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.

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.

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.

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.

December 1st

Holy smokes, what happened to the year.  Here it is December 1st, 24 days until Christmas Day and I haven't even stated Christmas shopping yet.  What a minute, I am a man we don't shop tell the 24th, it makes it easier to find things.  Where did this year go, it just seems like it was July 4th when we were at Calgary Stampede and now we are on the road to new places or some good old favorites.   We will be heading to Apache Junction by the end of the week and looking forward to a old stop for a change.
Today was maintenance day on the Car.  Changed the oil, checked all the fluids and greased all the fittings.  Cleaned the air cleaner, now we are ready to head out for some more riding.
Yesterday was our final ride with the group here in the desert.  We are leaving this Friday

On the trail for another great ride.

Look what we found on this ride.

 As you can see we found this bike that is out here some where, in the desert.  I think Pappy went in circle so we could not find this one, but it is a geocache so we have a find and the coordinates.

This was a little smaller group today, I think a few of them went out for a drink last night and had a few to many.  But the die hearts are out to day.

And look we even have a parking meter that still takes quarters. What a day, I am going to miss these rides, hope we have some good ones when we get to Apache Junction.
It might rain here in the next day or two, so it will be a mess out here riding, but water can wash off the mud and the car will be back to clean again.  The good thing with the rain is the dust will be down.

November 29th

We have had a great couple of days.  Thanksgiving was really pretty good here in the desert.  When we were working here two years ago we heard about all the things going on here in the desert.  But because we worked on the weekends and had the week days off we really didn't get a chance to get in on some of the fun out here on the Riviera.  But this last month we have had a great time and made some lasting friendships.  We do miss the kids but we are having fun and part of being retired is having fun.
Today we went out on another group ride.

We had a few people out on this ride, like about 12 cars following each other.  It was a lot of fun, the only problem is I didn't get to many pictures of the ride.  Some of the places that we were in was very technical.

 As you can tell it was a little tight going through some of the washes.

And a lot of sharp turns

.This place that we came down out of was almost straight up and down, but what fun.
It is going to be hard to leave here next week.  We will miss all of our friends, but I will not miss the fine dust.  The trails have been fun.  We have about 5 days left here and after this weekend everyone will be gone and maybe we can get a few more geocaches in before we leave.