On the Road Again

WHERE ARE WE? Lost Horse Tank, AZ 

NEXT DESTINATION? Tucson, AZ

We had a nice morning Happy Hour going on when the Sheriff's department guy pulled up to check us out.  The land we are parked on is native reserve and we needed a permit to be here.  He told us that if we were staying here, we would have to pay $15 bucks for I don't know how long.  I wasn't interested because I have wheels on my house, and I don't need to pay to park where people stay and poop in the bushes and leave all sorts of garbage around.   This is one of the not so nice boondocking spots because of what I mentioned, but also because we have a railway mainline on one side of us and an interstate on the other side.  It has been a place to be while we were doing things in Yuma, but we are done here so "yes officer, we will move on!!"  It certainly wasn't a picturesque place so no harm, no foul!!   This was our spot in a wash.

He was quite nice about it all and when I asked about our neighbour who we thought might be dead, he said that guy went for a bike ride and fell off and broke something and was in the hospital.  At least he wasn't dead in the car. 

Slides in, jacks up and we were headed through Yuma heading east toward Tucson in less than 2 hours.  On the way through Yuma, I snapped a picture of a place that brought back some memories.  It was the Day Breaker Restaurant.  Way back in early 2016 we had a special lunch here and met some of Kyra's friends.  These people have become near and dear to us over the years and today when we went by, I thought quietly of all of them.  Our friend Phyllis and her late husband Bob were a big part of convincing us do what we do.  Phyllis lives in Washington State and follows my blog faithfully.  I can bet she would love to be riding shotgun with us on our trip today.  I also thought of Ed and Lessie who are now special friends of ours.  They started their fulltime adventure a little before us and they were basically newbies to the lifestyle like us.  We will not get to see them this trip, but we will seek them out somewhere down the road.  And of course, the Queen of Boondocking, Kyra will always be a cherished friend.  She hung with us and gently guided us through all we needed to know to exist in the outback.  On that day she was the one taking the picture.  We are certainly thankful for all these friends, and they were in our thoughts as we passed by the Daybreaker Restaurant today!!  My goodness, we all looked so young!!!

There is some pretty nice scenery along the trip east from Yuma.  We were going to a place called Lost Horse Tank which is about 40 kms west of Casa Grande AZ.  It is a small area of BLM where you can stay for 14 days.  We will only stay overnight and continue on to Tucson tomorrow.

We arrived at our spot about 4:30 I guess.  We had a little Happy Hour and then Harold and I went to see what the Lost Horse Tank looked like.  It was quite a surprise to find the lush green grass in the bottom of what we would call a slough at home.  Obviously, every rain runs down the washes and into this bowl in the ground and provides water for all sorts of creatures for quite a while.  I'm sure there is a story somewhere about this place, but I would venture a guess that it was a stopping point for the horse wagon trains to have a drink while crossing this unforgiving desert. There was no water there today, but the ground was spongy under foot which indicates moisture in there. 

Sue and I took the new pup for a walk down there a little later.  We were thinking that this may be the first grass he has ever seen.  He loved it and ate some just like dogs do.

Our dog who still remains unnamed is going to be a good one, I think.  He needs some work, but I have faith is Sues abilities to train him.  He has had a full year to get some bad habits.  We have found a couple names that we might like but will keep looking for a little while. 

Speaking of unforgiving desert, there are lots of cactus around here.  I got some shots of a few of them.  Check out the prickles on some of them.

What a beautiful spot to spend an evening.  I got a few shots of the Ponderosa all parked up ready for a great evening.

And Pat and Harold are parked just up the hill.

As the sun went down it was spectacular.

We are glad we brought the yellow Jeep with us, and I think it fits in good with the sunsets.

A star and the moon were visible at the same time as the sun was setting and Pat got a good picture of it.  Thanks for sharing.  We are so blessed to be able to experience the beauty of God's creation in many different places as we travel.  I hope you take a minute to appreciate the beauty around you as well.