You can’t be having fun all the time…

We sort of need a down type day, to get over all the fun of yesterday’s big Jeep tour… sure was a lot of fun, and more are being planed for the future.  Spent part of the day reading up on the two Guide Books that we bought yesterday which are loaded with all kinds of info including tips on how to actually drive the trails with your vehicle.

It was a bit on the cool side first thing this morning, but it warmed up very nice.  Lots of sun and that is what counts.  Judy was in the pool early doing aqua aerobics while I was out with Bob this morning running errands…

Comments on yesterday’s blog  by Sue and Doug were that a dirty Jeep is a happy Jeep… well maybe, but I hate seeing it dirty so this afternoon Judy caught me cleaning it.  Her comment was “are you not planning on going out on the trails again in a couple of days???”

While I was cleaning the Jeep, she was cleaning the Burgman…

Our new site at Sunrise RV Resort… it is a lot more on the level side than our other one was…

We have more Park Model Units on our street than we do RV’s, but that is OK, makes for a nice quiet evening and day… the way I like it!  This Resort is for people 55+, so there is not a whole bunch of hoop la going on anyways…

I decided to call the Head Office of Gulf Stream this morning.  This is the Company that manufactures our Motorhome, the Endura.  I wanted to see if I could talk to someone and find out more about the problem we had with the RV, and find out if they had any other ideas, or comments.  Had to leave a message on a voice machine so kind of wrote that idea off… who would bother calling back someone with a problem?

Surprise – about 20 minutes later one of the Vice Presidents of Gulf Stream called me.  Must say I was a bit shocked!  We had a real good talk, and he made a number of suggestions in regards to the fix for our Unit.  At this point in time, we did exactly what he is suggesting, so I feel a whole lot better after talking to him.  I may make some minor alterations to the work we have done, but will put more thought to it… no sense rushing into anything without exercising the brain cells first.

Sure was impressed with Gulf Stream, and the timely manner in which they called back! 

Tomorrow looks like it may be time for another hike!

Till tomorrow…

Montana Mountain Trail… don’t forget your Jeep!

We had planned for today to be a bit of a Jeep day.  I had been looking at some of my GPS mapping, and liked the Montana Mountain Trail, that started at Florence Jct. and ended at the Town of Superior, all just east of Apache Jct. out off Hwy. 60.

We needed and wanted more info on where and how to go… so we went to the Apache Jct. Chamber of Commerce, who sent us to Arizona Fish and Game, who sent us to Map World, a store in nearby Mesa, for a book called “Guide to Arizona Backroads & 4 Wheel Drive Trails” by Charles Wells.  It is a very good book and we liked it so much we bought the same book, but made for Southern California.  They cost $25.00 each, but are worth it for all the info they contain. 

Not to far into the trail we came across this natural bridge… look at the very centre of the picture, it is not real big, but it is there…

Ya, we ran into the odd Saguaro Cactus…

The book told us the trail started out easy and got more difficult, they were right!  Here is the easy…

Yes the sky was blue, and it got warmer as the day got older…

We ran into two guys out on ATV’s not too far up the trail… this trail totalled about 30 miles!   Found out the ATV’ers were a guide and a customer.  This is the guide below and if you look on his right leg, that would be his sidearm!  He was packin…

 

The further we got into the trip, the better the view got, as we climbed.  We ended up climbing from about 1,600 feet, up to 5,400 feet!

What a view…

In the distance, the Guide told us was Gila Bend, which is a long way away!

My Jeep was getting dirty…

                                                    

After the 1/2 way point, the book said the road would be “moderate”… hmmmm…

The pictures do not really do this justice, but you could not navigate this road without a Jeep or 4 wheel drive high clearance type of vehicle… our Jeep did great, we did scrape a couple times, but we have a full skid plate package on our Jeep, so this helps out big time protecting the vital equipment down below…

“I can see for miles and miles…”

I had to hold the Jeep down so it would not roll over the cliff…

Yes, when you get up to 5,400 feet, you will see ice ont he road…

We started the decent down the back of the mountains, and ran into a series of switch backs… they were a bit ruff!  No problem for our Liberty!

I had to get out and do some manual labour… there are some rocks you simply cannot go over!

We actually came across another vehicle heading the other way… the only one we met on the road!

OK, now we are getting into the heavy duty stuff, no problem again for the Jeep, we could not believe it!

Check out the weird bark on the trees up on the mountain…

We had a great view coming down…

We came across a Deer, a Coyote, (we think,) and a cow on the trail…   They Guide told us that Wyatt Earp's Wife’s grave was out here, but we did not find it!  Farmer’s let the cattle graze free out in this area, and then round them up on horse back.  Just like in the wild west! 

