02-12-11

Patti talked with Wayne and he told her that Dianne is doing very good. The hospital therapist has been working with her and she is making good progress.

I got the jeep back from the shop Wednesday around 6:00. It sounds much better.

Mike had told me that there was a shooting range in the little town of Bouse so on Thursday, Patti and I went to check it out. We found the range easily due to a sign on the highway advertising the Bouse Hills Muzzleloaders Rendezvous.

As it turned out they had had a rendezvous there the weekend before. Apparently they have a black powder shoot there on the first and third Saturday of each month. The range is a pretty standard setup for paper target shooting. There is a couple of long distance rifle ranges,

a pistol range and even an archery range. At one side they have a hawk and knife range

and a setup for a fort shoot.

Below are the targets that are shot at from the fort. I don’t know what the bowling pins are for.

I will have to check things out next Saturday the 19th, which is their next scheduled event

On Friday morning at 8:00 we took off on the longest one day ride that we have so-far taken. I knew it would be a long day but had no idea just how long it would be. The ATV riders left the park around 7:30 and drove down to the Stone Cabin so that they could be unloaded before us jeepers got there. That way they could wait on us for a change.

Picture by Becky.

When we arrived at the unloading spot they were all lined up sitting in there rigs.

Picture by Becky

Junior and I had to lower the tire pressure on our jeeps, which took about 5 or 10 minutes.

Of course we had to put up with some ribbing. I guess turn about is fair play after all.

We were on the road to the King of Arizona or “K of A” mine by about 8:30. Along the way we stopped to check out some kind of chalky looking deposit

and decided that it must have been the residue of some mining operation.

We took a side trip up a road to our left where we got a good view of the valley and mountains behind us.

Can you tell which one of these two guys is riding an ATV?

As we were there we could see a long line of vehicles on the main dirt road going toward the “K of A” mine.

After a while we retraced our trail to the main road that goes by the King of Arizona mine. We stopped to get some pictures.

 

From there we continued east until we came to the trail to “Kofa Butte”. We turned up that trail and stopped in a wash for a short time to get some pictures of the butte.

We turned around there and went back to the main trail where we turned east again. After a little while we came upon the, afore mentioned group of vehicles, all stopped in the middle of the road while they sat in a large group having lunch.

Picture by Becky.

At first I thought they must be Canadians since they were parked in the road but it turned out that only a few of them were from the northern paradise. They were some kind of desert driving club. You would think that any one who had done very much back country driving would have enough sense to get off the road when taking a break to let other people get by. As it turned out they were finishing there lunch and by and by they moved along down the road. We followed in there wake for a while and eventually found a wash where we could get off the road to have our lunch.

Picture by Becky

After lunch we continued our ride toward Hoodoo Well and Red Rock Pass. Along the way, not too far passed our lunch spot we saw a young Coyote. It was kind of hard to get a picture of as it wouldn’t stop moving. Smart coyote!

The Coyote is hiding behind the bush.

We finally arrived at the Hoodoo Hilton around 4:00.

Picture by Becky

We took a brake there to let Joanne, Dave, Missy and Junior get a good look around, since they had never been there before. We saw a stick bug on the wall near the door of the cabin.

Suzanne was getting out of hand so we had to put her in a cage to calm her down.

picture by Becky.

From the Hilton we headed over Red Rock Pass.

On the flats north of Red Rock Pass we came upon a small group of Mule Deer.

It was almost sundown before we got to the Pipeline Road (our route back to Quartzsite). From here we had 26 miles to travel just to get back to Hwy. 95 and it was all into the setting sun. There were many times when it was almost impossible to see the road due to the glare. When the sun finally dipped below the western hills the sunset was very nice.

The dust was horrendous. I kind of felt a little sorry for the people on the ATV’s. They were covered with dust. It was bad enough in our jeep and we were in front. Eventually we made it to 95. By then it was full dark. We discussed whether to wait there while Dave and Dennis went down to Stone Cabin to retrieve their trucks and trailers. In the end we decided to cross the highway and follow a track that connected with the Old Yuma Road we then follow Yuma road back to the RV park.  From there Dennis and dave got in Roy’s car and went to Stone Cabin to get there trucks.

The trip covered 145 Miles and took us 12 hours to complete. A very long tough day. I would like to make that trip again some day but would rather take two days to do it. That way we could take more side trips and not work so hard. Maybe next year.  

02-09-11

Junior is putting a lift kit on his jeep.

On Monday Suzanne and Roy had a little party at their place. They called it “eh!” day. I guess that is a Canadian holiday. The attendees were; Junior, Missy, Cindy, David and of course Suzanne and Roy all from the great white north.

The lower 48 attendees were Becky, Dennis, Debby, Mike, Patti and I.

I think this was the first time we had a gathering down here where the Canadians didn’t out number the Yanks. Suzanne and Roy had their place decorated for the occasion,

even down to the dessert eh!.

There was a lot of food (Burgers and fix’ns) provided by S and R and plenty of beer eh!.

