Boating in the Desert

Yup - that's what we did.  Right smack in the middle of nowhere is the gorgeous Canyon Lake.  When I say middle of nowhere, you have to kind of work to get at it.  What they don't tell you when you reserve the Steamboat ride is that you have to negotiate miles and miles of narrow, hairpin turns up and then down a mountain, with few if any guardrails to stop you from plunging 2000 feet into cactus fields.  Not that you would care about the cactus at that point.  The views, on the other hand, are breath-taking!

We were told to quit driving after Tortilla Flat because "the road gets really scary"!  Holy cow!  If it got any scarier, they'd have to have outhouses on every corner!

The boat tour is 1.5 hours and very informative.  The highlight was when we stopped and spotted about 2 dozen bighorn sheep up on the cliff tops.  Amazing sight!  They told us that, on occasion, one will miss his footing and fall into the lake.  Luckily for them (and us), that didn't happen.

Poor RRR nearly died on the trek to the boat - very steep ramp and lots of walking (be careful what you wish for, we told her).  They very kindly gave us a wheelchair to get her back up the hill.

After that, we decided to negotiate another steep, windy road to go to Tortilla Flat (Population: 6) for ice cream.  Then a butt-clenching trip up and down the curves, with the sun rapidly setting.

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat!  Great Day!

OMG! You Have to See Sedona

We took off bright and early (for us) and drove 2.5 hours north (or possibly east) to Sedona, which is one of AZ's best keep secrets.  In fact, they keep it so secret that they don't even put up road signs to tell you that the town exists or where it is.  You have to keep going up and down mountains until you find the place, but when you do.....WOW!

The Red Rock Desert is stunningly beautiful.  The town of Sedona is cool - lots of little shops, lots of art galleries and lots of curio shops.  We opted for a bus tour to see a chapel (for the record, I'm not turning into a religious nut - it just happened to be where the tour went.) The views were amazing!


RRR learned that you have to be careful what you wish for.  As we were heading out, she said she wished she could get motivated to walk more.  When we got to Sedona, she got her wish.  We had to walk several blocks to get to the bus stop and then she walked through several stores.  We threatened to put horse blinkers on her so she wouldn't buy more earrings.

We ended up at the Barking Frog restaurant, where we had many firsts:  RRR tried bison chili, I tried frog legs (I had to, didn't I?) and we all tried cactus fries made with nopales cactus.  They were good, kind of like zucchini sticks, but the prickly pear sauce they came with was to die for!

We barely scratched the surface of what to do in Sedona.  We are definitely going back!

Lucky for RRR, it was dark when we left and she slept all the way home so she didn't miss much.  Exercise will do that to you :-)

Cacti, Ghost Towns and Rattlesnakes

We left Yuma on March 4th after some last-minute RV repairs and headed for Apache Junction, which is next to Mesa, which is next to Tempe which is all part of Phoenix.  We had a lovely ride in nice weather, took several hours to try to level off on very un-level lots (didn't happen), then went to the pool only to find it so cold that we would have risked hypothermia (by which I mean it couldn't have been more than 80 degrees).  So we jumped in the hot tub with a bunch of drunks and called it a day.

We hit the ground running after that.  First stop was the Mesa Marketplace and Swap Meet where

A few treasures to add to RRR's collection

RRR stocked up on earrings. (last count is 109 pairs).  This place is huge!  We tried to connect with Carm and Jackie but there was no way we could find each other in that massive crowd.  Interesting place but, since there is no room left in the RV, I just couldn't justify buying the gorgeous, 600-pound swing set or the $1200 folding bike.  I had to settle for blueberry cashew pemmican.  Oh well....next year.

The next day we toured the Lost Dutchman State Park.  We looked but we couldn't find him, so we went cactus viewing instead.  It's amazing how many varieties there are and almost all of them bear fruit that can be eaten, although I don't know who would have the nerve to pick a single fruit off a 50 foot saguaro cactus.  Most things in the desert either want to hurt you or kill you, we've discovered.  RRR backed into one plant by accident and the back of her scooter had spines embedded in the leather seat.

We took Monday off for much-needed RV repairs (again).

On Tuesday we went to the Goldfield Ghost Town and had a great time looking at the shops, the chapel, panning for gold and visiting a reptile exhibit. Didn't have much luck finding gold but we did find a few garnets and came away with a bag full of wet dirt, which is currently in the trunk of my car, gathering mold.

The snakes were beautiful, but I'm glad they were behind a half-inch of glass.  Even so, I'm pretty sure that one of those big buggers could have had us for lunch if he was so inclined.  We were even lucky enough to see the albino cobra show his hood - amazing!  We thought the ghost town was going to be a fun little two-hour thing but we spent all day there and still didn't see everything.

Apache Junction turned out to be a fun place.   More to come....

Beady-Eyed and Cutting Up

Let’s say that you’re an older person with bad eyesight, a bad back, stiff fingers, no artistic talent, absolutely no patience and you’ve never worn jewelry in your life.  Now let’s say you want to pick a fun activity to while away the hours.  What would you choose?

That’s right!  BEADING!!!

That’s what took us to Jan’s Bead shop on a very hot Friday afternoon.  In just 3 short, back-breaking hours we emerged with bracelets that didn’t look half bad.  The best part was the magnetic clip which, I swear, could stop a semi in its tracks.

