A Ride in the Desert and Pizza With Friends!

Tuesday, February 21. 2023

We have settled in to a calm enjoyable life here in the desert. Our neighbors are quiet and fun to be around. Our daily routine throughout this adventure has brought a peacefulness to our lives. No list of what we "need" to see, no rushing to do this and that, we are just letting the days flow as they will. Not that we never make any plans, we do, yet the ones we do make are filled with enjoyment and relaxing. 

An alarm on the Jeep has gone off a couple of times with no indication as to why. So Tom brought it over to one of the Auto Shops here in Quartzsite. They could not find anything wrong with it and said it probably is electrical and beyond their realm of work. So he will have to look into bringing it into a place that does work in that area. Just because we are out in the desert all the fun of vehicle or house ownership for that matter, it is just on wheels now, does not go away. 

Getting back to the idea of letting our days flow by when Tom got back from the Auto Shop I said, lets go for a ride so off we went. The pictures below are of that ride. We took the Pipeline road, which is just behind where we are parked out here at Roadrunner BLM, till we were behind the Dome Rock BLM. At that point we turned on to another road that took us into a part of that BLM area. It was a nice ride. I did get out a couple of times to take a short walk so I could take some pictures of Saguaros I could see that looked interesting. Otherwise, I took them out the front window, just a few steps from the Jeep, or the rolled down passenger window. Mostly a lazy picture taking day...😊

We have just turned on to the Pipeline Road heading west.

Looking North at the Tyson Wash.

One of the Saguaros I walked to.

Looking back towards Roadrunner BLM.

Dome Rock Mountains are ahead of us.

I just thought it was an interesting looking cloud.

Then these guys were ahead of us.

You cannot tell in the pictures 

 but they had reddish beaks.

I am pretty sure these were

Turkey Vultures.

Some of the desert wildflowers. 
My favorites the ones would be the Desertstar Daisy. 
The purple I believe are Scorpion Weed.
The yellow flowering bush is a Creosote Bush.

The other Saguaro I walked to.

Looking North towards Dome Rock BLM

Looking East toward the LTVA's we could see
lots of little white dots in the distance.

I just liked looking out

at these views

as we road through the Dome Rock BLM.

Arriving back home in time for Happy Hour the wind had picked up. Thank you, Deb for folding up our chairs and tables. So the search was on for a place out of the wind to sit for Happy Hour. We started behind the Stinger "B" but the wind soon found us there. Next stop was east of the Igloo where we stayed until it was time to go in. Doug had been off to visit another blogger and found us there, he did suggest inside the White Lion but by then we were ready to call it an evening. Not sure why I did not suggest inside out of the wind earlier, we certainly have enough room...I guess I thought it was more fun and challenging to find a place out of the wind outside...lol We did persevere and we had a fun Happy Hour pretty much the norm for this group.

We went in before sunset and then I noticed the color out the
window. A lovely afterglow which I took leaning out
our large bedroom window and another window up front.

We were under a wind advisory. The prediction was for sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph. We are thinking the prediction was right. We ended up pulling in both our slides before we went to bed as our toppers were flapping. We went to sleep with the wind howling all around us while it occasionally rocked the Stinger "B".  

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

We went to sleep with the wind howling and we awoke to the same howling. It is Ash Wednesday and for us as Catholics a Holy Day of Obligation so we were off in the wind to attend 10 o'clock Mass here in Quartzsite at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Mission. Then back home and inside sadly no Coffee Hour today.

I have been watching the clouds float by and the lovely shadows they make on the  mountains across the way from us. Below are some of the pictures I took, again through the bedroom window, throughout the afternoon. 

The clouds move quickly in the wind

and the shadows

dance across the mountains.

A little more to the north and I could really see the dust in
the air. Yet the clouds above were beautiful.

Today there was a plan...😊 and it included friends and pizza at Silly Al's in Quartzsite. Deb suggested we take one vehicle versus three so we, Riley, Doug, Tom and I, joined Deb in the Dogsled and she drove us in to join Cheryl, Dave, Patsy, and Bill for dinner. The pizza was good but the company was the best part. It was a fun couple of hours and hopefully we will get together again before we all leave this area. Just in case there were hugs exchanged. I personally do not thing there can be to many hugs and it would be nice to do it again.

From the left front of the table: Riley, Tom, Cheryl,
Dave, Patsy, Bill, Deb, and Doug.

Despite the wind, as I write this it is still with us, and cooler temperatures the days continue to be good.

The mantra right now is: at least the temperature is above 0 degrees and there is no snow blowing....at least the temperature is above 0 degrees and there is no snow blowing....at least the temperature is above 0 degrees and there is no snow blowing....lol 

We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.

Today's Sunset and Last Saturday's Ride Down Pipeline Road in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

(Clicking on the pictures will open them larger in a new window.)

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Today we had sunshine and wind. The predictors may have called it a breeze but it was definitely wind. We pulled in the slides and let it blow around us. Tom went and did our last three loads of laundry and I spent the day finishing what I started yesterday, going through pictures.

