"Adventures Are Us...."

  As I stated in yesterday's blog, if we don't find an adventure..an adventure finds us. Last night we were just settling in for "happy hour", when we noticed two huge Alpha motorhomes pulling down "RV road" toward our area. We also noticed Ray was following along in his white pick up. They were really premium rigs, very intimidating. They were traveling together from California. One pulled in on our right side behind us, and one pulled in right behind us...with Ray's help...

..as you can probably see,the sun had already dipped under the horizon, so the these photos are not the best...but you get the idea....

...a bit blurry, but that is Ray guiding them back.
  Now for the "adventure" part..We thought the big Alpha behind us was all settled, when we heard commotion right behind  us. I swiveled around in my chair and saw that the Alpha to our right had pulled forward about 3 ft. Then we noticed Ray.... up on a step ladder trying to trim branches off the tree with lopping shears...and he wasn't getting very far. He also couldn't reach the highest limbs. Apparently, the slide on the motorhome wouldn't open because of the tree branches...and now it was dark.
 Dennis saw this as an excuse to play with our electric chain saw ..and he jumped to the aid of Ray, chainsaw and extension cord in hand. I saw the need to document this occasion with photos...You had to be there, though. Here are a few shots...

...that would be Den sawing... and Ray holding the ladder..

...that would be Dennis dropping a branch on his head.....don't worry ...he was fine.

Obviously, Ray would never have been able to reach these branches, but Dennis was not vertically challenged at 6'2", so he managed to get the tree trimming finished. The couple in the motorhome were very grateful , and Ray said, "See what kind of people we have staying here?"...I told them "Welcome to the neighborhood!"...As I said before, it seems that sometimes an adventure finds us. I might add that our three children would NOT be surprised at their Dad...they all know their father loves this kind of stuff...getting involved!
 
We sat outside this morning having our coffee. Our walk was done with about 4 laps around the RV park. I felt that we had our share of desert exercise yesterday finding the cave. We met a very nice gentleman who walked over from across the road. He said he noticed me arranging the 2 chairs and little table like I was expecting someone...He doesn't know how anal I am about keeping things in their place....even when camping.( I really need to work on that.) Anyway, he and his wife were from Missoula, Montana. He said they were "newbies", in that this was their first camper of any kind...  They had never done this before. We reassured him that even though there IS a steep learning curve, you can learn it pretty quick . I chose not  to tell him any of the nightmarish stories, like slides that won't move, faucets that break, leaks showing up anywhere, blowouts, freezing hoses...all of that kind of stuff that makes you want to scream. I'm sure anyone who has ever owned a camper can relate.
 You saw the chain saw massacre of the little tree last night...Now here are the twin Alphas in the daylight, parked right behind us....

..This is all I could fit in..they are both beautiful rigs...When we took our walk this morning I noticed another very high end coach had pulled in across the road. We have seen these only a couple times on our travels. They are called Prevost motorhomes, I believe they are made in Canada. They are custom made, which means you can have it built any way you want, inside and out. Most of them have some trademark stainless steel on the outside, and tandem axles, which mean they are REALLY heavy!..and they can run triple figures to 1 million dollars or more....

....pretty shiney, eh? Suddenly there are mostly big motorcoaches here. We feel like a peewee, compared to some of them. But we do love our HitchHiker!
I seems that Dennis and I had two different ideas of how we wanted to spend our beautiful afternoon. He was feeling very ambitious, so he decided to wash our awning...

...and as if that wasn't enough, he washed our windows. After Thursday's big blow they were bad!...

...I, on the other hand, had a very different plan.....

...Hey, when the truck needs washing , I'm all over it....but I DON'T do windows!!!
  We both came back inside about 2:30PM. I was just exhausted from my day.
  Tonight's dinner is grilled pork steaks. Yellow mustard goes on first, my "rub" next, and back in the refrig till grill time. I hope my "griller" gets re-energized by 7PM, which is our usual dinner time. Unlike lots of RV'rs, we are not early eaters..I'm sure that is bad for our health, but if I ate at 5PM, I would be hungry again by 9...And besides, I'm sure I do many things worse than late dinners!!!
  Well, another busy day in the Sonoran Desert is coming to an end...We really must get back out and see if we can find the desert stone man....Always and adventure awaiting us!! More tomorrow....And again...thanks for playing.

