Biking and Brenda

January 9, 2018January 9, 2018 ~ mymostrecentobsession ~ Leave a comment

We are having a total blast with these bikes.

We have been experimenting with Tucker, as I realized that it is likely the heat that wears him out. It is not THAT hot here, but there is no real shade. So while we are out on the bikes, he finds whatever places he can for shade. We stop every 1 mile to give him a break, and water, and he seems to be doing better. Yesterday I tried a makeshift “cooling collar”, soaking wet facecloth, but he got it off, today we will try a wet scarf.

Scotch Creek (where we live) is a LOT hotter than this in the summer, but the trails we hike usually have lots of shake trees.

Also sticking to the “roads” which are basically very very rough 4×4 roads, he is not getting any cactus spines in his feet.

AND ME…. I am becoming a real mountain biker. Ken is amazed of the terrain I just weave my way through. BRAVE BRAVE Janet….. These fat tires just ride over everything, and I am now actually trying to steer around big rocks. Usually I see something scary and for some reason just steer straight towards it. I have not crashed in 3 whole days, amazing. The gravel is often quite thick, and with the pedal assist function, (and the fat tires) you just keep going through the gravel….. and yes fishtailing. Ken has this BIG smile on his face.

So each day we are heading out on the bikes, going anywhere from 2-3 miles out and stopping frequently to look for rocks, scenery etc… Having picnics….. getting back to the MH at about 3 in the afternoon. Then we clean all of our rocks, and try to keep only the best.

Which brings me to the part about rock graveyards.

Whenever we find more rocks, we have to go through what we already have and throw some out. So each place we camp, usually has a pile of “what we thought were treasures, but do not think are treasures anymore”. Often what you find today, makes yesterdays finds look like JUST ROCKS.

We CAN tell others do this too, in that often we find other rockhounds rock graveyards. Sometimes we pick through them for special rocks we do not have samples of, but usually end up throwing them away at the next stop. I am sure this entity will be very confusing to geologists in the future.

Well yesterday was laundry day…… and I was wondering what this guy had on his right hip….? Not seen one of those before, likely something to keep his quarters in 🙂

So once a week we go back into town (quartzite ) do the sani dump thing…. fill up with fresh water, drop off our small bags of garbage at the dump and do laundry. That took 2 hours and so we spent the afternoon looking at the thousands of rocks at the gem show which is on now in quartzite.

These are mexican fire agates, we are just learning about how to work with fire agates…. how to bring out the fire, which would be the dark spots on these. I fear my pictures never do the rocks justice.

and a lovely sink we bought for 150.00…. made of limestone from Morocco. We also looked at plates.

and some incredible tigers eye from Australia. Tigers eye is a chatoyant gemstone that the way the minerals align within the rock it gives a wavy type of appearance. Again I wish my pictures did the rocks justice.

The show that is on now is pretty large, and is called the Desert Gardens Gem and mineral show, and it goes the whole month and then from the 17th to the 21st is the HUGE QIA POWWOW which is all the same sellers that are here now, plus many many more. Many specialized rock people JUST come to the pow wow. At least that is how I understand it.

We have met sellers from India, Morocco, South Africa, Argentina, and TEXAS so far. It truly is fun just looking at all the rocks. We have lots of books for identifying the rocks we find, but just like I cannot do the rocks justice with pictures, it seems that neither can anyone else. Much better to see them LIVE. AND all the sellers are more than happy to tell you ALL about the rocks. Great place to learn.

Well back to sorting rocks.

Much love to everyone

Janet

Drive through red……

December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 ~ mymostrecentobsession ~ Leave a comment

It never ceases to amaze me the clever beer labels. I always choose the beer with the funkiest labels. 🙂 Quite appropriate today, as I drove through some teddybear cholla cacti and my poor tire suffered “the attack of the teddybear cholla”. I hardly knew I had a flat tire until Ken HAD TO take the thorn out… and then the tire went down quickly. I also fell again damaging a few things on the bike so now it is in “KENS SHOP”, getting fixed…..

Lets see, we have spent a few days at Burro creek area hiking 900 feet down a very steep bank that apparently cows manage to make it up, to search for some wonderful pink chalcedony that we remembered seeing last year.

Fortunately there was water at the bottom, which is the first water we have seen on any of our hikes.

It was also the day of the election in Alabama, and I thought that perhaps this might have been what Alabama had to say to Trump.

Then we went to Prescott, where we stayed in a campground to get all our laundry done and I managed to leave Kens clothes in the dryer……. Then we went from Prescott to Jerome. I have seen the drive described on a motorcycle blog as “127 curves in 12 miles”. Now I can see that as being exhilarating on a Harley Davidson, but in a 35 foot motorhome… Well lets just say we are not going back for Kens Laundry.