We also spent some time discussing what we would like to do the next ten days or so before we start our trek east and then north. That is beside sit and soak up some of the warmth the predictors say is coming our way.

We have a  tentative date, March 24th, that we will leave here and a definite date to be in Michigan, April 18th. (The one in Michigan includes a reservation.) It is the in between we need to work on.

Tonight's Sunset...going...going

gone.

Even with all the wind the sunshine and blue skies made for a pleasant day.


Saturday, March 9, 2019

The last couple of years when we would head out for a ride into the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge we always talked about checking our the Kofa Cabin. No real reason just thought it would be nice to see it. I mentioned in our blog post when we drove over to Scottsdale last week that we stopped at a gas station to put air in one of our tires. At that exit, 45, there is a sign that says Kofa Wildlife Refuge. After looking at the map we could see going in this way would bring us pretty close to the Cabin and we would not have to drive the road through the refuge both ways.  Today was the day we decided to take the drive.

Driving East on I-10 the sides of the road are full of colorful wildflowers.

We have taken exit 45 and this is the road that will take us to the
Kofa Wildlife Refuge.

Along this road and throughout our drive today we saw
many wildflowers in bloom.

Looking out across the desert, at what I believe are,
the New Water Mountains.

Information board just before we cross into the Refuge.

Yellow arrows are today's ride.
Red ones indicate where we have driven in the past.

Saguaros welcoming us in to the Refuge. 

If you know me you know there will be a couple of pictures of Ocotillo.
Interestingly the ones on the east end did not have many little green leaves
if any. The further west we drove today the greener they got.

The turn on to Pipeline Road.
Except for a brief detour to see the Kofa Cabin we will be on this
road across the Refuge.until we exit on to AZ-95.

The road ahead at this point looks pretty good.

These Power Transmission Towers will be in our view throughout this ride.

There are wonderful Saguaros throughout this Refuge.

The turn for Kofa Cabin.
Notice the post with a number in front of it. These are at road junctions
throughout the Refuge.According to the Refuge Map they are junction
numbers for reference only.
(They do help give you an idea of where you are at.)

The road gets a little more rugged.

We saw a lot of these "cuddly" Teddy Bear Chollas today.

Just ahead the road goes through what will be the first of many
washes today. This one is not bad at all.

When we reached the cabin there was a group of people set up and
camping there. Very nice group and though they were using the room
inside they opened the door to let us look and go in.

I was able to take a picture without including the campers.
Part of this cabin is open to the public to use to and spend the night.
There is no fee and it is on a first come first serve basis.

A few more of these may pop up.

Another half a mile down this road  the sign at the beginning said was
the New Water Well. Plus, there were a couple more things listed on the
map. Owl Head Dam and Alamo Spring to mention a couple
so we decided to keep going.

We saw a lot of these guys, also, today.
I know these are Cholla and I think they may be Staghorn Cholla
but I cannot say for certain.

This wash is where our ride on this road ended.
We would not be seeing any of things listed on the map.
It is steeper then it looks and we would, also, have to come back up it
on our way back. Tom did not walk it but our guess is it is just as
steep to get up and out the other side. 

When we stopped at the point above we pulled over and took a walk
around. I just love these tiny little wild flowers.
We have some of these growing near the wash by us.

These purple ones are just as pretty and also growing by us at Roadrunner.

It is amazing how many wild flowers bloom in the desert.

Standing above the wash we decided not to go down.

We are now on

our way

back 

to the Pipeline Road.

Back on Pipeline Road.

Looking down one of the many washes we drove across today.
(This is today's just because I liked it picture.)

Tom spotted this guy.
Do you see his face?

I wonder if he is talking to this guy I spotted across the road.

The Ocotillo are getting greener.

The Road Ahead.

A bright splash of yellow on the desert floor.

Another wash we just went down.

We saw these yellow signs many, many times today.
( Warning: Caution High Pressure Gas Line.)

A closer view of the road ahead.

Looking down another wash.

We have stopped here to look at the road ahead.

It is down there.
Crossing left to right in the upper left corner.

The Kofa Mountains in the distance through the wonderfully green Ocotillo.

One last picture of the view from the top and

we are on our way

down the road.

The views looking out my window

and ahead 

seem to go on forever

and are beautiful.

We have made it down.

Not far after the above picture Tom pulled over tho let these
two jeeps go by.

We noticed that just about every one of these towers had a road going to it.

Creosote Bush 

It is hard to tell but this hillside is covered in purple wildflowers.

Another hillside covered in purple.

I took a picture using the Super Vivid Effect to give you a
better idea of what we could see.

We are almost to AZ-95 

and the views are still wonderful,

It was a long slow ride today up and down all the washes and hills but every mile was worth it.  This is why we bought the Trailhawk so we could take some of the back roads and see the beauty that is out there. It may not get us every where but we are happy with the job it does.

"Remember to enjoy the journey

and the scenery along the way."

                                           ~Katrina Mayer

So glad you stopped by for a visit and we hope you enjoyed the pictures.

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.