Friends leave, visiting more friends....

Our Location: AZ 95 BLM, near Quartzsite, AZ

 

 

Coolish in the mornings here but the day time temps are nice. Although it looks like a cold week ahead for us out here in the southwest. Not cold by other standards but not as nice as it's been. 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we spent the day relaxing and chatting with our good friends Deb & Tom (Celebrating the Dance). It was a very peaceful and relaxing day. We followed the day of chat with a fire as the darkness settled in here on our little neighbourhood. A truly awesome time Riley and I have had with the wonderful folks as our neighbours.

 

 

 Deb lead off a couple of times before they finally both had the wheels turning.

 

 

This morning brings an end to their being our neighbours though as they pulled up stakes and head south for prior commitments. We watched them go with a sad feeling but happy to know that perhaps we will cross paths again if not this year, hopefully next. 

 

 

 Deb is waiting for Tom and the Stinger Bee, she came back once and then returned to this same position and started coming back again.

 

After hugs and see ya later's, we watched as they started getting ready to pull out. Deb was leading with the Jeep, soon she stopped, turned and waited, came back, chatted a minute or two, turned and headed back to the road, but stopped again and once more waited. Tom rolled the tires of the Stinger Bee over a couple of times before stopping, which once again caused Deb to come back. Finally just when we were thinking they were going to change their minds and stay, they both headed off bound for AZ95. We watched them go with dust swirls kicking up and smiled as we consider ourselves blessed to have such good friends. 

 

 

 Soon Tom was rolling those big wheels, only to stop and then start again.

 

 

Before long we piled into the Dogsled with some chairs, some water jugs and some trash as we headed to Quartzsite. Our first stop was along Kuehn Road to check out a few vendors. Not much we were interested in but we walked around anyway. A call to my dad while we were trekking around just to touch base and see how things were going. Dad, we couldn't find the paint, sorry. 

 

 

They are now both rolling wheels toward AZ 95. 

 

From there we headed to Love's Truck Stop to give a trash donation before we continued out along Dome Rock Road. It took us a couple of pass before we noticed the familiar Miss Adventure and the silver jeep but we eventually spotted them. 

 

 

 And soon they were both kicking up the dust and motoring along to their next adventure. Have fun folks!!!

 

 

A nice visit with Doug & Yuma, the latter being very excited to see us, Doug seemed happy to see us too. Doug writes the blog Miss Adventure Travels and is in the process of cleaning up his motor home as he gets it ready for sale/consignment. He will soon be driving a nice big Class A motor home which I think he will be calling Leo or White Lion or some thing like that. He's pretty excited and we are excited for him. 

 

 

Yuma, Doug & Riley. 

 

 

We spent some time chatting and making a few tentative plans for the future, we'll just have to wait and see how they work out. It was nice to see him and Yuma again and the time slipped past quickly and pretty soon Riley and I headed out. We stopped for some water and then headed on home where we will spend the remainder of our day just enjoying the views and quiet. We are already missing the Stinger Bee and it's family. A big empty space now graces our side window. 

 

 

A Goodyear blimp motoring over us when we arrived home. 

 

 

So there you have it, our last couple of days here in the southwest desert. Truly the kinds of days we enjoy. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to drop a comment if you like. 

 

 

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

Neighbours, errands.....

Our Location: AZ 95, near Palm Canyon, AZ

A busy day yesterday as we had errands we wanted to run and of course we didn't listen to our own good advice and the advice of others that commented on the blog a number of days ago. We had to make a run to the transfer station north of Q to get rid of our accumulated trash and so we continued on to Parker. Yes, yes, I can see you all shaking your heads and going tsk, tsk, you silly women. Okay, you are all correct, it was a mistake but oh well we accomplished our goals.  I also managed to chat with my dad for a few minutes to assure him all is fine and that we have company with us for a few days.

Yep, we arrived home yesterday to see the Stinger Bee sitting comfortably in the yard. 

 The sun this morning over the Kofa Mountains.

The stores were busy and the shelves pretty much picked over but we still managed to get most of things we wanted and it was an interesting shop. I managed to chat with a woman named Rhonda, a bartender in Salome who was a treat to chatter with for a few minutes. She explained how it's soon time for the locals to take over again, the 'visitors' should be getting ready to pack up and head off in another direction. Or at least that is going to be the opinion in a few weeks, when those still here get cranky due to heat and being in one area too long. 

 This road runs not far behind us, goes north to south. 

I walked way back toward those small black hills on the right today. 

 I got closer and closer but was stopped by a deep wash with lots of signage and so I turned around and came back home.

