Down the Road from Dogpound

This morning started like most down here in the desert, I was up and out for a walkabout, but today it was just a short one, enough to see a few favourite spots and gather a picture or two for the journal. I still haven't figured out how to actually make blogger make paragraphs yet so the pictures serve as spacers to keep the words from all jumbling together.

This place outside of Bouse is probably my favourite spot from a desert rambling point of view, there is just so much variety here and so many hills and washes to explore it would take an entire winter to see it all.

So that said, we will be back here, but there are other places to see, and trails to wander, plus we have been here for 14 days and although we haven't yet run out of water and our tanks aren't full, that is probably not far in the future so we headed into the local RV Park, and dumped the tanks that needed dumping, and filled those that needed filling, and pointed Dogpound Anywhere southward.

Whoa, that is a kind of crooked picture, but it is what it is. We have changed deserts, left the Sonoran Desert and moved across the Colorado River into the Mojave Desert, to a familar spot to many, alongside American Girl Wash. We will call California home for a while now, although we can still jump back across the border into Yuma, Arizona for cheaper fuel and most of our shopping, although one day we might run west to El Centro just to exercise our Costco membership.

Pretty decent sunset to welcome us to our new digs tonight. The little screen in the bottom hints that if it works out I might have a time-lapse of the sunset as well. But while I am waiting for that to happen I thought I might make a comment on the roads we have encountered on our journey south this year. Now I frequent some forums that folks using the Alaska Highway, the Cassiar, and the Dempster chat on all year round, but especially the summer. Now the Alaska Highway crosses some difficult terrain up in the Yukon, muskeg and permafrost so it has a reputation for having some horrendous frost heaves on it, and I can vouch the veracity of those claims. But it seems to me that the highways down in the States suffer from some kind of heat rash, that is equally as hard on vehicles. We have driven some that had us hurling up and down, lurching from pothole to pothole, or heat blister to heat blister. It appears that our American hosts suffer from the same kind of infrastructure deficit we Canadians do. Just makes me curious where we are spending our tax dollars cause I am sure way back when, we paid lower taxes and we had better roads. All that said Highway 78 out of Blythe heading towards Brawley, a lonely two lane highway was pretty near the best road we have been on since heading down the road from Dogpound.

Doing Chores

Today was laundry day for Dogpound Anywhere, it is a pretty efficient operation here though, four loads, sorted, washed, dried, folded and stowed back away with clean bedding put on, including the almost 50 minutes of drive time it took just a few minutes longer than two hours start to finish. And until about 20 minutes ago that was my only picture for the day.

Not sure what the attraction was but it was a multi-species mob scene there in front of the laundry. But what looked like a pretty blah sunset tonight surprised us at the last minute with a pretty spectacular show of colour as Ol' Sol slipped off into the west.

And then I captured this while the iPhone was doing the time-lapse above.

Oh and today I had to restock my meds, that took about 10 minutes, but let me know we had been on the road for 4 weeks already. Time flys when you are having fun I guess.

More of the Same

After I got done my walk this morning I did absolutely nothing so that is about it for the day, a few pictures and a lot of chillin'.

Only after I uploaded the pictures did the similarity between my images and my day become obvious, a lot of deadwood there.

Same Old, Same Old

Like most days I went for a walk in the desert this morning. I don't know why, guess I am hoping someday I will see a burning bush or a stone tablet with some new marching orders on it, but so far no bueno, nada, nothing. I do get to see some cool cracks and crannies though. Today I headed up closer to TV hill, the big pile of rocks to the SW of our spot here. A dozen years ago when we first came here I saw some Desert Big Horns up on that little mountain, so I am always hopeful to repeat that experience. I remember from that first encounter that the first indication I had that those critters were up there with me was hearing the rocks moving around as they moved around. They are pretty well camoflauged to keep well hidden on those rocky hillsides so I spend a little time just listening to the sounds of silence when I get close to the mountain.

It is quiet up there in the early mornings, so quiet you can hear the grass growing and let me tell you it grows quietly here in the desert.

Although we are not having those dramatic skies that are so common at Dogpound North, there is always a splash of colour on the horizon for sun-up here at Dogpound Anywhere in the desert.

