Packing

We had a problem with our electricity, shore power but no lights, no fan/air conditioner, no hot water, etc.  After a frustrating 2 days, help from other volunteers, and calling Lazydays we replaced the solonoid (they overnighted it) and everything is OK.  We thought we had to take the MH to Ajo, where we made an appointment for this morning.  Yesterday was spent packing the MH for traveling.  It got me in the packing mode so we have lots of things done for the travel mode ahead.  John had changed the oil in the MH, packed some outside items and I have cleaned drawers, etc. After our work shifts ending Saturday, we are traveling with friends to Mexico for 3 days.  Then we work again one more 32 hour schedule completing our 3 month assignment.  I am anxious to travel.  We have been working for 6 months with one quick week to travel from one place to another.  (Of course I traveled to CT while John did our shifts.) I have enjoyed our time but it is time to be retired again.  We will be traveling to California to visit Yosemite and Sequoia and then traveling to middle Wyoming to see some of the places we left last summer to quickly travel east.  We will be volunteering again at Devil's Tower, WY starting in June.  Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men become unravelled.  That is the adventure of it.  One plans and then lets fate happen.  What is over the next horizon? 

Family visits

Dripping Springs view to the northeast as seen with Lauren & Pam

Quitobaquito Springs as seen with Lauren and Pam and yes, there is some water in this desert!

TJ and Grampa on the way to Bull Pasture, the best hike in the monument!

Pam, Lauren, and John at Dripping Springs hike resting at the top

On the way to the bull,a rock formation like a skull of a Texas longhorn,
which you can see above John's hat to the right

The cactus & cholla were blooming




We saw the Ajos at their best before sunset

TJ, John and I went to Old Tucson Studios where old westerns were made.
We were walking in the steps of John Wayne and others.

First Pam and Lauren arrived with me from CT and then the day after they left, TJ, a grandson, visited Organ Pipe Cactus.  We hiked and visited and 2 weeks of family visiting flew by. 

Our Adventure Continues

Our adventure will continue for we have been accepted to Devil's Tower NM in Wyoming - June to mid August and Mid August through September we will be in Spearfish, SD at historic DC Booth Fish Hatchery voluntering then returning to New England in October.  You never know what life brings including the now13 month western oddesy. We have been asked to stay for a while longer in Organ Pipe Cactus (they must like us!) so sometime next month, April, we will travel to California to see what was missed last year.  Last year in June it was too hot and I was not well so we cancelled plans and traveled east. East we painted the house and did yard maintenance instead of spending time in Bryce Canyon National Park volunteering. (that was a bummer!!) You never know what life brings! Now our spring plans are Borrego Springs, CA, Kings Canyon/Sequoia NP, Yosemite NP (my bucket list park) and Death Valley NP and then on to Wyoming where we planned to spend time but did not last summer.  We will stay volunteering in Wyoming and South Dakota for the summer before coming to Connecticut.

The Tower picture is taken from the visitor's center.
We will be working at the VC.  I think it funny the white car looks kinda like ours
 yet we had not yet purchased our Scion tow vehicle when this was taken.
We have been to the tower before.

This is right over the line from South Dakota

The Black Hills where we will spend the summer

Connecticut and Snow

At the end of February I traveled back to snowy cold Connecticut for a week. The house has heat but no water so I am 1/2 an old pioneer.  I have water in jugs and my great grandmother's pot chair.  That comes in mighty handy. Here I have wonderful wifi and cell phone service and even a home phone.  Out in the desert we have been having problems with terrible wifi and cell. I eat some with family, shower at their houses and I have a borrowed car for errands.  I have been to the doc for a check-up, to my hairdresser, visited family, filed the 2013 income tax return, run errands, read two books, and looked out at the snow. I have gone to out to dinner with family and seen The Monument Men at a theater. Sunday I will be traveling back to Arizona.  John did our obligated 32 hours a week alone.  Lauren and Pam, two of our daughters, are also traveling with me and spending 5 days out in the desert.  I am looking forward to Sunny Warm Arizona!


The Travinski barn up the road no longer looks like this.  They took down 1/2 of the barn while we have been gone!

Snow in New England looks beautiful.  I have not spent the winter here, just a week!
I have had to pay the oil bill so I know how cold it had been!

Our Volunteer 50 Mile Day Trip

We went to an old line shack of the Gray Ranching era.
 Since I talk about ranching to the public on the VC patio, I was especially interested in this.

We saw an old mine that has been closed for a century.
  This is one of many on the monument.  Now it is bat habitat.



We saw man made Quitobaquito pond made from a spring in the middle of the desert.
 Once the land next to the pond was a farm that grew pomagranates and figs.
It was also an infamous stopover on the Devil's Highway to California.

The pond has a dying old cottonwood tree, fish and ducks

We saw Puerto Blanco Gate, a outcropping that turns white at certain times of the day.

We made a day trip out of it.  We traveled along the 50 mile, closed to the public, terrible washed out road that circled the monument. The southern edge was along the border of Mexico where the pond was and you could see the border barrier fence (sorry no pictures).  We were a caravan of 5 high clearance trucks, one of which John drove.  It was a treat in that it was the first time we (the volunteers) got to go to this part of the monument. We were escorted by Law Enforcement Rangers.  We did not see anything amiss.  The road in washes was very steep and washed and I felt like we should shift our weight to keep our balance, just like on a motorcycle.  We saw Senita Basin, where special Senita cactus grow and other desert cacti that only are on that part of the monument.  It was a wonderful outing!