One Long Hike

Michael suggested we walk up what we call the “turquoise canyon,” and somehow I forgot how far a walk the end of that canyon was!  By the time we got back to the jeep we had hiked over six miles and I was dragging!  Emmi had a couple run ins with a cholla cactus along the way, too.

A lot of time was spent by Michael today shopping for trailer tires.  Sam’s Club in Surprise had the best price buttttt—won’t take an order for these particular tires over the phone with a credit card and you can’t order these particular tires online with a credit card, you must come into the store and pay for the tires before they can be ordered.  We tried explaining to the guy that we were over 100 miles from their store and we don’t want to make a trip to Phoenix just to order the tires—a manager is supposed to call us tomorrow but we don’t have much faith in that happening—we are dealing with Wal Mart after all.

The Big O Tire store in Wickenburg has the tires and wheels in stock and we will head that way with all our belongings tomorrow afternoon.  Mike and Pat sent us the nicest email this morning offering us some full hookups if we were so inclined.  The more I thought about that idea, the better it sounded!  I could clean the motorhome and bathe the dog!  I could even try out the washer/dryer we have on board that I have yet to start up.  Called Pat today and she told us “come on, we will find a spot for you.”  Now, what more could you ask for?? 

JoAnn and Doug arrived this afternoon and we all gathered at Jim and Ellie’s for chili and hotdogs topped off with Jim’s dutch oven chocolate/cherry cake. 

Tomorrow we are leading the gang in a hike up to the top of the highest hill around here—should be fun! 

Evil looking things aren’t they?? Emmi definitely thinks those cholla are evil!

Breezy, Cool and Gumbo

Snow on the mountains—we woke to wind, cold and snow on the mountains around us this morning.

On our walk we tried to stay down in the washes out of the cold wind—I think our high temperature was around 50 degrees. 

Michael attempted to solve our inverter/charger problem today and when we started the generator the scary noise we had been hearing didn’t happen—he isn’t too hopeful so we will see.

I spent most of the day being a bum—I had borrowed books from the Bouse library last week and finished one today titled, Facing The Light.  I couldn’t put it down—it was great!  I did make some taco soup and did the dishes.

Tonight we were invited to Deb and Rod’s for homemade gumbo, garlic bread and this to die for red velvet cheesecake.  Thanks Deb for a great meal and thanks Rod for making that run to Parker for emergency supplies!

Tomorrow the search for trailer tires is on in earnest.  We are making plans to head out some time this week and soothe our case of hitch itch. 

Alamo Lake

After a great night’s sleep we woke with a new attitude and energy—off on a 4 mile hike then to the Bouse car show which was kind of pitiful this year! 1959 Ford hardtop convertible—beautiful!  Mine and Michael’s choice in the show!

Came home and I whipped up a quick lunch—the Bouse firemen were holding a barbeque, too, but from the looks of the food on people’s plates, we declined and ate leftovers at home!

Off to Alamo Lake State Park which by the looks of things is going to be closed soon—we’ve been there before but wanted to check out the area for boondocking opportunities.  It is a beautiful spot but literally out in the middle of nowhere—38 miles from the nearest town of Wenden which is a dumpy, dirty spot with a tiny, sparse grocery store and not much else.  There is no Verizon phone signal of any sort at Alamo Lake either.  We enjoyed the drive today in spite of the clouds and sporadic rain showers.

While in California Gina and Rollie found me this USAF sweatshirt in honor of our granddaughter Laci.  Sunrise over our camp this morning—isn’t it gorgeous but that was all the sun we saw today.

Off They Go

Gina and Rollie took their time leaving us this morning but pulled out about 11:30am.  It was a very sad leave taking and it has been a sad day around here!  We wish them safe travels as they head for home.

Has anyone noticed the little WeatherBug widget at the top left of our blog??  This morning it read MINUS 30 degrees!!!  I decided then I would stop complaining about the wind and colder temps AZ is supposed to get this weekend!

