Fellow Canadians, shopping and a wee bit of dust....

Our Location: Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, Arizona


Not a cool night at all, although I found it a bit cool just about 6 am as I was waiting for the sun to come up. Always seems warmer even if the sun doesn’t really show itself. A mental  game for me I guess. 

Pulled off to let this guy by earlier. He's our newest neighbour.

Both of us were up before 7:30 am this morning. Riley said her phone went off at 7 am and woke her up. She didn’t know the number and therefore didn’t answer it. If she doesn’t know the number she won’t pick up ANY phone for anyone. Who ever it was called back later around noon but again she didn’t answer. I offered to call them back and find out who it was but she declined. Oh well, must not be important, they didn’t leave a message. I’m guessing Telemarketers. Who knows. 

Last night I showed the sunset reflecting off this motor home, appeared to be engulfed in flames. As you can see it wasn't.

After our hot chocolate, I tidied up the Igloo, or maybe more aptly I moved the dust around. After that we pulled our selves together, climbed in the Dogsled and headed for Courthouse Road. We were going to run some errands today. The Dogsled was just starting to loosen up when I remember the shopping the list was still in the Igloo. Back we went, lucky we weren’t quite to the road way yet. List in hand we headed out once again but had to pull over and await a 5’er moving from the front of the parking area to the back near the mountains. Very skinny road but lots of places to get off and let him get past. 

Tons of cotton along the roads as it blows off the trucks hauling the cotton to the mills.

On the road today we turned right instead of left, heading toward Tonopah to catch I-10 for our trip to Buckeye. We were soon rolling down the Interstate amazed at how quickly folks drive. I mean they really fly. Scares the crap out of me to think of them going 75 plus miles per hour. In no time at all we were at Miller Road Exit and took it so we can have a look around at the Love’s truck stop, it has a dump station that I’ve been told is a $10 charge, allowing you to fill up with NON POTABLE water and possibly leave a bag or two of garbage as well. For those that don’t know, the dump station is at the front of the yard right beside the road. It’s near the air pump. So you have to pull in pretty close to the sidewalk  so people at the pumps aren’t going back/drive into by accident.  Ernie and Debbie confirmed the number  when I mentioned the fella with the dog told me just the other day the price was $5. I didn’t go in and ask but at least I now know where it is.

This horse wasn't too steady on the roadside. Kept wanting to get off , away from the hard top even before I got close to him.

From there we headed a bit south along Miller Road taking one of the side roads to the left to head to Watson Road, home of Walmart, Walgreens, Poppa John’s Pizza, and a few others. It wasn’t hard to find. Our first stop was Walgreens to fill up some jugs with potable water for cooking, and the kettle. For $1.25 it dispensed 5 gallons of potable water, and for another 60 cents it gave us two more gallons to fill up our jugs. I was certainly very pleased. Walmart also has a water dispenser at the back near the dairy section, it’s cheaper at 25 cents per single gallon, no matter how many you buy. However taking all those small jugs into Walmart is a pain. The Walgreens machine is right on the sidewalk by the parking lot.

Last night he parked right in the first spot near the road, today he moved about 3/4 of a mile back. Much nicer back there.

From Walgreens we slipped across Watson Road to Fry’s Market Place and Arron’s rent to own. I thought I’d check there for some proper sized furniture. Close but only if we take something that’s electric. I don’t want electric, only works with power or an inverter. No good to us. From Arron’s we wandered into Fry’s. Very nice store, some really good deals if you have a card. So after shopping I asked for a card, we saved $10 by having that card. We’ll shop there again, for certain but you have to be aware of prices as not all things are a good buy. 

Looks like they split everything right down the middle in divorce court....

From Fry’s we went west at the crossing street, into the Walmart parking lot. The stores are very close together and I”m a bit surprised  they aren’t spaced out a bit more, as there is a great deal of land out here that is empty. Anyway, we dropped into the Dollar Tree as we needed a couple of cheap trash containers for recycling. It’s easier to do it at the time than later. We do this at our summer place and truly we need to take the recycling before we ever need to take the trash. So with trash containers in hand I headed back to the truck and Riley headed into Wally’s to start our grocery shopping. 

