Monday Mar. 24
Well
look at us the last full week of March. You ask what the hell are we still
doing in Q? Good question as it is getting much to warm for my tastes.
At 1:30 it is 88° outside in the shade. And 86° in here, and you
better believe I have my little 12 volt fan right here on the desk blowing
in my face. I could go and shut the windows and start the air. I'm
thinking about it but not quite yet. Since Terry is on the board at the
rock club they have one more general meeting and a board meeting after
they lock the club doors on Saturday the 29. Till then the members are
getting in their last week of playing in the shops, while I roast in the
desert. Now I know somone might laugh at the fact I think it is hot when
it does gets above 100 here most of the summer. So call me a wimp I can
take it, but I can't take the heat.
Anyway
I am waiting for perceptions to arrive in our P O Box later this week.
Can't leave town without them. Speaking of the post office, new rules,
new rules. And your not going to like it. I first spotted the changes on
the web forums, and call the postmaster here in Q to confirm. NO
more general Delivery mail after your first 30 days has gone into effect.
You can get one delivery of GD mail and then you have to get a P O Box.
She told me they have plenty of boxes to rent. We got a mid size box last
year and it costs $40. a year. You get a small free one if you own property
in town since they do not deliver. The FREE ride is over. It's the same
way in Blythe also. It is worth it to use to have the box since I don't
want to miss any mail with meds in it as it gets sent back to never, never
land. Now it goes to the box with no problem.
We
are still trying to deciede which route to take getting out of here. To
just go north from Q to Kingman and take I-40 east or I-10 east to HW 60
to Globe and then up to Show Low for a much more adventurous route up to
Gallup, NM. From there off to Navajo Dam State park just east of Farmington
NM. The trout are waiting to be caught.
In case you're lost Quartzsite is on I-10 just east of Blythe, CA and south
of Parker on HW 95
We
have done the I-17 pull up to Cottonwood, Flagstaff several times so looking
for more diversity.
I'm
even thinking of taking the plunge and going right through Phoenix and
coming out on the east side on US 60 which goes to Globe.
Now
wouldn't that be a fun drive with a 5th wheel. We have seen lots of desert,
might as well see what the big bad city is like also. Or could it be I
am just having a Wal*Mart withdraw, since I have not seen one in 6 months.
Bet, I remember real fast, how afoul the traffic can be.
Think
it's time to take a break and think about this whole travel deal... do
a little suffering and come back and address this route issue later. After
all it is 90° inside right now.
Another
thing to consider on this route thing is the price of diesel fuel and how
that will affect us. When we started a few years ago the price was $1.50
a gal. Can you believe that? Even last summer it was, should I say, ONLY
$2.65. Now yesterday we were lucky and got it in Q for $3.77. Love's and
Flying J are 15 to 20 ¢ higher. We know our income is going
to go down this year with interest rates next to nothing. Did I say I am
conservative when dealing with my investments. You bet I am. This stuff
has to last. But the good point is we have not had to touch any savings
or 401K stuff yet. Living well off only pension, don't get SS yet.
SO we have come to the conclusion that we are just going to get used to
the higher cost of fuel and deal with it. Life is short and we are not
going to hide under a rock. Some say that is what we do in Q now anyway.
Extensive travel, not in the near future. Alaska is out of the picture
for now, but that doesn't say we won't take trips when we feel like it.
Just do what we have been doing and enjoy the time we have, by planning
our travels and reading what others are seeing and doing via our
www.hitchitch.com
site. It's a big country out there, I can see some of it through other
peoples eyes.
Friday Mar. 28
A
little history on Q.
Hi Jolly And The U.S.
Camel Corps.
A sign at the site of Hi
Jolly's tomb reads:
The famous camel herd with
which the name of Hi Jolly is linked constitutes an interesting sidelight
of Arizona history ... Jefferson Davis (afterward President of the Southern
Confederacy) as secretary of war approved a plan to experiment with camels
for freighting and communication in the arid Southwest ... Major Henry
C. Wayne, of the U.S. Army, and Lt. D.D. Porter (later a distinguished
admiral of the Civil War) visited the Levant with the storeship "Supply"
and procured 33 camels which were landed at Indianola, Texas, February
10, 1856. 41 were added on a second voyage ... With the first camels came,
as caretaker, Hadji Ali, whose Arabic name was promptly changed to "Hi
Jolly" by the soldiers, and by this name he became universally known. His
Greek name was Phillip Tedro ... On the Beale expedition (1857) to open
a wagon road across Arizona from Fort Defiance to California, the camels,
under Jolly's charge, proved their worth ... Nevertheless the war department
abandoned the experiment and the camels were left on the Arizona desert
to shift for themselves, chiefly roaming this particular section. They
survived for many years, creating interest and excitement ... Officially
the camel experiment was a failure, but both Lt. Beale and Major Wayne
were enthusiastic in praise of the animals. A fair trial might have resulted
in complete success.
