Hassayampa Jim

Arizona has its share of characters and we met a true one today, Hassayampa Jim (this link will take you to more information about him.)  He is about 80 years old and lives alone, and I do mean alone—it is a ride/drive over rough non-maintained roads, traveling through dry washes and desert.  He travels to town one day a month!!  Jim lives with no power company provided power only a generator which powers the pump for his water from a well and also powers his satellite TV and Sirius Satellite Radio!  He enjoys having people stop to visit and loves Pepsi—so if you go to visit, take a six pack of Pepsi!  Jim also won’t turn down cookies or other food items.  We ate our lunch in the shade of his yard visiting with Hassayampa Jim. 

I think Larry and Geri are trying to make a true ATVer out of me!!  We rode almost 40 miles today and were still back home before 3pm.  It was another great day—Tom and Sandy along with Cathy and Mike joined us.  We traveled in the Hassayampa River bed at times--it is always good to see water in the desert—the Hassayampa River is flowing in spots but disappears again both above and below where we were.  There were families parked along the water’s edge enjoying the coolness of the rare desert water.

And we saw two crested saguaros today!!!  We were close enough to one for close ups!

Back at the park we attended a meeting for the North Ranch Outdoor Group—I mistakenly labeled this group the North Ranch ATV/Jeep Club in a previous post—the group participates in other activities other than ATVing and jeeping including hiking and golfing.  Thursday the group is hosting a jeep/ATV poker run out through the desert.  You are being given no map, just GPS coordinates for where each playing card can be found—one of the objectives of this run is to teach us novices how to use a GPS and Michael and I need all the help we can get!!!

We are managing to get the Garmin Montana GPS to track our route—this is today’s trip. 

Thank you, thank you to all who responded to my request for help with the lip sunscreen issues.  I’ve stopped using Vaseline, today used some Blistex Five Star Lip Protection SPF30 which I all ready had, ordered some HerpacinL lip protector and a hat!!  And yes, John, the hat comes with a “hurricane string” or a “stampede string” as they are called in our part of the world.  Today I used one of Geri’s disposable dust masks which kept my lips covered all day—they do feel better tonight. 

This having fun is exhausting—I hear my bed calling me!!  A jeep adventure awaits us tomorrow!!