Our last full day here has been very busy.....

Our Location: Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, Az

I didn't wake up until almost 8 am this morning. I didn't get out of bed until after 8:15 am and I can assure you the sun was long up before that hour. 

I often talk about getting across washes here at our location, this wash is between us and the mountain out the door. It's one of three. It's well over my head, (yes I know that's not very deep) but in places the sides are steep, the bottom in places is littered with huge stones, sand, choked with trees, both living and dead.

Riley was up before me, and turned on the heater and water. We started the day by changing linens and sorting laundry before doing anything on the main floor. (Although that is where we sort the laundry). Finally we sat down to our hot drinks and chatted about what to do today. Honestly neither of us wanted to do laundry but alas, we had to do some time soon and I would say sooner is better than later. 

Same wash, different direction. As you can see the water has eroded a great deal of the ground, it has also eroded the sides leaving what looks about the right size for small animal dens, all undercutting is low down to the bottom of the wash. Some places the banks are high, others you can easily cross them. 

We tossed everything we needed into the Dogsled, including some empty water jugs, trash and the necessities to do laundry and headed off to Buckeye to the Desert Laundry Coin Wash. Of course it was very busy and the lot was pretty jam packed. We however parked off to the side, hauled our things inside and started the laundry. Today we had only 4 washers going, as I had used two double washer or we would have had more washers working for us. Before long we moved all the wet stuff in two dryers. Thirty five minutes later we were folding the linens and the rest was ready to fold by the time I had the linens finished. 

This is a small pile of debris at the base of the tree. It's a wonder that any of the trees are able to survive at all when the water rushes down these washes carrying all manners of debris. Their roots must be very deep and very strong to withstand such impacts.

I had to pull the Dogsled out of his spot so we could load our clean laundry into the back seat. The cars on either side were too close to open the door more than about a 1/4 of the way.  

An Ocotillo bloom....

Once everything was in the back seat, we ventured next door to the Family Dollar the next driveway over. Why did we drive do you ask? We had water jugs to fill and I wasn't going to lug them across the parking lot, so instead we parked right in front of the machine. 

So tiny, it was hard to see among the rocks...

 

That completed we headed out of town and seeing a fuel station with diesel for $2.74 per gallon I pulled in and topped off the tank. Yeah, we had accomplished everything as we had dumped the trash between the laundromat and the Family Dollar. 

They grow from the most interesting places. This one has another small one beside it as you can see on the right low down ....

Back home we had the laundry inside but not put away, I started cleaning up the outside, burning some burnables, putting things away in preparation for travel tomorrow. Riley was inside starting our lunch which today would be macaroni, tomatoes and hot dogs. Nothing spectacular but it sure was good. I'm getting ahead of myself. 

These guys were fighting for space. They are so tightly packed in there. There are 12 at least here, can you see them all?

Outside I was putting things away as I mentioned when I noticed a silver jeep bumping along our roadway, with two handsome fella's in the front seat. One a young handsome fella with regal bearings and a majestic tilt to his head, the other a more mature but equally handsome gentleman with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Our company was Doug & Yuma of Miss Adventure Travels  popping by so we could make plans for tomorrow. I had planned on catching Doug at home a bit later but this worked out just as well. 

I just love the colours of these red barrel cactus, or at least I think they are barrel cactus.

We pulled out some chairs, sat in the shade and chatted. Not before Doug came in to check our new recliners. I think he may have liked them as the smile on his face was a bit of a give away. Outside we discussed our plans for travel tomorrow as we are both heading to the same place and since neither of us have been there before we thought it might be nice to go together. So finalized our ideas, plans and needs and are all set to head out in the morning. Off they went home with a wave and wag!!!

These guys are awesome I see them many many places. I wonder if they grow up to be a single cactus or if some die off leaving only one or two to grow, do they join to form the ribs of one single tall elegant cactus? I've never seen a big cactus that looks like this so I'll have to do some research one of these days.

After that I finished the outside work of putting things away, we have a couple of things left to do but that shouldn't take more than 10  minutes. Back inside we had lunch, chatted about a couple of things, I put away my laundry as Riley had put away everything else as she was making lunch. Thanks Riley. 

Again I don't know what these cacti will be as they mature but they sure are good looking when their young.  Don't you just love those colours?

While I did dishes Riley made a few salads for tomorrow's travel day, we also pulled a meatloaf we'd made a few weeks ago out of the freezer, popped it in the oven so we can have that tomorrow as well. After a complete clean up we both retired to our chairs and have been busy ever since. 

 

You just have to love these old fellas...

I didn't take one picture today, not a single one. So I went back through my photo's and picked some that I liked. You may have seen them before but oh well, I like 'em and maybe you'll like them this time too. All of these photos have one thing in common, they were taken right here at Saddle Mountain BLM during our stay these last two weeks. 

They all have character, don't they?

 

So there you have it, our last day here at Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, AZ for this spring. While we're sad to leave, we're also excited to move to a new place with lots of things to see and do. I think we'll enjoy Superstition Mountain and surrounding area, and if not, oh well it's not a loss as we have start heading east anyway. 

There is something magical about these centuries old sentinels.....

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. It is my sincere wish that you have had a wonderful Sunday filled with all good things, family, friends, and good times, good food and that you made some good memories today.  Feel free to drop a comment if you like. 

 

A bit pointy with a wee bit of sharpness at the end.....

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

Recycled from the 15th, but still a gorgeous sunset. Goodnight from our last night here at Saddle Mountain BLM for this spring of 2018.

Deb