First Step North

 

Time passes by and once again we see some new sights, revisit old sights, and best of all, visit friends that we haven’t seen for quite some time.  This week we spent most of the week north of Phoenix where we were fortunate enough to reconnect with Joe and Melinda, Gord and Adeline, Ed and Sharon, and Dan and Lee.  Some of these folks we haven’t probably ten years or so.  And while I often feel that we haven’t aged, it’s nice to see that they all really haven’t either (at least not much)!!

Last week I mentioned that we had a leak and we certainly had a chance to look for it this past week.  We had rain (sometimes just a quick shower) six out of the last seven days.

  On day four, we thought we had it beat, but along came day five of rain and drip, drip.  So on day five we sealed places that we didn’t think needed sealing.  Along comes day six of rain, and no drips.  I’m not sure that there was enough rain to be sure but so far, so good.  Rain clouds do help to make some lovely sunsets.

Where we were camped is often a path that hot air balloons pass by.  Of course, this often depends on the winds.  Early in our stay, several came by but only one was close enough to be able to get a snapshot.  We did see them most mornings off in the distance but it seemed that the winds were not right as they seem to rise and then go down in much the same area.  Sure glad we caught them at least once.

Throughout the week we would take different roads to where ever we wanted to go.  One day we came across a trail – now this was truly an off-road trail which turned out to be very easy after the first part.

Often you hear reports of burros in the area – yup there are.  We came across this small herd as they were grazing near the road.

While there are not a lot of flowers out as yet, there sure are some interesting looking plants.

And election fever is alive and well – a vendor along the edge of the road.

When the sun is shining, and the air is warm, there is nothing like having a glass of wine after a “hard” day!  But sometimes it just isn’t that easy to get into the bottle.  As you can see, Gerry was up to the challenge and yes, he opened that bottle of wine - the drill did the trick!

As we started north, we took the Joshua Tree Scenic Byway.  That is a pretty drive with some of the largest Joshua trees we have seen.  

The Joshua tree has a special meaning for me.  I remember some forty years ago when we drove south, we came by some of these trees and this country bumpkin thought that she had seen her first cactus tree.  I soon learned that they were not cactus trees.

On our way through Las Vegas, traffic as usual was a bit crazy.  Some person came whipping off a ramp, hit one of these barricade barrels,

and I need not say where it ended up (after a couple of other cars hit it) – we went right over it.  We were afraid to look but fortunately, just a couple of scrapes on front near the bottom – whew!!!

We stopped at a favourite spot – Virgin River Campground.  This is one of the prettiest camping spots and the drive through Virgin River Gorge is incredible.  There are some nice little walking trails so we decided to go for a stroll since it was such a lovely evening.  This critter almost got stepped on – by ME!!!!

 After chatting with several folks last night, we went for a drive.  Some fellows were doing some cliff climbing, and some were rappelling – we saw some going up,

and some coming down.

The campground was full last night with a lot of young folks tenting.  My boy sprout gave a lending hand when a young couple had difficulty getting a fire going.

We took Cedar Pocket Road which is a backroad and what views. 

We are going to stay here for a few days as a series of storms cross north of us.   Today we have had some sun and a few showers but quite a lot of wind.  We now watch the weather.

Have a good week.