Criss-crossing southern Arizona and California!

 Well, my typically hermit lifestyle got a bit busier this month!  Friends from the frozen north braved some frigid weather on their way south, but fortunately had mostly good driving conditions.  So, I decided to head back over to meet them in the Yuma area from my spot on Bates Well road, south of Ajo, Az.

After the usual stop in Gila Bend to dump and fill, we got back to our spot west of Yuma, just inside of California, just before Don & Donna arrived.

My slide motor decided to quit again.  It would have been replaced, except that the USPS decided to send the replacement back to Florida, instead of giving it to me while I was in Quartzsite!  As usual, I managed to fix it again, so all was good.

That's when it got busier!  Soon, I was off with them on expeditions to Sam's Club in Yuma, Costco in El Centro - with a side trip when I lured them to Sweeny Pass, and the usual Yuma stops at the Arizona Market and Wally's World. Social life got busier too, meeting up with some old classmates and friends at Lutes Casino, and some more folks from back home at Boston's Pizza.  Another day, we toured some of the LTVA's around Senator Wash, the Yuma Proving ground, with a side trip on the way home to Wellton, and a previously unknown to us boondocking area of State Trust land south of Wellton.

Another day found us off on a day trip up to Quartzsite for lunch at Silly Al's and a look at a few of the vendors.

One day it was a trip to Calexico to have lunch and check it out, detouring up through Glamis on the way back, another day we joined my cousins for happy hour and supper over at Fortuna.

 
 In the tech department - my Shaw satellite TV is no longer available this far south, so I don't even bring it along anymore.  But I do like to listen to some radio stations from home - mostly just to see how cold it is there!  Because of various regulations and bureaucracy, some of the stations from home are blocked from being received from out of the country :-(  It is the same with some TV programming online.  I have tried a VPN to spoof my location, but have had little to no luck with that technique.  But I did just discover that I could listen online to some Canadian radio stations (normally blocked) by turning off my AT+T wi-fi, and just using my Rogers phone, which apparently shows up as still being in the Great White North.  I am also able to watch some programming on CBC Gem, not normally available out of the country.  My next test is to see if any of my (paused) tv programming is available, if I use my Canadian phone as a hotspot instead of my US account!  It's strange, because my Rogers phone uses mostly ATT when down south.  Stay tuned for the next tests!

Since we had hit most of the high points in the Yuma area, it was time to move on, this time back to the east.  Once again, a quick stop to dump and fill in Gila Bend, some fuel in Eloy, and I was back to my usual spot among the cows in Ironwood Forest National Monument!  It's a great spot, and very quiet because it is completely surrounded by either the monument lands, or vacant lands owned by the city of Tucson to collect water.  There is even a gate to keep out the riff-raff (and keep the cows in!).

Don & Donna also migrated this way, but they chose a spot further out of town, but also within the national monument.  It wasn't long before the social schedule resumed, as we met more friends from back home at the Circle S - a rustic country saloon.

Bailey is kept busy hunting lizards and thinking he can catch flocks of birds!  There are lots of coyotes here, but fortunately, he hasn't seen them or attempted to chase them away.  He did stalk a big black bull though, and may have been planning an ambush, but I managed to thwart his plans just in time!

 

 As an old wildfire towerman, I'm always attracted to smoke on the horizon!

I don't know what it was.  There is a small airport over there, but I never heard of any crashes or incidents.

 This does not appear to be a heavily used smuggling or alien travel route, but the presence of black water jugs or abandoned backpacks lets you know that it does happen.

The requisite 3AM moonlight shot ...

My camp is just on the western edge of the west section of Saguaro National Park - which has an abundance of great scenery and hiking opportunities.

Much of the trail I was on has hundreds, likely thousands of stone steps built into the trail.  Some local rock is used in places, but hundreds of the rock chunks have clearly been drilled and ground in a quarry somewhere.  My question is - how ever did they get them way up this steep narrow trail and place them?

I estimate some of the idividual stone pieces would weigh over 200lbs!

Grinding marks on this piece.

 

Obvious drill marks on this one! 

That's about it - for now!

