Spring

Spring is about here! After many weeks of coat and raincoat weather, we are finally seeing the warmer temps and the sun! The grass is growing tall in the desert and new flowers are popping out every day! Of course, I have to include their pictures. I looked through my flower book tonight but can only identify the poppies, manzanita bush and ocotillo bloom. Also, we’ve been exploring old mines, bumming around the desert on the quad or in the pickup. Lots of history resides here; we have met some fellow travelers who are only too happy to tell us stories about what we are seeing. There seems to be two or three waves of miners – in the late 1800’s, in the 1930’s, then the more sophisticated mines of the 1950’s and 60’s, which is the pictures I included here. We were at Stanton, a ghost town north of Wickenburg, during the eclipse of the moon. It was a very dramatic event – after this sunset, a huge thunderstorm moved in. Lightning was flashing across the sky, thunder was growling closer and the wind was blowing fiercely. The stars were shining brightly around the cloud and the moon was blood-red, although the top of the cloud was glowing with moonlight. Then the cloud took over, it hailed and rained, and in the morning the mountains around us had snow on their peaks! Unforgettable.

Projects

I thought I’d put a blog on about the projects I work on while traveling. Of course, quilting is important to me. Here is a picture of the table runner, placemat and napkins that I made for Kelly and Matt’s wedding. But I have also taken a few classes while we were in Quartzsite. One class was a beaded bracelet designed by the teacher – I liked it so well I made a couple, and sent one to my niece in Niger, to remind her of America! I also attempted to take a watercolor class, which happened to be a Valentine’s card which I gave to Ron. The teacher thought I knew about watercoloring, so she kept saying “Don’t do that!” and “that’s not right!” so now I’m a bit paranoid about my skills. However, I thought it turned out okay, at least you can tell it’s a flower. But my sorry work had a long ways to go before it looked like the others in the class – oh well. I’ve been learning to knit socks. I bought the yarn while I was in Sheridan, WY this fall. I am learning about gauge and what size needles produce what size stitch, and how to adjust the pattern accordingly. I misplaced a needle in the camper (it’s not that big, I can’t imagine where it went!) so ended up driving an hour to Prescott to the specialty yarn shop. Between that and the weaving shop, I felt like I was in candyland! But I didn’t buy anything except a book and needles.

Wickenburg town

Wickenburg is a town about 1 hour northwest of Phoenix. When we arrived it was wet from recent rains and cold, most days around 40-50 degrees (I know, you in the northern states may sniff but when you're living in a camper that's cold!) So here is the beautiful desert greening up from recent rains.

The jumping cholla (pronounced choiya) truly jumps at you and embeds deep into rubber shoe soles. I spend a lot of time tweezing out 1 inch stickers.

The Vulture Mine was one of Arizona's biggest lode gold mines. We checked it out, here is the gatehouse with artsy designs cut into the gas cylinders.

Tours underground have been cancelled because of new ownership, we were disappointed to learn. So we've been prospecting at some of our club claims just outside of the mine. Here is Ron in action.

One day I hiked to the top of Vulture Peak, you can see the notch between the two high peaks that I hiked up to.

Spring is coming - I found new flowers blooming. Also I've included a few shots of the local scenery and the gorgeous sunset last night!

Kelly's Wedding Dance Video

I am so happy this actually worked (I think). I have been trying to figure out how to post a video to this blog site for a few weeks now. The camera took the video in a different format than what could be uploaded to the internet, so it took awhile for me to figure out how to reformat it. Anyhow, here it is, for those of you with faster internet than dialup. Click it and see!

Lake Havasu City

Okay, so now we have moved from Quartzsite to Wickenburg, AZ. It is about 1 hour northwest of Phoenix. The weather has not been very warm (in the 50s) but neither has your weather, wherever you are, unless you're in Hawaii! :)

Before we left Quartzsite we visited Lake Havasu City with our friends Margie and Bill. This city bought the London Bridge from London in the 1970s which is a tourist destination now. It is located on the beautiful Lake Havasu, created by the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. Margie had a kayak and she and I took turns kayaking around the bridge - what a hoot!

A fantastic sunset highlighted all the quartz rocks around our campsite the night before we left the area, sort of a good-bye sendoff to our next adventure in Wickenburg!

Kelly's Wedding

Last weekend was my niece Kelly’s wedding in downtown Minneapolis. I flew from Phoenix to Minneapolis with no problems except for the very cold hike from the light rail station to the hotel – walked about 6 blocks! My sister Ruth and her son Tom came from Michigan. We explored the skywalk system which is all indoors. Tom and Ruth are in front of the IDS Center, where I worked for a few months! As we walked around we found St. Olaf’s Catholic Church and went to Saturday mass – look at their pipe organ! The wedding, dinner and dance were at the top floor of the Millenium Hotel, which has a fantastic domed roof and gives a view of the skyscrapers downtown! My nighttime pictures are blurry, but here is the beautiful couple – Kelly and Matt. My other niece, Elizabeth and her husband Isaac posed in front of the skyline just at dusk – the view outside was so amazing! My sister and others toasted the happy couple, then the wedding dance commenced. The band was wonderful, the food was awesome and the company was so fun. What a great weekend!

From Lytle Creek, CA to Quartzsite, AZ

Last week found us by Los Angeles. We stayed in a campground by Lytle Creek. The forecast was for torrential rains - signs in our canyon warned of possible flooding and mudslides (typical California). Well, Lytle Creek swelled somewhat as you can see, but it didn't threaten anything, since the rains didn't come as much as predicted. We woke up to a dusting of snow but it quickly melted. Also, the most amazing jet contrail just glowed in the morning light - it has a shadow of some kind! The very bottom picture here shows the contrast of wonderful palm trees and snowy hills all around - very unique to me. After visiting Ron's sisters we traveled on to Quartzsite and set up our spot in the desert. Some of the ocotillo cactus are in leaf, and I caught the first little barrel cactus of the year in bloom! Spring is coming (eventually). Behind Ron you can see some of the campers that dot the Quartzsite valley. Behind me, our camper is way down there on the valley floor - can't you see it by the cactus? The big valley picture is supposedly where gold lays, although Ron hasn't found any of it yet. This weekend I am braced for the big weather change since I am flying to Mpls. for my niece's wedding - it is supposed to be a high of 7 degrees! I will huddle up to the heaters with my family. Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures of my beautiful niece and her man!