01-26-11

Yesterday, we took a ride to see if we could find the Cinnabar mine. I had the rout loaded into my GPS but I forgot to load the map for that area so there was no detail.

We started the trip with Suzanne, Roy, Missy, Junior, Becky, Dennis and Joanne and Dave from Idaho on their quad’s. It was the first time that Joanne and Dave had been on one of our tours. They had never seen what is locally called “The Big Foot” so since it was on our way we stopped to let them check it out.

Someone had oiled the “foot print” so it would show up better.

I call this the “Big Fraud” because I don’t think that there were any humans on this continent when this rock was formed. I know the feature is intriguing but I don’t buy it.

From there we headed over the power line road to the western side of the mountains.

The members of the Colorado Indian reservation have erected new signs on that road stating that a permit was required.

We had our permits but Roy and Junior didn’t, so they stayed on the east side and went on a different ride.

We wandered around in the desert for a while, looking at rocks and the scenery.

Patti got a picture of the the first cactus blooms of the season.

We turned around at about 3:30 and got back to “Q” about 4:30 where we met with the Suzanne, Roy, Debby and Mike at “Best Mexican”. We had a fine supper. It took us four hours to get to the turnaround point and one hour to get back.

After we got home I downloaded the track we took onto the map with the rout on it and found where I messed up. After looking at where we were, compared to where we had to be, I saw that the next time we try to find the Cinnabar Mine we will have to start earlier in the morning and do less site seeing and I will also have to pay more attention to the GPS.

It was a good trip none the less.

01-24-11

Okay, Its been a few days since I published the last blog and I know that some of you are having withdrawals so here it is.

Oh by the way, I have a request. I know that there are more than 6 people out there that regularly read this blog and I would like to know who my audience is so I would really appreciate it if you would sign up as a “follower”. I know that there are some people that don’t sign up for anything but this won’t cost you any thing and you don’t have to supply any personal information. It would be nice if you would include a picture. After all I am opening up our life to you so it would be nice to know who “You” are. 

We haven’t done a lot of desert driving since the pot luck at the “French Quarters”.

On Friday we went to Parker to the Colorado River Indian reservation fish and wildlife office to get a permit to drive on reservation land. We have to cross the “Res” when we go to the desert west of “Q”. They have put up some new signs stating that a permit is required to drive on Indian land. We also heard that the fine if you get caught on the res without a permit can be $500.00. The permit is $25.00 so since we cross the “Res” a lot we thought that it would be a good idea to get the permit.

Saturday Suzanne, Roy, Patti and I took a ride to the north end of the south Plomosa mountains. We drove through the rugged mountains

 

passing some cool rock formations

to a dry creek that we had been to last year. At the end of the trail the wash becomes steeper and there is a lot of bed rock exposed.

In the rock are many pockets and holes that fill with water and gravel when the creek is flowing, which isn’t often. Some of the holes still have water in them. We thought this would be a good place to look for Gold. Roy was supposed to bring his metal detector but forgot it so we just dug around in the holes.

Suzanne excavated one large pocket down to bedrock

 

but didn’t find any nuggets.

On the way home we noticed this cactus with a bird nest in it.

On Sunday we went back to parker to pick up our meds at Wall Mart. After we got back home we decided to go check out some RV’s at “La Mesa RV” here in “Q”. We saw ONE out of the hundreds of units that we liked and unfortunately we asked about the price. That started an ordeal that lasted until after dark, talking to salesmen and a finance manager. By the time we left there we were convinced that we would rather put some money into “Plan B” than go into debt for an other unit. Don’t get me wrong the unit we liked at was beautiful with 4 slides, one of which was what they call an “atrium”. It had five windows in the slide and five sky lights. 
Unfortunately after trading in “Plan B” and putting $40,000 down, we would still have to finance another $25,000. “I don’t think so”. We finally escaped the clutches of the salesmen and were happy to be back in our funky old no slide home. We may have to replace the roof but that’s peanut's compared to the cost of replacing the RV.

Later today we are going to the big RV trade show at the big tent. We will be looking for a few specific items and maybe some one to fix our roof. The show ends Sunday and I will be glad to see all the people leave. The town is over run with old people in huge rigs who have forgotten how to drive. It’s down right dangerous on the streets right now.