We managed to grab a pizza at Dominos for lunch as it was Riley's request. Riley is one of the easiest people to get along with about many things. You see yesterday was Riley's 28th birthday and it was her request for lunch. She didn't want anything else, just some good pizza for lunch. She was happy, which made me happy. She's such a treat to have along with me and I've very fortunate to have her with me. Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter. 

Lots of saguaros back there but that bright line of green was as far as I went. The wash is very deep.

I think he's waving, don't you? 

Very green out here south of Q.

Back home we turned up the road to the Igloo and noticed that our new neighbours had indeed arrived and set up. The Stinger Bee was parked as pretty as you please and those wonderful folks known to write the blog Celebrating the Dance were sitting out enjoying the sunshine and the warmth.  Yep, Deb and Tom were expected and had arrived. We enjoyed the afternoon sitting in the sun with wonderful company. 

I was intrigued by the look of this saguaro. 

 

Being Canadian my first thought would have been beaver but we all know that's not so.

This small growth will some day be an arm.

 

Riley and I both started the morning with a walk. In opposite directions. Mine was to the west and the mountains we see out the window and Riley's was east toward AZ 95. I walked along enjoying the views and finding that not far from the rigs all signals completely disappears. It's very odd that we have internet on the phones that works, text messaging works but the phone will not call out. Oh well, we are still able to connect with the rest of the world and that is what matters. 

 I could see this guy far off in the distance.

Definitely a bird making a very large nest in that saguaro. 

 

 I just could not get there.

The winds picked up and we pulled in the big slide for a while this afternoon. Riley opted out of Happy Hour today,  the rest of us enjoyed the partial sun but around 6 pm we all headed in doors. Too cool with the sun behind the horizon. 

We all need a little help from our friends. 

 

 It fell or grew right between the two arms of the saguaro.

 As you can see, it's definitely not helping the saguaros either.

So there you have it folks, another wonderful couple of days here in the desert. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all had a fantastic day. 

 He has a number of arms but none on that one side, however plenty on all the other sides.

 It is such a beautiful view. 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

Deb

 

Lots of photos today...

Our Location: AZ 95 BLM, near Quartzsite, AZ

 

 

The mornings are cooler here than in California but still very nice. We both slept well last night and enjoyed the calm, peaceful evening with the door open until just after dark. 

 

 

The dry spines of a dead saguaro cactus. 

I have an idea how they got back there but I haven't checked it out yet. 

This is our new site. We are quite literally parked from where I stood to take this photo. 

 

 

This morning we took a walk to check out an entrance way to a much nicer spot not far from us, and we wanted to check it out for a couple of reasons. I can tell you now that it checked out well, except for cell service which seems spotty in the high winds. 

 

 

 I have photographed numerous saguaros in the past few years but I've never witnessed anything like this.

 It is all one. It appears that one of the 'arms' fell down and another set of trunks grew from it. 

I think it's the most fascinating growth I've seen.

 

 

To keep you from being in suspense any longer, yes we moved. As the crow flies, probably a half mile or close. Driving of course would be longer as we one cannot drive as straight as the crow flies.

 

 

 The sun is directly behind this middle 'arms' of the above saguaro. I love the spines in the sunlight. They are so easy to see and glistening as they are, makes them look transparent, which they aren't.

 This little figure 8 of sunlight shows just how closely these arms are all growing to each other but yet they don't fuse, they remain individual with very little space in between.

 

 

 Can you see the bird's nest up there between these three arms?

 

 

We parked easily and we both think this spot is the one we will use when in this area. It's a prefect spot for us. Of course we noticed that the cell service is a bit up and down and even climbed into the Dogsled to check it out. It's spotty everywhere here, even in our old spot, so I think the high winds may contribute to this. Of course I could be wrong but it's my belief and so we'll see how it works after the winds calm down. As long as we can internet, we will make due. Although the internet comes over the phone and so it doesn't make sense that we get internet but no phone.  I did call my dad and left a message telling him about the spotty service, just in case. My other two daughters never worry about us and so I'm not worried about letting them know but if we remain here for a while I will do so.

This is the top of the above saguaro, as you can see it's hard to believe that these arms come from the same root.

 We are now parked back there, although not when this photo was taken.

If it's true that saguaros only grown an inch a year, this one is a couple of years older than I am.

 

 

High winds this afternoon have us with the door open but the big slide pulled in. How funny is that? The wind is forecast to lessen steadily as the day goes on and hopefully by bedtime there will be only gentle breezes. Wouldn't that be nice? I have a number of photos of the sunset last night (Sun Jan 26) and I can't decide which are best, so I'll include them. I warn you there are lots of them. 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all had a wonderful day. 

 

 

From this moment the darkness came quickly, the pinks faded to black and very quickly the night sky was bathed in blackness. 

 

 

Until next time.... take care, be safe,

 

Deb