Good Friends Good Food And A Whole Lotta Dust In My Ears

We spent the past 10 days in Quartszite Arizona dry camping in the desert on BLM land. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management and is land where campers are able to just pull onto and camp. There is no water or electricity on this land and it is real desert land. Some folks actually spend the entire winter on BLM land, many have solar panels on their units. Those of us without depend on our generators and our filled water tanks.
Each January and February campers descend on Quartszite in droves for the Gem and Mineral and RV shows. David and I feel fortunate to have been 'accepted' into the annual Quartszite core family of Dan and Sue, Bonnie and Barry, John, Barb and Abby, Larry, Collin and Kathy and Mikey and Jan. This was our second year with this group and they have become good friends.

Even though we run on generators, ration our water and have dust blowing everywhere there is no lack of food. Each night someone brings appetizers and a dish to go with whatever the main dish may be. The appetizers are nothing to sneeze at and are not only very tasty but pretty pleasing to the eye as well.

Veggie pizza by Kathy
Shrimps on masobi artichoke leaves by Sue
We also had our very own entertainment. Dan is a friend of someone or another :) and came by this year to spend some time with the group. He reminds me of Jerry Jeff Walker in the way that he sings and the songs that he sings. He writes his own lyrics singing them to the tunes of established songs.
We dined in the best of places, either in our 5th wheel


Or outside by the campfire. No matter where we were we plopped we enjoyed the food as well as the company. Lots of 'fish' stories were told around the campfire.
And Jan 'stirred it up' setting sparks a-flying.Abby and Peeko were happy to see each other again which seems pretty evident by this picture


Mikey, Jan, David and I spent three or four days 'deserting' on the roads less traveled. Yep this is one that we traversed.Everywhere you look the scenery is different.


Gorgeous mountain-scapes
Great colors


And a miner's shack. We ran across quite a few recently claimed mines that were obviously being worked by individuals.
And a windmill in the middle of nowhere

We took Mikey and Jan's jeep over some crazy boulder ridden paths. This does not look so treacherous but that old Jeep was going over some pretty huge rocks here which is why David got out to guide Mikey over them. We were just about on three wheels here.
Oh ya, Mikey cannot resist taking that Jeep up a mountainside-oop here he is coming down already

And once he gets to the top he's feeling pretty proud of himself and his JeepWe didn't only drive the trails, we hiked as well. We hiked up mountains...I'm not far behind the guys here
And at one point I gave Jan the shirt off of my back....only to have her make a sack out of it and she then became our pack mule. We had lots of rocks to haul back and needed both something to put them in and someone to carry them....Jan offered what can I say.
Here the guys are panning for something or other. We gave up on gold early on but did continue to find the perfect rock, after rock, after rock.
Saquaro's (swirl's) everywhere. Most are pretty darned tall as you can see by comparing Jan to it
And many are quite unique. Like perhaps an elephant's trunk
Or one that says, 'Which way do I go which way do I go.........'
And what looks to be a porcupine crawling up one
These three seemed to be growing right out of the rocks
And these are reaching for the beautiful sky
Yep Quartszite a great place to spend time in January. As fun as it was we were so ready to scrub the dust out of our pores and get to a spot where we have real electricity, sewer and water from an actual water pipe. That place would be Santee Cali. When we first arrived yesterday the dogs were damned happy to actually put their noses in grass! David and Mikey are preparing to fish one of the seven ponds/man made lakes here and Jan and I are anxious to relax in the pools and hot tub.

Algadonas Mexico and Yuma Arizona

Algadonas is the border town where loads of retired folks (including Mikey and Jan) go to the dentist, get new glasses, medications and booze. Mikey decided that for a buck it was also worth getting his shoes shined.

And David figured he would try getting his teeth cleaned. I think it was a whopping $30. Me, I would rather pay the deductible and wait until we get back to our very own-I know and trust him- dentist. I have been told that the dentists are every bit as good as the ones in the US and as clean and sterile. That's OK, I'll wait:)

And here is David waiting patiently to get into his appointment.