After my walk today, and a little book reading we decided it was time to head into Parker and try out a new Mexican restaurant, Lily's Mexican Cafe, that I had heard about. It was a cafeteria style place and our food all came in styrfoam boxes, probably because it seemed most of their business was takeout, but nevertheless it was good and hit the spot. We of course also popped up to the Safeway to gather a few things we might need back at home. I would show you a picture of the restaurant, but Brenda took that one and if you want to see it you might have to slide over to her Twitter page, not sure how you find that but you can try searching "fringe minority, with unacceptable views", inside joke for our Canadian readers, but that will certainly get you in the right neighbourhood to find her account. Here we just have pictures of the desert.

That was a hidden little arbour in the wash I came upon on the way home. We pretty much live in a postcard out here, the shot below is a commission piece Brenda requested after seeing it out the window over our headboard.

Out and About

Today we decided it was time to renew old acquaintances, a few years back, February of 2018, we crashed the party at Lorne and Sue's hangout north of Apache Junction, today we thought if was time to go back and finish the job. We sat in the sun telling some stories and chatting about life in an RV and all the people we know in common, bloggers all. And while we were there Riley and Deb from a A Long and Lonesome Highway joined the group. It was nice to finally meet them in person after following their blog for years.

As usual my people picturin' skills were sadly lacking and I didn't get any photos of either bunch, to busy telling stories Brenda said. She was probably right, it is not often anymore that I run into folks polite enough to not get up and wander off while I am telling stories. It never fails to amaze us how comfortable it is sitting with folks who we never really see very often or even ever at all. Reading their blogs/journals has given a window into their lives that is rare in this day and age.

The shot above was taken once again from the front steps of Dogpound Anywhere (DPA) and the sun was just starting its morning ascent, while the moon was lingering a little longer. Out of frame is Jupiter which was almost as prominent in that morning sky. I was just heading out on my daily wander through the desert, when I caught this one.

A couple of looks at one of the washes I wander down on my journey. And below is a shot from DPA's steps once we got home from our visit this afternoon.

And if this works here is a Time-lapse of the sunset here at DPA this evening.

And if it doesn't work, well it is pretty cool anyway, this phone continues to amaze me.

Lazy Days

I like to begin another lazy day in the desert with a little walkabout and some picturin' and try to take a different route each and every day. it is great to explore all the hills and crevasses of this landscape and do what Canon calls Exploring of Light. It is incredible how things change as the sun comes up, and again as it goes down, although I am rarely out wandering about at sunset. Not sure if I could find my way home in the dark. In my picturin' career I have always had the inclination to lean towards big landscapes or wildlife, but here I am gaining an appreciation for how the light plays on small things, rocks, trees, and small plants, although I guess yesterdays shots of the Milky Way don't really qualify as small.

Well, it is, they estimate that the Milky Way only has about a billion stars in it, of which, ours is a pretty minor one. Other larger galaxies, like Andromeda, are estimated to have over a trillion, yes with a "T", stars in them and some folks estimate there could be at least two trillion galaxies in the Universe. So in retrospect we are pretty small potatoes in the whole scheme of things.

Andromeda is visible with the naked eye from earth in fact it is just above Jupiter right now and to the left, and appears as a blur on the edge of the Milky Way. I am no astronomer but I think this is it outlined here, Jupiter is just off the frame to the right.

Well wasn't that a rabbit hole I have led you down, almost on the scale of a galactic black hole, but that is a story for another time so back to my wanderings about the desert here down the road from Dogpound.

And why am I wandering about the desert every day, while primarily because I love walking out there, but somewhat because of the good eats we get here everyday at Dogpound Anywhere. Quesadilla's today.

Days and Nights

Not a lot of exciting stuff happening today. The weather cooled off a little. It is more comfortable for Brenda for sure, but it portends a trend that I fear might be hard to stop. For a kid from north of the Medicine Line coooling trends to bring up that ancestral fear of WINTER, so there is that. Let's just hope whomever is controlling our climate conspiracies these days doesn't get carried away with this cooling phase to quickly. All things in moderation. I continued my morning visit with the desert today, so got a few shots that I will share with you on that ramble.

I head out early, usually just before sunrise and it is all about the way the light plays on the landscape that makes the place so beautiful.

Well, that and seeing new places, or the same old places from a new perspective.

I have taken to just carrying my phone with me on my wanderings, getting old I guess, and the big old lens are heavy and cumbersome, and the new phones take pretty decent pictures, especially for this format, where size doesn't really matter. But curiousity drove me to crack out my Canon and tripod last evening and shoot a little bit of the Milky Way. Now the Canon still does a better job for full size images but that little iPhone does a pretty decent job even of night shooting for sharing here on the interwebs.

