An excellent day......

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona


A restless night for me. I couldn’t seem to stay awake but I couldn’t seem to fall asleep either. More like catnapping all night long. I’ve noticed a light outside my window off to the south, but I have no idea what it might be. I don’t recall seeing any thing over in that area. Perhaps a walk in that direction will clear up my curiosity. We shall see what the morning brings.

Stormy looking skies.....even heard some thunder...

It is now 3 am and I’ve been napping off and on but feel that I may now be awake for the duration. However I can always hope can’t I?

Some tiny little cactus plant I happened to see...

Well Riley woke me at 7:30 am by calling my name from the bottom of the steps. She’s not used to me being inside, never mind in bed at that hour. She used reasonable deduction skills to know I hadn’t left the Igloo. My shoes, the camera, and my sweater were all still in their places. The door was still locked and my bed was a mess. I always make my bed first thing upon getting up. Also the mugs, kettle, etc were not out waiting for someone to make a hot drink. Pretty smart chickie that Riley girl!!!

It's still green, even with all this damage...

I missed the sunrise but I’m  not convinced there was one that was worthy of pictures anyway. A lot of cloud cover this morning. I stumbled downstairs and we enjoyed a hot drink and chatted about what we wanted to do today. We had to get a few groceries as the fridge was looking a bit like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. We also had to make a trip to the dumpsters for a deposit and we had a bit of an errand to do.

It's so uniform .......

After getting ourselves cleaned up, motivated, and out the door, we still had to remove the wood from the truck that Jim gifted to us the other day. We needed to load some water bottles in the Dogsled as well as some garbage. I remembered the short piece of water hose to attach to the spigots at the water station. Much easier with the hose. I’m amazed that the water is warm coming out of the spigots. I know that hot springs are in located in the southwest but it’s just something that I find hard to comprehend. Hot water coming from the ground.

I loved the look of this piece of wood....reminds me of cedar...

We made our deposit to the dumpsters, stopped at the Check - In cabin to ask a quick question but the answer wasn’t what I was hoping for. One cannot just pay for a week, it’s two weeks or 6 months. You can of course pay for two weeks and stay for one if you like but I’m not going to do that. Anyway, we have the solution already decided.

Salad....ymmm...

Lunch was excellent..

Off we headed to the growing village of Quartzsite stopping at The Road Runner Market, as well as The General Store. We didn’t get all of the groceries on our list but we got most of them. The prices were actually pretty good but we didn’t buy any meat of any kind. I found a few things to be very expensive but over all, pretty good. I just glanced at a few meat products we would normally buy but found them to be much more than I would happy paying. Since we’re well stocked though I wasn’t too concerned. 

About sunset....pretty dark looking over there....

We headed back to the Igloo, or at  least in that general direction. We were looking for our friends George and Suzie (Our Awesome Travels), and of course next to them would be friends Bill(On Our Way) and Patsy (Chillin’ with Patsy) Richards, that we haven’t met yet. We had noticed a rig that I was pretty certain was the Suite, but I didn’t see any motor home around that looked like George and Suzie’s. So we thought perhaps we’d best keep looking. True to my native blood, I circled this rig a couple of times, just checking it out, finally deciding that the fella I noticed watching us looked a lot like Bill. So we turned the Big Dog toward this big rig and as we approached we could see Bill and Patsy leaning on the back of Black Beauty watching us country bumpkins circling them. I’m sure they must have thought we were casing the joint. However big waves assured me that it was possible they didn’t think us odd for circling a few times. Hugs, handshakes and hellos were exchanged and I explained I had been looking for G & S’s motor home but didn’t see it and so wasn’t sure about the Suite. It was explained they were out for a bit and had taken both the car and the motor home. Riley, Patsy, Bill and I sat down and chatted like we’d known each other for a while. Clemson made an appearance as well. The warm welcome made us feel very comfortable and I noticed that Riley was much more relaxed than usual when meeting new people. I was very impressed, she doesn’t do that often. 

Above the Igloo....not too bad...