There are miles and miles of fields of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beats etc in this area. The process for harvesting these veggies is amazing to me. They are handpicked and put on a flatbed truck that is parked in the field and are then immediately wrapped and packaged into boxes. The semis wait on the road to haul the fresh produce to the waiting store. After the fields have been picked anyone can walk in to get whatever is leftover. Lots of produce is left in a field because it has to be a certain size and quality. We had a salad made from a freshly picked head of lettuce tonight for supper. Very good.
Mikey and Jan do take us to the finest places. This one is The Lutz Casino. Nope it's not a casino but an interesting place to eat where the Lutz special (and most ordered) is a cheeseburger with the works including a sliced hot dog on it! Jan and I both had one. It is surprisingly good.
It is difficult to eat with all of the 'stuff' to look at. There are deep sea fisherman perched on a post.
And a vehicle grill hanging on a wall below this fine photo.
And a huge fish dangling from the ceiling with the one that didn't get away in his mouth.
An interesting place indeed.
Then there is the site of the Yuma Territorial Prison. Much of it has been destroyed by fire and there isn't much original there any longer but it was interesting.
This poster reminded me of how many feel even today about how well those that are incarcerated for horrible crimes seem to often have it better than we do.
The prisoners had to make whatever they wanted. All of their food was raised, they made their own plates and bowls and if they wanted to play games they made them as well.
I was fascinated by the dice and dice box which is in the lower left of the picture made out of clay I think.
And one of the male prisoners did gorgeous lace work.
And I loved this women. She was the prison curator and actually lived at the prison by herself until her family, as she says, raised a fuss.
Here the old babe is. I love her.....doesn't look to me like she needs to be afraid of anything or anyone with the shotgun on her lap!
These are some of the original jail cells...pretty primitive.
Ummmm ya......
When they took the prisoner's picture they had them sit beside a mirror in order to get a profile view...seriously. Our two most famous prisoners had to try their very own mugshots
Innocent...right....
And this is probably why he was locked up in the previous picture.
It has been a little cool here this year...really it has I am not trying to be a smart a--. BUT I aint complaining. The people that have been coming here for years are complaining a bit though. Ah such is life.

Stealing Grapefruit

This is a fine art. First you have to spy a grapefruit tree with ripe reachable fruit. And it really is better if these trees happen to be in a county owned parking lot right behind the police department.

Then you crawl onto your good friend's pickup end gate and get your fingers around the ripest fruits.

Your wife either stands to the side telling you which fruits are the best or takes pictures of you boys committing this crime.
Once you have the back of the pick up full of grapefruit (and some lemons as well) you quietly drive away hoping no one has seen you. The grapefruit are yummy and Jan promises (didn't you Jan) a lemon meringue pie made from the fresh lemons.

New Year's Eve we spent playing games, munching food and consuming a variety of beverages. Yup we filled the garbage can with empties. A nice night spent with great friends. PS Kelly L, your father in law won the most games that night...drats.
We took advantage of a warmer day to hike in one of the valleys here. Everywhere you look there are fabulous pictures to be taken.
Mikey and David spent a few minutes searching for gold in the stream. This appears to be David signaling that he found something of value....turns out that was not the case he was just letting us know where he was.
Great views
Cool rock formations
And what can you say about a view like this.....
Tomorrow we move to one of the local casinos for two nights then off to Yuma where David, Jan and Mikey are going to the dentist. Me, as much as I do not like dentists I certainly am not going to go to one in Mexico although many do....just not me.

Oh and by the way, it is OK and expected that people 'steal' the fruit on the county lots. However the first time Mikey and Jan did it, years ago, they didn't know that it was OK and really did think they were getting by with something :)

Indio

We landed in Indio (Palm Springs CA area) on the 23rd. Despite this and surrounding areas having had torrential rains, we arrived to sun, warmth and dry conditions. In fact the drive down (2,000 miles) was uneventful as compared to last year which was totally treacherous! We just have not been doing too much of anything exciting hence no post until now, just relaxing and getting settled.

I had to take a shot of our high class campsite where we stayed the day before arriving in Indio. Truck stops come in handy when it's late and you really don't want to pay for a campsite for a few hours of sleep.

Yep, this looks much better doesn't it? This is a shot looking from the back of our site. Through the greenery you can see the mountains. In fact the mountains are visible no matter which way we look.

We are enjoying our time with our our friends Mikey and Jan. While with them there is never a dull moment or lack of yummy food. Even though they live in their motor home Jan always has good stuff in her fridge.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a great meal of turkey and all the fixins at the clubhouse in the park and then Christmas Day Jan made brunch. Here is the centerpiece for our picnic table.
And of course there were gifts. David is wondering what this particular gift was. It's a handy dandy sewer hose holder, something that is much needed for life on the road.
And then there were games of Mexican Train. This is one of those games that poor David just can't seem to win.
It was a nice Christmas on the road and made missing our kids and grand kids much easier to take.
We are here until January 4th and then off to Yuma. More from the warmth and sunshine later.

