Left Texas for New Mexico......

Our Location: Gage Rest Area, Gage, New Mexico

 

 

We slept well at Fort Stockton Walmart and were up, out the door and filling with fuel before 7:30 AM. On the road before 8 AM and moving right along. For future reference, the Walmart was easy to find but very crowded with rigs later in the day, the Dot Rest Area a few miles further down the road was very nice, spacious and not a typical Texas rest area. The parking area for all vehicles was not lineal but more like the others with individual spaces designated for rigs, cars, etc. Very big lot, lots of room and a very nice rest center as well. I would definitely stay there in the future. 

 

 

The flat views along I-10 in southwest Texas.

Can you see the mountains way over there?

We are getting closer and closer....mile by mile, minute by minute.

 

For the first time we actually drove through El Paso, usually we take a bypass of some sort, I think maybe the Loop but today we just headed on through. A pretty easy drive on a Sunday before lunch. In fact we moved to Mountain Time before we entered the city and so are now 2 hours behind Ontario. The roads were good, not too busy and we motored right along. 

 

 

Tiny little hill in Texas.

I think George calls these Century Plants.

This was hanging over the valley as we approached El Paso.

 

We checked out a few other stops and made note of them in our little journal for future use. Always nice to know things along the route that you've travelled before. Memories aren't all they should be when you get a bit over 19. 

 

 

Interesting sculptures in El Paso.

 

We climbed into New Mexico with ease and continued along I-10 West for the remainder of our drive today. Smooth sailing, only a few slow downs here and there even with all the construction areas. 

 

 

Neat idea, street names on the overpasses.

I think Patsy might have posted this but it's a new one for us.

 

We are close to Butterfield Station, just past their exit of #62, I believe. We would have pulled into the Cabana area to park but couldn't get to the roadway leading there. For future reference, to get to the lane take the car pathway. The big rigs park in front of the lane and you can't get to it. We pulled forwarded into a large gravel area some distance from the washrooms but still in front of the casitas. We can stay for 24 hours. Behind us are train tracks, in front of us is I-10. It's for one night and I think we will sleep well. 

 

The rest area at Exit 0 in Anthony, not sure if it's Texas or NM.

 

Called dad when we arrived and let him know where we are. He was happy to hear from us. The hunt is over and Jesse was the only successful one in our bunch. Congrats Jesse!!!! 

 

We have entered this fine state for an overnight visit.

 

Sunny, warm and blue skies, we are fortunate to have had such a wonderful travel day. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

 

The Roadrunner!!!!

 

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

 

They are not Louis L'Amours  Far Blue Mountains but they are still inviting, and addictive. 

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise, walk, missed chance meeting, lazy day..........

Our Location:  American Girl Mine Road, California


Not a good night’s sleep for me, I was awake at 2 AM and never went back to sleep. Hopefully I sleep better tonight. A nice warmish night though and the morning dawned warm but with a bit of wind, making a hoodie necessary while I took pictures at sunrise.

The sky was on fire this morning.

Back in the Igloo around 6:30 - 45 AM I was glad to hear Riley moving around which meant I didn’t have to try to tip toe and keep quiet. I’m not good at that. We had no plans today except to take it easy. A morning read of the blog happenings had a friend of Shirley ( Seeing America with Ken and Shirley) and Patsy’s (Chillin’ with Patsy) asking if we’d like to come visit but unfortunately she didn’t leave me any contact information. I left a note in the reply for her to send me an email but we didn’t hear from her. Oh well, perhaps another time. 

It was sure an interesting sky this morning.

Riley and I had a quick breakfast before heading out for a walk shortly after 8 AM. We walked back toward the mountains again going a short distance past the power lines before turning around and coming back. We were gone about an hour. A nice walk, got the heart pumping and the blood moving. Cool heading toward the mountains as we walked into the wind but warmer coming back as the wind was behind us. 

 

Back home I puttered outside doing a few things before sitting down to read for a while. A little more putter, some lunch (fend for yourself day today) and more reading. We watched out the window for a while just enjoying the view too. 