We had a great time with much good natured ribbing and a lot of laughs eh!.

Thanks again Suzanne and Roy eh!.

Mi jeep is in the shop right now getting the broken exhaust manifold replaced so we can’t go play until we get it back. We are planning a long Kofa trip for Friday.

02-06-11

While Patti was home in Santa Rosa attending her daughter Dina’s graduation

she got a call from her Brother-in-law Wayne telling her that her sister Dianne had a major stroke and was helicoptered to the hospital in Phoenix. When I picked Patti up at the Phoenix Airport on Thursday we went directly to the hospital to see Dianne. She was in better shape than we had expected. We credit that to the fact that she was taken to the hospital immediately and was given drugs to limit the effects of the stroke. The plan was to sent her to a rehab facility after a couple of days but unfortunately she had a couple of small heart attacks while in the hospital so they are keeping her there a bit longer so they can find out what is causing the heart attacks and decide on a treatment.

We left Phoenix after dark and didn’t get home until around 10:30

On Friday we took a ride to Parker to do some shopping at WalMart.

Saturday, around 11:00 we went out to the official weenie roast spot west of town for a weenie roast. The group consisted of Suzanne Roy, Becky, Dennis, Joanne, Dave, Patti and I. Junior and David were busy putting a lift kit under Junior’s Jeep.

After the Weenie roast we took what I like to call the “merry-go-round” home. You know, round and round and up and down through the hills.

After we got home Becky, Dennis and I went to the classic car show at the big tent. There were a number of very nice cars on display.

Here is one that you don’t see very often. It is a Keizer, made by the Henry Jay Keizer company and is the same company that eventually became Keiser Permanente.

Here is a Jeepster that I don’t think will ever be used off road.

After supper we went over to Becky and Dennis’s to play LCR, which is a type of dice game and Pass the pigs which is like a dice game but you role little rubber pigs instead of dice. You probably don’t recognize these games but they are very simple and a lot of fun. 

02-02-11

Okay, its been a while since the last post. so let me catch up.

Friday, Patti and I went to the “Big Show”. It was the same thing, different year. We didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without.

Saturday, we took a ride with Suzanne, Roy, Missy, Junior and Joanne and Dave. We went through the “long term visitor area”, a BLM campground south of town and into the mountains to the east, in search of an area with a bunch of quartz deposits. Somehow we ended up on the “Dripping Spring” trail. (See blog for February 27 2010) Since we had been on this trail twice last year and knew how to get over the rough spots we didn’t have as much trouble. There is one place where there is a steep shelf that you can ether drive up or take an alternate rout around the ledge. Our Jeep “Clifford” climbed the ledge with no problem. Joanne almost flipped her quad over backwards attempting to follow us. I waved her off and suggested that she take the alternate rout.

It scared the crap out of everyone. But I have to give her credit for attempting it. The jeeps and Rhino’s made it with no problem and we got to dripping spring by lunch time. I was amazed how many people were there. It looked like a WalMart parking lot.

 

There was a constant line of vehicles coming and going.

While we were having lunch

we could see a bunch quads waiting on the ridge for people to leave so they could come down. We could see their pendants  against the skyline.

It looked like we were about to be charged by Knights or Indians.

After lunch we drove over the pass to Gold Nugget road where we eventually got on the frontage road that follows the freeway back to “Q”. We decided to go by the French Quarters to show it to J and D. Some one had left a 48 inch flat screen TV in the cabin. We were all surprised to see that.

Sunday, Patti and I drove to The Phoenix area where we got a motel room in Tempe. Patti was scheduled to take a plane to Santa Rosa Monday morning so she could attend her daughter Dina’s graduation from a drug rehabilitation program. Sunday evening we went to “Monty’s La Casa Vieja” stake house. The building was very historical and was the first building built in Tempe. The food was very good and the price was moderate.

Monday, after dropping Patti at the airport I drove back to Quartzsite.

Tuesday, we took a ride to try again to find the quartz deposit and go over the “Hog Back”. In the group were, Junior, Missy, Becky, Dennis, Suzanne and Roy. Cindy didn’t want to go so her husband David road with Me. Again we went through the BLM camping area. Along the way I noticed a strange jeep following us. At our first stop we found out that it was an old couple from the park. They were on their way to “Mc Donald's” for a coke and saw us all in a line leaving the park so decided to follow us. They were not at all prepared for a day long trip into the desert. Nothing to drink and no food for lunch.

We wandered around looking for the trail to the quartz deposit. After following several wrong trails

we finally got on the right one. At one point we came to a crossroad where it would be easy for the old couple to find there way back to “Q” so they left us and we continued on our way. We got to the quartz deposit around lunch time.

We spent about an hour and a half there so the rock hounds got a chance to play it the quartz.

After lunch we headed for the Hog Back.

We made it over the top and stopped at the mailbox cabin to check it out. From there we headed for Quartzsite along the frontage road. 

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.