The image above was shot with my iPhone 15, while the one below was with my Canon R5, both with similar post processing although not identical.

Although you can't really see it here the Canon image survives enlarging it better than the iPhone, but how many of us blow up our shots and hang them anymore anyway. Oh by the way, those little specks of light you see, our sun is just another one of them, not even a significant one, and we are just standing on a little rock traveling around that tiny speck. to lend a little perspective to the whole thing.

A little Picturin' a little Desert Rambling

Today was another great day here down the road from Dogpound. We had a beautiful sunrise to greet us as we stepped out of the door this morning.

I was off for another wander through the desert, it is a beautiful spot, that never gets the appreciation that it deserves if you just fly by on the pavement. It's beauty is in the cracks and crannies that make up what from a distance looks like a flat featureless expanse. The play of the light on those washes and valleys is wonderful to see as I ramble my way along. Every day I strike out in a different direction from camp so the light plays different each day as well.

The shot above is what I call TV Hill, not sure what others call it, but when we first came here a dozen or so years ago there was the remainder of an old TV relay station up on the side of it, all gone now. Satellites have made it surplus. Thinking back to those days a lot has changed. I can remember how excited we were when Rollie found a internet supplier who would offer us an aircard that gave us a whopping 5 gigabits of data each and every month for a not to dear a price. Now we are packing a Star-link system that is for all intents and purposes unlimited and has speeds which were only dreamed about a few years back.

Our motorhome back then had a pretty state of the art solar system onboard so that hasn't changed a lot, although what we have now works it is about 6 or 7 years old. But it still runs our new fancy Ninja Air Fryer thingy, and that allows us to make pizza just like at home out here in the back of beyond. No more satellite TV, although we still have the dish we stream most everything through the internet now, and of course searching for a spot with cell service is a lost art, we can communicate through the Stars as well.

All these shots are from my phone and all but the first which was actually taken from the door of the RV, were taken on my desert walk.

Hot, Hot, Hot

And that is the reason most folks come to the desert. But if you have CRPS, as Brenda does, it is not always a good thing. CRPS reacts to cold, and to hot, both causing flares so finding a happy medium is sometimes a challenge. And hot weather like it is here today is nowhere near that zone of comfort. Now we can move around the site and find cooler places with the breeze, but sometimes even that doesn't work that well. Our rig can deal with cold a lot better than it deals with heat. Our solar system runs the furnace quite handily but Air Conditioning is another matter entirely, not to mention the fact that another trigger is noise, and anyone who uses RV Air Conditioners knows that if you want it to cool things off, it is going to be roaring away up on the roof.

I have missed my time in the swimming pool for the past couple of months, September is a maintenance month for the Spray Lakes pool I usually swim in and that last until just days before we pulled out on our southward migration this year. And laziness has taken care of the rest of the days since, but today I harkened back to a time a dozen or so years ago when we first came to this spot. Back in those times walking was my exercise of choice so I thought I would go for a little walkabout this morning. The desert is a great place to walk, you can basically go where you want, and change course whenever you like. I wandered about the desert for an hour or so and covered about 3 miles, so we will see how my old knees hold up over time. Some shots from my walkabout.

And today was the final day of the Canadian Finals Rodeo so that occupied most of my afternoon, I found a shady spot in the cool to enjoy a little outdoor rodeo time.

Just Another Desert Day

Weather is great, sun is shining, enough shade to keep it cool. The Canadian Finals Rodeo is happening back north of the Medicine Line in Red Deer, Alberta. It is a six performance show and Saturday is two performance day so this afternoon I sat in the shade watching the perf and then this evening I was sitting out watching the sunset and the rodeo. Both pretty decent. Our Starlink is working great bringing the outside world to us here a couple of miles from the middle of nowhere, Arizona.

Chillin'

We have just been chillin' here in the Sonoran desert. Nothing exciting to report so that is exactly what I am reporting. We have our morning tea fire as per usual and then it is just a matter of moving our chairs on a regular basis to stay in the shade. Our temps are hovering around 28-29C hereand for us northerners that is just a bit on the warm side. The nights cool off so it is all good here.

Today....we did absolutely NOTHING.

Not a single thing, we started the day with a morning fire which is our tradition here at Dogpound Anywhere (DPA). And from there it got lazy, I wandered about seeing if I could find a picture to share, and Brenda cleaned some windows, but aside from that we didn't do much of anything.

So I will leave you with this shot of the sun going down this evening.

