A very quiet day .....

 

 

Our Location: 

Olympia Village RV, Waterdown, Ontario

 

A nice evening, followed by an not overly cool night, we slept well and awoke late.  We spent a bit of time lounging around in our jammies and just resting. 

 

We are parked up in 3P for a week.

Looking down the path in front of the Igloo.

 We strolled some of the park paths and took in the sights. We dropped into the office to extend our stay but it was closed until noon. Back at home we took care of a few things but didn't do anything strenuous. It's nice to just relax for a few days. 

 

We are getting the idea of saguaros and the southwest desert from our neighbour across the lane. 

It is very tight in this park and the rigs are very close together.

 We have plans to meet daughter/sister Courtney tomorrow for lunch. We are looking forward to it. We haven't seen her since last fall. We plan on visiting with Bradey, David and the boys Friday evening, we haven't seen them since the end of July. We are looking forward to that as well. 

Some are permanent, seasonal and transients are rare.

Very tight between most of the rigs.

 

We are finding a couple of Asian Beetles in and outside the Igloo. We need to keep them in mind when opening and closing the door.  They stink when moved, scared, or killed. The temperatures are very nice here, room temperature seems to be the norm for the next few days, somewhere around 68F/20C. We will enjoy that while we can. 

 

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.....

 

Take care, stay safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

Busy morning.......

Our Location:  Quail Ridge Rv Park, Hauchua City, Arizona


A very quiet night here in Quail Ridge RV Park.  A fantastic night’s sleep with comfortable temperatures for sleeping. We didn’t really have any plans for today but it turned out to be a productive morning. It started with me going to give the oven a quick scrub as our Shepherd’s Pie spilled a bit the other night. Well of course you know that there is nothing quick in cleaning an oven and so I spent some time giving it a good scrubbing down.

 

Historic Marker at Lordsburg, NM rest area.

 

Ocotillo growing at the Lordsburg, NM rest area.

From the oven I moved on to the Dogsled and pulled out the vacuum to give it a good clean. Wiping down everything and tidying up all the nooks and crannies. Riley cleaned the windows to finish off the Dogsled’s clean up, while I vacuumed some of the accumulated debris from one of the cubbies in the Igloo. After that I cleaned up the cubbies, set up the BBQ, and even managed a bit of a walk to the dumpster. 

One of the many plants at the rest area.

 

A call to dad around noon Mountain Time to shoot the breeze had the information that brother Rick has broken a bone in his leg but I’m not sure which bone as I haven’t talked to Rick or Barb yet. He will be seeing an Orthopedic Surgeon on Tuesday.  Dad also told me all of the snow has melted except under the trees but they are once again calling for more snow and so their respite was short lived.
 

Numerous of these plants growing here at Quail Ridge.

 

 

Lunch was a pasta dish today as it is our usual standard Sunday fair. We watched some tv and just enjoyed the afternoon. By 4 pm the sun started going down and so of course the air started cooling down. The daytime highs of 78F/  25.5 C started dropping quickly.
 

 

Dark settled in before long and we spent the evening entertaining ourselves with a movie called the Dirty Dancing. We always enjoy watching it. 

 

A much bigger version but this one is located at Quail Ridge RV, Arizona.

 

So there you have it, our first full day here. Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed your visit. Today’s pictures were all taken with my phone. I forgot that I had snapped a few while we were walking at the rest area in Lordsburg but I’ve included them tonight as well.

 

One of these huge plants trimmed up here in the park.

 

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

One of the clubhouses here, the laundry room is also in this building.

 

Deb

We have arrived in Arizona to some nice warm weather ......

Our Location:  Quail Ridge Rv Park, Hauchua City, Arizona

Lordsburg was too noisy for me, and I didn’t sleep well at all. It’s not a place I would stay again unless pressed to do so. I would however next time try the Rest Area at Gage, NM as it would be easier to get away from the big rigs that run all night. The rest area filled up with at least 3 big rigs, and 4 or 5 RV/Campers. 

 

Some of the mountains we viewed today.

 

A cool night that hovered around the freezing mark but the sun warmed everything up quickly. We were up and ready to go after a bit of a leg stretch before 8:30 AM. We didn’t want to rush as we didn’t have far to go today. Only a couple of hours drive. A stop at a rest area on I-10 on the Arizona side of the state line was our only stop today. We motored right along with no issues once again.

