Thank you, as always, to everyone that checked in on us recently. We’ve had a rough time since leaving the desert in Quartzsite, AZ on March 12th, but we’re ok! Mother Nature has given us a lot of daunting weather challenges to face. It hasn’t been fun sometimes, but we’re still here! I’m truly grateful that this weather has occurred late in our journey. If we’d started out with this much miserable weather early on, our roadtrip would have been cut short… 🥺 Most of this past month has involved trying to keep us safe in the middle of serious weather conditions including: very strong WINDS, flooding, severe thunderstorms with massive hail & tornadoes! 😳 We’ve lost approximately 15 days of travel time since March 12th. 🥺 One definite advantage to traveling with no set schedules or destinations is that I don’t plan our travel too far in advance. I’ve always been following the local weather reports very carefully. Lately, I’ve had to revise our plans on a daily basis & sometimes more than once in a day! 🤷♀️
This is going to be a shorter post than I expected for today because the thick fog is finally starting to clear. I’m making a run for it!
We’re now leaving Jackson, Tennessee & heading for Golden Pond in Kentucky.
I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. If you’re celebrating Easter, have a wonderful day!
Thursday, March 10, 2022 was our Day #100 in the Sonoran Desert in Quartzsite, Arizona & Day #312 of our wonderful journey.
It was also supposed to be our Moving On Day!
After a WIND delay of several days, we were finally getting back on the road again! Yay!!!
I had hoped to leave on Friday, 3/11, but ANOTHER major WINDSTORM swooped in & we were stuck. Long sections of highway I-10 between Quartzsite & our next destination were shut down because of the wind & blowing dust. 😳 I’ve been following the weather reports all across the country & wind has been a serious factor almost everywhere this winter.
🥺False alarm… 🙄
Ok, Mother Nature! This isn’t funny! 😳 Enough already!!!
ANOTHER serious wind & dust storm arrived & we were stuck in Quartzsite, AGAIN. 🤷♀️ The storm arrived on Wednesday night, much earlier than forecast, so I couldn’t take the tent down safely until Thursday morning. By the time I was ready to leave, the wind had started to increase again. I’d hoped to drive out of it’s range, so I took a chance & hit the road. I only reached the first exit on the highway, 6 miles away, when I decided that Mother Nature was winningthis round.
Mother Nature won another round. 😬
The radio announcer was reporting high winds & local authorities were recommending that tractor trailers & high profile vehicles stay off the road. Although my car isn’t in that category, I didn’t feel safe driving. I took that first exit & we returned to Quartzsite. 🙄
Instead of driving back to our original campground, I pulled into one that’s right off the highway. This was our view for sunset.
We Escaped!!!😁
On Friday morning, I grabbed a quick breakfast & we hit the road!
This is our view for the weekend! 💝 The top photo was mid-afternoon & the bottom was just as the sun was setting.
This is the Salt River in Coon Bluff Recreation Area in Mesa, Arizona.
This area is well-known for the wild horses living here! 🐎 Hopefully, I’ll find some!
I’m so excited to be near water, camping in the shade of trees & stepping on green grass again!
There’s also NO WIND & NO DUST! ❤ We loved most of our time in Quartzsite, but I’ve been really missing water & GREEN. On the way to Coon Bluff, I saw a lot of flowers in bloom! It feels like a different planet than Quartzsite❣
After leaving the city of Santa Fe, I decided to check out the Santa Fe National Forest Campground. The transition was like going to another planet! The city had been crowded & bustling. The forest was quiet & peaceful. 💝
The temperature difference was significant, too. When I bought the fruit in the city, I was concerned about keeping it cool enough for a few days.
