Palm Springs, Lake Havasu and homeward...

Had a wonderful time with Margo and Ron in a really nice condo unit in Palm Springs...6 or 8 pools...flowers blooming everywhere...lots to do. We took the tram (turns 360 degrees as it rises) up to the top of the San Jacinto mountains. Amazing view of the valley below...we would love to go back in the summer and hike the many trails on top. The top was a beautiful pine forest with picnic and campgrounds. Unfortunately, too much snow for us to get out on the trails...well, Norman was hoping to toss a snowball, but it was hard-packed ice.

We hiked the southern valleys of Murray, Andreas and Palm Canyons. One of the pictures is of Margo looking inside the skirt of a palm tree...I call it "No Snakes"...lol...The only critter we saw was the lizard-like creature in the next picture; I can't remember what he's called, but he really colorful.

This waterfall was nice, but the rock formations formed by all the centuries of erosion were spectacular. I slid down this rock like on a playground slide...FUN!

We spent just one full day in Yuma packing the RV and loading the quad and bikes.

Then it was on to Lake Havasu to spend a few days in a luxury park with two pools...friends...and lots of desert riding with friends. One morning three of us walked across London Bridge...sat outside along the lake...had tea and breakfast...lovely. And before heading home we walked along the channel to give the guys a chance to see all the eye-candy that had arrived for Spring Break. Plenty for all to see...hee-hee...

The journey home was a quick one...hit a nasty wind/sand storm the first day. The wind was so strong it broke off the front of our TV antenna and then the antenna thudded against the roof all the way to Barstow. At Barstow we noticed lots of trucks parked in the Flying J, so we called the CDOT road report and found out the highway was closed at Mojave. An hour or so later the highway was re-opened, and we bucked...swayed...and rattled our way into Bakersfield, where we spent the night exhausted after a tough drive...The next day was a long one, but we made it home in just a little over twelve hours...spent the night...showered...unloaded the quad and bikes...then headed north to get our "kid and grandkid fix".

I'll refer you Tina's and Jill's blog for our adventures with them... http://javelina187.blogspot.com/

Home now...cold...but know it's going to get warmer...and I'm really enjoying all the spring flowers that are blooming!!

A couple days in Las Vegas

First off...I should say we should have checked the weather before we packed. We didn't take the correct clothes and were a bit cold. But we had a great time! I'll tell of the couple days in Vegas with pictures...

Cher is absolutely "stunning", and the show was marvelous. The house was full, everyone was quietly singing along and some had to stand and dance. Yep, ladies, she's aged as we all have, but money sure does wonders...lol.

We fast-walked in the chilly windy air to the Luxor for the "Bodies Exhibit". Norman and I wanted so much to see this show, when it was at Omsi, but missed it. We were thrilled to get to see it here in Vegas. I loved this picture and had to buy it to show the grandkids!

The Cirque du Soleil shows are my passion. I watch them whenever they are on television and have now been to two live performances. This show at the Mirage is dedicated to the Beatles and features the songs on the Abbey Road album. It was WONDERFUL! And we would recommend it to anyone. This last picture is the 'grand finale'. Cameras weren't allowed, but some of us snuck a pic or two with our phones...oops...

the Last of Yuma Foothills

The final full week (March 1) in Yuma was filled with Happy Hours and potlucks...notice I capitalized happy hour? Boo would hang the HH flag on a corner of his house almost every day about 3:30p and anywhere from 6 to 20 or 30 people would show up...such great fun! We'll all miss each other...many snowbirds have already headed home...sigh...

This bunch of Old Guys are retired "rails" that got together for hamburgers just a day before we left town. Omigosh...talk about 'hard of hearing'...we gals sat at the other end of the covered area, so we could hear ourselves talk...lol. It was a good get-together. The guys had a great time hashing over old times and catching up on everyone they knew. The last potluck...

We will miss the active social life we all enjoy with snowbirds from all across the country including Canada. We snowgals rarely fix a complete meal...just a dessert or salad or main dish. And if we're really lucky, we don't find out about the get-together until we arrive at happy hour and don't have to fix anything. All our lives are certainly different, when we're at our homes.

this, that n t'other

I'm a little behind in our blog...We're getting our internet through our neighbor's satellite service. It comes from back East. You've noticed the weather lately back there? Apparently when the weather is bad, it affects the satellite internet service...drat...

