TooBusyForWork

Lake Havasu, Casa Grande, and the Desert Botanical Garden

We took off on Sunday morning, 24 March, and headed toward Lake Havasu City. We had reserved 5 nights at the Elks Lodge full hookup campground. Very nice! We had an end site, and we were able to enjoy some fabulous sunsets looking over the town and lake. The place was pretty full each night with snowbirds on their migration, so advanced reservations were needed. This was definitely the biggest and most active lodge we have stayed at. Cheap drinks, decent food, and no smoking made it a hit. We came so I could attend a Staycation with the Lake Havasu Quilt Guild I joined back in June.

A quilt Staycation is like a quilt retreat except you get to go home each night! Breakfast goodies, lovely lunch, nice snacks, and prizes were to be had. I took my set of 100 4” finished triangle in a square blocks. I had to arrange them, and the big tables made it so much easier than the motorhome. I got them arranged nicely, sewn together, and then I got the quilt sandwiched nicely. I even started quilting it, but my thread got caught and broke the needle. Even though I tried all kinds of tricks to get the machine working again, I must have tweaked something wrong internally. Sigh. I really wanted to finish the quilt before I got home plus do some other miscellaneous sewing too. I have already made an appointment with a service shop.

Leaving Lake Havasu we gradually headed toward our eclipse reservation in Uvalde, TX. Or at least we tried! We made it a whole 60 miles before we had to pull off the road for wind. That had us spending Saturday night, 30 March, in Bouse, AZ at the Desert Pueblo RV Park. It was a bare bones snowbird park, but very clean and quiet. A single activity room and no pool, but it was only $500 a month plus electricity for winter. We took off on Sunday morning for Casa Grande and another Elks Lodge. This camping area was dry camping, but that didn’t bother us in the least. We stayed two nights since we wanted to revisit the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Prepare for a photo extravaganza!

This is two shots of the wildflower garden.

The organ pipe cacti here inspired us to visit Organ Pipe National Monument a few years ago.

I love this view of a saguaro forest on a hill. I really want to come back some time in June to see them blooming.

It was an overcast day that threatened rain, so some of the flowers were curled up.

Look at this century plants (agave) putting out huge flower stalks. After blooming later in the season the plant will die.

There were numerous areas of lupines in all colors. I have a weakness for the dark oin of these.

Saguaro are not just popular with humans, but the birds depend on them. The lower bird was headed into a nesting cavity. The top bird had nesting materials in its beak.

We never did find the plant tag for this tall fellow. To compare, Kevin is 5’10”.

Barrel cacti are my favorite type. They come in a variety of shapes and spine types, but these orange flowering ones were showing off through the garden.

I am showing two pictures of these small barrel cacti to give you an idea of scale. The cacti “buds” were 2-3” high, and the flowers tiny but brilliant.

And I just think the white spikes on this succulent is interesting. The Palo Verde Tree behind it was lovely too. Palo Verde trees do their photosynthesis in their green trunks instead of their leaves.

This barrel cactus was in a container right at the entrance. It was a good opportunity to get a better view of the flowers.

These Chihuly glass sculptures were also at the entrance, sparkling even under the overcast skies.

Kevin and I both agreed we need to plan a trip to the area later in the year, heat and all, to catch more blooms.

After Casa Grande, we spent a night in Deming at the Elks Lodge. They don’t officially have a camping spot, but they said we were welcome to park overnight. Dry camping on the edge of bunch of WWII barracks foundations and across the street from an old Army Aerodrome from the same time. The lodge looks abandoned, but then, a lot of Deming looks the same way. We spent Wednesday night in the Van Horn RV Park which meant lots of laundry. They have a decent little cafe there with standard diner food but delicious home made cobblers. Ft. Stockton RV Park was the last stop before we landed in Uvalde, TX where we are staying at Qual Spring RV Park. Very nice place! Live oaks give lots of shade, and the sites aren’t bad sized. We aren’t fond of Texas, but this is definitely one of the nicer places we have stayed in the state. We won’t leave until Wednesday morning, 10 April. Clouds are expected to put a huge damper on our eclipse viewing, but that is the luck of the draw. We talked about trying to chase the totality zone to a place without clouds, but decided it wasn’t worth it.

