Travel day ending in rain at Saddle Mountain...

Our Location: Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, AZ

Thanks for the break last night Riley. Another new hat for you to wear on occasion. 

Our last sunrise on Bouse Road BLM, was quiet dark and menacing...

Yesterday our last day on Bouse Road was a busy one. I talked to my middle daughter Bradey in the morning, catching up and all that good stuff. She was saying they were expecting more snow (it's been snowing for 2 days) and the possibility of freezing rain or sleet. So not a nice day by any means, but at least it was milder than it's been for a while. 

A few hints of the sun began shining through....

A trip to Parker netted us a full fuel drinking bowl for the Big Dog, full cupboards for the Igloo and 2 full salt free water jugs. Plus a few little pieces I need to do a small project over the next few days. It also has us now knowing we want rocker recliners instead of theatre seating in the Igloo. We've been debating but a few things about the theatre seating just didn't work for us, so now we know. 

However we didn't see much of it today.....

We spent the rest of the day packing a few things and just enjoying the much cooler temperatures. 

Not too promising...

A call from my dad as I was outside taking sunset pictures brought the news that his lady friend Marion is in the hospital with two fractures, one to the shoulder bone (collar) and one to the pelvis. She somehow stumbled and fell inside the house on Saturday and that was the end result. So get well wishes goes out to Marion.

A few bright spots....

Now on to the news for today....  

Construction on Hwy 72 had us stopped at this location for about 15 minutes.....

I figured out the 'time' issue and why I missed the sunrise the other morning. I didn't read the clock wrong, or at least the clock I was using. I was using my iPad which hadn't automatically corrected from PST to MST but my cell phone which I checked upon waking was in MST. Mystery solved.

Mural at the Bouse Rest Area...

I didn't miss the sunrise this morning, or actually I was outside in time for it but the heavy cloud cover prevented pretty much all of the sunrise except for a few stray strands of light here and there. A little back drop behind a cloud would hint but not much really showed up. 

Looks pretty dark over that way and we are eventually heading in the direction....

The clouds were dark and menacing looking and I thought definite rain clouds and in the direction we were heading as well. Oh well, we'll see what comes of it. Back inside we had our hot drink and Riley was excited to check for comments on her post last night. Thank you every one for the wonderful comments and encouragement, the compliments and the enthusiasm with which you welcomed Riley into her first foray in to Bloggerland. She was very pleased with herself and her effort and thinks perhaps she may do that again the future. 

Amazing how low the clouds come....

We finished packing up the Igloo and hooking up, hitting the road at 9:04 am, taking a right onto Hwy 72 toward the east. It was a bit more of the rocking and rolling but we managed to get through without HRH Miss Kitty getting ill. I believe that was due to a few stops we made along the way. The first two stops were for construction. The first stop seemed quite long but I'm sure it wasn't more than 15 minutes, the second was only about 5 minutes, so all things being as they are, it wasn't too bad. The next stop was at the little town of Bouse where we found a spot to leave our trash, and to check out their small rest area. It's a monument to their veterans with a tank and a few other pieces of equipment around, some murals and numerous plaques. A very nice spot. 

Wonder where the top of that mountain is?

From there we argued with Pheobe (RV GPS) as she wanted to take us to I-10 but we wanted to stay on Hwy 72. We took a left and kept going arriving at the little town of Salome. We toured the town, found the pavement gave way to dirt and that some subdivisions have no other exits. Nice town though. Back on the straight and narrow we once again continued on our way, this time on Salome Road. A very nice road which we have seen many times before but didn't know where it went it. We passed over top of I-10 with Phoebe once again trying to take us onto the Interstate but by now I knew where we were and we simply turned her off. 

And here come the clouds again....

Within a few minutes of crossing over the Interstate we were slowing down for the familiar driveway at Saddle Mountain. Wow, lots of folks here now compared to last time. Not a problem, our original spot was empty but we didn't stop there, the spot we hoped for  at the back is full so we took another spot between the two places. I'm not sure if being so close to the mountain will be an issue or not but for now we're settled. 

Thicker'n pea soup......

 I called my dad to say we've arrived but he wasn't home and so I left a message. We then proceeded to have some lunch. Riley made herself some taco's and I had a large salad, followed by two small wraps with a few fixings. After that we both headed off to rest for a bit and enjoy just doing nothing. 

There are mountains behind there....I think....