 

Trees turning colour, a helicopter in the sky and the western scene on the over pass near Willcox, AZ.

 

We reached Quail Ridge RV Resort on North Yucca Drive in Hauchua City just before noon. Upon checking in we were happy to find they had a spot for us as they are pretty much full now. We were sent to spot #137 which ironically was exactly the same spot we had last year. However the folks in the spot were not planning on leaving any time soon and so another trip to the office had us finding a different spot. Some discussions back and forth with the office lady and we settled on spot #28 on the front east side. Big spot, easily backed into but we were later told we could have just pulled through from the back. The lady in the office told us it was a back in and so we did. Anyway, not  a big deal we met our neighbour to the west of us, he's a  retired Marine from Texas. Interesting fellow for sure.

 

Some of the many road signs we noted on our drive.

 

Called dad, left a message and then just spent the rest of the day doing not much. I’m finding the lack of sleep last night and the couple hours drive today kind of wore me out and I think I’ll sleep much better tonight.

 

Very scenic rest area in Arizona on I-10 West.

 

Warm enough to have the windows open and the big door as well for a while. I’m looking forward to sitting outside reading over the next number of days. Riley even had on short pants today. A sign that we have arrived in the land of warmth!!!!!

 

A few more views of the drive today.

 

So there you have it, nothing exciting but a positive day all the day same. Some great views on our drive today. Some plans for a day or two of day trips while we’re here but nothing too much. I do hope you enjoyed your stop here at A long and lonesome highway and that no matter where you are that you too had a good day!!! 

It took me a while to figure out what is odd about the truck. It's a big hipped truck with the outside wheels missing so they could get it on the trailer.

 

Until next time….take care, be safe,

 

 

Deb

Power outages, high winds, soon time to head out...

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

 

A fine few days have passed here at Buttercup Ridge. The weather has mostly been sunny with some cloudy periods but the winds were brutal Friday daytime and late into the evening. The local area of Burnley is without power and has been since last night around 7:30 pm. We fall in that little enclave of powerless folks. Estimations are for around midnight tonight, Saturday that the power will be restored. 

 

Some of  my raking efforts...

 

Wind gusts reached 63 mph/102 km yesterday in the small city of Peterborough just to our north. Various other locals in south western, south central and south eastern Ontario all had devastating winds as well. With the fast moving wind came a cold front which dropped temperatures about 25 degrees within a couple of hours. I've seen some estimates for power restoration ranging from a few hours like us to 10 days in the future. Not a comforting thought. 

 

Soon be time to move these cattle out of the barnyard and on to some pasture land.

 

The sun shine was wonderful again today, warmed up nicely with just a slight breeze which picked up to gusty again this afternoon but has since died down again. We had no rain to speak of at all during this wind event and other than a few downed branches I found no other evidence of the wind. Well of course except for the power outage. 

 

Signs of spring growth at the pond.

 

We've spent a lazy day here just kind of cleaning up the Igloo, reading, napping. You know the drill right? We soon need to find ourselves some more reading material, or at least I do, I have 3 books left to read before I run out. I'll have to fire up my Kobo soon and download some more reading material before too long. 

 

Definite signs of spring here at Buttercup Ridge.

 

Tomorrow we will hopefully be doing some laundry before we get ready to pull out. It was actually on the agenda for today but due to power issues, didn't get accomplished. We will also be hooking up, backing the Igloo out of the circular drive (due to low power lines we can't complete the circle) and getting ready to head out Monday morning for the next part of our homeward journey. 

 

Farm/cow country signs of spring as the manure haulage begins.

 

So there you have it, our quiet few days here at Buttercup Ridge. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Love the wood fire pizza oven.

 

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

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

A few leisurely days....

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

A very nice few days here at Buttercup Ridge. Warm sunshine, and a nice warm breeze from the south helped to make things quite nice here. The mud is drying up, the flowers are starting to show promise of blooms and of course the buds are beginning to appear on some of the trees near by. 

Tulips just scream SPRING.

