November 10th

We have been taking it pretty easy the last few days.  After that trip along the ridge we thought we would set back and relax a little.  We have done that and went out again today to finishing geocaching the last couple of the ones we didn't get last week.

We didn;t have much of a problem finding the other half of the 30 or so caches that we looked for.  Right now I think we are 48  finds and two no fines.  Not bad when you think they have had a few good floods this last spring and high water in some areas.  We will just have to see how we end up with by the end of time that we are here.
Last Saturday night we went to the North County Yamaha Dinner in the desert.  It was a great night and a lot of people.  I think there was over 250 plus people here.

And look Cyndy is in her element serving food to people.  She had a good time and I was busy BS with other guys.
We are really enjoying the time we are having here in the desert.  Yesterday Steve & Laverne showed up and we servied them a good dinner we hope.

Turbo is busy playing with his girl friend Molly,  They haven't seen each other in over 4 months when we were up in Oregon this summer.  They still play hard together.  Tomorrow we are maybe going out for a ride with them.
I also want to thank all vet's for there service in the military, I served my time and am glad to say I am a US Vet!!!!!  Hope you all have a great day.

November 6th

Yesterday, and today was good weather, so we have been out Geocaching and doing real good.

Here in the desert of California, we have to wear helmets so these are our geocaching helmets, and guess who has the camera today.  We do believe in wearing helmets, but these are good for when we are getting in and out a lot, I do like wearing the full face helmet when we do hard riding. We left and headed out to see if we could get lucky and find some geocaches, some of these have not been logged since last April so wish us luck.

This is the name of the area we are riding in, their is just over 400,000 acres to play in and more just south of here also.

 I could not get the RZR up there, the trail was a little narrow.  So I get to hike while Cyndy takes pictures, something about creepy crawlers.  Haven't seen one in all the time being out here when we were here two years ago.

Now this was a cache, would you put your hand in this boot?  You bet I didn't, but a lot of shaking and everything came out.  no creepy crawlers.

It is hard to believe, but back in September this wash had water up these walls about 10 feet.

Two years ago this area had a lot more water in it, all winter long.  The rain must have moved the spring a little bit.

We stopped right at the top of this hill to pick up another cache.

This cache was full of mud, so the water was pretty high in this area also, I had to dig this one out, we also found a travel bug in the mud filled box.

Now the next cach is some where up this away, now look ahead and you will see why Cyndy was a little worried.

Yep, the trail is getting narrow and on top of a ridge, I am looking at what is over the hill.  I don't know why I walked up their, because their was no where to turn around so we kept going.

 This is looking out my door while I walked up the hill, yep, it is pretty much straight down, can't go that way.

Hay, look we have more hills to go up, remember everything that goes up must come down.

It looks a little narrow, but I think we can make it, I don't understand why Cyndy has here eyes closed.

See the trail is getting wider now, and we are heading back down.  See nothing to worry about.  Another great trail and we or should I say I, nope we had a great day .  We did pretty good the last two days of Geocaching, we found 30 and only had to say one was not where it was suppose to be.  I think the high water got that one. We had a great day and travel another great day in the Desert.

November 4th

Yesterday we made it to Salton City, and found Steve & Laverne's house, and have set up here for the next month.  We are hoping to get a lot of Geocaching done plus playing here in the desert.

No grass here in the desert for Turbo to use.  Oh well he will just have to get use to the dirt again.
We left Verde Valley at about 8:00 AM yesterday.

As we left the park we said good by to some pretty good riding area and geocaching area.  We had a lot of fun playing in those hills.

We new we were finally dropping in altitude, we have been above 3500 feet for the last 2 months.  But these Sonora Cactus are below 2000 feet.  By the end of today we will be back to sea level once again.  I don't know what we will do with all of this dusty oxygen, but we will make do.  I am amazed at how each one of these cactus's have so many different shapes.

   When we get back to Apache Junction we will look for some amazing shapes.

Turbo enjoyed the ride also by putting his nose out the window. It just amazes me we can be driving at 60 miles an hour and he doesn't mind the wind in his nose, but you blow in his face and he doesn't like it one bit.
Today we got up hoping to go out geocaching but the wind was blowing pretty good so we decided to head into town and get Turbo his monthly bath and nail's cut and all the rest of the stuff they do for him.  He was happy to see us and we were too.  Whiles waiting for him to get done we made a mad dash to Costco and then headed to Mario's Restaurant for some good Italian food for lunch and dinner all in one.  We made it back here to the coach and the wind is not blowing as bad as when we left this morning so tomorrow we will be head out for some Geocaching, we have a lot to find before we leave this area.

November 2nd

Between yesterday and today we have gotten everything pretty well loaded into the trailer.  Even got the RZR all cleaned and loaded.

Yep, got it cleaned of all of this Arizona dust and packed everything on it for loading into the trailer. Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself.  So by yesterday afternoon like around 3:00 PM, Cyndy had the craft room all put away and we got the RZR loaded.  We heard it was suppose to rain today so we wanted everything put away dry.
Then we got a call from Rose & Bobby, they wanted to meet for dinner so why not, we don't have to cook then and neither one of us was up for cooking after a day of cleaning and putting things away.  We had a great pizza and talked for a good long time.  We said our good-by and look forward to our next visit to this area.
I said something the other day about working on some walking sticks, and I have 3 of them done now.

This is what the diamond willow looks like before we removed all the bark and clean it up to look something like these do.