Certainly not an exciting day but we enjoyed it. Tomorrow we may actually do some more house keeping things such as windows. However that is only if I feel like getting the ladder off and you know I’m not sure I will feel like it. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Today’s pictures are all sunrise pictures taken this morning. The last picture is very dark, looks like night but the sun was shining brightly when I snapped the picture. I didn’t do anything at all to any of them, they are in this blog exactly how they uploaded from the camera. 

Until next time… take care, be safe, 

It just came out this way. The sun peeked over the horizon and  as I snapped this picture I could see the rays.

Deb

A maybe connection...

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

 

(no pictures, they just won't upload)

 

I think I'm going to crawl in a hole and wait for Murphy to go away or at least mail him elsewhere. I'm tired of Mr. Murphy and his wily, sneaking ways. 

  

Thanks to Patsy for giving everyone an update. I am currently using my JET PACK but it has a faulty on/off button. So it works on occasion and not on other occasions. A new one is in the mail in the US to a friend who will then forward it on to me, since Verizon doesn't ship to Canada. Thanks Ron & Sharon. So for now I will try to use this on again, off again connection. So if it's off again, no concerns. 

 

Let me catch you up on our doings. We enjoyed our visit with Courtney & Matt, the weekend went by pretty fast.

 

Since then we visited the little city of Peterborough where we visited Kal Tire to do two things. First was to return the chocks Jake had forgotten, and second was to make an appointment to replace the two tires in question. I'll have them look at the third tire at the same time.Since we are heading through Peterborough on our way north we will stop at Kal Tire for the new tires. It's about 60 km/35 miles to their location so it only make sense to do it on our way through their little city. Our tentative appointment is May 3.

 

We also managed to do a major grocery shop while there and now we're pretty much set for the rest of our time here. We had a day and a half of rain which cooled us off a fair amount but the snow is now all gone, not even a hint anywhere that we can see. We can't however see into the forest very far, so there may still be snow there. The open grounds are muddy and soft but hopefully it'll clear up soon and dry out. Although I think it will take some time to dry out the corn fields here as they are extremely soft even to the step. 

 

I have managed to complete our laundry in the days this week as well as any from the house that needed to be washed also. I'm going to give the house a bit of a shine before we leave as well. Even though the cleaning lady will be coming before Janet and Dennis arrive home I don't want to leave any messes behind for anyone else to clean. 

 

I spoke with Janet a day or so ago as she called to chat for a bit. If any of you out there own a Mandeloin slicer please either get the mesh glove or get rid of the slicer. Janet is now hoping the glued on finger tips of two fingers will heal and not be lost. Not to mention the deep cut on a third finger. It is her right hand, which is her dominant hand of course. Daughter Courtney has had a few nicks and cuts from her own slicer which she still won't part with. Both Riley and I had cuts from ours before I threw it in the garbage when we lived in our Stix 'n Brix. Riley's was a minor cut while the stupid thing was in the cupboard and she moved it. Mine was a cut to the bone while washing the thing. Makes me shudder just to remember. 

 

The sun is out today and hopefully the temperatures warm up enough to dry out some of the mud and grass. It's too muddy even to walk on the drive way as it's pretty soft and it tries to suck the shoes off of a person. 

 

A quick note from my Buddy Ian way out in Nelson, BC had us chatting for a bit today. It was nice to hear from him again, it's been a while. Ian and I met while he lived in St. Thomas, Ont, a few years ago. He's an English fellow who has always managed to make me smile. He's also a helicopter pilot. Nice chap as they say!! Good luck Ian. 

 

The past few days we've managed to watch a bit of Hawaii 5-0, and read a few books, do some house keeping and even managed to cook a bit. We've been keeping out of trouble. 

 

So there you have it, we are all caught up now. Nothing exciting, just more of the same stuff. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather now and we can do a bit of yard work to keep us busy and perhaps even manage a hike if the trails dry up in time. 

 

A couple of quick notes to add.

 Belated Happy Birthday to my nephew Allan, who's birthday was April 21. 

Happy Birthday to another nephew Jesse who's birthday is tomorrow, April 28. Jesse shares the same birth date as his great grandmother Katie (his father's grandmother). Happy Birthday fellas!!!

Again, a thank you to Patsy!!!! I appreciate it very much.

 

So thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your 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

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