Saturday, March 30, 2013

It's the end of March, the internet is working again (kind of), and we're thinking of packing up and heading homeward soon. So it's about time I sit down and play catch-up!

The month started here with a wedding and reception in the Desert Gold Recreation hall, Larry and I attended because we've met the bride before in Canada and thought it would be fun. Dorothy Galvin, aged 81, married Eugene Hester, aged 88, in the evening of the 3rd of March. Turns out Dorothy's late husband, Blake, was John Steele's uncle and we have camped with them in Alberta years ago. After the ceremony there were toasts, and a dance, a very nice evening!

The last pinsguaer ride was to be in February, but we talked the drivers into one more adventure and that was on the 12th. We left at 9:00 am with all 3 vehicles loaded to maximum and 2 more following. This trip was to the Vampire mine and it was the best trip we've done in the pinszguaer's yet! We drove straight down ravines, climbed boulders and rocks, tipping and screaming (not me!) and me hanging on to that OH SHIT bar in the front seat for dear life. I saw my first cactus in bloom, and made the whole caravan stop for that photo-op! After our lunch break at Bill Williams River we passed a family walking the wrong way through the wash, gave them each a bottle of water and got them heading in the right direction. Good thing we found them, NOT good to get your directions mixed up in the desert, they had walked a least 15 minutes in the wrong direction, so still had over an hour to walk (most of that uphill) to get back to there vehicles.

On the 15th we decided to do the Parker Dam scenic route that our neighbours told us about. You drive straight through Parker into California, along the Colorado River (on our right), over the Parker Dam, and you're back into Arizona driving along the Colorado River (still on our right) into Parker. This scenic loop is for cars, motorcycles, and small trucks only as it is very narrow. The dam crossing itself is manned on either side with gates and security in booths and is closed from 11:00 pm-7:00 am. It is a beautiful trip and lets you see all the RV parks, State parks and campgrounds along both sides of the river, I could live there!

On the 19th we took Erik and Bernice, a couple we met from Pincher Creek Alberta, for a tour in the desert outside of Quartszite. We found abandoned mine shafts, stone buildings, and a working mine that will do tours, but that part was closed, so we looked around and signed the guest book. I managed to find some cactus skeletons and more rocks to add to my collection before we stopped for supper at Grubstakes in town. Great day!

Our nephew, Andrew (and his dad, Michael) flew into Phoenix from Calgary on the 20th for a ball tournament, so we drove in on the 21st to watch a few of his games. When we got to Phoenix we had lunch with some friends, checked into our hotel, and watched the end of Andrew's 7:00 game, then joined them for supper. We didn't realize the extent of "rush hour traffic" in Phoenix, and got caught in it on our way to the hotel-took us over 2 hours to go 28 miles on the 101-then an hour to drive 10 miles to the ball park-making us miss the first game and only half of his second! Now we know better and left the hotel at 11:00 am Friday morning to watch him play at 12:30 and got there at noon, in plenty of time and enjoyed a great game! After the game I gave them some lemons, oranges, and pink grapefruit to take home to Calgary and we left them in Scottsdale at 2:00 got onto the 101 to head home and guess what? RUSH HOUR AGAIN! REALLY!

Andrew gets a hit 

Steels third

Comes home 

We arrived back at Desert Gold at 5:20 (normally a 2 hour drive!), in time to change and walk over to dinner theatre starting at 6:00. We were served roast chicken, gravy, whipped potatoes, dressing, veggies, buns, and a home-made jellied cranberry relish that I need to get the recipe for, and ice cream was served during intermission. The play was an interactive Melodrama, "The Saga Of The Prospector's Daughter" OR "She Was Only A Miner's Minor". There was a lot of audience participation and the play was made even more hilarious because some of the actors were forgetting their lines and being prompted, very loudly, from the front row. At one point Catastrophy Kate said, "What do you expect, we're all over 70?"