An Early Christmas

Once again Lenny and Kelly opened their home for our Christmas get together. We are a small bunch but we do have a nice day. We had Great Grandpa Bob, Auntie Kelly and Great Grandma Loi with us again this year. Despite illnesses, both girls were on antibiotics, it was a very relaxing enjoyable day. Thanks once again Leonard family for making this another memorable holiday.

Christmas in Minnesota this year was chock full of snow which gave Lenny plenty of opportunity to 'play' with his new snow blower. He enjoyed it that round but given all of the snow that they have gotten and are going to get I suspect 'enjoyment' will not long be the name of the game.

An absolutely gorgeous winter sunset.

This year Julia was old enough to enjoy Christmas. When I woke her up from her nap the first words out of her mouth were, "Is my party ready"? We had told her that after her nap we were going to have a party and open presents. Julia was the official present opener and gift passer-outer. And of course there is always a curious cat near by.
The girls in front of the tree with their matching pj's on.
Julia explaining to Shelby how to work one of her toys.
I love this....Julia, her grandpa and great grandma Loi playing with my little Pony. I think grandpa may have braided one of the ponies tails.....
The best for me was to be able to attend Julia and Shelby's Christmas concert. Here is Julia and her best friend Macie wondering what in the heck they are supposed to be doing...or perhaps they are a bit intimidated by the audience.
The reward, treats and juice.

Daddy sharing a moment with his littlest girl
And Shelby with one of her teachers. These two girls are pretty darned lucky to have such caring daycare providers. I am impressed and grandma's can be pretty critical when it comes to those that take care of their grand babies.
We took off for parts south that Sunday. The roads were great all the way down to southern California. We just beat yet another winter storm that was barreling down on the Nicollet area and instead drove to an area that has been hit with horrific rains. More from now sunny California later.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Black Friday

It all began at noon Thursday November 25th when I left the warmth and stability of our home to go to my friend Chrissy's and then Black Friday shopping! On my way I stopped for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch of Holiday gas station smoked turkey and cheese deli sandwich and a pumpkin spice latte...yummmy...not.
The roads were not the best since it had just dumped a boat load of rain turned to ice the day before and snow on top of that but I was determined to make the Black Friday shopping event.
I arrived at Chrissy's at 5pm to find her and Kim making their list...list I said, I thought we were going just for fun not to shop! How dumb was that, after all I have known Chrissy forever and I KNOW how she loves to shop..what was I thinking!
We took about an hour snooze and got up at 11pm leaving for Mankato at 11:30 because after all Walmart had sales at midnight! Did I say that it was colder than cold that night as well? Not at all a nice night.
Much to our surprise Walmart was relatively calm at midnight..phew. I actually picked up quite a few things...but then....Target at 4am. Now that was a madhouse where Chrissy almost got herself smacked by the husband of a women who was bitching belligerently at a Target employee. Chrissy saw fit to say outloud, so that the husband could hear her, "It's not the check out guys fault leave him alone". Oh dear here we go I thought. But nah the big burly guy just looked like he was going to deck Chrissy, smarted off a bit and then walked away thank goodness.
We shopped from midnight Friday until 7:30 that morning and after a much needed breakfast back to Chrissy's for a few hours sleep because I had to babysit the girls (Julia and Shelby) at 6 that night! It was a whirlwind but was a blast.

The before preparation-Chrissy, Kim and Kenya


The during

And the after
Kenya didn't even know that I was taking her picture
And Chrissy told me to get out!
Alrighty then the girls. Babysitting went well on very little sleep. Poor Shelby did not want to go to sleep and Julia the trooper kept herself busy all night while Grandma rocked and held Shelby. Yep, that Julia is two going on four I am sure!
She does love her little sis and always wants to help. Shelby is just starting to eat cereal and Julia wanted to help feed her.

I would love to know what was going through Shebly's mind at this moment!
Mommy and daughter pedicure time. I asked but Kel wouldn't do mine.
Oh and the addition....David got the metal ceiling up in the new living room, the rooms are painted and we had our second set of guests a few weeks ago. Jess and Kim spent a long weekend and gave a thumbs up for the addition.
While 'down south' I had my second ST scan. Doc C wanted to see if the nodule was still in my lung and if it was he talked about sending me to a pulmonologist. We knew that it was not cancer, in fact I do not have a single cancer cell in my body, but he did want to know what the heck it was. The nodule is still there but the radiologists all agreed that it is just a nodule and needs no follow up at all. AND I found out that I also have a nodule on my adrenal gland. That one is nothing as well, they are both just there but nothing to worry about.
So, it's cold up here and I am done with my Christmas shopping, bring on the holidays!