Company, and company, and company

FIRST:

Jeanne and Riley arrived last Tuesday, and are visiting with us for a week here in Imperial Dam LTVA before heading to Quartzsite for a while.  It's so great to see them both.  Here they are, coming into the campground with Jeanne's new toad:

I have a nice big site that was roomy enough for two rigs with space to spare.   I snagged the whole thing, knowing Jeanne would soon be here for a week or so.  I was lucky to get the "ocean view" as they call it here, with room for two campsites.  Jeanne unhooked her car and backed up into one side of the site.

The next morning, we decided to drive up to the main camping "Mesa" area in Jeanne's new car (a beautiful toad) and also check out Northwest Territory campground where she has camped before.

When Katie and I were getting ready to leave, I put her princess dress on her so she wouldn't shed in the new car.  Jeanne has blankets down for Riley, so it wasn't really an issue, but you know, just in case.  Here she is - "Really, Mom?  Why do I have to wear this dress?"

We drove past the Northwest Territory campground and continued on, deciding to check out Ferguson Lake which was on that road, but further on.

Well - we figured it was a mile or so down the road, but according to Google Maps, it's 11 miles each way, for a 22 mile round trip drive from our campsite, much of it on dirt, rocky, washboardy roads.  In a brand new car with a six-inch clearance to the road.  With rocks bouncing off the underside of the car, and flipping up on the sides.  We kept thinking that it must be right about the next bend, or over the next hill or down the road and to the left, etc.

 It was beautiful...  On and On.  And then, THERE IT IS!

So we knew it was finally coming up, somewhere down that road, it really WAS there! We almost turned around many times, but you know how it is, "What if it's just around that bend?"

We finally ended up at Ferguson Lake. It was right there - we could see it, but the road forked again and the fork to the right - well, this is what we saw.  I wasn't sure if it kept going or if we'd drive over the edge into the water.  I got out and walked down, and yes, there was a road, ending in a nice campsite, and there was a good turnaround on the side of the road.

We could also have taken the left fork - it was unclear which way we should turn after looking at the sign next to the road:

This is basically a LAKE with nothing else there.  I thought it was a "destination" place that would have RVers camped around the lake.  Nope.

We talked to a man who was camped there with a friend at the end of the right fork. They both had trucks and fishing gear and I saw a tent.  (And BTW, a truck or jeep or 4-wheeler is better than a car to get there.  And MUCH better than an RV.  I'd never take The Palms down those roads, but I suppose some people probably do from time to time.  Beautiful, secluded romantic area.  If you're sleeping in a tent.

The next day we went to Yuma for shopping, visiting and checking things out.  Jeanne has been to Fortuna Pond, which I've tried in the past to find, but couldn't. It turns out, I was on the right road, I just didn't go far enough.  We drove around the pond and then headed home.  It looked very small and crowded, and didn't have a lot of driving room around the rigs parked bumper to bumper next to the pond.  If it wasn't so crowded, it would be beautiful, but I wouldn't want to be parked there in The Palms with that many RVs already there.

SECOND:

Our next company consisted of a mom and young burro, who came up into the campground and hung out under a tree near us.  Then the young burro started heading toward Jeanne and me.  We were standing outside our rigs watching them and taking pictures, and when he started walking our way, I kept my eye on the mom, I sure didn't want her running over and attacking us for being too close to her baby!

He really wanted some attention, and probably some treats, too, but they ask that we don't feed them, so I don't.  I loved petting him, but kept my eye on Mom, just in case.

Then he walked away, back toward his mom, and halfway there he got himself settled on the desert floor, and took a nap:

They spent the entire morning here, and were still by our campsites when Jeanne and I took off to find Ferguson Lake early in the afternoon.

Here he is nursing:

Then it was nap time.

The mom laid down and rested, too.  I was surprised there was no male burro in the area.  Last time I was here with all the burros, the fathers were in the area, and would step up when the moms and babies had their naps, and would be close by to protect them.

