Leaving tomorrow - maybe...

Katie and I are still here at Imperial Dam LTVA in the Quail Hill campground.  We like it here, but it's time to head back to Quartzsite and do some VISITING!  There are lots of people I want to connect or re-connect with who are already there.  The Big Tent is halfway done and before we know it, people will start leaving that area, so we need to get there soon. 

Jeanne and Riley left here last Tuesday and are now at Quartzsite.  We tried to visit Judy of Travels with Emma at the Imperial Nat'l Wildlife Refuge.  Jeanne actually stayed here one extra day so we could do that, but unfortunately it rained a lot on Monday night, and left the roads questionable on the way into where Judy is.  We drove along muddy roads wondering if we should keep going.  Finally there was a BIG hole in the road filled with water, and it continued around the bend, so we didn't know how far the water hole went on.  Just then a truck came by and Jeanne waved him on so we could see him drive through the water and see how deep it was. He was high off the ground, but still looked kind of deep in the water, so we decided to turn around.  That was too bad, we were almost there, but it would have been a real bummer to get stuck in a huge mud puddle and have to be towed out. 

When we got back, we saw that the muddy roads kicked up a ton of mud into the wheel wells and under the car.  Geez, poor Jeanne - she has a brand new car and in a week we pushed it to the limit, dusty, bumpy roads, washboard roads, rocky roads, holey roads, muddy roads.  It's a great little car, though, and got us back to camp each time.  Dusty and Dirty but safe and sound.  We put the dogs in our rigs and grabbed our laundry to stow in the car.  Then we got paper towels and scraped all the mud off that we could get.  Soon, we had visitors.

They came over and stood right next to the car and wouldn't leave.  I couldn't get into the car, LOL.  Finally Jeanne got behind the wheel and slooooowly drove forward.  As the car went past the Mom, she put her head on the back of the car like she didn't want it leaving.

And so we headed to Yuma.  After the laundry was done Jeanne found a DIY car wash, where we sent streams of water into the wheel wells, under the car, and over every visible surface.  When we left, it was sparkling in the sun.  :)  Sorry we missed you, Judy, maybe next time around. 

I think it was later in the day after we had gotten back to camp and relaxed in our rigs for a while that Jeanne and Riley came over on their way to the dumpsters.  I grabbed Katie and our garbage bag and started walking with them.  There were two other burros nearby standing near a bush and when they saw us, the started out after us. I was worried because of all the stories I've heard about the burros not liking dogs around their babies - but this time they were pursuing us.  We walked faster and faster, and so did the burros.  I said to Jeanne, this is a classic case of "watch out what you wish for."  I had been wishing so hard for wild burros to come visit.   We made it a quick walk and went right back to our rigs.  I felt bad, but as much as I LOVE these guys, I'm still afraid of them if they are too close.  Petting the baby the other day is about as much closeness as I want.   I'll admire them from afar, thank you.

Now I'm just waiting for mail to be delivered.  I've filled the water tank, dumped the grey and black, filled the gas tank, gone to Wal-Mart one last time, and hopefully tomorrow my package will arrive at the mail service here and I can top off the propane at the Christian Center and be on my way.  My package was supposed to be here Saturday, so I could have picked it up today or tomorrow, but right now it's still in San Bernardino, CA, so - I'm at the mercy of the Postal Gods.  I'm going to hang out with the Lazy Daze group at La Posa West for a couple of weeks before heading on to Ehrenberg. 

I've saved all the bird photos from Quail Hill to post all at once.  There are a lot of birds here; some are here every day, and others are infrequent visitors.  Here they are:

Bufflehead:

Common Goldeneye:

American Coots:

Double-crested Cormorant - love those webbed feet:

The one on the left was singing:

Dove:

Ducks - there were large flocks flying along over the canal and bobbing in the water.  Lately I've heard gunfire in the area, and I learned it's duck hunting season, which will end soon.  Hopefully the ducks have moved to another area because I haven't seen many of them overhead lately.  I was happy to hear the duck hunters have to be a minimum number of yards from the campgrounds. 

Gambel's Quail:

Quail and Grackles - lots of Quail and Grackles:

Great-tailed Grackle:

Killdeer:

Loggerhead Shrike:

Red-winged Blackbird - there were flocks of these on the ground from time to time:

And finally, before the bee invasion, Verdin - they put on quite a show at the hummer feeder:

We also had hummingbirds, but the bees came in droves and I had to take the feeders down. 

I noticed these foot prints this afternoon near our site - I have no idea what they are from.  It looks like a hoof print with toes? Look at the print above my shoe - it's round with four "toes."

Below are burro hoof prints and deep toe prints that are larger than the hoof:

This one is a little better angle of the round print with toes.  Weird....

Here's Katie with her new squeaky duck.  She had one of these when I first got her.  Do you think she remembers that one?

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

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!  :)