John and Aileen sometimes on the road: GEOCACHING, ATVING AND A BIRTHDAY PARTY

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 80^th 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.