Excessive heat was not an issue… 😳
Maddie, it’s cold outside! We really can’t stay! Maddie, it’s cold outside! We gotta go away! Maddie, it’s cold outside!!! 🥶 (My apologies to the original musicians! 🤷♀️)This was the sunset on our first night at Big Tesuque (pronounced “Tess-U-key”) Campground at an elevation of 9700 feet. It was beautiful, but extremely cold! The fruit all froze SOLID overnight in the tent! Luckily, I was able to thaw it enough to eat & make “smoothies”.This is the same view during the day. It’s gorgeous!I don’t know if there was a campfire ban in place, but it was definitely too windy to use an open 🔥 flame safely!Sunset❣I love this photo & the one below! It was long after sunset, but the moon was lighting up the entire campground. I edited both of these photos to brighten them up, but this is what I was actually seeing. It was a spectacular moonlit night❣Moonglow❣Have I mentioned that this is a FREE Campground? 😁At first glance, I thought these were enormous birch trees, but they’re aspen. The brilliant yellow leaves & bright blue sky made most of my photos in this area look washed out. Maddie & I walked this trail each morning to warm up & it was good exercise for us, too. On the top right is the stream that flowed by our campsite. The bottom right photo is the ice that formed on the path overnight.
We only stayed at this campground for two nights because it was just too cold to be comfortable. We were about 50′ from the stream & I think it added a lot of dampness & chill to the air. The first night, the temperature was forecast to drop to 28°, although another tent camper told me that their indoor/outdoor thermometer read colder than that. 😳 The kiwi fruit was frozen solid, so it was COLD! I hadn’t pulled out our winter gear, so I was happy to know we’d survive in that temperature!We slept in the car the second night because it was supposed to drop to 24°, minus the wind chill. 🥶
After we thawed out in the morning, I packed up & drove up the road to Aspen Vista. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the aspen trees were at peak color! I’m not sure why some of the leaves in the center photo below look orange because they were BRIGHT YELLOW. The panoramic view from up there was definitely worth the drive.
Despite only staying at this campground for 2 nights, I met some more nice people. Our campsite was the first one up the hill from the parking lot, so almost everyone passed by us to hike or get to their campsites.
Maddie & I usually sat at our picnic table, enjoying the scenery & the warm sun, while I read about future destination options. “We” said hello to everyone going by because Maddie became the official greeter for everyone! I met a woman from MA & several other people who were just passing through the area. One hiker gave me a beautiful Origami paper crane. He makes them to share & I love mine. “The crane has always been a strong symbol of success & good fortune in Japanese culture & when folded into origami, it is believed that your heart’s desire will come true.” I’m keeping my crane safe! 🤗
When I’ve told people about our journey, they’ve been very supportive. I’ve found that most people out enjoying the fresh air & sunshine are kindred spirits.
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh ~
These are NOT my photos! I “borrowed” them from Google.
Santa Fe is the 4th largest city in New Mexico & it’s a beautiful, artsy (expensive) community. It’s architecture is like no other city in this country. The thick walls of the buildings are made from adobe bricks, which are a mixture of sun-dried earth & straw. It’s a construction material that’s well-suited for the desert climate. During the summer, people open their doors at night to let the walls absorb & store the cooler temperatures. The doors are kept closed during the day to repel the heat. This helps keep the indoor temperature cooler, as if the rooms are being air-conditioned.
Standing in downtown Santa Fe, “Yard Dog” is 12 feet tall, 20 feet long & made of corrugated metal. This sculpture was created by artist Don Kennell in 2011, as a temporary display. I think Yard Dog has found a permanent home! 💕🐾🐾💕 A shaded porch swing hangs beneath it’s belly. Maddie & I sat on the swing for a few minutes to people & pup watch! Santa Fe is a dog-friendly city for dogs of ALL sizes! 🐾❤🐾
Unfortunately, Santa Fe is also a city with a lot of traffic, narrow streets & limited access to parking. I would have loved to explore more of the city, but it was too warm to walk far with Maddie & I couldn’t find anywhere to park, within a reasonable distance. 🤷♀️
Maddie & I walked in this cute, little neighborhood park. I fell in love with this statue of the artist & his faithful dog❣The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, commonly known as Saint Francis Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Santa Fe. Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and the environment & some consider him to be the original Earth Day advocate. The architecture of the cathedral is Romanesque Revival. It opened in 1886. This is a link to the virtual tour:https://www.cbsfa.org/89 I didn’t go inside because the waiting line for the tour was too long to leave Maddie sitting in the car. 🤷♀️ I was so happy to find two of my favorite stores in Santa Fe❣ I treated myself to 2 coffees at Dunkin Donuts, along with companion donuts 🍩, of course! With no specific destination in mind & no refrigeration, I only picked up a few fresh fruits, cheese, my instant coffee & a bouquet of Alstroemeria flowers. Doesn’t everyone buy fresh flowers for a camping trip? 😉 As it turned out, keeping things cool was NOT an issue… To be continued…
I’m STILL trying to catch up on my posts! 🤷♀️ I’d previously edited & saved 200+ of my favorite photos of HR & written most of this, but I haven’t had enough solid reception to finalize it until now.
