On a long and lonesome highway....: Engagement

Our Location: Quartzsite, Arizona

I slept in this morning until about 6:30 am, then finally made it out of bed shortly after 7 am. Took a few pics of the sunrise, talked to my middle daughter Bradey, who became engaged at midnight last night. Congratulations to the happy couple, Bradey and David, though they’ve been together for a number of years, it seems they are going on to the next step. I wish for them the very best in the years to come. The future looks bright and promising!

Sunrise this morning....

I next called oldest daughter Courtney but only got her answering machine, she and her hubby Matt, are in Winnipeg, Manitoba visiting friends for the New Year’s Eve event.

Love the colours....

Next I called my brother’s house, talked to SIL Barb for almost an hour. Catching up on all the latest news from back home on the island. We chatted about numerous things and the time slipped past before we realized how long we’d chatted. Glad I have 40 hours talk time a month.

There it is now.....

Next I called my best friend Linda, and chatted with her for about an hour as well. We too caught up on all the latest news. She’s looking forward to the new year.

My salad today....

After that I cleaned up and decided to walk the garbage to the bins. It was a longer walk than I anticipate and while the garbage wasn’t too heavy at the beginning by the time I made it to the bins it was extremely heavy. Even cutting cross country I think it was probably about 3 1/2 miles round trip. It took me at least 40 minutes each way and I walk at about 3 mph. I can tell you that I didn’t slow down, nor did I stop to take any pictures during my walk. I was on a mission and I’m very focused at times and today was one of those times.

It was very good....

I chatted with a nice fella named Chris from Colorado while at the dumpsters. We discussed my walking stick, which he mentioned as a snake stick. He informed me that the snakes could indeed be out this time of the year and to keep an eye out, as well as an ear. I told him not to scare me as it’s my first time in the area and I was enjoying it. He chuckled and talked about something else.

This may be the most beaten up one yet...

Back home I flopped into my chair with my book and spent a great deal of time today reading. In the sun, out of the sun, in the sun, out of the sun. You get the idea right? The temps reached 82F/27C by 2 pm today, it was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed it very much.

This crack in the bark went all the way around and upwards as well ....

A breeze kicked up and we put our awning back in as we don’t want to have any issues with it. We also used the wind break for the Weber due to wind today, not that it was blowing strongly but it was blowing at just such an angle to cause a few issues.

And this was a different break in the bark....

Miss Riley was the chef again today. I however had prepped lunch before my walk and so I enjoyed sitting and reading while she slaved over the Weber today. I enjoyed my salad around noon and we finally had lunch around 3 pm. Lunch was excellent again. I had my salad, Riley passed on one, we then had a mixed veggie medley with Thyme and Parsley (fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, spaghetti squash, and celery), along with a potato sliced that was brushed with oil and tossed on the grill, and of course our Bourbon Chicken breast. It was all very good, or did I tell you that already?

And then that black one was another break....

After cleaning up I once again headed outside to read and enjoy the sunshine. I will tell you that I truly didn’t do much else today, after my walk I just kind of ran out of energy. I should have taken a bottle of water with me, but I was already carrying a bag of garbage and anything else would have been tough to carry.

Look at the breaks in those 'arms'....

Around 5:30 I headed out to get pics of the sunset. I walked a bit here and there taking pics of various cacti and of course the sunset. Not a lot of colour tonight compared to other nights. Too much cloud cover, or pollution. There was some colour of course but the last gasp wasn’t much of a sizzle, more like a thief slipping out the door, quietly.

And more breaks in the bark....

Back inside I worked on editing the pics and writing this post. So there you have it, our day. Nothing too exciting but it worked for us. We enjoyed it greatly. We have a number of things on the agenda for tomorrow and I know we won’t get them all finished but I’d be happy with half. Will see how well we do tomorrow.