Travel to Peurto Penasco, Mexico, Jan. 28, 2009

The meeting time at Lukeville, AZ, 5 miles south of the Organ Pipe Cactus NM was 10:30 to leave at 11:00.

Here we are getting our final instruction was our wagonmaster, Mike.

The border crossing begins, we are #8 in line, see the Mexico flag in the center. Two of our group were stopped, asked to see their registration and they even looked under one of their beds. We were not one of the two!

See they even Welcome us.

Here Bob is keeping in touch with the other drivers with our new CB. It worked well.

We continue on our journey.

We travel through one town, Sonoyta.

Here we are like ducks in a row. They have good roads, think they like the US Dollars that we bring. When we are here we don't have to change our money to Pesos unless we want to.

More ducks. Quack quack!!

The first signs to our destination, Playa Bonita.

Winding our way into the park.

Finally the entrance.

The RV park is almost deserted. Two years ago, almost every spot was taken.

This is the view out of our front window towards the Sea of Cortez. The weather is cool at night, but warms up during the day-warm enough for shorts.

In this special moment in life...Be wise

Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument, Jan 26-27, 2009

Here is a fine specimen...of an Organ Pipe Cactus which is what the National Monument is named after. We are staying at this park for two nites before we meet up with the group caravaning to Mexico. Bob's Senior Pass also works here for camping is $6 per nite.

Here is another fine specimen of the teddy bear cholla cactus. Bob is not actually touching the fruit, as the fruit has just as many spines at the stalks. A view of the park.

This prickly pear caught my eye, it is in the shape of a heart, I think someone cut the notch out.

Here is the coach, once again I am parked next to an ocatillo!! Several of the other Mexico caravan group have arrived at Organ Pipe and there is excitement in the air!! Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for Mexico.

In this special moment in life...Grow

Last Walmart Shopping, Jan. 25, 2009

Now, this is not forever, as the title might indicate. Just no Walmarts for a couple of months. They do have Walmarts in Mexico, but we will not be near one.

We left Q on Sunday morning, it was sad to leave, we do like boondocking in the desert, something about being self sufficient as we rely on our solar panels and the generator for power and water from our tanks. Bob is so proud to say we can go three weeks with out getting water or dumping--good job Bob.

Here is Bob at the Walmart, our cart is not full at all, but you can't see the most important purchase--a new wireless slim HP keyboard for ME.
So now Bob knows the routine, take out the scanner, the shelf the scanner sits on, get the flash light and lean way in to the see the back of the computer, unplug the other keyboard and plug in the wireless keyboard adapter. You can see the new keyboard above Bob.

But, the best part about the new keyboard, when I push the slide in/out table in, the keyboard fits in the space on the tray and the counter. This photo is showing both of the keyboards, it was cool as it was blue silicone, but you had to type directly in the middle of each key for it to work, I guess I am a sloppy typer. I want it to work if I just hit anywhere on the key.

In this special moment in life...Take a chance

Final Days in Q, Jan 21-24, 2009

I got my Cutco knives sharpened at the Cutco booth in the big tent. Normally I would mail them in and then get them back in the mail, but since we are rarely at our home address, this option was perfect, also done for free, lifetime sharpening from Cutco.

Project I for Bob. He is installing the receiver plug for a six blade light connection from the coach to the Explorer. We have had the parts for almost three years.

This is what he installed on the bumper of the Explorer.

Here it is, all hooked up and ready to go. Best part--it works!! Notice the dust on the back of the coach. We had a few raindrops fall on our nice layer of dust.

I found my next kokopelli, only problem is where will it go?

Don't you want to be a dog?

Project II- can you guess what it is going to be?

Next hint...

A giant sized bird feeder holder. Zach do you recognize the bird feeder above Grandpa's head?

The circle of RV's at Q keeps changing, we had four leave on Thursday and three more arrive on Friday. We are leaving on Sunday along with two other RV's. The plan is that everyone going to Mexico meet up at 10:30 am on Wednesday, 1/28 at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and then start the 14 rig caravan to Puerto Penasco or Rocky Point, Mexico.

.
In this special moment in life...Gaze at stars

Quartzsite purchases-so far, Jan. 17-20

Bob made the first and most expensive purchase at the RV show in Quartzsite. He had been wanting a surge protector and now the coach has one. They even installed it for us, yea!!

Good thing the install was a fixed price as Bob was helping?? You know what they say about helping costing more.

Right now we have 12 rigs in our large circle. Several more are coming in a day or so. Every evening at 5 pm someone lights the campfire and the snacks come out and the party begins!!

This morning it was 'take a photo' of you in front of your rig.

Here is a photo of my new rug, I love kokopellis.

This is a cool decal, it is one foot tall and is mounted on our front door. Another kokopelli.

A few of us saw a huge shooting star last night, before we were blessed with this site.

.

In this special moment in life...Take time for people

Mudflap Issue, Jan 13-15, 2009

We left Imperial Dam LTVA with no problems, no one was at the dump or water filling area so was very easy to take care of that task. We are heading to Quartzsite and their dump and water area is always full thus a long wait.
.
Now, you are wondering about this photo of our mudflap, notice it looks a little crooked, well it is or was. Upon arrival at Q we unhitched the Explorer and then Bob chose to take the lead back to the area where we are meeting with the RV America group. He took the wrong turn even though he said he knew where he was going. This wrong road took him through this, deeper than he thought, dry wash and it bent our new mudflap. So, here is Bob unbending the parts of the mudflap.

Here it is all washed and reinstalled looking almost like new again. It now just has a few more slight creases and scrapes--just call them battle scars.

It probably doesn't look like it now, but this is the beginning of our 17 rig circle. This is Thursday and we have 6 rigs here. The big RV show starts on Sat. so we are expecting our circle to grow son.

.

In this special moment in life...Observe Miracles (This is for my sister)

These Boots Are Made for Walking, Jan.12, 2009

For today's walk, we were prepared--hiking boots and hiking staffs!

we walked about 1/3 of a mile to where the trail heads down into the arroyo, it was an easy down trail.

At the bottom, we explored both of the channels that split off. The first one came to an abrupt halt when it fell about 10 feet with no way to climb down. So we went to the other side and followed it for awhile.

Here is where that channel came to a halt--we were not ducks. I know where I would have been if I had tried to walk on the little side ledge--wet!!Near the end, Bob climbed UP, but he is a cousin to the mountain goat and my nickname is "goatless", so I back tracked, above are a couple of the photos the (old) goat took.

You can see how narrow the channel was, Bob is reaching across with his hiking staff.

Yes, I still managed to get some rocks in one of my boots.
.

In this special moment in life...Observe miracles.