I’ll always treasure our time at Hardin Ridge. 💝
August 10 – 24, 2021
Hardin Ridge is a 1,200-acre campground located on the shores of Monroe Reservoir in Hoosier National Forest in Indiana. “Hoosier National Forest, one of Indiana’s premier federal resources, provides outstanding stewardship of over 200,000 acres in nine counties of south-central Indiana.” Dogs aren’t allowed at the beach area, but with our Camp Hosts permission, I drove over occasionally to watch the gorgeous sunsets over the water.
If anyone had told me a year ago that I’d be spending 14 days with Maddie, camping deep inside a national forest in Indiana, my reaction would have been 😳!
HR was a magical place to visit. I didn’t want to leave, but there’s a 14 day limit. 🥺 Our original reservation was for 9 days. On our second day there, I extended it to the full 14 day maximum.
Our campsite was perfect! The car was parked in the driveway, at the top of the stairs. We had a nice picnic table & an in-ground firepit. The restrooms were close by. They were kept spotlessly clean & had nice, HOT showers. 😊 There were always birds serenading us from the treetops, including owls every night. 🦉 Our time at Hardin Ridge was truly a magical experience. ❤We were visiting HR during the heat of summertime, but the tree canopy surrounding us provided enough shade to keep us cool & comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised that there were almost no bugs to bother us! 👍🏼This was one of the short trails I hiked in search of geodes. I’d considered taking Maddie along, but I found a shaded area to park & left her sleeping peacefully in the car. That turned out to be a very lucky decision because the terrain would have been tough for her. In some areas, I had to crawl under or over enormous downed trees. In other places, the path was narrow & cracking from recent erosion. 😳Have I ever mentioned that I wasn’t a camper or a hiker, before this trip? 🤔A few people contacted me directly during this time because they were worried about us being so isolated in the forest. The main concern for me was that we’d get a visit from Yogi & Boo-Boo 🐻. After doing my research, bears were no longer a threat. We did have deer wander through on a regular basis, much to Maddie’s delight & dismay! 😉 Also, please notice the well-maintained pavement. All of the campground roads were in fabulous condition, including the driveways to each campsite.Searching for Bigfoot, collecting geodes & watching for the Perseids meteor showers were my main interests at HR. I was able to accomplish 2/3 of my wishlist… Hint: I never saw any of the meteor showers because the trees were too thick overhead.While I was writing about Bigfoot yesterday (2/26/21), my phone rang. It was supposedly a Scam Call from Indiana, but I’m still wondering if it was Bigfoot trying to contact me. 🤔 I don’t know anyone else in Indiana. 🤷♀️I ventured into Bloomington, IN in search of some fresh bread & produce & hit the jackpot at Bloomingfoods Co-op Market! It’s been a cooperatively-owned grocery store since 1976 & offers high-quality, locally-sourced food at a fair price. As expected, the prices were a little high, but the quality was exceptional & well worth the money.While at Bloomingfoods, I asked for the location of the nearest public park. This one was close by & it was a beautiful place for Maddie & I to enjoy our lunch.This community garden was full of local gardeners, bees & butterflies, all busily tending to their flowers & vegetables.I made good use of my Bloomingfoods purchases over the next few days. It was so much fun to treat myself to a feast of healthy food!This was salmon that I reheated on the grill. This cheese was a specialty goat cheese, recommended by my sister who raises dairy goats. Between the delicious food & the wonderful setting, this was one of my favorite (& healthiest) mealson this trip. 💕I splurged & indulged my sweet tooth! 🤷♀️
Geodes, Geodes & More Geodes!
According to geology.com, “geodes are spherical to subspherical rock structures with an internal cavity lined with mineral materials.”