It was so remarkably easy to do that we tried again a week later, with a more difficult pattern.  Carm and Jackie caught on right away.  After considerable swearing and mounting blood pressure, I concluded that my talents lay elsewhere.  And wherever they’re laying, they must be buried pretty deep because I can’t find them.

On the plus side, RRR loves jewelry so we took my bracelet, she spent 3 hours extending it and then Carm and Jackie took turns finishing it.  The end result is that she has a couple of cute little necklaces and matching earrings.

 Never one to be daunted, I decided to pick up a new hobby.  Diecutting.  After spending a fortune on a die cutter, some hummingbird dies and several cans of adult beverages, I produced 6 hummingbirds and a few flowers.  Since I hate anything resembling knick-knacks and I get homicidal at the sight of wind chimes, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all these things.  Still, they’re pretty and sparkly and so what more could you want.

Budgie-smugglers: The Ultimate Fashion Statement

We headed to Quartzsite on a very hot Saturday to take part in a seeded metal detecting hunt.  This is where the field is seeded with coins and participants have one hour to dig up all the money they can get.  The cost to participate is $35 and diggers can recover all of their fees if they're fast enough.  I'm not fast enough..... I managed to get $4.50 total, and that's with Carm helping me dig!  On the plus side, I did manage to tan the back of my legs.  I was looking a tad two-toned there for awhile - sort of like a chocolate-covered digestive biscuit.

RRR was excited to come along because we promised to introduce her to Quartzsite's most eligible bachelor.  Paul Winer (honest) is the owner of a used book store and he was very dapper that day - we noticed immediately that he had taken the trouble to match his top hat to his budgie-smuggler.  Maybe he knew RRR was coming.  We thought it was a match made in heaven:  RRR likes to knit, so PW would have an unlimited supply of mankinis to choose from.  Laundry would be a breeze (literally).  There'd be no guessing about what to get him for Christmas.  Every couple of years or so, she could buy him a new hat.

We reluctantly left the book store and headed for the rock and gem show where we bought a lot of rocks (as if the Beast isn't heavy enough), with the intention of turning them into smaller rocks by way of a rock tumbler we also bought.  We're not exactly sure what we're going to do with all these polished rocks but, what the heck, they're sparkly.

RRR, of course, bought earrings.  At last count, she owns 108 pairs.

Finding Jesus

I've gotta tell you..... they ain't makin' hippies like they used to.

Many people told us we had to go visit "Slab City" which is billed as the "last free place in America".  When Patton's army left the area after WWII, they left behind huge concrete slabs that had been the flooring for the army's huts.  Over time, people who wanted to drop out of society began setting up camp on these slabs.  We were told it was a wild, untamed and dangerous place to visit.

Naturally, we had to go see them.  So we donned our hippie outfits (by which I mean the POD people uniform of capris, t-shirts and flip flops) and off we went to Niland, California.  We knew we had arrived when we saw a very unwashed old man wearing a very large sombrero and a very short kilt and riding a donkey (which was normal sized).  We would have asked him (the Mexi-Scot) for directions but he didn't look like he had a GPS (or many functioning brain cells.)  He was very smiley though.

As you drive into Slab City (which, btw, has better roads than Sudbury and they don't pay taxes!), you are faced with a great big hill that has been covered in paint and a lot of bible passages.  This is Salvation Mountain and it is a wonder to behold.  I did not feel inspired to repent my sins.  But then we were told we had to find Jesus.  East Jesus, that is.

A little further on, we saw signs for a pub, a library, and an internet cafe.  Most of the "hippies", as far as we could see, were driving huge motorhomes and fifth wheels.  These people did not look like they even owned love beads or water-walkers.  The few places we saw that looked "hippie-ish" were very well tended, albeit most of the garden decorations were made from scrap and old appliances.  There wasn't a long-haired freaky person to be found (if you don't count us).

The trail led us around to East Jesus, with a bypass to West Satan.  This place was really cool!  The artist has used junk to create some really unique artwork.  I loved the wall made out of used bottles.  It was very sparkly.

In spite of the 100 degree heat (that's 2,378 Celsius, by my reckoning) we wandered around this amazing sculpture garden.  It's truly awe-inspiring what people can do with trash!

After that, it was a quick trip to the Salton Sea, by way of Bombay Beach which is a) not east Indian and b) not a beach.  But it is a dump.  You can't even see the sea from there because they've piled up a lot of dirt in front of it.  No idea why and there was no one to ask.

So we came home, with not even a tale of being shot at by some paranoid, disgruntled counter-culture freak who hates revenooers and guv'mint agents.

Peace and Love, ya'll.

Mysterious Doings at Shangri-la

On the night following our Spook Mountain trip, we were invited to participate in a Murder Mystery Night.  The victim, Miss Tearious, was murdered aboard a cruise ship by someone who didn't want her to divulge his/her darkest secrets.  Among the suspects were Haus Sellar, a real estate agent  (RRR);  Em Bellish, a piano teacher (Jackie); Nok Turniss, a Music Director (Carm); and Reed M Anweep, a book publisher (me).  We had a ball getting into costume and joining the crowd for happy hour.  It was so much fun to try to figure out whodunnit.  None of us guessed it right.

The most hilarious part of the night was when people saw Carm and Jackie.  The really ugly false teeth they had on looked so real that I could hear people commenting about how those poor women should go to Mexico for some of the cheap dental work down there.

Fortunately, none of us were the murderer, so we were free to go.   It sure was a fun night!