BUSY MORNING IN PARKER ARIZONA

Turned out to be a busy morning for us and yes it is Bouse Arizona we are boon-docked near.  Not sure where we are but we have nice unobstructed views and there is nobody close to us.  To our Northeast is the Buckskin and Harcuvar Mountain Ranges,  East is the Harquahala Range while South and Southwest run the Plomosa Mountains.  Well at least that is kind of what it looks like to me when I check my Arizona Benchmark Atlas.

QUARTER MOON AND THE PLANET VENUS

SUNRISE THROUGH OUR WINDSHILED FROM MY RECLINER

Cooler this morning and with a brisk breeze we didn't walk quite as far as we usually do but at least we are able to get out and walk every morning.  Sure wouldn't be able to do that if we were back home stuck in the house by snow and freezing temperatures.

ENJOYING SOME EARLY MORNING SUNSHINE

MOTORHOME IS OFF TO THE RIGHT

The bustling desert town of Parker Arizona is 26 miles Northwest of us and with a couple bags of laundry and a grocery list we piled into the Jeep and headed on over that way earlier this morning.  Fair bit of traffic and we were there in about half an hour. 

ON OUR WAY TO PARKER ARIZONA

First stop was the laundromat and with laundry swirling in the machines we slipped out and picked up some gas at a Shell station then dropped into the Castro Service Center where our Motorhome has an appointment at 9 a.m. Friday morning. (power steering problem) Also a stop for a quart of power steering fluid at Parker's Napa Auto Parts just in case we need it along the way.  Laundry done it was straightaway off to Burger King for 2 Whoppers. (2 for $6) We like McDonalds coffee so from Burger King it was up the street for two coffees.  Whoppered ourselves in McDonalds Parking lot.  Big paved parking area behind McDonalds for RV's and trucks.  Lots of room for those big 40 foot diesel bangers.  Across from McDonalds is Walmart so with coffee's securely in our tummies we motored ourselves on over there.  What a ZOO that Walmart was.  Never saw so many Seniors shuffling around in one confined spot before. Well except for 'Seniors Day' in a Sierra Vista 'Frys Supermarket one time.  That was bizarre.  I nearly got trampled to smithereens.  Yes I know, I am a Senior too.  It was a real challenge and test of tolerance for me today to thread my way through the crowded Walmart grocery aisles.  I may be heavy but I'm still agile and fast on my feet and my always quick reflexes saved me again and again. Those women with their battering ram shopping carts sure can do damage to a fella.  With that thought finally foremost in my mind I left the grocery cart with Kelly and hurriedly exited the store. Took Pheebs for a walk in a large spacious sandy lot next door.  Serenity:)) After Walmart our next stop was Spanky's RV & Marine just up the road.  Needed a new plastic slider for our rig's screen door and by golly we found one.  From Spanky's we still had 3 more stops ahead of us, all Thrift Stores.  Traffic in Parker today reminded me of downtown Florida and I breathed a big sigh of relief when we FINALLY got ourselves the heck out of town.  Back to Bouse we had one more stop at the Bouse Farmer's Market eventually finding our way back to the rig sometime around 2 p.m.  Oh, and earlier this morning before leaving Bouse we checked out the Le Mesa Verde RV Park to see where the dump station was located as well as water and propane locations.

CHOWING DOWN ON OUR WHOPPERS IN McDONALDS PARKING LOT

WALKING PHEEBS NEAR WALMART

'GETTING A LITTLE CROWDED WITH LAUNDRY AND GROCERIES IN HERE DAD'

OUR RESIDENT LITTLE MISS FIX-IT INSTALLS THE NEW SCREEN DOOR SLIDER

There was a time when running around like we did earlier today was perfectly normal and routine,  Nothing to it and we all did it (and much more) most every day without hardly breaking a sweat.  By the time we got back to the rig today you would have thought we had ran a marathon or something. This aging stuff sure is discouraging sometimes.  Okay, Okay, most times!!

A FREIGHT TRAIN ROLLS THROUGH BOUSE THIS AFTERNOON

GROANER'S CORNER:(( An airplane encountered some turbulence, it started juddering and rocking noticeably from side to side. The flight crew wheeled out the drinks cart to keep the passengers calm. The attendant asked a business man, "Would you like a drink?" "Why not?" he replied unkindly, "I'll have whatever the pilot's been having."

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“I don't like tops of stairs. They always bring me down.”
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Two fishermen were out on the lake when one of them dropped his wallet. As they watched the wallet float down to the depths of the lake, a carp came along and snatched up the wallet. Soon came another carp who stole it away and then a third joined in. Remarked one of the fisherman, "That's the first time I've ever seen carp-to-carp walleting."
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‘YAHOUIE LOUIE’ IT’S OFFICIAL, OUR HOUSE IS SOLD AND WE ARE ALREADY 92 MILES AWAY:))

HERE WE ARE 336 MILES EAST OF LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA  TONIGHT

Well as it turns out Sunday night was our last sleep in the house.  Monday morning bright and early we hit the decks a runnin.  Busied ourselves all morning with a lot of very last minute things and keeping a close ear to the phone waiting for Andrea at the Pioneer Title Company to call saying everything is complete and the house is 101% officially sold.  That call came at exactly 11:45 while Kelly and I were standing in front of the house checking with each other that we hadn’t forgot to load anything into the Motorhome.

