Friends leaving....

 

 

Our Location:

BLM, Ogilby Road, Winterhaven, California

 

Life in the desert is quiet but fun. We have been having a great time here with our friends, Deb and Tom and Ken and Kim. Since my last blog we have once again visited Mexico, had visitors for happy hour (I didn't take a single picture, sorry about that) with Melissa and Lyle, fellow Canadians from the province of BC, enjoyed an evening fire or two and just enjoyed the company. 

 

Interesting cloud formation.

 

Fellow Canadian's John and Brenda  have left the area. It was an interesting winter getting to know them a little. We hope our paths cross again in the future. Safe travels folks. 

 

The desert is turning green...yes that is grass.

Someone ringed the barrel cactus.

 

Good friends Deb and Tom pulled out on Friday, Feb 23 for points east of us. We will not see them again until our next adventure but we had a great winter spending time with them. So our American Representatives have left the home dirt patch, leaving only the Canadians behind. Safe travels friends!!!

 

See you down the road folks....

 

Tom climbing into the Stinger B

The Baby B is to the far right of the pic, leading the Stinger B to Ogilby Road.

 

On Saturday morning, Feb 24 we, Riley, Kim, Ken and I climbed into the Dogsled and headed off for a bit of a ride, unable to get where we wanted to go, we turned around and came back home but it was a fun hour or so anyway. We were all later chauffeured by Ken into Yuma, where we had some hot Chinese food at Lin's Buffett. It was a much better experience this time than the last twice Riley and I visited. Again, no pics.

 

The Creosote Bushes are starting to flower...

This big Barrel Cactus is also starting to flower

They are a pretty yellow.

 

 

The weather has warmed up nicely and we are looking at some pretty warm days and nights. Sleeping with the windows open is a good indication of such fantastic temperatures. 

 

The Sage bushes aren't flowering yet.

The Ocotillo are bright green with a beautiful red plume.

 

 

Monday, Feb 26, had the last of our friends pulling out for more easterly points. Ken and Kim raised the feet, tucked everything away and are heading on a homeward path. It has been a fantastic winter getting to know these wonderful folks and we look forward to more time together in the years ahead. Safe travels as you wind your way east!!

 

 

 

So that leaves just Riley and I here on this little patch of dirt once more. We have a few things to accomplish before we leave here but we are in no hurry to get them done. The days and nights will be quiet, the views will be emptier than before, the laughter will be much different but we are happy to have spent time with such wonderful folks. 

 

There goes our Canadian friends! See you on down the road Ken and Kim.

 

Calls back home have a few things being learned.  Nephew Jason is once again off to the Revelstoke area for a few weeks. It seems the manufacturer stepped up nicely to help him out and he is again making his sled walk, talk and jump to the tunes he calls. A bit of  cold weather has been blanketing the north of Ontario for a few days, but warmer temps are in the offing. Some snow, and some winds have been helping the Islanders pass the days! Enough wind to blow a lot of the ice onto the shores. 

I think they might bloom in the next few weeks.

I’m always amazed at the life that survives the desert.

 

SIL Janet is home (Indian Wells, CA) from the hospital and we will be visiting her in the near future, or at least that is the hope at this moment. 

 

The pics today are just pics I've accumulated over the past while since writing my last post. I hope you enjoy them. 

 

Until next time...

 

Take care, stay safe, 

 

Deb

 

Busy, busy, busy.....

Our Location: Near American Girl Mine Road, BLM, CA

 

I spoke with daughter Courtney last night after writing my post, she called about 7 pm our time. Toronto had snow, ice and rain. Not in that order, and not all at the same time but over the course of the day.  

 

We entered Arizona today.

 

A restless night for me, I found it difficult to get to sleep, tossing and turning until well after midnight. I wasn't in any hurry to get out of bed this morning but was still awake around 5:30 AM. 

 

 

Yuma always welcomes us.

 

We had plans for the day and so were out the door before 8 AM for our walk. We just kind of wandered around here and there, checking out a few other spots in which to park. We stopped when we were hailed by Kay, our next door neighbour. She and hubby Bill are from Colorado and have been coming here for many years. Both are in their 80's, quite a pair. We chatted for about 20 minutes before coming on back to the Igloo to get on with the day. 

 

 

 

Hey Buddy, look, it's my favourite store!!