THIRD:

Then yesterday Denise and Bennie came to visit for an overnight.  When Jeanne and I returned to camp after a Yuma trip, they were here.  We hooked Katie's and Riley's pens together and had room for all three dogs to hang out without their leashes while their moms visited.  We got our drinks and some treats and had a nice chat.  Fun!

Bennie was funny when Denise first lifted him into the pen.  He took three or four walk-arounds along the side of the pen looking for the way out, but of course, there wasn't one.  Then we put Katie and Riley in and he settled down.  He's such a cutie-pie!

The weather has been really nice.  We had a short unexpected rain early this morning and I climbed out of bed, threw on jeans and a sweatshirt and went outside to get the stroller.  I wasn't cold at all, and I think it was 4:30 am.  We're definitely warming up and hopefully will stay this way for a while.

Denise and Bennie left late this morning, heading up to Quartsite.  Jeanne's leaving early next week, and I'll drive up that way late next week, or as soon as my packages arrive at the postal service here.

Today - just hanging out and enjoying life.

From me and Katie, have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

I know this isn't a "Foodie Blog," but...

I love that photo of the baby burro so much, I didn't want to do another post and cover him up.  So I copied him over to my scrolling screen saver, so I can see him more often.  :)

Anyway, I go through periods where I'm not that interested in food, a frozen Oikos yogurt for lunch or dinner (or both) is enough, along with a good breakfast.  Other times I'm ravenous and want to eat everything in the fridge.  That's what happened yesterday.  I wanted something good, rich, and something with leftovers for the next day (today). 

Every once in a while I surprise myself with a really good meal, and that happened last night.  I was searching on-line for something new to make for dinner and found the old "grilled foil packet" dinner.  I don't have a barbecue, but did more research to find out the oven times and temps that would work.  I have a bunch of tilapia in the freezer and this worked perfect!  I did this once before, but it has been a long time, and I'm not sure if it was on the road, or back in San Diego.  But this will be a "go-to" meal from now on.  There are no dishes to wash, it's fast and easy, and it's great for using leftovers, too.

This is what it looked like plated before I devoured it:

This is not what the recipes I found called for, just what I had on hand and what sounded really good.  The best recipe I found had sliced zucchini where I put the sliced apple, and I would have liked that, but didn't have any.  The only fresh veggie I had was asparagus.  

Above is one packet all wrapped and ready to go onto the baking pan.  The other one shows this:  Two slices of onion, two slices of Fuji apple, tilapia fillet, two slices of tomato, and on the side some raw asparagus and artichokes hearts from a large bottle (in water).  Then I sprinkled Italian dressing over them all, more pepper and a little grated sea salt.  (I just realized I have a banana, that might have been really good, too.  And a sliced peach would be great.)  I baked them both at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.  Perfect, and so delicious! 

The thing I like about these is that you can put almost anything in them, fish, chicken, pork chops, and whatever you want for veggies, maybe some fruit or even potato slices.  I ate every single bit. One thing, though, put the packet on a cookie sheet with sides - mine seemed to leak the dressing and juices out onto the pan, and I was really glad I didn't just put them on the rack.  That would have made a real mess.

This afternoon I took the foil wrapped package out of the fridge and arranged the food on a paper plate with another under it and another plate on top and microwaved it until it was hot.  Again, I ate every single speck.  :)

When I drove to the Winterhaven post office last week, these are some of the shots I got along the way.  There are some beautiful places in this area that you can enjoy just driving along:

A date palm orchard - there are a lot of these in the area.  Note the smoke in the sky from the fire, it had just started:

There were pretty fields of produce, huge cauliflowers, and I think these are lettuce:

A little pond with American Coots:

This poor guy looks like he fell over and just kept growing (and silly Katie):

Laguna Diversion Dam.  This is a pretty little dam -  you drive right past it on Highway 26:

I got this photo from Wikipedia, mine looked just like it, but was from the road and a little blurry.