Here is Norman's dental office in Mexico; it's in the courtyard of the Plaza Flamingo. He's very impressed with the work done, and the price is 1/3 what he'd have paid at home. The dentist is US trained, speaks very good English and is gentle. I peeked into one of the rooms, very modern equipment, but the paint is peeling off the walls and things are painted many different colors...LOL...This is part of a looong block of dentists.

I took this picture with my phone and the restaurant was kind of dark. But this is a picture of the small burger offered at the Brown Bag Burger place. We stuffed ourselves...

The doves are making babies all around us. Here's a picture of a mama dove with her two babies and another with my phone of the two babies. They made the nest over the patio of a friend's home. We like to watch her feed them...cute!

SORRY...BUT TIS THE SEASON...YUM!

And when the temperature hits 90 plus degrees, what do you do in the afternoon?
I slept..

All of us from the Pacific Northwest were ready to go home...it was just too hot yesterday. Thank goodness it cooled off to about 78 today.

Thinking about going home...Sunday it's off to Las Vegas for a couple days, Palm Springs for the rest of the week, then back to Yuma, pack our stuff, head up to Lake Havasu for a few days of riding the quad with a bunch of friends...then we head home...whew!

the QUAD COMMANDOS

We went into the Fortuna Wash...that's the big one near us...and found seven caches today...DNF (did not find) two caches. We may get back to look for them, but, maybe not...

Catch-up VS Ketchup

Parked the pickup down by the gas station yesterday morning. Oh, in the 'geocache' world it's the 'Mini-Walmart'...This was the beginning of our morning walk out into the desert looking for caches and enjoying the sunshine. The desert floor is full of little purple flowers and now the white larger flowers are beginning to pop out. It's turning beautiful... No cactus blooming, but they aren't too far behind.

Along the way we picked up Little 'SUZI' in the 'Boot Hill' cache. Jumped a mile when I removed the top to this one as a little lizard scurried across the bottom...LOL
We don't pick up items out of the caches too often, but she's a cute rollerblader from Hawaii. She's already been to Oregon, so perhaps we'll save her for Las Vegas...Two hours and 5 caches found, one cache not found and we were back at the pickup...whew!

Interesting things I may want to remember:
using the tea kettle instead of the microwave to heat water puts moisture in the dry air
rinsing my hair with the drinking water we buy leaves it feeling soft instead of like straw
when the wind blows from the north it's cold even though the sun is shining
using the oven cooks the vegies/fruits I have sitting on the counter above the oven
eggs freeze on the bottom shelf of the fridge
rum n cokes taste good at 3:30pm
tequila filled chocolates are yummy even though I don't like tequila
there aren't enough chocolates filled with booze in the world to get me through another novel about the Viet Nam war
WARS ARE SAD AFFAIRS!

On a happier note...we're going to the Brown Bag Burgers place for lunch today...YUMMY!

to party OR not to party!

THAT IS THE ONLY QUESTION

Saturday...went to the party NO ONE wanted to go to...does that make sense? It sure does not! And several managed to make the host and hostess angry and did not go. We went...I managed to say about five words before I said "good-bye" about four hours later! That's better than JoAnn; she only said about three. I don't think we'll go again next year. Hmmm...let me re-phrase that...We won't be going next year.

It was a group of people who have retired from China Lake and moved from Ridgecrest, CA. We don't fit either category, but everyone else did. It would have been an interesting time if the chat had been about what they all used to do...What did they do, you ask? Why they did R&D on munitions...BLOWING UP STUFF and making bigger n better bombs was their job. Now wouldn't that have been a great conversation?

The flag...the flag goes up on a front corner of Boo n Ethel's home and everyone shows up for cocktails! NOW THIS IS A REAL PARTY! Yesterday the 'soup kitchen' (Super Bowl leftovers plus) was to open around 5-ish. The flag went up around 3:30p and before the food was laid out about 30 people had gathered. It was a good thing some of us added to those leftovers.

We eat good here in the neighborhood. I have only had to fix a few complete meals for Norman and I, since we arrived. There has been a potluck of some sort or other nearly every night. I've made several lemon merengue pies...many pans of Paula Deem's brownies (everyone asks for them)...really awesome cornbread...and today I'm making an apple pie. Yummy!

Jokes! So many new jokes, I'll never be able to remember them. And lots of kidding about getting older. Funny...none of us consider ourselves "old". Wonder when that will happen?

95?

Mesa story in Pictures

We walk at Marley's pace, wherever Marley wants to go. And when he decides to go home, WE GO HOME!

Notice the difference between how an Arizonan dresses compared to a snowbird...LOL!

