Whew. It sure is dragging though.

 

Must have something to do with that Monday love you had the other day.

 

Afternoon everyone!

Getting closer to 4:30 every minute Jay!

 

Made it to the end!

It rained though, so drive home was stupid. F'ing people.

 

Randy, that picture where you said a guy broke a CV, the trail must be worse than it looks? Those look like core trails to me...

 

Trying to upload more pics...

Will edit and add captions - I think that was screwing me up eariler...

This is an abandoned Jail that was cut right into the rock in the side of a mountain foot-hill..


Bars are gone and so are the prisoners... This jail is supposedly about 200 years old. I don't doubt it - Arizona and most western states were just territories then.


This is a relatively typical rock wash in the trail. What the picture can't convey is the length and the incline. From the bottom of the picture to the tree in the center-top of the pic is about 100 yards. The climb is a good 60-70' or more. The boulders in the wash are not necessarily slick, but they don't have sharp edges on them that give you traction either. You can see the rubber on the boulders from the numerous jeeps and SxS rigs like ours..


This is a picture of the "White Mine" (what the locals call it). I actually believe that this is an active Perlite Mine. Perlite is used for a number of different things ranging from Sheet-Rock for the walls of your home to Antacids like Rolaids and Tums. This is the only picture I could get as my camera was packed away while I was negotiating the climb down from the ridge of the mountain.


These last two pictures are representative of many of the mountain trails. They ranged from relatively smooth (but very dusty) sand and rock to pretty rough rock trails with a number of washouts that were pretty tricky to negotiate - being mindful that a slip could get you a really quick ride down the side of the mountain.

 

Good evening everyone!

At the hospital with my daughter at the moment. We've been noticing signs that her shunt wasn't working right over the last few weeks, and the MRI confirmed that this morning. They admitted her this afternoon, and she's probably heading to the OR tomorrow around noon for a shunt revision. Hopefully she'll only be here for a few days, but she doesn't have the best track record with that.

 

Some great pics Randy! Looks like a hell of a lot better of a time than working around here.

 

Well that's no good Tom. Hoping for a safe and speedy recovery for her.

 

The trail where he broke the CV was coming through loose sand into jagged rocks. He was in 2 WD and that can cause a shock loading in the driveline when your tires are slipping and suddenly grab a hunk of rock. When I hit the loose stuff, I go into 4WD for just that reason. Less slipping.. I pay for it with poorer fuel economy.. See some of my other pics for some idea as to the conditions of the trails.

 

I will be praying for your daughter's quick and full recovery...


Thanks Dave.. Even a bad day in the desert is better than a good day at work... I am really starting to get used to this retirement gig!

 

Thanks Dave and Randy. Hannah's been through a lot over the last few years, and hopefully this will be a relatively quick thing for her.

 

More pics ---
These are screen shots of an app that I installed on my iPhone called myTracks. This myTracks application was set to record mode and it tracked our trek through the desert and mountains. I am learning more about the App and hope to be using it more. It does eat up the battery however... So, a charging cord in the SxS is in the near future..






And....
For your entertainment pleasure - we heard a BEEP-BEEP and looked to the street in front of our camper as a Road Runner streaked down the road and stopped at the site next door...
I'm sure the Coyote is trying to cook up something... LOL

 

I've used the MyTracks app before Randy and really liked it. I installed it on the iPad to avoid draining the battery on my phone and it worked great.

Cool road runner shot! The cartoon would make you think they are bigger than that.

 

We have your daughter in our thoughts too Tom.

Good evening guys.

I even left work a little early and then finished up emails when I got home. Yeah, traffic was stupid.

That is a pretty neat area out there Randy. The west side is much flatter than the very east like that.