Pima Air Museum

 Our truck was in the shop so we took advantage of having a rental car and went to Tucson.  We wanted to visit friends and check out some homes for sale.  We looked at a couple of nice 55 plus communities that were surrounded by nature either BLM land or state park land.  Tucson is a little cooler than Yuma but still quite hot in the summer.   Lots of new home construction going on around Tucson and someday I think Tucson and Phoenix will merge.  

While we were in the area we visited the Pima Air Museum.  We have been there before but its been many years now.  The museum is dedicated to military aircraft.  There are 7 or eight buildings full of planes and also a huge area outdoors with more planes.  They all look like they could take off and fly but regulations require them to be non flyable.  The corsair in the top picture was a popular fighter plane in WW11.  The super guppy was a weird looking giant transport plane.  President Kennedy and Johnson's plane was there an old version of air force one.  There is an sr-71 the supersonic spy plane.  There seemed to be every kind of plane ever used by the military but I'm sure there were some missing.   This is a great place to see aeronautical history and  especially get a sense of what flying in WW11 was like.  

Cotton and Mining

 

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Arizona is known for the four c's, copper, cactus, copper and cotton.  I was surprised about the cattle and cotton but when it gets too hot in the summer they raise cotton instead of lettuce in the southern part of the state.  Here in Yuma there is a cotton gin.  The area around these mounds of cotton looks like it snowed with the ground covered  in white.   They gin the cotton and bale it and probably ship it to China. like everything else these days.  

The top picture is the entrance to a mine up by Quartzsite.  We aren't sure what kind of mine it was either copper, gold or silver.  There were warning sings not to enter the area.  There were all kinds of hazards listed but the scary one was hazardous gasses.  You don't want to get close to that because you would be dead before you realize there is a problem with the air.  

Quartzsite Sights

 We are in Quartzsite and we were digging for gold until the rain came.  It poured and even hailed but the hail was clear not the usual white stuff that looks like snow.   So the dirt is too wet to run through our drywasher.  We have been doing some metal detecting but no luck there unless lead is worth something.  

We have been doing some trail riding for something to do.  I thought the turtle in the picture was a big rock in the road and drove over it.  Luckily I didn't hurt it.  We decided to move it off the road so the next person didn't hit it.  Its tricky moving desert tortoises because they have a water bladder that they store water in and that's how they survive in the desert.  If they are threatened they will dump their water which they might not be able to replace fast enough so they could die.  I moved the turtle off the road holding it very close to the ground.  The turtle made it without losing its water.  We're not sure where it wanted to go but hopefully its on its way.  

We also stopped to look at this medicine wheel that a group had made out in the middle of the desert.  It's just rocks piled into the shape of a spoked wheel.  It was well done and had some pretty quartz rock in the middle.

 

Grand Canyon Railroad

When we were in Williams we stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park.  It's part of a big complex including a hotel and restaurant as well as the RV park.  The park is very nice with paved streets and long pull through, level, paved sites.  We were tired of our gravel, muddy clay site that we had for the summer.   If you stay here you get a discount to ride the train to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  It is a very popular ride and seems to have lots of riders everyday not just weekends.  Some people had luggage being stowed on the train we figure they take the train and spend the night at a hotel at the Grand Canyon and then come back the next day.  You leave Williams around 9-9:30 and come back around 6pm so its a long day.  Everyone packs a backpack and we also saw coolers being loaded so they must have a picnic while there. 

Its fun to see the train unload and all the families with small children having to carry them back to the RV park.  The kids get pretty worn out from the long day .  Although the adults look pretty worn out as well.  We haven't taken the train but if we were asked to go with friends we probably would give it a try.  The pictures are of the old steam engine train.  They run a regular diesel locomotive and passenger cars nowadays but on holidays they do still have the steam engine going. 
 

Petrified Wood in Holbrook, Arizona

Wow it is nice to have good internet.  It was hit or miss at the campground this summer and even my phone hotspot didn't work well.  This made it hard to do the blog so I am very behind.   We left Clay Springs and spent our first night in Holbrook just ninety miles or so from our summer campground.  We like to make a short trip the first day.  We never know if we are going to have trouble getting the rig ready to tow after sitting all summer.  The campground has a lot of clay and our rig sunk a bit when the monsoons came.  So we weren't sure how much work it was going to be to get the truck hooked up to it.  Luckily we didn't have any trouble so we ended up getting to Holbrook before 10 in the morning.  They didn't mind the early check in and it was nice to relax the rest of the day after the challenge of getting on the road again.  