Finally – San Diego with some of the grandkids then FMCA Convention

When I last posted, we were on the way to San Diego to visit with my oldest son, his lovely wife, and my three oldest grandkids. We stayed at the Mission Bay RV Resort. It is a pretty nice place for an urban RV park. It is right next to Mission Bay, and there is a public beach that adjoins the park. Of course the sites are narrow, but that goes with being in an expensive area.

The grandkids and their parents (twin girls 14, boy 10) arrived with their parents on Sunday late afternoon. We had a lovely dinner, then the kids went with us to the motorhome. It was the first time we have had five sleeping in the motorhome, but it worked well. The girls slept on the air mattress in the sofa, and the boy slept on an air mattress on the floor. They were up late to their bodies (central time zone to Pacific time zone) so everyone slept late the next morning. We met their parents for lunch, then we went on a whale watching tour. We actually saw a lot of various whales plus two types of dolphins. I, of course, got zero pictures! I get a bit seasick, so I stayed outside on the deck and ate my candied ginger. I got by, but I didn’t feel well enough to run around the boat for pictures. Turns out my grandson also gets seasick! Poor kid.

We said goodbye to my son and DIL, and we went back to the motorhome. The next few days were just and the grandkids. We went to the San Diego Zoo of course. I had so much fun looking at the kids I didn’t get too many pictures again, but I did get some. There was the obligatory koala picture of course.

As on our first trip a few years ago, I was as impressed with the plants as I was with the animals!

here are the three famous kids at the entrance. Sorry about the dust reflections,

We spent time wondering around the piers. The kids were quite impressed with the Disney cruise ship in for a turnaround. We also bought souvenirs there.

There was a lot of time spent at the beach watching the surfers and playing “sandpiper” – waiting until the wave came in then running away like the sandpipers do. They had a lot of energy! There was also time spent building in the sand and collecting seashells. There was a pool at the campground too, and they also spent time there. Even though the girls are 14, they still had fun on a “12 and under” playground. There were a lot of them around. We met the adults on Friday before they flew out. I hope they had enough fun to go with us again.

After San Diego we went to the FMCA convention in Tucson at the Pima County Fairgrounds. It is always a fun time. We came in a bit earlier than most because Kevin was volunteering with the security team. Here is what the Fairgrounds looks like empty. Then think of it full of over 1000 motorhomes and trailers! The blue spot is where we were parked.

I felt a bit bad for the speakers at the opening ceremonies because the sky gave them some heavy competition! What a glorious Arizona sunset.

I taught a class at the convention – sewing oven mitts. What a great group of students! Two were using borrowed machines, one person had never used her brand new machine, and three were experienced sewists. Luckily I had a few helpers who hadn’t brought their machines but wanted to see what the class was. They helped the folks who were having trouble with their machines. At the end everybody finished at least one mitt and was almost finished with the second. The experienced folks finished both. See the mitts they finished, and looked at those fabulous smiles! That was the best part of the whole thing!

After all the excitement of San Diego and the Convention, Minnie was not alone in wanting to rest a bit. I will write about the other locations we have visited tomorrow.

Wind and more wind everywhere we go! Death Valley and Anza-Borrego

We left Quartzsite and headed to Needles for an overnight stop at the Elks Club there. We dropped off the RZR at a storage unit we rented there plus some other assorted things we won’t need in the next few weeks. We then headed to Death Valley National Park, one of my absolute favorite locations. However the wind kept blowing. Ourr first day was only light breezes, and we got pictures of the famous and ephemeral Lake Manley left over from Hurricane Hillary.

There was too much wind to get a reflection on the lake, but it was quite impressive. It went on for miles.

