Checking out the Vendors, A visit with Donna and a Massage.

Checking out the Vendors.

Patti wanted to get a couple figurines called Quartzsite People. There is a guy that comes here every season who sells concrete sculptures of all kinds.
After lunch we drove to Tyson Wells to see if he was there.

We walked up one isle and down the other looking at all the stuff that was up for sale.
Eventually we came to the vendor that we were looking for.

This is what Patti was looking for (Quartzsite people).

She ended up buying three statues; two Quartzsite People (named Party & Matti) and one Mushroom Head.
The Mushroom Heads are the ones in this picture on the short stump

Patti bought her three statues and Joanne bought one of the Mushroom Heads for a Birthday gift for Dave; and we left the vendors to go visit Donna.

A visit with Donna.

We spent a couple hours at Donna’s, where we showed off our purchases and the women gabbed for a while. Patti, Joanne and Donna have mutual friends so they spent a lot of time catching up.

Joanne‘s back has been out of whack since she got here and while she was talking with Donna, Donna mentioned that there was a real good masseuse in town. She gave Joanne the phone number and called the masseuse and made an appointment for 7:00 pm last night.

Ribs.

On the way back to our place we stopped at the Heavens Kitchen Barbeque. We ordered ribs and tri-tip to go and took the food home to eat.

A late Massage.

Around 6:30, Patti and Joanne went to the masseuse. They didn’t get back until around 8:30. Joanne said that her back felt a little better after the massage.

A Movie.

While the women were at the Masseuse, Dave and I watched a movie, The Professionals, with Bert Lancaster and Lee Marvin. A classic western.

Okay. that is all for now.

4x4’s and a ride to Blythe CA.

4x4’s

I need a couple of treated 4x4’s to put under the front and rear of the Cargo container that will be delivered Thursday. I went to Herb’s Hardware here in Quartzsite but the only treated 4x4’s they had were crooked as a hounds hind leg and one of them was split for about four feet of its length.

A ride to Blythe CA.

I needed to go to the Blythe’s Ace Hardware. We decided to all go to Blythe so we could have lunch at the A&R Deli and Bakery.
Around 12:30 we headed west on I-10, across the Colorado River and took the Lovkin Blvd exit.

Ace hardware and Verizon.

While we, Dave and I were getting the lumber at Ace, Patti and Joanne went to the Verizon store (which is next to Ace) to get some apps off of Patti’s phone.

When Dave and I were done we picked up Patti and Joanne who were waiting for us by the Verizon store.

Lunch.

We went to the A&R Bakery and Deli for lunch.
Patti and Joanne had the turkey on spiced cranberry bread. Dave had a Philly cheese steak and I had the hot roast beef.
Of course all the sandwiches were great.
We also bought a loaf of the cranberry spiced bread and two cherry crisps and a pineapple crisp.

Here are the pineapple and cherry crisp cut in half.

You can see how full of filling they are. Unlike some other bakeries who only spread a little filling on the inside of the dough.

Supper at Grubbs.

Around 5:00 we went to the Grubstake Social Club for a fish supper.
The fish was good and everyone was happy with their supper.

Cards.

After supper we went back to our place and played a game of Rummy. Patti won.

Okay, that was our day. Another good one.

Joanne and Dave Arrive.

Getting Ready for Visitors.

Monday morning right after I finished my shower the #1 propane tank went empty on the Fifth wheel so I removed the tank and went to the RV Pit Stop and filled the tank.
After that I took a load of garbage to the dump and went to the city office to pay the water bill.

Shopping.

We needed a couple of things at the store so we went to Coyote Fresh as they have a good meat section. We got a pound of Italian sausage and a lemon cake for dessert. Next we went to the Road runner so Patti could buy some flowers.
We stopped to visit Donna and borrowed a vase for the flowers.

Joanne and Dave Arrive. A House Warming Present and Cards.

Around 4:15 Joanne and Dave arrived. We visited for a bit then they started moving into the Motorhome.
While they were getting settled, I fixed spaghetti for supper.

Before we sat down to eat J&D gave us a house warming  present.

A stone bird house.
How appropriate.
Oh boy, is Donna going to be jealous.

After supper we played a game of Jokers Rummy, Dave won.

Cargo Container.

One thing I forgot to mention.
I called and ordered a 40’x 8’x9.5’ cargo container. It is supposed to be delivered on Thursday.

Okay that was our Monday.

Cleaning the RV, Dos Amigos, a Bad Back and Fixing a Recliner.

Friday.

Cleaning the RV.

We started cleaning up the motorhome Friday, so it would be clean for Joanne and Dave’s visit. They will be here some time on Monday and will spend a week in our motorhome.

Dos Amigos.