Norman tried to teach Lily to use her brakes, but she preferred grabbing my shirt to stop as he chased her all around the tennis court.


Lincoln wanted so badly to toss the ball into the basketball net, but Di just couldn't hold him high enough. So he contented himself with throwing it away from her and giggled as she chased the ball.

We had a SINGLE BYPASS at the HEART ATTACK GRILL on the way home. That's a half pound burger and unlimited fries cooked in lard topped off with a liter each of Classic Coke. You can see the menu behind us...single, double or triple. No diet stuff here, and if you weigh over 350 pounds, you get to eat free!

Norman enjoyed the 'buns'...on the girls, that is!

Then a quick stop at the BLM campground with all the petroglyphs along I-8. Nothing we hadn't seen before, but just not in this quantity.

100 Miles of Bad Road...but fun!

We headed out into the bombing range yesterday morning to go for a little ride. First stop was the location of the Fortuna Mine Town. It's one of those 'must sees' that everyone going onto the range has to see and then doesn't go back. Afterall...if you've seen one old mining ghost town you've pretty much seen them all. We were surprised the first time, because the park rangers manage the area. They have put up a kiosk with pictures and information plus informative signs along the trails.

Then off we rode through the Gila (pronounced with an H) Mountains along the Dripping Springs Trail. I think the 'springs' that drip are from vehicles. This is just one of the wrecked vehicles we saw along the trail. It was a fairly easy, but rocky, ride for us. I would love to have been able to watch the jeeps go through a couple areas. We went over pebbles, rocks and boulders for miles and miles!

Finallllllllllllyyyyyyyy...we made it to the other side and the flat sandy desert. Oh, my aching legs.

Here is Bob playing Rommel in Africa on one of the many tanks. They are always a fun stop. We can climb all over inside and out, even turn the turrets and move the guns up and down.

I wonder what Bob thought of the wrecked Army jeep and the unexploded ordances we saw here and there throughout the range...made me a little nervous the first time we went out...I think the Marines had a good Super Bowl holiday, because no jets came out to check on us this time.

Norman, our fearless leader, skirted the Copper Mountains until he found the old turquoise mine. The shafts are straight up and down, so a person would have to have special equipment to get in. But there are bits and pieces all over the ground. Bob dug around in the trailings and found some pretty nice pieces to put in his tumbler. Me? Well, I brought home some too...grandkid gifts...LOL

We had gone about 40 miles by now on our 50 to 60 mile limit with each of us carrying an extra gallon of gas. We finally decided we needed to get into the nearest town for fuel before attempting to go home. So off to Wellton...

Our trip home was pretty boring...we rode along side the American Canal to Yuma. No scenery...just the walls of the road. It was like riding along a dirt freeway. BORING! We came out within a mile or so of Bob's campground...lucky him. But Norman and I had to get across the canal, under the railroad tracks, sneak around the cement plant and over some hills before we finally found the wash that would take us close to home...right around 100 miles for the day...and we are tired...

Superbowl XLIII

GREAT GAME...didn't think the Steelers were going to pull it off...well, actually...we were hoping they would lose. They've had plenty of glory; it was the Cardinals time for the trophy.

We had a good party at one of the neighbors, lots of people we didn't know. Funny...the two groups didn't mix real well...neighbors and friends. Hmmmm...

Lots of good food...lots of cheers n boos during the game...I created the boos by cheering on the Steelers (the only one doing it...hee-hee). It was fun!

Polamalu didn't get to do his stuff much, because the coach kept the safeties in the backfield. That was disappointing. We enjoy watching him...Fitzgerald was pretty quiet the first three quarters, but then finally got to 'show his stuff'. We think he's really great!

These are the shirts I painted for the party. They turned out pretty well and didn't cost much to make. Good 'knock around the house' shirts, doncha think?

Fresh picked & YUMMY!

WHAT DO YOU DO

WHEN A STRANGER GIVES YOU A BAG OF FRESH FROM THE TREE LEMONS?

YUM!

Is it Meds or Drugs?

Oh...did I say drugs?...WELL...seems to me some people call Margarita Grandes and Cuba Libres drugs, but we don't. CHEERS TO ALL OF YOU IN THE COLD, FOGGY, SNOW & ICE COUNTRY...we feel sorta sorry for you...NOT! You old folks make your choices, and you must love the weather. And you young'uns, we hope you all get your turn.

