Wednesday, March 14, 2012

BOON DOCKED AT OUR OWN ARIZONA DIGS:))

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WE ARE NOW PARKED IN FRONT OF OUR NEW DIGS

We sat under a crystal clear starry sky beside our desert campfire Monday night until well after dark.  I knew this would be our last night boondocking in our beloved desert for awhile.  What a special spot we have had for this past while here in the quiet Mesquite Savannah.    This last desert boondocking location will go down in our memories as one of our most memorable, simply because of it’s quiet simplicity.  Took a last long look at the stars from horizon to horizon, gave the ashes in the campfire a stir & called it a night.  Tuesday would dawn a new day & a whole new era for the Bayfield Bunch would begin…………

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ENJOYING OUR LAST BOONDOCKING CAMPFIRE FOR AWHILE

I started breaking camp before the morning sun even made it over the mountains to our East.  Didn’t take long to have things put away, TV aerial down, slides in, etc.  By 8 a.m. we said good-bye to our favored campsite & Kelly slowly led the way out of the desert in the Jeep.  Had her go first in case I hung the Motorhome up in a bumpity little wash going out.  Picked up some more groovy desert pin striping as I carefully maneuvered slowly along the sandy road brushing by prickly Mesquite trees.  Eased down into the wash being careful not to let the hitch come down too steeply.  No grounding out & I was across & up the other side.  Lots of creaking in the rig as I swayed from side to side.  Kelly opened the gate ahead, checked the Speedway traffic & waved me through.  I was up on the highway & off to North Ranch just a mile up the road.

NOT MANY PHOTOS TONIGHT…..SLOW CONNECTION:((

Dumped our tanks, took on a load of water & topped off our propane tank.  It was a beautiful morning for doing all that too.  Motor, Pheebs & I headed for Ghost Town Road with the rig while Kelly headed over to MIKE & PAT'S.  We had received additional paper work from the Realtor & copies had to be printed.  Pat had a printer & said bring em on over & we’ll get em printed up fer ya:))

In the meantime I was able to get parked in front of our house & leveled up.  While driving in I didn’t even see the low electricity line from the street post to the house.  When Kelly arrived she pointed it out right away.  The great RV Gods must have been watching over me because the sloped front edge of our A/C cover had gently lifted & directed the power line up on top of the cover as I stopped.  Power to the house is not turned on yet but I could have easily torn that power line down.  Yes, yes, I know….ya gotta remember to look up.

Kelly was able to get the lock box code from our Realtor guy so we were able access the house key & let ourselves in.  That was a big help for us because we had only seen it briefly one day with the Realtor awhile back.

As we walked from room to room this morning we sure knew we had our work cut out for us.  Dear oh dear, where do we begin.  Kind of like an Artist standing in front of blank canvas not knowing where to place the first brush stroke.  But, one day at a time we will get it done.  The fun is in the doing:))

Mike had sent a garden rake along with Kelly this morning & that sure came in handy while raking out some old dead Prickly Pear Cactus.  Thanks Mike, that rake saved me a bunch of prickers in my hands.

I was able to locate the water shut off valve by the road & get it turned on.  We now have running water in the house & yard taps.  We didn’t mess with the water heater.  Afterall, the deal isn’t even finalized yet & we don’t officially have the keys

Got myself another load of brush burnt up.  Oh how I wished I had all my garden tools here.  Had us a chat with the neighbor beside us who has only been here himself since last November.  He is making great strides in getting his piece of property cleaned up as well.  Says it’s a very quiet neighborhood & I was relieved to see they have no street lights.  Light pollution is another thing I do not like.  Looking forward to my first glimpse of the night sky from our new digs.

