December 20 can only mean one thing - it's Grandson Matthews birthday! Happy birthday, Matthew!
We have bee away from home for just over a month now. Time is flying by as it always does when you're having fun!
Going back to our trip down, another thing I noted was the way construction and road work dealt with the traffic. We went through many road construction areas. It was interesting to note that not once were we stopped by a flag person. They just didn't have them. Also, it was rare to have the speed reduced. We sailed through the construction areas at 55 miles per hour (because we were towing, otherwise it was 65 miles per hour). There were a lot of cones directing traffic to one side or the other, but no stoppages and few slow downs. Traffic moved along beautifully, no one got killed and there were no accidents. It was efficient and simple. We Canadians could learn a lot about keeping traffic moving from our southern neighbour!
I don't have much new to report. Dennis is working on repairing the roof of the house from the hurricane damage last spring. He is replacing some of the tin which will do the trick, with any luck at all! Once we get the title sorted out (there has been a bit of a glitch which will delay things) then we will likely replace the whole roof next year.
It has been somewhat difficult to stay in touch without Internet and phone. We hope to have our own internet in a week or two which will then allow us to register our newly purchased magic jack which will provide us with a phone number and free calling to Canada and the USA.
I'm going to try to upload a few pictures from the iPad.
December 26 - the picture uploading from the ipad didn't work. I'm posting this anyway. It's out of order but it doesn't matter.
bye again!
Friday, 26 December 2014
Boxing day, 2014. Connecting with friends and family has been somewhat difficult. We still don't have internet at our house. Nothing moves fast around here. Once we are hooked up then we won't have to do it again, thank goodness. Lets hope it all works. I just tried to send an imessage with my iphone. For some reason the imessage is not working. It keeps disconnecting, then I get the message "waiting for activation" and nothing happens. I'm ready to upgrade to an iphone 5 or 6. I would be interested on comments regarding the newer iphones. Mine is a 4, not even a 4S, so it is an older model. However, down here in Quartzsite, things are not noted for being technologically advanced.
We are enjoying our time out here in the desert. We love taking the dogs out for walks. We look for interesting rocks and the dogs love the freedom to follow different smells. I suppose they scent jack rabbits and coyotes, both of which are plentiful, although we have never seen them ourselves. We hear coyotes howling and barking at night though. Recently we had one barking very close to the house. Close enough to get the dogs up and bark back.
Here are some pictures near our house:
Sunsets like this are very common. I think the desert dust in the air adds to the colour.
This is in the wash behind our house. You can see the quad trail. This one is called Tyson Wash. It has been known to flood and go over the top. That is why we had to have an engineer do an elevation siting prior to us moving the house onto the property. We had to raise the base by about a foot.
Here you can see were the water came to last summer. This was Tammy's ramp to access the wash. Each year the ramps usually have to be rebuilt. Luckily, Tammy has a back hoe.
The fence that Dennis built! A lot of pounding and prying to get those posts in to the gravel!
The fence, looking from our place to Mike and Delcy's place.
The road approaching our house. This road only accesses the five lots that Tammy subdivided. Her place is on a dead end, so we don't get any traffic.
Enjoying a break from working on the house. The dogs are ever ready though, hoping for a stick or ball throw.
We are enjoying our time out here in the desert. We love taking the dogs out for walks. We look for interesting rocks and the dogs love the freedom to follow different smells. I suppose they scent jack rabbits and coyotes, both of which are plentiful, although we have never seen them ourselves. We hear coyotes howling and barking at night though. Recently we had one barking very close to the house. Close enough to get the dogs up and bark back.
Here are some pictures near our house:
More pictures of the wash, same area, different perspective.
This picture is of our trail down to the wash. We don't have quads, yet, so a foot trail gets us down to the wash to give the dogs a good walk. Now that the fence is finished, we don't take the dogs down there since we don't have gates yet. It is a nice place to walk in the evening.
