The Weather is for the Birds

We ended up going through western Kansas and Nebraska and on in to South Dakota.  No matter how hard we tried to avoid bad weather we finally hit rain in South Dakota.  We are now in Minnesota and its still raining.  It looks like we will be in rain for the rest of the week.  Its strange to be in a steady rain after being in the desert since October.  We only had three days of rain the whole winter.

We got to go on a little pontoon ride and enjoy seeing some ducks, geese, turtles, pelicans and ospreys.  I managed to catch a goose in flight.  Also, I got some great shots of these ospreys building a nest.  Its amazing how they can handle big sticks to add to their nest.

We have a week reprieve before we head to our job in northern Minnesota.   We're hoping the weather improves before we have to go.

Rawhide Days

We left Arizona and spent some time in Elephant Butte, NM getting the RV serviced.  We then thought we would be heading north toward our destination but the weather changed our plans.  A huge storm hit the Rockies and the western plains.  So we ended up hanging out in Tucumcari, NM.   We thought we would just stay south of the storm instead of trying to race through it.  We ended up enjoying our stay in a cute little RV park in Tucumcari -- an old town on old Route 66.  There are cute motels and cafes that cater to the crowd that tours Route 66.

We were lucky enough to be in town when they were celebrating Rawhide Days.  They filmed the tv show Rawhide in this area.  They were showing old episodes of the show at the civic center and had a little fair going.  There were gunfights, pie eating contests and a parade.  I took the pictures of the parade.  Its was kind of a reenactment of a cattle drive.  They brought a bunch of long horn steers right up the main street.  It was amazing to watch the cows just follow right along up the street with no ropes or anything controlling them.  They had authentic wagons and lots of cowboys riding "herd".    

We will be heading to Kansas and up the western side weather permitting or we may have to head farther east right away.   Maybe Dodge City -- who knows what they will be doing in that cute old western town that would be fun to see.

Tombstone, Arizona

We made it as far as Benson, AZ our first day and when we were parking the RV in our camp spot the truck started acting up.  We found a Ford dealer in Sierra Vista and they took a quick look.  It needed a new clutch fan something or other and one injector needed replacing plus the turbo needed cleaning.  They would need the truck at least two days so we rented a car.  We were only planning to be in Benson one night but it turned into three.  

We decided to make the best of it and do a little sightseeing.   We have been to the town of Tombstone before but it had been a while.  The town caters to the tourist crowd.  They have stagecoach rides and they do a reenactment of the shootout at the OK Corral that made the town famous.  There are some cute shops with a few having authentic native american art.  We found a rock shop and got to talking to the owner.  She is a gold prospector like us and told us about the local club and the outings they have.  Too bad the vehicle we rented wasn't a 4 wheel drive jeep --we could have done a little prospecting.

We made it to Elephant Butte, NM but we seem to still be having issues with the truck so we will have it looked at again.   We stopped here to have some routine maintenance on the RV.  Hopefully that's all the RV will need.    If the truck is OK and the weather cooperates we hope to be in Mitchell, SD by next weekend.

Date Farms

The Yuma area has several date farms including one by Wellton, one in Yuma (Marthas Gardens) and several, (Bard, Sunland) just on the other side of the Colorado River in California.  There is also the small place called Dateland 50 miles or so east of Yuma that has a large date farm.  I never cared for dates until I tried some fresh ones here.  They are very good -- sweet and chewy.  The chocolate covered ones are very good especially when they pit them and stuff them with nuts and then cover them with chocolate.  Its like a very fabulous candy bar.  They are highly nutritious and they freeze well.  We usually stock up before we leave but I didn't get around to it with working and packing up to leave and visiting friends for final farewells.

We will then go over to Elephant Butte, NM (by Truth or Consequences) and visit for a few days.  We then plan to head north slowly and try to void any storms.  We will be in Minnesota in three weeks and are hoping it will be much warmer there by that time.  I enjoyed the pool one last time today while it was in the 90's.  I think it will be July before we see those temps again.  

Yuma Flowers

There are blooms everywhere and even some of the cactus are starting to bloom.  Jim planted a lot of the cactus you see.  People grow them in their little yards and the cactus get too big so the maintenance guys -Jim- get to dig them up and move them.  Some are too big to move so they just get cut up and wrapped in a tarp and thrown away.  The thorns on these things are either so tiny you can't see them but they hurt like heck in your skin or they are huge and have to be pulled out with a pliers and hurt like heck.

One lady watched Jim wrestle a cactus she wanted to get rid of and then turned pale when the cactus attacked him and he had to pull the thorny spikes out of his leg.  She gave him a case of beer for his trouble.  Needless to say Jim is not very fond of cactus.

The flu is still going around here -- so many people have had it or are still coming down with it.  It will be a miracle if we escape here without getting it.  We only need to survive one more week and then it will be time to hit the road.  

Shiny Rocks

Yeah, I won the battle -- getting a new computer and learning to use Windows 10.  Still working the bugs out especially getting pictures and downloading them.  It seems like every time they do these upgrades everything gets more complicated instead of easier. 
The gold in the goldpan is our take for the season down here.  Hey, at least its some of the shiny stuff.  I went on the last Rock Club outing of the season to an old Mica dig.  Lots of shiny papery thin sheets of mica -- very pretty.  I also found garnets - the picture didn't really show them well they are up in the far right corner.  They aren't as pretty or gem quality like the ones we found in Ely, NV but still they are garnets. 

We are starting to get packed up -- we will be leaving in two weeks.  We will take at least three weeks to get up to Minnesota.  Can't wait to do some walleye fishing again. 

A Small Bit of Refurbishing the Rig

The decals on the front of our rig were cracking and fading and starting to peel off.  Jim started to scrap them off but could only get so far.  They seemed to be baked into the finish of the RV.  We called a company out to look over the work and give us a quote to get the decals off and put a new clear coating on the front.  They came and washed the whole rig, got the rest of the decals off, got the oxidation off and then put on several coats of Poliglow (a clear coat product kind of like varnish).  Now the front end looks like it came that way from the factory.  You would never know a decal had been on the front.    It actually didn't cost that much to have it done by someone.  That is the great thing about being in Yuma.  Labor is very cheap and they really cater to the RV crowd.  So if you need things done to your rig this is the place to get it done.

It is interesting working at an RV parts store.  People are coming in now to get RV antifreeze.  They are using it to summarize their RV's that they store down here.  Or they need it because they are going back up to cold country and going back to below freezing temps, especially in parts of Canada.  Antifreeze can be used for both heat or cold, the main thing is that it doesn't evaporate so it will stay in the toilet and p-traps and keep any water leftover in low spots from freezing (where its too cold) or seals from drying out ( where its too hot).