01-11-11

Patti is on here way down to Algadones Mexico (the port of entry south of Yuma) with Suzanne and Roy to do a little shopping. Becky and Dennis are also going there so Dennis can get some dental work done. They are all planning to meet up with Debby and Mike at a casino just north of the border for lunch and a couple of hours of gambling. I stayed home to work on this blog. Only kidding. I didn’t want to go hang out in a casino.

We went to Yuma yesterday to get our eye glasses fixed and shop at Wall Mart.

On Sunday, we took a ride out to the mountains south of the little town of Brenda. I really like that area, it has several trails and some interesting mines to explore and the scenery is beautiful.

In the group were Missy, Junior, Cindy, David, Becky, Dennis, Suzanne, Roy Patti and I. We drove east on I-10 to the junction of I-10 and AZ 60. We followed 60 to the east a couple of miles and turned south on Ramsey Mine rd. We drove over the freeway and stopped at a parking area where Dennis and Roy unloaded there Rhino’s.

While they were unloading a powered parachute flew over very low.

I bet he has a great view from up there

After the Rhino’s were unloaded, we headed east for a about a mile on a trail that follows the freeway, then we turned south. We drove over several rocky hills and up some washes.

We turned right on a steep trail to check out an old mining area.

There were no shafts here, only open cuts. and bulldozer scrapes.

From there we continued along the main trail until we came to a wash going west. As we drove along the wash I noticed a side canyon to our left. I pulled off the trail and parked. The side canyon was too narrow to drive in,

so we followed it on foot until we came to a sheer wall where we could go no further.

 

We returned to the vehicles and continued our drive up the wash.

About 12:00 we decided to stop for lunch.

It has become a joke within the group that whenever we stop for lunch the Canadians generally park or setup in the middle of the road. Notice David’s blue jeep above. Every time they do this of course they have to ether move there rigs or there tables and chairs to let traffic go by. This time was no different. In less than ten minutes a group of vehicles came by and David had to move his jeep to let them pas. In there defense, I think that since much of Canada is sparsely populated, they can stop in the meddle of a road up there and not have any other vehicles come by for a day or two. Not so here in Arizona. There are so many people running around in the desert here that it is very likely that some one will come by while you are stopped. One good thing about that is, if you break down or get lost in this desert, there is a good chance some one will be along to help.

We followed this wash until I saw another mine area to our left.

This one has the deepest shaft that we have so far encountered. It is even deeper than the “big hole” in the Plomosa Mountains’

 

The view from here is interesting.

We left this mine and continued along the wash until we came to a very rough trail going up the side of a mountain.

We took turns going up the track. I went first, followed by Dennis

Then Junior, followed by David.

Cindy decided to walk up.

The last to come up was Roy and Suzanne.

At the top we entered a wide valley with a lot of evidence of mining activity. We drove by a couple of mines and up another very steep and rocky track. It was pretty rough and we spun the tires a lot getting up it. The only one to follow us was Roy in his Rhino. Missy walked up the trail and I told her that they could drive up another trail just to the south that wasn’t as steep or rocky. After about 15 minutes the rest of the group arrived and we drove over to the most interesting feature in the area. In the past some one had exposed a bunch of “Chrysocolla”.

We wandered  around the area a little bit and then drove down the easier trail.

Missy and Cindy walked.

It was around 3:00 when we got back down to the wash and we couldn’t go much further up the wash because of a wilderness area boundary so we started for home. We drove over several rocky hills and across lots of gullies to complete the loop back to the parking area. It took us about an hour and even with the time it took to load the Rhino’s, we were back at the RV park by 4:30.

Around 5:00 we went with Suzanne, Roy, Becky, Dennis, and Debby, to Best Mexican restaurant for a fine dinner.

01-07-11

On the east side of The Three Peaks, which is in the North Plomosa Mountains is a very deep open mine shaft. Junior has been trying to show it to David but has been having trouble finding it, so yesterday Patti and I took Junior and David out there.

We left the park around noon, drove up AZ-95 to Plomosa Rd and drove East where we turned into the mountains at the historical marker.

I didn’t want to just drive directly to the “hole” so we took a couple of side trails.

One trail went to hill that was mostly composed of brick red rock and I wanted to check it out because I had never been there before.

From there we followed a trail that went into a wash going North. We came to a spot in the wash where we had to chose a left or a right turn. The last time Patti and I had been in this wash we had turned right so I knew that direction would take us eventually to the “big hole” but as I said, I didn’t want to just go directly there so we took the trail to the left. I was hoping that it would eventually work its way over to the Three Peaks. Unfortunately after about a mile the track petered out in the bottom of a narrow wash.

We turned around and retraced our path to the intersection and after traveling for a couple of miles we came to the hole.

From there we continued north through the rocky hills

and eventually ended up back at Plomosa Rd.

Today we are getting the small awnings replaced on “Plan B”

01-06-11

The weather is improving every day. Yesterday was bright and clear but with a cold though light breeze.

We took a ride yesterday, to Diablo Pass which is only about five miles northwest of Quartzsite. Of course we went the long way around and spent about four hours playing in the desert. We climbed some steep hills

and drove through some bumpy washes. The intention was to look for meteor fragments. Roy has a map of meteor strikes in Arizona and Diablo pass was one of the sights marked on the map so of course we had to check it out.

