Today we took a ride north west of town.
There were four rigs in the group

Debby & Mike,

Becky & Dennis

Carol & Richard
And of course Patti and I.
We went out the road past the "Sunrise Rock Quarry" and around the mountain to the north, stopping for lunch near the "Darling Mine".

On a peek to the north of us we could see a large monument. According to Carol it was erected by a man in memory of his departed son. He must have been very dedicated to his son because the only way to get to the peek is to climb the almost vertical sides of the mountain. It looks like he even used cement to build the Carin

After lunch we continued north and visited the "Dante Butte Mine".
The shaft was very steep the footing was very uncertain and it smelled like the place had been used as a urinal so we didn't go in very far.

From there we started for home taking a trail that the others had not been on before. It took us across the flats to the south and then dropped into a rugged wash heading east eventually we climbed over Diablo Pass and dropped down into Quartzsite.
When we got back we all decided to go to "Silly Al's" for dinner.
It was an other good day, no one broke down and every one had fun.
We may go to Kofa tomorrow.

Around 11:00 we followed Becky and Dennis into the wash and bounced along southward for about a mile, eventually we turned right up the bank and onto a rocky track.

We zigzagged around rocky outcrops and crossed gullies until we came to a flat spot with a large fire pit at one side.

This is the place where an ancient ritual was about to take place "The weekly Wiener roast ", a tradition that is at least 2 years old.
We kindled the sacred fire and impaled our dogs on the ceremonial skewers.



After the fire had burned down to coals we braced the skewers against the rocks of the fire ring with the dogs above the heat. In a short time we were treated to the sound of sizzling fat from the wieners dripping on the coals and the aroma of mystery meat and hot dog skins charring.

In time honored fashion we wrapped the dogs in bread buns and applied generous amounts of condiments ie. mustard, ketchup and relish.

After a word of benediction "leseat" we attacked the dogs with gusto.

It was a fine day after the morning clouds drifted away to the east. The sun shown upon us warm and comforting.

We sat at a distance from the fire, talking and laughing for a long time.

Around 3.00 we mounted our machines and drove away from the ceremonial site sated and happy. We climbed over several steep hills, across more gullies and through sandy washes until we finally came back to Tyson Wash where we turned north and drove back to Holiday Palms.

Today, we took another ride north of town.
We drove back out the road to Bouse, "Plomosa Rd".
Just past the 6 mile marker we turned onto a dirt track heading north. The trail wound along on the flats some distance from the hills and over several sand dunes.
I spotted a Saguaro with a bird nest in it.

Unfortunately, no bird.
Eventually the trail turned east and we entered the rocky hills.

We stopped at Game water system.

From there we continued more or less in an easterly direction passed the "Four Peaks"

We passed several mines and deep, deep shafts. I dropped a rock down one and it took several seconds for it to hit bottom.
The trail went over some very steep passes.

"Clifford The Big Red Jeep" had no problems.
We came back to the Bouse road at the 8 mile marker.
Around 3:30 we arrived back home.
I added some potatoes and carrots to the pork stew that I had started in the crock pot before we left this morning.
By 5:30 we sat down to a toothsome repast.

Tomorrow we are planning to go out to the desert for a weeny roast with Becky and Dennis and who ever else wants to go.

Stay tuned.

We took a ride north of town.
We drove up 95 to the highway to Bouse AZ. where we turned east. We slowly drove along the road for several miles until we saw some tracks heading off into the desert to the southeast. We turned onto it.
The trail wound up into the hills, zig zagging around rocky outcroppings and through rock strewn washes.
After a while we came to a ruin of some kind.

I couldn't be sure what the ruin was but someone had put a lot of time and energy into its construction.
On a hill to the east was a memorial to one "Bill Mills".

Perhaps he had had a mining claim here although the ruins didn't give us any clues as to what was built there.
We followed the track to the southeast twisting through the gullies and over rocky ridges, passing a red rock arch.

After winding around through the canyons we broke out on the west side and got a view of Quartzsite.

We came to a well traveled track and turned onto it heading south. After following it for a while we came to a ATV trail going up a canyon to our left. I turned onto it and we bounced along it to its end where we stopped for lunch. The canyon walls were pocked with caves large and small.



After lunch we headed back toward the main track.
As we rolled along we spotted a couple of Cholla cactus skeletons. We stopped and picked them up as a gift for Becky and Dennis. Eventually we came to I-10 where we turned west and in a few minutes we were back at Plan B.
Patti finally got a picture of a Cotton tail rabbit, as we sat at our dinette looking out the window.

Christmas was kind of low key.

We had a couple of groups of carolers stop by on Christmas Eve and there was a decorated golf cart parade in the park.



We visited with Mike and Debby for a couple of hours.

