Yesterday afternoon, we pulled stakes from our Quartzsite-AZ desert spot … and drove into town to rent a spot there; to get laundry done, dump & flush the black water holding tanks, and enjoy a leisurely shower. It's a nice graveled spot with a little shading and two permanently vacant spots on either side of us: we enjoyed a quiet night, and Bleu enjoyed freedom runs :-)
This morning, Bleu was missing his freedom runs.
I was drinking my morning coffee, and Holland was fixing to take the garbage out when, I said, "Wait a minute - let me get the garbage bags from the bathrooms." He said he'd go get the bathroom bag from the upstairs bathroom, near the bedroom: when he came back downstairs, he said, "Wait 'til you see the surprise your furry son left for you in the bedroom."
Alarm bells rang in my ears.
We've been under a lot of stress since Monday morning … and just like a child in a house filled with tension, he has felt the stress that was ricocheting off the 4 walls.
The stress was defused yesterday, but as with all stressful situations: the effects linger for a while. What did he do?
I asked, "Did he poop on the floor?" Holland said, "No." I asked, "Did he pee on the floor?" Holland said, "No."
The alarm bells stopped ringing … and I went to investigate - wondering what on earth Bleu had done.
Out of boredom, the little brat had shredded a spare bed pillow :-(
This is a new thing - hopefully this type of things will not happen again.
So, into the trash bag it went; and I got dressed and took Bleu for a loop walk around the RV Park here in town. When we got back, Holland said, "Why don't we drive up the road to Hi Jolly and let him run awhile?"
So, that's what we did ;-)
We have a Blue-Heeler … they are good watch dogs, and they are loyal dogs; they are also high energy herding dogs bred to run. He can't run in a town RV Park. But he could run in the desert, up the road a bit.
When Bleu had run himself long enough, we left Hi Jolly, and Holland said, "You need to get out of the house too, why don't you drive up the road a bit and see what there is to see."
So, I did.
The town, itself, is very small - a shot-gun town; but over the overpass is wide-open country with several BLM Campgrounds all the way to Yuma, which is 80 miles away (a little over an hour and a half). I didn't want to go all the way to Yuma today: we will be driving to Yuma in a couple of days … but I did want to explore a little more of the desert here.
I'd rather be driving backroads instead of highways and freeways: thankfully my husband is in agreement.
We saw some interesting sights as we drove along :-)
Some of these sights were new things, to me.
Saguaros start life slowly, reaching an inch to an inch and a half in height in eight years. A saguaro doesn’t start flowering—providing a vital food source and reproducing—until it’s more than 35 years old. Around age 50, the cactus starts growing arms, which also flower. The saguaro’s pleated trunk won’t accommodate a woodpecker cavity until it’s about 8 feet tall, or 80 to 120 years old … and likely won’t host a raptor nest until it’s about 150 years old.
WOW
I kept driving
And rubber-necking :-)
After a while, we noticed the road was getting quite a bit rougher. And there are no road signs - just miles of desert and choking desert dust. Eventually, we decided to head back homeward; and started looking for a highway access road.
The way we took led to a little steep drop off before we hopped back onto blacktop. The little drop off concerned me because Betsy has a low-rider front end. But Holland said, "Just tip toe down that little drop off and it'll be okay." I was skeptical … but I followed Holland's instructions (slow and easy - drive forward at an slight angle): this was a new experience for me, and everything went okay until I heard the back end hit solid ground. Hard. I shot Holland an {I'm sorry!} look, and he said, "It's okay Baby; there's no damage - what you heard was the trailer hitch catching the drop-off edge as we creeped forward. It's okay."
But I didn't feel it was "okay" until we were home and I checked the situation out ;-)
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We all took a little siesta before Supper.
Napping in the middle of the day is a new thing for me: but it's life-saving here in the South where temperatures soar into 3-digets (heavy work, cooking, ect. gets done in late afternoon to evening hours where the heat is not so intense). I like it.
Starland Vocal Band : "Afternoon Delight" (1976) • Lyrics: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taSa16bSPvY)
When we got back up, I baked some brownies (Holland wanted to make fried chicken: YUM!); and I was glad he said that because I was missing fried chicken, and was thinking before we got up - that fried chicken would be the perfect meal for the close of this week's Shabbat :-)
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Today was a great day, all the way around.
And all the praise and glory goes to Elohim, for His mercy and faithfulness never fails us :-)