 

Breakfast, sorting the laundry and packing up the truck kept us busy for a short while and we were off shortly after 10 AM. Our first stop was the I-8 rest stop for a garbage dump and then on into Yuma. We of course wanted to do laundry but upon visiting the spot we used last year we were disappointed in its cleanliness and so opted for a different spot. Wash Mart was the place we ended up using. Nice friendly folks, lots of washers, clean and not too busy. We were in and out in a couple of hours, which is the usual time it takes us. 

 

This was in the Walmart parking lot.

 

From there we headed to Lin's Grand Buffet. Of course George and Suzie love this place and they crossed our minds often while we managed to enjoy lunch. A wide variety with lots of shrimp and fish dishes, but many other things to pick from as well. We did not leave hungry. 

 

 

Agricultural Inspection station, I lied, told them I had nothing.

 

 

From there we stopped to put a few dollars of fuel in the Big Dog, he was getting thirsty. I know I should have waited but I had a blonde moment and didn't wait until Fry's. Next time I'll remember. Of course you know our next stop was Fry's. We managed to pick up a few things there that we wanted but not everything on the list. However Dad, we did manage to get that bottle for you!

 

I love this sign!!!!

 

Our next stop was Walmart where we managed to get everything else on the list. Good  because we were tired and ready to head home. It was a long day. We didn't get back into the truck until almost 4 pm. Home by 4:30 pm and the groceries and laundry put away by 5 pm. 

 

A tiny little church on the hill in Felicity.

 

Now time to sit and relax with an adult  beverage and write this post. I can tell you that tomorrow we are not going anywhere. 

 

Don't ya love the stairway?

 

So there you have it, a very busy day for us. We aren't used to such labour!!!Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

 

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

 

Deb

 

 

 

Day trip to Yuma.....

Our Location: just outside Borrego Springs, California

(Most pictures taken through the window of the Dogsled at 60+ miles per hour, not the cleanest of windows, sorry for the poor quality)

I slept well last night all nice and cozy, didn’t wake up until just before 7 am. Hurried outside and snapped a few pictures of the sunrise. Sent a text message to my sister Jan since I haven’t heard from her for a while. She called me pretty quick and we had a chance to chatter. She’s going to be a grandma again, that will make #6 for her. I think she’ s pretty excited. 

Sunrise this morning....

Riley and I had our hot drink and biscuits for breakfast this morning as we weren’t really in a hurry but we did have some plans. Dressed, cleaned up both ourselves and the Igloo, we left the windows and vents open for HRH Miss Kitty so she wouldn’t have any issues, ensured she had plenty of food and water before we tossed our drinking water jugs, and garbage into the truck and headed off to Yuma. Yes I know it’s a long drive and yes I know we could go park there but well we weren’t really sure if we wanted to do that. So we thought we’d take a drive and check things out before making a commitment with the Igloo. 

Heard at least 4 of these guys going over this morning...

We left around 9 am, and the first thing I did was argue with the GPS. She wanted to take us in a totally weird direction which I didn’t figure out until we were almost back home tonight. So we took the longer route via Salton City. We enjoyed the drive back through the ‘badlands’ as I’ve heard it referred to. We stopped here and there and checked out the views. Except for the smell I’d love to park there but I’m not sure I could handle the smell for days on end. The views while breathtaking and inspiring just don’t make enough difference in my opinion. We also managed to stop at the ACRO station to rid ourselves of our trash.

 

This guy was the closest but still pretty far up..

We headed south taking US 86, and eventually onto California 111, then eventually onto I-8 east bound. Riley sent Patsy (Chillin’ with Patsy) a text message asking where we could find the famed Lin’s Chinese Buffet. Miss Patsy, ever the sweetheart sent us the desired information and informed us they were off to prison. I’ll let her tell you about that. Thanks again Patsy.

I like this one with the moon in it ....

We found our way to the Arizona Marketplace about noon. It was an interesting place to be certain, but I didn’t see any fantastic prices. They were okay on some things but not so great on others. I will say we enjoyed the walk though, it was interesting, we managed to find a couple of nice t’s that we liked and so that was our purchase. We didn’t even find any hats to suit us. We must be pretty picky! I did see a nice little purse that I wish I’d picked up but well perhaps another time.

Can you see 3 of them in this picture with the moon?

