The Summer house in Brown's bay

The Summer house in Brown's bay
The Dixon's summer residence

Thursday, November 17, 2011

We've been in Apache Junction a week already!

Hi everyone,
We can't believe we have been here a week already. Boy does time fly when you are having fun! Our trip down was lovely - the weather was beautiful the whole way and the roads excellent. We definitely enjoyed driving in the truck verses the motor home towing the car. It was so nice to be able to drive into any gas station and not worry about if there was enough room to get in and out again! The truck ran like a charm and the gas  mileage we got was way better than we expected!
 Last look at Brown's Bay before we left. Doug took this picture a couple of days before we left when he was out fishing with the neighbour Terry

 The Coho ferry coming into the dock in Victoria. Our ride over to Port Angeles and the start of our trip south

 Our last look at Victoria harbour as we begin our trip

 The old blue bridge across the Gorge in Victoria, span open to let larger ships through

 We are just leaving the harbour and heading into open sea. Ogden Point

 We are now in Washington, heading out the highway to Olympia. The fall colours were beautiful as was the day!

 We are in southern Idaho, about an hour from the Nevada border. Luckily the snow was just on the ground and not the road! It was about -6 degrees and a bit on the chilly side, although I must say it was beautiful knowing we would soon be in a warm climate!

 The next morning, we are now in Nevada and have climbed over the Sierra Nevada's and are down in the valley heading towards Las Vegas

 I love this open country of blue skies, scrub and beautiful mountains

 Doug enjoying this easy driving and beautiful views

 Lunch break at Paranagut Nature Preserve just south of Ash Springs Nevada. I made lunch each morning before we left our motel so we could stop and enjoy the outdoors for lunch. It wasn't quite warm enough to take our sweaters off because of the breeze but wonderful none the less!

 This is how we spend our breaks! We have a beautiful view of our favorite mountains - The Superstitions and we have quail, bunnies and a mirage of birds to entertain all the time

 I was a little worried last spring when the landscape fellow pruned our orange trees as he cut them back so far but we sure have some beautiful big oranges to look forward to in a month or two!

Doug setting up our Canadian satellite dish - now that was fun! We ended up walking around our park looking for another Canadian who had a Star Choice dish and seeing how they had it set. Once we did that, Doug had it angled and working within 2 minutes
 
 I always tell Doug a house is perfect when we buy it and then I make him a "honey-do-list" This was first on the list!! Put new taps in for me. What a job that was. It took Doug all day and were his joints ever sore the next day. The pipes were so corroded due to the hard water that it took him forever to get all the pipes apart as we have a drinking water system, garburator etc all under the sink.

 The end result was worth it though - at least for me!

 The next day we were out to the Arizonian Resort - this was the resort we spent last winter at when we were in the motor home. We stored our cargo trailer with our ATV out there in a friend's site. Didn't cost us anything that way. We had to move it over to the storage area as Mike and his wife were arriving any day now. Doug wanted to get the ATV going so we could go on a ride later in the week.

 Doug in the trailer getting the ATV running after a summer of sitting in the trailer

 He finally got it going and out of the trailer.

 Just looking out at those mountains made me want to get into the ATV and ride. We love it!

 Everything was perfect with the ATV and trailer so Doug was happy!

 Back home and I had to start some painting! The house had just been totally painted inside just before we bought it but the majority of the living space was off-white and I wanted a bit of colour. I just did these walls as I want to wait a bit and see if I like it. So far so good!

 When we are sitting out on the patio having coffee, the quail are usually around. They are such a funny bird to watch. You have to look closely to see this one right at the back of the picture beyond the white pipe.

 Wednesday November 15th we went for our first day ride. Our friends Trent and Ann from Minnesota and new friends Dale and Molly from Lethbridge, Alberta went with us. It was a gorgeous day, don't be fooled by how we are dressed. We need to wear long sleeves to protect ourselves from the cactus and brush that grows close to the trails and also it protects us from getting sunburned. Such a problem eh?
 I have to get those goggles right so I don't get any dust in my eyes. They had a really dry summer and hardly any rain this August/September which is usually their monsoon months so everything is tinder dry out in the desert. They say the cacti flowers won't be as abundant this spring because the cacti rely on the early fall rains to determine whether they flower or not!

 We are heading off into the desert. Ann & Trent are leading and we take up the rear as Dale and Molly are newbies to ATVing 

 Bathroom break and discussion as to which way next!

 Of course the women have to have a chat before we can head on again

 Just love those saguaros and all the different shapes they come in

 It is amazing how well everything grows even though it is so dry out there

 I get to drive a bit as Doug's arthritis in his wrists causes them to ache after awhile. I'll take any opportunity to drive. This was an old saloon restuarant in the desert that is now abandoned. We pulled our chairs out and had our lunch here.
We ended the day getting together in Apache Junction for dinner. Such fun, I love this lifestyle! I am sure everyone slept well last night after all that sun and fresh air. We are planning a longer trip next week to Montana mountain so I'll post more pictures after that. Doug is off to the Arizonian RV park today to help Trent get the lapidary shop set up for the winter. Then it will be working on rocks again. Doug is looking forward to that. I get to stay at home to wait for the pest control people to come and spray both our place and the neighbor's to prevent scorpions coming in your house. We just learned about this the other day. The neighbor is away now visiting her daughter and asked me if I would pay the pest people when they come today and then told us why. For $30 I figure it is worth it! It is a gorgeous sunny day so I think I will take my book and go out on the patio and read for awhile


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