Lake Manley with Telescope Peak behind it

But then came the really big winds! Our little weather station clocked 46 mph, and it is always lower than actual. We brought all our slides in and just turtled up. The wind was incredible. No tents were left standing without broken poles, though I didn’t see any RV awnings broken this time. The wind was so strong it actually blew Lake Manley downwind! The lake moved away from the parking lot at Badwater Basin and also farther to the north. It changed color from blueish to a murky brown from all the dust blown in. You can compare it with these pictures.

We had come to Death Valley for the Dark Sky Festival, and the storm resulted in all the big outdoor activities being cancelled on Friday and Saturday, though indoor activities continued. Sunday was just breezy though, and there were a few outdoor activities that went on. The festival was FABULOUS! If you like science at all, put it on your list. The seminars and presentations cover everything from how a Mars Rover operates to how Black Holes are formed to how geologists study Badwater Basin to find biological signatures they can search for on Mars or the Moon.

We did find time to go to Artists Palette where we were sheltered from the winds. As usual the colors were spectacular. One of the big changes we saw at Death Valley was there were more colors in the rocks/mountains than before. The rains had washed off years and years blown dust and exposed a lot of rock that had been hidden.

We then headed to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a place we had never visited. We have been missing out! The park is famous for their spring wildflowers and their gigantic metal sculptures. Both were totally worth the reputation.

I am not going to post the 100+ pictures I took yesterday and today, but these should give you a taste of the area. Oh, and there was wind, a lot of it!

There are many acres of wildflowers scattered across the area. The desert here has had >5” of rain, and everything is green.

Hardly any of my close up pictures came out due to the wind, but I do have a few.

We also took the tour of the metal sculptures. A local large landowner envisioned the sculptures spreading across his land with three types of sculptures – some from the fossil record of the area, some of animals still alive (not necessarily living locally), and some of mystical and fantasy.

The Indian Head is an example. Sorry for the shadows. But the close up shows some of the detail.

Close up showing construction and the earrings

The most famous sculpture is the dragon. It extends on both sides of the state highway, but the head is the most spectacular.

My favorites were the scorpion and grasshopper facing off. Look at the grasshopper winds and the little appendages on his legs – amazing!

Today we took a scenic drive plus decided to look for desert piles, not nearly as plentiful as the other flowers and found in different locations. We took a side 4WD trip to Font’s Point with a fabulous view of the Borrego Badlands.

And we found the lilies! Each blossom lasts just a day.

There were other white flowers in the area too. This is the best picture I got with the wind. I did say the wind continues to roar, didn’t I?

And of course there were cacti. I saw numerous Beavertail cacti loaded with blooms, but only one already blooming. It was along the Coyote Canyon 4WD dirt road. They are such a glorious color.

Also along the same road we finally found an ocotillo just starting to bloom. In another week this plant will be lovely with red blossoms sprouting from the tips of the limbs.

We also took the nature walk at the Visit Center. I discovered a new-to-me cholla cactus. This picture shows is in conjunction with the flowering plants growing between its prickly thorns. Almost all the cactus had this type of relationship with flowering plants. I think the spines protect the flowering plants from being eaten.

Tomorrow we drive to El Cajon for the night then on to San Diego on Saturday to meet my three oldest grandchildren and their parents. Everybody is set to go on a whale watching tour Monday, then the parents take off for their mini-vacation while the kids stay with us until we all meet up again on Friday afternoon at the airport. Wish us luck!

Leaving Quartzsite tomorrow

I just looked at my last post, and it was three weeks ago! Time flies when you are having fun I guess. We spent the day just generally sorting and organizing gear that has been spread around inside and outside. When we stop for a night or two some place, we keep things nicely organized. But when we stay someplace for long periods, things just have a tendency to explode! We actually have never stayed this long in a single place, and things were scattered everywhere! Got that pretty much done, so we are just relaxing in the peace and quiet of a mostly empty boondock location.

As I packed I realized I haven’t posted much about our travel companions. Luna is the black one, 10.6 pounds, friendly, and outgoing. Her sister Minnie (short for Minerva) is a petite 7.4 pounds, shy and anxious. They both love motorhome life.

