and take notice.

Jim and Jasmine

Life is so good and we are so blessed!  

Happy Valentine’s Day

What a great day!  We spent the day visiting, doing various chores, quilting and taking a walk.  Michael finished installing our new external antenna and our 3G router—we can run both computers at the same time now, yippee!! 

I got lots of quilting accomplished and baked some potatoes for our dinner tonight.  Jim worked his magic with the filet mignon roast I had brought with us from Montana.  We sat down to a delicious meal—the beef roast, baked potatoes, broccoli and salad.  But the best was Ellie’s cake—she baked a Weight Watcher friendly chocolate cake, decorated it with strawberries and powdered sugar—it was delicious!

And she brought out this dessert wine that had a chocolate flavor—oh, my!  What a delightful Valentine’s Day dinner!

After dinner the guys totally skunked us in cribbage—they shouldn’t have done that on Valentine’s Day should they?? 

Another great day in the desert!

The Bayfield Bunch

Last year while down here in Arizona, Michael stumbled across a blog called The Bayfield Bunch.  We have been avid every day readers since that discovery.  Al takes great photographs and the two of them always provide all their readers with lots of resources such as links and hints about local attractions.  Al is a professed hermit preferring the company of dogs to people and who can blame him??  Yesterday he sent out an e-mail to several of us suggesting a gathering at their site in the KOFA Wilderness Area.  Most of us thought perhaps he had fallen off a rock and hit his head, contracted a brain malfunction or something else more serious—but no, he really was suggesting we all get together.  So this morning just after 11a we headed down the road in the Saturn stopping in Quartzsite for lunch at the Palo Verde Cafe—salmon burgers, fish and chips, chicken sandwich and hamburgers later we then set off for Al and Kelly’s.  Al and Emmi

While we were in the restaurant we left Emmi in the car with a new, nice round bone, in the shade with the windows rolled down.  The restaurant had an outdoor patio which I could enter and see the car but Emmi couldn’t see me—when I went out the first time she was doing her howling routine—I clapped my hands and scolded her loudly for being a bad dog—went back inside, waited and came out again, same thing—howling, same routine, clapped my hands and scolded her.  Waited a while, no howling, went back inside waited about 15 minutes and came back outside to check--she wasn’t howling, is Emmi learning???  We can only hope!

Al and Kelly have a premium desert site for the huge dollar amount of $0000!  It was great to finally meet these people and all the other folks that were invited—Pete and Patty who have a RV lot in Quartzsite, and Motty & Patti.  Donna and Stu drove over from Yuma to join us all.  We sat and visited, watched the dogs interact and ate the brownies Patty made and the bagels Motty and Patti brought.  We talked about RVing, photography, flag flying etiquette and all sorts of other things.  

Ellie, Stu and Donna

There was a lot of good natured teasing of Al—we told him we were coming out to join him—one rig on either side.  We may just head out that way next week—I am jealous of their broadband internet connection. 

  Cora and Emmi Jim

Jim, Kelly and Ellie

After a wonderful afternoon we decided it was time to head toward home to check on the other two furkids.  Thanks so much Al and Kelly for organizing that get together—we enjoyed it immensely.  Ellie and Jim

Two Trips To Parker

It was past time to do laundry in our household—the laundromats  in this area are very busy and I dislike having to fight for washers and dryers so I bit the bullet and left the rig before 7am.  My early departure paid off and I was walking out of the laundromat around 8:30.  Stopped by Wal Mart and the local Safeway store for a few groceries before heading home on this beautiful, sunny day.

Fixed some lunch and began to go through the mail I picked up at the post office in Bouse.  Michael was busy working on getting our new inverter installed (don’t ask what happened to the other “new” inverter he installed a few weeks ago). 

I got a couple squares quilted on my Aunt Marg’s quilt when Michael came out and said we needed to go back to Parker, our friend Dottie had called and the router we had ordered from the 3G store had arrived at her house in Parker.  So, off we went with the top down and Emmi along for the ride.  We had a nice visit with Dottie and Curt before heading back across the desert.  Stopped at the Bouse post office and picked up a package which contained my eagerly awaited new sandals.

It was my turn to cook dinner and I was using a recipe Jim had found from the Costco magazine—a garlic/tomato shrimp dish turned out marvelous!  We served it with orzo, grilled asparagus and a salad, YUM! 

Jim and Ellie had errands of their own to run today and while having lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Quartzsite, another couple said to them, “are you Jim and Ellie?”  Becky and JD are RVers, almost retired and almost full timers who had been reading both our blogs.  They live in Flagstaff and had come to this area for the long weekend.  After dinner they joined us around the campfire for s’mores and good conversation.  This RVing world is getting smaller and smaller! 