A week ago when we were coming back from a jeep ride we stopped at a place called Dos Amigos Mexican Restaurant.  We have driven past this place for years and never stopped to check it out.
When we finally decided to stop, we were very surprised to find a very large clean interior and a very friendly staff. I think we all expected it to be a dive.
It was too early to eat so we just ordered drinks and some chips and salsa.
The waitress was very friendly and told us that on Fridays they have Fish and Chips and it is very popular.
When we left we decided to come back the next Friday.

Around 3:00 we met Becky and Dennis at the Arco station and headed east on I-10 to the 60 turn off. We followed 60 east to just east of the town of Hope and turned right at the driveway to the Dos Amigos parking lot.

We all ordered the fish and chips and it was excellent. The batter  was light with just a little crunch and stayed on the fish. The fish was North Atlantic Cod. It was very good and we got three nice sized fillets each.
We will go back there again. Maybe next time we will try the Mexican food.

Saturday. 

Oh, My Aching Back.

By Friday evening my back was beginning to bother me.
When I got up Saturday morning I was hurting pretty bad. I think pulling up those posts the other day started it and wrestling the propane tanks into their place didn’t help. Then running the vacuum in the motor home was the last straw.

We didn’t get everything done in the motorhome on Friday.
Saturday it was cold and cloudy with some light rain in the afternoon.
The only thing we did on Saturday was to go out for breakfast. The rest of the day we read and just laid low.

Broken Chair.

Around 4:00, I was waking up from a nap on the recliner and as I brought the recliner to the upright position something let go and then recliner slumped to the right side.
S…t!!! now what? I didn’t feel like working on the recliner with my back hurting so I left it alone and looked on the web for RV furniture. $$$$$

You can barely see the list to the right in this picture.

Sunday.

When I woke up this morning my back is still hurting. I took some Ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer and am moving kind of slow to day. 
After Patti got up and did her morning routine,  I had her tilt the recliner forward so I might see what broke and maybe I can fix it.

What I found was a broken screw that had fallen out.

I searched through my scrap screw can and found a 1/4-20X1” bolt and a stop nut. I replaced the broken screw with a bolt you can see the stop nut in the above picture. I snugged the nut up and now the chair is leveler.

Here is the old screw. It’s pretty worn out.

I just saved myself several hundred dollars.

Okay that’s all for now.

Wednesday Ride in the Plomosa Mountains With a Surprise.

Lets Go.

We met at the fire station, north of town. There were three jeeps on the ride today; Lillie and Tom, Becky and Dennis and Patti and I.
Once we were all there we drove north on 95 to Plomosa Road, here we headed east across the flats toward the mountains.

Just past milepost 7 we turned right onto a trail and stopped to air down the tires.

The dark spots on the photo are because the lens cover on our Cannon camera didn’t open all the way.

On the Trail.

After airing down we headed out the trail going south.

Eventually we came to a trail going east and followed it toward the mountains. We drove up a small hill that we call the lookout hill.

From here we have a good view of the mountains.

You can see the trail we are going on at the lower left of the picture. After a short break at the lookout we drove east on the trail.

The Surprise.

We were driving along the trail and I noticed mountain sheep heads poking above the Chollas.

We stopped and tried getting some pictures of the rams but the brush and cactus were in the way.
I slowly moved the jeep forward so we could possibly get better pictures.
The sheep weren’t cooperating. They were too interested in grazing to pose for us.

Eventually we were able to see all three rams but still not posing.

Here is one with a broken horn tip posing for us .

One thing Patti and I noticed is that there were no Cholla’s stuck to the rams. We see a lot of Cows grazing around the desert. Many of them have Cholla’s stuck to them. We have never seen a sheep in that condition.

Game Water System.

Once the Rams moved off…

we continued our ride.

We followed the trail to the end. On the way back we stopped at a game watering station.

There are a lot of these watering stations around the desert. The system is pretty cool with no moving parts. They just lay out a bunch of tin roofing like a roof on the ground. When it rains the water runs down the roof and drains into a large covered cistern
(a big tank). In the above photo you can see the tank and part of the roof. The water flows into a concrete basin where the animals can drink. There were two basins at this spot. One of them was covered with a thin layer ice this morning.
Here is the sign that you can see in the above picture.

By the way, we did close the gate before we left. The fence around the watering station is to keep out the Burro’s.

Sheep Again.

We left the watering system. A mile or so down the trail we saw the same three rams. These guys really get around.

Here is the one with the broken horn tip.

Here is another one.

These guys look like they are very healthy. Beautiful.

Chrysocola.

We left the rams to their grazing and drove back along the trail.
After a little ways we took a small trail to the left. At the end of the trail we found this nice seam of Chrysocola.

Here is a closer look at the seam.

Here is Becky trying to chip off a small piece.

After a little while we left the Chrysocola and continued our ride.

The next stop was at this deep vertical shaft at the top of a ridge in a saddle between two peaks.

Here is a nice chunk of Chrysocola but it is wedged under a piece of wood at the edge of the shaft. I guess it will stay where it is.

Lunch.