Holbrook is the closest town to the Petrified Forest National Park.  They have several petrified trees at the campground that are very beautiful.  It amazes me how much it looks like someone sawed them into pieces but they broke naturally that way.    We left the next day and went to Williams which is the closest town to the Grand Canyon.  The battery light came on denoting a problem with the charging system in the truck.  There was a mobile repair guy that came and put in a new alternator and at least the batteries are charging but there is still a problem because the battery light won't go out.  We called our diesel guy in Yuma and he said the truck was driveable and to bring it to him when we get back to Yuma.  We are looking forward to being able to sell the truck for something newer when there are more trucks on the market.  We are now in Kingman and will be in Quartzsite by the end of the month.

 

Pretty Bugs

These mountains contain some weird bugs along with some familiar ones.  The top picture has a red and black striped beetle kind of bug.  It has these weird little wings up by his head.  I'm still waiting to hear from a friend what kind of bug it is.  The other bug which is bright green is a praying mantis.  The ones I'm used to seeing are kind of brown.    This year there are a few mosquitoes around with some biting flies.  Many more bugs this year than last.

We are getting spoiled being here close to farms that sell farm fresh eggs.  The yolks are a very rich yellow color and taste amazing.  The little store by us sells fabulous bacon and steak.  So we treat our selves once in awhile to the meat.   The owner of the park has a ranch and raises lots of vegetables as well as cattle.   He even gave us a small elk roast from an elk that the owners wife shot last fall.  It was very tasty cooked on the grill.

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The One and Only Mattress House

Clay Springs, the little town we are staying in for the summer, has some unique features.  One of them being this house made out of mattresses.  The design is kind of like an igloo.  It is not lived in but the guy building and rebuilding this mattress house lives in a house on the property.  He starts to getting it looking pretty good and then the monsoons come.  I don't have a picture of it after the rains but it has pretty much come down.  We just aren't sure why he continues to rebuild it.  This is at least the second year in a row for this project.  Hope he isn't trying to make it into a rental -- renters beware.

We are trying to get out in the forest as much as we can but it gest really muddy after a good rain.  You don't know until you get out there if the roads will be passable or not.  The rain here is very spotty.  It could be a deluge in one spot and fifty feet away no rain at all.   We can have mud and dust both on our 4wheeler after a ride.  

 

Elk

 If you click on the pictures they will be larger.  We have been searching for elk every time we go out in the 4wheeler.  We finally have been having some luck seeing them.  The first herd we saw crossing the road had made a lot of noise while doing it.  The elk moms have to call to their babies to get them to keep moving.  They don't bugle like bull elk but you can tell the call from the females is coming from an elk.  We have to be on our way out to the forest by 5am so that we end up down where we see the elk in time.  I'm glad we only go out every other day so I get to sleep in some days.

We have also been seeing cotton tail and black tail rabbits, Abert squirrels, turkeys with chicks, coyotes, mule deer, the elk and of course the wild horses.  One of the other guys in the park goes out in the forest and puts on at least 50 miles each time.  He has seen big herds of elk and some groups of deer with huge racks (antlers) hanging out together.  Another guy that was going out with his granddaughter saw two bears.  We would love to see a bear again.  We will keep trying.

Clay Mine

 I finally have a chance to update the blog.  Slow internet is the bane of every campground we've been in but I can usually use my phone hotspot.  I don't have much data on it so I have wait and use it when I get more each month.  We have been four wheeling in the forest and now that it has been raining it is getting green.  We traveled a different road and found this old mine.  Red clay was mined here to use for the clay rooftop tiles they use on the roofs here in Arizona.  We are in the town of Clay Springs so you know its known for clay.  The top picture shows the mine from a distance and the second I tried to show how tall the walls of dirt were from the mine.  They are at least a hundred feet high.  

We are enjoying our second summer in this area of Arizona.  The weather is in the 80's and the humidity is pretty low although it does spike when the rains come through -- it is monsoon season.  So far we haven't had a deluge at the campground.  It has been just nice steady rain and a little thunder a day or two a week.  We don't do a whole lot except four wheel with the price of diesel.  It costs us over $20 just to go to town and back so you think twice before going anywhere.

The Petrified Wood Store

 

On our way to our summer destination we stopped in Holbrook, Arizona.  This is the closest town to the Petrified National Forest.  We have been to the park in the past so we chose not to go again.  We did take the time to go to the store in town (actually it is on your way out of town headed south) and take a look at some of the beautiful petrified wood they have for sale.  The top picture shows what look like cut logs.  This is all petrified wood.  The logs actually break that way looking like someone cut them.  They also had this beautiful waterfall running over colorful pieces of petrified wood.  The store was loaded with wood of all colors, shapes and sizes.  Some of it was sliced into slabs and made into tables - gorgeous and expensive.  The bigger tables were selling for $35,000 and that didn't include the chairs.