Geodes are usually round & they always have a bumpy surface. They sometimes have loose material inside, which can be heard when shaking the rock. They’re usually lighter than their size would indicate because the inside isn’t solid.
In most national & state parks & forests, it’s illegal to take anything from the environment. When we arrived at Hardin Ridge, I was encouraged to hunt for geodes & allowed to keep them! 😍
It quickly became an obsession! They’re really easy to find & they’re EVERYWHERE!I kept reminding myself that rocks are heavy & take up valuable space in an already overloaded car… 🙄
There were massive amounts of geodes everywhere. One interesting thing I learned was the best place to look for them. Geodes are round & relatively lightweight. During a heavy rain, they roll down the hills & get trapped at the base of trees. They basically collect themselves! The bottom photo is a geode the size of my hand & it sparkles. 💕Our campsite had a perfect geode cracking rock! I put a geode in a sock & whacked it on the rock. Done! Obviously, this method is not the best way to carefully open a geode, but I was happy with my results. 👍🏼 I ended up buying a package of heavy men’s socks to save my own socks! In the upper right is a small geode, prior to being cracked open. Below it is what the interior looked like, after being cracked open. It was full of “rust”!I created my own geode washing station on the picnic table. Every geode is incredibly unique. It was fun to crack them open to see what surprises were hidden inside. Most of them contained a lot of loose rust that needed to be washed out. Bleach & Rust Out worked well.
I became so interested aka obsessed in geodes that I joined a FB group of Indiana geodes & fossil collectors! The members were happy to share their knowledge about finding geodes & offered their best methods to open & clean them.
We’ve visited several Tractor Supply stores across the country because they carry Maddie’s food. At this TS, they were selling a large selection of 4-H t-shirts. The Middlesex County 4-H Fair at home has always been special to me & takes place in late August. To celebrate my love of 4-H, I now own 3 t-shirts! 🍀 I also had a rare moment of feeling a little bit homesick there. A dear friend of mine passed away unexpectedly, shortly after we left home in May. Larry & I had been friends through 4-H for 50+ years. It was difficult to be so far away on the day of his memorial service. 🥺On the left is Maddie’s ice cream face in July 2013 & the current version is on the right. 💝 We had our own going away pity party! Sadly, we were leaving this beautiful forest the next day,🥺, so I decided that we needed to drown our sorrows in ice cream! 🍧🍦 Indiana has an Ice Cream Trail, featuring ice cream shops all over the state. I drove 15 miles each way to Jiffy Treets & it did not disappoint! I devoured a “small” S’mores sundae with mint chip ice cream. 💕 Maddie got their “special” dog ice cream, which is vanilla soft serve with a dog bone! All of this cost less than $6.00! Yummy! When we returned to our campsite, I watched the last 2 (extra) innings of the Red Sox game on my phone. The game went back & forth, but we finally won it in the 11th inning, with a walk-off GRAND SLAM homerun!!! How sweet it is! 😉 I still wasn’t happy about leaving the next day, but I felt much better!Ice cream can cure almost anything for me!This is an extremely rare photo! I’m in it… 😉
I didn’t want to leave Hardin Ridge without at least one siting of Bigfoot, but after almost two weeks of searching for the big guy, I’d become discouraged. I finally asked a Camp Host for a clue to his favorite hangouts. Even with my clue, I just couldn’t find him. 🥺 On our last full day at the campground, I FINALLY caught a glimpse of him! With a few, well-timed maneuvers, I was able to get close enough to say hello. To my astonishment, he very kindly stood still for a few photos! He’s definitely the quiet & shy type, but he’s also tall, dark & handsome❣ (Spending 2 weeks in a forest creates a wild imagination!)😁
P.S. – We’re still in Arizona 🏜, but we’ll be heading out soon!