Today we spent in Algodones, Mexico. The main reasons for going are cheap meds for friends and family, cheap booze and Margaritas for lunch. Before our lunch...it wasn't all liquid...but some of us did giggle as we walked away...lol. OH YEAH, before our lunch we picked up hundreds of dollars in inexpensive meds. It's really difficult to understand why we have to pay so much at home. Maybe it's the overhead that the drugstores and pharmaceutical companies have. There certainly are no neon flashing lights or fancy floors down here. They aren't selling as much meds as they used to, because all of us on medicare have prescription coverage or buy the generics at Wally World.

After lunch we all bought pretties. Those dang Margaritas somehow loosen our wallets. Then the last stop before heading back to the border are the purple front stores. I don't know the name of the stores; they're just painted bright purple and sell booze and chocolate liquor-filled candies.

Here's most of our group waiting in line to get back across the border. We did laugh a lot, but they posed for this picture.

But after waiting over two hours the booze had worn off and this is more how we looked...notice all the purple bags?...It's one bottle per person per month...lol

Today we waited longer than we ever have...almost three hours...sigh...We arrived back at the coach about 6:30pm, exhausted. It was peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.

Pictures to catch up...

We rode the quad around the desert by ourselves sometimes. Tried following our GPS to various geocaches...got lost more than once...always got back on track...always found the caches...although sometimes we went up, down and around hills more than once to find them.

Yep..."Oh Shit Run" is a very accurate name...and what I would call this NANO cache Norman is holding. It took two trips to find this one. It wasn't where it was supposed to be. We finally found the cache by sifting through the dirt all around the sign! Then we put the cache where it belonged for Piscatore and his Lady.

We didn't ride all the way up the Oh Shit Trail. About halfway to the top we came upon boulders we weren't too sure of attempting. So, parked the quad, took off the helmets, put on sunhats, grabbed some water, and walked to the top. The view was truly "Oz-some" as the sign next to me says! We are so glad we did the walk. But...we will be adding some cheap collapsible walking sticks to our quad pack very soon. Yes, that is a Lays potato chip tube in my hand. It's the cache at the top.
Our last day in the area we drove into the KOFA Wildlife Refuge to Palm Canyon. We were prepared for a long hike to see the naturally growing palms with hats, walking sticks, water and snacks. But, not necessary...We ended up having a little picnic in the back of the pickup just before heading back into Quartzsite.

It turned out our planned on hike was only about 1/2 mile long. The palms are growing high up a cut in the canyon walls. We did watch as one couple began their climb up to the palms, but it's certainly not a hike my knees will take anymore...sigh...They were a pretty sight...and the palms definitely prove that at one time this area was much more tropical.

Our ROCK Group

Here we are...the desert ROCK group...hmmm, maybe we need a name. Ben, the guy in the black t-shirt was our leader this day. We went north of I-10 through some of the La Paz Valley over hills, through gullies and washes and racing across the flats. The following picture I took while racing across the flats following Harv n Carol. Can you see them? Look real close...Carol has red on her helmet...LOL...They're that ball of dust right in the middle of the picture. Oh, in case you're wondering, the black on the side is Norman's helmet. Pretty nice picture for the bumpy ride we were on...Harv n Carol and Norman n I are the only ones in the group riding double on our quads. And we take turns being the drivers, because both Carol and I like to be in control...hee-hee

The dust...omigosh...the dust is awful. My sunglasses and the mouthpiece part of my helmet really keeps the dust out of my eyes and mouth pretty good. But a lot of the dust from our quad goes right up my back. My sweatshirt and helmet are desert brown shortly after beginning a ride. I just shook my clothes out each day, rolled them up and stuffed them in a corner til the next time. No use in putting on clean clothes before they begin to smell...

This particular ride we did almost 50 miles. We went from mine to mine and took a look see or picked up rocks. Carol and I came back with some pretty ones...natch...Norman and Harv think we need to pack a bag along just for our rocks, so they don't mess up the quad bags. Gees...Men!

This is a memorial to an old miner who lived south of our campsite for almost sixty years. I think they need a pink toilet, don't you, Earl? The old miner had tunneled all over the area. He reached them through a hole in his cabin floor. I'm sure he would have been a great character to know. (In case you can't recognise me, I'm the one in the black pants.)

We didn't go as far this ride, but did see the 'magic footprint' in the rock wash. Hmmmm, not so sure it's a footprint or just the way the rock eroded...lol. We took a couple pictures, but it doesn't show.

For you geocachers: There was a group of about 20 geocachers on quads at this spot, all newbies. They learned a little trick at the next cache. We found the 'magic footprint' cache, because we had the directions printed out. They didn't, because the coordinates pointed only to the footprint.