We are now settled in to our summer campground by Show Low, Arizona for the second summer.  It is cooler than most of Arizona because we are at 6700 feet in elevation.  It is very dry here and the fire danger is very high.  Everyone is praying the monsoons will come in a few weeks.

Saguro Cactus in Bloom

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Before we left Quartzsite it was getting very hot and the saguro cacti were starting to bloom.  The pretty white flowers that pop open are favorites for the bees and hummingbirds.   By the time we left Quartzsite the town was getting pretty desolate with everyone leaving.  We found almost a gram of gold while we were there which about covered the cost of fuel to go dig.   

When we got all hooked up and ready to leave we realized that our camera monitor wasn't working.  A wire had broken and there was no way of fixing it at that point so we had to drive without being able to see the 4wheeler behind us which was unnerving.  We got close to Kingman and heard a loud hissing noise coming from the truck.  A day at the ford dealer and our leaky exhaust hose was replaced.  Jim was disappointed because he had planned to go to the Kingman airport cafe for breakfast and instead got to spend his time getting the truck fixed.  
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Quartz veins

 On the left side of the hole you can see a large hunk of white rock.  That is a part of the quartz vein some old prospectors must have been following.  The tailing piles around the hole are littered with smashed quartz.  Sometimes gold follows along the quartz vein.  The hole is deep enough that you would have to go down in it to see how far back it goes but that is very dangerous to do let alone illegal.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to check it out with scorpions and snakes waiting for you in there.

Speaking of snakes -- a sidewinder (a kind of rattlesnake) parked itself under an rv here in the RV park we are staying at in Quartzsite.  The fire department was called to come and get it which they did quite promptly.  One morning I noticed a coyote laying down right outside the back gate looking like someone's pet dog.  He was resting while waiting for a quail or rabbit to come by and be his breakfast.  Other people have seen a large bobcat cruising along the back fence looking for a meal.  The back of the park is up against a large wash where the wildlife feel safe to roam even though it is in the middle of town.  

Digging for Gold?

 We traded fishing for the golden walleye and instead dig for that yellow gold.   Fishing was much less taxing and much cleaner.   I also don't think either hobby is cheap.  We had all kinds of money invested in a boat and fishing gear.  Now we have money tied up in a 4wheeler and all kinds of gear to find gold.  When you caught fish you had something to eat.  When you find gold you have something to sell although I doubt we will ever find enough to sell some.  

We have been digging in a huge tailing pile (dirt that was dug out of a mine ) and running it through our drywasher.  The place we are digging is on a gold claim that the club we belong to has and it is just south of the original mine.  We keep thinking that when they ran all the dirt the first time they must have missed some so we are hoping to find their mistakes.  So far, as you can see from the picture, they didn't miss much.  The hole that we have been digging is starting to look like a grave.  So if I go missing you know where to look.   😅

Back in Quartzsite

 We are back in Quartzsite through April and hoping we can last until the first or second week of May.  We will see because it might just get too hot.  We are scheduled to go up to Show Low, Arizona in Mid-May.  They were still getting snow there just last week.  Hard to believe that it snows in places here in Arizona.  We got to Quartzsite earlier than usual so we finally got to taste the homemade ice cream made right on site with this contraption churning the cream.  The guy that makes it has a booth near the big tent show that happens in January.  Lucky for us he was still here doing business in March.

Many people have left now that April is here.  They are ready to head back home after a winter of fun in the sun.  We like coming here after the crowds so we can enjoy the desert and the peace and quiet.  We have had some very pretty sunrises.  We get to see them because we are up and out on the 4wheeler while it is still dark out.  We get to our gold digging spot about the time the sun is coming up.  This way we can dig longer before the heat pours on which by 10AM its starting to get pretty warm. 

Good Smells

 I should have taken a picture of the lemon tree full of blossoms but I didn't so I am showing the one with lemons.  The other tree is a desert acacia.  The fruit trees, like the lemon tree, are all in blossom and the smells from them are incredible.  If you're allergic it is horrible but if not the smell --mmmm.  It gets better at night.  I'm not sure why but you step outside and its dark and still warm out and the smell wafts to you.  The desert acacia smells kind of like licorice but sweeter.  I love the smell of spring here in Yuma.

We have been attending going away parties.  We have gotten to know quite a few people here in Yuma so we end up having a lot of people to say goodbye to and that we hope we will see them again next season.  You never know because none of us are getting any younger.  Most of us snowbirds are planning our escapes.  The price of fuel is scaring a lot of folks and they are heading out early.  What can you do it is what it is.

Neighborhood Dogs

These dogs are so clever.  They roll their ball out into the street and wait for a sucker to pick it up and throw it back into their yard.  Of course they catch it and roll it back out of the gate so you can throw it again.  One of the dogs is better at catching it than the other but they both love it and will play til you stop.  Jim is always careful to not over work them so they don't get over heated.  

