March 28 - 30

Mar 28--Well, finally after spending a week at the Grand Canyon and getting the truck fixed we were able to pull up stakes and head east. A pic of the Grand Canyon on the way out of the east entrance. Pictures don't do it justice. But it is one of the 7 wonders of the world!

We didn't have to get the ECM module put in the truck so that saved us a ton of money. It was snowing slightly when we left this morning. We headed to a little town of Kayenta, Az. About 25 miles north of the town is Monument Valley, UT. It is a great place to see once. We stopped at the police station asking about campgrounds. There were none in Kayenta so they said just to stay at Basha's parking lot. This is a chain of grocery stores in Az. We unhooked the trailer and went sightseeing. Here's a picture of one of the sites at Monument Valley.

We spent the night in the parking lot but were surprised at the number of stray dogs roaming around the lot. At one time we counted 9 dogs, just looking for handouts. When I took our dog outside, I had Bob go with me in case they decided to attack. Three of them started circling us and Bob chased them away with a walking stick. Kinda scary tho.

We woke the next morning to find about 4 inches of snow outside. As the sun came out it started melting pretty fast but for a while the parking lot was a sheet of ice. We had a dickens of a time getting the snow off the slide. Good thing we only put one of them out the night before.

We then headed down the road to 4 corners. It's the only place in the US that 4 states meet together. There were lots of Indian vendors selling pottery and jewelry also. Here's BOB standing in 4 states at one time. After spending time there, on the road again.

We drove East once again! Headed to Navajo Dam, NM to meet up with Ron and Terry who we became good friends with in Quartzsite. We got a call from them on the way, they gave us directions to get to the Cottonwood Campsite just below the dam. I was driving, taking direction from Bob. We drove the truck by -pass thru Farmington and somehow missed the turn to Aztec. We headed up the mountain road to Navajo Dam. Talk about a twisty, narrow road. And I was pulling a 34' 5th wheel trailer! When we got to the dam, I pulled off and told Bob I couldn't drive across the dam. It was narrow and no guard rails, straight down on both sides. He cautiously drove the truck and camper across. We turned into a big parking lot on the other side & had to turn around to head down the other side. I jumped back in the drivers seat and brought us in to the campsite. It was a shaky experience. Now that I have driven that road, I feel confident I can drive anywhere! As we got to the campsite, Ron and Terry came out to greet us. Terry was nice enough to back the trailer into the site and get us situated. Here's our campsite... It is a great spot, afternoon sun, electric, water available and covered picnic table.

The next morning I took a stroll down to the San Juan River. It is really beautiful here.

Terry and Ron helped us set up our satelite dish. Talk about roughing it when we are camping...I probably couldn't go back to camping in a tent after being this spoiled. Terry brought over some homemade rolls tonight also. They were soooo good... Thanks Terry!!!

Hopefully this morning, Sat.,we will be able to get fishing licenses and catch the Blue Ribbon trout. San Juan River picture where I'll be fishing!

March 26

Well, we started the day off by taking the truck to Valle Diesel in Valle, AZ. It is 30 miles south of where we are parked. They told us on Friday that they could clean the radiator off and we would be on our way. We got there and Tom looked at it and didn't think it was just the radiator that needed fixed. He called Diamond Dodge in Flagstaff, AZ to see if we could take it to them to look at. We got there at noon, and of course all the mechanics went to lunch at noon. One o'clock rolled around and finally at 1:30pm they took the truck and proceeded to check it out. About 3pm they had a diagnosis! We need a new fan clutch, radiator cleaned and the ECM module that basically tells the engine what to do. We had to leave it in Flagstaff and hopefully pick it up tomorrow. We then had to rent a car to get back to the campsite (75 miles away). We got home about 5pm, dog tired and ready to call it a night. The worst thing is---it isn't covered under the extra warranty we bought and it will cost $1800.00. Yikes, this is an expensive trip back to Wyoming... I just hope we can get it tomorrow...This means another day of a $32 campsite...More tomorrow!!

March 20 - 26

We left Quartzsite on Tues the 20th and stayed the first night at Lake Havasu City, AZ. We camped a few miles north of town on BLM Free land. This was the first pull with the new 5er. It did well and Bob was happy about it.
Wed. morning we headed toward the Grand Canyon. We had some problems with the engine overheating a couple of times and had to pull over and let it cool down. But eventually we ended up at the Grand Canyon. We went in hoping to find a campspot in the Grand Canyon but they were full. Can you beleive it at this time of year? We then went back out and are camped at the campground a couple miles out of the park. It's expensive here and we had to spend a few more days than usual because of the truck. But the host was very good to us and gave us a couple nights for free.
We took some wonderful pictures and I will post them later on another post as this is the 1st time I've been able to hook up to internet in the campground.
Yesterday we went to the IMAX theater to see the Grand Canyon movie. It was very good. There are a lot of tour buses up here, lots of helicopters and planes touring the Canyon. Next time I come here, I want to take the mule ride into the bottom of the canyon. We were told that you need a 3 month in advance reservation for this. But plan on spending a full day if you do this. It's a 4 hour ride down and 4 hour ride back to the top.
I'm going to try to get some sunset shots tonight of the Grand Canyon. It is supposed to be spectacular.
On the road tomorrow to head to Monument Valley!

03/19/07

Hello Everyone!!!

