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.

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.