UP THE YARNELL HILL, DOWN THE YARNELL HILL & SWEET ONION SAUCE

MORNING SUNRISE THROUGH ONE OF OUR FRONT YARD MESQUITE TREES

To say I was outside in our front yard at 7:30 a.m. this morning frolicking in my bath robe & PJ’s would be in part quite true.  Indeed I was out there in said ensemble but frolicking…..hardly.  I was out there with my camera taking photos of a fiery sunrise which Kelly had noticed a few minutes earlier when opening a few East facing curtains.  Checking our outside thermometer I noticed we were at 50F.  ‘Wow’ our mid winter heat wave continues.

FROM OUR BACKYARD MORNING’S SUNRISE CASTS A PALETTE OF PASTEL COLORS ONTO WESTERN CLOUDS

With our weather slated to go into the dumpster Monday for the majority of the week I figured Pheebs & I had better get ourselves out today while we still had sunny skies overhead & a slightly warmer day going on.  Well where to go??  With the limited amount of roads here compared to back home in Ontario’s Huron County we decided to head off towards Yarnell.  Up the Yarnell Hill we went, through Yarnell, out the other side & made a U-turn.  Back through Yarnell & down the Yarnell Hill we went heading south out across the desert floor lickety split.  Why the U-turn north of Yarnell??  Well it seem’s my chief navigator determined there were no close by eateries north of Yarnell.  My chief navigator in this case being my stomach.  Habits can be hard to break & back home in Bayfield whenever Pheebs & I head off somewhere we have a tendency to pick up a coffee & muffin before launching off onto the back country roads.  It’s a habit that as often as not determines where we go on our Jeep Safaris right here in Yavapai County Arizona as well.

MORNING’S HALF MOON OVER OUR HOUSE IN THE SOUTHERN SKY

Now here’s how it happened.  When the Cornerstone Bakery wasn’t open in Yarnell my stomach started pestering my brain to turn around & head for Wickenburg.  My cranium sponge had remembered a ‘SUBWAY’ right beside McDonalds & of course as soon as my brain reminded my stomach about that the dye was cast.  One U-turn & it was pedal to the metal for the south end of Wickenburg.  Twenty minutes later after winging our way around three highway 93 round-a-bouts I was standing at Subway’s counter ordering us up a 6” Tuna Sub.  Thought I’d change things up a bit & try a different sauce.  Girl behind the counter suggested ‘sweet onion sauce’ & ‘WOW’ was that ever a great suggestion.  It will be sweet onion sauce on all my subs from now on.  I’m even thinking of getting some ‘sweet onion sauce’ to put on my porridge in the mornings now.  Say, I wonder how sweet onion sauce would go with my daily peanut butter & honey sandwiches eh:))

WICKENBURG’S SUBWAY WITH LIBBY BEHIND THE BUCKBOARD

Again with no clear destination in mind we left Subway, grabbed a coffee to go at McDonalds & again headed out Constellation Road southeast of Wickenburg.  Figured we’d just head off on Blue Tank Road & slowly angle ourselves back towards Congress but along the way I remembered a place Jim & Bev had taken us to a couple times on our Jeep drives a few years back.  Wasn’t exactly sure where SAYERS SPRING was but I did have an idea as to the area it was in & sure enough within half an hour trundling along in a sandy wash we came upon Sayers Spring.

CLICK THE ABOVE ‘SAYERS SPRING’ LINK IN THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH TO READ SOME HISTORY ABOUT THIS PLACE

OLD STEPS WHICH ONCE LED SOMEWHERE NOW LEAD NOWHWERE

THE SPRING LIES JUST UP THERE ABOUT DEAD CENTER AT THE BASE OF THAT ROCK FACE…THE RUINS ARE JUST OFF TO MY RIGHT

Having been here a couple times before we knew our way around & what was there.  Nothing had changed much since our last stop two winters ago when Peter & Leslie were along riding with us.  Bit of climb up an embankment of loose & tumbly rocks & gravel to a couple cave like entrances where I knew spring water was to be found in a couple cave like entrances.  Imagine my surprise to find both springs pretty much dried up & especially the upper one where there had been a pool of crystal clear spring water last time about 2 feet deep. 

THE LOWER SPRING HAD ONLY A COUPLE INCHES OF GREEN BRACKISH WATER

THE SECOND HIGHER UP SPRING WAS DRY EXCEPT FOR DAMP LOOKING MUD

ABOVE AS IT LOOKED TODAY & BELOW AS IT LOOKED LAST TIME WE WERE THERE ON JANUARY 21RST 2014…THIS ‘LINK’ WILL TAKE YOU TO THAT DAY

THAT IS THE SANDY WASH WE CAME IN ON…JEEP IS SLIGHTLY VISIBLE ABOVE THE TREES ABOVE THE 2 BLACK WATER TANKS

<<< NOPE YOU WON’T BE GETTING A DRINK IN THERE TODAY PHEEBS

From Sayers Spring we continued along the rough & tumble road climbing ever higher into the surrounding mountainside towards the Williams Ranch.  We had been this way before following Jim & Bev in their Jeep & actually ended up at the Williams Ranch that day & talked to the Ranch owner fella himself.  But today we only went maybe a couple miles high up into the hills before deciding to turn around.  Had noticed our sunlight slowly disappearning as the leading edge of the bad weather front began pushing in from the west.   It was almost noon anyway & without sunlight spilling down the mountainsides into the valleys below punching out the colors my keen interest in the landscape generally peters out.  With that thought in mind stopped atop a high ridge I swung the Jeep’s nose back around, pointed it & downhill & our return trip to Congress was underway as we went rumbling & tumbling downwards along a narrow dusty road cut diagonally through solid rock in places.  These are old mining roads from years ago & there are no guard rails anywhere so the driving is definitely more exciting than just plodding along on a standard flat paved road.   It’s just another one of those things I like so much about the great American South-west.  By the way if you would like to see more photos of Sayers Spring, plus a couple gold mine sites with buildings & our stop at the Williams Ranch just click on my post for March 8th 2012 entitled ‘A GREAT 6 HOUR JEEP TOUR THROUGH GOLD COUNTRY.  A big thanks to Jim & Bev up there in that Idaho place for showing us all these interesting places a few years ago:))