Anza-Borrego to Yuma to Ajo

 Time expired on our stay in the southern reaches of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California.  Heading south to the small village of Ocotillo we picked up the I-8 and headed back east.  The rest area east of El Centro provided a place to dump, fill and deposit garbage as we made our way back to Sidewinder road, just outside of Yuma, Az

There is a mixture of BLM and private land in the area.  Some private land previously camped on had a few new 'no trespassing' signs along one edge, so we moved a bit further off road, past some land that used to have crops, but has been abandoned for decades, and found a nice quiet spot near a shallow wash.
 

 Not that appealing, but it gets high ratings for the convenient access to Yuma, and Los Algodones, Mx.

I hoped that my problems with getting Amazon stuff delivered would be solved by the convenience of the Amazon lockers scattered about Yuma, but it was not to be!  The shipping gods were still out to get me.  Right on schedule the package arrived at the lockers, and I went to pick it up - usually a simple task by scanning a bar code or entering a code.  Nope! Not this time.  Upon entering the code, I could hear the latch on one of the lockers clicking, but nothing popped open.  Numerous tries all failed, though I could narrow it down to one of about 3 lockers.  Well, I evnetually managed to get a helpful, partial English speaking person on the phone.  She re-booted the computer that controled the locker all to no avail.  But she could tell me exactly which locker was failing to open, and promised to expedite a replacement order.  One more try, knowing which locker door to wiggle, and voila, I managed to pry it open!

(Desert art off Ogilby rd)

I think that package was the one that contained a new USB plug that I mounted in a convenient spot right by the bed.  I did not even have to run new wiring, as there was an unused wire pair that used to be used to turn the inverter on and off - now accomplished via Bluetooth.  This one has two usb-A plugs and one C.  It came in a two-pack, so I have a spare one to install in the truck camper next summer.

Most of our time camped in this location involved mundane things like laundry, groceries, fuel, propane, and wandering through the required stores like Harbor Freight, CAL Ranch, Best Buy, Sports Warehouse, Tractor Supply.  It also included a run across the border to Los Algodones for a $5. haircut and $30 teeth cleaning.  Big jump in parking fees at the border, from $6-10.  No photos ...

Next move was further east on the I-8, with a stop in Gila Bend for dump, fill, and fuel, before heading south down to Ajo.  We went a bit further down Bates Well road to some spots that I checked out on my bike last year.  There were fewer than normal campers near the entrance at Darby Well road, but a good scattering further south.  There were still lots of potentially good spots to choose from, but my choices were limited to those without cholla cactus.  While I can usually avoid contact with the nasty things, I don't want any chance of Bailey getting into them while on the hunt.  They are so bad because they are needle sharp and have barbs, so they stay firmly imbedded in any flesh that contacts them.  And there are often loose balls of thorns laying around on the ground, or blowing about in the wind to attack sandal feet or paws.  They can also be hard on bike tires, as I've found out the hard way - having had to carry my previous bicycle several kilometers back with flat tires.  Present e-bike has puncture resistant tires filled with 'slime', so I haven't had an issue for a while - knock on wood.  And now, I also carry a spare tube, tools, and a tire pump for such occasions.

 So this was the selected spot with no cholla cactus, but almost every bit of brush here still will snag clothing or scratch you upon contact.   

Being winter here, I have never seen a scorpion or rattler, who stay out of sight during the cooler months.

This is right on the boundary of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, so there are a few of these Organ Pipe Cactus, found in few other locations.

There are a few lizards out sunning themselves that keep Bailey occupied.

There are a myriad of old trails and dusty roads leading all over the desert, and most are pretty good for biking and exploration.  Behind the fenced area is a water collection facility, designed to collect and save rainwater for wildlife in the area.  This one had a whole flock of Quail who were taking advantage of the rare water source.

There was practically a beaten quail path leading to the water from the open desert.

I'm sure there are coyotes and foxes around here as in most desert locales, but I have not heard any coyotes, or seen them on my trail cameras, though there are lots of tracks.  I did see a pair of Javelina foraging in their natural habitat - in the trash back of a Dollar Store in town!

Decided to power up the Starlink (V2) so it could download it's updates, even though it is not on active duty for this winter.  Once again tested the new 12v power supply and router, and all seemed to work fine!

Funny thing is, it seems to work just fine, indoors, sitting on it's tripod on the bed!  Who knew!

We haven't yet formulated a plan on where to go next, or when.  Until then, we'll be right here, enjoying the weather, the solitude, and the scenery!