A ride to Cibola Lake. 12-08-14

 

When we were in Oregon this summer we met a guy while we were on a jeep ride.
I got to talking with him and found that he also was a winter resident in Quartzsite.

While we were talking, he told me that there were some cliffs along the Colorado River south of Ehrenburg that had some fossil beds in them.

I decided that it would be fun to go check it out so yesterday; Jo Ann, Dave, Becky, Dennis, Patti and I took a ride to Ehrenburg where we got on the dirt road that follows the east bank of the river.

Right after we turned off the I –10 we stopped to let anyone who wanted to air down do so. Dennis pulled up and said that the check engine light had come on in his jeep and he didn’t want to take a chance that his jeep would stop running in the back country. He decided to turn back.

Jo Ann, Dave and we continued following the dirt road along the river.

There are some trees with feathery leaves that are turning golden along the road.

We continued along the road and drove by several cliff areas.

At one spot there was a trail going to the top of some cliffs so we turned onto this trail and after a short steep climb we were on top.
From up here we got a nice view of the river and the agricultural area in California.

Back on the road again we continued heading south.
We stopped at the base of a couple cliffs and looked around a bit.

Here, I realized that I wouldn’t recognize a fossil if it hit me on the head and trying to find one in these rocks would be like trying to pick fly specs out of a bowl of pepper. Eventually we gave up on the fossil’s and just enjoy the ride along the river.

We stopped for a picture of the Hart Mine Marsh

A little further along we noticed this old abandoned cabin.

We turned left and followed this track to the cabin for some pictures. This cabin is called “The Cibola Cabin”.

 

Patti and I had been here a few years ago on one of our exploration trips.

Here are a few more pictures of the cabin.

It looks like they had a nice veranda off both sides of the cabin but of course everything has collapsed over the years partially due to vandalism.

From here we continued south and stopped along the shore of the northern arm of Cibola Lake

where we had lunch.

After lunch we continued traveling south until we came to the southern end of the lake.

Here we turned around and headed north.

Just across the river from Cibola Lake are what appear to be some very high end homes.

We turned east off the road passing the cabin again. We continued along this road where we saw a mining area to our right. We turned onto this trail and stopped at a kiosk with some information about mining in the area including this plack showing pictures of the different minerals found in the area.

We drove toward the mine but encountered several no trespassing signs so we turned around and continued our ride. Eventually the dirt road became paved. We passed some agricultural areas on the Arizona side.

Lots of cotton still in the fields.

 

and rolled up into bales.

We also passed a large Date farm.

We came to a bridge across the river and crossed it. After several miles on the pavement we came to I-10 just west of Blythe. We turned east and headed for home. 

It was a nice easy ride and of course we had fun.

Clifford's Camo paint.

We took a little ride out of town into the south Plomosa mountains.
I wanted to get some pictures of Clifford in the desert to see how it looked against a natural background.

We drove out Sunkist Road. It is still in pretty good shape considering the heavy monsoon season that they had down here in the summer. Some of the wash crossings were a bit rough but still better than they were a few years ago.
When we got to Plomosa Road we headed east a couple of miles and turned right into the desert. We were looking for a place where the background was a close match to Clifford’s paint color.
We found a spot in a wash that looked like it would work so we pulled off the trail into the wash and took some pictures of the jeep.

You know, under just the right circumstances and with the right background Clifford’s camo paint job is pretty effective.

 

 

After taking a couple of pictures we continued our ride. We headed east until we came to the road that goes passed the Climax mine and around the mountain. We turned onto this trail and followed it all the way back to Sunkist Road where we headed toward town.
Along the way Patti took pictures of holes in the rocks.

She also got a picture of a saguaro with the bottom gone. I have read that the Bighorn sheep like to eat saguaro so I suspect that is what has happened here. I wonder if the environ-mental’s who protect the saguaro’s would arrest the sheep for destroying this one.

We also saw what appears to be a large Rat’s nest.

It made me think of the Muskrat nests in the Russian River estuary.

On the way back to the RV we stopped at Taco Mio for lunch. Patti had two fish taco’s and I had two Carne Asada taco’s.

I’m not sure what we are going to do for the rest of the day but if it is something interesting I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Slow days in “Q”. 12-05-14

The last couple of days haven’t been particularly exciting.
When I went outside yesterday morning the pond pump wasn’t pumping.
The problem turned out to be a crimp in the input pipe. I worked the crimp out of the hose and everything seems to be working again.

In the evening we went to Cheryl and Dennis’ to play cards.

This morning I had an appointment in Blythe to get the exhaust clamp welded.
I got to Blythe early and they took care of the problem in short order. It looks like they got enough weld on the clamp to hold it together. I was delighted as it only cost $26.00.

When I got home I took Patti to The Bad Boys Café for breakfast.
When we got back to the park we paid the rent for another season. This may be the last season for us in Quartzsite. This season we will be looking for somewhere else to go next year.

It looks like the rest of the day will be a little boring. Maybe I can find something to work on.

A short ride on the res. 12-03-14

 

We met the rest of the jeep group at Carl’s Jr. on the west end of town at 9:00.
There was; Louise and Dick, Becky and Dennis, Jo Ann and Dave, Cheryl and Dennis, Gene, Patti and me in the group.

We headed west on I-10 and drove to a gate on the north side of the highway between Mile post 10 and 11.
The morning was cloudy with occasional sprinkles of rain as we drove up the highway.

 

Just inside the gate we stopped to air down.

Our destination was the remains of an old stone cabin at the top of a ridge about a mile in.

Along the way we past a mining area and stopped to wander around checking the area out.

There was a tunnel going into the mountain but the rock looked unstable and it was blocked by debris and an old dead “Ocotillo cactus so we didn’t try going inside.

