Still More Fun with Jim and Emily

This morning we set out in our Samurais with Jim and Emily to find the Indian petroglyphs, grinding stones, and Footprint in the desert. They had tried to find these things last year, with no success, as some of the directions in the "Stone Cabins" book are subject to interpretation, to put it mildly. "Drive down the wash, take the third dirt road coming out of it, and turn left at the saguaro." Hmmmm. Since the washes have been overrun with ATV trails and the desert littered with saguaros, it's no wonder we got lost. Luckily, we ran into (not literally!) an Australian couple hiking along who had been to the petroglyphs, and, with a cheerful "No worries, mates!" gave us more explicit directions. Sure enough, following their route we bumbled across the petroglyphs. While we were there, Cheryl and Bill rolled up on their ATV and showed us where the grinding stones, just across the wash, were. That's the pictures with the holes. They are actually flat on the ground, but Steve had a hard time getting them in a picture that way, sno they look like they're on a wall. Ten thousand years ago, Indian women sat on the rock and ground their corn and seeds into flour, no doubt chatting about thier husbands and children while they did so. How many years of grinding must it have taken for the holes to get that deep?

Cheryl and Bill had also found the Footprint, and volunteered to guide us there. A good thing too, because their route went up, down, and all around, with several backtracks. We never would have found it on our own.We saw a lot of rugged country, and joked that we didn't know whether to tip them or ask for a refund for their guide services. We did get there in the end, and it was pretty cool. a very long, thin human footprint in the rock, which was mud when the person stepped there. You could even see the indentations for each toe. Unfortunately, it was pretty faint, and the sun was at the wrong angle so the pictures Steve took did not come out at all.

Tonight we're invited to a campfire at Jim and Emily's, and tomorrow for sure we've leaving Quartzsite to meet up with John and Hey. They are boondocking in the desert near Imperial Dam. He emailed us directions, which appear to be inspired by the ones in "Stone Cabins:" "Turn right at the two big cannons, cross a couple of canals, and turn left at something Wash Road. Look for my flags." No worries, mates! We'll find him.

More 4 Wheeling Fun

Well, we're still in Quartzsite. The other day when we were in town, and inspired by our previous backroad adventure, we picked up a little book called "Stone Cabins and Other Excuses to Explore the Backroads Around Quartzsite." It contains 14 or 15 different destinations from old stone mining cabins to petroglyphs and natural water "tanks" in the desert. It was complied by Paul Miner, the nearly-naked proprietor (see pic from last year) of The Readers' Oasis bookstore in town, and the proceeds help fund a community project called Celia's Rainbow Garden. Celia was Paul's daughter, who died in 1994 at age 8 of a viral heart infection. She was apparently an extraordinary little girl, and had an amazing impact on those who knew her. A foundation was formed, and 8 acres were purchased on the edge of the town park, where a series of gardens have been planted in her memory. We haven't been there yet, but it's on my list. And speaking of nearly-naked Paul Winer, AKA Mr. Sock to my family and friends, I can't help but be curious. Was he a nudist while Celia was still alive? If so, what would that have been like for her? Was she embarrassed? Would her friends' parents allow them to come over to play? Lots of interesting questions and no answers. But I digress.

So, yesterday morning, armed with our new book, we stopped off at Jim and Emily's to ask them which trip they would recommend. The next thing we knew, they had loaded up their dog, tossed us a walkie talkie, and had joined our adventure. They chose Trip #5 The Cabin at Apache Chief Mine, and that's where these pictures were taken. Here is what the book says about it. "You could move right into this stone cabin. Its tin roof is still in place, and when we were there some joker had fastened a mailbox to it. There was even furniture inside and a guest book for you to sign. But what makes this cabin special is the open-air "throne" on the hill behind it where the cabin occupant sat and enjoyed the view while taking care of nature."

This cabin is popular and has lots of visitors. Many people add their personal touches. When we were there, there was "wash" hanging on a clothesline, and a "gravesite" nearby. Inside, there was a crazily dressed mannequin couple and place setting on the wooden kitchen table. People had left calling cards and various old artifacts about, including old bones, tin cans, pottery shards, etc. It was quite a sight. Oh, and the "throne" had acquired a mate. His and hers?

Looks like we'll be here for a few more days. We moved our camp down the road a piece with our friend John. There's no one nearby, so we can let the dogs run and play off leash without anyone complaining. Tonight John is cooking chicken curry and Jim and Emily are coming over after dinner for ice cream and apple pie from the Quartzsite Bakery. Oh, and bringing margaritas.

