More From February

With most of the heavy lifting accomplished, we set about fine tuning our little lot here at Desert Gold RV. The balloon spinner, my souvenir from the Havasu Festival a few weeks back found a place hanging from the new shade structure. Our new grill, a Christmas present from my mother, was finally placed into service with some choice cuts and produce which turned out perfectly. The fire pit conversion to gas was completed and we make a slat box to hide the propane tank from sight. Some crystal specimens from a neighbor and a steer's head and a bison skull were artistically placed in the cactus garden. We found a place for the new metal sculpture cactus and fixed it to the ground and did some light "scaping" around the base of it. We filled the hummingbird feeders for the first time- there are some hummers around now but so far they are hitting the neighbors longer standing offerings and not ours; however, the bees are downright happy! We did some Saguaro rib hunting with Tom and Michelle next door and came back with a trophy size plant skeleton that we will be shaping into a planter for the front of the lot in the coming weeks or so; right now I am drying some of my herbs on it during the heat of the day. I made a "rib" face for the planter table- the greens are happy and growing really well now. And this morning we "FLAMINGO-ED" Tom and Michelle's already whimsical garden just for the sheer sport (and tremendous fun) of doing that. The other neighbors have all been sworn to secrecy- although our license plate does say Florida! Oh, and the Met Life dirigible flew over camp this week, so I snapped a picture of that as well as it passed over a nearby saguaro cactus.

The slide show will give you a peek at all of this!

This and That in Pictures

Here's the latest picture story of what's happening in the desert!

Here's the current status of the greens we're growing in the all new stand up-don't bend over garden we built. Salad soon! The eerie light is from the shade cloth- the use of which is about the only way you can get such crops to grow in this area. Further south, near Yuma, huge fields of the same crops do very well.

Ever wonder who stood on a tiny ladder all day and trimmed up those orchard trees so nice and neat? No one. This tractor/tool does the job in a jiffy, although on the day we spotted this guy trimming pistachio trees his engine was having a bit of an overworked feeling.

The chili cook-off in Salome caught a break in the weather this year. It rained the last two years in a row. Do you have any idea how bad your luck is if your special day gets rained on two years running in the desert?

Tex-Alaskan Wayne helps Lynn and Jude at the Chili craft venue by doing panning demos just outside the building. He had a constant stream of interested parties. Gold is all the rage!

The local dance team warms up before their performance.

The look of protest appears on Marilyn's face whenever she catches me trying to take her picture without make-up. Ha! Here she works on my "art find" which will appear again a bit later in this post....

Lots of people bring their families to Arizona for a winter vacation. So as not to be accused of slandering any families from any state- I took a picture of the license plate on this mini station wagon.


Inside (well partially inside) was a donkey who thought he was a big dog apparently. Either that or this family has really funny looking kids. Just saying! Now what could be funnier than that???

Well.....look at his brother who somewhat resembles a BULL! I'm sure they are a very nice family though.


A stand of the parasite "mistletoe" grows on the desert scrub brush.


It's very pretty in its winter reddish color....


Back at the new shade structure, we hung my art find up on the shed wall. It was a rusty old table top made of cast iron that I found on a neighbor's scrap heap. Re-worked a bit, it turns out to be one of the coolest Arizona emblem designs I have ever come across. We cut it down, made new brackets for it, sealed it against further rust and gave it a new purpose in life. My version of recycling!


Here it is again....

Geek Qualified!

Yesterday I drove two hours (each way) to Yuma and then stood in line at the Geek Squad counter at Best Buy for an hour and a half to get them to look at my webcam on the Vaio. After a few minutes of trying to get the cam to "kick in" they decided it was a hardware failure of the camera itself and could not be fixed. That was pretty easy for me to believe because I spent hours and hours this week trying to get that little booger to work myself to no avail. So to cut my losses, I purchased a remote webcam to bring home and install so I could "git 'er done." And though we got home after 9PM after a long day indeed, I decided to take one last shot at getting the cam to work on my own. I had seen that although the screen was black when I activated the cam, the power signal to it was activated an! And I could make out the ghost image of the store's bright ceiling lights while it was being diagnosed- so there had to be something working in there!

Sure enough, the control panel feature regarding low light accommodation was checked (and assumed to be functioning) but I turned it off then back on again and "presto chango", the webcam was back in business. The geek had been wrong. I had been right. And so now I have earned the right to wear my Geek Squad T-shirt that I was given by them when they set up my first computer oh so many years ago. So next time you wanna try to Skype me- do it to it, and we'll see if it keeps on working. If not I now have a Gundy-redundancy webcam to install at my leisure, because for sure I am not driving 4 hours again any time soon to return a 29$ webcam.

