I took Mitzy for an ATV ride and walk before heading off on
Tuesday’s ride. I led the group
again. Since Scotty Wilson’s son Rob was
along, I took the group over the Little Spline, Top of the World and Box
Canyon. I consider those the best
highlights in the shortest ride for this area.
Eleven of us to start then one went home to attend a homeowner’s
meeting. The group all said they enjoyed
the ride. Aileen took her friend Marie
over to San Tan for a little shopping and a challenging lunch at McDonald’s. That McDonald’s staff weren’t very gluten
wise.
On Wednesday, I took a lunch and wandered off
geocaching. I did stop in town to fuel
up the car as it was getting down and I thought perhaps Aileen might want to
use it Thursday while I was off ATVing.
I parked at the end of the pavement on the Florence Kelvin Highway then rode
back about 2.5 kms or more to get started from where I’d left off Sunday. The wind was brutal. I rode into it all day mostly was in low gear
and sometimes I was hardly making headway.
I got pretty tired and thought of quitting several times, but
didn’t. The gears were slipping really
badly which didn’t help matters. I
finally finished all the caches I had written down, except for some away from
the road which I’ll use the car for, just before three pm then I could turn and
ride with the wind behind me. It was
just before four when I got back to the car.
The gears slippage was even worse and when I was loading the bike, I
noticed the front tire was going flat.
Luckily, it stayed up enough for me to get back. I found 82 caches and rode at least 28 kms! One tired dude that night! I did do three loads of laundry before and
after supper, though.
I went on the Thursday ATV ride and we had a good day. Although it started off sunny, it clouded
over soon which made for more moderate temperatures and was easier on the
eyes. Nobody was complaining. I was even shown a new trail I hadn’t been on
before. After lunch the group of 18
split in half and I went with the slightly more adventurous.
Aileen didn’t go to Casa Grande Thursday morning as she
thought it looked like a dust storm over that way. I wanted to go to Walmart to check out bikes
so away we went shortly after I got home from my ride. Aileen was in need of a new bathing suit but
there were no ladies swim suits to be had anywhere we looked. It’s
pretty dumb considering all the RV parks that have swimming pools in this area
but it seems all the stores have to send their swimwear back to the main
warehouse as soon as summer is over. She
was able to order one online from JC Penny last night which should be exactly
the same as the one she has. We went to
the Casa Grande Olive Garden for supper and it was very nice. They seem to be very conscientious at serving
gluten free. I spent quite a while
looking at bikes at Walmart but didn’t get one.
I hope to get a bike mechanic to look at the bike to see if it is an
easy fix or whether I should buy another.
We took a quick run over to Coolidge this morning for a few
things. I found a bike tube that
advertised no more flat tires. It has
some kind of slime inside that will heal the leak. It claims to be able to seal up to a 1/8 inch
hole. For $8 I bought one and installed
it after lunch in my flat front tire.
We went to our neighbour Daryl’s 80th birthday
gathering this afternoon. To celebrate the
occasion, Daryl did a tandem skydive from 13,000 feet the other day. Most of the immediate neighbours and some
friends attended today’s party. We had a
visiting good time and lots to eat. Daryl
had asked me to take pictures which I did.
I edited some tonight and put on a thumb drive to give him. He doesn’t seem able to email pictures from
his computer anymore so I will do that tomorrow for him.
I saw a few of these Christmas Chollas while geocaching the other day
A couple of neat gates along the gravel highway where I was caching Wednesday
I enjoyed this sign along the caching trail Wednesday
An old tree near Quartzsite a few weeks ago
Out behind where we parked near Quartzsite
Bonnie across from our park model brought over this Pink-Spotted Hawk Moth one day thinking it was about to die. I started to take some pictures with my normal lens then Aileen asked why I wasn't using my macro lens. I thought, great idea and went in and got it out of the cupboard. I came back and got one shot then the sucker up and flew away! I guess maybe it was newly hatched and got dry enough to fly.
We were fortunate to see some Javelinas on our Tuesday ATV ride. These are the first I've seen in four years of riding and amazingly, they didn't run fast away as they normally do, I'm told.
Two Javelinas
Looking at the Thumb and adjacent peak on the Top of the World trail Tuesday
In Box Canyon Tuesday