ALL LOADED UP AND ABOUT READY TO GO

Five minutes after that phone call Kelly was in the Jeep and headed for Wickenburg to pick up the final documents at the Title Company.  I did a final check of our shed and closed the doors.  One of the last things I took out of the house was our sirius satellite radio music source and once I did that the house fell silent like a tomb.  In my opinion once the music dies the soul of the house is gone.

EVEN SAID GOOD-BYE TO ALL MY STUFF IN THE SHED

KELLY BROUGHT BACK SANDWICHES AND COFFEE FROM WICKENBURG FOR OUR LAST SIT DOWN ON OUR FRONT PORCH….IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER 2 P.M. AND FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER WE WERE GONE

BELIEVE IT OR NOT I’VE ACTUALLY GOT A BIG SMILE GOING ON HERE BUT IT’S JUST THIS DAM CRANKY OLD FACE OF MINE

KELLY LEFT TONY OUR HOUSE BUYER A LITTLE WELCOME SIGN OUT FRONT

I had quite a time with myself saying good-bye to everything today.  Said good-bye to all my photogenic birdy pals, my wheelbarrow, all my cactus plants, our big Eagle statue, all the chairs on the porch, our backyard patio, my watering pails, all the Mesquite and Palo Verde trees, my bedroom, the birdfeeder, our Saguaros, all the dust on our picture frames, my recliner, all the rocks and stones we had carted home from the desert over the years, the fence I built, our backyard fire pit, my garden tools, my, my, my, well it just went on and on and on seemingly forever.  And with every good-bye I added a thank-you.  I always make these kinds of situations harder on myself than I really need to make them but that’s me and it’s always been me.  I get attached to stuff.  Had just finished doing a walk around the whole property saying good-bye and thank-you to about everything in sight when Kelly rolled in from Wickenburg.  She very smilingly had the final house sale documents in hand as well as a couple sandwiches from the Local Press Sandwich Bar, a couple coffees from McDonalds and 2 huge apple fritter donuts from Bashas.  Wow what a celebration eh.  We went over to our front porch and had us a last sit down as we ate our goodies.

It was exactly 2 p.m. when Kelly checked our American bank account on line and ‘yessssereeeeeee’ there was the house sale money safely in our account and that was it at last.  It was finally over and done.  I hooked up the Jeep, we did one last quick walk through the house, closed the front door, locked it and walked to the Motorhome.  It was 2:18 P.M. as we had the big wheels slowly rolling out through our south gate for the very last time.  Thirty seconds later we were at the end of Ghost Town Road at highway 71 and there in front of us went a red pick-up truck by with someone giving us a big wave.  It was Janna from the Mike and Janna duo probably heading home to North Ranch from the post office.

ROLLING SLOWLY OUT OF OUR YARD I SNAPPED THIS LAST PHOTO OF OUR FRONT YARD CACTUS GARDEN

KELLY CLOSES THE SOUTH GATE BEHIND US….IT WAS OUR LAST LOOK BACK

Well which way on highway 71 will we go.  East or West??  West it was as I made the wide right turn and watched Congress and the Weaver Mountains slowly begin to slide away in my rear side view mirror.  Rolling westward out of town we chatted a bit about our life and times in Congress over the last nearly 5 years.  But that conversation didn’t last long and as expected the reality of change suddenly kicked in, our spirits lifted and as the past drifted further and further away in my mirror we began chattering excitedly about our future travel plans.  Well as excitedly as a couple 70ish people can chatter that is.

HEAD WEST YOUNG COUPLE HEAD WEST

MY OLD FRIEND HARQUAHALA MOUNTAIN LOOMS ON THE HORIZON

WE WERE SOON PAST HARQUAHALA AND EVEN WHEN WE REACHED I-10 AN HOUR LATER I COULD STILL SEE HARQUAHALA FAR OFF IN MY MY REARVIEW MIRROR FADING INTO THE HAZE

Can’t even begin to describe how happy we felt and even though we have driven this stretch of highway 60 west a half dozen times or more we gazed ahead at the distant blue mountain ranges as if we had never seen them before.  The weight of the past year regarding our house sale had lifted and we soared like Eagles down the road.

