Hay Fever Hell 04-14-14

On Friday we went to Wellton and visited with Wayne for a couple of hours. He’s doing fine and making plans to head up to Washington state for the summer.

When we left Wayne we drove to Yuma and had lunch at the big Chinese buffet. It was okay. From there we stopped at Harbor Freight where I bought an assorted bunch of bungees. Some how all my bungees have disappeared.

I have been having one hell of a time with hay fever the last couple of weeks. The Palo Verde’s

and Cactus

and everything else is blooming. All that pollen is making my life miserable.
You know the drill; itchy runny eyes, sneezing, stuffed up nose some times and runny nose at other times, sleepless nights.
I can’t wait to leave here.
This is the second year that I have had this problem. We are talking about leaving here around the first of April next year. Before the Palo Verde’s bloom.

At the moment we are waiting for a new windshield to arrive so it can be replaced before we go home.
Patti is waiting for Debbie to get her car fixed so they can go to Lake Havasu to the Lake Side Casino.

If everything works out we should be ready to leave here for home by next Monday. I am slowly getting things together so when the time comes I will be ready to just pull the plug and leave.

Hot in Q, it may be time to head north 04-10-14

It has been pretty hot here, temps in the high 90’s.
As a result we haven’t been doing much.
We did go to Cheryl and Dennis’ to play cards Tuesday evening.

The dentist that Patti was going to see on Monday was still sick on Tuesday. She hasn’t decided whether to make another appointment or just wait until we get home and see her dentist there.

We are planning to go down to Welton to visit Patti’s brother-in-law soon. It has been over 100 down there but it is supposed to start cooling down maybe into the low 90’s

The way it looks we may be heading for home next week some time.

A trip to Blythe and an interesting Cactus 04-07-14

My nephew John left after breakfast on Sunday around 8:00. We got a call from him around 8:00 that evening. He had made it back to Reno in one 12 hour day.

Yesterday morning we drove to Blythe CA. Patti had a dentist appointment for 10:00. When we got there the girl in the office said that the doctor was out sick and would not be back until today. They told us that they called to let us know about the Dr but we didn’t get the call. As it turned out Patti must have given them our house phone in Santa Rosa. oops!
Now they have Patti’s cell phone number.
Patti got another appointment for 1:30 today.

While we were in Blythe we did some shopping and stopped at the bakery and bought one of their awesome cherry crisps.

Before we left to go to Blythe, Debby came by and told us about a beautiful Argentine Cactus that was blooming in one of the yards in the Park.

Here is a picture of the cactus.

A loop through the Kofa 04-05-14

I decided to take John on a ride in the Kofa game refuge.

We left the RV park around 9:00 and headed east on I-10.
We turned south at Vicksburg Rd and stopped there to top off the gas tank and aired down.
From there we continued south on the dirt road and stopped at the Kiosk to show John where we were going on the map.

We continued south to the pipeline road where we turned west and continued to intersection 16 where we turned south.

We stopped to check out the Kofa cabin.

From there we continued across the desert. The trail drops into a wash and follows for a couple miles. At one point there is a trail that goes to the right to a monument that commemorates the dedicating of the Kofa game refuge.

We drove back to the main trail and continued toward Big Horne Pass. Along the way we stopped to check out some petroglyphs.

  

Eventually we got to the top of the pass.

We drove down the south side of the pass and turned west in Hoodoo wash and drove to the Willbanks Cabin.

We were planning to have lunch there but there were several people there so we headed east in the wash and eventually arrived at the Hoodoo Hilton where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we drove south and went over Red Rock Pass.  Eventually got back to the Pipeline road where we turned east. In a couple of miles we got back to Vicksburg Rd. We traveled north on Vicksburg Road until we came back to the pavement. We stopped there to air up the tires. We got back on I-10 and headed west back to Quartzsite arriving at the RV around 5:00.

We went to the Mountain Quail for the Prime Rib special.

