The Outpost at the South Pohl

We spent a couple of nights at the Clarks near Sunsite and then it was time to move on to the South Pohl. Ken and Verna have a nice spot in the shadow of Cochise's Stronghold and we moved into a little piece of heaven they have just down the road. Our friends Mike and Shaunna Lewis have a place right next door so we took advantage of having access to two great dog trainers to work on a few things with Max and Maya. I don't think they are going to head over to the police dog academy anytime soon but a few of their more annoying behaviours are less noticeable now anyway.

The view from the Outpost at the South Pohl

The weather here is a little different than down around Why, not long underwear cool but close, and if you were hanging around outside once the sun went down at 4:22PM, here in the shade of the Stronghold, you would probably rethink that statement pretty quickly.

One day we took a run down to Bisbee for a look around and stopped in at the Bisbee Breakfast Club in old Bisbee for a late breakfast. It is an interesting place with a lot of character. Pete Hanson suggested I read a series of books about a fictional sheriff in Cochise County by J.A. Jance and I took his advice so as we drove around Bisbee and the rest of the County it almost seemed familiar. Brenda was thinking I was going to drive into say hello to some of my fictional folks.

Another day I took a drive up to the actual Stronghold for visit. Interesting rock formations and easy to see how a whole band of Apache's could make themselves hard to find in there.

If those walls could talk I am sure they would have some tales to tell.

Cochise Stronghold

Another day Blue II and I took a run through the Dragoons and over Middlemarch Pass. We got far enough over that we could see Tombstone and the west side of the range. Lots of old mining trails and diggings in there and a pile of trails still to be explored.

A look back from the Pass across the valley towards the Chiricahua's

A big Century Plant 

I wasn't the only one out for a look around.

I made a trip into Wilcox to pick up a few baking supplies for Brenda and she whipped up two kinds of tarts and a couple batches of shortbread cookies so we enjoyed Christmas baking. Christmas Eve we gathered at the Big House and shared a plethora of appetizers including Natcho's, Chili Dip, ribs, sauteed shrimp, jalapeno poppers, and some of that baking then Verna treated us to a movie night.

Christmas Day we chilled around the campfire, and then it was back to the feed trough at the South Pohl for a Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings with Verna, Shaunna, Mike and new friends Micki, and Zach.

This morning we loaded Blue II after our morning fire and headed west. We had a supply stop at Costco in Tucson and then moved on to Gila Bend for the night. We are spending the night at the KOA here and I have to say, over the years we have stayed in a bunch of KOA's and this is far and away to nicest of the lot. Great Wifi, landscaping, dog parks, laundry, pool, showers and clubhouse, all top shelf facilities. We will flush our tanks, empty those that are full, fill those that are empty and then head further west into California tomorrow.

Sunrise from the Outpost of the South Pohl this morning.

Moving On!

We had a great time hanging out at Gunsight Wash, just chilling and watching the world go on by. The weather was great and we had a couple of good meals, one at Estrella's in Ajo, a great burger, and then down to Why to Granny's Kitchen where I had some pretty good chicken enchilda's and Brenda had another great burger. They are only open Sunday to Friday 6AM to 2PM though.

We are still getting used to being back on the road, and all that comes with it like laundromats and somewhat limited internet. Amazing when we were last footloose and fancy free, 5GB was doable, but now it seems like that is not enough to get us through the week let alone the month. Feeling our way around the rig and figuring out our water usage, those skills never go away it seems though, we had things pretty well timed our black tank was just about full and our water tank was empty about the same time. Coincidentally we were moving on today so we stopped in the Coyote Howls park in Why and dumped the tanks and then headed East.

We have friends here in Pearce, Mike and Janna, and we are living it up here tonight, full hook-ups, even mooching their wifi connection, after a great dinner, and visit. It has been a couple of years since we got together with them but what with Janna's great blogging and Facebook we never missed a beat, felt like we could pick up our conversations just where we dropped them way back when.