We watched a portion of the Olympic  opening ceremony and felt the sadness of the team from Georgia who lost their teammate in the luge accident today. 

It was a beautiful day in the Arizona desert—this retirement life is tiring me out—I’m ready to slow down!

Look at the size of those solar panels which powered the operations at the Castle Dome City we visited yesterday.  A RVer’s dream!

Castle Dome City

The Bayfield Bunch visited Castle Dome City a few days ago and wrote a wonderful blog about that visit.  Al’s photos were great as usual.  They were kind enough to e-mail us directions for getting to the “city” and off we went this morning.  Ainslie and Beryl graciously agreed to drive us all in their double cab truck.  We were making good time until we came upon the dreaded construction—we sat stopped in one place for 30 minutes going and about 15 minutes coming home. 

 

Castle Dome City is located about 65 miles from Quartzsite and is a private project—an old mining town complete with mining equipment and the tools of daily living the miners used.  We had taken Emmi with us and upon arrival noticed the sign that said no pets in the museum—uh, oh!  We left Emmi in the truck with water, food and the windows rolled down partially.  By the time we were paying the entrance fee I could hear her howling—she hates to be separated from her people.  So, I hurried through the “city” taking some photos and glancing at the exhibits before heading out to the truck to rescue Emmi.  It annoys me that probably some person who is oblivious  to their pet’s behavior spoils it for everyone, but oh well, those were the rules.  So Emmi and I spent some time bonding while the rest of the gang explored.  When everyone started trickling out we all enjoyed our picnic lunches on the tailgate of the pickup.  

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the museum and the company.  At one time the city of Castle Dome was home to over 3500 people! 

When we got back to Quartzsite, Ainslie wanted to look for a hat for a friend back in Oregon but we weren’t successful—Q is becoming a ghost town, most of the vendors are packing up and heading out!

Ainslie and Beryl joined us for a farewell happy hour, they are leaving in the morning for Oregon.  The night air  finally drove us all inside where Ellie was gracious enough to warm up the chicken from last night and that along with rice and peas made for a great dinner. 

It was another special day with good friends.

  

Weight Watchers and Storms

My Daddy was a long tall drink of water and until I reached the age of 40, I was too.  Then something happened—friends tell me it’s because I have been so happy since marrying Michael—but is there such a thing as too much happiness because if I keep being this happy I am going to weigh a lot by the time I am 60!  I’ve been successful at losing a few pounds on the Weight Watcher program a couple of times but this time I have a successful cheerleader.  Ellie has been so successful she has a lifetime membership—so off we went to the WW meeting in Lake Havasu today leaving at the very early hour of 7am!  I am all signed up and was given the appropriate membership materials. 

Well, what do you do first thing when you start a new eating program—go have lunch.  But seriously, we had a very good, point friendly lunch at a pizza/Italian place and then earned some exercise points by shopping! 

It was a great day and I so enjoyed spending time with Ellie.

Ainslie joined Mike and Emmi for another major hike, I think he may have made Emmi’s legs shorter by walking her so far!  We all arrived back home about the same time and began making plans for cooking dinner. 

The wind picked up, the clouds began to darken and it rained a little.  I got these great shots of the clouds, rainbow and sunset before we all sat down to a delicious dinner—Jim smoked chicken breasts, I roasted potatoes and vegetables and Ellie provided the salad. 

 

A wonderful day in the Arizona desert.

Looking For A Geo-cache

Ellie is interested in geo-caching and has about 60 geo-cache finds to her credit. When she checked the location of local geo-caches she found a couple very close to us, one was in or near a rock called the "crab claw." This is the same rock Michael and I hiked to the other day, the one I thought looked like a dinosaur head.

Ainslie arrived just after 9am and we all loaded into his truck and took off. Ainslie was a geologist and knows all about those rocks! It didn't take us long to reach the "crab claw" but finding the geo-cache eluded us--getting up into the rocks that formed the crab claw would have been a real scramble. So off we went in search of another cache.

Ainslie and Michael as we search.
Jim is wondering what in the world he got himself into today!

Ellie trying to pinpoint the "crab claw" cache and deciding the climb just isn't worth it.

The Crab Claw

We walked and walked using Ellie's Garmin GPS and were able to find the other cache. Here is a photo of it wedged in a tree.

It was after noon by the time we located this one so we then started hiking back toward the truck--we were sure glad to find that truck and its seats!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing as in reading and napping.

Ainslie and Beryl arrived back here about 4:30 and we all gathered in our motor home for munchies and drinks. Then Jim grilled steaks on the charcoal grill, we added potatoes, fresh asparagus and a salad--a wonderful meal.

Even Emmi is pooped tonight! It was a great day in spite of the cool weather!