It was 6:30 on Tuesday, Jan. 30th
when my peepers opened enough to register on the clock radio. I peeked outside
and it was still dark so I rolled over and thought about the upcoming day. It
is our last day here in the desert so want to make the best of it. I snapped
some sunrise photos after letting Clemson out and before 7:30 I was off down
the road for a brief walk. It was 47F with no winds, yet.
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| there are no words |
Last night around 9:00 Bill took
Clemson out for his last piddle and he called to me. “Come outside and listen
to the coyotes”. We haven’t heard them yet this winter so I went out and joined
them. I could tell they were far enough away but it sounded like a bunch of
little kidlets playing, refusing to go to bed. Those are the kind of coyote
sounds I like. It was amazingly mild still, around 70F and calm. No heater
required.
Bill was up when I returned at 10 to
8 and I made our first hot drinks. He wanted to head into town to get propane early
but since I made his coffee, we decided to wait until closer to 10 so we could
stop in at Quiet Times as well. Fingers crossed that Bill’s maserator has been
delivered. It doesn’t look like this will be a full sun day, the gorgeous sunrise proves that the clouds deserved a bit of control today.
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| I met George as I was heading back from my walk |
With a quick clean up, we drove into
Quartzsite to Kuehn St. and easily found a parking spot right at K & B
Tools. We split up and I headed for the Food Tent and Bill into the tool
vendors. I had success and found chicken broth, black olives, tuna, Stove Top
stuffing, crackers and Heart Well gummies that we like. For $.50 to $1, I wasn’t
about to wait until we got to Yuma to buy these things.
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| Things were pretty quiet at Tyson Wells Many vendors have packed up and left |
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| Looking down Kuehn St. sure is different than a week ago |
Bill and I met up and did one more
walk through at Burly’s Tools where he found a small item he can use back home.
From there we drove to the Pit Stop for propane and drove right in. No waiting.
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| for a fee you can also fill up with fresh water |
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| gotta love this business |
Then it was the back route to catch Main St. again and it was just after 10 am when we parked at Quiet Times. We noticed UPS was unloading as we arrived. There were 3 or 4 people
ahead of us. Those ladies are busy from the get-go and we know better than to
be nothing but patient.
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| There is quite a neat ornament display of my favourites - the gambel quails |
Waiting in line for our turn, Bill
got the email that his parcel had been scanned as ‘delivered’. Too funny!
Perfect timing! It was easy to find, he paid his $2 and we headed for home. At 10:31
we were pulling onto the highway. I asked Bill to pull out slowly so I could get
a picture of this huge, no doubt very old, saguaro strapped to the building.
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| Love the saguaro outside This car parked in the way so you can't see the strapping too easily |
At home, I made us another hot drink
and fried our last 2 eggs for brunch. Bill had his on a toasted bun and I had
mine on lettuce with cottage cheese and black olives. Yummy. I drained the last
of my Kombucha too, so we’ll be doing a big shopping spree once we get settled
in Yuma.
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| the flags come down |
As I was preparing the food, Bill was
checking out his maserator. With a new discovery in this package, he took the
time to assemble it to our blue (gray) boy, just to make sure it fit. Voila! All
is good. Now that it is Tuesday and we are pulling out tomorrow to go into a
full-service resort, we don’t need to use it. Isn’t that Murphy’s Law? No
worries, we know it fits on and it will be very useful at our next boondocking
site plus at home on The Ridge.
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| The solar panels get folded down |
Bill went back outside to pack some
things away and do whatever men do to keep busy and I did a quick wash of the
dishes and started on my ‘dryer sheets’. I was asked yesterday what Bill meant
by reminding me to ‘soak my tea towels’. A perfectly legit question. So, I
thought since I’ve passed on this tidbit to a couple of people already, I would
post it in my blog. I don’t think I’ve already done that but if I have, and you’ve
read it, treat it as a refresher course!
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| You can use any size, any material |
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| Just a small amount to begin with |
We buy fabric softener. We don’t buy
dryer sheets. To us, they were an expensive throw away, if you got the good
ones. We stopped buying them probably 4 years ago now. If I am hanging my
clothes at the Ridge, I use the fabric softener in the washing machine (at the
laundromat). Naturally. During the winter months, in the southwest or if I want
to dry the clothes right away at home, I make our own dryer towels.
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| Last towel soaking |
You still need to purchase fabric
softener, any brand. Choose 2 or 3 (how ever many loads you usually dry at a
time) old small towels. I use 2 cotton tea towels and 1 square towel that is too
small to use for anything else. If you have a dishpan or bowl, this works best.
I don’t, so I use my small kitchen sink or bathroom sink in the Suite. Start
with about a cup of softener, pour it in.