That's a truck camper parked way back there. The road is extremely rough and I'm not sure I would have taken my truck over it. He is an extremely long way off. 

We managed to find everything that was left on our list (that we didn’t get at Fry’s) except Thyme and Garlic. We still have some but we’re running a bit low and I want to replenish soon. We bought some Italian Seasoning the other day and it looks like it has a small grinder in the lid. I’m looking forward to checking that out. 

Never know what you might see ......

Loading everything in the Dogsled took mere minutes and before long we were on our way back toward Saddle Mountain and home. We didn’t take the interstate the whole way, instead we got off at one of the exits and kind of wandered our way home on back roads, enjoying the views. I must say that trying to keep the Dogsled or the Igloo clean is an impossible task. I’ve cleaned the windows numerous times but the dust is so fine that it just causes the windows to have a ‘haze’ like film over them. If you stand just right you can see the whole truck is covered as well. In some places more obvious than others.

That Airstream belongs to the guy with the dog in the trailer.

We pulled in back home around 1:15 pm and started unloading the Dogsled, putting the groceries away in the Igloo. Since I had already prepped lunch before we left, it was a simple matter of starting the Weber and tossing on the food. Today’s menu was quick and simple. Riley passed on the salad but I truly enjoyed mine. Black berries were only 75 cent for a small container and I added a half dozen to my salad, along with a small clementine. We didn’t pick up any grapes as they weren’t very good. So no grapes in the salad today. I love the Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing that I’ve been using, it adds a really nice flavour. Lunch today also included Bourbon BBQ Chicken, with fresh mushrooms, beans and asparagus drizzled with orange juice, and a small potato with Italian seasoning for Riley. I followed lunch with a small Granny Smith Apple. My favourite apples. 

Ernie and Debbie from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

After lunch I grabbed my walking stick and headed out for a quick walk. I wasn’t gone too long, about an hour. I walked about 1 1/2 miles around a few of the roads checking out some spots for future stops. Back home I took my computer, phone, camera and myself outdoors to watch the sunset and start my post. 

My Inukshuk really does have two arms.  I'll have to find him a better one tomorrow. An Inukshuk in the form of a person signifies hope, friendship  and safety.

The sunset wasn’t spectacular and I didn’t get any great pics but I did manage to meet our Canadian neighbours as they were heading by to catch some pics of the sunset from a different angle. Ernie and Debbie are from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan , Canada.  They are having quite the adventure already and are only into their first month or so of Full Timing. Ernie informed me that he knows Ivan, that semi Retired Ranger fella with his charming feline companion Miss Hailey, they hail from Alberta. It seems Ivan (Road Trip 2018) and Ernie attended some sort of schooling or training together, and it was through Ivan that Ernie found my blog and learned we are neighbours here in Saddle Mountain. It’s a small world for sure. Thanks for pointing that out Ivan! It was great to meet both Ernie and Debbie, we hope to catch them further down the road as they are heading out tomorrow for a more southern clime. It seems we’re going to have some cold weather, close to the freezing mark according to Ernie. I didn’t look at the weather but perhaps we should head a bit further south as well if it’s going to be too cold.

The afternoon sun on one of the mountains outside the front door.

So the sunset wasn’t great but there’s always another night. It’s cooling off quickly once the sun goes down and as we approach the shortest day light day of the year we need only remind ourselves that this too shall pass and before we know it the sun will be hanging in the sky for longer and longer each day. I believe in about 3 or 4 more days we will be into the turning tides of longer days instead of shorter ones. With those longer days the promise of summer and long lazy evenings  can’t be far off. 

The Airstream is on the right, a tiny white dot between those two green bushes. The truck camper is on the left a tiny dot in the sway of the hills.

That’s it, our exciting day here in the neighbourhood of Saddle Mountain, BLM and Buckeye, Arizona. Nothing to make the earth quake and the mountains tremble but we enjoyed it. It’s why we do it. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit.

The beginning....

A belated Happy Birthday greeting goes out to my cousin Stephen who celebrated a birthday recently back there on that Island in the middle of Georgian Bay.  

The End...

Until next time….take care, be safe,

Deb