Our Neighbors

 

There are none.

I am really surprised.  I didn’t think we’d last this long at Roadrunner after stopping here on our way back from Yuma.  We’ve stayed here every year for at least a couple weeks during each winter.  There are always a lot more campers.  So I figured we would have left by now, returning to Erhrenberg where we were before the vet visit.  Maybe it is the cost of fuel keeping people away.  I know the Canadians are free to come down this year but I don’t think I have seen one Canada plate yet.  Not to say I’ve been out and about all that much.  I’m not complaining.  We’re enjoying our peace and quiet. 

After meeting the two ladies at Dollar General I went looking for this hot dog vendor I went to last year. She wasn’t there.  Maybe she is in a new location.  But I did see my friend Michelle who I met here two years ago.  She’s an artist and this year she thought she’d try setting up a booth to sell her work.  She’s had a couple sales but said there just isn’t that many people here yet.  She’s noticed it too.  She hasn’t recouped her cost for renting the vendor space yet but she said at least she’s been having fun.  She is thinking about following the vendor circuit next year, but she cannot find much information online about it.  I suggest she talk to the other vendors in town.  I have over the years and they told me that is what they do, hitting up fairs and the like.  Anyway, it should all pick up next month and especially in January when the big RV show rolls into town.  We will be rolling out of town for sure.

So talking with those three women was probably the most talking I have done in weeks.  I enjoyed visiting but was worn out by the time we returned to Roadrunner.  Beans was too.  Geez, Dad.  You talk a lot.

Not Ruth

As I walked out from Dollar General after visiting with Rita this large truck and camper was exiting the parking lot when I reached the RV.  The combination looked very much like this, same color too.

Looking at it, making sure I wasn’t going to get run over, I noticed the driver, a woman, waving at me. Do I know this person?  She rolled down the passenger window and I walked over.  My head and shoulders were just high enough to look inside.  The lady was pointing at my RV saying “That is what I wanted, but I got this instead.”  I had just met Luth, not Ruth as I said and she corrected me.  I guess it was Luth.  She was in her late fifties, early sixties I’d guess.  She was from Illinois.  I gathered this was her first time here in Quartzsite.  I asked where she was staying but it seemed she had just arrived.  She wasn’t familiar with any of the town asking me where she could get fresh produce just before leaving from our visit, which didn’t last all that long for she was blocking the exit.  I told her how I had The Little House on the Highway fifteen years now, how I thought I would never be able to own a View and how I got such a great deal on it back in 2007.  “It was used, one year by the previous owner who traded it in on the new 2007 model.  I don’t think the dealers knew how to price these used back then for this was the first model a 2006.”  She said that she too came across her truck and camper the same way as I, Craigslist, and it was such a great deal she went ahead and bought it instead of holding out for what she was searching for.  I think she did the right thing for good used RV’s are hard to come by these days and the prices for those out there are astronomical.  She said she is very happy with her new home as she too is now a full time nomad on the road.  By now she had created a line-up into the parking lot and we said our goodbyes.

Rita at Dollar General

I am having a hard time finding the variety packs of Tiki Cat cat food from my usual sources.  “Not available.  Availability unknown.”  That is because it comes from Thailand and is sitting out there in the Pacific Ocean on container ships off the west coast.  I’ll not say anymore on that topic.  So I have been picking up this and that in the stores around here trying them out on Beans.  She seems to like everything so far, gulping it down.  I guess she was ready for a change in cuisine.

My last stop shopping yesterday was at Dollar General.  Being as I had found most everything I needed for myself at the first two stops, my basket at the checkout contained mostly a variety of Beans food. Rita the checkout lady commented about my purchases and how important our furry friends are to us. I said something about how I’ll eat most anything but I worry about my cat when I see the cat food shelves nearly empty.  “I’m trying different things since I cannot order her usual fare.”

She tells me how she had moved here to Quartzsite a year ago (I remember her from last year) and she only had her little dog with her.  “One day I found a dog in the desert. He was nearly dead, just skin and bones, runned ragged trying to keep away from the coyotes.  I brought him home.  Now I have two furry companions.”

“So he lived?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, you’re a good person.  You saved his life.”  And with that she dug out her phone to show me a picture of him.  She went on with her story as she scrolled through her photos.  The dog looked like this only with pretty pale blue eyes.

“Oh he is beautiful.  I love those eyes.”  I said.  She went on taliking.

“When my son was murdered...”  Okay, that stopped me there.  I was stunned.  I lost track of what she was saying.  She said something about it taking her six years and then she found this dog.  “My son had red hair and blue eyes.  I think maybe he sent this dog to me.  He is so lovable and gives me hugs all the time.”