Remember the fire we saw in our way back to camp?  It was apparently a controlled burn that got out of control and became a fire that was hard to put out.  It went right up to the road and prohibited people from coming up to the Imperial Dam, LTVA.  I guess the people on their way here had to go back and come through Winterhaven the way I was traveling.  Bummer.  And this is what the area looked like after the fire when I was heading to Yuma last week:

There is going to be a gathering of RV Bloggers in Quartzsite this month.  Here's the information:

I don't know if I'll be back in the area, but if I am, I'll be there.  This is being organized by Jerri at Just Wanderin'.  Her post today is pretty funny, and if you go back two more posts, you'll see the one about the Blogger-Fest.

It's starting to warm up, finally.  Super windy during the night, last night, and still kind of breeze today, but the temps are coming up and are in the 70s all week. 

From me and Katie, have a great week, everyone!  :)

Happy New Year 2015, Baby!

The baby above looks like a moose head, doesn't he?  So darn cute sleeping in the sun.

And here's Mom - just standing around while her baby takes a nap.

Then she decides to have a little snack.

In a little while the baby gets up and Mom walks over and they have a little snuggle.  :)

Mom soon moves away and her little one follows, but not close.  He takes his time.

And off they go to a new area.  It's always a good day when I get some nice shots of wild burros, wild horses, hummingbirds or roadrunners.  Great way to start 2015!  :)

More and more wild burros are being seen in the area, and I was told the little flat area right below the edge of my campsite is where they hang around in the sun during the day sometimes.  I can't see it from my window, but I'll be looking over the edge from time to time to see if they are there.

Sunset on Friday night.  It was such a pretty pastel sky.


From me and Katie, Happy New Year, everybody!

Imperial Dam LTVA

I've been having some computer/phone/Internet issues the last week or two, but I think I finally have things back to normal.  I got a new phone, then found out Verizon blocked my ability to use it as a hotpspot using FoxFi and it was a pain to always have it connected by a USB cord (and that didn't always get me connected).  So I bought another one and returned the first phone.  Now everything works again.  I loved my 3G phone and knew it inside and out, but the hardware just didn't talk to the upgraded software anymore so....   I really had no choice.  Now I'm super glad to have this nice new 4G phone!  It has a little bigger face, too, so it's easier to do things with just the phone. 

Christmas was quiet, but I made a nice breakfast for myself:

Man, was it good!  Two large eggs scrambled with cheese on top, a whole avocado mashed with lemon and salt/pepper, sour cream and catsup.  Ummmm!  And a toasted Chibatta roll with lots of butter and apricot jam.  I ate every single bit, too. 

Then Katie and I went out for a walk.  We walked down across the road to the water, then back to the road and down a ways to the canal.  I don't know what part of "Imperial Dam" this is, but it looks like a dam.  Pretty with the palm trees and mountains.

I'm finding it hard to push Katie's stroller on the rocky and/or rough roadways, so I think if I'm going to get any real walking in, I'm going to leave Katie home and put on my MP3 player full of audio books and take off by myself.  I hate to leave her, because she loves to come along, but I think 2015 is going to be the year of walking alone for me.  At least while we're in the desert.  As long as I have an audio book or walking music to listen to, it'll be enjoyable and good exercise.

Here are some shots of the areas by us.  These are across Senator Wash, the road in front of us.  Here's the water:

And right to the left of it is this beautiful field.

That's the view out the dinette windows.  Here's our site at the edge of the campground.

The edge is slowly falling down and right before I got here the Rangers (or someone working for the BLM) brought a bunch of rock and filled in some of the edges of the slides.  That concrete pad is the largest one left from a small community that lived here when Imperial Diverson Dam was built between 1936 and 1938. Families lived on this land while employed to build the dam, and this one was apparently where the hospital was, and there were little houses all over this area up here.  Every so often you can spot a water pipe right below the dirt.  There must be a whole bunch of pipes and "whatever" under the ground here.

It seems like each year when I come there is a little less area to camp overlooking the road and water.  This isn't the prettiest campsite I've had, but I sure do like my view.

Here are a couple of my neighbors:

See how his coloring blends into the rocks?  (These are the rocks used to "fill" in the areas where the slides are taking place.)

Cute little critters!

We drove to Yuma to do some shopping yesterday and on our way back, past the military base, look what turned out of their driveway and came toward us, a big tank:

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)