On The Road Again

After the hustle and bustle of the San Diego area our first stop was back in the desert at Quartzsite dry docking. It was a free night's stay and very restful.
Tack was happy to be off leash for the first time in quite a while.
The sunrise and sunsets are beautiful here.


There we are all by our lonesome in the big vast desert of Quartzsite. Well us and the rattle snakes that are now out. We didn't see any thank goodness.
Before we left San Diego we took one last trip to Balboa Park to the new cactus garden. A great place with lots of trails that wind in and around many varieties of cacti/cactus...which is correct?
Anyway there are signs posted all over saying that it is against the law to pick or damage the plants in any way and doing so can result in a $500 fine.
As we were walking Mikey spied this old babe yanking, pulling and actually cutting (with her little red handled scissors) every plant species that she could find. Mikey did tell her that it was illegal to do this but she pretended to not understand and continued to collect specimens.
Mikey got on the phone to security and I followed her around snapping pictures for proof. OMG we felt like private detectives making the world right! Too funny. The security person came as well as a local police lady. As they talked with the offender she went from English to some other non understandable dialect. They found her bag full of plants but told us that having found out that she was 87 they could not 'throw an old lady in the clink'. We did see her going off in the police car though to who knows where. What an afternoon!
On our way through the Palm Springs area. These always make a great photo op with the mountains in the background.
Why yes here we are in Arizona finally. We traveled up a mountain to the very top at 7223 feet elevation. The snow had melted quite a bit but there was still lots left. That would be me playing in it in sandals, shorts and a sleeveless shirt.
Snow capped mountains do make lovely pictures.
Another view of our mountain drive.
While in the Sedona area David and I spent two entire days driving around looking at the sights. It really is beautiful here. One of our day trips was to Jerome and the mining town right next to Jerome. This town now has a population of one. The one is the character below and a character he is. He runs a sawmill that he mills wood to make things out of in his old old woodworking shop. The town is an old mining town and everything it seems has been left just as it was when the people moved out one by one. Junk....oh my it is a junkers dream. However nothing is for sale!
Mike (I think his name was) is a tinkerer. This is a 1928 Studebaker in line engine on a 1924
Essex frame (getting this info from David). The rest of the car is hand built. It is an Indy car that he is building purely for pleasure and not for real racing...can you imagine. David was oh so impressed with not only the car but Mike himself. Oh by the way, he cranks the car to start it, the crank is in the front.
Now I became impressed when I spied this nice old Harley. Mike says it is a 1942 and he uses it to got the mail. He tried to kick it over for us but it had been raining and the magneto got wet. He even tried to get it dried out for us but it just wasn't working...oh well.
One man's junk
Is Bob Geldner's dream (hi Bob:) Mike does have a shit load of junk. It was a fun day.
We also got to spend the evenings with Rachel, Melvin and Dezbah either at our camper or at their apartment. Rachel whipped up a great meal of salmon and Melvin threw together soup another night...yum. And once again, it is great to have adult children especially those that can cook:)
Here are Dezbah, Poppa Dave and Teeko (she just cant quite get the P )
She even warmed up to Grandma Bobbi as she told her dad one day, 'I want to go to Grandma Bobbi's house and give her a hug'. Here she is reaching out for a Grandma hug.
Doing a ballerina pose and yes those are Poppa Dave's hands ready to catch her if she falls.
It was hard to leave yet another grandbaby dang it!
On our way to our next overnight stop on the way to MN this is what we ran into through most of New Mexico. Snow then rain then horrible gusts of wind. Not such a much unless you are pulling a camper......
Pretty ominous looking skies.
But we made it to Albuquerque and are parked for the night in a casino lot. We filled our tummy's at the buffet and I promptly lost $20.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another interesting travel day weather wise. We plan on spending the night in a truck stop somewhere...seriously...it's free and just a place to sleep. We do stay cozy with the generator running and can even watch TV and blog.