 

Late this afternoon we Jeeped ourselves over to North Ranch.  LAURIE & ODEL had invited us over for supper.  Always enjoy chatting with these well known folks in the blogging world.  They have been full timing for over 9 years now.  Jim & Bev (our Jeeping friends) dropped by to say Hello as well before heading on home.  Laurie served up something called Posol. There was a whole lot of recipe stuff in it & all I can tell you is that it looked kinda green & tasted great.  Actually, Laurie talks about making it in her last post.  Sat outside until sundown when it began to cool off & then moved inside for cake.  I always really like the cake part too.  We didn’t stay too late & soon headed back for our new digs…..if we could find them.  It was dark & we hadn’t left any lights on in the rig.  Drove slow & spotted the rig where we figured it should be.  Like I said earlier, no street lights around our place.  Love it:))

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It’s a mixed bag neighborhood we have here.  From some nice high end developments & homes to places that are little more than junk yards.  I do have a good feeling about the neighborhood though & I think the Bayfield Bunch will fit right in here quite nicely.

       

In Monday’s post I mentioned about Congress being a great central location & springboard for future area travels to new & old places.  We can drive to Bisbee in a day or Borrego Springs California in half that time.  It’s a full day’s drive to Moab Utah & we could make it to the South rim of the Grand Canyon in about 4 hours.  About 3 & a half hours to Joshua Tree National Park.  A short 3 hours down to Darby Well in Ajo & about 3 hours over to the Sedona area.  A day’s drive could easily land us in Silver City New Mexico & a day’s drive from Congress could put us up into Cortez, Colorado.  Yep, I think we are in a pretty great area for many future travels alright.  And, it will make for a new route between our Bayfield digs & our newer Arizona digs now as well.  I will be working that new route out shortly & for sure I will miss the old route we have used these past bunch of years.

 

To answer a few questions about our new digs…..yes, we are on city water.  No, the cement patio pad behind the house is not big enough for a Motorhome.  We have plenty of room for the rig on the north side of the house.  Probably could easily park 4 large rigs in that area.  Paved road out front is a dead end road so we will have minimal traffic.  Wickenburg is 17 miles to our south & Phoenix is about 75 miles southeast.  Prescott is about 50 miles north of us.  We are on a septic tank system.  I am guessing an average price for an acre of land in our area is $50,000. (no buildings or services)  And yes, we do have a gated fence around the house so it is safe for the dogs.  It was this fenced in part they were trying to sell for $39,900 a couple weeks ago.  We do intend on redoing the fence line at some point to include all the property & not just part of it.

  

And, a word of thanks to all those readers & fellow Bloggers who have wished us well with our Ghost Town Road house & property purchase.  The response in our comment section has been so unexpected & so overwhelming.  Very heart warming to know we have so many friends & supporters out there….despite me being such a grouchy complainer at times.

 

Lastly, we have a very poor Verizon connection here so if by any chance you don’t hear from us at our regular time each night it just means we are experiencing some technical difficulties with the Verizon signal…………..

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GROANER’S CORNER:))   A string walked into a bar, hopped on the barstool, and said, "Bartender, gimme a beer." The bartender said, "I'm sorry, sir, we don't serve strings here."
Disappointed, the string hopped down from the stool and went to the next bar. He hopped on the barstool and said, again, "Bartender, gimme a beer." The bartender said, "I'm sorry sir, we don't serve strings here."
The string continued down the row of bars in this fashion. At every bar, he hopped on the barstool and said, "Bartender, gimme a beer." The bartender at every bar in turn said, "I'm sorry sir, we don't serve strings here."
Finally he got to the last bar in the area. He was tired, he was sweaty, all he wanted was a beer. He trudged inside, climbed on the barstool, and said, "Bartender, gimme a beer." This bartender, too, said, "I'm sorry, sir, we don't serve strings here."
Tired and angry, the string walked outside to think. He was a hard-working string. He deserved a beer. Finally, he came up with an idea. He had a passerby tie him up into a bow and frazzle his ends. Then he went back into the bar, and climbed up on the barstool. "Bartender, gimme a beer!" he said loudly.
The bartender looked him over critically, and finally yelled, "Hey, aren't you that string that was in here a few minutes ago?"
The string replied coolly, "Nope, I'm a frayed knot."