I have been cooking of course. I tried to make pizzas on the Blackstone grill. I made the dough in my breadmaker. A 1 pound dough makes four personal pizzas. While I was trying for “round” I got “artisanal shaped” instead! The hardest part was shaping the dough.

We had an absolutely fabulous Valentine Day dinner. Kevin sous vide’d two steaks, and I made Parmesan and garlic asparagus. I also made light as air rolls from dough made in the bread maker, it was fabulous. The only issue with the bread maker is the power used to bake, whether in the machine or in the convection oven (the rolls). The convection oven is a real power hog!

Steaks, asparagus with Parmesan and garlic, home made roll

As expected we took more rides on the RZR, some with the SunRiders club and some on our own. I was impressed with the KOFA cabin built by the CCC. I think it is available for rent through the BLM. The stone work was lovely, and it was in great shape.

I wish I could remember the name of this fabulous site! Two arches, maybe 30’ high with a number of windows on either side. You might have to blow up the picture to see the windows though.

Double arches plus windows on either side

I took a “Ladies Only” ride with the SunRiders too. We went to Dead Horse Canyon which was rather uninspiring. Lots of sand, few rocks, and I love rocks. This was one of the sights on the way there though.

And the flowers have really stated coming out in the last few days.

Cholla and 2-3” wide Desert Gold flowers

The hills east of us have really turned green, or at least as green as the desert gets.

I have also done quite a bit of sewing. I finished up all but the binding of the donation quilt I am making for the FMCA convention in March. I am quite happy with it, though the final result was quite different than the initial plan. I thought I had carefully calculated that I could get four cuts from each fat quarter I had, but it turns out I could only get four cuts on the fat quarters without selvedges! Oops! I bought some more yardage and found the fabulous print to tie everything together. And yet more serendipity happened when the variegated thread my daughter got me for Christmas as a perfect match! It just got a simple all over meander. I might do some more quilting in the border, but I will decide later. It will only be if I get time.

I also finished my class samples for the sewing class I am doing at the FMCA convention. All of the project kits are completed including the binding all cut. I have 10 spots open, and I cut 12 sets so the students have some choices. And since I like them all, any leftovers will be fine with me! I also finished 100 triangle in a square blocks out of the remnants from the quilt. I will put them together for another baby sized quilt which will be fine when I add some borders.

I will end with this morning’s fabulous Arizona sunrise.

Still in Quartzsite doing Quartzsite things

We plan on staying in the Quartzsite area until the last week of February. I have posted about the area a number of times, so I don’t want to supply too many comments about things that haven’t changed. But I do have a lot of pictures and even some videos!

We took a trip with the SunRiders club on 13 January. We saw a bunch of old cabins from miners who had lived in the area.

Someone had fun “installing” a satellite dish

The only thing blooming in early January

The Arizona desert does occasionally get rain, and we had about 3/4” between 22-23 January. The results were fabulous. And no one ever complains about rain in the desert.

During the big RV show in town we also have a rally with an internet group I have participated in for 10 years or so. I have been coming to their rallies since I retired. I was the rally coordinator this year, and I will be next year too. It is a very unstructured rally. People show up, some tell me in advance, some don’t. Each day we have a Happy Hour where folks BYOB and someone brings snacks. Sometimes someone will say they are going to do XYZ, and others can come along if they want. Some do, some don’t. I call it the Unstructured Rally! This year I led a trip to some of the modern rock art folks have created in La Posa South. I called it “Quirky Quartzsite.” Folks said they enjoyed it. We had a potluck lunch on Saturday where I cooked my famous peach cobbler and New Mexican style layered green chili enchiladas which are fabulous if I say so myself. Sunday we took a trip to the Desert Bar. “The Rock” is a long standing fixture of the rallies, and it is at the front of our firepit each year.

sunsets and sunrises can be unbelievably beautiful in Arizona. Dry air, clouds, and a bit of dust creat outstanding color. These aren’t retouched at all!

