Friday, December 11, 2009

Signs, Signs, everwhere there's Signs.....

Friday was always my most favorite day to work, it always started the weekend. It is no different now. I still love Fridays and today was no exception. We woke up to probably our coldest morning in Yuma, it was only 5 1/2 degrees C. I was kidding Mary Demerling on the email this morning, and she was just telling me to suck it up... it was snowing like mad up there! Judy made it to the pool for exercise class at 9 a.m. By the time she got back at 10:30 I was finished doing some more motorcycle maintenance, and it had warmed up a lot, so we decided to jump on the bikes and head up to Quartzite, a Town about 70 miles to the north, and famous for RV'ers that go boondocking.

Here are a bunch of them out in the boondocks, there is lots of land and you can camp real cheap here.... $180.00 for 6 month permit!


If you have read the blog for a while, you now know that Judy and I love mountains.... On the ride up to Quartzite we rode the whole way through the mountains, and we just loved it! Here are a few pictures of some of the mountains we ran into today, it was awesome!

All of today's shots are taken along Hwy 95 which runs north/south through Arizona... oh and we got stopped in another Border Patrol dragnet again, and we were warned to start carrying our passports with us when we travel.....




We were about a mile away from them here... and by the way, this is my favorite mountain of the day shot...(taken with my mega zoom lens)
This next one was pretty good too...










AND THE SIGN SAID.......

I was walking out on the desert to get the above shot and Judy got a little excited when we saw this sign..... turns out we were on the U. S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds.... oooooppppssss....

We made it up to Quartzite and stopped to have lunch at an American/Mexican Restaurant.... some Cowboy left his saddle out front, never did see the horse....

This next picture kind of made it to the blog by mistake, don't know how, it was a bunch of cactus plants in front of the restaurant.... just can't figure out how to delete it....

After lunch we headed back and stopped here and there for some more pics.... I liked this one of Judy...

We made it back down to the U. S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds and decided to head in and give it a quick go over... Here is the main entrance...

There was two of these weapons...(howitzers???) at the entrance....

There was a second entrance a little further up the road.....

I guess they have so many of these, they didn't need this one anymore....

One thing about life in Yuma, there is always a military presence. The Marines fly "Hornet" jet aircraft daily out of the Marine Base, and there are always "Apache" Helicopters flying in formation over the resort, and you see the odd A-10 Warthog (aircraft). They do constant training in this area, and use the Proving ground to fire their rockets and stuff at targets...

AND THE SIGN SAID.....

We came across a large park area full of the equipment that has been tested at Yuma... they drive them all over the mountains, and across the desert...

This one looked like you could just jump in and drive it away....

Nothing like a nice rocket for the back of your truck....

And the "Sign" on this one said: "This rocket was made in the later 1950's and was capable of holding a nuclear weapon" Yikes.... I didn't think it looked very capable of flying far enough away from me to set of a nuclear blast.....

We are going to go back and tour the museum on the Base. There is also some boondocking areas on the base we want to check out, for future possible camping spots...

After our mini tour of the Proving Grounds, it was time to high tail it back to our home base. Up in Canada we always have to watch out for deer when driving near dusk, today it was different, I actually had a "Roadrunner" cut right in front of me.... I was ticked off I couldn't get his picture, but all I could do was see if the coyote was following him.... he wasn't. New stuff all the time!

Once we made it back to the Resort, we simply had to enjoy a drink and a hot tub. Sooths the body after a long day playing "Tourist"....

Judy took this picture of the pool area.... this is about 5 p.m. and not a sole out there except us...

With the help of a camera timer, you get to see us enjoying the tub... yes Mom, I am having a coffee...

And at the end of the day, when you are relaxing in the tub and you put your head back and look up, here is what you see... love it...

I think it got up to about 18 degrees today or so, but supposed to be 20 or better tomorrow...

Sorry the blog is so long tonight, lots of pictures, just the way my Mom likes it!

Till tomorrow...

1 comment:

  1. What great pics... and yes we are all white up north... while you have military vehicles to show we have every imaginable type of truck with a plow!!
    Its great to follow your travels... keep them coming we do read up!!
    Ed

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