We left the shaft and drove further along the trail. We found a spot for lunch in the lea side of this rock.  Without the wind it was a comfortable day but the wind was right out of the north and was very cold.

After lunch we drove along enjoying the beauty of this country.

We drove through a pass in the mountains.

Near an intersection of two trails, we came to this rock structure. This is a well known land mark. There is a nice view to the west from here.

Looking for Glitter.

From here we tried to find what I call the Glitter Mine but I must have missed the trail because we never found it. Maybe next time.

We worked our way northwest taking several trails. Some of which were col-d-sac’s. Eventually we came to Plomosa Road. We turned southwest on Plomosa Road to where Quinn Pass trail goes west over a steep pass.
Here we turned east and followed a small trail into a narrow wash.

We took a side trail to check out this large Quartz outcrop.

People have been chipping away at this quartz outcrop for years as you can see by all the small pieces covering the ground around it.

Heading Home.

We left the outcrop and found a trail that headed back to Plomosa Road. When we got to the highway we aired up and headed for home.

Supper at Grubb’s

We made plans to meet everyone at The Grubstake Social Club for supper at 5:00. Joy and Robert also joined us.
The place was busy, there was only one waitress and she was brand new to the job. As a result we were there for two hours.
From Grubb’s we went to Becky and Dennis’ to play cards.
We got home around 10:30.

It was a long day but a good one  I love driving around in our beautiful desert.

Happy New Year To You.

Cold.

This time of year here in the desert it can get very cold over night. This morning when I got up around 7:45 it was 34° degrees out side and 40° inside. Burrrrr.

No Propane.

I tried to start up the heater with no luck.
We were out of propane.
Yesterday we found that the water heater was showing a pilot fault which usually indicates that the propane is empty.
I switched the tanks from the front tank to the rear tank. That fixed it, sort of.

Both Tanks are Empty.

It appears that the tank switch doesn’t work the way I thought it did because this morning both tanks were empty. I thought that the tanks were separate and when the switch was pointing at the front tank that was the tank that was working. Apparently that is not the case. It looks like the system draws off both tanks. I don’t like that system but I am not sure how to change it.

Electric Heat.

What I am thinking of doing is to buy an electric heater. Because in this cold weather, we are using two tanks (14 gallons) of propane in about a week and a half. About $34.00 each time I fill both tanks. I think, to run an electric heater would be a lot cheaper.

We are going to Parker on Thursday, so we will see if we can find a good heater up there.

Not Much for New Years Eve.

There hasn’t been much going on for New Year’s Eve. Most of our friends have gone home to visit family for Christmas and won’t be back here for a couple more days. Those who are here had other plans.
We are planning a jeep ride for tomorrow (Wednesday) so that will be fun.

Okay, that is all for now.

Fence Removal, Shopping and Cards.

Fence Removal.

Our friends, Joy and Robert, got permission from Tiny to move onto our old spot. They have a travel trailer and won’t be able to drive it into the spot because of the metal fence that surround's the spot.
They were supposed to be here yesterday morning.

Tiny asked me if I would remove the fence and pull the posts out of the ground. He has been good to us so I said “sure”.

Here is what it looked like when we were parked there.

In order to get a trailer in there we had to remove the two panels and related posts in front of the RV.

Pulling the Fence.

Around 10:00 Patti and I went over to the spot to start the process of removing the fence panels. They came off fairly easy just two screws in each panel and some bailing wire.
Once we got the panels removed it was time to pull the posts out of the ground.
To do this I used the farm jack and a short length of chain. As I tried to pull the metal posts, the posts would bend away from the jack instead of coming straight up.
Eventually I tried using a block of concrete for the base and that helped.

It took a while to get everything to work right but eventually the posts came out. The wooden post came out the easiest.

Here is the spot with the fence removed and ready for the trailer.

Joy and Robert arrived around 5:30 in the evening.
After a couple of attempts to park the trailer in the spot without success they just parked alongside the spot and will wait until tomorrow to try and park their rig.

Shopping.

I was planning to make taco's for supper and we needed some ground pork.
The general store (now called Coyote Fresh) has a good meat market so we went there first and got 3/4 of a pound of ground pork.

To make my taco’s I use the pork and mix in some Mexican sausage. It makes really good taco meat.

After the meat market we went to The Dollar General and bought a new shower curtain for the motorhome.

From the DG we went to the Road Runner for other groceries.
We made a couple more stops and then went home.

The taco’s turned out great.

Cards.

Around 5:30 Joy and Robert arrived. By the time we got them settled it was 5:45 and we left to go to Becky and Dennis’ to play cards.
It was just Becky, Dennis, Lillie, and Tom and us.
We brought our Jokers Rummy game and introduced it to them. The first game was a teaching experience so it took a while. The second game they were getting the hang of it and it went a little faster.
Around 10:00, we quit playing and went home.
I think Lillie and Tom liked the game as they asked us for the art work so they could make their own rummy cards.

Okay that was our Saturday, it was a good day.