SITTING IN NEUTRAL (or so it seems)

I went riding with the group on Tuesday January 3 and was the leader again.  One huge advantage to being leader is being up front out of the dust.  I get to stop for pictures and everyone stops behind me.  The good part of that is the group stays together much easier.  If I’m in the middle of the group and stop for a picture,  often the group in front gets a long way in front and if they turn off and the last person doesn’t wait at the junction, it makes it difficult to decide which way to turn.   Because of that, I don’t often stop and just get frustrated about missing a good shot.  There were 29 ATVs out on Thursday so they split into two  groups to be more manageable. 

I didn’t go out Thursday or today as my back has been sore for the past several days.  I think it must be a bug of some kind.  I had a sore left little finger for a few days then my sinuses started leaking a lot.  Then my lower back got sore and  I seem to have some sciatica with pain running down both legs.  I went in a hot tub last night but it wasn’t very warm.  Three of the pools are way to war for Aileen so we have gone twice to one that is broken and has no heat.   It has been holding at 72F which Aileen finds good for exercising and I found fine for swimming one night.  I didn’t chance it last night since my back was unhappy in general.

We have a busy week and a half then we hope to get over to Quartzsite for a few days and maybe do some travelling and exploring for a few days.  I’ve been doing lots of reading lately, enjoying our well stocked park library.

The green seat is for the driver, the one out front is for the passenger.  Looks like an exciting ride  

This home built rock crawler is powered by a 6.0 l Chev V8 and is all hydraulic.  When running, it will raise up to 52 inches of ground clearance.  The owner is from Nebraska and said he built it in six months.  He is boondocking in the desert in a huge fifth wheel pulled by a tandem axle highway truck

Note that each wheel is individually driven by hydraulic motors

We revisited the Top of the World Trail on Tuesday, that's the Thumb on the left 

When coming through Box Canyon, some of the guys spotted what I missed, namely these eight bighorn sheep.  When they told me about the sheep, I went back with a couple of the guys to get some pictures