13 March, 2016 More fun in the sun and other places.

Just a recap of some of the things we've done the last couple of weeks.

Scott loves Story Time at the library.  The staff reads books and has all kinds of activities for the kids.  Afterwards the kid are allowed to play with the room with their friends.

We moved the motor home to a new location.  It's only about 500 yards from the old location but we have much better cell service at the new location.  

We made an excursion to Las Vegas to have a fun day for Scott.

He was delighted when we got the front car on the Tram and was pretending to "drive" the tram.

This is one great location for kite flying with lots of wind and no trees or power lines.

We're winding down on our weed pulling.  We'll make the last foray this afternoon.  By the time we finish we'll have pulled over a thousand pounds of Sahara Mustard this season.  The next project: fixing the fence around a spring!

We bought some training wheels for our kayaks.  Actually they're portaging dollies.  They fold out and we put them under the kayaks so that we can roll them to the water.  Where we're now parked it's about a half-mile each way but we can't get any closer with the motor home.  As always, Scott's favorite position is with Susan so he can play in the water as we paddle.

Scott and Susan utilizing Scott's sand pile.  It surprises many people to know that the desert is not all sand.  In our new location there's a large patch of deep sand in front of the motor home.  We have to rake out the debris but once that's done it's a great place for Scott to play.

The reason for our trip to Vegas was to take Scott to the Shark Reef at the Mandolay Bay Casino/Hotel.  It's a huge aquarium with all kinds of salt-water critters including this White Crocodile and countless sharks and other types of fish.  In some places the path tunnels under the water and you walk on glass floors so you have fish swimming above and below you.

Scott was enthralled with all the colorful fish.

One of our neighbors.  This old bull has a problem with horn growth.  His are curving around into the side of his head.

This area has some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the world. (This is the sunrise!)

Scott, being five-years-old never sits still ... or upright!  He's like a perpetual motion machine.

Now it's time to get serious about getting our taxes figured up. Yuch!

29 February, 2016 - Back Roads, Death Valley, and Sahara Mustard

We've been keeping busy.  The weather has cooperated with less wind and more warm so we've been getting out more.

Scott starting the evening camp fire.

Scott roasting marshmallows.  He didn't do too bad at eating them either.  Of course he was bouncing off the walls from a sugar high for a couple of hours afterward.

Our view to the southeast.

We saw the horses again.  I'm not sure they are truly "wild."  They seemed very trustful and friendly so I'm beginning to think someone dumped them out there.  

Some of the variety of cacti we saw near Meadview, AZ.

This photo should have been put up by the campfire!

Some of the flowers in bloom now.

We saw this dug out near the old Pearce Ferry location.  It was made during the Depression era as a work project.

Inside view of the back...

Inside view of the front wall.

The holes in the back wall had pack rat nests in them.

We spotted some Sahara Mustard on the side of the road.  Part of our volunteer work is checking for a pulling up these plants so we stopped here and filled a 50 gallon size garbage bag.  (There was a lot more that's not in the photo.)  It's usually found where there has been heavy equipment work (as in grading the road).

More cacti.

We were surprised to see a Montana wild flower (Indian Paintbrush) in AZ.  We still don't know if it is native to the region. 

Another view of Lake Mead.

Some of the rock formations.

We stopped at Willow Beach to look around.  This is a lookout over the river.

Scott enjoyed running along the cement wall.

Duck feeding time along the river.

Okay, this was taken while we were pumping gas in the car on our way to Death Valley for the day!

One of the coolest things about Death Valley is all of the different colors and strata in the mountains.

The photos do not do justice here!

We took a hike up Golden Canyon to the Rock Cathedral.

Some of the wildflowers on the hike.

Scott finally stopped long enough for a photo.

Some of the clearances were kind of tight in places.

It was about 1 1/4 mile each way.  Scott wasn't feeling good when we took off so I carried him about half the way up the trail and about 3/4 of the way back to the trail head.

Susan and Scott on the final leg to the Cathedral.

I climbed up to the top to take this photo.

We took one more drive-through to check out some more scenery.

More color.

After hiking and sight seeing we stopped for lunch and a quick dip in the "heated" pool. It was not anywhere near warm water.  After about 15 minutes Scott was shivering so we took some long, hot showers in the shower room.  Even though we got ripped of on the heated pool we thoroughly enjoyed the piping hot water used in the showers.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant but should have just saved our money.  The service was terrible.  We waited for over fifteen minutes for a waiter to show up.  The menu was skimpy and everything was overpriced.  Susan's food was not fully cooked and to top it off the waiter was salivating like Pavlov's dog anticipating the tip.  (He was sorely disappointed there!)  It was almost $40.00 for just the food and drinks (tea - tasted like it was made out of Drano) and we'd have had better food and service at McDonalds for a lot less money.

I've been disappointed with my barbecue grill.  The lower vent holes are in the center so the center of the charcoal burns out while the outer edges are cold.  So I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom to try for more even heat distribution.  It did make it work better!

Scott talked us into giving him a ride on the wagon on one of our daily walks.

One of our mornings at the lake.

Odie decided to take a bath while we were there.

Same location on the lake but a different day.  Scott decided some cuddle time was in order after skinny-dipping on the lake.

More Sahara Mustard at our "swimming beach."

We pulled it this time.  (We didn't have any plastic bags the first time.)

Different spot, same beach.

And now it's gone.

We really pack these bags with weeds.  They weigh between 50 to 100 lbs. when full.  These were not heavy duty bags so this one weighs in at about 50 lbs.

First burro we've seen locally.  He's about 100 yards from the motor home.

That's pretty much it for February.  Hope you've enjoyed it.