BOUSE, AZ OUR HOME FOR A WHILE

We moved over near Bouse on Wednesday.  The drive was about 368 kms (230 miles) which took us most of the day.  Aileen drove the car while I towed the General on the trailer.  We are set up in the same spot we had last year and so far just as quiet. 

We drove into Quartzsite yesterday to visit Jacquie and Jim.  There are doing well and enjoying being here instead of home in waist deep snow.  Between -35C where Bev is and 12 inches of snow in Victoria at Richard’s and multi feet in Salmon Arm, our home base, this AZ weather is pretty darn nice.

We plan on taking it pretty easy for most of our time here with some trips out on the desert trails in the Polaris and a few road trips in the car.  Some geocaching will also be done.

Along the Martinez Mine Rd

Along the Martinez Mine Rd at the gate

Along the Martinez Mine Rd beyond the gate

Martinez corral

Lunch at the corral

The view from above

A pond across the Colorado River from Parker, AZ

Wild burros across the river from Parker

Colorado River above Parker, AZ from the California side.  For my sibs and cousins, this area is where Mac and Nancy wintered for several years.  They were in their trailer.

The buildings are all on the Arizona side in my photos as we are on the California side of the river.  The California side has mostly trailer parks.

Sunset last night

Back at the Martinez gate, looks like they buried this guy with his boots on

Cattle above Box Canyon on our ride Monday

ALMOST TIME FOR A CHANGE OF SCENERY

The neighbourhood is nearly full now.  Renters are in the park model behind us and Terry and Sandi to our west just arrived.  Sandy and her sister to our east arrived a few days ago.  We have thirteen ATVs on our block this year.

The number of ATVers riding this year seems to be up.  I’ve had groups of eighteen to twenty one lately and on Thursday there were other groups out with nearly as many.  There were several large groups of Jeeps as well.  Our riding area seems quite a bit busier than past years at this time.

We took a road trip with friends Richard and Judy last Sunday down to Oracle then through the San Pedro Valley and came out on I-10 at Benson.  Took I-10 back to Casa Grande then home.  We all got to see some new country and different scenery.  I led three rides this week, two with the club and one on Wednesday with just us Richard and Judy and Mike and Wendy.  Wendy doesn’t function well in a large group so she had a good day with just the few of us.

We managed to fit in a card night with Ken and Marie playing Sets this time.  We played one game then had hamburgers for supper and then two more later.

We will probably head out to the Quartzsite area sometime this coming week for a change of scenery. No idea how long we will be away this year.  We will take the General as well as the car so we will have the option of both off road travel and the ability to take some road trips.

The first four photos are down along the San Pedro River Valley

Grumpy guy

Burrowing Owl in Casa Grande

Southeast of Florence, AZ

Just north of Benson we spotted this rat rod mailbox

Barrel cactus in front, Saguaro behind.

Road block heading for the Little Spine

Twenty ATVs parked for lunch

Some of our desert scenery

Just above Box Canyon

January fall colour near Florence, in a few short weeks the trees will again be green.

Another lunch spot

A seldom used trail

Old mines on the far hillside

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020

The day after my last post we took the new UTV to Casa Grande for its first service.   Our friends Richard and Judy were also in Casa Grande that day so we met for lunch. 

We’ve had four major rain storms so far this winter so the desert is really greening up.  It is an amazing transformation considering how distressed the desert was when we arrived a couple months ago.  Once again this winter is providing a lot of wind and cold weather.  We have had one or both electric heaters going most of the past month.  It is hard to keep the motor home warm with so many large windows and other drafts.

Our renters haven’t arrived yet so we’ve been able to keep using the park model.  We had American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in there with friends and today we are having a late New Year’s dinner.  First we were going to have it New Year’s Eve but we had to take our neighour Carol to Phoenix for a medical issue.  She was kept in hospital for emergency surgery New Year’s Day.   We had taken her for a different appointment on Boxing Day also.   Then on New Year’s Day, we joined several neighbour’s to celebrate Bud and Jackie’s 50^th anniversary.  Yesterday was a ride day so today is the day!

On December 27 we went with Ken and Marie to a Red Lobster restaurant in Phoenix to meet our mutual Colorado friends Ernie and Atha and their granddaughter.  They had flown down to spend Christmas with her and the restaurant was sort of halfway between here and there.  It was good to see them.  We have played cards several times with Ken and Marie recently.  Ernie and Atha are part of the Colorado card playing bunch we play with when we visit there.  Ernie and Atha used to come here for the winter but not the past couple of years.

The Thumb on the left is one of our most prominent landmarks when out in our riding area

Over on the south side of the Gila River

South Butte

A waterfall during heavy rain.  I have seen a video taken during the summer monsoon with lots of water flowing over.  I took some of the ATV group up to the bottom the other day.  That would be me on the left.

Some cows spotted on a ride

One thing about the storms is the expressive clouds we get

Barrel Cactus with South Butte behind

Our motor home on the left as we were heading out on a walk one evening

Later on our walk when we were caught in a downpour.  We are taking shelter on someone's porch but we were already soaked!

When we got home and the rain had stopped for a few minutes

Gila Woodpecker at our neighbour's feeder shot through the windshield from my computer station

A few photos from yesterday's ride on the south side of the Gila River.  I don't ride on the north side during any holidays or weekends because there are so many idiots out there tearing up the trails.  Thanksgiving week and Christmas and New Year's see large numbers of RVs parked all over and they all have ATVs.  On the south side we seldom see anyone.

Twenty one machines in my group yesterday