I took off on another photo hike this morning to Squaw Lake.
It's been several days since I last was out there and the cactus flowers were just starting.
They were better today.
I hiked some new paths but returned to where I knew I found some good flowers on the previous hike.
There are a lot of barrel cacti out here by the lake and a few are in bloom.
On my way there, I passed through a wash and disturbed three coyotes which scattered in three directions as i approached. I enjoyed watching them and then remembered I had a camera but it was mostly too late and I only got a distant photo of one. Sometimes I wish I could think more quickly but then I would have actually missed seeing them other than in a view finder. Maybe I need a helmet camera that just takes pictures of everything I see. Hummm!
When I returned back to camp Lou was gone to the Post Office in Bard or so I thought. That was one of here destinations. The other was a visit to Sun Garden Date Ranch. She checked out the place, determined it had nicer picnic areas but a little higher prices. When she tried to leave, the car wouldn't start. She called the auto club and when they came out the tow driver wiggled the the battery cable and it started. I suspect that had nothing to do with the problem and that our transmission start switch is bad again. Everything else worked fine and there was no clicking or dimming when Lou tried to start the car. We'll see what happens.
It's was another warm day today. We enjoyed an early campfire just because we like them and have a lot of firewood. The logs burn very slowly so we started the fire at 5pm. we enjoyed a fire until 9pm without adding wood to the fire and only a couple of pokes needed. About 8pm we started to get a little rain as in very thin sprinkles. Not enough to cause us to go inside.
Tuesday: (03/23) Lou was up early as usual to attend to the birds. It's cloudy this morning and we have a 20% chance of more rain but generally it looks like we wont have much sun today. Breakfast was leftover pancakes with strawberries and some bacon.
We tinkered at home all morning. The solar barely kept up with my use. I was working on Lou's laptop trying to speed things up and also update her inventory program. Things started to clear up in the afternoon. We had some of Lou's chicken potato salad. This version had garlic pepper sauce (normally Tabasco, but we were out) added and we call it Iranian Chicken Salad after a former coworker of Lou's. He was Iranian and brought it to work for lunch quite often.
After lunch, Jeannie from Quartzsite arrived. We went over her new website maintenance procedures. Her dog Goldie seemed to enjoy visiting our little place in the sun though the birds didn't hang around too much during her visit.
I looked at the car and confirmed that it is the gear selector switch that is bad and wont let the car start. I did find a way to wiggle it to start it for the moment. Too bad there aren't any Volvo dealers or specialty garages in or near Yuma.
We shared a roast beef sandwich for dinner then walked up to the Senator Wash Reservoir. I took the high road along the mountain peaks to the reservoir. Lou took the path by the beaver pond. We met at the reservoir and Lou made a couple of phone calls before we walked back via the road arriving home at 7pm as it got dark.
Wednesday: (03/24) Lou fixed corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast and before my shower, I went out to work on the car. Might have been a dirt job but it wasn't. I disassembled the cover from around the gear selector and found that the position switch had come loose from the pin on the lever. I added a couple of washers as spacers to movew the switch closer to the pin and all works fine for now. Lou knows what it is and could easily disassemble if it happens again. This is exactly what was wrong a few years ago in Sante Fe, NM where the Volvo shop replaced the switch. I always get the parts back and tested the switch later when we got back home and found nothing wrong with the original switch. Hopefully the washers make a longer lasting repair. Nowadays I hate to mess with things I don't know about, like the car. We usually leave it to the experts but so many experts aren't even up to the amateur level it sometimes makes my fumbling efforts better.
We packed up a leftover roast beef sandwich and some chips and headed down to the Sun Garden Date farm in bard for a date shake. It's located right across the field from the imperial Date farm but the picnic area is nicer. We enjoyed our shakes and sandwich. Those date milk shakes are quite good.
We drove over to Mitry Lake and Betty's Kitchen. Betty's Kitchen was a cafe in a former village that was flooded out in 1983 below Imperial Dam. The BLM did not allow the village to rebuild the damaged buildings and the village is now a wildlife viewing area. We also explored some of the remote campsites near the lake. Maybe a future campsite was found located well away from the dust road that goes by the lake.
Dinner tonight was sausage, onions, and cabage.
Thursday: (03/25) We got up early and tried something new. We drove down to the campground at Squaw Lake and took showers, or almost. Lou was successful, The two I tried didn't work and I gave up. So what if I'm a little aromatic. After breakfast of leftover corned beef hash and eggs we were on the road to Los Algodones, Mexico again.
It's time for my teeth to be cleaned so that was first on the list. I walked in without an appointment and was out the door in less than 30 minutes with at least as good a job as I get at home, all for $25, 1/5th the cost at home. We then went to an optical shop and ordered glasses. Lou got two pair of her all featured glasses (transition bifocals, photoactive, Unbreakable). The first pair was $269, the second at half price was $135. At home a single pair would have been more than $700. I got another pair of cheap bifocal glasses this time adjusted for use with the computer rather than for reading (a little more distance for the close part). Mine were $39. I'm just learning to use glasses and I got these because Lou is tired of seeing me scowl at the laptop computer screen. Our eye exams were $10 each.
While we waited for our glasses to be made we went to lunch at our favorite little shrimp taco joint. We had shrimp tacos and tomales with a milk shake. We're going to have to find a place like this at home.
After lunch we found a beauty shop/barber shop. Lou got a perm and trim ($14) and I got a haircut ($3).
We returned to pickup our glasses and were ready to depart. Unlike our previous visits to Mexico a couple of weeks ago, there was no line to exit. We were on the road home by 3pm. We stopped for gas and then at the market before returning home. The weather was nice all day. The high was 84 degrees but it's quite comfortable.
Dinner was some of Lou's Iranian chicken salad and rice pudding.
We are now almost ready to leave. Just a couple of more things on the agenda. The air show at the Marine Base in Yuma on Saturday and the Yuma County Fair starting Tuesday. With all that done we can leave as early as next Wednesday. Current plan is to head toward the Anza Borrego Desert State Park on our way North.
Friday: (03/26) Breakfast was leftover pancakes and bacon. Lou was off on another trip to the thrift stores. I removed the caulk and resealed the front roof seam on the RV. We've had a leak above the passenger seat. I'd put repairing it off long enough.
For lunch, I had leftover chicken salad and rice pudding. lou stopped for a taco salad.
Some of the flowers around our campsite.
The cholla plant out side our door has a beavertail cactus next to it. This is the plant to bird was stuck in a few days ago.
I also started processing my recent pictures. Eventually some will make it to this blog.
Lou returned and we enjoyed some pork sauerkraut and potatoes that had cooked all day in the crock pot.
As it was getting dark we started walking down to our beaver pond. we were delayed visiting with Ann, Mary and Howard our neighbors from up the wash. They are leaving tomorrow. We made it up to the pond as it was nearly dark. We did enjoy spotting two beaver swimming in the pond. After a while, the darkness and the mosquitoes caused us to head back toward home.
We stopped off at Ann, Mary and Howard's for a glass or two of wine and some conversation.
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