Michael hauled us a load of water today and got the grill propane bottle filled.  I replaced the zipper in his favorite down vest—Michael is extremely cold natured for a man and almost always wears a vest, winter or summer.  I know it is extremely hot if he doesn’t have the vest on first thing in the morning.  The new zipper doesn’t look as good as the old but it will do for a vest he wears when doing grubby things such as changing the oil.

I tried a new grilled chicken recipe for late lunch/early supper—I found the recipe on the Pioneer Woman blog.  It was so good!  When we were in Yuma the other day I purchased a whole pineapple and today I marinated some of the sliced pineapple and grilled it with the chicken—YUM!!!

That’s it for our day in the desert—a quiet, sad day.

A Bittersweet Day

Gina and Rollie arrived this afternoon and even before we got a phone message from Rollie saying  “We are going to park close to you guys because we are not unhooking,” we knew they were probably not staying.  It is the kind of people Gina and Rollie are—Uncle Jim died and they need to go home to Louisiana and off they go.  Our hearts are so heavy and sad but we understand and pray that God grants them safe travels and peace in their hearts.  We had the pleasure of meeting Uncle Jim while in Louisiana in December. 

It has been a tough week for Gina and Rollie, first to say goodbye to their son Thomas as he deploys to Afghanistan then Thomas was no sooner gone than they received the phone call about Uncle Jim.  Both their daughters, Ashley and Nicole are on their way to Louisiana, too.  May God watch over them all as they travel.

here they come!

OK, Gina, I did you a favor—the photo with you showing your face was not flattering—so, no post, are you listening Rollie?? 

This is a Service Flag I made for Gina and Rollie—the Service Flag can be flown by immediate family of service men and women during times of war.  The blue star represents each service member, the gold star imposed over the blue star signifies a family member who has died as a result of conflict or has died while in service.  The upper blue star is for Thomas, the lower blue/gold star is for their son Rollie who died while serving in the Navy.

We enjoyed an awesome travel day dinner at Jim and Ellie’s tonight—Jim grilled pork chops, Deb made macaroni and cheese and I made Laurie’s roasted brussel sprouts/carrots/onions/pears. 

We are sorry Gina and Rollie’s time here in the desert was cut short but know we will meet again soon—we wish them safe travels.

Ladies Day

Bright and early Ellie was driving around the compound to get Deb and me and we were off to Lake Havasu—first stop Starbucks for our “foo-foo” coffee as Michael calls it and then to the Weight Watcher’s meeting.

Lunch, a little bit of shopping and then back home.  We had a great day laughing—Ellie and I decided Deb is not cut out for Weight Watchers and if she goes with us again, will have to remain in the car! 

Deb decided she could do without this Easter bonnet: Not really appropriate attire for boondocking!

I did find a bargain in Penny’s—a pressure cooker!  Was $100 marked down to $40! Deb and I were hanging out in house wares waiting for Ellie to return her dust ruffle and this one caught my eye.

Michael and Emmi took a long walk this morning and I think Michael said he looked for wires all day—as in spare wiring to hook a brake system to in the motorhome for the trailer we purchased.

On our way out of the desert this morning, Deb spotted this coyote—he actually had a companion and Deb got some great photos.  Fat, healthy coyotes—better keep a close eye on that Emmi girl!

From Vicksburg to Salmone The Hard Way

In the late afternoon when the sun hits the mountains to the east we have all remarked that it looks as if the mountains have snow.  Well, the sun is just creating the effect for those eastern mountains but the snow on these mountains we could see off in the distance this morning is real snow!

These snowed covered peaks are northeast of Wikieup and about 100 miles by road from us.

John—you wouldn’t have to dig for water for Meg in this hole now— Emmi was glad to get a drink.  One day when John and Meg were out walking, he dug down just a little at this site and water started coming into the dug hole.  You can see why—it will take a few days for all this water to soak in and evaporate.

We have this great book—Backcountry Adventures Arizona purchased in an Arizona Costco several years ago and never used it much until this year—we love our jeep!  The book is similar to an Alaska Milepost book with detailed descriptions of what you will see at each point on the road, difficulty ratings from 1-8 with one being the easiest suitable even for normal passenger vehicles, scenic ratings from 1-10 with ten being the most scenic.  The book also gives remoteness ratings, driving times and a whole lot of other stuff.   There is a link to the book on Amazon.com in the upper left corner of this blog.

