A bit of this, a bit of that

OMG, two days since I posted!  Guess we're officially into holiday mode.  Yesterday was a little cleaning around the MH in the morning / early afternoon, then we rolled on a few quad trails, had some dinner, and called it a day.  We DID manage to find the trail that goes through "Preacher's Pass" over to Quartzsite, and came across a couple abandoned mines along the way.

Today was very similar - trip into Q to pick up some parts for the generator and basement storage doors, a couple hour cruise on some different trails, a little maintenance, and that's it.  Exciting stuff!

Humour me here.  The left side is filthy, the right clean.  Looked a lot more noticable in person.  Turtle Wax no-rinse wash & wax is awesome stuff - washed the whole unit with about 10 litres of water.  

Might be my new profile pic.  

Amazing where these guys can grow.  This was right at the top of the slope, maximum zoom.  

Up in the high country.

Goin' there.  

Arrived there (pic through the roof).  

Big mousehole.  Or an old mine.  

Nice Jeep, eh?  

White line in centre of pic is Bouse.  Headed for home & hooch.  I have to admit not much 4x4 needed; mostly 2x4 except for crossing a couple washes.  Nice to have the clearance and the good approach/departure angles though.  

Found it!

Yesterday I mentioned a `wild goose chase``... I wanted to check the road along the Colorado River, south of I-10, on the Arizona side.  Supposed to be some nice BLM land there to camp along the river side.  Well, yesterday we searched for the start of the road and missed it - so we explored some BLM land but not near the river.  I checked Google Maps this morning & found exactly where the road started, so today after picking up a few non-essentials in Quartzsite we headed back.  Found the road and checked numerous possible camps - discussion`s still on as to whether we`ll use any of them though!

Hah!  Colorado river!

Nothing like a little wade on a warm (75 F) day.  Water was pretty chilly though, so glad we didn`t bring the swimsuits.  

Little scenic shot.  River`s wide but not very deep right now, about 2 feet as far out as you can see.  That`s California on the other side, of course.  

Have a great day!  And if anyone needs any RV parts or cheap chinese tools email me, as I think you can find pretty much everything you want but nothing you really need in the Quartzsite tents!

New Year's Day

Not much happened New Year's Day, except a couple great meals and a wild goose chase.  Corned beef hash on the new stove for breakfast (I LOVE this stove) and ham steak, sweet potatoes and beans for supper, and a little campfire to finish the day.

Breakfast - new stove and pantry.  Kim won't be impressed, but Stan will.  Stove is great - those are two FULL SIZE pans on it, with room to spare.  

Breakfast on the patio. 

Traditional New Year's Day dinner - grilled ham & sweet potato with beans and eggnog (in my red solo cup).   And a dog with glowing eyes for protection from the night critters.  

And a campfire to complete the day.  Doesn't get much better...

A pretty boring day overall.  Thanks for stopping by.

New Year's Eve

December 31st was another on-the-road day - we had tickets for the Phoenix-Edmonton hockey game (thanks Mo, Tina, Bella, and Emir!) so we thought we'd combine with a Costco stop for a few supplies, and take the longer route in through Wickenburg for a more scenic trip.

Costco in Glendale on New Year's Eve is pretty similar to any other Costco right before a holiday, or on a Saturday afternoon for that matter.  Nothing special or fun there.

After the game (Phoenix won in overtime; Edmonton was lucky to get a point considering how outshot and outplayed they were), we jumped back on the interstate for the trip home, and got to bed about 1 AM after putting the groceries away.  Boring, eh?  But still much later than we're usually up on New Year's Eve!

Shorts and sandals - the way hockey is supposed to be watched!  BTW, NOT my jersey...

Must have been warm - you can see a tiny bit of leg there! 

Found the arena OK this time.  

Selfies = not our strong suit.  This was the best, the rest were much, much worse.  

Warm up.  I didn't take any shots during the game (sorry).  Seats were all full, and probably 50/50 red vs blue shirts.  Much better showing for the local crowd than last time, which is encouraging.  

And the final score.  Why not allow a breakaway with 10 seconds left in overtime? This is why.  Check the shots on goal.  Almost respectable now, I think they were 21 - 4 at the end of the first.  

Hope everyone had as safe and enjoyable a New Year's Eve as we did!  

Bouse

OK, today we did NOT travel - other than to move a half mile or so to the permanent spot we'd found last trip.  Last night we pulled up a little short rather than navigate the last ditch in the dark.  This is about as close as Wendy gets to shorts, so you can tell it's warm out:

Why do I like Bouse?  Here's a hint.  This is our camping spot:

And looking 180 degrees from the same spot on top of the rise, here's our nearest neighbours:

Look real close, to the right of centre, just below the gap in the mountain.  If I said we weren't the sociable type would that surprise anyone?

And a couple gratuitous cactus pics to finish off the post.  A Saguaro and a ?Palo Verde? tree being buddies:

and a Barrel cactus momma with 5 babies:

Stay warm, relax, and Happy New Year everybody!

Re-tired!

Or, I could title this one as "headed for Bou-se, only made it out to Needles" for the Three Dog Night fans out there.

When I did my morning walk-around, the outside tire on the driver's side seemed a tad bulgier on the bottom than it should be.  Sure enough, inside tire was flat.  No issue, I have a spare, the weather was warm (well, a little cooler in the morning so I switched back to long pant for the job), and the pavement was new and smooth.  The only annoyance was the 50 mph wind, but it was coming from the other side of the mh so I was in the lee.  Easy-peasy.  Here's the tire in case anyone's wondering why I didn't try to put a plug in.

So, loaded it up in the Jeep and headed south, figuring to get a new tire in Parker on Monday when the shops opened.  After all, this is only the second time I've ever had to use the spare, so what are the odds of having another flat the same day?

Apparently, pretty good.  I wound up missing a turn in Fort Mohave and heading down through California, which isn't a huge deal since it's about the same distance either way.  Anyway, about 6 miles south of Needles we had a significant BANG, and the culprit turned out to be the inside dual on the OTHER side.  We limped it to a wide area to pull off, and Wendy stayed with the mh while I took off back to Needles in the Jeep to try to find a tire shop open on a Sunday with the right size tire.

Long story short, the Gods were smiling and the tire guys at the Needles Shell station were open and doing nothing.  Not only that, but they gave me a pretty good deal on 4 tires (since I now needed two anyways, may as well change all the drive axle.  Proud of me Jack?).  Switched over the one, and I headed back out to change it and bring the motorhome back.  Got back to the Shell about 45 minutes later and they finished changing over all the drive tires.  In the process we found that there really wasn't a decent tire to keep as a spare, so I bought a 5th matching tire for that.  We left Needles about $1400 lighter in the wallet, but overall happy to have new skins all the way round now (steering tires were replaced before the last trip south) and feeling fortunate to have been able to get this all done on a Sunday during the holidays.  We also felt much more fortunate that some other poor soul who rolled his car about 20 miles south of Needles - the ambulance and fire truck went out while we were at the tire shop.  A little perspective is always handy.
Anyway, once we were re-tired in Needles we headed back over to the Arizona side on I-40 to continue to Bouse the "old" way.  Topped up the propane in Parker and made it to Bouse about 6 PM or so.  So our "short day" turned somewhat longer, but everything worked out in the end.