Last night, Holland said that he wanted to drive into town and visit the Hi Jolly Monument - and get a closer look at what is left of the Fort/Stagecoach Station.
But … Holland did not get to sleep until the wee hours of the early morning; so, until we could hear Holland stirring on the upper level, Blue and I enjoyed some early morning 1-on-1 and I drank two cups of Hazelnut coffee while checking out some of this week's Blog Hop posts on various Blogs: I saw that two of my handmade projects had been featured on two Blogs :-)
When Holland was up and actively getting around the house, we locked our home up and drove 5 minutes in town ;-)
I had posted about the roof-covered-ruins last Saturday, and we see them every time we drive down main street in Quartzsite; but Holland wanted a closer view of them today … so, that's what we did this afternoon.
The open-sided-pole building roof something new; we are thinking that the recent surge of 2023 December rainstorms caused concern the ruins might be washed away.
Something else new, is the metal camels alongside the covered ruins: these were not here last Saturday, when we had gone into town to get some things from the Road Runner Grocery Store …
The live camels, it has been reported & documented, outlived the President that had signed off on their 1856 import and US Cavalry deploy, their trainer & handler - Hi Jolly … and even the laying of the plaque in their honor: the last reported sighting of the imported-and-released into the wild-desert camels, was in 1942.
Then, we drove about a block down main street to the Monument Holland wanted to visit, as well.
After Hi Jolly and his camels were released from their military contract, Hi Jolly remained in Quartzsite-AZ, living into his seventies. Neil Morrison, director of the 11th Armored Calvary Museum at Fort Irwin, California, said that Hi Jolly had two wives - at the same time: there is no recorded record known of either wife.
The locals were so fond of Hi Jolly, that after he died, they spent several weeks building Hi Jolly a special pyramid tomb, made of multicolored petrified wood and quartz. It was dedicated on Jan. 4, 1903. Thirty-three years later the Arizona Highway Department came along and cemented a bronze plaque to the tomb, telling Hi Jolly's story, and topped the pyramid with a metal camel silhouette.
The Fort ruins, and the Cemetery Monument, were all that was on Holland's Bucket List today.
Back home, we had a meatloaf sandwich for Supper, and enjoyed another of Holland's original fruit juices :-)
Then, I got my exercise stepper in working order (it will be seriously employed tomorrow morning ;-))
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And Holland cut his curls off - obviously he feels the temperature has warmed up enough to keep his hair closer to the head, again :-(
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