THAT SANDY AREA IN THE VALLEY IS WIDE DRY RIVER WASH

THIS IS THE POINT WHERE WE FOUND THE NARROW ROAD WIDE ENOUGH TO TURN AROUND & HEAD BACK

Debated on going back through Wickenburg but why the heck do that if a fella doesn’t have to.  In my opinion that ‘high rollers’ race track between Phoenix & Las Vegas they call highway 93 running through Wickenburg is to be avoided at the best of times.  We swung right onto our old familiar Blue Tank Road & followed that twisty winding up & down road to Rincon Road & hung a left to the race track highway.  By taking this route we eliminated 2 of 3 round-a-bouts.  Fifteen minutes later we were home.  It was nearly 1 o’clock & we had been gone about 4 hours.

JUST BELOW CENTER OF PHOTO ONE CAN SEE MINE TAILINGS FROM AN OLD ABANDONED MINE SITE

TOP CENTER IS THE REMAINS OF AN OLD MINE BUILDING…JIM & BEV FIRST SHOWED US THIS SITE BACK IN EARLY MARCH OF 2012

CLOUD SHADOWS IN THE WICKENBURG MOUNTAINS

PHEEBS & I HAD OURSELVES INTO SOME PRETTY ROUGH & TUMBLE COUNTRYSIDE TODAY

HAD WE CONTINUED ON WE WOULD HAVE CROSSED THAT STRETCH OF ROAD TOP RIGHT & COME ACROSS A FEW MORE REALLY GROOVY MINE SITES WITH BUILDINGS

Ever been typing along on your keyboard working away on a post only to have it suddenly disappear forever.  Yep, it’s happened to me about half a dozen times over the years & any Blogger well knows the absolute frustration with that happening.  Hours of work instantly wiped out.  Unless one had copied & pasted the post aforehand from another writing program one has no choice but to start the entire post all over again right from scratch.  I’ve never understood what causes this to happen but perhaps a Saturday email from Bob over at Bob's Eyes explains not only what occurs but perhaps a solution to this most aggravating problem as well.  You might want to file this ‘solution’ away for….next time.  Here is what Bob wrote……Hi Al, I’ve been wondering for a long time what causes the whole blog to disappear every once in awhile and know other people have had this happen to them also and is very frustrating.  I just figured out how we can lose everything on the page in an instant as we all know.  It’s Control a, that key stroke selects the whole page.  Say you want a capital a, so you try to hit, shift a, but miss and hit, control a, instead, then you immediately hit another key, say k and the k replaces all of what you had selected, the whole page and poof, it’s gone.  Now, when that page disappears, there is sometimes a way to save it, if.  If you did a save blog before it happens,than once it happens,  you close Live Writer and do not do a save when it asks or you will replace the good saved stuff with the now blank page, so hit no save.  Than reopen Live Writer and do a file open recent draft and you will get back what you had saved up to that point. You can test this real easy by typing a few lines and hitting the right keys.  Feel free to pass that on if you like as others have had this frustrating problem, I’m sure. :O)  Thanks Bog:))

NOT A LOT OF ROOM FOR VEHICLES TO PASS ON SOME SECTIONS OF THESE MOUNTAIN ROADS & IT CAN BE A LITTLE DICEY FOR THE FELLER ON THE OUTSIDE

ANOTHER OLD GOLD MINE SITE BELOW

DURING MONSOON SEASON THAT WOULD BE A RIVER RUSHING THROUGH DOWN THERE

THAT SHORT VISIBLE STRETCH OF ROAD AT THE TOP LEFT IS LEADING UP & OUT OF SAYERS SPRING TOWARDS WICKENBURG ON THE HORIZON TOP RIGHT

AND OF COURSE HERE IS MY SLEEPLY LITTLE COMPANION TODAY

ARE WE GOING HOME SOON DAD, I’M MISSING MOM

OK PHEEBS WE’RE ON OUR WAY…ETA LESS THAN 1 HOUR:))

Remember a short while back when someone asked how I liked our Jeep Liberty here in the Southwest & I answered that question.  One of the things I said about the Liberty was that it wasn’t trail rated.  After reading that post Kelly had to take me by the hand & lead me outside over to the Jeep & point to the round emblem on the driver’s side saying……’Trail Rated’.  Guess I was standing on the passenger side of the car when i looked over at the Jeep.  No emblem on that side, never is.  Do you suppose if I put my name in now the ‘HOME’ might have pity & take me early…….:((

LAST PHOTO OF THE DAY AS WE ROCKET ACROSS THE DESERT FLOOR

At the time of posting this tonight we are under a solid cloud cover with no chance of Sun until maybe Thursday.  Wish me luck……………….

SUNDAY’S MORNING SUNRISE FROM OUR FRONT YARD

GROANER’S CORNER:((

- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward

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

- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.