Along the way we turned into a large wash to find a place for lunch.

Suzanne found a real nice Ram’s horn in the wash.

We made several stops along the trail and spread out with our extendable magnets to see if we could pick up any fragments.

Becky did pick up some very small magnetic stones but they didn’t look like meteor chips. I think she saved them and is going to have them checked by one of the rock hounds in the park.

When we got to Diablo Pass I noticed a trail going to the top of the ridge to our right so We drove to the top for the view.

It was kind of tricky getting the rigs turned around. The Rhino’s were the last to the top so didn’t have much room to maneuver.

 

It was a bit of a challenge but eventually we got them heading back down the hill.

 

The jeeps had a little more room and were no problem to get turned around.

“picture by Becky”

Once again it was a fun ride and every one got home safe.

01-02-11

Yesterday we went to the “French Quarter”

for a weenie roast. With us were Missy, Junior, Suzanne, Roy, Cindy and David. A little later “Camo Bill” and a friend of his named Robert.

We had the same old rituals; the big white man fire,

hotdogs burned on the stick and lots of laughs. 

After lunch it was time to ventilate the water heater.

Boy, a .45 makes nice big holes.

It was nice to get out for a while and we had a lot of fun.

On the way to the French Quarter we pass a drive way with a very interesting keep out sign post. Fans of “Dr Who” may recognize this character as a “Darlic” Usually they shout “Exterminate” and “zap” everything in sight. If you aren’t a Dr Who fan you won’t get it.

Sign post.

Darlic.

The likeness is close enough (I think) to be intentional. But that might just be my interpretation.

In the evening we went to Suzanne and Roy’s to play cards.The game we played was called “Five Crowns” and is a type of “Rummy” but is played with three special decks of cards. There is no way I could explain the game to you here except to say it was a lot of fun and laughs.

A break in the action. Suzanne brought out snacks.

We were playing in S&R’s Arizona room. The temperature out side got down to 35 by the time we broke up the game at around 10:00 and the heater in the AZ room could bearly keep up with the cold.

It was another fun day in Quartzsite.

Today was laundry day. Patti did the laundry while I squeezed five bottles of Grapefruit juice and washed the kitchen floor.

01-01-11

Happy new year!!

We haven’t been doing much the last week.

The weather has not been conducive to going out into the desert to play. We got the southern end of the latest storm that crashed into the west coast. The storm was supposed to drop an inch of rain on us but we got about half that. Not enough to really find out if the roof repair worked but there was no detectable moisture around the shower or on the ceiling so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Tuesday we went to Parker to pick up our meds. Patti needed a casino fix so I dropped her off at the Blue Water Casino and I went to Wall Mart to do some grocery shopping and get the prescriptions. Of course I couldn’t find everything we needed so I had to go to a couple other stores. It took me a couple of hours to finish the shopping . When I pulled into the casino parking lot Patti was waiting out side. I figured that she had probably spent all her money. When she got in the jeep I asked her if she had busted out. She smiled at me and said “ I won!!”. She had come away with over $200.00 in winnings. Not bad!!

Thursday was windy and very cold. We had to go back to Parker because one of Patti’s meds was not ready on Tuesday. I didn’t want to just drive back up the highway to Parker so we cut through the Plomosa Mountains to Bouse where we connected with Hwy 72 and went on into Parker. It took us about 4 hours but at least we got to do a little offroading.

We have been having issues with the RV’s water heater. I decided that the problem was with the control board so Friday I went to a place (The Gamblers) here in Quartzsite that sells RV parts at discount prices. They had a control board for $115.00. I bought it and went home to install it. The new controller was mounted a little differently that the original. In stead of the screws going through the controller which is about an inch thick the new one had a couple of tabs that were about 1/2” thick. There were no screws with the new one so I used the original screws. They turned out to be too long. By the time I realized this I had poked a hole in the tank. The Tank must be very thin because I put the screws in by hand not with a drill driver. The top screw went in just fine but the lower screw stopped turning with a 1/2 inch left to go. I put a little more pressure on it and that is when I heard the hissing sound of water spraying from a pin hole in the tank.

I took the controller back to “The Gamblers” and they refunded me the $115.00 + the 10.2 % sales tax. I bought a new water heater for $385.00, took it home and with a lot of help from Roy, got it installed. Thanks Roy!!

Later in the day I realized that I may have been had. I remembered that the guy who sold me the controller had removed the screws from the zip lock bag that the controller was in when he removed the controller to connect a plug adapter to it. I can’t prove he did it on purpose but since there were no screws with the controller, I assumed that the originals would work.

All I can do is to let people know to be very careful when doing business with “The Gambler” and I will shop else where for RV parts No matter the price. Any way, we now have a new water heater so I won’t have to worry about that for a while.

We didn’t do anything special for New Years Eve. We were invited to a campfire gathering in the park but it was so bloody cold out that we decided to stay home.

While I was working on the water heater Patti and Debbie went back to Parker to go to the casino again. Patti got home around 4:30 and was $38.00 ahead. She paid for dinner at “The Mountain Quail”. We had the special “Deep Fried Catfish” Yummmm.

Today we are going out to the “French Quarter” for a weenie roast. I am going to take the old water heater with us and after the crowd thins out I am going to ventilate the tank with my .45. At least I will get some fun out of it.

12-27-10 continued

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.

12-27-10

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.