Staying at Bay Landing Thousand Trails

We have just left Bay Landing a Thousand Trails campground.  We stopped here to do some paper work for a possible future job called "gate guarding".   It sounds like a pretty good deal and we are looking into it.

So anyways we stopped here because it was close to where we needed to be and it's free.  Well, sort of after you pay your membership fees.  I have to say we have been very pleased with the park.  It is suppose to be their  busy season but there is hardly anyone here.  The rv's that are here don't seem to have any  people.  I think they are long term campers, which means they leave their campers here for the year and come and go.  So you have campers but no people.  Last weekend there were people and kids around but after Sunday we have hardly seen a soul.  It has been so peaceful and quiet.  Except for the birds and the butterflies.  The birds are noisy but the butterflies are pretty quiet.  But they are everywhere.  I figured we would only stay a couple of days and we ended up staying the whole week because we liked it so much.




There was an area to ride the Ranger

There were butterflies everywhere

Plus so many things in bloom

Ed started taking pictures of the flowers and they all had
an insect on them

 


I know nothing about flowers, but
they were pretty

isn't this just a neat bird

When it flies the tail separates like a scissor, thus the name Scissor Tail

our back yard

our front yard

even thought there are rv's around us, we never see anybody
 because most of them are empty

the lizards are out

We came across a lean too hut over in the tent area,
wonder if someone tried to sleep in it

I have to say this has been one of the best TT parks we have been at.  But I am sure there are times when it is really packed.  There is a pretty big lake right next to it and some of these spots have some big boats sitting on them.  But right now it is the place to be.

looking out over the lake

you can see why people come here

There is also a pond.  I just have to tell you Ed's story about the pond.  He went fishing last Friday, in the evening.  There have been quite a few kids at the pond fishing.  He goes to the other side to get away from the kids.  There were 2 girls over there and they were complaining because they weren't catching anything.  They were using hot dogs for bait.  They were using big hunks which were falling off the hook when they threw it in.  Ed said one of the kids thought they saw a fish jumping and it was just the hot dog falling off the hook.  Another kid was eating the bait as fast as the others were fishing.   So, he finally felt sorry for the girls and put a smaller hook on their line and gave them a worm.  Well the one girl catches a fish and starts yelling across the pond to the other kids.  Before you know it the kids were all around him.  He said one was by his side and one was in front of him.  That was the end of his peace-full fishing.

Very nice pond but the fish were very small

We are heading out tomorrow to come back to Indiana.  After being gone all winter, I am ready to go home.  We are only going to be home for about 7 weeks and than we are heading to Georgia for a family reunion.  We may have a buyer for the house, so between that and Dr's app. and Dentist apps.,  it's going to be a fast summer.

We started out on Saturday with almost 1,100 miles to go.  We stopped one night and Ed decides to just make a fast trip out of it.  His back has been bothering him again and he didn't want to take the chance it would get worse and he wouldn't be able to drive at all.  So we would drive an hour or two and than he would lay down for an hour.  So we started out at 8am and we will be in Elkhart around 9am.  It was a long drive but I have to say it is nice to be home.

Love ya, Lyn and Ed

Getting to Use the Ranger

Not every place we go do we get to use the Ranger.  Sometimes I feel like we are just dragging it around the country.  But when we do use it, it is fun.  We get to go places we wouldn't go otherwise.

Across from the Verde Vally Campground there are trails everywhere.   To use the Ranger, it had to be titled and plated.  That took us a lot of time and hassle because all we had was a certificate of origin and no title.  We have had the Ranger over 4 years and when I tried to get in touch with the previous owner he didn't respond to our calls or letters.  So a word to the wise don't buy something without a title.  Also we should have done it right away and not waited 4 years.   We seem to learn as we go.  Oh well, such is life.
This area was just across from the park so it was really easy to get to.


This is what you see when you go out riding, doesn't look like much
but it is fascinating

These are the rocks we rode over with the Ranger, it's a lot of fun

 

Here is our path

 

We went up as far as we could, looking out over the valley

In the center of the picture is the trail we came up on

 
Another area we visited while at Cottonwood was a place called Tuzigoot.  This is the remains of a pueblo village.  Very interesting place.  This was sort of on the same order as Montezuma Castle.  A village built between 1125 and 1400.  There were few exterior doors and was entered by way of ladders through opening in the roofs.  No one knows why it was abandoned.