Cave Dwellings...Literally....We Found the Cave

   It got pretty chilly again last night..down to 33 degrees at 6:30AM...I wish I could change our bedroom TV channels with a remote from my reclined position . Unfortunately,I have to use the remote from the living room TV.  This means I have to creep out of bed and stand in the bedroom doorway to aim the living room remote in the direction of the receiver...every time I want to change the channel on our bedroom TV!...I crab about it a lot, but I still get up and do it! Den says it's on my side of the bed...oh, OK.
 Our weather was clear and sunny and I fixed us a big breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs and bacon..Hey, every once in a while we have to give Simvistatin a run for it's money... We took our walk and realized that this place is really getting busy compared to early January...

...I made the marinade for our grilled chicken dinner and zipped the chicken into the bag...Made a salad and will mix up good 'ol Stove Top Stuffing later this afternoon. I am notorious for prepping everything in the AM, so I don't have so much to do later. I make a great rub to put on chicken or pork, and that goes on about 3PM..then back into the fridge...Does this sound too much like the Food Network?? We do LOVE to eat!!...We call it tag team cooking... I prep, Dennis grills.
About 10:30 AM, with GPS in hand, we struck out to find the little "cave in the desert". (Our second trip...) Dennis thought he had figured it out after looking at Al's pics on his blog . (The key word in that last sentence is THOUGHT!)
 We never tire of wandering out into the Sonoran Desert. There is always a new adventure involved and this time I hoped it would be discovering the cave. FYI, there are tons of holes in the sand...deep ones...that could be a home for almost anything...and I think this "anything" probably had scales and fangs...

...and I knew nothing good would come of me sticking my nose in where it wasn't wanted...so I stepped back and moved on...It seemed that once we were a good distance from the campground, we were again dazed and confused about which direction to go. Dennis took control of the camera to see if he could zoom in with our lens to get a closer look at the mountain ahead We forgot our binoculars..He was getting frustrated because he couldn't see anything, until I politely pointed out he still had the lens cover on...I turned my back before I laughed. This is why I am the camera person, most of the time.I've NEVER done that...yea, right.
   We were having a slight disagreement on which small mountain to hike toward. One was to the Northeast and one to the Southeast. The mountain in the Northeast seemed way too far away to me, so we opted for MY mountain..This one seemed to look more like the one in the photos Al had taken....(my opinion)

....I WAS RIGHT ON!! I should know about caves, I gave birth to three..(sorry, but you had to expect our name in here somewhere!) We climbed up and walked around to the front, because we were told the cave opening was facing the campground...and ....WALLA!!! There it was!!

We had to climb up a bit of loose rock, but made it to the top....and what a view!!

..this is Den putting this location on his GPS..Here is the cave....

...note the rusty lawn chair on the left..The sticks are pieces of dried Ocotillo cactus that someone used to try and hide the opening...hmmmm..Here is a better shot of what we saw from the bottom...

...getting closer....

Some people would question whether this is actually what you could call a "cave"..It is not deep into the rock, but does offer shelter from the elements, and I am sure had been used many times for just that. There was a makeshift rock firepit that someone had made....

I just have to say again what a beautiful view we had from the cave opening....and what a gorgeous day to take this trip!!

...This view is looking West toward the RV park..You can see it in the distance. It is about 1 mile away..Unfortunately, we took the long way to get here...we had already walked about two miles through the desert to find it...the "scenic" route. That's just a way of saying we were almost lost again before my dead reckoning took us in the right direction.(Boy, am I gonna get it when Dennis reads this!!)
..OK, now it is time to document the fact that we were actually there...Smile, Dennis!...

...if  you look closely, you can see that we were a ways up in the  air. One small step for youngsters..One big step for out of breath Senior Citizens! Now it's my turn to take center stage...My close up , Mr. DeMille...