After folks finally left the rally (we always have some early birds and some stragglers), Kevin cooked up two waygu steaks out son bought us for Christmas. Wow! He seasoned them with garlic and herbs then used the sous vide and finished them by searing them on the Blackstone. It was absolutely the best steak I have ever eaten.

Waugh steaks are as fabulous as their reputation

Yesterday we went on another SunRiders ride to see Patton’s Cave by Bouse. It was the most challenging ride we have ever taken. The ride leader apologized for the difficulty, but two spots had washed out and we barely made it through. One had us on two wheels! We were both exhausted when we got home. The sights were good though.

Mesquite limbs, flowers, and pods all at once

Patton’s Cave used for secret radio testing during WWII.

I also attended a 3 day “Staycation” with the Lake Havasu quilt guild. Great fun! I got 96 4” triangle in a square blocks done. Still need four more, but I will get those soon. I have also completed eight 16” circle in a square blocks. Just need one more of those too before I start assembly. Hopefully I can get at least one of the quilts finished before the FMCA convention in March.

Oh, and I really do have some videos! As before, just click on them to watch.

A rough section of trail, but not the worst we were on!

First time riding in sand.

Quartzsite, AZ and the way to get there

We never made it to Williams, AZ as I said we would in my last post. Kevin woke up at 4:30 am in the cold, and he realized we had lost all battery power! Poor fellow had to go buy a new electrical multi-meter because he had left the one for the rig at home. He finally got it and figured out our battery charger wasn’t running and our batteries had gone into self-protection mode due to low charge. He finally got everything working, but not until he spent 3+ hours in the cold and dark doing it. I sat wrapped up in 3 quilts with a cat since it was only 21 degrees when we woke. Ugh. I told him it was time to head south, so we did!

We spent the night at the Elks Lodge in Willcox, AZ after traveling south on I-25 to Hatch, NM. We had hoped for a green chili burger in Hatch, but it wasn’t to be – the famous place was closed for the holidays. New Years Eve found us arriving in Quartzsite! We spent the first night in the Hi Jolly free BLM camping area. I took this picture the first morning of 2024.

There is something magical about sunrises and sunsets in the desert. The colors are otherworldly, and it was a great start to the morning.

We got out and about moving to the Long Term Visitor area on New Year’s Day. We needed to find a place with space for 10-15 big rigs with easy to follow directions. I am coordinating a rally for the RVForum.net group during the big RV show at the end of the month, and the place where we met for years got removed from consideration due to construction. Who wants to camp next to the new sewage lagoons? Ugh. Think we have found a good spot in Tyson Wash LTVA.

On 2 January we took an 80 mile UTV ride with the Arizona Sunriders Club. We went into the KOFA Wildlife Refuge through McPherson Pass and to Big Eye mine. It was 80 miles round trip mostly on OHV trails from our start point, and we had to trailer the RZR there and back, so a long day. I was using a new mount for the GoPro, and I didn’t get nearly the pictures or videos I hoped for – nothing of the mine or the “Big Eye” (an interesting geological oddity) or Castle Dome. Here is something though. Click on the links to see each short video. It might take a few clicks to get them started!

This was a basic desert view on a fairly level stretch.

This was a bit rougher section though the auto smoothing of the GoPro gives it a misleading smoothness.

Ignore the first few seconds of the video showing the RZR’s roof! It gets better, I promise.

Today we attended the monthly meeting of the Sunriders, heard some interesting stuff, and bought some swag – sweatshirt jackets, a hat, and a flag for the UTV, all with the logo on it. Nice stuff.

Off for snowbird trip 2023/24

We had a fabulous Christmas hanging with the kids and grandkids. Kevin got his 3D printer going and made some fabulous decorations. I apologize for the remnant threads; I got too excited to notice them.

The pattern describes it as a snow globe

We didn’t put up the big tree, but Kevin made sure we had our presents under a lot of trees. Most of these were actually experiments with his new printer he got (early) for Christmas. It is a newer Ender 3 that goes with us in the motorhome.