We had a blast today with our Jeep!  It took 4 hours and 45 minutes to complete the loop!  We are already looking at other trails in our book to go and explore!  

Well this has gone on long enough!

Till tomorrow…

“It never rains in California…” but it does in Az.

It was very overcast here first thing this morning when we got up around 7:30.   Enjoyed our morning and at 9:00 headed over to the Church Service that is offered in our Resort.  Over 150 people were there this morning for an excellent turnout!   After coffee time, we left at 11:00 to go back to our RV and it was raining!   Nice soft rain…

We enjoyed lunch and then I headed over to Bob’s to pick him up, as we had planned to go into Phoenix and take in the New Cars Show at the Phoenix Convention Centre. 

I think this Convention Centre looks like it is right out of some Engineer’s Magazine… It is attached to another building that looks identical across the road.

The Convention Centre dwarfs this old Church that is located right downtown…

It was a nice spot for the show… lots of room.

I thought this was a cool speedometer on the new Mini Cooper…

Our son in law Chris is a big VW fan, and he would love this little VW… love those rims…

Check this out… the new Nissan Leaf.

The Leaf is a fully electric auto, with ZERO emissions.  It sort of looks like an engine in the car you see below, but it is an electric motor!  The Leaf sells for only $25,000 in the U.S. and you can go about 110 miles on one charge of the battery, and it will go 90 MPH believe it or not!.  Could make a good second car I guess.

Not to be outdone, GM had the new Chevy Volt on display.  It is an electric car, but has a small gas motor to charge the battery if you run out of power.  At least you can keep going with this one.  In Canada I think these will sell for over $41,000.00 – ouch…

The Volt is a good looking car…

The new Chev Camaro is good looking as well!

And it would not be a good car show without a Vette!

The most expensive car at the show was this real nice looking Rolls Royce Phantom, that sells for the paltry price of $475,000.00 U.S.  (I know, and it doesn’t even have a roof…)

Jeep has a new model out and they are apparently going after a younger crowd!

Jeep sponsored this rock climbing wall…

Jeep had the only inter-active display, and here a Wrangler comes down a 35 degree slope !

I would hate to be holding onto my Timmy's…

Up an over the railway ties… these things will go anywhere… now wonder we bought one!

Jeep even had an RV on display… only a bed and a cooler box and table in it though… however it had a great set of wheels and could be towed anywhere!

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon on a little bit of a cooler day in Az. 

Judy stayed home to do a bunch of stuff, that included making a big old pot of chile, so I enjoyed that while watching Montreal win the Grey Cup!

Till tomorrow…

Hieroglyphics can “speak” to you…

Simply another beautiful day in Az.   It hit 78 Degrees F. here in Apache Junction, which would translate to around 24, 25 degrees C.  No clouds.

We were up and at it, and decided to go for a hike today.  Two days of working on the RV for Bob and I made us crave some time outside.  Judy picked the trail, the “Hieroglyphics Trail” which is part of the trail system at the Superstitious Mountains…

Judy heads out the trail…

Bob and I were a little more reserved that Judy was…

Judy was dodging the cactus…

The mountains looked great with the big blue sky…

As you can see, we were climbing… about 650 feet up in total today.

I thought, finally, we made it to the Hieroglyphics… but apparently they did not use the American Alphabet…

Bob says “I don’t see nuthin!”…

Finally at the end of the trail we found what we were looking for!

We couldn’t get real close, and I did not carry out by big lens…

Judy said they looked an awful lot like cows…

 

We stopped to have our lunch, and Bob was sitting right beside this rock… I talked to this Lady on the hike for a few minutes, and she told me that the Hieroglyphics were “talking” to her… hmmmmm…

Could this be the lost Dutchman Mine??????  It is in this area… we were looking for little leather pouches with gold nuggets in them, but they were in short supply…

 

The trail was a bit of a challenge, and we were not happy with the end of the trail, so we continued up off the trail…

Bob just wanted to keep on going…

All we found were a bunch more cactus… oh, and a chunk of blue sky!

Ya, Bob’s truck was parked a way down there… we walked out a little over 2 miles according to my handheld GPS…

Judy found a little perch to take a rest…

We were four hours out on the hike and it felt terrific today.  Really enjoyed it…

I had some direct input today, indicating that there might be some white stuff on the ground in Muskoka!   Oh – oh…

When we got back to our RV Resort, Judy and I decided it was time to move our Rig, as we could not get it level on the lot we were on, so we loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly… no, not really, just a couple of road over…

Till tomorrow…