Saying goodbye to summer

We are starting our journey north tomorrow.  Its been in the 90's here the last few days but very comfortable at night.  It's hard to leave here knowing that we are heading into a very cold spring.  We are watching the weather in the states we have to drive through and there is cold and snow on our route.  We wish we could stay south for a while longer but our summer job is waiting for us.   Once we get to Minnesota we will be checking in with the manager for updates on campground conditions.  We are hoping for 50's at least during the day and 30's at night.  Any colder than that and we will be waiting to move any farther north. 

We just got our truck back from having some major work done.  It is running good and already getting better mileage. We will be putting it to the test towing our "train" tomorrow.  Since we are nervous about testing it we are only driving about 100 miles east the first day.  It will be climbing into the 90's so we don't want to push too hard.  This time next week we expect to be somewhere in Nebraska if it isn't snowing. 

Digging to China

We took a little trip up to Quartzsite for one last look at the gold mining that has taken place this winter.  We saw lots of holes that had been dug.  It was amazing how big and deep some guys had dug.   We zipped up there in a rental car.  Our truck is still in the shop taking more than the one full day they said it would take.   At least they agreed to pay the extra rental car days especially since we had to keep the car over a weekend. 

We are pretty well packed up and ready to start traveling.  Just going to get the rig washed before we leave and I do have to work up until we leave.  The weather up north doesn't look to inviting yet and its hard to believe we will be at our new summer job in three weeks.  We will be keeping a close eye on the weather as we start to travel.

Two Weeks Notice

We are enjoying the beautiful weather and beautiful flowers here in Yuma while we can.  We plan to leave here around April 2nd.  We have been getting everything ready for travel and have discovered some major issues with the truck.  We are replacing, batteries, vacuum hoses, the main radiator and adding more fuel filters and having the exhaust system worked on and that's not really all it needs.  There is another very minor leak that will need to be fixed eventually but it can wait.  Needless to say the truck is ten years old and needs some attention but mileage and engine wise it still has a long life.  So we figure its worth putting the money into it.

The RV is doing ok but needs to have the faded decals taken off and a new clear coat put on which is really just cosmetic.  The rubber roof however needs to be recoated but we would really like to have the rubber roof removed and the new spray on roof put on which is like the stuff they spray in truck bedliners.  Its supposed to last longer than the RV will and won't get holes poked in it.  All it takes is money!

Senator Wash

One of the areas we like to go out and do gold prospecting is called the Potholes.  It's on the California side of the Colorado River.  When we are out there we can see Senator Wash.  That's the blue water that you see in the picture.  Senator Wash is just a little dammed up part of the Colorado River.   People like to camp out in this area.  There is no electricity and you have to have water on board your rig.  Most people have solar panels or generators for power while they stay out here. 

The potholes area is full of old and new gold claims.   You have to be careful that you're not claim jumping.  There are claim posts all over the place -- like the one in the picture.   We didn't have any luck finding gold the last time we were out there.  When we were leaving the area we stopped and talked to some guys that were working on a claim.  We asked them if there was any secret to knowing where to dig.  They said that the gold was just in little pockets and not very deep.  They use a power drill (it looked like a powered ice augur) and drill down and try to find the pockets of gold.  Hmmmm
so many tools you can buy to find gold.

Bluebird Mine

Our rock club had their annual picnic.  This year it was held at the Bluebird Mine on the California side of the Colorado River.  The mine is no longer active so its a great place to go rockhounding.  The rock that they mined was kyanite.  If you look closely at the rocks you can see the blue crystals.  It was used in porcelain.  We also looked for almondine garnets.  These are garnets that are a brownish color and not usually very pretty.   One guy in our group did find some large garnets inbedded in a piece of quartz rock and they were a very crystally brown.     

We are busy trying to find a good walleye lake to fish this summer and hopefully find a job at a resort on the lake.  We are looking in South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan but it is kind of slow going.  We found good lakes but not good jobs or good jobs but not good lakes.  I'm sure we will find something soon.

Quartzsite Gold Show

We went to the gold show last weekend up in Quartzsite.  Its a small show but there were a nice assortment of vendors selling everything you need to find gold.  There were even some very nice gold nuggets for sale. There were some organizations represented such as the Gold Prospectors of America and the People for Public Lands.  It wasn't too crowded so you had a chance to ask questions and watch demonstrations. 

Outside a guy had a trailer full of dirt that he had spiked with gold.  You could fill a 5 gallon bucket for $10.  We bought 2 buckets and our friends bought one.  We got about $10 worth of gold out of our 2 buckets but our friend got about $15 out of just their one bucket.  I thought the buckets of dirt were a great valentines gift.  I'm sure I'm the only one that can say they got dirt for valentines. 

Yuma Proving Ground 75th Anniversary

The Yuma Proving Ground is an army base north of Yuma.  They had an open house this past weekend to celebrate 75 years.  The public was invited to see the base, watch a fly over and some parachutists as well as enjoy some food and music.  They showed off some of the vehicles they test.  The proving ground is also used to test missiles and bombs but they didn't demonstrate any of those.   They have a training facility to teach high altitude parachuting.  They also test parachutes for dropping heavy payloads like the Mars rover.   

It was a beautiful day and the turnout was huge.  There was quite the traffic jam to get to the base.  The line of cars to get in was 6 miles long and it took people an hour and a half to get on base.  There was a long line to get tickets for food and then another long line to actually get the food.  It got rather warm and there was very little shade.  So overall I would say the celebration got mixed reviews.