I can tell you that the drive was under cloud cover, very dark at times, very menacing at other times. As we travelled on Salome Road the pavement was kicking up water from a recent down pour but we didn't have any where we were driving. We did hit a few spits here and there but nothing that one occasional swipe of the wipers wouldn't clear up. We drove into a headwind pretty much most of the time, although once we got onto Salome Road it was more a direct hit on the front passenger side corner as the road was angling a bit. 

Glad I"m not flying....

We stopped at one point so I could take some photos of the mountains. It was a visually stunning sight with heavy gunmetal grey clouds layering on top of the mountains. In places it seemed to slide down the sides like a slow moving ooze, obscuring the peaks in dense cover but allowing one to view the lower reaches of the outlines that hinted at mountains or maybe the trick of an eye. It was as if a wall of fog was hovering but was trying to blow away in the wind. Wisps of mist or vapour almost seeming to float past the outline making one wonder if perhaps it was truly there.  The landscape was also faded in colour and views. More of a dull melancholy feel to the air, as if the brilliant blue of the sky and wildly fierce yellow of the sun will never return, and leave this once sun drenched land in shadows and mists. 
 

I wonder if some of that is dust....

We would see bright sun lit patches ahead or off to the side but before long the dark low hanging clouds would cover that up and once again we would be left in a dull dreary shroud. Even as I write this post it is still dreary outside with what appears to be dust clouds far off in the distance, although I'm sure if I were off in that distance it would look the same in this direction. The wind has picked up more since we've set up home camp here but so far it's not too bad. I think the wind is trying very valiantly to blow away the clouds but even the small patches of blue that it manages to spring into view are shortly covered again with in minutes. 

Love this green, I wonder if it's cotton....it sure is green....

A message left for my oldest daughter whom I couldn't reach on the phone. Haven't talked to her for a few weeks and would like to just catch up for a few minutes. Oh well, tomorrow I'll try again. 

Can you see why it's called Saddle Mountain?

We have had some stronger wind gusts and even some splashes of rain since setting up here at Saddle Mountain. My favourite mountain has shown splashes of colour off and on all through the afternoon but is once again dark and cold looking. The clouds seem to be clearing a bit and perhaps we'll manage a sunset tonight but I'm not really counting on it. 

I took this picture standing in the doorway....

The temperature has dropped 5 degrees since we arrived but only reached 64F/ 17C today at it's highest. With the sun once again starting to show it's wonderful bright self it promises to be an interesting evening with all this cloud cover. 

This one was also taken standing in the door way...

Thought I'd end this post with a few pictures of our immediate location. 

That's our fire pit....

 Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. I hope your day has been as enjoyable as ours with lots of fun things to amuse and excite you, or at least to keep you busy and out of trouble. 

We are much closer to the back this time....

Feel free to drop a comment, I enjoy reading them and will reply. Once again thanks to my guest writer Riley for the wonderful job she did while filling in on my day off.

Just stepped around the nose of the Igloo....

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

Last time we opened our door to see this view....

Now we see it out the living/dining room windows.....

Deb

Too windy to go any further for more pictures tonight....lots of dust blowing around too...

 

Browsing, back tracking, and missed sunset......

Our Location: Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, Arizona


A cooler night for sleeping last night, even with the vents closed. I woke up around 3 am and just couldn’t get back to sleep for some reason. I tossed and turned, finally giving up on sleep and played a few games on my iPad. On the bad news front, I didn’t get any more sleep, on the good news front I’m up around 4 million points on my crazy quilt card score. 

I could live with this out my back door

I started opening blinds around 7:30 am, and turning on the water for hot chocolate, as well as the heater. The Igloo was cold this morning. Left it on for a while and it took the chill away pretty quickly. Riley stirred around 8:30 am and was up and moving before 9 am. She’s feeling better but still under the weather. She wanted to get out of the house and so we opted for a day of ‘browsing’. 

 

I like the way they finish off the on/off ramps to the interstate.

In the Dogsled by 9:30 am we let the Big Dog run free along I-10 East into Phoenix, well actually the west side of Phoenix. We stopped into Camping World in Avondale, and didn’t find anything we liked there so we back tracked to Goodyear, checked out a couple of places there but didn’t see anything to strike our fancy.  We are looking to replace our love seat with either individual recliners or a theatre seating type recliner with a storage/beverage holder in between the seats. We don’t want any that have to be plugged in for any reason. We of course are limited in space and so we’re just in the looking stage at this point. We don’t want leather as it’s too cold or too hot, we have to be able to get it in the door, which is also a big challenge. If the back comes off that’s very helpful. We want something that is firm and not too plush, I find it too hard on the back if I sink into it. So as you can see we have a long list of wants and we’ll just keep looking until the wants and needs match. We struck out of course but did see some interesting pieces that we will definitely think about.

