An Unexpected Early Sunrise

 Two days two blogs, maybe what my Inuit friends are saying is true. The earth has shifted.

After Brenda's trip home to deal with her brother Brent's passing she was back down here getting ready for Christmas. She always like to do a lot of baking to get ready for the season, so that means I have to get out my tasting hat to make sure it is all OK to serve to company. As usual everything passed the taste tests and if company hurries there might even be some left to serve to them.

This is a big Christmas for us as early Christmas morning Santa is delivering our presents to the Sky Harbor airport in the form of our granddaughters Ella and Alle, oh yeah, and their parents too.

Ella, Alle and mom, Lacey along with Claytons legs

The weather was a little cooler than I was hoping for their visit but these are tough Canadian girls and were running around in sun dresses and shorts for most of the week while everyone around them was bundled up in their winter gear.

On Boxing Day or the day after Christmas for our American friends we just chilled at home. Ken and Verna Pohl came over in the afternoon with their wagon and Ben and Beauty and took the grandkids and I for a ride around the neighbourhood. The kids loved the big horses and enjoyed the ride.

I hadn't packed a helmet for the girls so riding the horses here at Dogpound South was going to be a non-starter, but luckily Santa Claus got that covered. They were sure happy with their upgrade as back home in the North Country they were wearing an old motorcycle helmet and this is definitely a more styling look.
.

Gotta a little growing to do to fit those stirrups

 The day after Boxing Day we headed out to Goldfields for a little dancing and a look around.

That blurry look is natural for these girls, they never slow down.

Goldfields townsite

 The kids enjoyed the gunfight with the little one clapping enthusiastically when the shots were fired and the gunfighters were falling down. We even ventured out on the train ride, rumour had it that the local " Canadian Rubber Band Bandits" were out in the hills so it would be a safe journey. In fact those same rumours said a local hero was going to try to lead them out into the Superstitions and lose them in the dark out there so they would never again harass the peaceful citizens of Goldfields.

Keeping an eye out for bandits

The rest of the week was filled with eating out and hanging out at Dogpound South. I for one sure enjoyed the kids visit and marvelled daily at the amount of energy they had. They were up with the sun and went steady till long after it set.

This little fellow was watching the activities all fluffed up from the cold.

Meanwhile these Canadian girls had captured the ice cream truck for some treats

And a little tomfoolery

Sisters

 

They love our dirt

Walking the tightrope

Burning off some energy and helping Grandma get the dog hair off the beds and into the house.

But even the best holidays have a little computer work involved

Sadly New Years Eve I had to run them back into Phoenix to catch a plane home, and no matter how I tried I couldn't talk them into staying with us and letting their folks go home alone.

We haven't been doing much trail riding as Brenda's knee is still pretty painful. She has worked hard to get the flexibility that she needs back and has been successful at that, but the swelling just won't seem to go away so it is still difficult to build up the strength she needs to ride and control her horse properly.

And probably a good thing as over the last month or so both Blue and Willow have been on the injured reserve list so Brenda's Wink horse is our only sound mount right at the moment.

Back to the title of this entry. My Inuvialuit friends up Inuvik way tell me that the sun rose on January 4th this year. Doesn't sound all that odd to most southerners but as long as I can remember and that is a long, long time, I am sad to say, the sun has always risen on January 6th, after a month of no sun at all. In the summer though they get 56 days when the sun never sets at all so it seems a fair trade I guess. Kind of makes you wonder if this old earth is really spinning out of control or what.

Visiting with some Old Friends

Back in the beginning of our RVing life we headed south out of Dogpound looking for somewhere warm, I think we wandered across the Medicine Line on or about Halloween day in 2007. That first night we spent at the Wal-Mart in Great Falls and then continued on south. Our second day on the road was a little eventful. We kinda lost our roof somewhere in Montana. Those who have shared our journeys over the last five years have all heard that story many times, but there are only two other folks on the planet that can actually attest to the wondrous looking rig we were when we pulled into the Camping World in Longmont, Colorado. Well we have kept in touch a time or two every year but it has been four years since our last face to face back in the February of 2008 in Beaumont, Texas. Now most folks in this lifestyle we communicate pretty regularly with through the internet, but Donna and Idell may be the last holdouts, no email or Facebook for these good folks. But anytime I ring Idell’s number he is up for a good chin wag. This year the stars aligned and we managed to ambush them on their way out of Quartzsite heading east to Texas and Florida before they head north to their summer home in Maine. Darn it was good to see these old friends again.

They pulled into Dogpound South a little after noon on Monday and we went right to jawing about the last few years, and catching up on all the goings on since we last saw each other. Well pretty soon it was almost sundown and we thought we should let them get parked and set up before dark, so Brenda went to cooking and once they were set up we had one of her great steak dinners complete with cheesy potatoes and a salad followed by chocolate cherry cake and ice cream.

Tuesday morning we started right up where we left off last night and after a little chin wag we decided we should go and have a look around the country. Just like with Paul and Marti a week ago we headed out towards one of our favourite spots in the area, Usery Mountain Regional Park. After a spin through the park we decided to take a look around the old Goldfields Mining camp. Not sure if any actual gold was mined here but I can tell you the town was mining tourists gold today.

 

But as tourist traps go this was a pretty authentic one and we had a good time looking around and enjoying both the buildings and the local scenery.

Oh yeah the scenery, I have always loved the Superstition Mountains and this seemed like a good spot to enjoy them from.

Wednesday was a day for resting up, Donna and Idell are heading out Thursday towards his nephew in Beaumont, Texas place and those that have done it know that that drive across West Texas is a marathon of nothing but miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.

Brenda and I are probably going to spend the day getting our rig ready to head out towards Sophia’s Flats for a weekend ride with our Lone Ranger friends. Looking at our schedule going forward I think we have one weekend free between now and the time we will have to be thinking about heading north. That is still two months away but our Arizona riding friends have a lot of things planned for those two months and we are glad that they let us tag along with them.