These are just a few of the many, many hearts I’ve found along this journey❣My funny, amazing, beautiful, beloved Valentine. 💝 I love you, Maddie. Today & every day❣“Thank you for being a friend. Traveled down a road and back again. Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant.“ Written by Andrew Gold
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone & THANK YOU for being my friend❣
I have several unrelated topics & photos to share, so this is a mishmash! 🧐
Recently, I’d been craving pizza & then a friend on FB mentioned pizza! 🥴 Now, I was on a mission to get PIZZA! It took over 24 hours to get it, but mission accomplished! 😁 NO pizza is worth a 2.5+ hour wait for take-out, so I had to give it up on Day #1. 🥺 The next day, I called in my order at 2:15 & it was ready at 3pm. There was NO place to park, except the ice cream shop next door & they’re very STRICT about parking. Sooooo…I parked with the buggies, got myself a cup of chocolate chip ice cream & a Pup Cup for Maddie. Then I ran in to get my Hawaiian pizza & a root beer. I made a Brown Cow root beer float & voilà! Dinner was served! (I found the pizza Pringles at Dollar General, in case I’m ever craving pizza again… 😆)This was a DELICIOUS grilled cheese sandwich from a food truck. Mean Maggi’s is from Montana & they offer a limited menu of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. They come all the way to Quartzsite every January for a few weeks because they do such a fabulous business here! This was a BAS/bacon, apple & Swiss cheese on thick wheat toast. It was garnished with a jalapeño pepper. A mini Milky Way bar was a sweet treat surprise. They’re only here for another few days, so I’m hoping to go back soon for their TBA/turkey, bacon & avocado! 😊 I love this bar’s concept of Adult Day Care! 😎It’s a good thing these tiny lizards are so fast because they’re unbelievably well camouflaged! I’m always afraid of stepping on one, so I’m very careful to look for them now. I’ve named them all Waldo, as in Where’s Waldo? 😁The hummingbirds are now here from dawn until almost dark! I’m probably going to start using the second feeder to avoid territorial disputes. I’d love it if they decide to nest here!Maddie is doing great❣ I’m going to petition the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show to add Canine Entanglement to their events! Maddie would definitely win Best in Show! She has an extraordinary talent for tripping up humans with her cable & also getting herself caught up on EVERYTHING. 🙄 I turned away from her for about 3 minutes & when I looked back, this was how I found her! She was so tightly tangled up with the solar light pole that I had to remove her harness to release her! 🤷♀️ Note the ROCKY ground. I expected the desert to be sandy. Here, it’s all rocks. It makes it extremely difficult to pound in tent stakes & it’s a rough surface to walk on.The top photo is just as the sun is setting. For just a few minutes almost every night, the mountain tops have a gorgeous, coppery colored glow. The bottom photo is our campsite in the dark. We’ve had several close calls recently with drivers almost hitting the tent & car in the dark! 😠 I’ve had the solar lights with me, so I made a line of nightlights to HOPEFULLY keep us safe! 😬I forgot to post these photos of the last full moon in January. It was a beautiful, clear night with just enough clouds to create an eerie appearance. The sky is usually either cloudless & bright blue or filled with an interesting assortment of clouds. ☁️ These were two of our neighbors tents that succumbed to the wind. The top one was just being used for storage, but the bottom one was their living space. As far as I know, nobody was hurt in this storm, but there was significant damage all over the area. 🥺😉The weather conditions here are dusty, very dusty or DUSTY.
I hope everyone is doing well & surviving this crazy winter weather, wherever you live.
Due to technical difficulties & poor reception yesterday,
Happy Belated Groundhog Day! 🤷♀️
❤😁Here we go again! 😳34 mph WIND might not seem too bad… Unless you’re camping in a tent… In the desert… 😳
This windstorm, now “affectionately” being called The Quartzsite Dust Bowl, was in the forecast for several days. I’m grateful for the early warning because it gave me enough time to plan. I packed up the screenporch tent that I’ve been using as a food storage & indoor meal prep area. I’m not sure yet if I’ll put it back up. Then I packed as much as possible into our regular tent, hoping to keep it from blowing away!I lowered the legs to shrink it down & covered it in tarps. The wind yanked the 10″ heavy duty stakes out of the ground a few times, but I was able to re-securethem. According to the local radio station, wind gusts reached 50+ mph. Maddie & were hunkered down safely in the car.The silver lining in this story is that the sun was shining. If we’d had rain along with the wind, it would have been truly disastrous.
