Laughter Heals!

 Hello Family and Friends,

I need laughter to keep me going so this post is about funnies I have collected that make me laugh or are insightful.

COVID humor because that is mostly what is out there!!!

And I am trying to think about what the months should be because, we really don't need them anymore!

Really, need I say more??

I am not sure where I fit, but Darrel is definitely the Thrifty masker!!

And to end of a really funny, smiley one ----

Just that just about say it all?  We never are too old to cuddle with a loved one!!

Sending blessings from the road and some laughter too,

Susan and Darrel

Health Activities and Prayer request

 Hello Family & Friends,

I like the phrase I used at the end of the last blog post so I decided to title this new post with it!  The next one might be Aging Bites (who knows??)

Well, to catch you up, Darrel has been having hip (aka back problems) for awhile and we finally had our annual in December and got an X-ray ordered, which indicated bone spurs in the left hip and the right hip wasn't too whippy either!  So a visit to the Orthopedic clinic yielded Bone on Bone, and hip replacement candidate diagnosis and Darrel said not yet, how about other options --- so a steroid injection appointment and PT which we can do at Wickenburg (closer than Surprise) was ordered for the time being.

Susan decided she was going to do the Shingles shot series (which the doctor strongly suggested, since she said Shingles are no fun??? Like when is any disease fun???) and I tried to get my 1st one last week (1/18) but the pharmacy computer was glitchy and it wouldn't run insurance so I postponed.

Susan also needed a new pair of glasses so we did that on 1/18 as well hoping to get them back in a couple of weeks.

As you know, doctors move in mysterious ways and after several phone calls and call backs and messages, we got Darrel scheduled for PT on 2/3 and the injection on 1/25 and Susan was going to try and get a Shingles shot again.

All went well and I even got to pick up my glasses that morning.  The weather was crappy, of course, the only day it is horribly storming, we are doing the errand thing -- don't get me started on whining about traveling 50+ miles to services so you pack everything into 1 day!!!

Here's the glasses pic --- but I am going to have to go back and get them adjusted because they are squeezing my head and it hurts!  But that is tomorrow!!

Look at the glasses, not the hair, bad hair day with 15MPH winds and solid rain for 1.5 hours!

So the doctor's office calls while I am getting my Shingles shot and they want to move Darrel's appointment up and we said sounds good --- so we are now crunching time to get there 30 mins. early.  Then we get a call from PT that they can get him in that afternoon and I said, not, he just got an injection so we are here now on 1/27 and will see if they want him back before 2/3.

I have to say the Shingles 1st shot had a little punch to it, and I had to wait at the pharmacy to see if I had any reactions -- after 15 I gave a thumbs up and head out -- the arm was a little sore but no biggie.  We got Darrel's shot and headed home, me driving in the crappy weather.

Well, let me tell you that night my body ache like someone had tossed me on the ground, or I slept on the ground, or the truck that tossed me hit me too!  It was not good, Darrel heard me moaning in the night and thought I was having a good time (not sure what he defines as a good time???) and finally at 5am I got up for the 3rd time that night and took another 2 advil -- that helped and when I woke up at 8am, I was much better and by the end of the day, back to normal.

So now I know with round 2 that I will plan to ache again and look at my calendar for 2-3 days of minimal activities.  Of course, you know Darrel, after 3rd degree burns, a broken neck, 12" of colon missing, he really doesn't sweat the small stuff like a needle injected into his hip full of cortisone with only a topical -- but I can tell you, I didn't hear him moaning!!!!

So for the most part we are good, I am sure Darrel with have more PT appts. and I need to get the glasses fitted better and a 2nd Shingles shot in 2-6 months (AM NOT thinking about it right now -- need time to forget it) and continue living the healthy life!!!

I wanted to share my Fitbit data so you know that I am working on being healthy!!!

And I received my Africa badge -- I have walked 5,000 lifetime miles and that is the length of Africa

As for my Prayer request -- Darrel's brother's wife, Johnette (Johnny)is on Hospice at home -- lots of things and led up to this, but the final outcome is a cancer diagnosis and her time with us is limited. She is of really strong faith so Prayers are most appreciated for Mike, his daughters and families, friends and love ones.  We are staying strong but it saddens our hears.

Sending love and blessings, and prayers from the road,

Susan and Darrel

Rain (and Snow) finally in the Desert!

 Hello Family and Friends,

As mentioned earlier, I am sitting in the parking lot of the PT locations on my WIFI blogging, yep, just called me one of those Millennial wannabees ?!?!?!?! Guess you use Internet where ever you can find it!

We have had rain and snow spitting snow, but boy, did north of us get hammered.  We put up a rain gauge (yep, in the desert, I am a hopeful person) so measure any rain we did get.  Actually after the 3 days of off and on rain, we have received about 1.25" of rain and it was needed.

Our first year and maybe the 2nd year, I sent pics of snow on the mountains, well here's a 2021 snow mountain pictures that were taken by my pickle ball friend, Carole.  Her iPhone does a great job with beautiful pictures.

This is looking toward Yarnell and the mountain range to our North.  It is absolutely beautiful and I think it will stick around for a few days and we really aren't warming up much -- low 50's?  

We have beautiful sunshine today (Wed., 1/27) but more rain is on the way Friday -- we can still use it, it helped the short term drought but I think the weather lady said we are still like in a 10 year drought status so every little bit helps.

Ok, the Internet is working well so on to blog post 3 and maybe more, depends on Darrel's PT time -- will fill you in our health activities!