This is just the remains, at one time these sections would have been enclosed

Their were only one part that was still enclosed

Looking down from the top

a couple of things they used for cooking

at the top, a whole lot of rocks

looking out over the valley

I have to say, Arizona has some interesting things to see. 

When leaving we ran across these burros. 

or donkeys or mules?   I need to ask Amanda

We had an interesting time in Arizona this year.  I am glad we came this way and we still have so many things to see across the US. 

Happy Trails for now.   Ed and Lyn

Where Have We Been?

Is anyone asking this question? Sometimes time just seems to fly. I plan on writing the blog, but then before I know it, it is late and I am too tired. Or, Ed will be watching a movie and I can't write the blog and watch a movie at the same time, so the movie wins out. So here goes a quick view of what we have been doing for 7 weeks.
We left the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Park and went to Wilderness Lakes another Thousand Trails park. We arrived there on a Friday and on Monday Ed's back went out. It went out to where he couldn't get out of bed. For 2 weeks he only got up to eat and go to the bathroom. By the third week he was able to sit in a chair. We were beginning to wonder what we were going to do. I went to the manager to see if we could stay the 4th week and we were allowed to do that. By the 4th week, he was up and around but still having trouble. But at least I knew he would be able to drive. I know they say the wife should be able to drive the motor home, and if I had to, I think I could. But I really don't want to!

So for the 4 weeks we were at Wilderness Lakes, this is what we saw, cows. The park is right next to a very big dairy farm. We were told the smell would be bad and also the flies. Well, I guess we were there at the right time, because neither were that bad. There was some manure smell, but it just didn't bother us. But maybe when the weather gets hot, it could be bad.

You can see the campground in the background

There were a whole lot of cows

This was across from the campground, I was amazed at all the rocks

We were going to stay in California another 3 weeks at another Thousand Trails park. This one was a little farther south, outside of San Diego. But since we weren't doing anything, I couldn't see driving farther south just to sit in an rv park. So we decided to start making our way home.

We are now back at Verde Valley Thousand Trails in Cottonwood, Arizona. We were here in November last year. We had met a couple named Mike and Sherry. Mike wanted us to come back and do some more gold digging with him. So we decided to give it a try even though we didn't know for sure if Ed would be able to do it.

We took it easy but we did get out to do some gold digging. Mike thought it would be a good idea to dig this shrub out. But to get it out, you have to break up the rock around it. The idea is, the gold has settled around the roots of the shrub. This is hard work.

This was the shrub Mike wanted to take out,

Ed resting his back, as much as you can rest on rocks

Mike has a vacuum and you vacuum up the dirt and put it in buckets

As you can see, we got the shrub out, this is where I found my nugget

On the way home, I collapsed

After you get all the dirt out of your hole, well as much as you can fit into your vehicle, you take it to Mike's.  That's because he has a sluice box set up, which is what you run the dirt through. 

Mike's sluice box

Mike running the dirt

This is the water swirling and breaking up the dirt

In the bottom of the sluice box there is a piece of carpet that catches the black dirt and gold
Mike is panning it out

So when all is said and done, how much gold did we find. Well we did find some small specks but we also found a nugget. Now Ed has told some people I found a nugget and I think people imagine a real big nugget. Now to us this is a big nugget compared to what we have been finding. I was able to pick it up out of the dirt when I was digging. You don't get to do that often. So here I have shown you my nugget compared to a dime.

My nugget compared to a dime
also the rest of our gold

On a last note, we left Cottonwood this morning. We headed north toward Flagstaff. We weren't expecting this but we headed right into this storm. It was scary but as soon as we headed east we drove out of it. That was good except for the strong wind that was against us. Well we made it and I hope we don't have to drive in snow again.

This is what we were driving in, some places Ed couldn't even see the road

Once we turned east we drove right out of it, but we drove about 50 miles in it and that was enough

Well that's all for now

Bye  Ed and Lyn