Friday, March 25, 2011

VACATION - Hanging out in the Arizona desert and Beading

(this post is about Wednesday and Thursday- March 23 and 24)

Oh I had to make one correction on yesterday's post about Rogers cool hauling device for his powered parachute.   The wheels underneath also allow it to be used as a trailer to tow the machine around behind his pickup truck.


What a cool invention he made of towing it and a pickup truck behind their bus!

Now, Donna asked about how it works....    A powered parachute has a motor that moves the big propeller...  it drives forward like a gocart with the parachute laid out behind it.  Once it reaches the right speed, it takes off up in the air and flies around!   Roger has a license that allows him to fly in the air safely, goes through safety checks and he uses a radio and also a SPOT locator device if he ever has to be found somewhere in the event of an equipment failure.  






Roger loves taking photos from the air and has some wonderful shots of various parts of the country, all taken from his high up perch in his powered parachute.  Here is a shot from way up high... of The Slabs (the last place we were camping over in S. California) 





We are sitting out in the desert this morning, again with sunshine and blue skies.  Bet you readers are bored silly reading that in my blogs, huh?  But hey, it's true and we are sure appreciating it.  After seeing all the snow that fell in Wisconsin again, we are appreciating this desert terrain and temps even more!  Jameson left me an excited voice mail message all about watching the snowplow in the parking lot.  How cute!


Here we are ... boondocking wayyyyyy back in the desert on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management)
See the tiny white RV's back in the desert?  One of them is us, and one is Roger and Lila's bus. Everywhere we look, we see mountains in the backdrop, and blue skies from horizon to horizon!

The terrain here is a bit greener than in the southern Arizona and California areas we were at. 

The road into this place has some washes that can be full of slimy clay mud if there is a rain up in the mountains. If that happens, you just wait till things dry up in a day or two or three before trying to drive your RV back out again.  So far, no rains so we are high and dry. 

Roger put out the awning so we women could do our beading thing in the shade....



Steve and Roger got up to take an early morning hike this morning...   so I decided to stay in my jammies and work on the blog instead.  It's a cool 45 this morning, but will be up to high 70's later today.  Ahhhhh

We  women are going to a beading gathering at the nearby Escapees park, North Ranch this afternoon.  I am bringing along my hair clip projects.  I have been showing Lila how to make them....  



And Roger got busy making her a wooden jig device to help hold the stretchy cords of beads in place while you stitch it to the hair combs. 




 Our guys will hang out at the campers in the desert and solve all of the world's problems... they are sure good at doing that.  So we women can bead, craft, knit, spin or whatever.  They will come up with projects, ideas, solutions and plans.  In no particular order!

(Bob, Steve and Roger) 

 And of course, the dogs are having a blast, with new desert to sniff, no leashes or ropes, and just relaxing on the couch when I work on the blog posts!!!!  What a life!



And so it goes... another sunny day in the desert.  We will be moving on soon towards the east again, not sure when, where, what day or who we will meet up with next.  We just know all too soon, this vacation will end and we will be back in the snowy muck of Wisconsin.   ARGGGHHHH!!!!

8 comments:

  1. Look's like Roger's got quite the Flying machine. I wonder if that's the same one Al, from the Bayfield Bunch met up with last year when it tipped over.Sure am enjoying your weather, It was snowing when I got up this morning and I had about two inches by the time I drove Nicole to school. Have fun & be safe out there. Sam & Donna....

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  2. Being a pilot, I HAD to find that secret airport. Ah-Ha! Spotted it. Now, is it private land? Does Roger have permission to use it, or is it simply available for visitors who might drop in? Also thanks for the story on the sand dunes - I've got it on my visit list!
    RustedGranny

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  3. Karen, HAve a great time with the beading ladies at North Ranch. They taught me so much - I just love visiting there. Say hi to Cathy.

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  4. You're doing a great job with your posts on your vacation, it's making us want to hit the road even sooner.

    Hopefully, you can stay out as long as possible and soak up enough sun to get you through to summer!

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  5. How fun! I would love to travel in that machine, and the view is awesome! Thanks for taking us with you.

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  6. Hey girl, you are going to have to be careful how you take photographs, we know exactly where you are--that old water tower is a dead giveaway. We considered boondocking there but as our friends offered us full hookups in their yard at North Ranch for free, we wimped out! Enjoy the rest of your vacation, isn't it wonderful all this sunshine!

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  7. Fascinating Flying machine. If I were a bit younger, I'd have me one of those! I always wanted to learn to fly - but hate flying commercial nowadays.

    I liked your hair beads. That would be something my granddaughters would like making. I am going to have to find some way to take some kind of craft with me when I travel...

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  8. Yer life is so hard, with all them decisions bout what to bead next that I.M. feelin' sorry for ya. Course liken y'all was a writin' - if'n ya think its tuff now, just wait till y'all get back to Westconson and find out what tuff reelly is. :)

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