...let's not get too close, it gets very scary.
We could now cross off "hiking to the little cave" on Al's list of things to do while visiting Hickiwan...Finding the "Stoneman" in the desert remains on the list, but that won't happen today. Now it's time to hike the mile back to the RV park...
When we arrived back Den said that we had walked almost 4 miles on a hike that should have been 2 miles. We are definitley getting our exercise today! When we arrived back at our camper, we had big glasses of water and I felt the need to get into the sunshine..this time in the sitting position. We have already had quite a few adventures here in the Sonoran Desert. I know there are more ahead of us. If we don't find them, they manage to find us! We are going to sign up for another month here, which will take us until the 28th of February, and by then we will both be getting the wandering spirit. Two months is the longest we have ever stayed anywhere, but I feel the pull of the desert here, telling me not to leave yet.
And now, it is time to put my rub on the marinating chicken quarters...If we walked extra miles today does that mean we can eat more chicken?? Thanks again for tuning in...more tomorrow!

A BREEZY AND COOL 53 DEGREES...BUT WE'RE NOT COMPLAINING!

In the last few days I have learned NOT to anger the weather gods. I WOULD prefer it a tad warmer, but I am content not to have to lash myself to the chair to eat dinner.
 Late yesterday afternoon we had a knock at the door. Apparently there was an Indian family in the town of Hickiwan (not to be confused with our RV park of the same name) who lost their home in Thursday's storm.  One of the local RV couples here was going around to see if anyone had something they could donate to the family in need. Hickiwan Ray and his wife were going to ride up there later, and hoped to deliver some food, clothing, towels,...whatever anyone could spare to donate to this family. I certainly had a few things here I could send, so I bagged up some towels and washclothes, a couple prs. of sweats, canned goods, bread, lunchmeat and cheese, and walked them up to Ray's so they could be put with the rest of the donations. It was starting to rain again, but I met quite a few people along the way who were also taking bags to Rays. It is amazing how people come together all for the common good...gives one hope...
 This morning I noticed a definite chill in the air when we woke up. We had turned down our heater and the temp had dipped a bit cooler than expected. Den went outside and fired up his icemaker...Did I forget to mention we have a portable icemaker?? At any rate, it has certainly paid for itself in the 2 years we have had it. Sometimes we are 40 miles from the nearest ice, so we purchased this one on ebay, and it travels in the back seat of our truck when we are mobile...When we land, Den stows it just inside the compartment outside our door. This thing is slick, I'll tell  ya!! I highly recommend one.
I noticed that the birds were loving the few remaining puddles here in the park..They were all gathering around the few still left before they evaporated entirely...

  If I had any ideas about taking my book outside today, they were dashed when the clouds showed up. But, the clouds made beautiful shadows on the distant mountains and I couldn't resist a picture...like I don't have enough....

The desert was still very wet yet, so we won't be striking out into the Saguaro today. I have missed our desert walks...We haven't had one in almost a week, ever since the wind and rain appeared. The only good day here last week was Wednesday, when we drove up to Buckeye..So I totally missed my window of opportunity to bask in the sun...Hopefully next week will improve. As I looked across from us I noticed this group who were trying to pretend it was warm out there....

I really admired their spunk, but I am not that hard core..However, I think my evening "uniform" could use the addition of a lap blanket...And this dude had the right idea today...

  I was really tempted to drop in and share a bit of warmth with him, but I thought it best to worship from afar..I am sooooo jealous of that campfire!! We have one almost every night back home in Illinois!!
 We skyped our grandkids in Sugar Grove, IL, had lunch, and I was tired of being inside, so I took my camera out and about. There were a couple big rigs up front checking in. This place is beginning to get busier, and we have to go up soon and re-up for another month. Even with last week's weather, as far as we are concerned, it just doesn't get any better than this!
  I thought this was a pretty plant..not sure what it is..I do think it is some kind of succulent by the thickness of the leaves..It almost looks like Aloe Vera, but then again, maybe not...Botany and I were not big buddies in school!

..Even the foliage had a tint of coral on it...

I would love to grow one of these at home, but somehow I don't think the climate is right..
I finished my "walkabout" in record time. The wind was downright cold! This next photo is of the rig just down from us who have 4 cats with them. They are usually all outside , lawnchairs pulled up, drinks in hand, basking in the sunshine...Today they looked like "Hey! What happened to the warm weather??? Let' so back inside!"

