Another busy week...

We joined almost two dozen neighbors...geo trackers, pickups & quads...on a ride north to the Big Eye mine. It was a great time, except those of us on quads didn't know where we were going. We rode behind the vehicles at a reeeeallly slow pace. Coming back we led at a much faster pace.














It was a heck of a good time except for the flat tire we got going into the parking area. What a bummer! And to top it off, we had to buy a brand new tire to replace it paying the dang sales tax, and it didn't match the other three tires.

The four of us in the picture are the only ones who managed the 1/2 mile hike uphill to the mine. We used our little maglights and our nifty baseball hats with LEDs in the bill and did a peak inside. But it's pretty old and the roof (?) is not real well supported, therefore we only ventured a hundred feet or so inside. Bonus: it felt really refreshing to go inside the cool air after our hot walk up to it.

Saturday was the annual Hank's Day parade. Hank and his wife are both dead now. Their pictures are at the beginning of the parade sitting in a big ol' front loader. The parade isn't a big one, but lots of fun. It has the usual rodeo queen and attendants...old cars...Shriners and their funny vehicles...Red Hat ladies looking pretty silly...and we filled our pockets with all the candy thrown. We're darn good senior citizen beggars...lol

Also on Saturday Norman and I joined a couple hundred geocachers in the Old Town Square and blew bubbles for about 10 minutes. We FILLED the air with shiny bubbles. And we got to count this little event as a cache "found". Great fun....

Then on Sunday we joined over 350 geocachers for a poker run along the Colorado River...the a bbq tri-tip dinner. We were among the first to finish the poker run, so sat and played a couple games of cribbage in the sunshine while waiting for our noon dinner. Nope...didn't win good hands. And we didn't win any of the raffles, but our non-cachers, who attended with us, won a nice ammo can. They gave it to us, so we'll be thinking about hiding another cache one day soon.

Here we are...Buckshot & Foxy and Duck1 & Duck 2...before all the big crowd finally arrived. I gave Bob and Jan their geocache names. We had to register that way, and, of course, they had never done it before...Appropriate names for a couple of Eugene residents.

Catch-up VS Ketchup 2

OH-BOY, it has been a busy week! We began with a drive to Mesa to spend a couple days with my baby sis, Diane. Di and I had a wonderful time gabbing and gabbing. And she whipped me in cribbage game after game. I'd be just a few points out, and she'd pass me like the wind.

Norman found a Harbor Freight store a couple blocks away and got his fill wandering through it. Usually I'm sitting in the car reading a book, so he's not in the store long before the 'guilts' start gitting him...lol...Got a good deal. He bought a gift for the grandkids, the salesman told him to go online for a coupon and bring it in for a little refund. Norman didn't find the coupon, but online our little gift was way less than half-price. He printed the page and the salesman sold Norman four sets of the little gift at the online price. Woo-hoo...love those kind of savings.

We took Di out on a geocaching walk near her home that lasted 'way too long'. But we did find eleven! Here's a pic of Norman giving Di a 'high five' with her very first find. And, yes, one of the caches was attached to the bottom of this garbage can...stinky...

I did say the walk was 'way too long'...But we treated ourselves to a really good lunch topped off with nummy ice cream sundaes before walking home. And then we all had naps...

Early the morning after getting home, Bob (Eugene friend) called and away we went out in the desert just across the Colorado River in California. The area pictured on the right is called the 'Talking Rocks' and is on the Quechan Indian Reservation. People carted in these rocks to form a grafitti of sorts in all directions for about a square mile. Some of them actually are graves, but most are just love notes of some sort or another.


We came upon another of the hundreds of mines in the desert. The hill here is peppered with big holes the guys like to drop rocks in. I know, I know...it's to see (hear) how deep they are. Sometimes we don't hear them hit bottom.

And we play on the equipment...

We don't do a whole lot of figuring out where we're going and depend a lot on our GPS and watches to get us back to our starting point. So were surprised and happy to come upon the old gold mining town of Tumco on the other side of the mountains. The old miners took out about $1000 a day in gold at it's peak. A whole bunch of money back them. This last pic is Bob and I fooling around in the cemetery for Norman...hee-hee

And interspersed in our days this week were...more long walks...finding the owner of a lost dog...garage sales & hauling back a computer desk for a neighbor...happy hours...setting up Bob and Jan at Boo n Ethel's place for about a week...happy hours...oh, I said that...hmmm, and I'm up at 5am to do this blog.

Happy Valentine's Day! Much love to all the lovers...

International Festival in San Luis, AZ

With some friends we drove to the bordertown of San Luis and enjoyed the 1st Annual International Festival. We had the most scrumptious steak tacos for only a dollar each! Yum...still thinking about them. And grazed and drank during the time we spent there.