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| two towels rung out |
One at a time, soak your towel,
completely. If the smell is something that bothers you, wear a mask or get your
partner to do this for you. 😊 Once it is coated, start wringing it
out, squeezing out all of the softener. Set it aside and do the next one. If
you need to add more softener, add just enough to do it and so on.
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| After doing 3 towels, this is all that is left |
Wring them
out as good as you can because all you do now is hang them to dry. Once dried
you can use these same towels over and over and over etc. Probably 30 or 40 loads.
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| Retrieving excess from the sink |
You’ll know when you need to do them
again by the absence of the smell in the towel or by the static that is in your
clothes. These work just like a disposable dryer sheet. The laundry smells nice
and you will not have static cling. If there is any softener in the sink
leftover after wringing, you can decide if it is enough to worry about saving
or just washing down the drain. I choose to use my spare baster to retrieve
what I can for the next time.
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| saving what I can because I'm cheap and Mom taught me 'waste not want not' |
So, I finished my towels and hung
them on the back of the ladder. There is a breeze now so they shouldn’t be too
long drying.
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| Hard to see but they are hanging on our step ladder to dry |
Just have to remember to take them each time we go do laundry.
That is the hardest part! Next, I wanted to dust the Suite in time for moving
day tomorrow. I started in the living room, all hard surfaces, window ledges
and even the soft surfaces of our leather furniture.
Moving to the dining area and bedroom
and finally the hall and woodwork, putting things away for travel as I go.
Aaah, that smells better and everything is temporarily clean. I’ve decided on a
simple indoor meal tonight of Tuna helper so told Bill he can put the Weber Q
away as well. That earned me a kiss so I know he is happy to get as much packed
today as possible.
With the jobs done, I took my bottle
of water outside with a new book. I’m moving back to James Patterson’s “violets
are blue”. I finished the David Baldacci book last night in bed and wasn’t as
impressed with it as I’d hoped. Bill liked it better than I did mainly because
there was a lot about the market/business type stuff and it lost me. My brain
isn’t into that stuff, sad to say. Anyway, I finished it and will move on to
another good one.
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| Beautiful sky today |
Before going out, I called about our
3 nights free coupon that we got from the Big Tent show but reached an
answering machine. Today, I left a message and hope to hear back. It would be
nice to know sooner than later whether we can get in or not. While I was sitting outside, my phone rang and it was Fortuna de Oro returning my call and taking our reservation for 4 nights in the very near future. Yay!
Bill was non-stop this
afternoon, packing things away, dropping the solar panels, putting the table
and portable panel away and I was sitting reading my book. I encouraged him to
slow down and poured him a Coke but until he is done what he wants to do, there
is no stopping him.
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| Cheers everyone! To our last Happy Hour at Quartzsite this year! |
Finally, around 2:30 he came inside
and sat in his recliner. Whether he dropped off or not, I don’t know, I
remained outside. At 3 I came in and we discussed drinks to take over to George
and Suzie’s for H.H. Our last Happy Hour with this group, here. First, he fed
Clemson and then we walked over. I didn’t take a drink because Deb had offered
to make another batch of Beer Margueritas. Sold!
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| Deb suggested a group 'selfie' so we could all be in the picture Great idea! George, Suzie, Patsy (me) Bill, Deb, Tom |
We had a nice chit chat as usual, I
can’t remember everything we discussed today because of those drinks! Ha ha not
really but after having 3 let me tell you, there were no problems in my world
or any world for that matter. I was able to make up our Tuna Helper and added
frozen peas while it cooked. As a last-minute addition, I crumbled 4 Ritz
crackers and sprinkled each serving with Real Bacon bits.
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| tuna helper with peas, crackers and bacon bits |
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| And the sun goes down on our last evening here I will certainly miss the all around mountain views and gorgeous sunrises and sunsets |
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| This is tonight's sunset |
It was a filling meal and tasted
quite good as a change of pace for us. I can’t remember the last time we had a
meal from a box. Not a good habit to get into but once in a blue moon (imagine that!!!) it is okay. With dishes done up, we turned our tv on to watch our programs
only to be disappointed AGAIN. Same as Sunday night with the Grammys, we are
missing shows because of the Greatest Super Bowl Commercials and the State of
the Union Address. We turned the tv off.
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| And the day began like this at 7:15 am |
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| I think this is one of my favourites today |
Bill put the generator away and the
satellite dish since we won’t be needing them tonight. I’m downloading pictures
and finishing my post so I can sit and read a few more chapters of my book.
Already I’m hooked on Alex Cross’s latest mystery and I’m only 5 chapters in!
James Patterson has done it again, a bestseller.
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I have had a great day starting with
a fantastic sunrise and ending with a quiet evening with my sweeties. I hope
yours has been a great one too.
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| the moon at 6:30 If you are up at 3:45 am you will see the start of the lunar eclipse Set your alarm! |
Thank you for stopping by. All
comments are welcome and read.