 ...I just got a big kick out of how they are all "hunkered" down today..
Well, I have managed to make a pretty lazy day with absolutely nothing happening into a pretty lazy blog, with absolutely nothing happening. If you have read this all the way to the end, you deserve some kind of award..But, this is our life...sometimes pretty wild.....sometimes quite even keeled..Today was a slow day, but after feeling like we were living  in a pin ball machine all day Thursday, I'll take the calm.....See you tomorrow....

OK,OK, I DIDN'T REALLY EXPECT TO FLY... BUT WE ALMOST DID!!!

As you now know, we were "incommunicado" all day yesterday..Dennis luckily decided to dismantle our Hughesnet early yesterday morning...Good call, McGuyver!!
We awoke yesterday morning at 4:45AM...neither one of us had really been sleeping much of the night anyway. The winds were very strong and I ran out into our living area to check our computer lights...All 5 lights were lit; lan, transmit, receive, system and power...GOOD! This meant we were still online, and since it was still dark and we couldn't see our dish.  It also meant that the dish was still still attached to the tripod and not sitting in the desert somewhere. We watched the weather channel from the horizontal position, until we figured we might as well get up and watch it with a cup of java. When we went into the living area, the news was not good...Only the top and bottom lights were lit on our modem, which meant that we were now officially DOWN!
As soon as it got light, we went outside and brought in anything that was in danger of flying into the desert. Dennis wisely decided to dismantle our computer dish and he stowed it in the truck....If the truck flies away, then we may as well do the proverbial "bend over and kiss your ____ goodbye!! I took this shot of the clouds moving in from the Southwest...

It isn't a very good picture, but you get the idea.....
 It began raining hard right after this photo...and the wind was definitely becoming an issue. The people next to us had bird feeders still in the tree ....and they were blowing horizontally...

...notice their feeders ......
I figured crockpot soup was a good call tonight...Den will not be grilling....he probably could barely stand up.  I filled up my crockpot and then watched it slop back and forth with the swaying of our camper.  It looked like it may even slop over the top,that's how much the HitchHiker was doing the Hula...When they predicted Hurricane force winds, they were NOT kidding!! Just about the time I was ready to sit back down, a huge BOOM sounded off. It was so big it rattled the windows...Den said it was a sonic boom...The Air Force was up there somewhere still practicing maneuvers..Don't ask me how...
 It rained, and rained , and blew, and blew..We noticed the couple across the drive from us were having some bad problems..Apparently they opened the entrance door to their 5th wheel and the wind grabbed it and took it right off the hinges....Luckily he caught it and kept it from flying across the park..That could have caused some serious damage to someone's RV...like ours, for instance. We were right in the line of fire.. We watched as he and another guy worked all afternoon, in the driving rain and wind, to get the door back on...

....They left in his truck at one point and were gone a while. Den figured they ran into Ajo to the hardware store for some hinges....What a nightmare that would  have been.  As we were sitting at the rear of our camper, right beside our big window, you could actually feel the wind blowing in around it...and it groaned and popped..If you watched it closely (which I was doing constantly) you could see it flexing with the bigger wind gusts...I truly thought it may blow out with the force of the wind. Den needed to go outside and get us some ice and he had a quite a time just opening our door against the wind without letting go of it..We didn't want to be the next casualty without a door, but you know how important ice is for a well made Rum and Coke.. Dennis said that he noticed when he went out that the South side of our camper was plastered with little needles and leaves from the tree outside our door. Here is another shot I took out our window....

...doesn't really give you a true feeling of the wind that was blowing outside....I asked Dennis what the wind rating was for our 2007 HitchHiker...he didn't laugh....in fact, he looked a little like a deer in the headlights....

.....He was keeping a close eye on the window...as was I!!!
I figured I would take my shower, maybe it would have a relaxing affect...However, once I was in the shower I felt like I needed to hang on to the sides to keep from bouncing around..Now I know how our son felt taking his "navy" shower on the carrier when in rough seas! I figured that if we tipped over now, at least I was already wet!
We focused on the TV programs, but that was hard to do..We lost our electricity 5 times in 2 hours...but it always came back on . My sis called from Illinois to see if we were OK..she had read my previous blog and wondered if we truly did take flight. I assured her we were fine, just rockin' and rollin' a bit.
Den and I both agreed we had never been through such sustained winds and rain nonstop for 24 hours straight, with no relief. It was like riding out a Category 1 hurricane (without the calm of the 'eye") and being in an RV there is no place to go but UP!! By 9PM we were mentally exhausted as I'm sure everyone else in the park was. In fact, I think at this point in time, we were almost getting used to the rocking...We climbed into bed and were rocked to sleep...or should I say tossed to sleep. We didn't move until 7:30 AM this morning, when we realized that sometime in the night, the winds had finally subsided somewhat.
It still looked pretty ominous outside,but ominously beautiful...