Today we took the Desert Queen Mine Trail—difficult rating #3, 9.9 miles,  and a scenic rating of 8.  We included a side trip on the Glory Hole Mine Trail—difficulty rating #5 (scared the you know what out of me! not sure I want to do any more difficult than that!!!) 2.1 miles and a scenic rating of 8.  We had a ball bouncing, jouncing, bumping and rolling along.  High centered ourselves once (see parentheses above)—Emmi and I got out of the jeep while Michael maneuvered us off high center!  It took us 4 hours to drive the 12 miles from Vicksburg to Salmone—normally an eight mile trip on highway—we definitely took the scenic route!

What’s left of the Desert Queen Mine and the mine shaft going in the mine.  When walking around all these old mining spots you have to watch your step—see those timbers on the ground out in front of Michael—they cover a VERY deep hole in the ground. Michael took this photo leaning out the jeep window looking down—the very edge of the tire is visible at the bottom of the photo—very narrow road to say the least!Those irregular shaped whitish looking rocks are all quartz—the photo doesn’t do the colors or sparkles justice.  There was quartz all over the hillsides surrounding the old Glory Hole Mine.

We took a picnic lunch and spent the day—another great day in the desert!

Rollie and Gina—look at your new garage-- Thomas, Rollie and Gina’s son deployed to Afghanistan today with his Marine unit—may God watch over them all and bring each one home safely.  May God also watch over Ashley, Thomas’ wife who is pregnant with their first child. 

Those Dang Necessary Chores

Even when you are spending the winter “vacationing” in southern Arizona living in a recreational vehicle (motorhome) necessary chores do sneak up on you.  Michael was out of clean socks (it has been two weeks since the last time laundry was done) so off to Parker we went early this morning!

Our original plan was to leave here about 8am—my cellphone had other ideas!  I charged the phone yesterday while the generator was running and received the little beepy message that told me the phone (which isn’t a month old) was fully charged.  Well, at 4:30am the sweet little phone began to beep telling me it needed charging---GRRRR!  So both Michael and I were up just before 5am and out the door headed to the laundromat by 7:30!

It was a good time to be in the laundromat—mostly deserted until the woman with the two obnoxious children arrived—actually, the mother was the obnoxious one as she seemed to have no clue how to control two out of control children—I considered stuffing the two children in one of the dryers but decided against that idea!  Maybe I should have stuffed the mom in the dryer????  Laundry was accomplished while Michael shopped for trailer tires with no luck.

Back home and unloaded with Michael driving back out again to the tire shop in Bouse where he hit pay dirt—new tires are on the way as well as a rim for the spare. 

Our friends Jim & Ellie along with Deb and Rod have fed us several times—today was our turn.  I had made spaghetti sauce yesterday and today homemade bread.  We all feasted tonight on spaghetti, salad, bread and for dessert—angel food cake with fresh berries—strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.  It was a great evening eating and visiting.

All tucked in with the generator running to charge the batteries and run Michael’s electric blanket—we are truly roughing it, aren’t we???

Emmi really likes Deb and Deb really likes Miss Emmi!

The desert is greening!  Maybe we will get lots of wildflowers this year.

Who Turned Off The Heat

Our rain and wind yesterday left us with sunshine today and a cold wind.  It was just an unpleasant day to be outside but that didn’t keep us from taking a walk this morning and noting all the puddles in the washes. 

One of the larger washes nearby has a series of waterfalls—today at the base of the larger waterfalls were deep pools--  

In the above photo, note the smaller pool above the larger, shadowed one—I would have loved to see the water flowing forming these pools!

Spent the afternoon sewing and Michael puttered.  He is trying to put together some more LED lighting for us over the couch. 

Made a batch of spaghetti sauce today, too—we sampled it for supper tonight, YUM!

Tomorrow is laundry day, ho, hum, but necessary—Michael has no more clean socks!  He is going with me to try and find some tires for the new trailer.

