Visiting with Canadian friends....

 

 

Our Location:

 Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite, Arizona

 

This morning dawned chilly but sunny. The day heated up nicely as it went along. It was a day spent doing a number of little things around the Igloo and the Dogsled, a nice walk this morning and some time on line doing some research. 

A few saguaro photos from Road Runner BLM.

At least three top knots on this guy.

He's the interesting looking fella with the three top knots in the first pic. .

A few photos are of this guy and the debris at his feet.

 

Shortly after 3:30 pm we all climbed into the Dogsled and headed off to La Posa South for another visit with fellow Canadians, Dave and his lovely charming bride Cheryl (from Alberta) and Bill and his lovely wife Patsy , who hail from our home province of Ontario. We had a lot of laughs, and the time slipped past very quickly.  Bill and Patsy left first and we departed quite a while later. It was nice to meet Dave and Cheryl this year, we hope our paths cross again in the future. 

 

You can see the ribs are full of some kind of pulp.

It look like flaky paper thin hide, but it's tough and still holding together even in death.

 

 

 

The spines are still sharp, and you can see the ribs of the Saguaro.

Left from the rain.

Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

 

L to R: Cheryl, Deb D, Riley, Bill, Patsy, Tom and Dave.

 

Until next time.....

 

Take care, stay safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

Meeting a fellow Canadian and a jeep ride.....

 

Our Location: 

MM 91-90 SB AZ 95, near Quartzsite, Arizona

 

A very nice but chilly morning, Riley and I were out the door to get our steps in before the heat started but were taking off extra sweaters before we got back home. It was a nice way to the start the day. 

 

Ivan stopped by this morning!

We noticed this burned out rig on our jeep ride today.

This old fella is pretty gnarled but still hanging on.

Doug, Yuma and I were just getting ready to head out for a jeep ride toward the Tower Hill area of the Kofa Mountains when a big dark blue GMC truck came cruising back toward us. A tall, lean fella climbed out and smiled at us, Ivan ( Roadtrip ) had found us. It was very nice to meet him, I've followed his blog for a lot of years and can now put a face to the words. His sidekick HRH Miss Hailey, his three legged kitty was at home keeping the rig safe. A very nice chat with us all sitting in the sun next to the White Lion, it was a great morning!! 

 

 

It was pretty rugged looking in some places.

After Ivan headed off to run his errands, Doug ( Miss Adventure Travels  ), Yuma and I headed out for a jeep ride toward Tower Hill in the Kofa Mountain Wildlife Refuge. Riley opted not to come along, too rough for her. It was a long ride, but some nice scenery along the way. We both agreed it wouldn't be a ride we'd take again though. A few rough spots had us bouncing and at least once we needed 4 wheel low to get us out of a tight spot. We left around 12:30 and made it back around 4:30 pm. We managed to meet on the road Ivan as we coming out and he was heading home! Thanks Doug!! 

 

Some rough walking around here.

We climbed up there.

To see this!

So there you have it, thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

 

Some nice views.

The number of saguaros is amazing.

Just beautiful out there, lots of cholla too.

Until next time....

 

I love the rocks!

Lots of holes/caves from wind or maybe rain.

Forests of saguaros.

 

Take care, be safe, 

 

We circled the entire valley floor as it stayed close to the foot of the mountains, it was rough in places.

Some very pretty views.

Good night from the Kofa Mountain Wildlife Refuge near Quartzsite, AZ.

 

Deb

 

Lots of photos...

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario, Canada

We are in day 9 of isolation and are happy to be here at the farm. We can find some things to do and are enjoying the exercise of walking, working and even managing to catch a few minutes in the warm sun out of the wind. 

 Taking a stroll down the long driveway this morning I snapped these photos with my phone. Those cornfields belong to Buttercup Ridge.

 I just love the look of that barn way over there. The corn fields you can see in this photo belong to Buttercup Ridge. No hint of spring in the trees yet.

 Can you see the Dogsled and Igloo up there near the farm house?

All photos today were taken on a walk this morning and taken with my phone. The mud is drying up, the sun, wind and close to freezing night time temps are all helping to dry everything up. 

 The barn over there behind those trees is home to some cattle. I haven't been out to check or count and haven't chatted with Mike so I have no idea how many there are. 