We sat and chatted for a bit before George and Suzie pulled in next door. Greetings all around and we all chatted for some time. It was very comfortable and we enjoyed it a great deal. Truly nice folks and we are both very happy to have finally met Bill and Patsy. We climbed into the Dogsled and headed home  as we were pushing the noon hour and we had a few things to do before lunch.

Troubled skies during sunset...

Lunch was excellent again to day. I know I say that all the time but well, if it wasn’t excellent we wouldn’t bother to tell you about it, now would we? Since I had prepped lunch before we left,  we enjoyed our salads while the Weber was heating up. I tossed the veggies onto the grill, letting them cook while I read my book. I eventually tossed the chicken breast onto the grill as well. We were eating around 1:30 pm today. Lunch was of course our salads, today we used home made Thousand Island dressings. We had a mixed veggie medley of asparagus, mushrooms, celery, and carrots, along with some sweet Basil, and Parsley, topped that with a wee hint of Parm Cheese. In a separate packet I did part of a Spaghetti Squash with butter, the same spices as above, and some Parm Cheese, but also added some cauliflower in the small ‘bowl’ of the squash, topped that with a bit of cheese as well. The chicken breast I brushed with Dijon Mustard for the last few minutes on the grill. Flipped it over and did the other side as well. Not too long, as it will burn quickly. That was lunch!

Pretty with all that cloud cover....

 
A quick clean up, we grabbed our sticks and headed off cross country carrying our water bottles but no chairs, as it was too far for that. We headed back to spend happy hour with our friends the Yates' and the Richard’s. We arrived to find Debbie and Tom (Celebrating the Dance) who’s blog I haven’t followed but will be checking into it in the next few days, also there enjoying the company of these two wonderful couples. We chatted briefly before they headed off on their way. Sitting and enjoying the company we chatted, laughed and harassed way through happy hour. Truly an enjoyable time for Riley and I. Thank you for including us and making us feel so welcome. However all good things must come to an end and before long we had grabbed our sticks and headed homeward. Can you believe I didn’t take any pictures of this gathering? I had my phone in my back pocket and just didn’t think of it until we were almost back home. 

It wasn't this dark, I'm not sure why the pic came out so dark....

The temps were cooling off and I wanted to get home in time to take some sunset pictures. Which of course we managed. We skirted the ‘Magic Circle’ area which is clothing optional, and I will admit, I noticed a fellow that had exercised his option. We hurried along and before long we were home with time to spare. Didn’t take us as long to get home as I thought it would. Riley headed inside and I have no idea what she was doing, as I stayed outside doing a few little chores and eventually taking sunset pictures.

Love the yellow on the clouds...

As the sun was setting and I was heading back toward the Igloo I noticed Riley outside, she doesn’t normally come outside for sunsets until later. She mentioned that she hadn’t heard me making any noise outside and since I hadn’t come inside, she came out to check on me. How sweet is that?  As usual I move around when I take pictures and since I had finished my chores I just assumed she would know that I was outside doing what I do every night. However next time I will be certain to tell her before I wander off.  She was looking at the donated wood and I explained how to make a fire ring, helped her pick a place to locate the fire ring, and even drew a circle on the ground to indicate where the rocks should be placed. She started placing them but I could tell that if I left her to do it she wouldn’t complete it. I have no idea why not, but it’s just something I could tell. So I helped out, setting the camera aside and only occasionally taking a picture. Before long we  had a ring built and she headed inside to get some paper to help start the fire. In the mean time I had laid out the wood, told her where to stuff the paper, and before long we had a nice little fire from Jim’s donated wood. It’s extremely dry hardwood and gives off a nice heat. Even burns a wee bit blue in a few places. 

As we sat around the fire chatting Riley told me she had an excellent time at happy hour, and during our earlier meeting with Bill and Patsy. She isn’t usually so easily settled and I’ve seen it only a few times before. She told me she even enjoyed the cross country walk there and back again. So from my point of view we’ve had a most excellent day!! 