The latest update on the house: We have water inside! Dennis had to repair a lot of pipes but we have cold running water in all the taps, except the bath tub. We are not sure why that has no water, but at this point, it doesn't matter, since we have no hot water yet. The hot water tank is gas and is located outside. We are waiting to contact the gas company to come and hook it all up. We wanted to make sure we actually had water first.
Living on the desert requires a person to tolerate dust and sand, both of which I have had a very low tolerance for! But, it is a small compromise in order to enjoy the warmth of the desert sun through the winter. Last night it did freeze though. -1 degree over night. Again, not bad, since it warms up to the high teens during the day and there is no snow to shovel or ice to deal with. Actually, I had more sand on the door mat at home during the winter than I do here! The grit from dealing with the icy paths and walkways was far worse than what I deal with here.
Time to go. I now have use of a laptop so will be able to upload pictures.
I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas. Ours was certainly different. It was our first without family. Plus it was our first Christmas out of Canada. I don't miss the snow, but I do miss my family. Well, maybe next year some of them will make it!
bye for now.
Tuesday, 2 December 2014
Greetings from Quartzsite! We have been here over a week now. It seems like just yesterday that we arrived. After leaving Almond Grove RV park we travelled south again on the I-5. I couldn't belive how polluted Southern California is. We spent the night in another rest area posted with signs that said "No Overnight Parking." It was obvious other truckers were parking overnight, as that is one purpose of the rest areas. Truckers must take breaks after so many hours as should any person driving long distances. So we just stopped, made supper, played a few hands of crib and called it a night.
California has some interesting road rules, which make sense. We noticed signs posted on all highways, both 4 lane and 2 lane, that maximum speed for trucks was 55. Also, any vehicle that was towing anything was also restricted to 55 miles per hour (90 kph). I found this very sensible. It allowed regular passenger vehicles to pass easily as their speed limit was 65 miles per hour (about 108 kph).
Another interesting thing was the acres and acres of single crops. As far as you could see would be grape vines, or spinach or other fruit and vegetables. We would drive for miles and see nothing but grapes. Then it would be miles of blueberries, or potatoes. The air was thick with smog which made me wonder what it would be like if there weren't so many plants trying to clean the air.
After our night in the rest area we went down to Bakersfield then across to Needles, then south to Blythe. At Blythe we took the number 10 highway to Quartzsite. We fueled up in Needles and checked the distance to Quartzsite on the gps. We had only an hour and a half to go! Rather than spend the night in Needles, which was our original plan, we decided to press on. We had a couple of hours of daylight left so why not?
We left Needles and took a two lane road south. This road took us up a steep climb into the desert. At the top of the climb there was a good sized pull out. I told Dennis to pull over and stop so we could give the dogs one good run before we hit Quartzsite. Before Dennis shut off the engine he said, "Maybe I shouldn't shut it off in case it doesn't start again." I looked at him with a big question mark over my head. "What do you mean, it won't start," I said. "Just shut it off so we can let the dogs out." He shut off the engine and we let out the dogs. Just a few meters out into the desert was some kind of tramp with a bicycle, and a fire. He was intent on burning something but kept looking at us kind of sideways. I thought, "Good grief. A homeless person way the heck up here! He must have lungs of steel to peddle that bike up here." So I gathered the dogs up and put them back into the motor home. They had managed to pee a few times so that was good enough. Dennis turned the key and, you guessed it, the truck wouldn't start! What the? Here we were, in the middle of nowhere, literally, and this big lunk of a motor home wouldn't start! And a murderer lurking behind the shrubbery, as far as we knew! Dennis tried the ignition several times with no luck. Nothing. Just dead. We sat there, me accusing him of hexing us and he ready to toss me out. We watched the sun set in silence and sat there for about 20 minutes as our minds raced on what to do next, reading the manuals for troubleshooting tips. Dennis gave the key another turn and let it crank for at least 15 seconds, worrying he would drain the batteries, but lo and behold, it sparked and the engine roared to life! We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
The road to Blythe was narrow and full of dips and curves. We were so happy to hit the number 10 and four lane it into Quartzsite. It was approximately 8 o'clock when we pulled into our lot. We parked, let the dogs out, made supper and went to bed. We were so relieved to be there! I was so impressed with Dennis' driving skills. He managed to get us there in one piece with just a few scratches and dings on the van.