Rain In The Desert

Michael frequently gets up before I do and this morning was no exception.  I woke to rain on the roof and sudden flashes of light—for a moment I thought Michael was for some strange reason taking flash photographs in the living room!  But, no, it was lightening in the desert accompanied by thunder and rain, lots of rain.  It rained up until almost lunch time—a gentle, wonderful rain.

Jim decided to make green chile chicken stew in honor of the cooler weather and the rain—we all gathered at Jim and Ellie’s about 4pm.  As usual the food was delicious—Jim’s stew was great and so was Deb’s cornbread.  I made a fruit tart that was OK.   We sat and visited for a couple hours before coming home to see about our lonesome furkid.

I spent the day sewing—a much needed sewing fix.  Michael and Emmi took a walk when the rain stopped.  And, that is about it for our day.  Sunset was gorgeous tonight on all sides—the sun going down turned the clouds in all directions brilliant shades of pink and red.

We Are Stuck

I guess through the course of RV ownership getting stuck might happen, especially in our country with snow drifts.  Today we got stuck in a sand pile!!  Really, really stuck as in up to the axle. 

We were picking up the trailer at the owner’s house and place of business out in the Foothills of Yuma on a dead end street.  The road was gravel and sand—the entrance to the spot where the trailer was parked was a sharp left turn and we didn’t make the turn on the first try.  Michael backed the motorhome up to get a straighter approach to the gate and when he backed up, we sunk!! 

Good Sam to the rescue!  They sent a tow truck and we were back in business less than 2 hours after becoming stuck.  Michael is very pleased with the trailer—it needs new rims and definitely needs new tires but all that is fixable! 

The weather man is forecasting an eighty percent chance for rain tonight and tomorrow.  This desert could use some moisture!

Short Night, Long Day

Miss Emmi must have had a tummy ache early this morning, the two of us were out wandering the desert at 3:30am!!  She just doesn’t do that usually sleeping long after Michael and I have gotten up.  Did I go back to sleep, nope—short night!

A little before 8am we dropped Emmi at Ellie’s and took off for Yuma.  First stop, Los Algodones for meds.  We were in and out of Mexico in less than 30 minutes, waiting in line at the border crossing for about 20 minutes.

In Mexico we were able to obtain colchocine for less than eight cents a pill when here in the US it is now over $1.50 due to our wonderful regulatory agency, the FDA awarding the sole manufacturing license to ONE company.  Crossing the border today back into the US was painless.

Now for the even better news—we finally found a trailer!  Last night Michael noticed a trailer with the right specs for sale in the Yuma Craigslist.  We called the guy this morning, looked at the trailer about noon and bought it.  We will go back to Yuma tomorrow with the motorhome and pick up the trailer.

The trailer is 20 feet long, slant nose and is made by Carson.  It has a flat roof and no vents so lots of room for solar panels.  And the price was great!

We had lunch at Famous Dave’s, I shopped a little for quilt fabric at JoAnn’s and then we hit Sam’s Club—a long day!

Got a call yesterday afternoon from my Mom, she was on the way to the Heart Hospital in Little Rock—her doctor thought she might have had a heart attack.  Good news today, no heart attack—now they are trying to figure out why her blood pressure can’t be regulated. 

Miss Emmi was extremely glad to see us after spending the day beating up on Jasmine and Mr. BoJangles.  Jim and Ellie looked a little weary too—Jim said he might need shoulder surgery from throwing toys for Emmi all day!

Yuma is the lettuce capital of the world they say and today some fields were being picked and some were just starting to grow.  These are red leaf and green leaf lettuce just getting started.

Long Walk and A Little Of This and That

Even though we drove up the canyon part way we still ended up with about a six mile hike today—saw the sheep again on the way up.  We hadn’t hiked this canyon before and found it beautiful with plenty of scenery and bits of turquoise glinting in the partial sun we had today.

Emmi is helping Michael find turquoise.

