Ellen drove!

We had another great ATV ride today, going with Bob and Mary Jo and Ron and Jean. Still very little dust, and that is a good thing.

We went north of our RV Park, out to a beautiful saguaro forest, sprinkled with teddy bear ochillo cactus. This was so beautiful against the mountains. We eventually got to the fenceline of the Estrella National Wilderness, but no motorized vehicles are allowed.

The weather was perfect, beautiful sunshine and little wind.

The great part about the ride is that Ellen drove most of the way home. At first she was a little intimidated, but got the hang of it after a bit. The fun part was when she went down the side of a wash, across it, and when going up the other side, her thumb jammed on the accelerator and she popped a wheelie! Whoa, that was fun!!!

Get well Ellen

Well, I am getting much better but I gave it to Ellen...and it turned into a sinus infection, her first in 17 months. We tried to get in to see a doctor here in Gila Bend, but nothing doing.

We trucked to a western suburb of Phoenix and she was seen at a clinic at a Walgreens. She's on meds, in bed, been fed, her cheeks are red....sorry, got carried away.

Hopefully she will be well enough to go on another ATV ride soon. I just gabbed with a friend a bit and washed a bit of the RV. Leftovers for supper. Maybe a little TV. Pretty quiet here in Gila Bend.

A great ride

Wow did we have a great ride on Monday! We rumbled out of Augie's Quail Trail RV Park at about 10 AM, with Ron and Jean leading, followed by Dale and Donna, then Jim and Phyl, us, Bob and Mary Jo (all on ATVs), with Ted and Colleen bringing up the rear in their Jeep. What a great group.

Here is Ellen at one of our breaks. The ride was so good because of the variety of terrain, no dust because of the recent rains, and a lot of driving in washes.

We must have seen thousands of Saguaros---but this is one of the many 'teddy bear' cholla we saw, especially near the area of the abandoned cabin. Out in the middle of nowhere is this beat up cabin with hundreds of the chollas around. The former residents had a magnificent view of a valley.

If you look closely you'll see small 'puffs' of yellow which are stickery balls dropped from the cactus to aid in reseeding. Some of these plants get to be over 6 feet tall.

The abandoned cabin. We are happy with our 5th wheel thank you.

We also were treated to two "crested' saguaros. A crest is formed when the main body and arms fuse. The reason for this is not clear, but it makes for a really interesting anomaly. The technical term for the cresting is "fasciated".

Notice one arm is drooping. This is caused by a dangerous frost, where the arm becomes spongy when thawed. The sponginess causes the arm to be unable to support the weight.

This crested saguaro has a much more symmetrical crown. We had a great day, and the weather was just right.

A fasssst week

This week has been a blur. We have gotten to do a few ATV rides, and that has been great. However we were in the middle of one of the worst storms in Arizona in years. Our area got more rain on Thursday than they average for a whole year!!!

Add that to winds gusting to over 50 MPH and we had a very tough night. The power was out for about 10 hours though the night. Thank goodness we had solar, as we used it for my CPAP breathing machine until the power was restored.

Before retiring we played a game of North American Rails using battery powered lights and our "head" lights.

On Friday we drove toward the Phoenix are to get some shopping done as well as get the oil changed on the Ford. We picked up a ton of groceries, as there is not a very good supermarket in Gila Bend. We also shopped at a super liquor store where I picked up some Crown Royal (1.75 L) for $10 less than I pay for it in Iowa!

Saturday we tried a drive of our own, as our friends were busy doing other things. There were still many washes that were really 'washed out', and made ATVing less than comfortable, so we just moseyed around the south side of Gila Bend, marveling at how many houses and trailers were abandoned and totally rundown.

That night we played another game of Mexican Train with friends Ted and Colleen and Larry and Deni...and Ellen won again! A fun time and a fun game. Thanks Glen and Gayla for introducing the game to us!

Today another ride, with Bob and MaryJo, Ron and Jean, and "new folks' Dale and Colleen. I now officially have a cold and have been sneezing and blowing my nose continually. Should buy stock in Kleenex. I DVRed the playoff games, and was glad to see the Saints edge the Vikes. Favre's mistake (interception as opposed to a FG) put the game in to OT. Time to go to bed early to rest up and hopefully feel better as we hit the trails again!

Doesn't Ellen look happy???

More ATV Riding

We have been able to do two more ATV rides. The first was a shorter one on Saturday, with just Ellen and I and Bob and Mary Jo cutting through part of Gila Bend, then south to a cemetery, and along aways to a 'bicycle graveyard' where about 15 bikes lay in various states of missing parts. The town cemetery had graves elaborately decorated and laid with flowers and candles, as well as toys and bottles of water.

On Sunday we made a longer trip with a total of 8 ATVs counting us. Our trip leader, Ron, lead us through the dry Gila River bed to areas used and created by Hohokam peoples centuries ago. The first image is of one of many petroglyphs we found on mountainsides.

Ellen stayed behind as I and the rest of the group climbed to the top of a larger landform which had numerous turrets made of rocks. These were used by the more peaceful Hohokams as a line of defense from attackers from the north. The defenders could hurl objects, shoot arrows or whatever from the relative safety of these walled spaces on the top and sides of the mountain.

