Tuesday, December 30, 2014

December 30th

It is amazing, I am writing a blog again today.  I must have something to say or maybe I just want to tell you about the day I had today.  Notice I said I, because I went out with the guys today on a great ride.
We headed out to Montana Mountain, I was afraid it was going to be one of those trail rides that were boring, but no this one was a good ride. It had some great sights to see.
 Here are a few of the wonderful sights we seen today.  The rock formations are really great.
 I liked this one because of the nice tail saguaro cactus standing out so well.
 These following peaks are just amazing, we could not see them from the road.  We are back into the wilderness about 15 miles.




There was only 3 rigs out today exploring and we had a great time.  Tomorrow at this time there could be up to 6 plus inches of snow here, according to the weather report.  We are at just over 4500 feet here where we are eating lunch.  I don't think we will be up here tomorrow.
This is from the outlook from where we had eaten lunch.  I am really starting to appreciate this area for riding.  Everyday that I have been out we have seen something different.  I am looking forward to every time we head out to a new place to ride.  These people here in the park that I am going out riding with really know these place.  Even though we are trailering our cars up to 50 miles to ride it is well worth it.
This saguaro cactus has a lot of limbs on it.  We went by one back a ways that was even bigger then this one.  But sometimes pictures don't turn out very good, so your stuck with this one.  As I said, today was one of the best rides we have been on, even though the trails were pretty rough, rocky and we were in low gear a lot it was still great and fun.  Looking forward to the next one after the first of the year.
Now what was Cyndy up to today, she has been busy going through a lot of paper work and trying to get it organized a little.  As some of you know she loves to guilt and that takes a lot of magazines to look at to find just that one guilt that she wants to make.  So that is what she has been doing going through them and cutting out a lot of patterns.   Now she has them all sorted out and sized down to just one small container instead of a lot.  She has also been cleaning out cabinets, also to help lighten the coach.  Now some of you would say that I should be there helping her.  I am helping her by staying out of her hair and giving her lots of room for her tasks.  I do help by taking the things she does not want anymore to the dumpster.  So see I am helping.
Tomorrow is New Years Eve, yep Cyndy and I have a big night planned, just what I don't know yet, but I am sure it will be good. 
Happy New Years Eve!!!!!

Monday, December 29, 2014

December 29th

Cyndy and I had a good Christmas and I hope everyone else did too.  We had a great dinner with Toni, Lucas and Tyler, they fixed a outstanding prime-rib roast.  It was a good time spent with them and we really enjoyed ourselves.
We haven't done much since Christmas but odd jobs around the coach.  Been fixing a few things for Cyndy and she has been busy getting the back set up for sewing.  I think tomorrow she is planning on getting the sewing machine humming again.  She really enjoys sewing and I am glad when she has time to do a little.
Myself, I went out for a trail ride today.  There were 7 rigs out today and it was a pretty good trail ride.  It was a lot rocky so we took our time and here are a few pictures from our trip today.
 Here we are getting ready to head out, the weather was sunny and cool.

 We went up and down a lot of hills and the scenery was great.




This is where we had lunch and the place where we turned around and headed back to the trucks.  We were out for just over 5 hours of fun.  Tomorrow we are going out again and I am looking forward to another great ride.  Cyndy is going to be in her sewing room having fun I think!!!!!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

December 24th

What a year we have had!  Started out this year with a nice New Years and time with our children.  We had a great spring playing in the dunes with the kids and the time with our grand children has been great.  Starting with this summer, we have been busy traveling with Adventure Caravan's; first it was The Calgary Stampede and a great group of people, a wonderful time with some great people on the Grand Circle, from there we went right to the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque, NM.  We had a great fall with all that traveling.  Now we are in Apache Junction, AZ after a month in the desert with some close friends riding in a OHV park out side of Salton City.  It is hard to believe that the year 2014 is coming to an end so fast.
Yesterday we went out for a ride with a few people from here in the park.  We went to Box Canyon which is in the Middle Gila Canyon Area, about 15 miles east of Apache Junction.
There was a group of six that went out for a trail ride today.  This is a lot different ride then the desert.  The scenery was out of this world,  The trails here are just old roads through this area, we can not venture of off the trails.  But as you will see this area is neat in its own special way.





It was cool this morning in the low 50's.  We are taking a brake, have a little something to eat and talking about where we are going next.
 This was a old stage coach stop in the early days.  It is nice to see they are keeping some of these places open to the public to explore.  The sign below was on the side of this building.

 We are entering what is called Box Canyon.


In 1957 the water level in here was just over 40 feet.
We had a great ride and looking forward to more in the future.  I am planning on going out again on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  They go to a lot of different areas so it will be nice to see other areas around here.
The last thing I would like to leave with you on this Christmas Eve is Cyndy, Turbo & I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and enjoy your family and friends that you are spending this holiday with.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

December 20th

We have been here for just over two weeks, and haven't even been out in the Car (RZR's) trail riding in a long time.  A lot of the problem has been  the weather, the last week we have had off an on showers or down right rain for a total of two days I think. Got the new shocks replaced so we just have to get out and see how they work.  Let alone, the new tires, we need to get out and see what the trails are like.  So today we headed out to do some trail riding just up the road from here.
This area is called Tonto Recreation area/forestry area.  The only way to ride in here, you have to get a pass off the internet.  Can you believe they gave us one!!!!  Anyway we had a good ride but you can not leave the trails.  We explored a few trails but had a good time and looking around.
Here are a few pictures of our ride today.