On Christmas day we took a ride Northwest of town. We went through a wash that has a virtual forest of dead Ironwood trees along it. We picked up a couple of small pieces that we found lying around.



We got back around 2:00 and went to the "Best Mexican Restaurant" for dinner with Mike and Debby. We visited with them for a while. Mike showed us pictures of the flood they had here last summer. Tyson Wash was full to overflowing. It was a pretty impressive site since we have never seen any water at all in the wash

We are taking a ride somewhere today. I'll let you know where we went in my next post.

We had a prety good storm come through on Tuesday.
Lots of Thunder and lightning and a pretty heavy rain for about an hour, then it moved on.


Yesterday we took a ride out to the same area of desert as the last time only this time we went in the opposit direction. We found a few new roads, most were dead ends.
One of the roads went by an old cabin.


Of course, some of the trails are more fun than others
We came back on a dirt road that follows I-10 on the north side.

We invited Becky and Dennis to go for a desert ride yesterday.
We went east on I-10 to Gold Nugget Road.

The map showed a few trails in that area. The actuality was, there were trails going in all directions. We spent the day driving round and round and up and down. There were a lot of mines and abandoned cabins to investigate.

One of the cabins was in pretty good shape. It is a popular destination and people have left behind all kinds of stuff.


We stopped for lunch on a hilltop with a nice view.

We ended up driving all the way back to Quartzsite on trails and a few miles of the frontage road.
We passed several cabins ruins along the way.

It was a fun day.

Yesterday we took our first trip back to the Kofa Refuge.
We went to the “Horse Tanks” which are a series of ponds in a remote canyon.
I was surprised to find that there was much less water in the ponds than what we saw last year.

If you recall the pictures that Patti took of the frogs and Butterflies last year. They were taken at these ponds.
The largest of the tanks did have water in it.

You don't have to go to Utah to see arches.


After supper we went to see a Xmas display at a house here in Quartzsite. It was pretty cool. The owner has many thousand’s of lights. Its kind different to see Saguaro Cactus decorated in Christmas lights.

Well Patti and I are back on the road.
We arrived in Quartzsite Wed. Dec. 16.
The weather is cold in the mornings with warm afternoons and chilly nights.

NOTE: If you click on the pictures they will enlarge.



I guess I should bring you up to date. with a recap of what we have been doing since last I posted.
As you will recall we got home May 20th 2009.
On the 31st we went to Mat and Elisa's wedding.

In June we went to "The Pacific Primitive Rendezvous" for a week. It was a lot of fun. We got to meet up with a lot of old friends and I was able to dispel the rumors of my demise, which had been greatly exaggerated.




July fourth we were up at Indian Creek where we shot cannons and had a great time partying with friends.

After the fourth of July, we took our grandson, Harvey with us and went to Prineville Oregon to visit with our other grandchildren, Oh yes, and their parents and there new house.


My niece Connie and nephew-in-law Bruce have a lot at Ruth Lake so around the middle of August we went up there with my sister Mary, brother-in-law Tom, my niece Joanne and nephew-in-law Dave and Connie and Bruce. They have a real nice set up with several small tent campers and trailers to stay in and a large dining area. The property is only about 300 feet from the lake so we had a lot of water fun.




On the way home we stopped off to visit with Dennis and Becky at their place in Meyers Flat.

On Labor day we left Santa Rosa and drove up to Glendale Oregon to visit with Patti's sister Kathi and brother-in-law Bob.
We spent some time there driving around looking for possible RV parks to stay in for next summer.
I am kind of leaning toward Brookings or somewhere near the coast. because the interior is so hot in the summer time.

I went deer hunting with Dave and Matt for 4 days. Saw lots of sign but no bucks.


The last part of September Patti and I started working on the Cabin at Indian Creek.
We got all the posts up and braced.



On October 5th we had a work party to Raise the roof. We had a great turn out and in one day got the sub roof on.


Over the next several weeks we finished the roof, plumbed in the wood stove, put down the floor completed about half the siding and put up some plastic windows.We got the kitchen counter installed and covered the back two sides with canvas. Our goal was to have the cabin livable by Thanksgiving. We made it with a week to spare.


We had Thanksgiving at Indian Creek again. It was a small group this year. I think there were 9 of us but it was a good time. This was our 17th thanksgiving up there out of 18 years (one year they were logging the place so we didn't go there for turkey day)


We spent almost every Sunday for 11 weeks watching our Grandson Harvey play football.
His teem who had been the under dogs for the last five years won there division champion ships. Hooray for the Phantoms.

Through out the summer and fall I tried to go kayaking on the Russian River with Bob about once a week.
The river is tranquil and very picturesque.



OK that's it for now.
Stay Tuned