Merry Christmas Eve......

 

 

 Our Location: 

North of MM 4, Ogilby Road, Winterhaven, California

Merry Christmas Eve to one and all. And of course Merry Christmas to one and all as well. Riley and I hope this post finds you all warm, healthy and happy, where you want to be, with whom it is you wish to be with and enjoying the love of family and good friends. 

Borrego Springs, California - Christmas 2018

Appropriately named Christmas Circle.

I didn't take any photos today so I thought I'd share some from past Christmas posts. I didn't delve too deeply, locations include here on Ogilby Road, Borrego Springs, California, Tonopah, Arizona and Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. 

Saddle Mountain, Tonopah, Arizona - Christmas 2017

Saddle Mountain, Tonopah, Arizona, Christmas 2017

I spoke with my dad last night, my uncle Don and his lovely wife Joan, as well as my sister this morning. They all voiced the same news, snow, snow, snow and wind, wind, wind, and did they mention snow? Did they mention wind? Heavy wet snow, very hard to move without big equipment. The total as of this morning sounded like 16 - 20 inches/40.6 - 50 centimeters of snow.  That's a lot of snow. Glad I'm not there and having to move it. Normally I would sarcastically offer my sympathies for their situation but today I truly am sorry this is happening at this time of the year, the holiday season when so many people need to travel to see their loved ones. Dangerous times to be doing such a thing. We hope everyone remains safe, warm and well fed. 

Near here, Ogibly Road, Winterhaven, California - Christmas 2019

Same as above. My friend Jerry took me on a jeep ride a few days before Christmas to the Colorado River.

Today I didn't do much, chatted with Deb & Tom, and Riley. Later with Doug. I even helped Doug put this Mr. Buddy heater back together. It was a two person chore to be sure. However it's back together and it works. I'm finished. Walked a bit today and other than that Riley and I didn't do much of anything. 

Ward's General Store, Tehkummah, Ontario, Canada - Christmas 2020

The little stone cottage/house, Tehkummah, Ontario, Canada - Christmas 2020

 

A birthday wish to Isabella, granddaughter of my brother Rick and wife Barb, Izzy turns 9 today!!!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed today's photos, they've all appeared before in previous posts. 

The Igloo near our summer spot, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada - Christmas 2021

Our summer spot view during the winter - 2021

Merry Christmas from our Igloo to your home!! 

Until next time...

Take care, be safe, 

Deb

Heal thy self.....

 

Our Location: 

Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, Arizona

 

A warm night followed by a wonderful day with a good breeze. Truly what we've been looking for. Last night's temperature got down to about 60F/15C with a slight coolish breeze. A very nice night for sleeping. 

 

Saguaro and an Ocotillo. No flowers on the Ocotillo yet.

I love that little band of sunlight.

 

The desert is not all sand and dirt.

 

Today was going to be a hiking day but well Murphy had other things in mind for us today. We emptied one of our propane tanks at Empire Ranch and have only been using the other tank for about a week. We planned on getting the first one filled on our next outing to Buckeye, which should have been tomorrow. While cooking breakfast, the tank went dry. Now how is that possible? I have no idea, there is no leak, no smell of propane, etc. So I wonder if by some fluke we used part of it and forgot we'd switched or if maybe it hadn't been full when we picked up the exchange back in our summer spot. I truly have no idea but I'm not too worried about it. We simply put one of the smaller tanks on and headed off to Buckeye for fill ups for 2 big tanks, and 1 little tank as well as few other errands. 

 

An Ocotillo, also known as the Devil's Walking Stick. It's very thorny.

Now isn't this an interesting look Saguaro?

So many arms. It is very near a very large group of power lines.

 

All of our propane tanks are exchange tanks but the fella at Tractor Supply Company refused to fill the small tank because it was outdated. So we will simply exchange it somewhere. He filled the others, no problem. Two 30lb tanks that were completely flat are now full for the price of about $65.00 USD. ( I don't have the exact number as the receipt isn't handy. To exchange 1 tank is $50 in our summer spot. Enough said. 

 

Can you see the next in the Saguaro arms?

It's a big nest.

Not an easy walk to take the above two photos.