“Go the hell home and give us our town back”!!

01-20-11

A while back, Junior and David tried cooking a turkey in a pit. It worked so well that they decided to do it again at the French Quarter on the 19th of January (yesterday) which was the night of the full moon. They invited about 35 people to the party then realized that one turkey would not feed that many people so they bought a 28 lb. ham to go with it.

Dave and Junior went out to the FQ around 6:00 in the morning to get the fire going in the pit and start cooking the turkey and ham.

We went out there around 2:00 so we could get a parking spot. There were already several people there sitting around the lingerie tree which is the only shade.

When we arrived you could already smell the meat cooking. Yummm!

At around 4:00 they removed the Ham.

 

About a half hour later they removed the turkey.

There was a plethora of food; hot veggies, several salads, and desert’s besides the turkey and ham.

The meat came out perfect and we all ate until we could eat no more.

After stuffing our selves we sat around a bonfire, groaning, telling stories and joking

until the moon came up.

After the moon rise every one except the usual suspects headed for home.

We stayed to enjoy the fire until it had burned down to just coals.

The feast was a complete success.

Today, Patti went on another casino bus trip to the Phoenix area.

01-17-11

Suzanne and Roy came by Saturday afternoon and asked if we were going on a ride Sunday. “Sure” I said. “Where do you want to go”?

Suzanne said that she would like to go to the Sand Dune park west of Quartzsite near the Colorado River; so around 10:30 Sunday morning, we left the RV park with the usual suspects

and drove out Dome Rock Road to the end where we got onto the Pipeline Road.

We followed it to the sand dunes,

where we played in the sand for a little while.

The ATV drivers showed off a bit in a sand bowl.

 

Even though I don’t usually like to drive in sand because it gets into everything and is very destructive, I had to show them that Jeeps could play this game too so I took a turn through the bowl.

I would have been very embarrassed if I had gotten stuck but I with the tire pressure down to 20 psi. I figured it would work out okay and it did.

We only played there for a short time and then headed for the Colorado River where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we drove south along the river until we came to the power lines. We got on the Power Line Road and followed it back to Quartzsite.

Patti and I  hadn’t taken anything out of the freezer for supper so we asked the group if they wanted to go The Grubstake Cafe “Grubbies” for dinner.  Junior was in a hurry to get home to watch a football game so the rest of us went to Grubbies.

It was another fun day in the desert.

01-14-11

Yesterday Patti and I went to check out Martinez Lake.

We left home around noon. To get Martinez Lake, we drove south on AZ 95 for 55miles and then headed west on a paved road for 16 miles, through the Yuma Proving grounds.

We were surprised to find a fairly large Village on the south end of the lake.

In the town are many RV lots among the houses, a few of them are for sale.

There is a slightly shabby public marina,

a large Restaurant/Cantina,

a store and a motel.

The lake is in the Imperial Wildlife Refuge, and appears to be mostly composed of sloughs off the Colorado River with lots of cat tails and vegetation along the edges.

It looks like a good place for Kayaking and birding.

 

We drove north of town to the refuge visitor center and noticed a road going north called “The Red Cloud Mine road”. We followed that road for about 16 miles into some very interesting desert.

There are several roads off the main one that go to scenic views of the lake.

Here is a good put in spot for a kayak.

Eventually the road leaves the refuge and goes through the Proving grounds for a few miles then into open desert.

Along the way we found a couple of interesting mine tunnels and of course I had to investigate them.

We talked to a guy and a lady who were rock hunting. He told us that he was looking for “Wulfenite”. I had never heard of it but he told us that it was an orange or yellow crystalline structure. Here is a web sight that shows specimens and descriptions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wulfenite

 

and came to an intersection where several roads come together. There was an interesting sign post giving mileages

and information on the trails that cross there.

The sign below says “Not” recommended for 4wd'.

One sign showed that there was a trail through a wash that would eventually go to Blythe and Quartzsite but they were 6o+ miles away.

We had already driven 90 miles at that point and it was about 3:00 when we got there so we decided to head back the way had  come. Maybe we will check out that road some other time but I will take our sleeping bags and extra fuel with us because it could take a couple days to make the trip. As it is we didn’t get home until 6:00.

It was a lot more interesting ride than I had expected.