Life's Little Moments

 Hello Family & Friends,

Here's just a few things to make you smile and appreciate nature's beauty!

These are Carole's cats and they like to sleep in baskets in her front window of her motorhome.

Goofy is the one still nestled in his basket and Fletch is the one standing proudly like a lion.

They greet Carole when she comes home -- she shared this pic!

Last week we had some beautiful sunsets -- and this is one Carole shared with me.

Another snap, and look at the changes!

One thing I can say is that AZ has some pretty awesome sunsets!

We have also had the chance to see the International Space Station go overhead a few times in the last couple of weeks.  It is an amazing site.  It takes about 7 mins for it to cross our sky space until we can no longer see it.  You can go to this link https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/index.cfm and enter your town or city to see when it might fly over.  Enjoy!

Guess all I have for now.  We are 6 weeks out from Colorado departure (early June) -- the heat has remained with us with a cool down expected for next week -- I certainly hope so -- nights are still cool but the days make us look for shade and appreciate the breeze.

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

Poppy Pass & San Marco Mine

 Hello Family and Friends,

It has been awhile since I wrote a post, the heat is on and we have been trying to stay cool.  We celebrated Darrel's birthday end of March and our anniversary was on Easter this year.  Next up, Susan's birthday in a few days.

Our last "big" UTV ride was to a place called Poppy Pass -- we were looking for Poppies which are much smaller than the poppies you might see in gardens and are yellow.  Last year the pass was filled with them but this year it was difficult to find any.  The trip was warm but still pleasant (I believe we did this ride on March 20).

Here's a few pics along the journey -- plus we stopped at San Marco Mine for a little rest.

We had a large group and the trail was pretty intense in a few places.  I did a lot of the driving and was ready to take a break at the end of the canyon.

Next up was San Marco Mine --- not a working mine but we scouted around the area.

We had great weather but the wind really picked up in the afternoon and we were dusty and UTV weary.  Headed home to shower and put the ride clothes in the washer.

Beautiful weather and a great ride.

Sending blessings from the Road,

Susan & Darrel

Hydraulics Hullabaloo!!!

 Hello Family & Friends,

Funny thing happened on the way home from a ENRCAMA meeting (which is like our HOA but we are a CAMA (common areas management association) and I am serving on as the system administrator for the software/equipment we have to run the board -- (more on that later) ---- I found Darrel under the RV fixing the hydraulics leak.  Yikes, he had started the project without me???

So here he is with hydraulic fluid all over him, pulling down the co-plastic underlining and trying to clean up a mess, and finding the leak, which turned out to be a hose, not a loose fitting.  

Well, I also had scheduled a time to lean Mah Jongg at 1pm from a lady in the park so I look at him and say, I can give you a couple of hours of help.

So, with that help, Darrel making a trip to Wickenburg for a hose and couple of parts ($150.00), I returned from learning the game; we finished up getting the underlining on before the winds blew like crazy and tore it off.

We ran out of the type of screws to get the underlining totally screwed on at dark, so a morning trip back to Wickenburg for screws and then back the North Ranch, one more time under the RV and the hullabaloo was complete!

We still have to run the jacks up and down a couple of times to prime them but will wait to do that when we hook up to travel to Colorado.

To catch you up on ENRCAMA -- last year I was elected to the board (9 members and it is a volunteer position) that supervises the park.  I worked with the system administrator for several months to take over the systems we use to support the board.  The position is a 3 year position and we rotate off 3 board members each year.  I have 2 more to go or actually I am in my 2nd year --- meetings are October - April, so most people are here that are snowbirds.  It has been an interesting endeavor and am learning a lot but will definitely be glad when my service is complete --- it does take time and some planning.

Well, I have no new pictures to share --- OH, we have sold more motorcycle equipment, and the garage sale and community cleanup weekends are coming up.  I guess we are just working on tasks at hand right now.

Will try to find a more interesting topic with some pictures in the next week or 2. But until then, here's a pretty good thought for the day ----

Sending love and blessings,

Susan & Darrel

Changing the Adventure

 Hello Family & Friends,

When we started this journey, we brought along two motorcycles to ride the roads of America.  Well, after spending the best riding time in the Midwest (and a couple fun rides in CO and up the mountain to Yarnell in AZ), we decided to sell the motorcycles.  With Darrel's hip issues (which are getting better) and the increase in fast moving traffic, we just weren't riding them as much.  So the reason for this paragraph was to explain what we've been doing the last couple of weeks:

SELLING MOTORCYCLES and MOTORCYCLE GEAR!!!!

