Monday, December 29, 2014

Good food and a ride in the desert. 12-29-14

 

On Saturday we took a ride to Blythe to get some groceries.
Of course while we were there we had to stop for lunch at the A&R Deli.
This time I tried a new sandwich, the Hot Roast Beef. Now you may think that it is the traditional Hot Beef sandwich you would get at a diner; You know open faced with gravy and mashed potatoes.
This was totally different; it was warm with sautéed green and red bell peppers, onions, and lots of thin sliced roast beef on a fresh baked role. It was kind of like a Steak Fajita on a role. Bloody awesome!!
Patti had her favorite Chicken breast sandwich on fresh whole wheat bread.

About a week ago we were in Blythe and stopped at the Dollar Tree. I found a package of fresh Gnocchi's (Italian Potato dumplings) for $1.00. I figured we would try them and if they weren’t any good we were only out a dollar.
Saturday evening, I cooked them and made an Italian sausage marinara sauce (not from scratch). Half a jar of Paul Newman’s marinara and two Italian sausages; one chopped up and one made into small meat balls) to go with them. It was wonderful and the meal probably didn’t cost more than $4.00 to prepare. Such a deal!!

Sunday morning I started making a beef tri-tip stew in the crock pot.
Around noon we were getting bored so I suggested we take a ride in the desert.

We headed north from Quartzsite and turned east at Plomosa Road. About five miles out we turned north at the old WWII air strip.

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This is where the famous female pilots landed B17’s for Patton's army that was training in this area. If you want more information on this, I am sure you can find stuff on the net.
We stopped here so I could let some air out of the tires.

From here we turned onto a small trail heading north toward the sand dunes.

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We drove over the dunes

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and continued north.

North of the sand dunes we passed this ancient Saguaro with many arms.

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There are some low hills to the west of the trail so when we found a trail going toward the hills and turned onto it. We wandered around the hills for a while.

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We found a trail heading south and followed it. We went through an old mining area and saw some interesting rocks and tailings on the hill side so we drove over to the tailings and walked around a little.

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Above the tailings was a shaft going into the hills side.

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Judging by the small amount of tailings below this shaft, the vain they were following must have been pretty rich and they hauled off most of the material.

I assume they were mining copper as there was a lot of Crysocola lying around.

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We left the mine and continued south through a wide valley. Near a wash we found what we supposed was an old grave.

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You find a lot of these in the desert it is hard to tell if the graves are for humans or someones dog or a prospectors burro, etc.

A little farther along we came to this rusty old piece of equipment. I have no idea what it might be. Do you know?

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It looks like it had water in it. It has a baffle across the middle and a drain plug in one corner. Maybe some kind of gold washer?

It was around 3:30 and I still had to add potatoes, carrots and cabbage to the stew so we headed for home.
We drove around the west end of the sand dunes across sandy flats.

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It was nice to get out in the desert and drive around.

Oh, by the way; the stew turned out great.

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