 As you come up the driveway this sign greets you.

 The driveway is quite steep where it leaves the road, which you can't see as it is down over that little rise. Heavy equipment taking the corn off in December made this part of the driveway very rough. 

 You can't see that house during the summer when the leaves are on the trees.

 We are tucked up against the house out of most of the winds.

 It's a beautiful old farmhouse. 

Earlier today I wrote an entire post but deleted it for a number of reasons, so instead I'll leave you with these photos taken around the farm today. Enjoy them.

 The next photos are for you Peter. They give a better idea of the type of destruction here at Buttercup Ridge.

 As you can see this is a fairly large section and the grass has been literally ripped apart, turned over and clawed around.   

 This is a section of the lawn in front of the house. You can get an idea of the vast sections torn up but this destruction continues over the rise toward the pine tress as well. 

 

 That small line in the grass is a mole line. They often have a ridge where the grass has been pushed up and sometimes they make a circle in an area where there is something to eat but I've never known them to push the grass over in big chunks. They chew the roots and leave a hollow UNDER the grass.

You can see the big patches of turned over grass, it almost looks like someone took a rotor tiller through it in places. 

Right up to the edges of the cornfield. Lots of empty corn cobs around so I guess after the corn was cleaned off the cobs they moved on to grubs in the soil under the grass.

The back patio, wood fireplace, wood fired pizza oven, wet bar, BBQ, Corian counter eating space and bar. 

 Fireplace.

 Wood fired pizza oven.

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

Deb

Wagoner, Oklahoma....

Our Location:  Walmart, Wagoner, Oklahoma

We both slept well after we fell asleep and didn’t wake up until after 7 am. Rare for me but I needed the rest I guess. We did a few little chores, which included me unhooking to fuel up the Dogsled. It’s easier to do it this way sometimes and the gas bar was tight quarters so I was an extra 10 minutes hooking and unhooking before we started off. Tomorrow we’ll do the same thing. 

The green is showing, I think spring might be coming soon.

 

We headed off on I-40 East once again and enjoyed our drive today. We actually enjoyed the slightly overcast skies and then some brief sunshine which was once again swallowed up by the clouds. We had no rain and a slight wind but nothing much and it was a nice quiet uneventful travel day. We all like those kinds of travel days.

We stopped a couple of times to stretch and check things over but all was good. We found that I-40 EAST in the stretch we travelled today doesn’t have a lot of rest areas, we stopped at the only two we saw. We may have missed one but I don’t think so. 

 

We passed through Oklahoma City this morning on our travels. 

  

Today we travelled about 250 miles/ 402 KM, most of it on I-40 E. The road was okay but rough in some places, humpy, bumpy and down right ugly in a few others. The roads in Oklahoma leave a lot to be desired.

We passed through numerous Indian reservations including Creek, Kickapoo, Cherokee and a number of others. They all seem to have a small casino in their midst. None were big splashy buildings just small dark structures that one could spend a great deal of time and money in if they so desired.

 

We passed by Tinker AFB and this is one of the many planes on display. 

 

At exit 264B near the town of Checotah, OK we hung a right on to US 69 North and headed toward Muskogee. We changed our minds about stopping there for the night and headed past to Wagoner, which is where we are now. It wasn’t too much past Muskogee and we’re closer to our destination tomorrow. We are both happy about that. I will say that US 69 N is rough in some places, grooved and not the best travelling but the towns are the worst. The rest of road seems to be no worse than others we’ve travelled but not great. However we aren’t doing it for long or far, so it’s not a big deal. 

 

We pulled in at the Walmart around 2 pm local time and parked near the end of the lot. We visited The Dollar Tree, an ATM, and Walmart just to pass some time and get a bit of walking as well. A call to my dad to let him know we are safe and off the road for the night. He was happy to hear from us. 

Near Tinker AFB. Not sure what the hat is on the yellow one.

 

Tomorrow we move on to our destination and meet up with our good friends. We are excited about that and are looking forward to it. We have less than 80 miles/ 129 km to go. 

 

Blossoms along the way today.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Don't ya love the name of this road? Haha. It was Lake Eufaula.

 

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Deb