The red arrow is pointing at the restroom. Many times throughout the day, it was completely invisible in the blowing dust. It looked like blizzard whiteout conditions. The blessing was that the sun was shining brightly all day! I had taken down the hummingbird feeder to protect it & was sad to see how many hummingbirds actually braved the storm, looking for food! I don’t know how they were even flying! I’ll have a lot of hungry visitors in the morning. ❣🤔🥴😆
Today is January 28, 2022. It’s Day #271 of our journey & Day #59 here in the Arizona desert. 🏜
After surviving the WIND & chilly temperatures at Christmas time & New Year’s, the weather has returned to normal now.Out of respect for my family & friends in COLD climates, many facing blizzard conditions this weekend 🥶, I won’t be mean & share the details… 🤐 I’ll just say that THIS weather is what prompted my decision to hunker down here. 💕
Sunrise. 🌅 Actually, the recent sunrises & sunsets have been a little boring. 🥴 The most colorful sunrises & sunsets need clouds & we’ve been experiencing bright blue, cloudless skies. This is absolutely not a complaint!!! It’s just an observation!I’ll never fuss about blue skies!
I don’t really have much of anything new to share today. I‘ve had a few people contact me, concerned that I’d gone off-grid again, so I just wanted to check in. Due to the huge number of people in town for the enormous RV show, my reception has been extremely slow to non-existent, as expected.As a result, I haven’t been able to make or receive phone calls or emails or work on this blog very often. I sometimes have decent reception in the middle of the night, so I try to check my emails then.We’re usually lights out soon after dark, so Maddie needs to go out at least once during the night. Twelve hours is a long time between potty breaks! I take advantage of being awake & chilly again to get online. Unfortunately, the timing doesn’t work for phone calls. 🤷♀️
I’m grateful that I chose this campsite because it’s been perfect! We’re close to the pit toilet aka outhouse aka restroom, per regulation. Unless a vehicle is self-contained, you’re required to be close to the restroom. That’s fine with me! They’ve been clean & well-maintained, so that’s a plus.We’re also a reasonable distance from the dumpsters & water, so that’s also been convenient.
For some reason, our area hasn’t gotten crowded, while some of the other areas nearby have been wall to wall with campers, RVs, etc.We had a large motor home next door for a week or so, but they left yesterday.
I think I should have plugged into my neighbor’s solar grid! I probably could have communicated with aliens! 👽Linda & Bailey 💕 We met because Bailey got loose soon after they arrived & scampered straight over to us! She’s the sweetest, little puppy & loves to cuddle. Maddie wasn’t always thrilled when I went over for a visit & a cuddle, but she’s not really a cuddly dog. 🤷♀️They were here from South Dakota. After a week, Linda decided to head on over to the California coastline to visit family members. When she arrived, she texted me to let me know they’d arrived safely & she was loving her visit & the beautiful, GREEN area! As a New Englander, I’ve been missing the ocean & lakes, but I’m also missing GREEN now! 😁 This is a very beige & DUSTY environment, with almost no greenery around. I don’t count cactus 🌵 as greenery! 🤫 Between the insanely cheap fee to stay here & the weather, I’ve learned to deal with it, but I’m looking forward to seeing GREEN & WATER again! As a life-long Red Sox fan far from home, I was waiting for this year’s Hall of Fame announcement. If you heard cheering coming from your southwest direction on Tuesday night, it was me! Congratulations to David Ortiz aka Big Papi❣
One really fun thing that happened was the arrival of hummingbirds! Someone posted on a local FB page, asking about hummingbirds here. After a very positive responses, I pulled out the mini feeders I brought along. I hadn’t thought to use them because it’s been so chilly & windy. The day after I filled the feeder with sugar water, voilà! They’re Anna’s hummingbirds, a variety I’d never seen before. These photos are from my cellphone, taken through the tent screen from 2 feet away! They’re now visiting from sunrise to sunset & I’m loving it! 💝The feeder also attracted bees, so I put out a saucer of sugar water for them!It’s working! 🤞🏼
Anna’s hummingbirds ❤
Before I post this, I want to send warm wishes to my family & friends currently in the line of the incoming blizzard this weekend. 🥺
The following is NOT intended to be mean, I promise! If I was home & dealing with this weather, I probably wouldn’t find them funny. 🙄
Where's Wendy? Livin' in the Edge! 