Around 1:00, Junior, a friend of his, “Tom” and I drove out to check out the mine that Junior had told me about.
It was kind of cool and went into the mountain around 700 feet.
Unfortunately there were no side tunnels to explore. It looked like the cave has a large population of bats some times because there were lots of piles of guano and a strong aroma of urine. We didn’t see any bats however.
It is hard to tell what they were mining but we did find some veins of what appeared to be talc.
On Christmas day we drove to Wellton to visit with Dianne and Wayne.
We got down there around 11:00 and headed for home around 3:00.
On the way home we got a picture of this Raptor nest in a Sagurao next to the highway.
The plan was to go to Best Mexican for dinner because I was craving tamales but they were closed. In fact every restaurant in Quartz was closed except the “Quartzsite Yacht Club”, so we ended up there. All they were serving was a hot turkey sandwich. It wasn’t all that good. We have been to the yacht club once before and were not happy with it. I think their focus is on their sports bar, not the food.
A couple of days ago Junior came by and mentioned that he had a brochure that had directions to another abandoned cabin. We decided to go take a look at it yesterday.
Here is the description from the brochure;
“The Cabin at Goodman Mine”
“It is believed this cabin was once lived in by Angela Scot, one of Quartzsite’s earliest pioneers. The cabin has two rooms and is chinked with mud. It has a splendid view of the Colorado River and the valley below. The cabin is located at the end of a rough mining road. You can to with in 1/4 mile of it.”
To get there we drove west on I-10. Between mile marker 11 and 10 there is a road cut. Just beyond the cut is the road on the right. We passed the road by a little bit and had to back up on the shoulder of the freeway. “Scary stuff”. We went through the gate and followed the rough trail all the way to the cabin. I guess the description in the brochure must have been written for people with 2wd vehicles.
There isn’t much left of the cabin.
They picked a good spot for it as there is a nice breeze that blows across the saddle where it sits. We checked out a scary mine shaft just past the cabin.
After we left the cabin we drove west on I-10 to the next exit. Instead of getting back on the freeway to go home we took the Gas Pipeline road. I have been wanting to check out Dome Rock for a while.
There is a trail going up the north side of the rock and from below it looks like there is a mine at the top. The road is steep and rocky.
When we finally got to the end of the trail there was just a wide spot and some bulldozer cuts but no tunnel.
As we were on our way back down the hill we saw a trail going to the right. We couldn’t tell if it went all the way down so I sent Patti to check it out. She signaled to me that it was ok so I picked her up on the way down.
Behind Dome rock is another trail going up another steep hill that looked like a mine,
so we drove up it, but again there was only a flat spot at the top, no tunnel.
It looks like it might have been a “Talc” mine
After we came off the mountain we wandered around the desert for a while and eventually we got back to Dome Rock Road and turned east toward Quartzsite.
It was another fun ride.
This afternoon Junior and I are going out to the “French Quarters” to check out a mine that he and David found. He says it goes way back into the mountain and has more than one level. Sounds interesting.
Well its Christmas eve day.
We haven’t been doing much the last few days. Some of our friends have left the park for the holiday.
A rainstorm came through a couple of days ago and dropped about an inch of rain. There is still a leak in the RV, so yesterday I got back on the roof and put another coat of sealer on the seams and around all the vents etc. Today I am going to do it again. We are expecting more rain next Wednesday or Thursday so I guess if it leaks again I will have to seek some professional help (for the roof that is).
Tomorrow we are going down to Wellton to spend Christmas day with Dianne and Wayne. We will be home around 4:30 and are planning to go to “Best Mexican” for Xmas dinner. Patti will no doubt have taco's and I plan to have tamale’s which is traditional in this part of the world.
Okay, that’s it for now. I hope everyone has a great Christmas.
More later
Patti and I took a short ride yesterday. We went north of town and turned northeast on Plomosa Road. At around the 11 mile marker we turned east on a dirt track and crossed the flats into the North end of the “South Plomosa Mountains”. We drove in and out of some rugged canyons
and visited a couple of mines.
Since we were alone, we didn’t go into them . We stopped for lunch near one mine that we had been to last year.
After lunch we tried to get into some low hills to the north. Along the way we passed one of the few covered mine shafts in the area. Most of the shafts that we have found are wide open. Some of them have a fence around them but a lot of them are unguarded so you have to be alert when wandering around.
After completely circumnavigating the hills, we found that there were no trails going into them. Eventually we got back to Plomosa Road and headed for home.
The last few of days the weather has been cool and cloudy with some interesting sunsets.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow but the sun shine will return by the weekend.
Tonight we are going to La Casa del Rancho, Mexican restaurant for “Taco Tuesday” $1.00 Taco’s.
It started raining around 5:00 Thursday morning. We left Quartzsite around 9:30 heading for Wellton, AZ to visit Dianne and Wayne. As we got further south the rain diminished and it was warm and partly cloudy by the time we got to Wellton. We had a good visit and were back home by 5 PM.
Friday was laundry day. The weather was mild with no rain. Patti did the laundry while I washed the jeep and and did other chores around the place.
While I was washing “Clifford”, Missy and Junior stopped by and asked if we were going for a ride on Saturday.
“Sure, why not,” I replied.
So, around 10:00 Saturday morning, Missy, Junior, Suzanne, Roy, Patti, and I, headed west from Quartzsite and spent the day going round and round and up and down in the hills behind “Dome Rock”
We passed some modern pictographs (graffiti)
and stopped to search through several Quartz deposits looking for crystals. Unfortunately we didn’t find any.
One spot had some nice deposits of “Chrysocolla” A blue-green mineral like Turquoise.
I looked it up and apparently it is used in making inexpensive jewelry. This piece was priced at $65.
