We moved.....kind of....

Our Location: Las Cienegas Grassland, Vail, Arizona

 

(yesterday's post)

 

A cool crisp morning but the sun warmed us up rapidly and by 11 AM we had the door open along with the windows and vents. The day warmed up considerably reaching into the low 70's/ 21-23 C from the overnight of 37F/ 3C. We went from shivering to sweating in the course of a couple of hours. Not a complaint, just stating the facts. 

 

Over by those trees nearest to us is our old spot. Cheryl, Beth & Hubby are in those rigs over there across the road. Cheryl  has a van with a utility trailer behind and Beth & Hubby have the big 5'er.

 

Our driveway is now just past that water hole to the left. It is a 30 second walk from the old spot.

 

We changed our minds and instead of going into town we stayed home and rested. A good call on our part as Nick & Pattie (from Nevada but I can't remember the name of the town) who occupied the big spot next door were packing up and heading out. Riley and I walked over to chat with them for a few minutes and learned they are pretty new to this whole thing. Only had the camper a few months. We chatted about various things and soon they headed out for home to get a few things worked on, fixed and bought before they give the boon docking another try. I'm sure they will continue in the future, they were pretty excited about the whole experience, but disappointed that things didn't work better this time. We wished them well and a safe journey before hurrying back the hundred or so feet to our spot and starting to pack up for a move. 

 

Much bigger spot. Closer to the back it is not very level so we opted for half way through.

As you can see it's a huge spot.

 

We are pretty quick to pack up but I grabbed our leveling blocks in the blue bags and walked them over to the spot, putting them in the driveway to signal someone was using the spot. I had just set them down when a silver truck drove by with a lawn chair sitting up in the back of the box (no Granny wasn't in the chair) and they watched me closely as I stood up leaving the the blue bags there, I could see the look on their faces, disappoint. I hustled back home and soon we were hooked up, pulling into the new spot. Much bigger, we can get outside without being in the grass tufts and the trees, the truck is no longer squeezed in beside us. It's all good!!!

 

This is the view out the living room window.

A much nicer space.

 

As we were setting up Cheryl and Beth stopped by. Cheryl is a former truck driver that was parked kitty corner to us in our last spot. She's very friendly and talkative. She offered congratulations on two well done parking jobs. Beth and her husband arrived later Monday afternoon to set up beside Cheryl in the big spot she had blocked off.   Which is the first reason I actually chatted Cheryl to see if it was her stuff in the big pull through beside her or someone else's. 

 

Cheryl, Beth & Hubby over there. You can see we haven't moved far.

 

If we keep going down this road we come to a gate which I think we'll check out today.

 

We were all set up and relaxing before 10:30 AM when it started getting much warmer outside. After that it was a pretty lazy day, we didn't walk but just kind of puttered around doing a few little things. 

 

Just looking around from our yard.

The back of our spot.  Too unlevel to park back here. Plus an ant runway, so we opted to avoid it.

 

The coyotes are very vocal here and active as well. I've heard them at various times through the night both nights we've been here but this morning even after sunrise they were yipping and yapping, I wonder if they pulled down a calf or some other animal. They were pretty excited. The party only lasted a few minutes before they once again went silent. 

 

I think I see a cowboy way off over there, rounding up the cattle or is that just a 'look back in history' idea.

I can't imagine what life was like back in the day when the ranch was a cowboy working ranch.

 

So that was our day, a quick short move into a better location with the same views and the same interesting neighbours. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all had a wonderful day. 

 

Home sweet home for a while. Soon time to get the outside stuff set up. Mat, BBQ, chairs, etc.

 

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

 

Deb

We've moved south and east.....

Our Location: Las Cienegas, Arizona

We woke this morning to a nice warm morning, the sun popping over the mountain to the east and a hint of excitement in our step. Today is moving day. We’ve stayed too long in this area due to weather around us but today we are moving on. 

Moving on down the highway...

 

So little traffic out here on these highways and biways.

 

Hooked up and heading out the pathway toward Salome Hwy by 7:45 AM, we motored about 3 miles to our first stop. Saddle Vista Ranch to rid us of our garbage and to empty our tanks. I know we dumped only a few short weeks ago but we would rather arrive empty than half full, if you know what I mean. We were once again on the road by 8:25 AM leaving Saddle Mountain BLM behind us for the last time this year. We pointed the Big Dog’s nose east and then north to reach the I-10 on ramp at Tonopah, making the connection for AZ 85 South Bound toward Gila Bend. We stopped in Gila Bend at the Shell station and checked out the water situation but decided against it and kept on  motoring. 

A tiny bit of construction but no slow downs or hesitations of any kind.

 

Mountains are starting to look different.

 No slow downs, no accidents, no issues and we motored right along on I - 8 until we jumped onto I -10 once more. We rolled on through Tucson, AZ and soon hung a right onto AZ 83 toward Empire Ranch. Within 30 minutes or so we reached the ranch house and there we chatted with camp hosts Nick and Jeannie who both offered us some good camp site ideas.  