After about an hour the fire died down and we came inside. We enjoyed the stars above, no moon that I noticed though. A warm night for certain so far anyway, although the Igloo was cool when we came inside since the windows were still open. It didn’t take long to warm up just by closing the windows.

It faded quickly after this....

Miss Riley is off doing her thing, pretty silently tonight. I am editing pictures, and writing this post, after that I’ll get into my jammies and either read or play a few games on  my iPad before bed. 

Evening fire....

So there you have it, our excellent day. We truly enjoyed it, and look forward to perhaps sharing some more time with these nice folks over the next weeks or months while here in Quartzsite. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had an excellent day as well. Please feel free to leave a comment, they are appreciated. 

Until next time… take care, be safe, 

Goodnight...

Deb

A very accomplishing kind of day....

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

I woke for the first time shortly after 2 am to the sound of a half dozen coyotes yapping just outside our little Igloo. I’m willing to bet that if I’d gotten up and looked out the window I might have been able to see at least one or two of them. However I didn’t, I simply rolled over and went back to sleep, after a trip to the ladies room of course. 

The moon greeted me first thing this morning...

As I write the beginning of this post it is 5:09 am and not a sound can be heard except the tap, tap, tap of the computer keys, and of course HRH Miss Kitty at her food bowl. She has heard me stirring up stairs and wants me to know that she expects breakfast as soon as I’m down stairs, or perhaps sooner if possible.

It's going to be a beauty....

At some point today or Monday we’ll be heading out to Blythe, California as that seems to be where the nearest blood lab is, or at least the nearest one I could find. Before we started full-timing I was required to have blood work every month, I’ve since convinced  the good doctor that once every two months is more reasonable as I have to pay for it myself down here in the USA. Of course him being the good doctor that he is, agreed to the two months. I tried for 3 months but he wouldn’t go that far. So I had my last work completed just the day before we left Ontario back in late October. I’ll have it done once more before I get back to Ontario where I don’t have to pay for it.

Look at that colour...

Outside by shortly before 7 am, the sky was still dark, the moon bright and a few stars twinkling merrily as they prepared to fade away in the upcoming daylight. Warmer this morning, 48F/8.8C with no wind of any kind. Truly a wonderful morning.

Love those changing colours...

I called my sister while I was snapping pics of the sunrise, we chatted for about an hour and in that time I had more than enough pictures of the sunrise to do for my blog. We chatted about numerous things and caught up on a few other things. 

All along the mountain top.....

While chatting with my sister Jan, and snapping pictures of the sunrise, my neighbour Jim stopped and told me that he was off to pick up his wife Karen today. Determined to be nothing more than low blood sugar they are releasing her. I’m assuming it was from Las Vegas but I don’t know that for certain. As I’m writing this post at 7 pm they still haven’t arrived back home. 

After finishing up the call to Jan, and the sun being up I headed inside to chat with Miss Riley about the up coming day. Over hot drinks we discussed a few things and decided I would go by myself to Blythe for the blood work and she would stay home. Any walking would be done on the road and not venturing any cross country, a text to me when she was leaving and when she returned was also part of the requests. 

I prepped lunch, made our salads and cleaned up the kitchen while finishing up my hot drink. Nothing like having that out of the way. I’ve also checked on the list of things we cannot bring into California and so we’ll not be grocery shopping until we cross into California during the up coming week.

So I headed off to California around 9 am MST, toting the garbage to the dumpsters on my way out. The ride was pretty, quite and uneventful, just the kind I like. I found Lab Corp with no issues. I won’t tell you all about the experience but let’s say that an hour and a half later I had finally had my two vials of blood taken, paid my bill and left. 

A new day has dawned...

I stopped at a car wash just off of E Hobson Way and gave the Dogsled a decent bath. I wasn’t too worried about getting  it spotless, more just so I could see out the windows. The Big Dog is shining like a new penny. He also has a full belly, which I topped up just before crossing into California at $2.69 per gallon. This for the Canadians that have trouble not having a zip code when paying at the pumps with a credit card, try using the 3 numerical digits from your postal code, followed by two zeros. Example: L8K 3K1 would then punched in as 83100. It’s worked at the last three pumps I’ve tried.