I would have like to talked with Rita more but some customers came up in line.

Rita is a petite little woman, probably in her sixties.  I cannot imagine the pain and heartache she went through learning her son had been murdered.  She is too nice to have to have had to endure such a loss.

Hand Wash Laundry

 

I noticed on these pants a couple dribbles from my latest fast food outing.  Either hamburger juice or chocolate milkshake drippings.  Don’t know.  Unsightly.  So I decided to hand wash the pants.

Rinse bucket to the side.  Notice anything?

The water afterwards was filthy.  Now that isn’t from me.  I wear these pants primarily only when driving.  And when driving I have a cat in my lap.  That is all Beans dirt!

I put a bit of Spray & Wash fabric cleaner on the two drips.  Now I have a ultra-clean spot where the drips were.  Unsightly!  Maybe even more so than the two small drips alone.  Grrr!

It doesn’t show here because the pants are wet.  I tried to blend it in with...dirt.

Beans will wind up fixing it for me in time.

Package Pickup

 

I had three packages arrive, Post Office, United Parcel and Fedex, all together within a two day period, a remarkable feat I pulled off if I do say so myself.

They all were delivered to this delivery destination store in Quartzsite. 

She has a nice little money making business going on in just package pickup alone.

Considering this is about the only option for the thousands of snowbirds here during the winter, just imagine all the packages that come through here from folks ordering things on just Amazon alone.

My charge was nine dollars for these three packages.

Oh goody, I see Chewy.  That means food for me!

Wait! That is catnip I smell. Oh my God Dad! Did you get me some catnip bananas?  I love you Dad!

I know you do Beans.

On the way back to camp we stopped off at the Long Term Stay Area to fill the water tank.

Then we pulled up ahead and stopped to unpack the boxes, flatten them out and toss into the dumpster bins along with the rest of the trash we had on hand.

Here Dad, let me help out.  I’ll pop the air bags from the packaging for you.

Our Thanksgiving Meal

 

Here is Beans enjoying her turkey and gravy.

She wound up eating the entire can of food.

I didn’t get any.

That’s okay.  My stomach was a bit off all day.  So I had some soup.

If you like tomato soup I encourage you to try Amy’s Tomato Bisque soup.

This is sooo good. 

We were both happy with our Thanksgiving meals.  Beans was doing her circus cat routine after eating running back and forth leaping from the bed to seat to the table to the overhead and back.  I feared my meal would get overturned while capturing the above photo but she avoided the pot.  Whew!  What a mess that would be.

A No Turkey Thanksgiving

 

Is this for real?  Is this how it is out there for Thanksgiving this year?

What?!  You mean no turkey for us this year Dad?

I have some for you Beans, no worries.

I hadn’t planned on having any for myself, so I’m fine.

Happy Thanksgiving to you my followers and for my friends across the pond, have a great day.

Desert Clean-up

 

After feeding the fox we moved to a new spot maybe a quarter mile away just for a change of scenery.

In the shallow ravine nearby was this ice chest, washed in by a small flash flood it looked like.  It got caught up in some mesquite brush and was partially filled with mud.  The lid was elsewhere up stream.  How can you lose an ice chest?

So I used it as a container for other trash I came across out on my walks.  Some of that is my trash-cat food tins, human food tins and my old barbecue grill.

 

Nice job Dad.  But there aren’t many lizards here not that there was at the other place either.

What’s the deal?

I don’t know Beans, but at least we’re done with the pills and your cough is gone.

You’ve got that going for you.

Feeding the Fox

 

I had this tin of beef that I had bought at the scratch and dent food tent here in Quartzite a couple of years ago.  I had bought a couple three at the time for $3 each.  This last tin has been traveling around with us for awhile.  The Best by date on the bottom read...well I couldn’t really make it out.  I thought it best not to eat it.  I would give it to our little fox friend that comes by in the evenings.

This is half of the can’s contents setting out on a rock.

 

The little guy ate all of it!  Look how he licked that rock clean.

I put the remainder out the next night.  All gone.

Future Travel Plans

Reposting the solar eclipse post from 2017 yesterday got me to thinking (always a dangerous endeavor) When is the next one to happen in the U.S.?

Yep, I’m gonna be there for it.

 We went into town (Quartzsite) last week for a few errands.  I treated myself to a burger.

Now I approach fast food burger joints differently.  When asked at the counter “What would you like to order?” I start off by asking “Is your milkshake machine working? Did product come in on the truck?” 