 We found this over look, looking back towards Apache Junction, it is hard to believe how much open space is out there and how the homes blend in so well with the landscape.
Mexico is some where south of here but I don't think we can see it from here.
This Sonora has seen better days.
 This Sonora has a few arms going everywhere.
This Sonora has the droppers.
 We even came up on some horses out on the trail.  We also seen a couple of other people out in there RZR's also.
I heard that if you get to close to these cactus it will reach out and bite you!!!
 I don't know how much farther we got to go to hit the end of the trail, but up a head is Superstition Mountain.   We had a great ride and just ahead we found our way back to paved roads and on our way back to the coach.  We had a great day for a ride, looking forward to the next time.  I think the next time we are out we are going to do some Geocaching also.
Christmas is just around the corner and Cyndy, Turbo and I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas.

Friday, December 12, 2014

December 12th

We have been here in Apache Junction, at the Countryside RV Park just off Idaho Road for just over a week and it seems like we just got here yesterday.  We have been very busy getting things done that just would not wait. Like get a hair cut as you can tell in this picture of me with some friends that I use to work with.
It was great talking with George, Woody and their wife's for most of the afternoon, hope we can get together again in the near future. Yep, I now have a haircut and lost the chops also.  We have been busy getting our Christmas shopping done.  As of today we are done and everything has been shipped.  I did some of it over the internet.  A whole lot easier then fighting with the people at the post office trying to ship things out.  We hope all of our grand-kids enjoy their gifts, and there parents also.
The new running boards are on the truck and looking good.
They are almost an inch wider then the old ones were and really look good.  Cyndy really likes them so that is what counts.  The Car (RZR's) has the new windshield on and all the new shocks on.  I should say after I received the shocks I took them out of the package and yep they did it to me again, they had shipped two rear shocks instead of a front and rear.  But they were good about it and had one overnight shipped to us so I received them on Wednesday.  Now we have all new shocks on the Car and all we have to do is test them out.  We have been driving it on the road but looking forward to some trail riding.  We are hoping after the rain Saturday we can get out on Sunday for some trial riding just up the road from here.  Hope to have some pictures and Geocaching done also.
We have got the coach all decorated for Christmas.
We have a few lights outside ,but Cyndy did a real good job inside the coach.
Yes, we have our tree up and it is bright.  Along with some of her decorations placed around the tree.  It is nice to be sitting still in the nice warm weather this winter, we love being home but this year we are staying south for Christmas.
That hard storm that hit LA today is working its way over us by tomorrow.  We are only suppose to get about a 1/2 inch of rain so chairs are under cover and the Car is covered, so let it rain for one day.  I can handle that, it is going to start later tonight and be done by tomorrow morning by 11:00 AM then the sun comes out for another day in the low 70's.
We had a real good sunset tonight with the light cloud cover moving in.  Hope everyone is doing great and you are ready for Christmas. To all our family in Washington, we hope you are weathering the storms safely.


Friday, December 5, 2014

December 5th

Today we made the trip from Salton City to Apache Junction.  We had a great drive, took our time and enjoyed the  trip.  It was a easy drive but we took just over 7 hours.  We made a stop for fuel and then for breakfast at Jack in the Box.  We were on our way to highway 10 for a nice easy drive.  Everything went fine no problems, until we got to the park.  We unloaded the car and for some reason there seemed like a lot of dust on the floor.  After we got the rig parked we started cleaning up the garage and then we found what caused all of this fine dust.  It wasn't dust but it was fine and it was a fire extinguisher that  had fallen behind the washer and discharged. The garage is now nice and clean and we found that it can get into everything.
Now on to some more pleasant things.  As we have said in the past Turbo has a girl friend call Molly.
Here Turbo is trying to sing to Molly, I don 't know what she thinks.
Here they are playing, these two go round and round playing for hours, then they both fall asleep for an hour then back at it again.  Turbo will surely miss Molly but we are hoping to see them again this spring.
Just before we left I had wanted to get the new tires mounted.
I loaded them up and headed over to the shop to mount them.  The tires that are on the car are have about 1/4 tread left so a good time to change them.  Plus I need to put the DOT tires on before we start drive around on the streets here in Arizona.


If I say so myself they look pretty good.  They still have the traction we need and meet the DOT requirements.  Look out here we come.  If you look close you will notice the right shock is one of the stock ones, the new ones will be here tomorrow so will get them put on and the new windshield.  Hope to have that done tomorrow or by Sunday.  Also got the new running boards and will have them installed also.  A lot of things to do this weekend,  Cyndy wants to get the Christmas Decorations up. I think the Christmas stuff will be done before anything else is done.