In The Cool Cool Shade

Even in the winter, in the desert, the sun gets hot during the day! At night? Not so much- then even the spring and summer nights cool off considerably. But for a body....and more importantly for this discussion, vegetables need to "keep their cool." And that, dear friends, requires some shade of one form or another. And since we have no trees of any size yet, and since the shed has no porch roof overhang, we went off in search of some "cool" for ourselves and our lettuce and other veggies we hope to grow while having an extended stay here. It has been a labor of love- but a labor none-the-less. I suppose it is always like that. But what can you do? And in this case what we COULD do, was landscape another couple lots at the same time as we were doing our construction projects. Muscles....old muscles in particular, only have so much "do" in them and then they either get sore, cramp up, or go to sleep. Maybe all three! But if pushing it keeps us young, then we are just a couple of kids having a good time- and that's the way we like it!

When the light fades into the night...and if there is any energy left at all, we sit outside until the chill drives us in. Next door neighbors Tom and Michelle have a nice fire pit (gas) that throws some nice heat and we sometimes do "dogs" or marshmallows on the flames. We have a small on as well, but that is not yet set up. Soon.

Back to the shade structure. We built my design on the ground in stages and when all the components were ready we enlisted the neighbors and friends to help us hoist them into position. It could not have gone better. Parts were accurate to the 1/16 of an inch. Not bad for an overall 12 x 16 foot structure eight feet off the ground. We even amazed ourselves with that one! And because the planning was good, the application was relatively simple and effortless. It went well. Whew!

So now we have a place to hide from heat when it shows up. And the veggies have refuse both from the sun and the rabbits. Now if I can just keep Michelle next door from "grazing" the lettuce- life will be good!

Here's a look at how things stand now. Finishing touches yet to come....

Full Of Hot Air!

Let's start this post a little differently than usual- with a shout out to my "90 sumpin" year old mother who went out this last week and bought herself a new laptop and wireless router so she could stay on top of the cyber happenings in her life. How cool is that! Way to go mamacita!

Actually, I was gonna bring her up regardless because I borrowed the title of this post from her. Well, maybe not directly, but at least indirectly as she has been known to use a number of "sayings" throughout her life as it relates to her children- not the least of which is, in response to something I may have offered into evidence at one point or another....."Oh, you're so full of hot air!"

No claim on my part that that led me to be intrigued by hot air balloons, but I can't rule it out...and it works for this story, so it is what it is. My bucket list (and Marilyn's as well) has always included being able to attend the big balloon festival in Albuquerque, NM in the fall of each year. While we haven't made the "big one" yet, we sure got a terrific introduction to ballooning by traveling up to Lake Havasu City, Arizona for their version of the balloon festival- about 60 balloons instead of hundreds, but impressive and kind of awesome none-the-less. We caravan-ed the hour and a half journey with some of the Brenda Gang which added even more to the adventure of the day. It is good to have a support group any time it is necessary to get up in the dark at 5 in the AM and head out by 6. Yuk. But it had to be in order to arrive in time for the flyover and mass ascension of the balloons that was set to start just before 8 o'clock. And so it was....

We have seens balloons drifting over before, usually in Florida where they float high above and drift effortlessly across the blue heavens. A pretty sight, but tranquil. No sense of excitement and anticipation and marvelous adventure that comes from standing close enough to touch them as they are inflated with air, then heated to vertical, before lifting off the ground right beside where you are standing taking a picture. No ropes to stay behind. This is not like staying 7 miles back to watch the space shuttle go up. This is the here and now, the present and accounted for, the hands on ( hand me that line, will ya?), this is happening and YOU ARE THERE that Walter Cronkite used to deliver on the news so long ago. (If you are embarrassingly young, you can Google Cronkite - see if I care)

The sights and sounds of the day- or maybe the lack of sounds of the day, made for spending some fascinating time, and there is a lengthy slide show for sharing. The dueling cameras of Greg and Marilyn were firing repeatedly and this is what's left after we weeded out the few shots that we could stand to delete, albeit difficult. Perhaps the best experience of the day for us was walking into the massive balloon that was resting on its side - fans blowing air in to inflate it, so that folks could walk into the balloon and get a feel for the size and magnificence of the hot air container. Surely upon seeing the images of her now aging son actually in the middle of a hot air balloon, she will come to the realization, if she hadn't already done so, that, at least on occasions, the old boy IS "full of hot air." Just sayin'.




