Fantastic Sunday, great hike for me, lots of sunshine....

Our Location:Dome Rock BLM, Quartzsite, Arizona


I was finally awake at 5:15 am having woken numerous times thru the night but always able to drop back off to sleep quickly. I’m not sure if I feel more rested or just a bit less tired. It’s hard to determine.

Sunrise well underway.....

I’ve a couple of ideas of things I’d like to do today but we’ll see if they get into the plans. Always nice to have options. 

 

Slide within a slide...

We are enjoying Dome Rock  although we haven’t been here long. I think Riley is starting to settle in better. The tenter/waver fella made her uncomfortable at first but when I explained my theory of why I think he was waving and gawking she seems to have settled down. Those things make her nervous and uncomfortable but Riley staying outside at the campfire by herself says she’s a bit more comfortable. At our summer location she is very comfortable being out by the night time campfire alone and it’s a much greater distance from the Igloo. I’m certain if we stayed longer like we have at other places she would once again become a bit more confident in her surroundings. However I’m very happy with the strides she’s making in a number of areas during this first winter out here in the Southwest. 

 

Taken a few days ago...

Outside just after 7 am I started snapping pictures with the camera. The battery died, so today’s sunrise pics aren’t very good, they were taken with my phone. So while the sunrise was excellent, the pictures are not. Sorry about that.

Back inside we had our hot drinks and decided we’d hang around home all day today. Or at least not drive anywhere. Today is Sunday and I don’t have to do anything in the kitchen except wash dishes so I’m a happy camper.

 

Riley made some biscuits this morning. We tried a new brand to us, we didn’t like them. We’ll be going back to the Pillsbury in the future. After that it was a quick clean up and out the door. Grabbing our walking sticks we parted ways. I wanted to walk the mountains and Riley didn’t. She opted to stay on the roadway and I headed off cross country. Both carrying phones so we could keep in touch. Riley could see the Igloo from pretty much anywhere she walked so I wasn’t too concerned about her.

 

Who said the desert is flat?

That road is like a roller coaster...

 

 

I didn’t take the big camera and I wish now I had of, so I guess that means I’ll have to do it again. I trudge up some small hills first, was amazed at what I could see, then trudged up some bigger hills, more amazed, bigger hills, wow. In all I climbed up and down 4 or 5 of the ‘hills’ you see in my nightly photo’s behind the Igloo. The view was amazing and in some places I followed ‘roads’ for razors/quads/dirt bikes and in other places I simply made my own way, both up and down. 

 



I went up both of those roads to the top and they are pretty steep. The one on the right is the hill behind our Igloo, the other side was pretty steep going down, no trail. 







 

I noticed numerous little gecko’s but they are too fast to get a picture of, I also managed to startle a rabbit. I seen a few hikers, a dog, and a few off road vehicles, plus some on road vehicles going off road. 

Yeah, I went up there...it was really steep.

Other than that I did see a lot of campers/motor homes/ etc on all sides of me except one. I managed to see numerous kinds of rocks here, and some small cacti as well, but didn’t get any good pictures of them. I did notice some garbage around, some that was evidently caught in the rains and washed down into the washes. Some old rusted 55 gallon drums, or perhaps appliances as well, they  had been there a very very very long time.

 

I called Riley a couple of times to ensure she was okay. She made it home with no issues and I was happy to hear that. I headed home after coming down the eastern side of the last ‘hill’, no trail so I kind of had to pick my way down. Interesting to say the least.
 

 

Left: something I noticed hanging around while I was out taking pictures. I think it's some kind of leaf. 

Right: "And the Jester stole his thorny crown"  says Don McLean's American Pie

I was back home by 1 pm. Not bad since we’d left around 10:30 am. I grabbed some water, and a book, heading outside to read for about an hour.

 

Can you see 3 faces?

I had my salad while Riley was cooking lunch. It was good of course, she made Spaghetti (using the left over frozen sauce from last week), cheesy garlic bread and I had some oatmeal cookies for dessert.

 

We had a lot of dishes to wash today as they seem to have collected, it took us a few minutes to do that, tidy up a wee bit, and make a new weekly menu for the upcoming week. After that I spent some time doing a couple of things on line, including reading a few blogs, making a few comments, replying to a few as well and I also managed to send a couple of emails today. I then edited the morning pictures and added some more to this post. After that  I read a new book. I couldn’t finish the other one, it seemed to put me to sleep. The current one is by John Grisham and I know I’ve read it before but it’s been years. The Chamber is about the gas chamber and is based in Mississippi. I remember bits and pieces and it comes back to me in certain places but I remember it as being a good book so I’ll just keep reading it. 

After that it was a quick call to my sister in law Janet Hull. Today is her birthday, so birthday greetings to her. I spoke with her hubby Dennis and he promised to deliver the message. Janet was off playing in a golf tournament at the time. Buttercup Ridge near Cobourg, Ontario is their farm where we stayed this fall for a few weeks. 

Tonight's sunset....

After that is was a matter of just snapping pictures for the sunset. I failed miserably to only snap a few and even though I had already edited the morning pictures, and the pictures from my walk, and I started with a clean card I still had over a hundred pictures of the sunset tonight. Well not JUST the sunset but pictures taken during that time. Truly I don’t know how that happens.

 

Gorgeous, isn't it? 

I noticed Riley starting a fire while I was off doing the picture thing, she managed to do it all by herself tonight. Yeah Riley!!!! The sky was as red as her fire at times. Truly an magnificent sunset.

 

Fire in the sky.....

I sat and chatted with her for a bit while the sun continued to sink and the fire burned cheerfully.  We noticed a Gator type vehicle along the roadway which is odd this time of the night, coming the other way, yes, but not going toward the back. It visited the tenters spot twice within 10 minutes. The second time actually stopping to turn around right beside their vehicle. Seemed odd but I’m thinking it was Rangers in the Gator type vehicle.

 

I love the way the spines are jutting in all directions while the sun sets..

Soon though I came inside to start editing more pictures and finish this post. Eventually she came in as well. So we chattered about a few things before each of us doing our own thing. I’m not sure what Riley’s own thing is but it’s pretty quiet tonight, no thumping or banging, no shouts or giggles, and I don’t feel the Igloo rocking and rolling so I think she’s wrestled all the bad guys in her game to the floor and has them duct taped and gagged. No, no, just kidding but it is pretty quiet in there.

 

Another day ends here at Dome Rock in Arizona.

So there you have it, our Sunday here at Dome Rock. Nothing to exciting but it entertained us and that’s pretty much all that matters in this blog. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment.

 

For Harry Potter fans, I would imagine the sun setting over Hogwarts...

Amazing colour up there...

Until next time…. take care, be safe,

Riley watching her hard work go up in flames.....

Deb