Fiberglas Friends

We're blessed to live close to the Superstitions. Not only does it make it easy to go out to play, but it's also a place that many of our molded Fiberglas trailer friends like to visit. We hit the jackpot recently when two couples ended up there at the same time. Jerry, of Egg Rollings, had to get a picture.

We grabbed the dutch oven and headed out to fix dinner for them. Pot Roast, low and slow, gave us lots of time to play with fire and to catch up with travel plans and aspirations.

There's three pounds of pot roast buried under all the veggies.

The breeze was a bit chilly (at least for Arizona weather wimps) but it was nice and warm in their Clam with a little fire going. A big thanks to Lynne and David of Winter in the Desert who were the first to spill the beans that they were all going to be at Lost Dutchman.

As always, the sunset plays beautifully on the mountain although I wasn't patient enough for a good picture - too busy eating.

The crowning glory, food wise, was Jerry's blueberry cobbler. If I'd been smarter, we would have brought some Tillamook ice cream to add yet another layer of gastronomic decadence!

We'll see them all again in Quartzsite soon.

Sunshine on the River

After my business was done in Algodones on Thursday morning, I headed north on the California side of the river to Senator Wash to do a little paddling and geocaching. In addition to the Imperial Dam Long Term Visitors Area, there's a BLM 'campground' at Squaw Lake, but it looks more like a parking lot. I elected to camp on the North Shore which is also a BLM campground with fees but without designated campsites.

The long gravel drive with a couple reasonably steep sections does a good job of dissuading too many people from coming this direction. There were several good waterfront sites on Senator Wash Reservoir available when I was there. $15 per night with a 50% discount for the senior pass. The sunrise was pretty special, too.

Friday morning I started back around to Fisher's Landing on the Arizona side of the river.

This is the 11th year that Helen has done her Friends of Helen trip over MLK weekend (and the 9th time I've done the trip.) We've always used Fishers Landing as our takeout point, but this year their ramp was closed for construction. We still used their parking area for organizing our shuttle.

The shuttle to Walter's Camp is right at 100 miles long - not a fast shuttle!

Sunrise at Walter's Camp. I elected to take the kayak this year because it's hung in the garage for two years without getting wet.

Much of this section of the Colorado river is surrounded by wildlife refuges that do not allow camping. Walter's Camp is on a BLM lease across the river from Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. Downstream, Imperial NWR is the predominate land manager until you get to Picacho State Recreation Area (PSRA) on the California side of the river.

I didn't take many pictures on the river since my only camera was my phone. As is normal for me on this trip, I launch early and enjoy the solitude on the river. The first day is a bit over 15 miles to the PSRA 4-S boat-in camp.

For the tenth year, trash can turkey was featured for dinner our first night. This year there was a fair amount of breeze so we leveraged the fire pits as wind breaks. Two 14 pound turkeys were done in less than an hour and 45 minutes.

As the sun sets at 4-S, the light turns golden on the bluff across the river, but I was too busy with the turkeys to get a picture at the optimal time.

Instead, I settled for sunrise. Typically, I don't carry a cell phone on this trip, but this year, the cell phone was my sole source of decent photos. I was really surprised to see that I got enough signal here to post a picture to Instagram.

The second day on the water is the short day, with less than seven miles from 4-S to the group boat-in site at PSRA. We had breeze most days, but typically it was a tailwind.

I ducked into the entrance to Taylor Lake. I would have gone further but I didn't bring my GPS on this trip. There are two or three geocaches in the Taylor Lake area that I may find one of these days. The coots love the reeds. They eat them off at the water level and then hide in/under the reeds.

I was going to fix dinner, but friends were making chicken enchiladas in their dutch oven and I got to share. Most excellent!

Sunset over the group site at Picacho. In addition to the group site, the other advantage of this location is that the campground has solar heated showers. Bliss!

No sunrise pictures on the last day since the camp is hidden from the horizon, but coming out from the side channel to the river, it looked like another beautiful day.

I was surprise by a bobcat trying to catch a coot (who surprised me when it jumped in the water right beside me) as I drifted on down the river towards our takeout.

Since the boat ramp at Fisher Landing was undergoing heavy maintenance, we took out at Martinez Lake for the first time, and then walked over to Fisher's Landing to pick up the truck.

Yet another wonderful trip and a chance to meet some new friends.

Best of all, I got one more sunset in the rear view mirror just before I got home.

The boat's been washed and hung up, the gear is washed and put away, and now it's time to start thinking about Quartzsite friends.

A Bit Cloudy

I was wandering north from Yuma towards Senator Wash when I passed a museum I'd noticed once before. This time, I committed to stop on my way back and check it out.

It was my kind of place! A wide variety of rust with a good representation of trucks and equipment in addition to the car collection. Most of the collection dated to the 20's and 30's.

There was a reasonable collection visible from outside the walls.

Once through the gates and with my $5 entrance fee deposited in the iron ranger, I was presented with rows of rust. A couple rows of trucks parked cheek to jowl - so close it was impossible to get pictures of just one vehicle at a time.

In addition to the trucks, there were rows of cars that I pretty much ignored since I didn't have enough time to investigate everything.

There was at least two buildings filled with cars that were cleaned up and painted.

One of the highlights for me was this Ford Class C motorhome. I couldn't decide if it was a homebuilt conversion or purpose built. The current body was clearly purpose built as an RV.

The back had a pair of bunk beds set crosswise with a ceramic sink to one side of aisle and a five gallon bucket with a toilet seat just past the mirrored door. Cabinet work was classic 1930's residential construction.

A once upholstered chair and a swiveling driver's seat made up the seating arrangement. With a restoration, this one would be a real star at vintage trailer rallies.

For me, the most intriguing vehicle was this Dodge bus parked off by itself between a couple buildings.

It featured a Wayne schoolie body

that was in reasonable shape for its age and experience. I think it would be a wonderful candidate for an RV conversion! It would definitely qualify as unique!