EVEN PHEEBS IS HAPPY TO BE ON THE ROAD AGAIN GOING SOMEWHERE SEEING AND SNIFFING NEW THINGS

BY THIS POINT WE WERE TRULY SOARING:))

LAST LITTLE SETTLEMENT ON HIGHWAY 60 BEFORE I-10 AND HEY I ONCE NEW A REALLY NICE GIRL BY THAT NAME MANY MANY YEARS AGO……….AND YOU WOULD KNOW WHO THAT IS GB:))

HEADING DOWN THE ON-RAMP FOR I-10

HEADING WEST ON I-10 QUARTZSITE IS JUST MINUTES AHEAD IN A LARGE LONG VALLEY THIS SIDE OF THOSE DISTANT MOUNTAINS

Our first night’s destination was Quartzsite Arizona for an overnighter before moving further west.  Gassed up at the east end Chevron then headed off to find us a quiet spot in the desert.  We have been to Quartzsite many times over the past 10 years so we knew exactly where we were going.  Luckily there is hardly anybody here yet but a month from now there will be thousands upon thousands of RV’ers swarming absolutely everywhere.   Mid January in the Q is the largest RV event in the world.  I like Quartzsite best without the swarm…………..

AHHHHHH, NO SIGNS OF ANY HUMAOIDS ANYWHERE:))

So where will we head for in the morning??  Hard to say and it depends on some decisions based on a couple unexpected variables.  We’ll see how things shake out when the sun comes up.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Police officer pulled this guy over for speeding and told him that his eyes were bloodshot, and asked him if he'd been drinking. The guy said "Your eyes are glazed, have you been eating donuts?"

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How do snowmen get around?
On their icicles.

Q: What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
A: Snowflakes.

What does Santa call reindeer that don't work?
Dinner.

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Christmas is just plain weird. What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree in your living room eating candy and snacks out of your socks?

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Q: What do you call a bunch of grandmasters of chess bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?
A: Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!

PHEEBS AND I SET OFF IN SEARCH OF SOME NEW SCENERY

I’M GUESSING THIS MAY BE THE BELMONT MOUNTAIN RANGE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF I-10 AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTH SIDE OF HARQUAHALA MOUNTAIN

Feeling a strong need to find myself some new scenery this morning I loaded up the furry little Rug Rascal and we headed west out of Congress on highway 71 in the direction of Harquahala Valley.

MORNING COUCH SNUGGLES

We found ourselves for the second time this week rolling through the little tumble down community of Aguila on highway 60 then turning southwest on Eagle Eye Avenue.  Wasn’t until we reached the Harquahala Trailhead for a leg stretch that we began to see some new mountain ranges on the horizon.  Had been to that trail head twice before but had never followed the highway any further beyond that point.

HARQUAHALA MOUNTAIN TRAILHEAD

I had a pretty good idea there was another road ahead intersecting the road I was on and running basically north and south but didn’t know how far ahead it was until I reached it and realized it was further than I thought.  A sign said this was the Salome highway and I instinctively knew the small dusty western town of Salome would be to the right so it was a right hand turn we made.

OH HOW I LOVE SEEING NEW MOUNTAIN RANGES AND THOSE MOUNTAINS TO THE WEST ARE CALLED THE ‘LITTLE HARQUAHALAS’ WHICH ARE LOCATED SOUTH OF SALOME

I was a bit surprised at how flat the Harquahala Valley floor was as we made our way along ever vigilante for cattle on the road.  With a morning haze in the air far distant mountain ranges seemed to lumber up off the desert floor and stumble slowly along across the horizon.

A VERY FLAT HARQUAHALA VALLEY FLOOR

As usual there was very little traffic on any of the Sunday morning roads and if you did meet another vehicle the other driver seemed to give a little wave as if to say “thanks for being out here in case I need some help”.  The desert in it’s subtle beauty can be very unforgiving to those unfortunate enough to find themselves in peril upon it’s sands.

When we finally reached Salome we were once again in familiar territory as we turned right onto highway 60 and headed East.  Over the past four and a half years we have traveled this highway many times on our way to and from our jaunts to places like Quartzsite, the Kofa Mountains, Yuma, Slab City and Borrego Springs.  Like I have said before this drive from Congress to I-10 just a few miles east of Quartzsite will go down as one of my all time favorite drives. 

When we reached Aguila again we in effect closed a large circle as we had driven completely around Harquahala Mountain.  From the time we drove through Aguila earlier in the morning until we returned to Aguila we had Harquahala Mountain on our right hand side every mile of the way.  A short distance east of Aguila we turned left onto highway 71 and that took us straight home to Congress.  It was almost noon when we rolled into our driveway.

Early afternoon again saw us working around the rig packing, re-packing, and moving ever closer to getting ourselves organized for our possible final departure from this area soon.  Thought a lot about that this morning and am very comfortable with the ‘house sale’ decision we made back in August of 2015.  Both Kelly and I are so much looking forward to the next chapter of our ever changing lives…………….

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do.  Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.  After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, "Hey! We need to get back!"  "No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."  A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra.  About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion.  "Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."

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You Might Be A Redneck if.…………
- Your kids are going hungry tonight because you just had to have those Yosemite Sam mud flaps.
- You fainted when you met Slim Whitman.
- You have lost at least one tooth opening a beer bottle.
- Jack Daniels makes your list of "most admired people".