Sending blessings and loads of love from the semi-wet desert,

Susan and Darrel

Trail Ride to Smith's Peak and Bullard Mine

 Hello Family & Friends,

Darrel is at a PT appointment (more on that in a different post) and I am sitting in the truck with my jet pack on for WIFI, the laptop on my lap and the tablet and phone on the console trying to update since my Internet seriously sucks -- sorry, Mom for the bad language (actually that is pretty tame compared to some of my other choice words over the last 2 weeks -- LOL< LOL<LOL<<<<

Anyway moving on, here's the last trail ride we did to Smith's Peak and Bullard Mine, the desert has been dry and dusty so I don't have any fabulous pics but it was quite the ride (47 miles + round trip) -- longest we have done to date.

Mostly scenery pics -- we didn't see any wildlife, some grazing cattle and water tanks.

What you see in the distance was where we were headed -- there is a trail clear up to the top.  There were 6 couples and I think 10 UTV/ATVs since some ride single.  It was a beautiful day with temps nearing the upper 70's as we traveled.

Getting closer and closer -- that is one guy from our group, Vern leaning on his UTV

Here we go up and up and up ... or maybe time for lunch???

Smith Peak and the antennas were are destination!

We actually didn't make it to the top, the trail was too rocky and the climb to rough, so we ate our lunch and enjoyed the view.

The desert is so dry and the Saguaros are thin but there were a lot of them in the area we rode.

We came upon a fallen down (mostly) structure, no one was real clear of the purpose but we passed several mines and were headed to Bullard Mine.

Absolutely beautiful (stark) scenery!!!

Bullard mine -- is a hole in the mountain -- it mined a mineral called Chrysocolla ( I found it on Wikipedia and have added a link if you want to find out more -- click here)

I did pick up a few samples but they were little chips and I didn't take any pictures of them.

This is Sue and Ernie in their UTV 

After the mine we headed back to the staging area -- that is where we drop off our trailers and trucks to start the ride.  It was a long journey back -- we got to ride in 2nd place to open the last gate -- everybody gets a gate opening/closing turn and you even get a piece of candy and you close it!!!!

The other treasure on this ride was seeing a crested Saguaro -- there are quite a few around but you cannot always see them from the highways or even the primitive roads --

I would have tried to walk up to get closer but we didn't stop, it was in about the first 30 mins of our trip and we had miles to go!

It was a wonderful day, a long day and we were dusty and tired when we got home.  It was a good ride because we knew the weather was changing and boy, did it change.  Check out the next blog to continue catching up with the Pendergasts!

Sending love and blessings from the road,

Susan and Darrel

 

Castle Hot Springs Trail Ride

 Hello Family & Friends,

We headed out for a trail ride on New Year's Eve with a group from North Ranch, it was a cold morning and the day remained pretty chilly as well -- the sky was partly cloudy so we had sun/clouds/and wind during the ride.  Darrel was mostly the photographer for the journey as I drove most of the 25 miles, which sounds like nothing, BUT in a UTV across rocky terrain, it can wear you out.

This was the sky at sunrise, we had loaded the UTV (on the left) the night before

Beau was ready to take off -- we were departing from the front of the park at 8:30am

Had to snap just one more of the sunrise, which would think that we were going to be greeted with sunshine, but see those clouds that are purple and pink?  They stayed with us all day!

We headed out from a staging area (parking lot) where there were lots of people dry camping and getting ready for trail rides too -- we wondered if going on New Year's Eve was a great idea??

We stopped for the first "potty" break in a wash before heading on the the next stop.

We were in washes that seemed almost like canyons, surround by walls of rock and then we'd catch a glimpse of the formations around us.

Lots of craggy rocks and Mesquite trees.

Here's our group at what they call the "Chinese wall" which was built by a prospecting couple to dam up the wash to look for gold -- it has been there a long time.

That is me in the stocking cap in front -- it was a very chilly ride (I won't say cold, since the Midwest and others are even colder).

Here's part of the wall, it goes down 25 feet or so, a big tree (someone called it a live oak, but it looked like a cottonwood to me) growing alongside the wall, it has made a bridge over the wall with one of its branches --- where you can see me!

A closer shot of the "tree root" bridge -- yes, we are in Arizona, even though it looks like I was ready to pick up a snow shovel.  I don't think the day warmed much up over the 50 mark, but we had a steady wind most of the time which kept it chilly.

Next stop Dragon Mine, you can see the foundation of it in the upper right, we hiked a ways down into the wash and poked around -- found a rock with Mica layered in the corner.

This site actually had homes where the workers stayed, we marveled at the amount of concrete that was used to create the structure, thinking maybe hauled by mules?

We ate lunch at Dragon mine before continuing on the journey.

The UTV in front of us stopped to take a picture of a wild burro that live in the area, that big brown blob is the burro, Darrel was hurrying to capture it as we were afraid it would disappear.  Not a great picture but that is what it was.

It is amazing how skinny the saguaros they are this season since the desert is dry -- I didn't realize that they would do that but you can tell a difference, they look more like pencils than fat cigars.  I wonder if they will bloom? -- more on that in the spring??

On to Anderson Mill -- not sure what was "mined" or "milled" there but it was a cool site to visit.  These hardy people used about anything they had at hand to construct this site.  You can see the ingenuity they possessed to get it built on the edge of a wash.

We had a great ride with four other couples (and we practiced Social distancing in the outdoors) and really enjoyed their knowledge about the area.  We plan to go back again to check it out as there are so many more trails to explore.  We arrived back home around 3:30pm and were bone weary and dusty -- clothes headed to the washer and both of us headed to the shower.

I am glad the next day was New Year's Day -- we pretty much vegged and I was doing computer work.  It was funny because New Year's Day was sunny and warm, so we joked that we sure know how to pick the day for a ride : )

Sending blessings from the AZ desert.... and wishing you a Happy New Year!

Love,

Susan & Darrel