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- Tourists see the world, travelers  experience it.

- Home is where your pet is:))

- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right  now...AL.
stargeezerguy@gmail.com

21 comments:

  1. It's perfect for you guys, it will be fun for all of us to see the changes you make.

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  2. We'll be following along on your new journey. Can hardly wait to see all the positive changes you will be making to the old homestead.

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  3. The end of an era? The start of an era? We'll be watching to see what's next.

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  4. Welcome home. You were lucky with that electric line. I suspect we'll be seeing some changes to the place in no time.

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  5. Let's see, the Ghost Town Bayfield Congress Bunch. Ghost's Bay, Congress Field Bunch......... Congress Bay Ghost Field Bunch... Aw heck, something like that anyway.......

    Congratulations, we are very excited to have you as fellow winter Arizonans...

    Rod and Loyce

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  6. Welcome home to you all!..a new chapter is just beginning and I am thinking we are all going to enjoy this new book!!

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  7. Canadians can generally visit for up to 6 months and must maintain a foreign (Canadian) residence. If a Canadian stays longer than 6 months, the danger is not in being deemed a tax resident of the US but in being out of status and deportable. A further danger in overstaying in the US is losing one's health insurance eligibility in Canada. This is the factor that brings most snowbirds home each spring.
    HI Al and Kelly - congratulations on your new home - I am unable to sign in tonite but found tbis info on internet - I know Ontario allows you to stay for longer than 6 months but problem is on the US side -

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  8. Hi Al and Kelly - don't know why my comment above published as anonymous - sorry - I'll try again -We are so HAPPY for you and if you need kjuow gth wyub

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  9. Looks like you have some work to do, having a lot of run in the process. Enjoy the neighbourhood with no light polution!

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  10. So happy for you and Kelly ~ I know we can expect some great adventure stories about your new place...
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  11. That's a nice piece of land you purchased. Looking forward to reading how you will make it your own.
    Have fun!
    Sylvia
    Murrieta, CA

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  12. Hey..neat photo of all on the patio and everyone of us have our legs crossed :-) Jim is still groaning over your Groaner's Corner.

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  13. Your guys are truly inspiring. You did a lot of dreaming and some planning and voila! Best wishes in your new digs.

    Virginia

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  14. Hi Al and Kelly, Just wanted to congratulate you guys on your new place all we can say is WOW !!!
    Very Happy for you both I'm sure your going to enjoy this place!!!
    We'll see you when you get home
    Talk to you later,
    Jan & Manny

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  15. Ghost Town Road Spirits...yep, you sure got a great spot..like the center of the universe for travel...Just think what a difference one year will make!! That place will become a major stopover for RVer's in the area, I'll bet!!

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  16. As you are Canadians, do you have a lot of hoops to jump through to own property in the States?

    I am just so excited for you guys. Last year you were quite despondent over not being able to work out the house further south. But wow, did this work out for the good. And you have enough projects to keep yourself busy for a long long time.

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  17. Isnt it exciting....a new place.
    Do u really think you should have mentioned you can park 4 large rigs at a time . You might become the frat house of ghost town road.
    ;_)

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  18. Hey Kelly & Al --

    I've been a week or so behind in reading your blog (some glitch with my netbook is preventing me from accessing it?!). So, I grabbed my sister's laptop while visiting her over in the Gulfport FL area and took the time to catch up on what's been happening with the 'Bayfield Bunch' -- WOW!! Let me add a BIG CONGRATULAIONS! on your fantastic 'find' out in AZ. I'm just about 'green w/ envy' for you two. Great job getting such a good price too Kelly!! Looking forward to more photos and following along - especially next Fall!

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  19. So very, very happy for you four! Do you have the signal booster or whatever some of the others have? I have been considering it and wondering how much good they do.

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  20. "Welcome Home" folks "Welcome Home"

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