04-27-10

Now that everyone has left, things are really, really boring.
Roy and Suzanne left last Thursday (04-22). Wednesday evening we went to Silly Al's for a send off dinner for them. Debby and Mike were there also.

The weather has been cold and windy for about three days then hot as the hubs of Hades for a fortnight. By Wednesday it is supposed to cool off again with high winds. Just in time for us to get on the road for Utah.

We have reservations at the Moab Rim RV park for May nineth. So we will take our time getting there. Our plan is to go via the Prescott National forest up to the Flagstaff area. Maybe we will go up to the forest around the Grand Canyon. There are a lot of back roads in that area to play on. I am looking forward to jeeping around in the forest. After all the desert running we have been doing it will be a nice change and hopefully the temperature will be some cooler.

The Dove babies have grown amazingly in the last week.

They are able to fly now and leave the nest for long periods. Even so they are still being fed by their mother.

On Saturday (04-24) we went to Yuma.
While we were there, we went to visit with Patti's sister, Dianne and Brother-in-law, Wayne. They have recently purchased a camper van, so now they can escape the hottest part of Arizona's summer.

Today, Patti is going with some folks from the park, to The Blue Water Casino up in Parker.

While they are there Patti is going to call Wal-mart to see if our prescriptions are ready. If they are ready, we will be out of here by Thursday or Friday at the latest.
I will be happy to be back on the road.

04-21-10

Dove update:
We have babies!

It is the time of leavings.
People have been heading north in droves.
Becky and Dennis left for Northern California on Monday.
We went out to dinner with them Sunday evening.

Left to right;

Patti, me, Suzanne, Roy, Becky, Dennis, Glenn and Sharon.

It is really strange looking over at their spot with them gone.

Monday evening there was a campfire gathering and hot dog roast at the fire pit in the park. We had supper at home but went there to socialize. I was surprised how many people were there as the Park is getting pretty empty.

Suzanne and Roy are leaving for Alberta Thursday morning so yesterday we took one last ride with them.
We went west of town to the south side of the Dome Rock area.

It was an interesting drive over steep rocky hills,

and through twisting gully crossings.

We passed what looked like an old powder safe.

There are several places scattered around the desert where people have decorated old cabins or camps with signs, tools, chairs etc.
Eventually we came to such a place. Some people call it "Bed Spring Flat" or Deere Run B&B.
Along the trail, I noticed some hand made signs that read "Deere Run Resort", and was curious as to what that was.

There was even a putting green.

and a cemetery.

We continued on over a steep pass.

and into the next valley, where there were many trails going in all directions most of them were dead ends however.

There was very little shade out here so we had to trim another Palo Verde tree to have enough shade for lunch.

After lunch we drove around for another hour.
Patti got some more flower pictures.

We got back to the RV park around 2:30.
Patti took some more flower pictures at the park

Suzanne's cactus.

Cactus at the office.

and her favorite subject.

Bunnies.

In the evening Patti got this picture of storm clouds.

The storm never materialized but the winds to day are very strong.
A couple of nights ago she got this picture of a desert toad.

When we were out in the desert we saw the largest Lizard I have ever seen. It was at least 12 to 14 inches long and had a girth of at least 3 inches. Unfortunately he was too fast to get a picture of.

04-16-10

On Monday Suzanne invited us over for "Pizza Soup".
I know it sounds strange but it was really good.
I decided to enclose the Receipt in this blog so here it is.

PIZZA SOUP

6 Bavarian Sausages (sliced) or you can use Johnsonville Brats or Italian sausage.
6 pepperoni (sliced) or 10, if pencil sized
1 medium onion (chopped)
6 slices of bacon (chopped)
Fry all the above ingredients, rinse off excess fat and put in crock pot.

Add:
2 cans tomato soup
2 cans sliced mushrooms
1 bunch green onion (chopped)
½ cup ketchup
1tbls. Basil
1tbls. Oregano
2 – 3 cans of water

Basically you can put any thing in the soup that you like on your pizza. I'm not to sure about Pineapple.

When bubbling in crock pot, cook for 40 minutes, turn to low and slow cook for about 1 hour.

Serve in bowls, top with finely shredded mozzarella cheese.


Before we arrived at Suzanne and Roy's they had a reptilian visitor.
A beautiful Gopher snake.

On Wednesday we had some new awnings installed on Plan "B", We got a new main awning and a small one over the window by the dinette.

Roy gave us some shade cloth so we had shades made to cover the windshield ,the driver, passenger and rear windows, to cut down on the heat inside.

It helps a lot.
We also had a shade cloth made to hang from the awning so when the sun is low we can still have shade on the side of the RV.

While we were at it, I had Beth make a shade cloth to hang from the role bar behind the seats in the Jeep.

I was hoping that it would slow down the wind coming from behind when we are driving down the highway and maybe cut down on the dust when we are on dirt roads. It did help a little bit.

All our friends except Debby and Mike (they live here year round) are leaving Quartzsite this month so yesterday we took one last ride into the Kofa Refuge to see how the wild flowers were doing.
The Buggy drivers trailered their ATV's to the west end of the Pipeline road where we unloaded and headed east into the Kofa. After a couple of miles we turned south on a service road and continued to the MST&T road where we turned east again and drove up to the MST&T tower.

The view from there is always beautiful.

On the road climbing up to the tower, we saw some Orange flowers.

After leaving the tower we took the back road to the Kofa Cabin.
Along the way we stopped to get pictures of the first of the Teddy Bear Cholla cactus to bloom this year.



B&D got a nice picture of a Hawk in flight.

A little further down the road we found some Stag Horne Choilla's in bloom.

Patti got a nice shot of a beautiful Thistle.

By noon, the temperature was in the Nineties and it was tough finding a shady spot for lunch. We had to do some trimming on this Palo Verde tree by the trail so we all could sit in the shade.

As we moved along after lunch we saw some of the local wildlife.
A Jack Rabbit thinking he is invisible.

A beautiful lizard with an alligator pattern.

A family of Hawks in there nest.
Picture by B&D

Patti got a picture of a horned toad.

Around three o'clock we came to the Kofa cabin.
Picture by Becky

It was nice and cool inside the cabin.

We left the Cabin and turned west on the pipeline road and were home by 5:00.

We forgot to bring our camera so I would like to thank Debby and Mike for letting Patti use theirs.
I also would like to thank Becky and Dennis for their pictures.