Hi Jolly And The U.S. Camel Corps.
Prospector Convinced Arizona Still Has Camels.
QUARTZSITE, Ariz. — Associated
Press, 1940s
When the desert cools
this winter ... when the burn is gone from the sand and the dry air packs
a brisk tang, old Bill Keiser is going to get himself a pair of binoculars
and look for wild camels. Right now old Bill, a retired prospector and
one of the few residents left in this ghost town, is content to sit on
his front porch, shielded from the heat waves that dance in the street,
and speculate about the camels. He's pretty sure he'll find those wild
camels, descendants, he says, of animals brought to this country nearly
100 years ago. "There are sure signs that camels are in these parts," Keiser
explained. "Just the other day, for instance, a prospector from St. Louis
found fresh camel tracks in the hills a few miles from here."read
more
We thought we needed to take a desert road
trip before we left this season. We had taken this route a couple of years
in the past and wanted to do it again. A few miles south of Q a road goes
into the east and into the wilderness and a fun drive.
 Kofa
National Wildlife Refuge
Kofa
National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939. The refuge encompasses
665,400 acres of pristine desert that is home to the desert bighorn sheep
and the California fan palm, the only native palm in Arizona.
Bighorn sheep are found
chiefly in the two mountain ranges that dominate the refuge landscape -
the Kofa and Castle Dom Mountains. Although these mountains are not especially
high, they are extremely rugged and rise sharply from the surrounding desert
plains, providing excellent bighorn sheep habitat. A wide variety of plant
life is found throughout the refuge. |
A the Crystal Hills site
there is a well but not potable water. There are old campground here with
sites with no services at all.
After that the road follows
the pipeline
This is the view from a
ridge on the east end of the refuge looking down on the pipeline and road.
The wide section is where the buried pipeline is located.
We took a side road to what
was described as a road to a remote well just 1.5 miles off to the right.
It got a little tight for
a dually PU. So soon we turend around. How about next year and a
ATV to go on these trails. I can dream can't I.
I need to remind myself
all we have to do is just do it.
The views were great and
the drive was fun.
Later back home at our campsite
I got a shot of our Doves nest. With mother Dove I guess holding down the
nest. They moved in a few days ago and began building twig by twig their
nest. As you can see on the left side of the picture is our canopy frame
as they are right next to us. A couple of times they have flown off, so
we try to not disturb them. I love the coos sound they make. We hope we
can take down the canopy when we leave and not disturb them too much.
We plan on returning the
BLM desert to the way we found it last fall as we leave on Monday. Tread
lightly is the word. Picking through the fire pit ashes and retrieving
the nails from the wood pallets we burned over the winter. Moving the rocks
so as to not be a fire ring anymore is also a priority.
As you can see from a shot
a several days ago we have been having several great campfires the last
few nights as it has been warm well after nightfall and great to sit out
till late. We have been bringing out the small TV and watching it and last
night we had steaks that were on sale at the General Store and ate out
on the picnic table.
But for right now I think
a shower is in order as we might just go out for a last fish fry at the
Grubstake...
So I got cleaned up and
off to the Grubstake we went, and the fish fry was the best ever.
Huge pieces of white fish. It sez all you can eat, for $9.25 but we were
stuffed just trying to get the first serving down. We have go to
this theme bar saveral times each winter season. They were advertising
Margaritas (reg and strawberry) 32 oz for $10.50. Some old guys (there
are only old guys in Q) who were outside on the patio came in and sat down
and got excited and ordered some. We had to stay to see what they looked
like. HUGE. It might be the middle of the desert but you would have thought
we we on an Hawaiian adventure with the fruit slices on the side of the
glasses. I even got excited and bought a Grubstake T-shirt.
This is a shot of the back
side of the shirt.
Front left side. That is
a first for me as I never buy the local tourest trap stuff. BUT who
could pass up a Grubstake shirt. I might have been here way too long, and
need to get out of town fast... like Monday...
Sunday Mar. 30
Saturday
Feb. 23 I posted about the Tyson
Wells Bluegrass Festival You can skip back to the post
at the link. I thought the event was doing good this year and said
so. Today I got a nice email from the promoter of the event who just
read my blog. He informed me it is not
put on by Tyson Wells.
Quote. "I am the promoter/banker/capital
risk dummy who puts on this festival...properly called Soggy Mountain Bluegrass
Festival.
Tyson Wells does not
lend it's name, nor does it risk a meager penny for the existence of this
work of love.
I pay Tyson Wells
a fee every year to have use of part of their campground to showcase bluegrass
entertainment for interested people. I even furnish all personel
AND insurance, fees and other various and sundry costs."
I thank him for informing
us of this and we look forward to being a part of his event next year.
Their web site is Soggy
Mountain Festivals Do go and vistit it.
We are all packed up and
reading to head out in the AM. Much stuff stored at friends in Q for the
summer.
Will post from the road....
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