4 Wheeling Adventure

Today is Tuesday. I spent yesterday learning how to upload pictures from the camera to the computer and how to resize them for the blog. Time well spent, as now I can do both myself, without waiting for Steve to do it for me. The bad news is that now I don't have an excuse for not blogging in a timely manner!
Last week, Steve had gotten acquainted with some of our "neighbors"--Jim and Emily Christensen of Red Bluff, CA. They've been coming to Quartzsite for six years now, and have a Suzuki Samurai like ours; actually, they have three. They love to go out exploring the back roads, and on Sunday, invited us to go with them. We packed a lunch and loaded up the dogs; Emily tossed me a walkie-talkie, and off we went. They led us to an area in the mountains northeast of Quartzsite and we hit the dirt. Lots of fun and weirdly beautiful in a desolate, minimalistic sort of way. The fuzzy-looking cactus you see in the pictures are called teddy bear cholla (prounounced hoya). They are cute, but anything but cuddly! Lots of those, saguaro, and my fvorite--ocotillo--which isn't blooming yet. There's a small ocotillo in the second photo, next to the teddy bear cactus. It has long, skinny, wavy branches, and, in bloom, has a little orange "flag" at the end of each branch. They should be out by the time we get to Ajo, as it's farther south and warmer. When we got back on tghe pavement, we found ourselves on the highway to Bouse, so we decided to forget our sanwiches and go to the Country Kitchen Cafe in Bouse for lunch. We discovered it last year when we were exploring Patton's old tank training base near Bouse and loved the food. Unfortunately, they close early on Sunday and we just missed them. We found another cafe open and ate there instead. Pretty good, but no comparison.

Today is laundry day and getting the Royal Palms set to leave tomorrow. We need to dump, get water and propane. I also ordered some business cards at Quiet Times, the little printing/copy shop in town. All the people we meet seem to have them, and they come in handy when yhou want to trade information to meet up again somewhere along the road. Most have a picture of their rig or a photot of themselves. I thought the photo was a great idea so we could connect faces with names. Yesterday, I took a photo of us in to the shop, and the lady, Martine, said she would come up with some samples for me to look at this morning. I'll pick one and she'll print them up right then and there. Pretty slick. She was really into it--ink color, font, layout. Turned up her nose at the cards (Jim and Emily's and another ) I brought in as samples. "Too busy," she sniffed. "You can't read that fancy font." "That color ink hurts my eyes." I will have to take a picture of the one we end up with, along with the others, and you can be the judge.

On the Road Again--2009 Edition

We left Salt Lake City on January 12th, right after Steve's mom's 98th birthday. We had recently moved her from her home to an assisted living center, and things were pretty stressful for awhile, but we were able to get most of the services she needed in place so we could leave town reasonably guilt-free. They say old age is not for sissies; managing life for an ageing parent is not for sissies either!

We are back in Arizona for the winter season. We had hoped to be in Mexico again but it just isn't feasible this year. The main reason is that the ultra-low sulfur diesel that the Royal Palms requires isn't reliably available in the parts of Mexico that we want to go. You can get it as far south as Encinada, but, as far as we're concerned, that's where it's barely starting to get good. Supposedly, everyone has to switch over to the ultra low by January 2010; we'll keep our fingers and toes crossed that this time next year we'll again be eating fresh-caught shrimp with the waves of the Sea of Cortez lapping at our feet.

We had parked the Royal Palms in my brother Jeff's garage-mahal in Prescott Valley last October after Steve finished up work on Jeff's wine cellar, so we caravanned down fronm Salt Lake with Steve driving our "new" 20 year old Suzuki Samurai and me the Honda CRV. We were hoping to get away with just the Samurai, but it's tiny, and the dogs take up most of the available space, so there was no way. We drove as far as Page, AZ the first day, and spent the night at Motel 6. Only forty dollars (senior discount!) and no charge for the dogs. Dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant called Fiesta Mexicana that the clerk at the motel recommended, and then up early the next morning to finish the drive to Prescott. We spent a day there loading up, getting groceries, and Steve hooking up ariels, internet router, and other electronics on the roof. Then he headed off to Quartzsite in the Palms, towing the Samurai, to hobnob with the View/navion techies at their rally, and I drove the Honda to my folks in Sun City West. He came to get me on Tuesday, and we spent the day glued to the TV, watching Barack Obama get sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, and watching George W. Bush climb aboard a helicopter and get out of town,k possibly my favorite part of the whole thing. Just kidding.

Now we're in Quartzsite, camped at La Posa South, a ten minute walk from the big RV show and flea market. Steve had met up with our friend, John Ruch from Virginia, whom we had met and bonded with at the Nehalem rally last summer; we are camped next door to him and his lab-mix puppy, "Hey," who is the same age as our pup, "Tex;" they are in love. If Ellie, our 7 year old border could roll her eyes, she would. We are paid up here until the 28th. After that, we will mosey on down to Yuma, the Hot Springs, Tucson, and Ajo, not necessarily in that order.

It's fun to be back on the road and out of the cold weather. It's T-shirt weather here--70's during the day, 50's at night.Pictures next post.