After almost 5 months camped on the BLM Long Term area South of Quartzsite, AZ it's time to head North.

The temperatures have been in the upper 90's for the last few days and we have wheels and can move when we become uncomfortable.

We had to kill a Black Widow Spider the other evening, Sandy smashed a small Scorpion and the snakes are out from what we hear. Time to move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have met some great people in the last 5 months and have become good friends with most. Some will be mentioned in this post and others in the future.

We are heading a little North of Lake Havasu City tomorrow to camp on some BLM ground. It will only be about an 80 mile trip but a good short shake down

cruise to make sure everything works. Then on to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday for a couple days of sightseeing. This starting trip was suggested by our good friends Ron and Terry at Hitchitch.com. What great people they are and we consider them as best friends. Going to catch up with them East of Farmington, NM on the San Juan River for some fly fishing and camping.

Another couple that we would like to mention on this post are Bob and Linda. They have the Gold Miser Prospecting Shop here in Quartzsite and also have a shop in Libby, MT. If you have any questions concerning Gold Prospecting give them a call, Quartzsite 928 927 7150, Libby,Mt. 406 293 8679. Great service, first class new and used equipment of all sorts, absolutely anything you need to find Gold and most important, Knowledge and Service. Thanks Bob and Linda!!!!!!!!!!!! for a Great Winter of Prospecting around Quartzsite..!!!

A couple of photo's of their shop.

March 17

Happy St. Patricks Day!
We had a sad beginning to our day today. Our very good and special friends, Ron and Terry let us know that they were leaving, heading north today. We are going to check their mail on Monday for them and meet up with them in a while at Navajo Dam in NM. We have followed their web site for about 2 1/2 years and met them when we got to Quartzsite in November. It funny how in such a short time how close you can become to someone. We miss them already!
After a tearful goodbye to them, Bob and I headed to Blythe to attend a RV resort presentation. We spent 1 1/2 hours listening to the presentation and didn't even get a glass of water offered to us. They wanted us to buy into the resort for a mere $7800.00. We turned it down!
We then headed to Quizno's for a sub sandwich. The place was packed so we took our subs to the city park. Good food but the prices were high.
Next, off to Kmart---we had to get 2 new outside chairs. Our others had bitten the dust. We got a couple of Northwest Territory chairs for $15/each.
About 5:30pm we headed into town (Quartzsite) and had dinner with 2 couples we met when we first got to town. Great food, good conversation.
It has finally cooled down to 83 at 9pm after being 102 early this afternoon.

Mar 11 - 15

We encountered a sewer problem on when we were going to dump the black water out of the trailer. Only a small bit came out and we knew that wasn't right. Larry Seal came over and tried to force some water up the pipe and break the blockage. After a couple of tries and that not working, we had to call "Ole Blue Septic service". They came out after about 45 minutes of the call. They tried the same thing Larry had done, but no luck. So inside the trailer they went and got the bulk out that way. Back outside again and flushing 5 gallon of water thru the pipes, we had clean pipes! What an ordeal. Terry came over, pulled up a chair and got to see the whole thing. We couldn't get Ron over here tho.
It has been very warm here---high 90's.
Bob came home yesterday after talking with Terry and Ron and said we are pulling out of here on Mon. or Tues. So after I finish my last work day tomorrow, the weekend will be spent stuffing the trailer and getting it ready to go.
We have to fill one propane tank before we leave also.
We'll keep you posted of our travels along the way.
Daniel, when you read this--I think your grandparents are great to work with!

March 10

Saturday the 9th Bob and I went out southwest of town to do some more prospecting. We got out there about 11am when it was really starting to get warm--a mere 84 degrees. He prospected about 2 hours and found some copper casings from bullets. I found some crystals still in the rock formations. After we got home about 3pm, he decided he was going to go out to Dome Rock just west of town. He got home about 4:30 and panned out some dirt he worked on up there. He tried 3 tries to get this to produce something at Dome Rock. He found GOLD!!!

Here are some pics of the desert starting to bloom.

On Sat. the 10th we headed out into the desert once again. This time we were headed northwest looking for desert roses. We found quite a few and I looked on the internet for a description and found out they are called chalcedony minerals. It was an interesting time and we spent about 4 hours out there.

Here's a picture of the desert roses. We're going to take the small ones and embed them into our walking sticks. Also a pic of Jim, Bob, Phyllis and Larry...

Early this morning I got some pictures of the sunrise. It is as beautiful as the sunset tonight. Left--sunrise...Right--sunset... They are beautiful here...

March 7

I know, it has been a while since we posted on the blog. No excuses either.

On Monday we got the solar panels installed on top of the trailer. It only took them 3 hours to get it done. It was the 1st time we pulled the trailer. Bob said it pulled well. When we unhooked it at Discount Solar, I set the pin for the gooseneck hitch on the toolbox and forgot about it. We couldn't find it when we retraced our steps so we frantically looked for another one. We found some and decided to buy 2 of them, just in case it happens again.

We took the trailer down to the dump site, what an easy way to dump.

Bob did go out metal detecting and found his 2nd gold nugget. The picture of it shows how big it is compared to a penny.

It has been warm here, 84 degrees today...I heard it is supposed to get up into the 100 degree area next week. Don't like those numbers.

Only about 3 1/2 more weeks and we move out of here headed to NM.