Our neighbour Carol found this Giant Water Bug in her carport the other day so we sent one of the local dogs over to check it out
Things are starting to happen here after a period of not too
much doing. Aileen attended the monthly
park board meeting Tuesday to support her request for one of the swimming pools
to have the temperature lowered to swimming temperature as the current temperatures
at all the pools are too warm for her
MS. Her efforts were in vain even
though there was a fair bit of support via a petition.
I’ve been ATV riding several times and there has been some
frustration with some other riders not following proper protocol. When it is dusty, we have fairly large gaps
between riders to let the dust settle.
Because of that, when we come to a trail junction, each rider must wait
until the one behind has seen which direction to turn. This is usually more of a problem with large
groups but the other day with only eleven riders we had a problem twice in
about two miles. The first time it took
quite some time but we did find each other.
The second time, the leader noticed he only had two riders with him
fairly soon and was able to come back to find the rest of us. In the second instance there was a multitude
of choices in which trail to take. There were close to thirty riders lined up at
yesterday’s gathering so Jim and I said we were going off on our own. We quickly departed before anyone else decided
to come along and we had a good ride.
Since we had determined earlier we were going in a small group so Jim
could do a little gold panning, I took my good camera, several lenses and
tripod. While the idea of riding by
oneself is very intriguing, it is just not really wise. There was the case of the guy who rolled his
machine a while back and my old friend Ken and I were able to rescue him. It
could have been a real problem since he was totally trapped underneath his ATV
and could only get out with our help. At the
monthly ATV potluck, that chap expressed his gratitude several times to
me. He was so lucky that his only injury
was a broken collar bone. His wife is
still very angry at him for being so foolish by riding too fast for conditions –
period. I heard of another resident in this
park who rolled his machine on top of himself and it was several hours before someone
found him and was able to get him out.
Jim had a flu bug or something for several days and I had a
sinus issue then a sore back so we finally got together the other night for
Mexican Train. Jim won followed by Jacquie,
Aileen and me. You’d think as score
keeper I’d be able to have a better showing!
We will get more games in the next couple weeks as we are heading to
Quartzsite on Tuesday for a week or two with Jacquie and Jim and will meet their
son’s in laws, Maurice and Diane, there.
I have been polishing the motor home using a product called
Protect All and it is so easy to use.
Well, with my sore back maybe not that easy, but you just rub it on and
rub it off with a micro fiber
cloth. It does an excellent job of
cleaning and the surface doesn’t have to be totally clean. I wipe the worst of the dust off with a soft
cloth then apply the Protect All. It
goes fast but there is a lot of surface on the motor home. Of course, I’m just getting it all nice and
clean to go sit in the dusty desert for two weeks!
Aileen and I decided to put our property in the
park on the market, so we did the deed today using an agent here in the park. For
those of you who thought you’d come visit us some day, it’s probably too
late. We plan to go back to our original plan of
exploring more of the southwest. We will
boondock more and try to plan some RV park stays periodically for a week or
maybe as long as a month so we can thoroughly explore different areas. With
having our current set up, we seem to pretty much stay just in this area as it
is easier than moving everything back into the motor home for a little trip, then
back into the park model on our return.
We took a drive over to Casa Grande today after signing the
real estate listing as I was craving a buffet fix at the Golden Corral. By being very careful, Aileen was able to
find enough gluten free food. Looking
for a light supper tonight, Aileen made us eggs benny and were they ever
good. She’d bought some gluten free
hamburger buns made by Kinnickinick out of Edmonton, AB and I remarked they
would make really good eggs benny buns. She
went online for a recipe and minutes later the most excellent benny’s were
served.
Along the Gila River near South Butte
Me, photo by Jim
And Jim coming down the rock ledge; it was more exciting going back up!
In Donnelly Wash near South Butte are these beautiful rock formations
There's just the one area, no others like it anywhere close that I'm aware of
A cactus garden in the wild. There are ocotillo (the tall thin stalks), cholla, saguaro and a barrel cactus.
This is last season's fruit on a fish hook barrel cactus. Note the curved spines