And for those of you wondering what on earth we have been up to during our most recent extended silence- we have been building a kayak rack and a "stand-up" garden box for growing some vegetables out of reach of the dad-gum rabbits but well within the reach of my sometimes sore back. Both are heavy duty and starting to go into service now, although not 100% completed at this point.

Pink Dice and Jambalaya

The ham and bean pot from Christmas day was converted into a gigantic pot of jambalaya for the New Year's Day celebration in the "big tent." We had a full house and Chefs Lynn and Jude did not disappoint with what I easily rate as the best jambalaya I have ever had anywhere. Even though we had a full house, there will be left overs and Happy Tuesday has been moved up to Happy Monday to accommodate both the leftovers and the funny goings on with the Rose Bowl parade and game this year. Hey! Any excuse for a party! Marilyn rallied and enjoyed the festivities for several hours and then we came home for her cold-drug induced nap necessities. It was a lovely meal with good friends who love only one thing more than a good meal- a good laugh.

And to that end Fran and Barlow put on their twin Michigander shirts and got out the pink pool noodle to beat up some interest in a game of chance called Flip Flop (some call it "Shut the Box"), a high stakes game (it costs a quarter a round to play) where-in you throw the pink dice and tip the numbers over until you can't roll any further. Winner takes all. No one cheats, but only because everyone else has eagle eyes on the player in turn, and also because if she suspects you might cheat, Marlene will come and sit next to you. That girl cracks me up!

The still shot is of the kettle of jambalaya stock bubbling away mid tent. As the precise time before 2 PM dinner bell, the rice and then the shrimp were added. The first bowl was dipped precisely on time....

Perfection in a pot. In a tent. In the desert. Happy New Year!

A December To Remember?

When we pulled into Arizona the end of the first week in December, we had a long list of things to accomplish in short order, and a powerful hankering to have some fun in the form of cookouts, trail rides, exploring new areas, and checking out the world's largest flea market- Quartzsite.

I was also looking forward to getting back to some reasonably responsible and regular posting -which I haven't been very good about recently. There was some rain the first few days in camp. Not the norm for here, but when all was said and done a double rainbow appeared and gave promise to a December to remember.

We quickly set out to accomplish our top priority- running a new water line and hooking up to a big water softener we dragged across the country with us. Trenches were dug, pipe was stuck, connections were made....and sure enough the system worked and made soft water of the well water here which is among the hardest in the world and is full of particulate that make it quite nasty without adequate treatment. This was a good start. Everything was right on schedule!


But about as soon as we wrapped up that project, I came down with an awful cough. Long and disgusting story made short- I went to see a doc in town and found out I had acute bronchitis. Steroid shots, a regimen of pills and some serious cough suppressant helped some but the problem still lingers. Marilyn fought off a cold of her own, but eventually succumbed to what in camp we are collectively calling "The Crud." We have it, but we are not alone! The misery index of the physical symptoms stayed with us and limited our ability to accomplish much else if anything all month. But it was still an interesting and special time. For starters, an illness of this nature is a much better experience in the west then it is, say, in the north east. You might be all congested and snotty and hacking away, but at least you can do it sitting outside in light weight clothing with the sunshine beating down on your face. You may not feel all that great, but there is at least something comforting about the circumstances....and there is no chance that when you breathe in or "blow out" that your fluids are gonna freeze on the spot, on your chin, your mustache or beard, whatever. It is A COLD, but it is in THE WARM. Something to be said for that!

One afternoon when we were sucking on cough drops and drinking Gatorade and drifting off on a mid-day nap, who should appear in their miniature sleigh, but Dandy Don and the Lovely Lady J- our dear friends and former neighbors from the Island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Never in a million years would we have anticipated a Christmas visitation from them, and it lifted our spirits and made an otherwise reasonably depressing day a very uplifting a special day to be sure. They were just "passing through the neighborhood" on the way to Phoenix, so it was short visit but one of the best ever surprises.

Over in the Happy Tuesday and Merry Christmas tent, the Brenda-blenda, Lynn, turned his focus from fresh squeezed lemonade drinks to ham and bean holiday soup. It was one awesome pot of viddles and we ate on it for the next three days. Our appetites have been seriously diminished by cold remedies, and our taste buds have been hampered by the same, but this was gooooood!

We stayed in the game through Christmas, but last night when it came to staying up to midnight for snacks and a New Year's toast with the gang, we totally crapped out. Our bad! Hopefully we can rally to help with the big pot of jambalaya for New Year's day. As far as the long list of Honey Do's- nothing, or at least not much got done. No energy. Not yet. Maybe soon? I did pick up some materials so if I can ever get to feeling like being active again, I'm ready.

