February 11th

Yah, it is Monday, we are off.  Another hard week at the old grind stone.  Didn’t do much today after getting off.  Cyndy worked on the inside of the coach picking up things that have been lying all over the place.  I think it is some of my stuff, thanks dear for picking up after me.  Myself I was outside washing the truck, then the Razor side by side.  Then it was time to dump the black water tank, someone has to do it.  I wanted to show Cyndy how it was done but she said no thanks. There were a couple of minor repairs on the Razor I need to do, nothing major just adjusting door latches and making sure everything else is good.

Cyndy out did herself tonight with dinner.  She found a new way to cook chicken in Ranch dressing then rolled in shake and bake.  It was great!

What I am really writing about tonight is for some reason I had some one hack my e-mail and send a few close friends a e-mail that I really didn’t send.  So after a little bit of research I found out how it happened and hope it will not happen again.  I really don’t know why people have to do stupid stuff like this, but people must be bored and need to mess with other peoples e-mail.  Any way sorry if you got a copy, didn’t mean for it to come your way, it only went out to about 5 people from what I can tell. 

 Tomorrow is a sleep in day for Cyndy, for some reason I can’t make it past 7:00.  So I get up and try and to be quiet, but you know how that goes.  Then after she gets up we are going out for a ride and do some more Geocaching, the weather is going to be great so hoping to get out on Thursday also. So tomorrow more pictures from the desert.  Think we might head up towards the badland area for a change.

February 9th

We have had some interesting weather the last few days.  It started Friday with some real strong winds coming from the West all day long.   Then the cold air showed up a little before noon and dropped the temp to just below 60 degrees.  It us to never bother me when it was 60 degrees, but now I want the 75 to 80 degrees.  It feels so much better when it is warm then when it is cold.  Anyway today it got up to just about 65 degrees and until the middle of next week it keeps getting warm again, back to the 75 degree temps we like.
Today we had a little surprise, Don Simpson stopped by to say hello.  We haven't seen him sense last winter when we were on the east coast.  It was great getting caught up on what has been happening around his world.  I like his travel logic, if you don't like this area move down the road another 100 miles and it might be better!!!!
It has been a while but we got the family pictures done this year when we were home and I am very proud of our family.  We have two wonderful kids and their family's.  We really enjoy seeing them and spending time with them when we are in Washington.  We talk to them at least once a week to keep up on what all the grand kids are doing.

 Here is the group shot of the hole Olsen Family

This is our Son Jason , Lisa, Mikeal, Makenzie, MJ and Morgan being the youngest.

This is our Daughter Janice, Jeff and Jared.

Nana had to have one with all her girls.

And Pa Pa with all his boys, we are out numbered now.

Nana & Pa Pa with all of our grand kids.  I don 't brag much but we do have a great looking bunch of kids.

February 7th

We woke up to a beautiful morning, the sun is out and the weather is warm.  Wait a minute we are in the desert it is suppose to be warm.  Maybe that's why we like it down here so much.  We put the dogs out so they could get done what ever they do.  Turbo was running after Molly and the other two were just looking around.  We had a great breakfast, feed the dogs and put the three back in the house. 
Then it was time for us to go for a little ride to North County Yamaha, we need to pick up some parts that I promised a customer I would have it up and running Friday afternoon.  We also just wanted to go for a ride.  We like to do that every once in a while.  We like to see the area around here plus see some other parts of this state.
We headed out of Salton City and headed up what they call Devils grade.

This looks steep, but not to bad.  We went from 210 feet below sea level to over 4500 feet above sea level.

This is looking back down towards the Borrego Springs.

It is amazing how the area changes the farther up the pass we got.  It was a great drive over to North County Yamaha.

We found this great art after we left the Yamaha shop.  A lot of work went into building this.

It is neat to drive around see the sites and art we find along the sides of the road.  We had a great day driving around and seeing the sites.

This billboard was neat and we both laughed when we seeing it.

Cyndy liked the looks of this tree, me it looks like a tree that is wintering in the desert and waiting for spring rains.

Here we go back down into the desert, the city below is Palm Springs.  We had a great drive and headed back home. 

February 6th

Thinks morning we got up and just took it easy, had a great breakfast of SOS and biscuits.  What a way to start the day with a full belly, got to love great food.  After a little bit more just relaxing it was time to get the RZR ready to go for a nice easy drive looking for Geocaches and finding those little people.

It is hard to believe after two weeks there is still this much water out here in the wash, we were able to drive around it but I could just imagine how wet it was out here during the Roughneck Rendezvous Off-Highway Geocaching Adventure. It rained off and on all day during this event. Well off and looking for our first Geocaching.

Hay there is other people out here during the week also.  There is times when we can drive all day and not see anyone.

We are getting close to our first find, the Garmin say it is just over that hill.

Here is where that cache is at, remember move the rocks slow there might be something else by it.  So far this year we haven't or I should say I haven't seen anything that could harm me.

This one was close to the trail, didn't have to walk far, but with the RZR I can get real close to most of them.

It is just amazing what you find out here in the desert. Back in November we found the little people with hardly any problem. A couple of weeks ago we spent over 4 hours looking and couldn't find them. Today while out looking for our last cache we found them again. The Geocaching is right in the middle of all the little people. On the Geocaching web site they call this area peanut patch. I like the idea of calling it little people, with a little bit of imitation. Here are a few pictures of the peanut patch.

They kind of look like little people.

Some of them are pretty tall also, Cyndy was hiding behind one.