We actually left the house on Boxing Day just after noon. Since we weren’t having folks over to our house for the holidays, we had more time to pack and sort. One of the advantages of having a son and DIL nearby with a big house who likes to cook is they host at least one of the big holidays. This year they chose Christmas. We ended up spending the first night in the Lakeside Casino RV park. It is only a bit over 3 hours from home so we got in early enough to put water in the tanks. And guess what we woke up to the next morning?

Yup, 2” of wet heavy snow. It didn’t get any better later in the morning. We just waited for the highway to be clear and Kevin pushed the snow off the big slide toppers. The other slides are much smaller and came in without issue. Since we left so late we on,y made it to Emporia, KS where we stayed in a Walmart parking lot. The next day (Thursday) we made it to Texola, OK right on the Texas line. It is a small and very quiet campground, and we have stayed there a few times before. All through Missouri, Kansas, and most of Oklahoma we went through small snow squalls. They were never very heavy and they never lasted long. It was tedious though. I was thrilled when we made it to Amarillo and the sun came out. New Mexico was even more clear, and we are spending tonight in the American RV Park on the west side of Albuquerque. Tomorrow we hope to boondock outside Williams, AZ, and then make it to Quartzsite, AZ by Sunday. We plan on staying there for quite a bit of the winter.

I haven’t shown many pictures of my adorable cats recently, so here you go! They are sisters, but they don’t often snuggle up like this. Minnie, the tabby, was snuggled in the blanket, and Luna, the black one, just squished herself in.

Merry Christmas Eve

It has been a slow time here. I have definitely lost the sewing mojo since we got back. I took a class on quilting ruler work, but it didn’t inspire me much. It was just too picky to get the designs. It was more oriented towards domestic machines, and the quilting was too dense. I generally make lap quilts, baby quilts, and bed quilts, and I prefer soft and fluffy to stiff with too much quilting. It was also harder to do than I expected because my thread matched the fabric too well! It was really hard to see.

I have gotten ready for our upcoming trip to Arizona though. I cut out 15 kits of Insul-Bright for making oven mitts, and they are safely stashed in the motorhome. I am teaching a class in Tucson at the FMCA Convention in March, and I didn’t want to take a whole bolt and cut it in the motorhome. It is bulky though! I have it stashed above my bed in cabinets I hardly ever use, but it barely fit. I have a bunch of fabric I purchased at $6/yard from a quilt store going out of business, and my daughter bought me some other fabric too. Everyone is going to get enough fabric and batting to make 2 oven mitts of the same fabric. I intend on concentrating on how to do straight line quilting and then machine binding. I had a lot of fun with the class I taught on making bowl cozies at the last convention in Gillette, WY.

We are also totally prepared for Christmas. We went to church this morning, and we will go again this evening for a Lessons and Carols service. That is my favorite type of Christmas Eve service! The choir is singing one piece of music so I have to be there early. We are having our big Christmas with the kids and grandkids tomorrow. Kevin and I are supplying lunch and my oldest son and his wife are doing dinner. It is a handy approach to dealing with 13 people! We had Thanksgiving at our place, but everybody brought food, and the cooking was remarkably easy. It is nice to have a number of good cooks in the family.

I better get to helping Kevin with food packing. We took all my sewing stuff, his astronomy stuff, and clothes over already. On Tuesday we will take the food and toiletries over. If we get ready fast enough, we will leave then! I am hoping we can do it. The weather has been lovely, and it looks like it will continue during the trip.

Thanksgiving in the books

Not much to talk about since this is always a slow period for me. And no pictures either.

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Thursday my daughter was working, so we just slid things by a day. All three of my Iowa kids and their families were here. The one in Wisconsin called, but couldn’t attend. I cooked a glorious Amana smoked ham, home made rolls, cornbread and sage dressing, and two pecan and two pumpkin pies. Kevin smoked a turkey. My daughter in law made a huge apple crisp pie, a quinoa salad, and the cranberries. My daughter and son in law brought green beans and a corn casserole, while my second son and his partner brought sweet potatoes we baked. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the loaded counters before we had 13 people descend on them like locusts. We still had enough to give folks left overs. Today we have just nibbled because I am still full.