Meanwhile the gang rides in and out of camp on long and exciting rides and all we can do is wave bye bye. That's gotta stop too!

In the past, I've always made a year end review and written it up with some stats and some recollections and some opinions and maybe a few conclusions about life in general. But this year? Consider yourself "spared...."

Until we feel better and have something to write about: Happy New Year Everyone!

Coming Into Arizona

Cold or not, we crawled outta bed early and cranked the old air compressor to bring the tires up to a safe pressure from their somewhat reduced pressure of the cold night air before the first rays of the sun could mess with my readings. It's not a fun task especially on a cross country run, but it's gotta be done in order to be safe! We were rewarded with the glory of the desert being caressed by the early morning light as we came down off the plateau from New Mexico and into the Arizona flats. It is always breathtaking and once you have seen it, you hold it in your mind's eye the whole trip...and are never disappointed by the first acquaintance glimpse of it.

We made a stop at perhaps our favorite roadside rest stop in America at Texas Canyon. It's in Arizona, not Texas- maybe just to add some interest- not that it needs more than it has. The photos from the stop are inadequate to show what you are about to behold as you enter the canyon which follows... enormous boulders perched delicately and seemingly unsafely atop each other high atop the cliffs on either side of the canyon. You will wonder how they got there; but you will wonder much harder at how they stay there year after year, century after century. If you pass this way, keep your camera at the ready as the scenery just gets better and better. There are small pull-offs a few places, not suitable for us when we are on a mission: tomorrow is Happy Tuesday!

We pulled into Casa Grande for the last night on the road. Tomorrow, without unforeseen problems, we shall be delivered to Brenda and Desert Gold RV - our home for the winter where we share the time with dear friends, from all over the country, but many if not most of whom share our love for not only the desert but also Alaska. So it may not be home, but it always feels like home with their company.

I wanted to go back, if I may, to the trek through Texas. I neglected to say that we had seen wolves on this trip. Not dogs. Not coyotes. Wolves. Three of them. All dead. One grey. One typically mottled, and one pure white. All three were enormous, and the white one was reminiscent to me of the white buffalo I saw in South Dakota. Sorry they were dead by the side of the road, all in proximity to the other so no doubt it was a pack that got careless and stayed by the road too long for their own good. It was not a place where pulling over to take a picture was an option...and sorry I am about that, but thought I should go back at least to mention the occasion.

Casa Grande is crawling with quail and jack rabbits like below. These are small in comparison to the sizes they can reach, and in fact we had seen one of those large ones (muy grande) dead on the road as well. That one was so big I was checking for antlers as though it were a deer until we realized what it was.


Without jinxing myself (he knocked on wood), I can tell you it has been a marvelous crossing to date, and if that luck holds up, we'll be in camp by mid-day tomorrow- two days ahead of schedule!!!

Swamp Goodies

Back in the Atchafalaya Swamp- on one of our favorite pieces of road in the country. Stopped for the night at one of our regular haunts- Frenchman's Wilderness, pretty much right in the middle of the swamp. We unhitched the tow-able chuck wagon and headed off to Pat's for an all cajun meal on the bayou just beside the levee. In order to fit this in, we had to do an early dinner, so we had the place entirely to ourselves. Tried a bunch of cajun classics and a few things we'd never had before- all very interesting. Cajun or not, we added a generous portion of Pat's local made hot sauce. Whew! Good! Think of it as Happy Tuesday - a day late!

Georgia Color and Then Some

It's no secret we were in Georgia for quite a bit over the last few months doing the prospecting thing at Loud Mine. We did find some gold- not enough to write home about (or blog about for that matter) but it was a really good time with a bunch of good people and we enjoyed our time there. Gold. They call it "color." But COLOR and the Fall makes you think of driving through New England to watch the leaves on all the trees turn color. But New England has no corner on the market for Fall Color so I though it appropriate to use this post to show you some of the "color" that Georgia has to offer. Gonna break this down into two sections- leaves and .....hogs. Hogs? Yea. It seems that Georgia has a whole hog BBQ competition every year and we took that all in....right after we drove around in the mountains to see the leaves turn gorgeous colors. Perfect bbq has a color all its own, a fragrance, an air that wafts in the smoke and makes the appetite come on strong. With all the smells and images, this was a great event, complete with our getting to meet world famous bbq chef Myron Nixon (you'll no doubt recognize him from the slide shows especially if you watch GRILLMASTERS competitions on the Cooking Channel.

Here then the images from Fall and the Pig Jig- Georgia style!