This morning we had breakfast at the Times 3 restaurant with John and then he left to go back to Sparks, NV.

Cameron to Quartzsite 04-05-14

We left Cameron, AZ around 8:00 and drove non stop to Quartzsite.
At 1:35 we arrived at the RV park in Quartzsite.

My nephew, John, was already in Q, at the Super 8 Motel so when we got parked, Patti called him and he met us at the Carl’s Jr. After a quick lunch, he followed us back to the RV park.

My vinegar fix for the shower didn’t work, so after John parked his truck. We went to RV Lifestyles (an RV repair and parts house) and purchased a new shower faucet. This time they had one that had the right length connections. I brought it home and installed it. It works just fine; no leaks.

The rest of the day we just sat around visiting with John. We went to dinner at The Grubstake.

Today I am taking John on a ride into the KOFA preserve.

Moab to Cameron 04-03-14

We left Moab around 9:30. the weather was cold and partly cloudy.
There was no snow on the ground although it looked like it was snowing on the La Sal Mountains.

 

We didn’t encounter any snow on the ground until we were approaching the turn off to Canyonlands NP at Highway 211.

That was the last appreciable accumulation of snow for the rest of the trip.

Monticello was clear of snow even though it was at a higher elevation  than Moab.

The Abajo mountains to the west of Monticello looked like they may have gotten a light dusting last night.

 

We went through Blanding then dropped down the canyon into Bluff.

After going through Bluff we crossed the San Juan River.

We continued west on 191 through more red rock country.

At Keyenta we stopped for lunch at the Sonic Burger place.

We arrived at the Cameron Trading Post around 3:00 Moab time.

We had diner at the restaurant in the Trading Post. It was reasonably priced for a tourist trap and the food was good.

If all goes well we will be back in Quartzsite tomorrow afternoon.

Snow in Moab 04-02-14

It started raining some time in the middle of the night and stopped around 5:00am. I got up around 7:00 and it was very quiet out side except for a steady dripping sound.
We planned to leave Moab this morning and I was eating my breakfast when Patti lifted the shade on the rear window. 
“Oh my, it’s snowing” she cried.
I looked out the window alongside the dinette and sure enough it was snowing fat fluffy flakes.

Our route would take us through Monticello which is around 2000 feet higher. We decided not to take any chances and stay here for another night. This would give us a chance to get some nice pictures of the red rock country with a layer of snow.
Also the diversion valve on our shower wasn’t working. When we pull up on the button to divert water from the faucet to the shower head most of the water still comes out of the faucet. I decided I would take this opportunity to change the faucet.

Before we left the RV to go to town I took some pictures of the cliffs to the west of where we are staying.

  

Very pretty, no?

Eventually we got in the jeep which was also covered with snow

and headed for town.

The further north we went the less snow we saw.
By the time we got to the RV supply store there was no snow at all and the snow that was on the jeep was gone.
It was kind of strange.
While I was in the RV store talking the lady she said that her grandfather who lives in Monticello told her that there was no snow at all up there.
Oh well we already paid for another night at the RV park.
I bought a new shower faucet and we headed back to the RV to install it.

We took a couple more pictures on the way home.

When we got home I installed the shower faucet but the connections weren’t long enough to make a water tight connection.
Back to town we go.
By now it was time for lunch so we stopped at Milts for a hot dog.

We went to the RV store and returned the faucet. They didn’t have anything that would work so we went to the City Market and I bought a bottle of white vinegar.
Back at the RV I soaked the old faucet in the vinegar for a couple of hours while Patti did laundry.  
In preparation for getting under way for leaving tomorrow, I dumped and flushed the black tank and swept the floor. When that was done I reinstalled the shower faucet. I tried it and it seemed to work fine. I guess that it was just clogged up with lime. We will see what happens when I am all soaped up tomorrow morning. I sure hope it works then. 

We had a good Mexican dinner at La Hacienda.