American Girl Wash

Today began just like the past few days, a walkabout, but in a new place, not just for this year, but a different spot than we usually holed up in here along Ogilby Road. I took a hike over to our old spot just to see what is happening there. The approach off the road is a little sketchy now, we might have been able to drag the Solitude over it, but maybe not. There is no one over in that part this year and I think maybe that is because of this fellow we spotted there last time we were in the neighbourhood a few years back.

There is a sign over there indicating that you better stay on the trail, as these fellows and their buddies the desert hares might be having some kind of races going on. He has a hard enough time eeking out a living here in the desert without us infringing upon his territory so we are happy to find another spot.

This desert is completely different than back in our old spot at Bouse and walking is easier, not many hills, but the featurelessness is somewhat misleading, so I need to keep track of where I am going and make sure I don't just wander off into the desert and become a legend, lost forever.

These things, balloons that float off into the skies, should be banned, they are probably the most common thing I find wandering about out here, a few every year. They get released to celebrate everything from birthdays to memorials and then litter the landscape and either endanger the wildlife, like my friend the desert tortoise, or spook some unsuspecting horse and rider when one of these things leaps out waving a shiny flag at them. It is probably not a coincidence that just yesterday a friend of mine back home, down the road from Dogpound, was asking people to stop buying them. This one is safely in the landfill now. I am not sure we will have much of a sunset here tonight, as I write this journal late in the afternoon, we are getting a little rainfall, enough to dampen the dust here alongside the wash so for now I will stick in a couple of shots of the desert and the sunrise as I wandered about out there.

It never fails to surprise me how the sky can change so rapidly here, but those time-lapses I have shared have shown that pretty clearly.

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.