The weather wasn't too cooperative. We were looking forward to all the music and dancers, but the rain made it difficult. The stages were really wet after a terribly nasty cloudburst. And you certainly couldn't be standing out in it with the beautiful wood guitars or all the electrical stuff some bands had...

But the mariachi band was wonderful...We danced to Elvis's "Hound Dog" played by the rock band setting up behind them. I guess we were the show; no one joined us in the street to dance. Guess I'm like my dad, can't pass up a good tune...Norman and I love the Mexican dancers. We missed the first group but the second one was absolutely terrific. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of them.We left as another cloudburst was about to put a damper on the doings. And topped off the jaunt with a half hour stop at the casino along the way, where I was the lone winner. Well, truth be told, I played some of it back, but still walked out with $10 more than when I went in.

Early to bed tonight...busy day tomorrow. We have a breakfast with about 200 geocachers...Then it's the block Super Bowl party...Gosh, sure glad we don't work anymore. I don't know how we'd fit it in.

A Couple of GUY Rides...

The fellows did a couple "guy" rides this week. I figure, when we gals do some things without the guys AND have a heck of a good time, the guys need the same time without us. So I stayed home and did my thing.

They had a great time both days, although Norman complained about a sore butt after the second ride of over 100 miles. This is a picture of Harv and Bob in front of one of the tunnels constructed through the hills for the canals that water the hundreds of 'salad' fields in the area. Isn't this a great picture of the guys on top of one of the ridges? The "boys" have been flying quite a bit lately, so we have lots of jet trails in the sky. They are sure exciting to watch, especially out where we live. They fly pretty low when turning back into the bombing range.
Any-the-way...I like this picture.

This a picture of some of the wetlands surrounding the Colorado River. And, Yes, they did ride north and find the river this time...lol...The following picture will give you an idea of the ridges we've all ridden along north of town.

The next day they took Woodcutter's Pass in the bombing range over to see the mobile anti-aircraft guns and the turquoise mine. I keep calling these tanks, but they're not.

This is a picture of the Pass. It's pretty rough, but a fun ride. Several cars...trucks...left abandoned and stripped on this trail. We have wondered how they made it as far as they did. Harv likes to ride reeeeeal fast, and he found this trail a bit frustrating.

And another good picture Norman took of the three of them with one of the anti-aircraft guns. Pretty amazing that they have been in the desert for decades and the turrets and guns still move. They are definitely fun to play with and a good lunch stop.

This is the long ride...around 100 miles. We use our extra 1 gallon can of fuel to be certain, we can make it into Wellton. Wellton is on the other side of the mountains from us. We fuel up there and then ride along one of the canals back home...a nice flat...wide...fast...dirt road...

It's a 'Crack-up' job!

HEE-HEE...GOTCHA! Boo n Ethel's patio got extended today with the addition of 500 Mexican brick. Boo, not being satisfied, decided without asking any of us to add another 800. LOL It will look nice and keep the dust down. This was a pretty tough job especially with the addition of 2 or 3 supervisors. But the guys had it finished in about three hours.

Meanwhile, Ethel and I dug out the last of the cactus type plants she didn't want. Then divided the large clumps of aloe vera, and put them down the length of the driveway. She's already planning what she's going to do next along there...Oh, and I took a couple of the larger plants over to Donzella's place. I'll have her rental portion looking like a jungle one of these days...hee-hee...

This is a 'virtual' cache we picked up on our walk along the Colorado River. The sign tells about the 'Ocean to Ocean' highway that was constructed around 1915. We're pushing 200 caches now. It won't take long before we are over that mark.

Last year a couple of us suckered Cheryl with jokes. We had her hook, line and sinker...lol. Last night she got even with Fred. All year she's picked up pieces to dress him as a magician. You see last year he showed her how to change an orange into a peach...very magical!

Me-hi-ko

Off to Mexico with friends...lunch...Margarita Grande...BIG Pacifico...pink daiquiri...plus free tequila shots at the pharmacies/liquor stores.

Shop while you eat

Came home broke...liquor...candied cactus and sweet potato...gifts for the grandkids...meds for friends and relatives...oh, and tequila filled chocolates...YUM!

Cabin Sweet Cabin

Spent part of yesterday potting flowers for the patio and put out the lawn chairs. Feeling more like home.

Oh, and Norman and I moved about 500 Mexican brick behind Boo's house. He's going to add a big brick patio in back. Well, Fred & Norman will do the work, Boo will supervise. Something we all do for the older folks down here...the heavy work.

Another desert ride...