We found remnants of old mining claims—foundations and poles from what looked to have been a shed of some sort--

Back home I fired up the big generator and vacuumed while I had a loaf of bread baking in the convection oven.  After lunch Michael was gracious enough to help me cover up the considerable gray hairs that appeared since I last visited my hair dresser in Billings—I didn’t turn out with orange hair—that’s a good thing!

Jim and Ellie along with Deb and Rod made a Yuma/Algodones, Mexico run today and I am the chief dog sitter. 

Our weather has been cloudy and windy today but still in the low seventies.  The weather man is predicting rain for Saturday and we are sure hoping it happens—this area is extremely dry.  Last year by this time we had over 2 inches of rain.

We are either going to Yuma/Algodones, Mexico tomorrow or Phoenix to look at a trailer—stay tuned for Michael’s decision!

Oh, No, No Water

Someone, we won’t name names, forgot to look at the gauges and while I was standing in the shower this morning wondering why the water was so slow—looked at the gauges and said, “oh, no we are out of water.”  I did manage to get the shampoo out of my hair before the water entirely stopped and we won’t name names, but “he” better be glad I got the shampoo out of my hair!!!

So, our plans for the day changed.  We had originally thought of going to Phoenix and touring a trailer manufacturing plant, perhaps placing an order for “the trailer” and doing a Costco run.  With the no water thing we decided to go dump, change spots and stay here for the day.

What a beautiful, beautiful day!  Sunrise was spectacular  About 1pm I was grilling shrimp kabobs and making rice when I noticed a 4-wheeler and a razor type 4-wheeler coming down our “driveway.”  The two rigs stopped right out in front of the motorhome and as one of the guys removed his helmet, I heard Michael say, “what in the world are you doing here.”  It was two couples from Big Timber, MT—Phil and Nancy along with Jerry and Elda who rode their ATV’s all the way from Quartzsite to find us.  We had a nice visit standing out in the sun before they headed back over the hills to their desert campsite. 

I stirred up a batch of bread dough from the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day cookbook and was just getting ready to head over to Deb and Rod’s for happy hour when we heard another vehicle—geez, it is busy in the desert today!  It was Brian and Heidi and we invited them to join us at the neighbors.  After an enjoyable couple hours chatting, we all headed off to our respective rigs.

The moon is rising over our desert—another great day! 

More Desert Big Horn Sheep

Recently on Brian's blog he and Heidi were lamenting the fact that Heidi saw the big horn sheep while walking their dogs and had no camera.  So, we knew the sheep were still up in the hills and had our eyes peeled—well, those sheep were right by the trail this morning, our presence startled the pair at first and they ran a short distance before going right back to eating.  We think these two were female.

While I was making lunch I heard a vehicle and looked out the window to see this Ford Explorer with two couples inside drive right by the front of the rig, go down just a ways past our rig, turn around and drive right past our rig again.  Certainly hope they weren’t scouting out a new location for their rig!!!  Might have to employ some Bayfield Bunch tactics if that is the case!!!

After lunch we made a run to Parker for some groceries and Michael bought me a McDonald’s ice cream for Valentine’s Day.  On the way out of Parker we noticed that visibility was really reduced and there was the strong smell of smoke in the air—the wind was blowing from the west (California) and there was obviously a large fire somewhere over there!

Emmi running to greet Michael—he took a detour on our walk this morning that I declined!

Happy Birthday to Chuck—hope it was a good one in spite of all those doctor’s appointments Mom booked for you!!!

Lazy Sunday

About the only thing we did today was hike around the mountains putting on another six miles.  That six miles must have been tough cause neither of us had much energy for anything else the rest of the day!

Grilled steak and potatoes for lunch with a salad, naps, book reading in the sun, not much else going on. 

Our little group is now down to three rigs—us, Jim and Ellie and Deb and Rod.  

After the other two couples got back from their drive today we all gathered at Jim and Ellie’s for happy hour round the campfire.  Sunset was beautiful tonight thanks to the clouds.

On our walks we pick up various rocks that catch our eye—when we toss the rocks away Emmi thinks we are throwing the rocks for her to chase—she rolled this one around and around this morning.