The title of blog is in reference to the Big Dog. Yesterday on our drive here after we crossed a rather rough cattle guard the check engine light came on, but no messages came up, the truck never missed a beat and ran just normally. I had planned on taking it to a Chevy dealership to have it checked out tomorrow. Some one mentioned that Auto Zone will put their diagnostic tool on it and give you a print out of the error code free of charge. So we stopped at Auto Zone. The code is in regards to the Nox sensor which was replaced less than a year ago, saying it should be replaced.  We decided to come home and find the nearest dealership and a camera store and take both to the respective repair places on Thursday. We did a bit of stopping and going, in and out of the truck and after our last errand when I started the truck the check engine light was off. Since I filled the tank during our errands today I wonder if it had something to do with the cap. I guess time will tell. 

 

Twins!!!

I love the colours, but they aren't as bright red as usual.

The blooms are finished after the recent rains before we arrived.

I bought an inexpensive Kodak camera to use while my Nikon is on the fritz but I truly don't like it and think I might return it. However, again time will tell. So I'll use both the camera and my phone for the next week and see if it grows on me. 

I was leaving these empty spaces for sunset photos but my new camera needs some tweaking. Whenever I try to move photos after they are uploaded I lose them and need to upload them again, so for my sanity I will just leave the spaces empty.

 

A quick call to Don & Joan this morning to see how everyone is doing. Joan is doing well, Don is a bit under the weather but I'm sure he'll be his usual  argumentative self before too long. Joan reports good weather there and possibly for the next week as well. Hopefully it lasts a long time, winters are tough on the big rock in the middle of Lake Huron. 

 

I went for a short walk after we got back from the errands. I remembered a very interesting saguaro from past stays here and set off to find it. Find it I did. It hasn't changed a lot but it's still just as interesting. 

 

The wind has picked up a bit here and the day is nice. Views are wonderful and the heat is soothing. We truly enjoy this little spot and look forward to spending some time here. So if you get tired looking at sunrises, sunsets, saguaros, mountains and such, then I suggest you not visit for a while. As our stay here usually includes these things in abundance.

 

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

 

Until next time...

 

Take care, be safe, 

 

Deb 

Our last day here at Brady...

 Our location: Richards Park, Brady, Texas

After yesterday's rain we had a very nice day, with sun shine and cool temps of 70F/20C. Overnight our low temps reached about 45F/8C. 

 

Rain yesterday out our door.

The bathhouse in the rain. Taken through the screen door.

We had a few errands to run today and after a walk around the park we headed out to accomplish them. First was groceries, which we found at Walmart. Diesel which we found at Valero for $4.98 per gallon, and we needed to drop by 201 East Main street to pay for the park. We accomplished those few things in about an hour and the rest of the day we were home doing a few things such as preparing a big pot of soup for our next few road days and of course lunch for today, bit of cleaning up and the usual house keeping things.

Clouds late yesterday afternoon. 

A few of the feral cats waiting for breakfast this morning.

We have enjoyed our stay here although the chiggars did a put a bit of a damper on our walking, we had to avoid any grassy areas which there seems to be a lot of here. This park is much bigger than one suspects with about 45 to 50 sites in all. Many are tent sites with electrical and water available, about 15 or so are for trailers, rv's and anything requiring full hookups. We have only hooked up the electrical as we have no need for anything else. There are many reasons for people to come to this park, a large playground for children, actually two of them. One even has a small rock climbing area. There are at least 3 baseball fields with lights and a soccer field and practice field as well. 

The muddy Brady River with a lot of ducks.

Very muddy, but not deep.

 I chatted with my dad's youngest brother Don and his wife Joan last night for a bit. We welcome them as they are following along as we travel during our winter adventure. They live close to where Riley and I lived in the little stone house for the last two winters. I had morning coffee with Joan while we lived in the house and really missed it over the summer but it was too far to drive every day. 

 

Riley saw this fella on our outing today.

I wonder if it's an Elk Lodge.

We're getting that southwest flavour starting.

 Tomorrow morning we pull out for points further south and west. We will have a few travel days in a row as we couldn't find anything appealing between here and our next lay over destination, so we decided to do a few one night stops in a row. 

A very pink she shed.

We turn left at that building to get back to the park.

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

We turn left here to get to the park.

A beautiful entrance, isn't it?

And now you've reached the park.

Until next time...

Take care, be safe, 

Deb