Can you see the two birds on the far right hand side near the top?

Leaving Blythe I headed out on  I-10 East and just let the Big Dog run along at a nice steady pace. Riley sent a text message saying she was going for a walk (I pulled into a rest stop to check the message, not while I was driving). I literally pulled back on to the Interstate and my phone rang, my friend Linda was calling. I let if go to voice message and called her when I pulled into the BLM area and chatted while I drove home from the check in cabin. I also passed Riley about 2 minutes from home just a speeding down the dusty road with little tufts of dust kicking up around her feet. Reminded me of that guy on Charlie Brown that is always walking around with dust about him.

Almost looks like normal bark from a tree....

 

Further up it split into two....

And again further up....

After having chatted with Linda for about an hour and Riley having made it home it was about 1:15 pm when I pulled my salad out of the fridge to start enjoying my lunch, as I was hungry. The salad hit the spot but left me hungry enough to enjoy my lunch about an hour later. Today I worked the Weber as it was too hot for Riley outside, even under the awning. I didn’t mind, it was nice sitting outside and soaking up some rays while reading my book. It took only occasional effort from me to turn things on the grill.

The camera was close up to a Teddy Bear Cactus...

Today’s lunch was of course a nice green salad (actually multicolored), followed by mixed veggies with Sweet Basil, and Parsley (fresh mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, celery)  We also had grilled potato wedges brushed with oil and to those I also added a little Parm cheese to the tops of the wedges. Lastly I dropped a sweet country Ham steak on the grill. I can tell you it was very good and we have no left overs. Riley finished off her meal with some peaches, I choose to have a Granny Smith apple instead. 

Interesting wood from this dead part of the cactus....

This might be a goats head sticker.....grow everywhere and are sharp little buggers...

After cleaning up inside and out, I grabbed a stool, a towel, keys and the drill. Once again I pulled everything out of the side cubbie, crawled in, removed the panel and had Riley turn on the water pump. I adjusted the check valve that Bill Richards, (On Our Way) mentioned a few days ago, and sure enough, it shut off. Thanks again Bill. Afterward I put everything back in the cubby and sat down to read my book for a while. 

Around 5 pm I was inside just getting things together so I could slip out and take sunset pictures when my Dad called from Manitoulin Island. My Dad’s name is Doug. For those that that don’t know I’ll give you a little information about the Island. Manitoulin Island is located in Northern Ontario in the Georgian Bay/La Cloche/Killarney  area of Lake Huron. There are two ways to get on or off the Island from late April to mid October, but from October to April there is only one way on and off. During the summer months one can use the ferry from South Baymouth on the south western tip of the Island to Tobermory on the mainland, which is 27 miles away. The ferry schedule is 2, 3, and 4 trips depending on time of season and day. The ferry is called the Chi-Cheemaun which means Big Canoe in Ojibway.  The other alternative is Hwy 6 which crosses a single lane swing bridge at the northwest end of the Island at the town of Little Current. The swing bridge stops traffic during the summer months usually every hour on the top of the hour to allow marine traffic to pass into/out of the North Channel at the town of Little Current.

Beginning to decline....

Among the news my dad shared was numerous accidents on various highways in the north which claimed a number of lives  over the past few days. We chatted about the weather, the temps, updates on this and that and before I knew it 20 minutes had passed. Dad had lots of news today. 

An dying cactus , love the 'head' shape...

After hanging up the phone I slipped outside and started taking pictures. I walked around and took pictures from a number of angles and locations. Wasn’t an extraordinary sunset but it was nice. I was back inside around 6:30 pm to chat with Riley for a bit before starting to write this post and I still have to edit the pictures taken today. 

Loved the sunset in the hoop of the branch...

So there you have it, our day. I managed to accomplish the three things I wanted to do today, blood work, bath the Dogsled, and check the check valve. I didn’t get out for a walk, it was just too hot when I got home but tomorrow I plan on having a good long walk. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. 

