POST #21-25 

Cave Creek, Medicinal Clay and Snow?!!...  

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On January 19th we moved from White Tank Mountain Regional Park to Cave Creek Regional Park, near Cave Creek/Carefree, AZ.

It rained the night before we left, but it was dry during the short drive of about 47 miles.

The weather in this area had been perfect up until this week, when it turned cloudy, cooler and rainy.  the second night we were here it rained a half inch overnight...Not much sun during the days.

On one of the nicer days hiked up the trail to the old "Clay Mine" here in the park.  The Clay Mine is located on the Overton Trail here in the Park.  This mine made Lelaia Pearl Irish (pronounced La-lee-a) a wealthy woman. Lelaia’s initial search for gold in the early 1930s proved fruitless, but the ancient clay found in the mine proved to be white-gold on her 160-acre claim. The clay was ingeniously sold in a powder-form for $5 a pound. 

The “Perfect Mineral Drink” was endorsed by several physicians. It was called “Nature’s Own” and the name was copyrighted in 1937. Per Lelaia, the powder (made from kaolin clay) did “treat with startling results” the following: anemia, stomach troubles, ulcers, gastric conditions, kidney and blood disorders, rheumatism, arthritis, high blood pressure, dysentery, diabetes, and was very good for teeth. The prescription states, ”take a teaspoon of powder in a glass of water 4 times daily.” By the early 1960s Lelaia’s health failed, she abandoned her mine, and unfortunately, died soon after.

Who would have ever thought clay was good medicine?  We also went back over to Keirland Commons in Scottsdale.  Its a high end shopping district there.  

Barbi went shopping for clothes...I went to the Tesla dealership across the street...

As In said earlier the weather has been unsettled....while writing this it began raining...HARD, for about an hour.  Then...

SNOW???  REALLY???  Yup, snow!  I thought we came here to escape that! But then, about a half hour later, it begins to clear up and the sun comes out!

Go figure!  At least it's going in the right direction!!  We will be leaving this spot and moving over to Lost Dutchman State Park...

A spectacular place!  We will be camped at the end of the park, closest to the mountain!

Until Next Time!

 POST #21-24 

White Tanks, Petroglyphs and Giant Citrus...  

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On January 11th we moved from Lake Pleasant Regional Park to White Tank Mountain Regional Park...

This is a beautiful place!....but we will miss hanging out with the Roadrunner at Lake Pleasant...😕

That was something we will never forget!!

Our trip to White Tank was a short hop of about 41 miles...weather was sunny and in the mid 60s with light wind...

The White Tank Range, deeply serrated with ridges and canyons, rises to peaks of over 4,000 feet. Occasional heavy rains cause flash floods to pour through the canyons and onto the plain. These torrential flows, pouring down chutes and dropping off ledges, have scoured out a series of depressions, or tanks, in the white granite rock below, giving the mountains their name.

 

The White Granite is impermeable to water and the "tanks" are usually shaded, so they hold water for quite a long time...considering the climate...

The Early Native Inhabitants of the area visited a lot to take advantage of the water supply.  As you walk up the trail you can see their artwork in Petroglyphs on the rocks!

We are here at White Tank until Tuesday, Jan. 19th. The weather has been exceptional!  Sunny and around 80 every day!

We went back to the Pomelo Tree nearby that is still loaded with fruit! WHAT IS A POMELO? The Pomelo is the largest out of all the citrus fruits with a close relation to grapefruit.  A lot of the size is the rind and the thick membrane surrounding the fruit itself. 

These pomelos can weigh between 2 and 4 pounds! The flavor of a pomelo is very much like the grapefruit, but much milder. 

Pomelos are sweeter and don’t carry that tangy, bitterness that can be associated with grapefruit.  We find them absolutely delightful!

And the sunsets and sunrises have been awesome here!!

We have been in this campsite a few of times in the past...Here is a drone video of our site from a couple years ago...Watch for the Red Tail Hawk!>>>>

We will be leaving here tomorrow and heading over to Cave Creek Regional Park for a week...It's only about 46 miles...

Until Next Time!

 

POST #21-23 

The Roadrunner Whisperer...  

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Here at Lake Pleasant we have been having great fun with "Meep" the Roadrunner!

She comes every morning and stops by a few times each day!  Sometimes waits on the arm of the chair for me...

She comes up to the door, jumps up on the step and taps on the door...except when one of the Boys is at the window!

Then I go outside and she jumps up into my lap...

 

Here is a video of one of todays visits! >>>

Wonder is she will let me pet her...we shall see!

Until Next Time!

POST #21-22 

Fabulous Sunsets And Friendly Birds!  

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Our spot here at Lake Pleasant on top of the Lava outcrop has great views and fantastic sunsets!

I mentioned last time that it was my goal to get Meep the Roadrunner to jump up in my lap to get a treat.  So when we looked out the door this morning…there was the Roadrunner sitting on the arm of my chair!

So I got out the bacon and went out to try the feeding from the lap game…by the way we determined that Meep is a girl, by the sounds she was making.  Roadrunner calls are HERE. She makes the "female calls" sound quietly when she visits.  So I made the attempt to get her to jump up on my lap for the treats....here is a video of the attempt...