The Eugene folks, we join in Quartzsite, are filtering down to parks in Yuma now. And so the rides continue. A couple days ago we went north of Yuma into the desert hills. Not the most picturesque ride...along the ridges of the rock covered hills...at the highest peaks we could make out the green "salad" fields which surround Yuma along the canals and the Colorado river. Other than that, we looked at rocks, rocks and more rocks...It was a fun ride for the guys going up and down all those narrow ridgebacks. Carol and I? Well, let's just say, "We were along for the ride"...lol

My man said...alright, pose...so I did...Norman took another picture, because I wasn't posed correctly for this one. I like it...so you get to see it.

We come upon equipment like this quite a bit. Those people, who are stealing metal from fences, grandstands and wires, should be sentenced to clean up the metal in the desert. But then there wouldn't be anything for us to play on. Maybe that's not such a good idea.

I don't think I mentioned, we were trying to ride west to the Colorado River. We ended up east along Highway 95. We don't know which wash or trail we took a wrong turn on...doesn't really matter...we had fun!

An Oregon "Duck" story

In my last blog I mentioned going through the culvert under the freeway? This little story concerns the one which was filled with water during the storm...

Some of these culverts are tall and wide enough to ride a quad easily though. But this particular culvert is barely 4 inches wider than the quad, and the guys lay their bodies down across the gas tanks to ride through. Last year Carol and I walked bent over through with flashlights. It's quite long and has a corner inside, which makes it very dark...snake...snake...go away snake!

This year I wasn't going to walk through alone, so Norman and I bent way down on the quad. I had to put my upper body beside Norman's...

The water had washed some of the sand away from the entrance, so rocks had been piled to ride up. We bent way over...gave the quad the gas...went up the rocks...big BOING!...and rolled back down the rocks. Norman in his infinite wisdom, thought he should check to be sure the new quad was going to go through safely, did NOT DUCK far enough...lolol...

Difficult to get a good picture...but this is the top of his helmet. The deep white gouges are now colored in with a black marker... Hurt? Yep...but not too bad. He had a bit of a headache and maybe a little whiplash, but nothing a little aspirin didn't help...

Now you know our Oregon DUCK story.

Stormy Weather...

Doesn't this look like a nice sunny day? It was...yesterday. We went riding throughout the desert north of I-10 checking out mines...riding trails...over rocks and through washes. Great fun...This is what one of the washes we rode through yesterday looks like tonight. We came under the freeway and through this yesterday to get back to our coaches. Many of the streets are closed for flooding...some vendor tents & trailers are torn apart...We got back from dinner and found our tables...satellite dishes...and chairs lying all over. Our dish may need replacing. We'll check it out tomorrow in the light. It will be a rock n roll night again tonight...the storm began last night. Remember the little wash beside our RV just off the wee hill we're sitting on? I mentioned it in my last blog. Well, this is what it looked like about 1:30p today...

For Our Grand-kids

We are camped in the desert of Arizona near Quartzsite. There are over 100 thousand RVs here. At night it looks like a city of lights. This picture is the five RVs in our group. We are camped on a little hill of rocks. This is the wash at the bottom of the little hill. most of the trees and bushes grow here in the sand. If it rains real hard in the mountains nearby, the wash will have streams of water in it.

There are cacti of many sizes in this area. The one near my hand is a cholla (jumping cactus). You can see how long the thorns are. That's what the man's shoe has stuck to the toe. He had to use pliers to pull them out. If one gets stuck in our quad's tire, we would get a flat.

The tall cactus I'm standing by is a suquaro (su-whar-o). They sometimes have many more arms than this one. Do you see the hole just above my hand? It is usually made by a little bird for a nest.

The pictures of the leaves are three different trees in our area. They all have tiny leaves because there is so little rain here. And that is why the trees are very small and so few of them.

Hannah, I hope this explains some of the questions you had.

A "Mother and Child re-unnn-ion"

CAN YOU SEE THEM?

Quad ride through the desert

Yesterday we took off with some friends, who have a winter place here in Quartzsite and do a lot of riding. We met lots and lots of people along the trails and roads today, probably because it is a weekend.

This first picture is our small group and a larger group at a watering hole made by wildlife people to help the desert critters. Our bike broke down here, but it turned out to be only the battery connections coming loose....WHEW... Our second stop is the old Cinnabar Mine, which was in use for just a few years around the very early 1900's. Supposedly it was to mine mercury, but it fizzled out pretty quickly. A bonus was...we picked up two more geocaches at the watering hole and the mine.

We poked around a couple old cabins built entirely of local rocks with no cement of any kind. I think these folks had a lot of patience...time on their hands. It would have been hot work in the summertime.

This is Norman doing a little hill climbing on the dunes. The old guys had to show off for the youngsters at the top in their fancy riding gear and motorcycles...LOL

There he goes!! We have a pretty powerful quad. It would have made the top with both of us on it, but I didn't want to take the chance. One time getting buried in a sandhill with a quad rolling over me was enough...ouch!

70 miles!