Real life intervenes

Even in this lifestyle the real world intervenes every once in a while. The challenge is so make it happen on our schedule and not interfere with our plans. We needed to run into Parker today and catch up on our laundry, the laundry fairy has apparently not keep up with our travel schedule so the basket was overflowing. And along with that we needed to re-stock the larder with groceries and other necessities of life. We were up early and on the road before 6AM so we beat the rush in the laundromat and were back with our feet up, groceries stowed, here at our site near Bouse by a few minutes after 10AM. The rest of the day was spent loafing and reading and maybe even checking out the inside of our eye lids a time or two. I am not going to regale you with a blow by blow description of how our day went, and I didn't really get any great new pictures so this will be a short epistle with one sunset shot for colour.

Closer to the Sun

We pulled up stakes this morning from the Lazy D Ranch. Our visit with Dave and Linda was great, but I didn't want to dig out the Long John's just yet, so we thought we should use the wheels under this outfit and move it somewhere down the road where we could spend a little more on sunscreen and a little less on propane. It takes us a while to get everything all packed up and the truck hooked up. A little longer now that we have switched to a Goosebox Hitch from the old 5th Wheel. Doesn't make a lot of difference from a towing aspect but that old Reese 5th Wheel was a heavy beast and it took up nearly the entire truck box. This one just has a little gooseneck ball left in the truck and that only takes a second to remove and the box is free.

Dave came out while we were hooking up so we got to say adios, and thank him for his hospitality, but Linda must have still been burrowed under the covers so we waved as we went past the house. They have a beautiful spot, pretty remote, and totally off the grid so I told them if/when the apocalypse happens we are heading back, cold be damned.

We stopped in Kingman, Arizona to run our truck and RV through the Blue Beacon Truck Wash and get some road grime off of it, the truckers call this one the "Streakin' Beacon" as it doesn't have any hand driers available so we soaked her down with Rain X and are hoping for the best. But it did get the dirt and grime off of it. Then it was off for Lake Havasu and Parker on our way to our final destination near Bouse. We pulled into La Mesa Verde camground in Bouse to dump our tanks and fill our fresh water and propane before wandering off into the desert. We have been here before and it just seemed a lot like coming home.

Update Hummers, Vets, Moving on!

I know I am not very regular with this blog, but I find we are not doing all the exciting things we did when we first started traveling. Most days we do regular stuff, like eat, drink and chill, interspersed by a few photo ops for me. I have probably driven all my Facebook fans nuts with hummingbird pictures but when you are laid back in your recliner and they come and set on the end of your camera lens, what are you supposed to do.

Along about the 23rd of January we headed into Quartzsite and checked out Bloggerfest. Shadow Moss had set it up and about 10-12 folks showed up so we met a few folks and put faces to names and blogs.

Other than that burst of excitement we have just been enjoying the weather and chilling at one of our  favourite spots out near Bouse, Arizona. We run into Parker from time to time to pick up groceries or do some laundry but other than that we haven't been going far.

That said, our two four legged buddies Max and Maya have been having some problems so we have had to take them up to see the vet. Max was diagnosed with a mass last summer so he is on some pain meds to control his discomfort, and Dr. Wendy at Paws and Claws in Lake Havasu City has put him on some prednisone to deal with his difficulty breathing. seems to be working. Maya must have been  a little jealous at all the attention Max was getting so her stomach was bothering her and so she got an appointment to have that little problem looked at and some medicine to fix her up.

Max

Maya

The folks at Paws and Claws take a picture of their patients for their records but both Max and Maya are kind of fussy about their social media presence and found the pics they took unflattering so asked me to send these up to them for their files

Max is on a Schedule III controlled substance so his prescription for that which Dr. Wendy increased was interesting to fill. Unlike home where the vet actually fills it here you take it to a regular pharmacy and they fill it. So Brenda is now Max's Guardian and she controls his medicine, well she controls all of their medicines in any case. They almost take more than me now.

Friday, the 7th, we packed our tent and moved camp, down to Ogilby Road, west of Yuma, on the California side. We have a few packages coming into the Amazon Locker here in Yuma next week and we are hoping to visit some friends from Dease Lake and Vancouver Island while we are here, and who knows if we hang long enough, maybe Phyllis, who folks who have followed us for the long haul will know had a place in Yuma where we stayed a long while ago. I will have to kick our aerial surveillance division into gear as rumour has it there may be a couple of other folks we know in the area as well, but maybe they have moved on.

Sunrise January 30, 2020