Darrel's cycle -- went to a really nice guy from Tucson

Susan's cycle -- went to a really nice young man (first grown up cycle) from Scottsdale.

I don't like to sell and I really don't have the patience for it.  It takes time to take pictures, list on Craigslist, take calls from interested people and lookie loos --- but we were fortunate to get rid of them in less than a week of posting.  The Triumph was really funny because the dad called and left a message in a British speaking voice -- I am like really? who is having fun with me now!!!  But it was legit, he was a British citizen.  His son was buying it and he was so appreciative of the cycle's condition, the extra parts we threw in, and some Triumph clothing and gloves.  What a delightful experience.

So those were gone and then we moved on to the gear, we had pared it down some when we went on the road, with 6 jackets, 4 helmets, 2 sets of boots, gloves, and intercom system, and motorcycle chokes/stands.  

We have sold 2 jackets, 1 helmet, 2 gloves, the intercom system and the stands.  The rest may be more difficult as they are geared for colder weather.  It just takes some time and accommodating schedules for buyers and us.  You want to be available but you also have a life!!!  So it is a balancing act.  We are hopeful the rest will go soon.

So the adventure has changed to UTV riding which is safer as we stay off the roads and stick to the trails.  We find it more peaceful and you can get away from people if you choose carefully when you are riding and where you go.

Before I go, there is one more thing we did get done -- changing the "running horse" on the shed.  I had been looking for an actual running horse and the neighbor up the street had an extra one she was storing and gave it to me.  How sweet. -- So Darrel climbed a ladder and changed out the horses.  

Here's the new one:

So we are spring cleaning, waiting for the garage sale (supposedly next Saturday?), the community cleanup which lets you take things to the dump for free to finish up our spring cleaning activities.

Hope all is doing well with everyone and that Spring is on the way.

Sending blessings from Arizona,

Susan and Darrel

PS  Bob has my camera to take pictures of a project at his house, replacing some septic tank lines and fixing some drainage.  I may have limited picture taking opportunities for a week or so.

In Search of Metates!

 Hello Family and Friends,

In case the title of this post befuddles you, it is phonetically pronounced ....   

[muh-tah-teez; Spanish me-tah-tes] -- I just call them grinding stones.  We headed out with Sue and Ernie to look for Metates.  We headed towards Congress and then toward Indian Rock -- where there are Metates.

We had really beautiful scenery with high cliffs and lots of up and down trails!

This one Darrel called the bathing hole -- he thinks they used this big hole to capture rain water for bathing purposes???

Sue is checking out the markings of a traveler leaving a date stamps on the rock.

Here's the Metates!

And more

a close shot

Some one decided to stack rocks and you will see these from time to time where people have stopped to visit and leave a marker for future visitors.

We had a much warmer day and less wind which helps with the desert dust.  We traveled back towards Congress to finish our day.  It was a great trip and I now can look for more Metates as we travel the rock formations.

Sending blessings from the Road,

Susan & Darrel

Happy Reading -- until the next time!

Black Canyon Petroglyphs and Date Creek Fort

 Hello Family & Friends,

We journeyed once again in the UTVs to Black Canyon to see the Petroglyphs and stop by Date Creek Fort on the ride home.  It was a windy day but we had nice sunshine.  Packed our lunch for this trip and headed out from the back gate, which is nice that we don't have to trailer the UTV.

We journeyed quite a ways into the canyon, and as you traveled off the open pasture area, you found yourself in this canyon with lots of rocky crags.  You had to look for the petroglyphs along both sides of the canyon.

The picture on the right shows rocks with deposits of either shells or quartz embedded in it.

To the left is the petroglyphs

Lots of them high and low, you had to look very carefully to see them as some are getting faint from weather wear.

Darrel is poking around in the crag, looking closer at them.

The one of the right was an entire wall of rock, made you think it was like a calendar with all the markings.

We came back out of the canyon and lunched at our parking spot -- the wind was whippy that day -- I loved seeing the while clouds popping up over the horizon.

Onwards to Date Creek Fort -- we had been there once with Bob but it was a colder, windier day so we didn't linger.  It was nice to poke around a little.

Here I am sitting on the remaining foundation of one building on the fort site.

We headed back along the railroad tracks and through Congress to head home.  It was an enjoyable day but you can see we were bundled up!

Sending blessings from the Road,

Susan and Darrel

PS -- Keep on reading, post 3 is about the Metate (or grinding stones/holes)