We are getting ready to move up to Quartzsite in two weeks.  We are moving a little earlier than usual because we got to Yuma a little earlier than usual.  We love gold prospecting in Quartzsite because we can just leave right from the park with the 4wheeler instead of loading it up on the trailer and driving ten miles or so and unloading it to get to the gold area near Yuma.
 

Red cloud mine

We went 4wheeling with our neighbors on Red Cloud Mine Road.  The one neighbor wanted to go all the way up past the mine to a spot he showed us on his little map that said you could see the river and have a picnic.  We got to the mine which is about 17 miles north of Martinez Lake and stopped to take some pictures.  On the way there we saw the sign hung off of the skeleton letting us know the mine was open to visitors.  I think the caretaker at the mine gets lonely plus he makes his money selling the wulfenite from the mine to us tourists.  There are lots of old structures at the mine.  I loved the old water tower looking thing that was bashed in way at the top -- gotta wonder how that happened.  The caretaker allows collectors to dig for their own specimens of wulfenite for a reasonable price.  The story is that he found a piece that was at least an inch or two in a beautiful crystalline matrix.  He sold it for $30,000 and it ended up at the Tuscon gem show and sold for $60,000 -- so the story goes.  The wulfenite from Red Cloud Mine is world famous because of the color, clarity and gem quality.  There are only two places in the world with this kind of wulfenite - Red Cloud and a place in South Africa. 

We continued our ride north of Red Cloud but the road turns into a trail and got very rough.  We decided to go back and not try to go the additional 20 miles to the river.  The rest of the group made it all the way but said the trail got even rougher.   We were glad we didn't try it and some of the riders said we were the smart ones for turning back.  

 

Wild Burros of the Potholes

 The area we go gold prospecting in is called the potholes.  I'm not sure why the name except everywhere you look there are small holes where people have dug for gold.  There is an active gold prospecting club here and there are always folks from the club digging on the club claims.  We dig on the land abutting their claims.  We would join the club but we already belong to two and that seems like enough.  

You always see evidence of the wild burro population out here.  Their droppings and trails are everywhere.  We hear them bray every time we are out but don't always see them.  The burros aren't native to the area.  They were brought in by the miners back in the 1800's and are the descendants of those that escaped or survived their owners.   It is amazing to see what they eat here because it is all thorny bushes, cactus and a few thorny trees.  The American canal, off of the Colorado River, as well as Senator was and Squaw lake are close by and that is where they go for water.  People also camp out here in the long term camping area and I'm sure they feed the burros that come close enough to them.  

Cotton

 Arizona is known for the four cees - cactus, copper, cattle and cotton.  When the weather turns hot they switch from growing vegetables to growing cotton.  When we come back to Yuma around the end of October they are starting to bring the cotton to the cotton gin.  Huge bales of cotton come to the plant and go through the machines and come out in piles.  The piles are put into nice wrappers like another bale and shipped off to wherever-  most likely China.  When we go by the plant the area is white with cotton flurries.  I made the mistake of picking up a piece of cotton  that hadn't been processed and was shocked at how sharp the plant is.  When they used to pick cotton by hand I don't know how they did it without getting blood all over it from all the pricks your hands would suffer from the thorny stuff. 

We have been busy getting things fixed on our RV.  It is as bad as a house especially when it is getting older.  We are still looking for a permanent house to buy but the market is a little too crazy right now.  So we keep putting money in our RV since we don't know how long we will be keeping it.  We have to keep it looking as new as possible because a lot of RV parks don't want RVs that are more than ten years old.    It is good to be able to send a picture of a nice looking rig so we can get into these parks if we want to stay there.  

Meyer Lemons

 One of our neighbors here in Yuma gave us some lemons from their tree.  They had already picked over 100 and had twice that left on the tree.    They make pie, lemon cello, lemonade and also freeze slices and juice.  These lemons look like oranges on the outside and the inside but they are lemons.  This brand is some kind of hybrid of a lemon and orange tree.  I like to grate the rind and dry it.  I use it where lemon peel is called for in a recipe.  It is expensive to buy and so easy to make your own.  I let the grated peel dry outside.  Here the air is so dry that the peel dries out quickly.  I even made some homemade lemonade that turned out pretty well.  I squished the lemons through a fine colander.   You add the juice to some sugar dissolved in water and add ice.  

It is warming back up nicely now.  It was getting down in the 40's at night and now it is staying in the 50's.  It was in the 60's during the day and now it is back up in the 70's.  Winter is over down here.   The only issue is if there is some wind out of the north.  That makes it feel cold because it is blowing down from the cold north.  We are going out gold prospecting again now that it is nice.  It sure would be nice if we were better at it but it is something to do.