Here is Ellen and Mary Jo waiting for the rest of us to scale down the steep hillside. We had lunch and a nice visit, then went on to a couple of other areas, one being a cemetery and another an area for watering and keeping cattle. We finished the ride heading north to another water tank area and and a large wooden cross on a hillside.

Once back at the RV park, we cleaned up a bit and had a nice long happy hour at Bob and Mary Jo's around their propane campfire. Good times, nice folks, and great laughs and stories.

First ATV Ride

We drove to Sierra Vista on Wednesday, had a nice lunch with Jim Pearce, from whom we rented a Honda Rincon ATV. Jim led us through reminders on how to run it ride it and take care of it, as well as load it onto our Ford F450. What a great friend, and we will be reunited with him in a few weeks when we travel to Sierra Vista.

Today we had our first ride, led by good friends Bob Kowing and Mary Jo Higgins. Very dusty but fun! We saw the beauty of the western Arizona desert, full of a myriad of cactus species, scrub trees and a hummingbird. The hummingbird was spotted at a cattle pen with a large water tank filled from a well, and a large oval watering trough. We saw some cowboys who herded some cattle into their trailer, and roped a loose horse and got that in to the trailer too.

We had lunch at the Hobo's Camp near the rail line. We shared this ride with three other couples from Sierra Vista, friends of Bob and Mary Jo. We did find shade for that, as the sun was heating the place up.

Last scene of the ride was a magnificent saguaro cactus 'forest', which went on for at least two miles. The amazing scenery included innumerable saguaros of all shapes and sizes. An amazing variation of arms on the main form, as well as 'babies' and dying cacti.

We did about 38 miles and were out for 6 hours. We look forward to our next ride!

Into Arizona

We are in Gila Bend AZ, finally enjoying 70+ degree weather, with crystal blue skies. Augie's Quail Trail is a very neat RV Park, with HUGE sites, nice desert plantings, and a neat and clean clubhouse.

We are driving back to Sierra Vista Wednesday to rent an ATV from our friend Jim Pearce. We are looking forward to a few weeks of ATV rides with friends Mary Jo and Bob, whom we met in Huachuca City 2 years ago. I guess there are tons of trails around here in to Saguaro Cactus forests and hills and mountains.

The Arizona State Line

Our solar system passed our first test Saturday night as we spent a night at the WalMart in Deming NM (along with about 20 other RVs.). Ran my CPAP and the furnace was cranking quite a bit, plus we watched TV for over 2 hours.

BRRRRR

Yes it is cold here in Moriarty, NM. 6 degrees when we woke up this morning. Brrrrrr. The furnace is working overtime and we switched out another propane bottle yesterday. Yesterday it did snow a little, more so towards the Sandia Mountains to our west.

Work continues on our improvements here, with a couple of snags fishing romex lines for our solar outlets. We hope to be finished today, then try the solar system out tonight...and with luck be on our way to the low 70s weather in Gila Bend. When we get there, they will probably have record lows.

Not to complain though...our hearts go out to our friends and family in the frigid north central US. We are so fortunate to be able to move to better weather.

Laundry today (we have only had electricity hook up, so we have been watching our water consumption as well as how much goes into our holding tanks.), and we have a bunch of dirty clothes!

Moriarty, New Mexico

We are at RV Sales in Moriarty, NM, some 30 miles east of Albuquerque. We are getting our solar panels put on tomorrow, and an assortment of other things. We are excited about having the option to boondock. Not sure just how much we will use it, but we will find out.

The weather here has been sunny and brisk. The sun's rays are warming, but the breeze chills it a bit. We look forward to getting to Gila Bend early next week, where they have been having temps in the 70s. All in all though, much better than the weather we had at Branson, and even Rockport before that.

We are planning a day in the big city to the west while the work is being done on our fifth wheel. We started working on our taxes, getting stuff ready to scan and send to our FD accountant. Lots of receipts laying all over the place, plus we are working on a lot of medical deductions, what with my proton treatment, a trip for a followup, and Ellen's annual trip to Rochester.

Today was the day I entered the Air Force some 43 years ago. Had some interesting remembrances, especially the trip to San Antonio and getting my hair cut and being yelled at a lot.

HAPPY 2010!!!

It is hard to believe another year has rolled past...so we wish all our friends a Happy 2010, and that it will be a year of health, peace and prosperity in all ways for all.

We have spent the last week at Wyndham Mountain Vista vacation resort in Branson MO. We had our three daughters' families, and it was a warm Christmas celebration with gifts, time together, games, swimming and conversation. It was a fun time with all 7 grandchildren!!! Hopefully all will have a had a safe return trip home.

We were so pooped out from a late New Year's Eve night that we decided it was safest to recuperate with an extra night in our Excel at the Escapee Park in Hollister MO. We had a lot of unpacking to do, plus shopping. But we decided a nap would not hurt, in fact it was necessary! We got all stuff done, plus we took down our Christmas decorations and stowed them. Relaxing tonight after a nice supper at Bob Evans... again, best wishes to all.