Junior and I explored a mine tunnel.
It went back around 100 feet. At the end was a vertical shaft that went down about 40 feet. There were some ladders going down the shaft but we didn’t trust them so we didn’t try going down.
The ride was fairly easy with only a few mild challenges.
We were back home around 4:00 and covered about 25 miles.
We went to the Mountain Quail Restaurant with Debby and Mike for the Prime rib Special. Yum!!
Today Patti and I are going to Parker, AZ to do some shopping at Wall Mart.
Scattered around the desert are several old cabins. most of them are built of stone, of those, most are roofless or partially collapsed.
Last year we found this neat little abandoned cabin with a roof, out east of town.
This fall, the group decided to adopt this cabin, clean it up and decorate it.
The above pictures were donated by Becky. “Thanks Becky”.
We all went out there yesterday to do some more decorating and put up some “distance to” signs.
The ladies decided that what the place really needed was a lingerie tree so they went to the local thrift store and picked up some dainties.
On January 19th David and Junior are going to roast a turkey in this hole they dug near the cabin. A fire will be lit in the hole that will be lined with rock to hold the heat. After the fire goes out the turkey, wrapped in foil, will be placed in the hole and buried. Then a fire will be lit on top of the whole thing. After about 3 hours the turkey will be exhumed and if all goes well we will have a grand turkey dinner.
They have already done one and said that it came out perfect.
We are getting the southern edge of a storm that is battering northern California, so today is a bit cloudy and not expected to get up to 70 degrees. I guess I will have to put the doors and windows back on the jeep for a few days.
Tomorrow we are going to Wellton (close to Yuma) to visit with Patti’s sister and brother-in-law.
I was sitting around reading a book yesterday around 9:45, when there came a knock on my door. It was Junior and David. They wanted to know if we were going for a ride. “Sure” I said. “When do you want to leave?”
We decided to leave at 11:00
The group consisted of Missy, Junior, Cindy, David, Becky, Dennis, Patti and I.
We went south to the first BLM long term visitor area. Drove through the camp and out into the desert. Most of the ride was on fairly flat terrain with a few tight spots in some of the washes.
We continued South and East until after following a few wrong trails and a stop for lunch in the shade of a Palo Verdi tree.
Missy found two really nice quartz crystals at the lunch spot.
After lunch we drove on, to the Livingston Mine and stopped there for a short break. Then we continued along the trail to a spot where there is a lot of exposed Quartz. We stopped here to look for crystals. but didn’t find any.
We got home around 5:30.
The weather has been perfect the last few days. The mornings are cool and the day time temps are in the mid seventies to the low eighty’s. It sure is nice to be back in Arizona.
We took our first outing of the season, yesterday.
Suzanne and Roy organized a weenie roast. There were 19 people in all. Most were our friends from the great white north.
It was a lot of fun eh.
Patti has taken some nice pictures of sun sets the last couple of evenings.
I know that we are off to kind of a slow start, but things should pick up.
I have to do some of work on the RV today. The roof has been leaking so Friday I scrubbed all the seams to prepare them for sealing and let them dry all day yesterday. Today I will start sealing the seams. I hope it works.
We made it to Quartzsite in two days. it usually takes us two and a half days. This time instead of spending the night at Lost Hills we went on to Tehachapi where we spent the night in a Loves truck stop parking lot. It was very noisy but we did get some sleep.
The next morning, instead of going on to Bull Head City where we normally spend the night, we turned south on US 395 and then to I-15, I-215 and I-10 to Quartzsite. It was a lot shorter trip but a lot more stressful.
I think next year we will go to Bull head City and down AZ-95 to Quartzsite it takes a half day longer but we get to enjoy a good meal at one of the casinos in Laughlin Nevada across the river and Patti gets a chance to pay her Nevada taxes.
It is really great being back in Q. We had a joyous reunion with all our friends. It was truly like coming home.
Stay tuned for the fun.
Well, its Tuesday morning.
We have spent the last week getting things ready to leave for Arizona.
The RV is loaded and there are just a few things left to do so we can get on the road tomorrow morning. We should get to Quartzsite by Saturday.
More later.
Our Thanksgiving feast was a success..
I went up to IC Monday morning. Patti came up on Tuesday. Wednesday evening Joanne and Dave arrived.
Josie showed up Thursday morning
also arriving on Thursday were Kris and Kim.
And Peter and his oldest son Leon.
We started cooking around noon
Joanne Mashed 15 lbs. of potatoes.
Patti making the 2 quarts of gravy.
We had everything ready by 4:30.
There were two turkey's, two hams, yams, veggies, mashed potatoes , gravy, roles and more pies than we could possibly eat.
Cheers!
The meal was great and we were all too full and so thankful.
My nephew John and his wife Cindy from Reno came up for the day on Friday.
John and Dave
Patti and Cindy.
On Saturday J&D’s son Mat came up with his father-in-law, Ray.
Dave and Kris both brought up portable on demand water heaters.
We put one in the bath house
for the shower.
and tied one to the tree behind the wash stand.
Hot water is GOOD!
The weather was typical for for the end of November. It rained Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning there was frost every where and it stayed frozen all day, Thursday morning was clear and the temperature dropped to around 26 degrees and never got over 45. It began to rain around 8:30. PM and continued off and on all day Friday. We had planned to do some trap shooting on Friday but canceled that because of the rain and cold. Rain and occasional hail on Saturday. Sunday was clear and very cold. Joanne, Dave, Patti and I, cleaned up, took down the walls of the Dining hall and packed up to go home. We got home around 5:15 Sunday evening.
Monday morning we went to the storage yard and got “Plan B”.
I think we will be ready to leave for Quartzsite in a couple of weeks.