As for quilting, I have worked quite a bit on my class quilt. The best thing I have learned is to slow down and be accurate! It is something I had to learn in my piecing too. I just try to go too fast and then make mistakes or it just isn’t precise enough. If it isn’t right, I just get to spend the time taking it out and re-sewing so I don’t save any time at all! One of the problems was I drew the block lines with a chalk liner the instructor recommended, but it got blurred before I sewed it. That led to inaccurate measurements and all kinds of problems. I may not ever finish it, but I will do at least one of all the block designs we learned. I think I will just use it as my own sampler for other rulers I have.

I did get some relief from my steroid injection, but I think the PT will be more effective now that everything isn’t so incredibly painful. I have already gotten farther in 3 visits than I did in 6-7 weeks before. My goals are pretty minor – to be able to walk a mile. Now o can walk only half a block on a bad day, and sometimes even less. Crossing my fingers I can get rid of my handicapped hang tag when it expires in March.

Back from server problems (I hope!)

For the last few weeks the site has been plagued by hosting problems. It would be up for 5 minutes then down for hours then up for 30 minutes down for 5 … You get the message. I contacted Bluehost, did the standard wait for an hour for text support, you all know the drill. Nothing they did seemed to work, but a couple of days later it started working for longer and longer. I finally trust it to stay up long enough to get a post up, even though there isn’t much to say.

Kevin added a 2” lift kit to the UTV, so we took a short trip to the local OHV park to check it out. It is a small area, but it has enough variety to make sure everything was working well. It gave us a total 1 1/2” increase in height. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is gave us 11.5” in the front and 9.5” in the back now. That is a significant change and will be very helpful in the Arizona rocks this winter.

We were the only people around so we had some nice animal sights. While we didn’t see this beaver, we certainly knew it was around!

There were some visible animals though. We saw at least 20 turkeys in two groups, one big and one small, plus a single deer who didn’t see much in us to worry her.

We also had one more group ride from the Volga, IA. There was an awful lot of rain beforehand, so this trip also was re-routed to mostly gravel roads. I felt sorry for the organizers. They had cleared more trails and gained additional landowner permissions for newer locations, and then they had to hit mostly the gravel roads! However even the gravel roads are lovely in Allamakee county.

One of the characteristics of group activities in Iowa before the corn is cut is the guys head into the corn instead of the provided toilets. It makes for shorter lines for the women!

It wasn’t peak color, but it was still nice.

We also took a trip to the largest OHV park in Iowa near Ft. Dodge. I was not a fan. I like to ride to see scenery, not for an adrenaline rush. The majority of the area is a bunch of trails emphasizing mudding and fast corners. Of course there were some lovely spots.

We also went to a local community playhouse to see “Noises Off,” a backstage/front stage comedy of actors in a play. I am sorry to say it was awful! The actors did what they could with the play, but the play itself was pretty bad. Too bad because it is a lovely theater, and we hope to go to other plays there. We also went to a presentation of “Annie” at Gallagher Bluedorn theater at University of Northern Iowa here in town. Nicely done, but I never can figure out why theater seats copy airplane seats in size! My knees bump up against the seat I front of me!

I also got a truly disgusting cold/sinus “thing.” That has lasted for two full weeks now. I dosed myself with a huge amount of meds in order to visit a pain doctor for a steroid injection in my back. It is already a little bit better, and I hope it improves significantly.

No real quilting, but I am prepping for a class on ruler quilting offered virtually by a quilt shop not too far away. The result will be a whole cloth quilt using a Westerlee arc ruler. It will be three hours each night on three more nights. Our first night was a bunch of background and how to set up for the quilting part. I had to do an awful lot of marking to get started, and I still have to get it trimmed and sandwiched by Tuesday! We will see. I have a backup plan of scraps to use for the practice. Maybe my next post will be a picture of the result.