A different kind of 'skeleton'  in the desert....

Until next time…. take care, be safe, 

Goodnight from Quartzsite, Arizona

Deb

A cloudy day, a bit of shopping, and no sunset....

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

Today's pics are totally 100% this morning's sunrise.

It's started.....

I woke this morning about 4:30 am, played a few rounds of CrossyWords on my iPad before drifting back to sleep until 7 am. I think I snored and woke myself up, either that HRH Miss Kitty was hacking up a fur ball. I’ve yet to determine which one it was.

I grabbed my fleece jacket, mini gloves and the camera heading outside to catch the sunrise. I even caught the moon before it slipped out of the sky. The sun rise was once again a thing of beauty. I never did actually see the sun, as the cloud cover prevented that but the sky was telling me that the sun was there with no doubts. 

Back inside about 7:35 am I started getting myself settled down to read blogs from yesterday. Of course HRH Miss Kitty demanded food before I dare sit on the couch. I will admit she had only one or two morsels of food left in her bowl but somehow I doubt she’s in danger of starving. 

Do you think they might be beaming folks up?

 
The morning temps upon returning inside read 44F/ 6.6 C and while it was a bit chilly outside it wasn’t cold. A slight breeze made you know it could be crisp if it wanted to be.

A huge thanks to Bill Richards (On Our Way) for his offer of assistance and generous advice regarding my little water pump issue. I appreciate it very much Bill but I’m truly not too worried about it. You are truly a gem, as Miss Patsy alludes to often.

This morning after Riley staggered out about 8:30 am we enjoyed a hot drink and chatted about what we had to get accomplished today and what we’d like to do but that wasn’t necessary. By 10 am we started loading the truck with a large propane tank, smaller water jugs, two drinking water jugs, and a bag of garbage. We were soon off, our first stop to fill up the small jugs, and get rid of the garbage. After that we headed into town to RV Pit Stop where we payed $2.10 per gallon for our propane, from there we headed off to The General Store (I think is the name) to fill up our drinking water jugs at 5 gallons for $1, what a good buy. After that we headed on back home to get these things put away before we went off to do some looking around at a few of the vendors we noticed along our way into town. 

 
We managed to find 2 BBQ Grill mats that George Yates (Our Awesome Travels) has been using for some time and he says works fantastically. We bought the same ones George showed us some time ago. We paid only $5 for two. I also bought a half dozen extra fuses even though I have a lot of spares already. We didn’t buy anything else but we enjoyed looking at some of the little exhibits. 

Leaving the area we bought ourselves that ice cream we didn’t get yesterday. Although it claimed to be home made I don’t think it was, didn’t have the right flavour to me, but oh well, we enjoyed it anyway. 

Back home we discussed that due to the over cast day and the wind which seemed to be picking up that Miss Riley (who has offered to be chef for a while) would make a ONE DISH meal inside. Totally suited me. I of course, made our salads while she prepped everything for the one dish meal. She included sweet onions, asparagus, fresh mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, sweet Italian Sausage (out of the casing), diced tomatoes, a few spices and some Parm cheese. Tossed it in the oven for a bit and it was excellent. It really hit the spot. 

After lunch which we didn’t finished until almost 4:30 pm we cleaned up the dishes and tidied up a bit. I grabbed my fleece sweater and the camera but there was no sunset tonight at all. Too much cloud cover but the temps weren’t really cold, just a bit coolish.

Inside I wrote my post, and edited pictures, while Riley did what ever it is she does that causes her to chuckle and talk to whoever it is that doesn’t answer her. I think she’s playing a game but since she wears headphones she doesn’t answer when I talk to her. So I guess we’ll never know. 

So there you have it, our busy type day. Nothing too exciting but we enjoyed it a great deal. We are totally enjoying this location, today we had one vehicle go past along with 2 ATV’s. It’s a fantastic location and we’re enjoying it very much.

And this was going on opposite the sunrise....see the moon?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had a great day as well. Feel free to leave a comment, I do appreciate them all.

Good morning from Quartzsite, Arizona.

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


Deb