We've been having the big door open most days for a while, windows as well, even the vents open at night. The frogs are close and very vocal, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, birds and various other forms of life. The odd moo of a cow, the honking of geese, while the gobble of the wild turkeys hasn't been heard they are around. Some deer are also lurking as I've noticed some of the tulip blooms have been eaten off and I doubt that was anything else. I don't have a picture but I'll get some before we leave of a number of  the new calves which have been born here at Buttercup Ridge. According to Mike there are 16 new calves already, and I witnessed a 2 day old calf kicking his heels and testing his wobbly legs as we chatted.

Buds are coming slowly.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we headed out for a couple of errands and managed to accomplish most of them. One more will have to wait until we arrive in Sudbury I think. We left Buttercup Ridge and ventured along County Rd 29, crossing over County Rd 45 where we settled down for a few miles on County Rd 9 in a westerly direction. We turned North on County Rd 15 (the little subdivision) toward the small hamlet of Harwood. It's a very small little bump in the road but it has an amazing feature. Free (donations welcome) water from an Artesian well or an aquifer that runs all the time. The water is amazingly cool and crisp. We will return before we leave the area to fill all of our drinking jugs. It's a mere 10 minutes from Buttercup Ridge. 

Just one of the  many statues here at Buttercup Ridge.

Leaving Harwood we retraced our steps to County Rd 9, again turned west, until we met up with County Rd 18, which we took south all the way to Cobourg and the local Walmart. We've shopped here before and so knew where we were heading. It's a bit more straight forward than coming down County Rd 45 which would make us wind our way through the city of Cobourg. 

I was quite far away and couldn't really tell what that was as it was just getting to be dusk.

We managed to get just about everything on the grocery list, which of course mostly consisted of fresh veggies and some juices. We also managed to exchange one of our small BBQ tanks, $24 CAD which seems to be the consistent price range here in Ontario. Our next stop was the Bulk Barn for some sea salt which we prefer instead of fine table salt, we use our little salt and pepper grinders to provide a fresher flavour for us. After that it was a stop at Petro Canada Gas Station (the only one in the area unless I venture further into Cobourg) to top up the Big Dog's drinking bowl. Diesel prices are high at $1.28 per liter which works out to be about $5.12 a US gallon.(There is approx 4 liters to the US Gallon) But surprisingly much less than even the lowest gasoline prices at the pumps there which started at $1.36 per liter which works out to be $5.44 a US gallon and continued to climb in 10 cent increments. After that it was home once again to Buttercup Ridge. 

Then he turned around and I could see his charming face.

The last few days have had us outside doing a few odd things, raking, puttering, etc. A quick chat with Mike (his cow's we hear mooing on occasion) had it decided that no more raking will be taking place as he assured me that his mower will mulch all the branches and sticks down on the lawn now that I've moved the big limbs over to the large pile by the barn. Any piles I make he'll have to clean up and he would rather not do it that way. So I'll have to find something else to putter at for the next few days. 

Very blurry but this guy was big and fast.

The other evening I went out to get a few pictures and noticed something by the pond. Heading that way I couldn't really tell what it was but once it turned around I knew it was a raccoon. It is the biggest coon I've ever seen in my life. This thing was huge. He took off running as I went nearer and while the pictures aren't the best I think it gives an indication of what a constant diet of corn will do for a raccoon that lives in the barn here at Buttercup Ridge. As that's where he made his get away dash for, the open areas that allow them access to the hay loft. 

He's under the hay wagon turning the corner to head back toward the barn. That's a regular sized hay wagon and look how little space there is above him to the bottom of the frame.

We've been catching a few episodes of our boxed set of Hawaii 5-0 as well as reading and getting a few walks in up and down the driveway. Today however we will be Igloo bound off and on as the rain falls outside, stops and starts again. The temperatures are still warm, 57F/ 13.8C over night with yesterdays high temperature reaching 69F/20.5C. I'm sure today won't reach that high but it's still a sign that spring is coming. Yeah!!!!!

I was more interested in the geese than the foliage or lack of it in the back ground but as you can see there is no hint of any colour yet.

So there you have it, our few days of leisure here at Buttercup Ridge. Amazing how the time is slipping past. We have only 4 more days here before we head to Peterborough for a stop at Kal Tire for tires, and then a bit west before turning our noses northward again. We'll take a few days to reach our Island destination as we have a thing or two to accomplish before leaving the Sudbury/Lively area. 

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

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

Deb