Now Jerome is considered to be a vertical town (imagine the Popeye movie with no ocean). NOT a place for a motorhome. The town was a copper mining town and at one time, the 4th largest city in the Arizona territory. The town had its hayday in the 1920s, decline in the depression of the 1930s, and then a reincarnation in the WW2 times, then decline. The past 30 years have given the town a whole new direction with the tourist industry. My theory is that a town that is on a vertical cliff facing the grand Canyon (or at least that is what I think it is) is what truly attracts people. Of course none of my pictures will do it justice, …..

In my defence, we WERE a little shaken by the trip there, but we both feel we would LOVE to go back to Jerome sometime and stay at a bed and breakfast, I am sure it would be impossible NOT to have the incredible view of the lovely canyon from every window in Jerome. (which MIGHT …..be the Grand Canyon). There was apparently shopping there was well. They have a parking lot from the old mine, that they have a shuttle going back and forth to the town area, which on some level might seem ridiculous, but if you really see how steep this town is, makes sense.

We had planned to drive up a 9.7 mile road from Jerome to go searching for the “most beautiful agates in central Arizona”, but realized that our motorhome was not up to the journey and 9.7 x 2 was possibly too much for Tucker, … so we moved on.

So we are now in Carefree Arizona. We are having stir fry tonite from sprouts I have been growing in the motorhome, gardening on the road.

First 3 days…

6 days…. yum.

Must love to all

Janet

Doggies in the desert and electric bikes

December 12, 2017December 12, 2017 ~ mymostrecentobsession ~ Leave a comment

Enemy number one. This plant in the desert is ruining our days. It is called Teddybear cholla. Odd name for something that you cannot touch, let alone HUG.

Pictured here are the plant and the offending little beasties that are likely their way to reproduce.

If you get one stuck to your foot… when you try to pull it out, you will get another barb stuck in your finger.

What happens is that Tucker is walking along, gets one of these in his foot and immediately tries to get it out with his mouth, then he has it stuck in his mouth which is really bad, and he starts thrashing around, LOTS of drool. So then Ken and I swing into action, Ken with his leather mans tool pliers and me holding tucker still.

Hence the booties.

Short video of his first steps in booties…. He got better.

The first day with the booties, although he seemed to do well, he was exhausted for 2 days (only 3 year old dog). We figure that perhaps it was more draining because he does not have a good grip, without his claws being out, so he is working twice has hard to get the same distance. We are now in search of booties with treads on them. OH and we are also spending as much time looking for lost booties than we are for rocks 🙂 Stay tuned for what we find works. Tucker is back to normal after 2 days of sleeping.

Last year we were limited as to the sites we could get to because our motorhome is not exactly an all terrain vehicle, MORE OF A one terrain vehicle, pavement and VERY good gravel roads. (last year we did damage to the motorhome (TAJ)….. by going where we should not have gone ) So to solve this we though through many possible options, like hauling another vehicle, but were not ready to do that. SO a friend suggested Electric bikes, and we said YES…..which we have recently purchased.

Two ways to describe electric bikes, one is like a small motorcycle that has an electric motor that you can pedal to save electricity.

The other way to describe them is they are a mountain bike that has less gears and a pedal assist engine for you get bogged down in the sand.

Sorry no action shots….. just this one picture of one of the fat tire bikes

Last year we attempted to ride our bikes to some of these remote spots, but it was very tough riding through the sand, especially uphill…….. and with rocks. So we have bought heavy duty mountain bikes with fat tires that can ride over very large rocks no problem. I am pretty much of a fraidy cat mountain biker and pretty much bail whenever i get into any scary situation. With this motor (and the HUGE TIRES), I just push the throttle and ZOOM over obstacles. Ken is pretty amazed at the terrain I am riding in no problem. I have only fallen twice and I have to admit that ONE TIME … was because I noticed a nice rock on the side and was not paying attention. (Paying attention is a bit important).

The other really cool thing about the bikes is that if you are a lousy biker like me and struggle to get started on an uphill with loose gravel, I just push on the throttle, and ZOOM. Another important thing about the bikes is that they have VERY VERY good disc brakes. We bought the bikes in Canada and the electric bike rebuild Kit in the US, and Ken put it all together. Saved a lot of money by him doing this part himself, and also he knows all about the workings when things need to be adjusted.

I would have to say that the electric part was as important as the fat tire part to make these bikes perfect for driving in the desert.

I do not have many GB left on my plan, so only a few pictures this time

MUCH LOVE

Janet