On a Roll

Well we are really on a roll this month, four blogs and the month is barely half over. Well I don't think it will continue as we have had a great first two weeks of the year, what with winding down from the kids visit at Christmas, then a trip up to North Ranch and visits from friends the last couple of days. Last week was taken up mostly with just hanging here at Dogpound South, although I did sneak off most days for a couple of hours to get a swim in at the brand new rec complex in Maricopa. It is a wonderful set-up with an eight lane lap pool that a lot of days has only a couple of diehard swimmers in it. Fine with me and keeping swimming allows me to keep doing the things I really like, eating Brenda's cooking and of course my ice cream therapy.

And on the day I didn't swim an old friend, Phil Staden, and his family came by, loaded up Wink and I and hauled us out to Picket Post for a ride around the mountain. Hard to believe but I didn't take a single picture along the way but it was just as beautiful, if not more so, than it is every time. Definitely one of my favourite all time rides. Just after we had our lunch and got going the skies opened up though and we had a through soaking. Water was running in the washes and some of that slick rock was SLICK. We all came through safely though, if a little wet.

Friday afternoon we were expecting company and before you knew it the Big Pink Motorhome and bright Yellow Jeep with Treasure State plates were pulling through the gates here at Dogpound South.

Mike and Janna and the Tin TeePee were coming to visit on their way back to North Ranch after visiting other friends in Tucson. We had a great visit and then headed into town to Plaza Bonita for a great Mexican dinner.

Mike, Janna, Emmi and Max in the background

Saturday we continued our visit and along about 11:30 Rene and Jeanette from RV Voyageur pulled in the gate on their Kawasaki motor cycle. They are camped over at Gold Canyon and we had enticed then over to Dogpound South for a visit. Although the two couples had never met they have been following each others blogs for a long time so like always, it was old home week and we solved most of the world's problems and ate a way to much of Brenda's good cooking.

Jeannette, Mike, Brenda, Rene, Janna and Emmi, Maya and Max thrown into the mix also.

Sadly the afternoon passed quickly and Rene and Jeanette had to hit the road home. We convinced Mike and Janna that they could stay another night with us though so we had a little more yakking and then finished off the day with another feed of Brenda's Carrot Cake topped with some good Blue Bell ice cream.

This morning the Clark's were off for North Ranch and I was off to Cowboy Church so we said our goodbyes and headed off down our own trails.

Where Did They Go

Well really not to many places and rather than bore you with a running dialogue on Brenda's flights back and forth to Canada to deal with her medical issues I thought I might just let this blog have a little rest. But all those many trips have not been for naught, she has a date for her knee replacement and they are moving forward on other fronts as well. Should be good as new by summer.

Her riding has been curtailed this year and without my riding partner I have been not doing as much either. Not sure the horses find this to be a problem though.

All that said I have had a few opportunities to dust off my saddles, I took a group of Canadians out and around the Loop through Butterfield Pass and then a couple of days later a smaller group out to Picket Post to circumnavigate the mountain on the new trail we found just after the new year. Then again to Picket Post with another bunch of Canadians while Brenda was back in Canada.

Back in January I mentioned that Mike and Janna had left their motorhome here while they headed north. Well, last week they came back to pick it up and we had a great visit with them. And then we heard another old friend was roaming across Texas heading in our direction.

Rollie's Rig

We met Rollie about 5 years ago in Kerrville, Texas and have crossed trails a time or two since. It was great to be able to lure him into Dogpound South for a visit even though it was only for a few hours.

But even in that few hours we did solve a few of the world's problems

Mike and Janna are roaming Arizona looking at real estate and we looked at a few places around here while they were in the area, but nothing caught their eye so they are on to other spots to continue their search.

Mike, Brenda, Rollie, and Janna with Maya and Emmi out front.

We enjoyed a few happy hours on our patio and a couple of spectacular Arizona sunsets along the way.