 

That's eastbound I-10.

 We finally climbed back into the Dogsled and turned his nose homeward along I-10 West, toward Los Angeles. Of course we weren’t going that far but I loved the sign anyway. We veered off the interstate to stop at Buckeye’s Wally World for a few groceries and some water. We managed to chase down a few items that we wanted along with the groceries and before we knew it we were loading up the Dogsled looking forward to getting home. 

 

Interesting finish on the sound barrier isn't it?

Actually Riley was loading the Dogsled, I was taking pictures of the car that parked behind us. Have you ever noticed that people will park near you even if the whole rest of the lot is empty? And not just ‘near’ they will park RIGHT beside, behind or in front. Not even leave ONE empty space when there are 10 more empties all around. I have no idea why people do that. I’m a far parker, as my girls say. I never park close to the door, I always park far away. I like my vehicles to be as ding free as possible and so I never invite dings by getting close to the store. Anyway, I digress, as we walked to the Dogsled I noticed this guy right up behind us. I realized after wards that he was looking for some shade for his car. I had to actually look at the chrome to figure out what kind of car it was. An old Studebaker. Not sure of the year but it’s in original condition with some paint missing, the soft top needs some work and the car is a definitely a driver, not a show room piece. How neat is that? However he parked right behind us, with only enough leg room between his bumper and my bumper to squeeze through. He could have parked  a dozen spots over and had the same amount shade. People are strange aren’t we?

 

Black Bear Restaurant, but the strangest black bear's I've ever seen.

On my solo journey the other day I noticed that Lower Buckeye Road came right out of Watson Road, and I also noticed that Broadway also came right out of Watson Road. Both of those roads also run into Salome Hwy, not far from Saddle Mountain. What a nice simple way home, back roads, hardly any traffic, and it’ll bring us out pretty close to where we want to be. Simple right? Wrong. Neither road actually goes straight through to Salome Hwy but dead ends before Salome Hwy, and Lower Buckeye actually dead ends in at least 2 places. I know you’ve figured out we didn’t have the GPS turned on, and truly we weren’t worried as I knew the general direction we needed to go. I can tell you that we viewed some country on our way home. Some of it twice as we had to back track from dead ends that weren’t signed. It was an interesting ride home. We did however enjoy it a great deal. We even managed to be home shortly after 2 pm. 

 

Pretty good shape, this old Studebaker.

As Riley put away the groceries I started the Weber to BBQ lunch. No salad today, but we did have two veggie side dishes so I was happy with that. We did spaghetti squash with butter/Italian/Parmesan cheese, as well as fresh green beans and mushrooms with orange zest. I then tossed a big loin chop on the grill when the sides were about finished. Just before taking it off I brushed it with Dijon Mustard and let it glaze a bit before turning it over and doing the other side. I didn’t go too heavy on the Dijon as I was worried it would be too strong. I covered the entire chop with a thin layer and it was excellent. We’ll do that again. That was lunch!

 

It looks original with an every day tag.

After that we stacked the dishes and grabbed our walking sticks, heading off to see how some guy managed to get his motor home part way up on the mountains way in the back. It was much further than we thought and I kept waiting for Riley to say she’s had enough but she didn’t. We were gone about an hour and forty five minutes, the roads we were walking were pretty rugged and I gave her my walking stick to help her steady herself better. We cut across country for a bit and that was tough for her but she’s a trooper she kept slogging away and finally we made it back to the road in a spot much closer to home. She was pretty happy to see the Igloo. I must admit I was pretty happy my self.

 

See the paint chips on the front fender?

No sunset pics tonight as we didn’t get home until after the sunset, it wasn’t dark but if we’d have been another 20 minutes we would have been strolling home in the dark. We don’t normally go that long or that late
and I’ll be more aware of the time next time. However it was a great walk and we both enjoyed it. 

 

Some pretty flowers where Lower Buckeye Road dead ended at a school.

So there you have it, our day’s adventure. As you can tell Riley is feeling a bit better and I think the walk and the fresh air may have helped her a great deal more than resting too much. We’ll know tomorrow for sure.

 

Pretty nice green space between the street and the sound barrier on Lower Buckeye Road where it dead ends at a school.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to leave a comment.

 

Broadway, who wouldn't want to drive on this one? See the Helicopter?

Until next time…take care, be safe,


Deb