Day Eleven

Barry took me out for a ride in their Can-Am Commander 1000.

We are headed to a hill to the Northwest of their place.  On the way Barry gave me a demonstration of how much power it had and how it handled.

We are on the South side of a hill and Barry is pointing out what is to the West of their house.

On the North side was a road that Mona had been wondering about so we went up it.

This is a picture of Central Arizona College taken when we got as high as we could.

Barry was paying pretty close attention as we went back down the hill, he didn't think Mona would like it.

Vera and I have been wondering what was stacked on the houses.  Barry explained that the tile roofs are so heavy they stack it up there and let the house settle before doing the finishing.  If they didn't the finish would crack.

Day Ten

 I have figured out enough of the area that Barry loaned us the Jeep and I took Vera to the Casa Grande Ruins today.

We got there just before the first tour of the day started so we took it.  We really liked our guide, he was an ex firefighter who liked talking to people instead of shouting "Get out of the house!".  He explained what they used to build the structure and what they had to do to get the materials.  Some of the material are on the stand in front of us.  He also told us about the irrigation system they built so they could raise crops.

We are heading out on the start of the tour, it was a nice small group so everyone could get their questions answered.

This is the backside of the building, it was constructed using the rammed earth method.

He also showed us a pair of horned owls that come back each year and raise a family.

Once the tour was over we were free to wander around, there were lots of plaques with information about the site.

It was a perfect day for taking the tour.

They have lots of stuff on display in the museum and a movie about the tribe.

The humming birds are really active at dusk.  It is hard to get a picture of them in the low light so I turned on the flash and it didn't bother them, they just kept on eating.

Here is Vera relaxing in front of the fire pit.

This is Barry and Mona's sister Vera fixing dinner tonight.

Day Nine

Vera was out pretty early this morning taking pictures of the plants.

She got me when I came out, it was nice not having to start driving somewhere.

Some of the plants were in bloom, they have really grown since I was here two years ago.

Each area has its own style. 

I don't remember seeing this sign the other times I was here, I guess a friend found it for Mona.

Barry and Dallan have been working on a water line that goes back to where the motor homes are parked.

Around noon Vera and I went for a walk up the road a ways, it felt good after sitting and driving for so long.

There was a beautiful sunset tonight and we sat out by the fire pit again.

Vera pointed out the moon so I took several pictures of it.  It was a nice relaxing day.

Day Eight

We are heading down US-93 towards Phoenix this morning.

I had to stop and clean the windshield and Vera took these pictures.  Some of those cactus's are kind of strange looking.

This is the center of a round about as we were coming into Wickenburg Arizona.  We didn't take any pictures coming through Phoenix as we were too busy making sure we were on the right roads.  We only made one wrong turn while going around Phoenix rather than through it, we turned off I-10 too soon.  Of course by the time we figured out what went wrong we had burned up half an hour or more.

Vera took this picture on I-8 as we were going through the Sonoran National Forest.

I stopped to check the tire temperatures on I-8 between Gila Bend and Casa Grande and Vera took this picture of two saguaro cactus.  The tire temperatures checked fine, 121 degrees for the one dual in the sun and 108 for the others.

Helen, Barry, Vera and Dallan are sitting around the fire pit after we got the motor home parked.

I got this picture of a humming bird right after I sat down.

Dallan and Helen's motor home was also parked in Barry and Mona's back yard.

Barry and Mona's brother in law Frank are enjoying the fire pit a little later.  It sure felt good to get there and get settled in for a few days.

Day Seven

We were on the road at 8:09 this morning going through Goldfield the elevation was 6690 feet which we thought was pretty high but then the Goldfield summit was 6697.  Not long afterwards Vera saw her first cactus, we are not sure what type it was.  All along the drive yesterday we would see cattle warning signs, cattle guards but never saw any cattle.  Today, no signs, but she saw a donkey, goat and a herd of cows. We are getting good gas mileage here, it was down hill for quite a ways when we left Tonopah.

They must get a fair amount of snow up here because there were pretty tall makers along the road.

These are Joshua trees, the first ones we had seen.

It was another nice day to travel, this is just before we got to Beatty.

We filled up with gas at Eddie World.

Then we parked across the street and walked back for ice cream and Lays chips.  Then we headed South on US 95 to Las Vegas.  There was construction almost all the way through Las Vegas on 95 but we made it OK.

We turned off US 95 at Henderson and took US 93 through Boulder City towards Phoenix 

We stopped at a nice park in Boulder City and had lunch.

This is Lake Mead as we were heading out of town.

Going past Hoover Dam there are lots of bridges and cross wind warnings for trucks and RVs.

I am not sure where this is but the low afternoon sun was making the hills stand out.

We spent the night at the Hidden Oasis RV Park in Wikieup Arizona.  It looked a little run down but they were very friendly and helpful.

Day Six

We got a fairly early start this morning and our first stop was at the Trinity rest area to stretch our legs a little.

It was a nice clean rest area with some plaques about the history and hazards of traveling the California Trail.

Vera took this picture as we were on the way to Fallon.  We stopped at the Fallon Safeway for a few supplies and ended up having lunch in their parking lot.

There is lots of scenery to look at as you travel down Hwy 95 towards Las Vegas.

I don't remember seeing this rock formation, I must have been paying attention to my driving when Vera took it.

At Hawthorne there is the largest ammunition depot in the world.  There are bunkers every where in this valley.

The area where this abandoned mill is did not look too prosperous.

There were lots of run down buildings and junk cars.  The one open business was a saloon playing Willie Nelson loud enough we could hear it in the rest stop.

This  is something we were not used to seeing!  Usually there were cattle guards across the highway where we saw them.  I was surprised how smooth the cattle guards were to drive over.

We stopped in Tonopah which is at 5824 feet for gas and decided to spend the night.  The RV Park had greeter rabbits running around the park.  They had good WiFi there so we spent the evening online catching up on emails and news.