The two on the left will make great walking sticks, the one on the right will make a great wall hanging.  Now if I can just get the last two done sometime in the future.  They do take a lot of work but the end resort is well worth it.
Today we went into town to get fuel and some grocery, because were we are going is about 35 miles from a major store.  I can't believe the price of fuel,

we are really enjoying it at this price and I hope it keeps dropping.
  We will be at the Salton City area for just about a month.  So if you are traveling on Highway 86 come from Palm Springs or heading to it, give us a call and we will try and meet up with you.  Cyndy hates when I say tomorrow morning we will be leaving here before 8:00 AM, we have got just over 300 miles to drive.  Looking forward to playing in the Desert of California again and Geocaching also.

October 31st

Happy Halloween to everyone!!!!!!!!!!
We had a pretty good day, got a few things done around here.  Cyndy still busy with her jewelry and I am almost done with two more walking sticks that we picked up in Alaska.  They are called diamond willows, I hope to have some pictures tomorrow.
About 11:00 AM we took off for a ride in the RZR to see if we could get lost.  We have a map of the area so off we go.

 Cyndy was getting a little concerned as we came up to the top of this hill.

I said what ever goes up must come down, she didn't like that thought.

Hay look we are heading over there.  Cyndy was taking pictures as we went along so if we got lost she could look at the pictures in case we got lost.  I told her not to worry I have a map.

Cyndy wanted to turn around but I couldn't find a place that would be easy to turn around so I guess we must go down then come back up.

Whats around this corner, here is a few pictures of out ride today.

 This was fun I thought, Cyndy had a different idea, like if we get out of here I may _____.

We even found this water storage tank up here for watering the cattle that are running around up here.  We seen one or two today.

When we started up this hill those tanks down there were a lot bigger.

OK, we are getting closer.

We had a great day and the trail was a lot of fun.  In a couple of days we will be in Salton City, doing a lot of geocaching and playing in the desert.  Now all we have to do is get everything packed back in its place and hit the road Monday morning.

October 30th

The past few days have been pretty busy, Tuesday night Bob & Sue Keirg stopped by for the night at our park.  They were on there way home to San Diego, CA.  Cyndy & I fixed them just a small dinner and we had a great time just visiting with them.  Its hard to believe we have not seen each other in over a year.  We are hoping to catch up with them again while we are in Salton City.
Wednesday we set out on a adventure cross country towards Jerome in the RZR's, we were out looking for Geocaches and going to Jerome for lunch at our favorite little restaurant for pizza.  They also have some great sandwiches but we like their pizza the best.  We did pretty good Geocaching today, we found 10 caches and couldn't find one.  Yes, Doug we went back to the fire station and still didn't find it!!!!!
Which brings us to the best day of October, the 30th which is my BIRTHDAY so Happy Birthday to me!!!! and I am a true senior citizen now.  Can't believe I made it to 62, but now I have to wait almost 2 months to get my first S&S check.  Something to do with if you die you don't have to send it back in.  Oh well I finally get some of that money that I paid in for all those years.  YEAH!!!!!
We had a great dinner tonight at this little mexico restaurant  in Verde Valley called La Fonda.  Nancy and Dan met us their and we enjoyed some great company and look forward to seeing them in the Phoenix area.  Tomorrow we are going to go for another ride in the RZR'S and see if we can get lost.

October 27th

Yesterday we didn't do much of anything, being Sunday and all I just did nothing but watch the NSCAR Race and heard that Seattle Seahawk's won their game.  Other than doing some work on the computer it was just a plan lazy day and we all need them once in a while.

I noticed that the sun was going down and this sunset was kind of nice so took a couple of pictures.

OK, that's to much work for today, now back to the easy chair and doing nothing again!!!!
This morning was a different story, we were up early (by 9:00 AM) and on the road by 9:45 AM to pick up Dan & Nancy for a day of playing tourist.  We had plan's to head to the Chapel of The Holy Cross up near Sedona, AZ.

  This Chapel came in to being because of Marguerite Brunswig Staude. I will not go into the whole story about her thoughts about how this Chapel was to look.  Please go to this web site to read all about this wonderful Chapel, http://www.gatewaytosedona.com/popular-articles/item/31-sedona-arizona-landmark-the-chapel-of-the-holy-cross. Here are a few of the pictures that we took while here.

It was a great visit and glad we made it a point to visit this historic site.

Dan, Nancy & Cyndy were great tourist on this trip, we enjoyed our day with them and look forward to seeing them again.

What amazes me is how green these trees are and how little rain they get here, let alone the dirt that their roots grow into.

 Even I got a picture with my lovely bride.
After a busy walking around this Chapel we head to the town of Sedona for lunch.  We wanted to take Dan and Nancy to a Sandwich shop that we have been to when visiting this area in the passed.  After making a couple of wrong turns we found the shop.  It is called the Bakery & Cafe, here a couple of the great sandwiches we had.

They make there own bread here at this shop, we asked to buy a loaf, but he said they have just the right amount for the sandwiches they make every day.  I got a kick out of Nancy, when she said I can make two sandwiches out of the meat they put on this one sandwich.
It was great to spend time with Nancy & Dan once more while we are here in Verde Valley.  They are going to be here for another month working as volunteers for a church project.  Then they are moving down towards Phoenix area for a couple of months.  We hope to see them there when we get back to Apache Junction.
Tomorrow some friend are stopping by for a night so looking forward to see them.  Other then that we are going to play some more.