 

We continued our ride and climbed the trail to the top of ridge.

The old stone cabin had a great view and a breeze was blowing across the ridge. It was probably a good place to be in the summer heat.

Near the cabin was a shaft that went down into the earth at about 45 degrees. It looked pretty scary, with old timbers holding up the ceiling.

There was a foot path leading from this mine, skirting the side of the mountain.

Dennis, Dennis, Gene, Dick and I followed the trail and went past another shaft that was just as scary as the first.

 

It goes down into the earth almost verticaly.

We continued along the trail enjoying the view.

Eventually we turned around and returned to the jeeps. We all got into our jeeps and headed down off the ridge to look for some other jeep trails.

We followed a couple other trails

and eventually got to a spot where we could not pass.
There was some more mining evidence here and a tunnel that we didn’t go in as it didn’t go more than 15 feet.

There was also an old rock dam that blocked our passage with the jeeps.

I know that in the above picture it looks like we could have driven around the side of the dam but there is a rock out crop that blocked our way. A couple sticks of dynamite would have made all the difference but since we didn’t have any dynamite we turned around.

We back tracked and found another trail that also went nowhere so we decided to stop here for lunch.

After lunch we headed back toward the gate where we entered this area from the freeway. When we got close to the fence Jo Ann, Dave and we decided to head into Blyth. They wanted to do some shopping and I wanted to get the tires balanced on the jeep and check to see if there was any place to get the exhaust clamp ( the one that I tried to fix before we left home) welded. I found a shop that said they could fix it but I had to make an appointment for Friday morning at 8:30.

We stopped at the A&R Mexican bakery to pick up dessert for tonight.
A cherry crisp. Yummm!

Okay, that’s about it for today. It was nice to get out onto the desert again after six months away.

Two trips to Parker. 12-02-14

 

Around 10:00 I went over to Jo Ann and Dave’s to see if Dave wanted to go up to Parker to get a travel permit for the Colorado River Indian Reservation. The Indians require a permit to drive on their land at a cost of $25.00.
Patti was doing laundry and had our jeep so Dave and I went to Parker in his jeep.
When we got there I realized that I had forgotten to take the registration for my jeep so I couldn’t get the permit.

Not too long after we got back to the RV park, Patti finished the laundry and we ate lunch. Patti wanted to make some potato salad so we waited for her to start that. Around then Debby stopped by and we visited while Patti finished the potato salad. When Patti was done we headed for Parker.
This time I was able to get the permit.
You know it wouldn’t be so bad getting a permit if the people at the office were at least cordial. The woman at the reservation fish and game office, where you get the permit was down right surly. She acted like it was a big imposition to have to get off her butt to take my money; and not even a thank you or kiss my ass or anything.
“Bitch”!!
If it wasn’t for the fact that the people in the Jeep group we ride with are planning to take several rides into the rez. this season I wouldn’t bother.

After we got the permit we went to Walmart and did a little shopping.

We were back home by around 3:30.

After dinner Patti went to the rec hall to play bingo.

 

More headlight problems. 12-01-14

When we left Silly Al’s Sunday evening Patti was driving. When she turned the  head lights on they didn’t come on.

They have been a bit temperamental but they have always come on in the past; this time no joy. Fortunately the running lights I installed this summer are working so we had enough light to get home.

In the morning we went to the Times Three restaurant for breakfast with
Jo Ann, Dave, Doris, and Jim. Becky and Dennis stopped by the restaurant; It was good to see them again.

After breakfast I started trying to figure out what was going on with the head lights.
I took the dash apart and spent a long time wiggling wires and checking out connections. Everything seemed to be connected properly but every time I got the lights to work and started putting things back together they would turn off. I would take things apart again and the lights would come on. I would wiggle wires and connections but nothing happened, then I would put the switch back in place; but when I would try putting the dash back together the lights would go off again. Eventually I noticed that one of the dash parts fit closely around the switch paddles and when I would try screwing it in place it would move the switch ever so slightly to one side and the lights would go out again.
Just the slightest pressure on the side of paddles and the lights would go on and off.
Ahaa!
The new switch that I had installed a year ago was faulty.
I still had the old one so I replaced the new one with it.

When I put the dash parts back together the lights stayed on. I wiggled the switch and wires but the lights stayed on.
Unfortunately the old switch had other problems and would turn the clearance lights on with a very slight touch. I decided that that was unsatisfactory so I took the new switch apart and moved some of the springy contacts so that they made a better connection.

 

I reassembled the switch and installed it. This time it was possible to completely put the dash back together with the lights on and they stayed that way. I turned the lights on and off several times and everything seems to work fine.
If the switch gives any more trouble I will try another new one.

The rest of the day was spent just puttering with small stuff.

Cheryl and Dennis stopped by the RV and visited for a while It was nice to see them.

Okay, that was our Monday.

 

 

Pahrump to Quartzsite. 11-30-14

We left Pahrump around 9:00 and headed southeast on 160 toward Las Vegas. As we got closer we could see Vegas in the distance.

Fortunately our route takes us around the city proper on to US 95 south.

At one point we could see into Red Rock Canyon.

It looks like there might be some interesting trails in that area. Maybe next time we are around here we will check that out.

Once we got on US 95 it was a straight shot to I-40 where we turned east. Just west of Needles we turned south on California 95 and followed that to Vidal Junction where we got on AZ 62 heading east again. We followed 62/95 through Parker to AZ 95 again  and headed south to Quartzsite.

We got here around 3:30 and after getting hooked up we went over to visit Jo Ann and Dave who were in one of Dennis’s old spots.

Around 5:30 we went to Silly Al’s Pizza for dinner. I still think that Silly Al makes the best pizza in the country.

We will be here until the end of December. It is good to be settled in one spot for a while.