Dennis decided the winds were not very bad now, and certainly they could'nt get like yesterday, so he reconstructed our Hughesnet dish, so we could go back online...YEA!!!! funny how quick we got used to having that thing...

I had to crank open the back window and relay the readings on the computer screen to him, so he would know when it was pointed at the right satellite...I have no clue how he knows how to do that.
 We needed to go into Ajo and get a few things, so we headed out about 10:30AM. There was quite a bunch of mud that had flowed out of the arroyo onto the road to the casino....

...here is where this stuff was flowing from....

...It's interesting how the water finds the regular paths to flow out....On Rt. 85 going into Ajo we went through a few low spots with water lying in the road, making quite a "splash"..There was a lot of debris along the road, parts of dead cactus and plants that blew into town from the desert. The temp was not as warm as I would have liked, but 54 would have pleased anyone in Illinois!
When we got back we took our walk..(we  hadn't walked in 2 days)...I checked the bulletin board to see if the Indian craft/food/pottery/jewelry show was still on for tomorrow...NADA...This could be one of the reasons...

...this is part of the place they do the cooking...and the roof needed a little lift after yesterday's winds....
We had a good laugh when we walked by these "lakes" at the front of the RV park....

...and this sign was hung in one of the trees by these little lakes...

...if you can't read it, it says, "Ray's Lake, No Fishin'"....Ray, of course, is the great character who runs this place....Apparently someone has still maintained a great sense of humor through all this...bet their door didn't fly off yesterday!
On our walk we always go up by the casino. They have a neat stick made shelter on the North side of the casino, with picnic tables...Well, it collapsed yesterday in the wind, too.

...OOPS!! No more roof! I hope someone knows "stick roof" repair around here...I'm sure there are many who know exactly what to do. We finished up our walk, noticing that there was some rain in the distant mountains...The rain is suppose to continue on and off throughout the day today.

 Well, yesterday was exactly as predicted, but I didn't really quite get it, until I was IN it!!...It was a character builder for sure...but we did find out that this ol' HitchHiker can take a pretty good hit! I've got bratwurst and sauerkraut in the crockpot..(yes, thank God for slow cookers on bad days)...and it looks like the worst is behind us. I am looking forward to  Sunday...sunny and 60 degrees predicted...chicken of the grill is also predicted..Thanks for following our blog!..I really enjoy doing it...especially when we have some different excitement...like yesterday... I just really hope that was the end of storms for a while....More tomorrow....definitely!!

WHAT A STORM!!!!...THAT'S ALL FOR NOW.WILL BLOG MORE LATER....

STAY IN YOUR SEATS WHEN THE SEATBELT LIGHT IS ON!!

Last evening was a little, shall we say, "turbulent". The winds started picking up about 5:30PM, and by the time we went to bed I felt like a flight attendant trying to serve meals in high turbulence. Our 'ol HitchHiker was really shakin'.  We jumped into bed and I was watching to see if the "fasten your seat belt" light would appear on our ceiling. ...and then came the rain....and it came....and it came...in sheets it came!!! It finally subsided enough for the sandman to make an appearance and we both fell asleep. I woke up about 2:30AM and looked out my window to see stars like someone had sprinkled glitter in the sky..It was absolutely beautiful....and calm...No sign of the stormy evening ever happened..at least in the dark there were none...However, when we got up at 7AM, and we walked the laundry down our road, there were some camping chairs lying around, a few satellite dishes on with their faces in the dirt, and a few puddles ...Here are "The Ponds of Hickiwan"...