More on our life here later. I just want to say that after a week we are loving it more and more. We both love the desert. The vegetation is so interesting. There are tiny little lizards darting about when you move a piece of wood and quails running in straight lines. There is a large flock of doves hanging around and a resident hawk keeping them on their toes. Tammy caught a scorpion but that is the only one I have seen in the three trips I have made down here.
The vendors have anything you want and stuff you never knew you needed! It is so much fun going to the different tents looking at all the stuff. There are a couple of places that sell damaged food stuffs, like bent tins and crushed cereal boxes. These things are not severely damaged, just bent or marked. You can get a box of cereal that would cost $5.29 at home for $2.00. I like it that they are selling stuff that would normally go to the garbage bins. It makes a living for the vendor and gives good prices on food that is perfectly good to eat.
Speaking of food, if you like authentic Mexican food, this is the place. You can buy real Mexican tortillas, chiles, spices. If you don't want to cook, there are authentic Mexican restaurants. Blythe is about 15 minutes away, offering a bakery with Mexican breads and sweets. There are farmers markets with fabulous produce. They have things I have only ever seen in Mexico. You hear a lot of Spanish in all the stores. I have yet to meet a cranky person or someone who isn't willing to help. Life here really is great. I haven't missed snow yet!
As I'm typing this, it is raining. The first rain I have experienced here! It smells wonderful and the air is still warm. It should lay the dust for a while which is the one downside to desert living. Dust is ubiquitous and just something to get used to.
We are still living in the motor home and will for some while, by the looks of it. Dennis is working on the fence which is the first priority. The poor dogs need some space.
One more issue: we went to Lake Havasu yesterday, to Lowe's, to get fencing material. I parked in the parking lot and shut off the engine. I noticed I should pull forward a bit and turned the key. Dead. No spark, nothing. What the? Again? We went in, buying just what was essential (posts and one roll of wire sine that was all they had). We wanted to get going because if the car didn't start we would have to get help and still get home, an hour and half away, to tend to the dogs which we left inside. It started after the second try, and then just barely. We were nearly out of gas so I stopped in Parker, left the engine running but set the e-brake to turn off the running lights. Dennis gassed up while I ran in to pay. We made it home, thank goodness. We also had to stop at Wal-Mart to get Tammy a Christmas tree, but again, I stayed with the engine running while Dennis went in to buy the tree. Today Dennis checked the battery connections. One was loose. He cleaned both terminals and tightened the connections. No trouble since. Ahhhhh.
Ok time to go. It has stopped raining and the sky is lightening up. Life in the Arizona desert is good! Bye for now.
California has some interesting road rules, which make sense. We noticed signs posted on all highways, both 4 lane and 2 lane, that maximum speed for trucks was 55. Also, any vehicle that was towing anything was also restricted to 55 miles per hour (90 kph). I found this very sensible. It allowed regular passenger vehicles to pass easily as their speed limit was 65 miles per hour (about 108 kph).
Another interesting thing was the acres and acres of single crops. As far as you could see would be grape vines, or spinach or other fruit and vegetables. We would drive for miles and see nothing but grapes. Then it would be miles of blueberries, or potatoes. The air was thick with smog which made me wonder what it would be like if there weren't so many plants trying to clean the air.
After our night in the rest area we went down to Bakersfield then across to Needles, then south to Blythe. At Blythe we took the number 10 highway to Quartzsite. We fueled up in Needles and checked the distance to Quartzsite on the gps. We had only an hour and a half to go! Rather than spend the night in Needles, which was our original plan, we decided to press on. We had a couple of hours of daylight left so why not?