We had a great time today driving around out here; every time we come out we see something different. After we left the peanut patch we headed over to the Discovery Center to say high to Louise. We try to make it over here at least once a month. We said our good bye and headed back to the other side of the desert. We are always looking for new areas to drive through and find different things. This next weekend a church group is coming in and we found where they are going to be out here in the desert, right about in the middle of the desert. They were hauling a bunch of trailers out for them. We forgot to take a picture but it’s out in the middle of nowhere.

We made it back home and the dogs were happy to see us, or maybe they are getting hungry and wanting their dinner. I like to think they are happy to see us. Tomorrow we are heading over to North County Yamaha for some parts we need on Friday morning. It will be a nice drive and we can take our time.

February 5th

Day off and we are enjoying it.  We have been baby sitting Steve & Laverne's dogs for the last few days.  They had to go back east to help his mom.  The dogs are doing good will, oh yeah their is a rabbit named Speedy, we don't see eye to eye on things.  He didn't like the idea of me cleaning his cage but we both came out OK, he got a clean cage and I didn't get scratched.

The big red dog is Grover and the little one is Britteny, they are the best, easy to care for and just like a good scratch every once in a while.

It is pretty hard to see but these two do nothing but play when ever they get together. Molly and Turbo have a lot of fun together and it is fun to watch them run.  Good old Grover even gets in on the fun once in a while.
Today we did our weekly run into town for the things we need for the week.  Stopped at the bank, we always need money but they keep wanting me to put some of it back, just don't understand that I still have checks left.  Then it was off to Costco and Winco for grocery's.  It is hard to believe that two people eat that much.  Anyway it is one of those habits I have and I don't want to give this one up yet.
Back home and watched the dogs play then it was time to eat again, what a rough life we lead.
Tomorrow we are going out to play in the desert, do a little Geocaching and hope fully we will find the little people.  We heard they moved so I hope we find them!!!!

January 31st

We have been busy the last few day doing something I just can't remember what.  Anyway, we had some friends stop by Sue & Bob Kerig.  They arrived on Monday afternoon and we had a great visit then it was down to fixing a big pot of Clam Chowder.  We had a great dinner and then visited way to late.
The next morning I had to haul a load of bikes over to Pismo and Bob went along for the ride.  It was nice to have someone to talk to while driving over and back.  We figures out later that the girls wanted Bob to go with me so they could go out shopping.   They had a good time, Bob and I did OK when you think it was a nice long drive of 12 plus hours.  Anyway Bob you where great company enjoyed have you with.
Wednesday we were debating about going out for a ride or taking Bob & Sue over to the Slab City.  After we found out the Bob has been out in the desert with his grand kids and Son-in-law we went on a ride to Slab City.  They have never been their before and we wanted to show them how different it is to Quartzsite.

First stop was Salvation Mountain, we found out the gentleman that started this project is in a nursing home and other people have stepped up to keep it going for him.

After walking around this place for a little bit.

In a couple of years we will have to come back and see how much more they have gotten done.  We drove around the area and we all came to the agreement that Quartzsite is a better place to stay then here.  We had a great day together and really had fun talking about our trip to Alaska.
Today Bob & Sue left and we head to town to get a few things.  After a few stops and all the things we needed we got back home about 4:00.  Well another day gone by and the month of January is come to and end.  WHERE DID IT GO!!!!!
Oh well next week we will get back out and do a lot of geocaching because we are really behind.  Plus we have to find the little people again.  Back to work tomorrow for a couple of days and then another long weekend.  Got like having Monday a noon off tell Friday morning.  Life is rough but someone has to do it!!!!

January 22nd & 23rd

On the 22nd we had a great day, we got up a little late then loaded the RZR up for a day of playing out in the desert.  We had one thing in mind "finding the little people again.

No, we didn't find them, this was from our trip out in October.  We must of drove all around them.

Maybe they are over this hill, you just know we are getting close.  At least we hope to be getting close.

OK, so they are not over that hill, lets look some where else.

Let look over this hill!!!!! just maybe we will find them.

We did find this neat looking cactus, but no luck on the little people.  After about 5 hours of playing in the desert looking for the little people it was time to head back.

Cyndy, liked the looks of this rock, she called it like a broken egg shell.
We did have a great day, and seen a lot of new trails.  We went back home and headed into town for our weekly grocery trip and deposits for the shop.  We both got hungry and stopped by our favorite little Italian Restaurant in Indio.  Another great dinner and poor Turbo never got any left overs, we just couldn't help our selves.
On the 23rd we got up early, and where off to Quartzsite to see the RV Show and visit with some friend's we haven't seen in a year.  We were up and out the door a little bit after 7:00, I think Cyndy is forgetting it is our day off and she is suppose to sleep in.  She didn't seem to mind.  But once we were on the road I understand why she didn't mind, she went back to sleep. 

As we were driving out of the desert up to 10, we seen these really neat rock formation.

As we were driving up throw this canyon you could tell that during a flash flood the road would not be where I wanted to be.
We arrived in Quartzsite a little after 10:00 AM and found our friends Bob & Sue.  They had just gotten to the big tent.  So we met at the AVC both and said our hellos to the people working the booth.  We haven't met them before but they were very out going and seem very nice. 

There didn't seem to be to many people around when we start walking around, but by the time it was over the place was packed.  We had a great day visiting with Bob & Sue and look forward to them coming over and stay here for a couple of days next week when we are off.  Looking forward to them stopping by.  We stopped by there camp site out in the BML land and seen another couple that have traveled with us, Ralph & Jerry, it was good to see them also.  Well back home and another long day, tomorrow we are off to Poway to pick up a couple of bikes for Steve.