...That would be Dennis walking back to our camper from the laundry.  Luckily, our Hughesnet dish was still lashed upright..Den had a 6 gallon (50 lb.) jug of water hanging from the center and 6 8" nails (2 on each leg) driven into the ground. He was really worried it would become a casualty of last night's winds...
  While we were folding laundry (yes, I did say WE), Den conveyed his concern about tomorrow's weather. We had planned on driving the 90 miles up to Buckeye AZ to the WalMart tomorrow.  I needed an RX filled and we figured we would get groceries and some RV stuff we needed. Den said the projected forcast for Ajo was not very good. We are under a High Wind Watch tonight until Friday at 11AM, locally damaging winds possible...sustained winds 32 mph, and (now here is the clincher) maximum wind gusts at 74 mph...Well, by golly, gosh almighty! We decided to do the drive to Buckeye today and stick around tomorrow in case we had to chase our internet and satellite dishes into the Sonoran Desert...not to mention keep an eye on the HitchHiker so she didn't fly away...So onward we went 90 miles North..Buckeye is a suburb of Phoenix.
  We traveled through Ajo and about 10 miles North of there we were going through the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range..We were treated to a fighter jet ahead of us in the distance...I think you can see it waaaaay in the distance in this photo..

....OK, he is REALLY waaaaay in the distance, but I have a love affair with military aircraft, as I already warned you.
We drove through a really rugged area called Crater Range, still on the Air Force Range, and I snapped this shot...

..."on the fly"as usual. Den had decided he should buy some heavy duty ratchet straps at WalMart to tie down our computer dish...straps that have a chance in a duel with 74 mph wind gusts....I am thinking to myself, "Tomorrow could be a character builder"...
Actually the drive was very enjoyable...I never tire of the Arizona mountains. We were about 20 miles outside of Ajo when we saw the signs to "slow ahead...agents present", meaning it was a Border Patrol checkpoint...

We stopped at the given spot. We had agents on both sides of the truck. The agent on my side had a drug sniffing dog and he didn't speak (the agent, not the dog, duh. My high school English teacher would be appalled at my sentence construction.) The agent on the driver's side was very cordial and just asked where we coming from..I said Illinois and Dennis said Ajo...at the same time...Are we looking suspicious now??? He just laughed and told us to have a good day...Sometimes I just need to shut up and let Den do the talking...especially with Border Patrol agents!
 We got into the outskirts of Buckeye and began to see a lot of green planting in the fields. I thought it was a sod farm, but Dennis the farmer told me it was Alfalfa...

I wouldn't know alfalfa if it walked up and bit me, unless it was the one in Our Gang..(For those of you too young to remember Darla, Spanky and Alfalfa....I hope this drives you nuts!!)
 We found the WalMart and I immediately dropped off my RX bottle, at which time the young lady behind the "drop off" counter told me they needed to call my doctor to get permission for the refill...and this could take a long time to get the fax back. I figured, OK, we could hang out here getting groceries for about 1-2 hours. I can easily wander our WalMart back home for that length of time..Dennis though???? NOT! He suggested that I call my doctor's office and expedite it, so I did....And guess what??? My good Dr. Steinberg is not in the office on Wednesdays, so it may not be until Friday to pick it up...JUST GREAT!....90 miles again on Friday?..I don't think so! We left, and I will figure out this dilema later...
This is my driver....

...looking way too serious...
Dennis was ecstatic with his 4 new ratchet straps and couldn't wait to lash them onto our computer dish. He was not ecstatic thinking about driving back to Buckeye in the next few days..I made an executive decision on my own healthcare..This RX is not for something life threatening..and my doc said he might take me off of it soon, so I will call him tomorrow and ask if I can go off it now, due to the logistics of the situation...."I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!!"
 We are back at the camper now....Den went out and played in the sand with his ratchets.

 I took this out our back window...I am not a lover of big winds whipping at me....and the winds are really picking up as we speak..
Tomorrow is going to be interesting , or so it seems. I am going to slow cook some beef shanks with veggies, (hopefully creating beef soup for supper), and we will lash ourselves to the crock pot with bungee cords to allow us to bounce around the camper, if need be. If there is no blog from Cave Dwellings tomorrow, you only need to check the upper jet stream and see if a large HitchHiker is looking like something out of The Wizard of Oz...more later...maybe LOTS later....