That was easy!  She takes it and jumps down and then jumps right back up for more!  We're sure she will be back.  She seems to be underfoot like a puppy when we go outside! 

Then we went for a drive and encountered a young supposedly wild burro right by the road...

She doesn't appear to be very wild, but we think they get fed here too and have no fear of people.

Weather was partly cloudy and about 71 today with light winds...can't beat it!...Great day!

Until Next Time!

 

POST #21-21 

Back At Lake Pleasant To Meet A Friend!  

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On Monday, January 4^th we left Alamo Lake and headed back to Lake Pleasant Regional Park…just a bit northwest of Phoenix.  Before we left Alamo we sent up the Drone and got some footage and then edited it into a video you can watch HERE.  We think it turned out pretty good!

It's a ruggedly beautiful place! And about 5 degrees warmer than we have been experiencing lately!  Our campsite is at the end of a loop and built on top of an ancient lava outcrop interlaid with bands of welded volcanic ash…

This is the view out our back window…the big rocks are chunks of basalt lava...they are full of gas bubble holes.  The Saguaros are magnificent!

While we were setting up our camp an old friend from our last visit here a couple of weeks ago came running into camp…

We were about a hundred yards from our earlier campsite, this fun little Roadrunner must be smart enough to recognize the rig or us…he came right up to us again looking for a handout…he knew  we were good for it!  We obliged!  Watch this video!>>>

As you can see I got him to jump up on my shoe to get the treat!  My goal is to get him to jump up into my lap to get it…We shall see!!

He came back the next morning, and convinced Barbi to give him a handout too!  We will call him MEEP!  Watch this video!>>>

Later in the afternoon 8 balloons appeared in the air behind us…They are always interesting to me because I was heavily involved in ballooning for over 20 years starting in 1980...

Over the years I had 7 Balloons, a charter ride business, a balloon dealership and an FAA Repair station.  It was fun, I made good money doing it…but outgrew it as I got older.  Last few time I went out to watch the Balloons launch here they asked me to come work for them…Thanks for the offer – but I’ll pass! Here's the 7 balloons...

And then, after the balloons, we were blessed by another awesome Arizona Sunset!

We are here for 7 days and will keep you posted on the goings on around here at Lake Pleasant…and oh yes…the adventures of Meep!

Until Next Time!

 

POST #21-20 

Hiding Out In The AZ Outback!  

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We have been here at Alamo Lake State Park since December 27^th.  In has been chilly here (for Arizona!) and breezy.  When the sun dips behind the horizon it cools off quickly!  But the sunsets have been spectacular!

We have been driving around exploring the area, checked out some other campgrounds here in the Park…This shot is from Loop “E”, a no hookup loop, but closer to the lake…Artillery Peak is closer here too… 

We made a drive to the Wayside Oasis, a Bar/Grill and RV Park, a few miles further into the outback via a rough dirt road.  

It is quite a busy place, it’s the ONLY place for about 45 miles to get some food and/or a beer.  There is no utilities there, but they run a big diesel power plant from 8AM to 10 PM to power the RV park.  There is even a runway for small planes and some are always parked there.  A short sped-up video of the drive there can be seen HERE. 

We have been riding our E-Bikes all around here, with the Boys (Bill & Ted) being towed behind in their little trailer.

 

They Love It!  They get to go see the Coots by the lake, and were able to get a close up view of some Wild Burros!  The Zebra stripes on these guys is interesting! 

After a long ride and exploring, Bill and Ted are ready to relax!

We have been doing some work on the RV while we are here at Alamo.  One project by choice, the other we didn’t have a choice…Just before we left Morenga Palms RV Park near Wenden, the door latch of the RV broke.  Couldn’t unlock the door from the outside, so we climbed in through the door in the cab.  Couldn’t unlock it from the inside either.  We had to take the inside plate of the latch off and drill and grind out the outside part enough to work the bolt back and get the door open.

So then the only way to lock it was with the deadbolt.  Getting that open, researching and ordering another door latch from Amazon was about a 3 hour project.  $226 later, the new latch arrived Wednesday and we installed it on Thursday.  Took a bit of cutting and fabrication to get it working but it’s done!  Don’t need a key to get in anymore!  Its great!  

The other project, by choice was installing Buffalo Nickel tacks on all of the doors and drawers in the front area of the RV...Did that project on a chilly morning that had a low of 33 degrees!

Took a couple hours and $60 worth of tacks!  But we think it adds a lot to the rustic look.

Tomorrow we leave here and move back to Lake Pleasant Regional Park, with a stop at Wickenburg to do laundry.  

It’s about a 115 mile drive and the weather should be great!

By the way, we have a bunch of movies saved on thumb drives so we can watch when we feel like a movie and there's no internet.  We were watching the 1969 movie "Easy Rider" .  We noticed a part was filmed in Sunset Crater National Monument, where we were just a few weeks ago.  

If you go back to (Click or Tap>>>)  Post#21-10 – Exploring The Volcanic Field, I put a clip from that movie of Wyatt and Billy riding their Harleys in the monument…gives you a better view of the area than our photos!  Besides it's cool!

Anyway we will check in when we get settled at Lake Pleasant for our 7 day stay.

Until Next Time!