Settling In, Home Projects, Walkabout, Relaxing with Company

I woke up from my dreams around 6 am, at the same time Clemson moved and crawled under the covers with his Daddy. It was still dark out and yet I knew I was done with sleeping for the most part. Today was Monday, Jan. 8^th and we thought of our friend back home who is checking into one of the big London hospitals for some prep tests and then surgery on Wednesday. We are thinking of you, Jim.

At 7:15, I realized that I had dropped off a couple of times and under the blinds I see the sun on the horizon is performing for me. Time to get up! Clemson joined me for his first nature call of the day and then I took my camera out and snapped these shots.  I wanted to walk back our road and see where it took me. I was able to get some close ups of a couple of interesting saguaro cactus.

This greeted me when I crawled out of bed 

And of course it got better

Stretching my legs on this long road

We have one right behind us but he is too young to have any arms yet. Then one so ancient and rotted that he was showing exactly what he was made of! These ribs are what holds them together on the inside. Quite an interesting cactus, really. 

This poor old saguaro still stands
How could it know that I still want to take his picture?

I 'borrowed' this picture from Dave

Walking further along, I found a beautiful one with many arms, short and tall and at the top I was surprised to see a large bird’s nest.

And although not the healthiest looking, the arms extend to all lengths

Eagle's nest?

A few more steps found me at a sign indicating I was entering an area called the Magic Circle. Hmm, Bill was reading this on his Google map of this area. We wondered what it was and now I know. There is a solid blue line on the placard showing where the ‘clothing optional’ area begins and ends. Hmm. Time to turn back since I choose to leave my clothes ON and prefer not to see others exercise their choice.

I walked back and veered off onto another hard-packed dirt road. They are so hard that I’m surprised they generate so much dust when traffic goes by. 

I won't walk any further

We are off the road enough and facing the direction where the dust shouldn’t be too much of an issue. The clouds soon moved in and took away a chance of a full sunny day.

I boiled the kettle for my tea before Bill got up around 8:30. Our batteries were low enough that I wasn’t about to drain them further with turning the Keurig on.  Eventually, Bill decided to have his coffee regardless and by the time I cooked our bacon and eggs, the sun was making appearances and our batteries began charging. Yay!

And there we are

Bill went out to begin one of the few things he wanted to putter on today and I went in and placed an order for a DVD/CD case. Now that I know where we are, I can have a parcel delivered here to Quiet Times in Quartzsite for me. Then I can take care of a project of my own. Thank you to Marlene from Marlene and Bennos Odyssey on Land and Water for the suggestion, it is exactly what we need!

 We have a couple of family birthdays coming up, so since I had already purchased cards, readied those for mailing. We won’t be going into town today so I’m hoping I’m not sending them too late. Bottom line is they will get them, just maybe not before their special day. I opened a bag of 15 Bean Soup that I bought at the Arizona Marketplace as I want to get a pot of soup on the go. Today, they will just be soaking in water.

The sky started performing after our Happy Hour and I didn't stop taking pictures

So, I went out at one point, maybe 11:30 and was talking to Bill when I noticed a white pick up had driven by on the road beside us and soon enough was coming towards us. This looks like Deb and Riley from On a Long and Lonesome Highway and soon enough they were waving through the windshield. How nice! We had invited them to pop around so we could meet them if it worked for them, and it did.

Bill, Deb and Riley

Before too long George and Suzie returned with their unit and joined us They’d pulled out by 7:30 this morning for some work in town. After a nice chit chat with someone we feel we already know, they headed out for groceries or lunch or both! I pulled our patio mat away so I could use our metal rake to remove some of the larger stones underneath. It isn’t perfect, but much nicer to sit on now.

Bill, Tom, Deb, George and Deb

Inside I made a sandwich for Bill and had a few crackers with a cheese ball Bill picked up. I wasn’t really hungry but wanted to ward off another headache. Around 1 or so, Deb and Tom from Celebrating the Dance popped in to see us. They are parked at Roadrunner blm land right now, nurturing themselves from the colds like we were. Deb and I went back and forth making the arrangements for them to drop by.

Suzie gets a Clemson fix

Time flies when you’re having fun and soon enough George and Suzie from Our Awesome Travels joined us and before Deb and Tom left, Deb and Riley were out for a walk and came for Happy Hour as well. It was a wonderful day for visiting and even though I didn’t get my fridge cleaned out, I am about as stress-free about that as a pig in you know what. There is always tomorrow.

Suzie, George and Bill

When everyone left, after a great afternoon of fits and giggles, and a few shared experiences, Bill went back to his project. I began making preparations for supper but couldn’t remember the details of Deb and Riley’s Honey Pecan Chicken. I had a large chicken breast out for us to share and that recipe sounded good. I recalled that there were 4 ingredients but could only think of 3 so I did the best I could.

 I prepared my spaghetti squash as I still have a few chunks to use up and once the Weber was heated up, everything went on the grill. Bill started the generator because we didn’t get much help from the sun today at all. With our residential refrigerator, we needed to keep the charge coming. While getting things ready, I had to stop a couple of times to get a picture of the magnificent display to the west. Oh, my goodness!

Bill and I shared the chicken breast

So, I sat outside while Weber did his job and even though I always seem to miscalculate when I do the grilling, our supper was ready by 6:15 and it tasted really good. I discovered ‘after’ we were eating what one ingredient I missed but I don’t know how the taste would be much different. We enjoyed our chicken so thanks Deb!

With dishes cleaned up, we did our own thing. I downloaded pictures and wrote my post and Bill googled a couple of things on line before getting his book opened. He is into Pop Goes the Weasel by James Patterson and I’m reading Never Go Back by Lee Child. Both of us are always anxious to finish things up so we can sit and read.

Wowsa! Tonight's sky is mind blowing

This has been a wonderful day and I hope you can say the same. So many of our friends have been sick with colds or flu bug so I hope that nonsense is soon behind you. Let’s get on with the good life again.

Good night, I hope this means a nice day tomorrow

Thank you for stopping around today. I always enjoy hearing from you!