While enjoying my lunch I watched the electric car fill-up station.

The red car was there when I arrived, probably one or two of the others also but the red car was easier to keep track of.  It was a woman and a small child out wandering about while the electricity flowed into her car.  I went in Carl’s, ordered my meal, waited for it, went back in the RV and leisurely enjoyed my burger and shake, got out to drop off my trash and then left to go back to our homesite.  The woman and child were still wandering around waiting for the car to be charged up.

Seems like a monumental waste of time to me when I have places to go and things to do.

Total Solar Eclipse August 21, 2017 - rerun

The recent lunar eclipse caused me to think about the great all-America total solar eclipse of 2017.  I along with some friends had an ideal location for the spectacular show in Wyoming near the Nebraska border.  Some of you who are following along today may not have been with us back in 2017, so I thought I would repost that blog entry for you as it has a couple videos contained within.

Hopefully the link below to the post will work and take you there.

Try this first by clicking HERE.

If that doesn’t work then copy and paste the link below.  I cannot test it until it actually posts.

Also the individual blog post before and after are interesting if it is easy for you to click “older post” and “newer post” at the bottom of the page you are viewing.  I’m winging it here as I don’t really know how this will all come out when it is posted.  I tried.

 https://hwyfly.blogspot.com/2017/08/eclipse.html

The Lunar Eclipse Incident

 

The evening’s sunset of the upcoming lunar eclipse.

I woke up just before midnight wondering if the eclipse had begun yet.  I stepped outside.  Nope.  Full moon.  I crawled back into my sleeping bag and checked to see if I could view the moon from the window without getting out from bed.  I looked out the window next to my head and this was staring at me.  “Good Lord!  Is he inside or outside?”  He was inside of course.  The beast was two and a half inches across!  Huge!  I caught him in a plastic cup and tossed him out the door.  He immediately begins making his way back towards under the RV so he can climb up inside once again.  Figures.

(that is the flash, not the moon)

Back in bed I begin thinking.  How did he get inside?  More so, how did he get over there onto the window next to my head?  Are they any of his friends in here also?

I was up again a three a.m. (not sure if I ever went back to sleep) and stepped outside.

The show was on and the moon was a small sliver.

Back in bed I checked the window, no spiders, and finally went to sleep.

Mortar Holes

 

Across the “river” from the petroglyphs are a few mortar holes where the Native Americans who lived here ground seeds into a powder for cooking.  There are five holes.  

The largest is a foot deep and most likely a heavy thick stick was used and the person stood up pounding the stick up and down.  That is the toe of my boot to give you a size reference.

 

I could picture the women sitting here chatting away while the river slowly flowed by, not a bad scene at all.  Meanwhile the men folk were on the other side doing important men work like making pictures on rock.  That is a picture frame I found nearby in case you are wondering.

No water flows in the river these days except only after a brief rain storm.

Playa de Roca

Nearly all the ground in this area looks like this, small dark rock that has been exposed by wind and rain.

There is a mixture of white quartz throughout that people gather up to make their rock art.

I came across these two fist-sized pieces that had some green mixed in.  

I have never seen that before.  It could be copper ore.

I left them there.  I’m hauling around too much rock already.

One of which is the piece of rose quartz which is uncommon.

That was a keeper for me from several years ago.

Crystal

 On a walk across the rocky landscape I found a crystal.  There are a few places about four miles north that have crystals to be found more easily.  I just have never seen any around where we currently are.  This is a good time of the year for finding them.  The sun is lower on the horizon.  You look in the direction of the sun and if lucky will see something sparkle far off in the distance.  Then I walk towards it never taking my eyes off the shine.  This means some stumbling over rocks along the way.  This makes me wonder as does many things, “Why just this one out here all by itself?”  Well it isn’t because the area has been picked clean by others as no one walks about in the middle of the desert like I do.  There most likely are others lying about but they are just beneath the surface and haven’t been exposed by rain and wind yet.  It is a half an inch (is that 1.5cm?) long.

Petroglyphs

 

Each year I revisit this spot where there are some petroglyphs etched into the rock face.

And each year I fear I’ll find some jackass has defaced the images or added his own.

So far, not yet.

Can you see any before scrolling down for the closeups?

As you view these you will notice that there isn’t anything for the person to stand on while creating these images.  How did they do it?

What do you think the images represent?

To me this looks like a river and I like to think there was a year round flow of water passing by and perhaps the artist was sitting in boat or on a raft.

The one on the right is from recent times.  His name was Meat Head.

Do you think a Native American made this one or one of Meathead’s relatives?