We left Needles and took a two lane road south. This road took us up a steep climb into the desert. At the top of the climb there was a good sized pull out. I told Dennis to pull over and stop so we could give the dogs one good run before we hit Quartzsite. Before Dennis shut off the engine he said, "Maybe I shouldn't shut it off in case it doesn't start again." I looked at him with a big question mark over my head. "What do you mean, it won't start," I said. "Just shut it off so we can let the dogs out." He shut off the engine and we let out the dogs. Just a few meters out into the desert was some kind of tramp with a bicycle, and a fire. He was intent on burning something but kept looking at us kind of sideways. I thought, "Good grief. A homeless person way the heck up here! He must have lungs of steel to peddle that bike up here." So I gathered the dogs up and put them back into the motor home. They had managed to pee a few times so that was good enough. Dennis turned the key and, you guessed it, the truck wouldn't start! What the? Here we were, in the middle of nowhere, literally, and this big lunk of a motor home wouldn't start! And a murderer lurking behind the shrubbery, as far as we knew! Dennis tried the ignition several times with no luck. Nothing. Just dead. We sat there, me accusing him of hexing us and he ready to toss me out. We watched the sun set in silence and sat there for about 20 minutes as our minds raced on what to do next, reading the manuals for troubleshooting tips. Dennis gave the key another turn and let it crank for at least 15 seconds, worrying he would drain the batteries, but lo and behold, it sparked and the engine roared to life! We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
The road to Blythe was narrow and full of dips and curves. We were so happy to hit the number 10 and four lane it into Quartzsite. It was approximately 8 o'clock when we pulled into our lot. We parked, let the dogs out, made supper and went to bed. We were so relieved to be there! I was so impressed with Dennis' driving skills. He managed to get us there in one piece with just a few scratches and dings on the van.
More on our life here later. I just want to say that after a week we are loving it more and more. We both love the desert. The vegetation is so interesting. There are tiny little lizards darting about when you move a piece of wood and quails running in straight lines. There is a large flock of doves hanging around and a resident hawk keeping them on their toes. Tammy caught a scorpion but that is the only one I have seen in the three trips I have made down here.
The vendors have anything you want and stuff you never knew you needed! It is so much fun going to the different tents looking at all the stuff. There are a couple of places that sell damaged food stuffs, like bent tins and crushed cereal boxes. These things are not severely damaged, just bent or marked. You can get a box of cereal that would cost $5.29 at home for $2.00. I like it that they are selling stuff that would normally go to the garbage bins. It makes a living for the vendor and gives good prices on food that is perfectly good to eat.
Speaking of food, if you like authentic Mexican food, this is the place. You can buy real Mexican tortillas, chiles, spices. If you don't want to cook, there are authentic Mexican restaurants. Blythe is about 15 minutes away, offering a bakery with Mexican breads and sweets. There are farmers markets with fabulous produce. They have things I have only ever seen in Mexico. You hear a lot of Spanish in all the stores. I have yet to meet a cranky person or someone who isn't willing to help. Life here really is great. I haven't missed snow yet!
As I'm typing this, it is raining. The first rain I have experienced here! It smells wonderful and the air is still warm. It should lay the dust for a while which is the one downside to desert living. Dust is ubiquitous and just something to get used to.
We are still living in the motor home and will for some while, by the looks of it. Dennis is working on the fence which is the first priority. The poor dogs need some space.
One more issue: we went to Lake Havasu yesterday, to Lowe's, to get fencing material. I parked in the parking lot and shut off the engine. I noticed I should pull forward a bit and turned the key. Dead. No spark, nothing. What the? Again? We went in, buying just what was essential (posts and one roll of wire sine that was all they had). We wanted to get going because if the car didn't start we would have to get help and still get home, an hour and half away, to tend to the dogs which we left inside. It started after the second try, and then just barely. We were nearly out of gas so I stopped in Parker, left the engine running but set the e-brake to turn off the running lights. Dennis gassed up while I ran in to pay. We made it home, thank goodness. We also had to stop at Wal-Mart to get Tammy a Christmas tree, but again, I stayed with the engine running while Dennis went in to buy the tree. Today Dennis checked the battery connections. One was loose. He cleaned both terminals and tightened the connections. No trouble since. Ahhhhh.
Ok time to go. It has stopped raining and the sky is lightening up. Life in the Arizona desert is good! Bye for now.
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