We thought for certain our ears were going to explode when they started up the karaoke, who ever was up there couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket never mind sing. It was horrendous and you could see people hurrying to get far enough away so to as to keep their ears from exploding. Truly painful to hear. The next few people were actually very good but before long we were far enough away that we couldn’t really hear it. Suited us fine. 

 

That is the Salton Sea out there...

 We found some nice recliners, theatre seating, etc and a nice fella named Craig sent us to their store just down the way  for more selection. We continued our browsing and before long had seen about all there was to see, bought what we wanted and headed back to the Dogsled. Since we had driven here to look at furniture we headed down to Newberry’s furniture as per Craig’s instructions. We found several chairs that were okay, a couple that would pass the test, and Riley found one that she was pretty sure she fall in love with. I found one that was perfect in firmness but I didn’t care for the looks of it. We chatted with David, the sales fellow there but other than having them order something we weren’t going to find what we wanted. Ordering takes up to 4 weeks and we aren’t staying in the area that long. Oh well, we’ll keep looking. So with that question answered we know we won’t be hauling down to Yuma this year. 

Taken from the Dogsled window as we pass by the 'badlands' on Borrego-Salton Sea Way....

From there we headed out to Lin’s as I’ve been hearing about this place for some time now. It was later in the day and as we pulled into the parking lot, I was pretty certain it wasn’t going to work out. The lot was pretty full, only about a half dozen empty spots that I could see for parking. We parked and headed inside, again another indication it wasn’t going to work was the amount of people waiting for a table. The chairs were all full and some folks were standing, plus some more were in the line to sign in for a table. One look at Riley and I knew it wasn’t going to happen unless we could get seated very quickly. The time for seating was at least 20 minutes, probably longer. Riley shook her head no, and we were out the door. I knew she was upset but I offered once more to wait. We’ll leave it at that.

 

Love the colour of the sand here at Imperial Dunes....

Back in the Dogsled we headed off in the direction of home. It was a pretty quiet drive for about 10 minutes then slowly she started being less upset. We shared a granola bar and chatted about the possibilities available. We arrived in Brawley and headed for the Walmart. What a different looking building than we are used to, no blue of any kind. We proceeded to do our grocery shopping and of course due to Super Bowl and late in the day they had no rotisserie chicken that Riley usually gets, so we had to settle for deep fried, which was a treat for us. I ordered a handful of potato wedges as well. 

 

Sorry reflection in the window...

Back in the Dogsled we shared the wedges, and Riley started to nibble on the chicken. We stopped at the Family Dollar in Westmoreland for water, where it is only $1.00 for 5 gallons. I was hoping to make it home just about dark but it wasn’t to be as the road backed up 1/4 mile from the border patrol check point. It came to a complete stop, roll ahead, stop, then roll for a bit, then stop, finally they started just rolling us through, and about 20 minutes later were were making a left hand turn on to Hwy 76 toward Borrego Springs.

 

Don't you love the ripple effect ?

Before we reached Borrego Springs full dark had fallen. I dislike driving after dark as I find it very difficult to see with on coming headlights. They don’t seem to be where they should be, instead of one behind the other they appear to be one beside the other and it’s very unnerving to see a line of cars coming at you side by side instead of in a row. However it didn’t take long to get through the little town of Borrego Springs and back to home dirt. It was just before turning at Christmas Circle that I realized what the GPS had been trying to do this morning. It wanted us to take Borrego Springs Road out to Henderson Canyon Road, instead of making the turn and using SR22. This morning she wanted us to do that in reverse. 
 

Taken overlooking the 'badlands' on our outing today....

I passed our purchases into Riley and finished unloading the truck, locking it for the night before heading inside. Once inside we put everything away, grabbing a bite to eat. After one piece of chicken I’d had enough. It always looks so good but never tastes as good as it looks.

 

I just love these dunes...

I wasn’t going to write a post tonight as I’m pretty tired but well here I am doing it anyway. We enjoyed our day for the most part, but won’t be going back to Yuma this year. Maybe next year. We did however enjoy the sites of the dunes on our drive. Extremely beautiful to look at, although I doubt we’d want to stay too near by with all of those dune buggies, razors and quads tearing around. The dust would be horrible, not to mention the noise.  

The dark mountains contrast nicely with the light dunes, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. It is my sincere wish that you enjoyed your day doing whatever it is you were doing. Feel free to drop a comment, I read them all.

 

Seen through the window of the truck....

Until next time….  take care, be safe,


Deb