A different kind of desert here along the I-8 corridor nearing Gila Bend.

Interesting vehicle. He was well packed and everything looked compact. Right hand drive as well.

We pulled into the Cienequitas campground area and although it’s pretty full we managed to find a nice little spot that we will occupy for a week or so. We had the Igloo (not the outside stuff) all set up and lunch warming up while I chatted with dad back in Ontario all around 2:30 pm. 

Such an interesting over pass.

 

Yep, it's snow on that mountain top over there.

 

It was warm here upon our arrival but as the sun fades into the western sky it cools off much faster than at the lower elevations. So we will be closing the vents, etc before the sun sets to keep some of the heat inside. The temperatures have dropped 9 degrees in the last 30 minutes. We are now sitting at 63F/ 17C with all indications of it continuing to drop.
 

Riley thought this guy was a hoot.

Heading toward Empire Ranch Road. Yep more snow.

 

This is our first time here and so we’re not sure what to expect temperature wise but we’re enjoying the change of scenery right now. Lots of mountains on our drive with a light dusting of snow on their peaks. Nick (camp host) told me they had about 10 inches / 25 cm a few weeks ago. Brrrr…glad we weren’t here then.  

 

Our spot for a week or so.

We are certainly in awe of the new type of desert we're seeing.

 

So that was our day today, we moved approx 240 miles, actual travel time was about 4 1/2 hours. We aren’t sure how long we are going to stay here but jello plans are just that,  jello plans. Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

These are the views from near our spot.

Such an interesting view.

Some cows on this land as well. We spotted them on our drive in.

 

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Deb

Our last sunset here at Saddle Mountain....

Our Location: Saddle Mountain BLM, Tonopah, AZ

 

A very quiet Sunday here, a few little things to occupy our time but otherwise a lazy day. Tomorrow we move on from this spot and I thought I'd leave you with our sunset tonight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the sunset. 

 

 

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

Deb

 

Warm weather, a bit of rain and some quite days....

Our Location: Near Tonopah, Arizona

No post yesterday, I simply didn’t feel like it and this morning I was busy and so, no post. Warm overnights have been our luck the last couple of nights and the days are hot with intense sunshine. This morning the sun kind of almost shone but then hid for a while and soon the rain came down, not lots but just enough to say, hmmm…..I think it’s raining before it stopped. It washed a bit of dust off the windows but didn’t amount to any thing. Shortly after noon the sun came back out with an intense heat that was cooled by a light breeze. 

We followed this road for a little over a mile and then turned around and followed it back.

Yep, it took us back toward those big hills.

 

Today’s pictures are from a short walk Riley and I took yesterday morning. It was only about 2.5 miles but it was nice and relaxing, just enough to feel that we’d accomplished our walk for the day. From there we kind of had a lazy day except for a few little things that we managed to accomplished such as washing the ceilings, a bit of dusting and uploading some music to Riley's phone. In a day or two we’ll tackle the walls and then slowly do our complete spring house cleaning.  

 

We always know where home is because we aren't far from these power lines.

Pretty purple, aren't they?

Today we managed to vacuum the whole Igloo, corners, edges, everything that looked like it couldn’t get sucked up was vacuumed around, under, and over. Two bathrooms were also cleaned today, although no walls were washed. No walk today either. 

 

A pretty good road to travel.

 

Two roads diverged in the desert green, and us, we took the one on the right. For that don't recognize it, it's a play on Robert Frost's poem, The Road Less Travelled.

 

We started putting things away outside in preparation for our departure in a day or two. I checked the tires today and tomorrow I’ll do the oil, and the wash the windows, etc. You know those pesky little things that we all do before we head out. 

 

Looking down the arroyo.

And the other direction too.

 

I’ve chatted with both of my other daughters in the last couple of days and I don’t recall which one on which day. I also chatted with brother Rick, nephew Jesse and SIL Barb for a few minutes and I talked to dad this morning for a while. The great white north is still white, warmer though, so of course it’s snowing, not hard but some. Hopefully they start clearing that stuff up so we can all head home in nicer weather. 

 

The red is fading.

In these ones it's gone.

 

So that was our last couple of days, nothing too exciting but we like it that way. Warmer weather has us starting to plan our homeward journey a bit more, we have less than 6 weeks to get home to Ontario and we don’t like to rush. The jello plans at this moment are stops along the way in a number of places but due to our route we will be by passing Big Buck Resort in Tennessee on the way home. Instead we are thinking that we will spend a week in the area of Independence, Kansas to visit some friends that we haven’t seen for a while. However, that is of course all up for consideration as the weather and our homeward journey allows. 

These are the little peaks you can see in the background near the Igloo when I point it out in other photos.

 

Those ones are across Salome Hwy.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’ve had a wonderful couple of days. 

Garbage in the form of cans, bottles and broken glass. I've never seen a purple coca-cola can.

You can tell these are passers by, not campers here. Empty, we'll just throw it out the vehicle and keep going.

 

Until next time… take care, be safe,

 

 

Home sweet home here in the Saddle Mountain BLM.

 

 

Deb