Monday the 25th was my birthday, so after my beading class Larry took me out for supper to a cafe in the middle of nowhere, the Koffa Cafe. When we got home I talked with Collin and then my mom for a bit. Tuesday Steven called to wish me a happy birthday because he was out the night before, and Wednesday was paper crafts class, my last one, where I made some beautiful (if I do say so myself) cards. This morning I went down the street for a pedicure and managed to once again put off doing laundry, there's always tomorrow! In  preparation of our departure from here, Larry and I looked at maps, plotting our route home this afternoon, while sitting in the air conditioning. It's 30c outside now, the heat has arrived, it's time to go, soon!

February 28th, 2013

Since my mom is wondering what we're up to, are we still enjoying ourselves (Oh, yes we are), and February is over, I need to play catch up! It feels like we've been busy, but I think our feeling this way has to do with the weather, we've had WIND, rain, and cold, oh so cold, furnace on a lot cold, which means we stay in a bit more than we usually do. At least we didn't see any of the snow that was in and around Phoenix and surrounding area.

We were supposed to go to Parker to visit a friend on the 12th, but his wife emailed on the 11th to cancel, unfortunately during a visit to Yuma he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. We went to Parker to visit and get groceries a few days later to find they have moved to Mesa where they purchased a double wide trailer awhile ago, guess we'll catch up with them back in Saskatoon.

The last Pinzgauer (very old Swiss army vehicles) trip of the season was on the 14th, so we were up at the crack of dawn and got the last two seats. There are three Pinzgauers, two hold 14 and one 12, which were full and one fellow following in his 4X4, and we all had a great time. We were gone about 81/2 hours, only travelling 130 miles through desert, mountains, and climbing rocks and boulders. The "path" was so ruff and steep that at one point the fellow in the 4X4 had to rearrange some rocks so he could continue.

We received an email that the date and place has been chosen for the 2013 reunion. Ray and Sandra are hosting it in Wainwright Alberta, and I have already booked our campsite in the camp ground a few blocks from where they live. For those who don't know what the reunion is, 6 guys (and their lovely wives-who of course do all the work!), who met back in the stone age and are all the same age, try to get together every year to remember and swap stories of "the good old days". We are really looking forward to hanging with the gang for the weekend!

I've been having issues with my iPad so I phoned Steven who said "I'm here you're there call, you'll have to make an appointment with a genius." Of course my response was "That's why I called you. I didn't know there were other geniuses." Well, apparently there are paid geniuses at the apple retail store, so we're off to Phoenix for our appointment at the Genius Bar. Wow, they are good, seems it's not me it's my iPad, and they replaced mine, Steven couldn't have replaced mine! But he'll still be the first genius I call, well not for long, he's making his dream come true and we're beyond proud of him. He's been talking of an adventure through Europe and he's booked his ticket leaving in May and might come home in July, unless he's having too much fun, which means we'll have to visit him.

While on the Pinzgauer trip I was busy picking rocks to add to my collection and the next day Shellee and Waldo, who were on the trip with us and are avid rock hounds, stopped by for beers and to give me some Apache Tears that they found last week while they were out rock picking. I took them over to Roger to ask him to tumble them for me, but there were not enough, so he took mine and filled my bucket full of ones he had already polished, I now have so many I'll be handing them out to everyone!

A few days later I took Shellee and Waldo out to Swansea Mine for a rock pick. We had a great day exploring, taking pictures of lizards, cactus, and finding some good rocks for them to take home. We all managed to find some copper, fool's gold, and even some REAL gold, not enough for any of us to retire on, but enough to put a smile on our faces. On the 28th they loaded their motorcycle onto the trailer, rocks and the new equipment they bought for their lapidary into the car and headed off to ride some roads through California to finish off their holiday before heading home to North Dakota. They're great people, I miss them already, and I hope we're able to stop for a visit on our way home.

We've been exploring Quartzsite and Phoenix more. We can see spring coming, all the trees are starting to turn green, along with what I'd call grass growing on the ground, it's actually changing from dirt to green. I'm still enjoying my beading and paper craft classes and since we'll still be here, we've purchased dinner theatre tickets for later in March. Those are the highlights for the month of February.