TOOK MY TIME TO TAKE SOME NIGHT PHOTOS THEN ACCIDENTALLY SCREWED MOST OF THEM UP THURSDAY NIGHT

I ILLUMINATED THIS ORGAN PIPE CACTUS WITH MY FLASHLIGHT DURING A 10 SECOND EXPOSURE

Our night skies were very busy a couple nights ago and I counted 7 blinking lights on the move over the Barry M Goldwater Military Range to our north.  Those blinking lights of course were U.S. Air Force fighter jets and I suspect they were F-16’s.  A-10 Warthogs, F-18’s, F-35 Lightnings, and AV-8B Harrier Jump Jets also fly these area skies.  The pilots Tuesday night were busy twisting and turning through the night sky in mock combat maneuvers.  Bright yellowish amber flares could be seen hanging in the sky in various locations.  I saw 6 flares in pairs of two slowly drifting to earth.  The Jets were far enough away that I only heard a few short occasional low rumbles.  We did have 3 A-10 Warthogs go over Thursday afternoon in a straight line a few thousand feet up.  I’m guessing they were headed from Tucson to Yuma.  Usually they are seen low to the ground in this area dodging about through the surrounding mountains and hills.  No double sonic  booms from the daytime F-16’s yet though.  When those sudden sonic booms happen once in a long while it’s as if someone set off a couple sticks of TNT about  6 feet behind ya,  Makes one jump  about 6 feet straight up right out of their shoes. 

AJO’S NIGHT GLOW ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CAMEL BACK MOUNTAIN

TUCSON’S NIGHT GLOW A HUNDRED MILES AWAY

IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM TUCSON IS YUMA’S NIGHT GLOW ON THE OTHER HORIZON

I did get outside Thursday night for awhile with my camera but the night sky was quiet.  Did manage a few photos though.  Unfortunately through carelessness on my part I lost most of them when I pulled the camera chip out of my computer too soon which screwed up the up-load.  Oh well more starry nights ahead.

JET FIGHTER FLARES OVER THE NIGHT TIME DESERT

A SETTING CRESCENT MOON SETS BEHIND AJO PEAK

Sun was already hot by 8:30 on our morning walk so we knew it was going to be an uncomfortably hot day.  Luckily temperatures are due to take a big drop Saturday so because of that we’ll stay put for awhile.  Had the hotter weather continued we might have pulled up stakes and headed for cooler weather somewhere north of here like maybe Joshua Tree National Park.    Looking ahead a couple weeks we’re seeing temps in the low 80’s for Yuma so  we’ll not likely be headed that way.  Looks like I might have to wash our rig myself when we get back to Canada after all.  Best temps ahead of us for now and the next couple weeks are in Borrego Springs California so that may very well be our next stop along the way whenever.

A PASSING VEHICLES HEADLIGHTS LIGHT UP OUR COACH IN THE NIGHT

A SMALL PART OF THE MILKY WAY

YUMA’S GLOW BEHIND US….BY CAR YUMA IS 158 MILES AWAY BUT AS THE CROW FLIES MAYBE LESS THAN A HUNDRED MILES

THIS IS A 300mm VIEW OF THE DOG STAR SIRIUS

Despite today’s hotter temperatures we are sure lucky to be where we are.  Reading some RV’ers blogs from Quartzsite this morning Kelly said it looked really crowded over there with maybe a record number of people milling about.  Long line-ups for rigs waiting to dump their tanks and take on water and it seems the availability of water has already become a problem and the main event hasn’t even happened yet.  Kelly and I were a part of all that years ago having attended our first frenzied Quartzsite experience in January of 2007.  Despite my complaining about the crowds and traffic we did manage to return again 3 or 4 times over the next few years.  We generally boon-docked about 6 miles south of Quartzsite but even that far out we were still surrounded by RV’s everywhere.  And a lot of big groups making big group noise.  Quartzsite itself is a quirky little town out in the middle of  kinda nowwhere and I-10 runs right through it.  I like the dusty little town but not in January when thousands upon thousands of RVer’s descend on it for the big RV meet-up.  There are many good things to say about the big gathering if you like that sort of thing but for Kelly and I we’ve done our time there and have no urge to immerse ourselves back into all that hoopla in the desert again and I’m sure their are a number of folks crowded into the desert over there right now who would love nothing better than to get away from the masses and enjoy the peace and quiet Kelly and I are enjoying over here near Ajo in the serene and tranquil setting of the Sonoran desert.  Looking back I’m glad we did our Quartzsite thing years ago but it’s not very likely we’ll ever do it again.  Enough was enough.  Think I’ll go slip outside under the shade of our awning and let the surrounding silence envelope me while I enjoy our beautiful desert surroundings not marred by the hubbub of thousands of RV’s all around us.

SUNRISE ARIZONA STYLE AND BY THE WAY I DON’T NORMALLY JAZZ UP THE COLORS ….WHAT YOU SEE IS REALLY THE WAY IT IS

ON OUR MORNING WALK IT WAS ALREADY TOO HOT FOR PHEEBS, HER TONGUE IS HANGING OUT

THE JEEP ROAD WE WERE WALKING ON SPLITS HERE GOING EITHER LEFT OR RIGHT….PHEEBS AND I TOOK THE RIGHT FORK IN OUR JEEP WRANGLER ONE TIME ABOUT 7 YEARS AGO

TEDDY BEAR CHOLLA…..SO PRETTY YET SO NASTY

I CALL THIS COLLECTION OF 3 LARGE ROUNDED ROCKS THE ‘COW PLOPS’ FOR  AN OBVIOUS REASON

Because of the heat we stuck close to the coach where it remained cool inside for most of the day.  With windows and door open we had us a nice cool breeze blowing through and were only bothered by the heat from 2 to 4.  Thankfully by late afternoon Mother Nature switches on her A/C and we quickly cool down.

A RATHER RELAXING DAY AT OUR HOUSE

A big thanks to commenter Mike for allaying my fears we might have to get ourselves a whole new ladder for our rig  We’ve been able  to find a few ‘how to replace that bolt’ articles on-line as well.  And while I’m at it a big thanks to all our blog reader’s, commenters, Shout Box folks, and Facebooker’s for still sticking with us over the years.  All you people sure do got some great fortitude going for yourselves and let me say once again, if it wasn’t for all of you reading the blog there would be no reason for me to write the blog or head out each day looking for new photos.  It is people like you who give people like me a purpose.  And of course thanks to Kelly for keeping the blog technically going despite Blogger, Verizona, and Open Live Writer problems from time to time.  Without Kelly figuring out and correcting the problems there of course would be no blog because I simply do not have her patience, resolve, and determination.  She’s got the ‘smarts’ and I’ve got the ‘falling aparts’. 

A VEHICLE DRIVES THROUGH MY NIGHT PHOTO LEAVEING ONLY THE HEAD AND TAILIGHTS OF IT’S PASSING

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A blonde woman walks into an auto parts store (hey it could just as easily been a white haired guy like myself) and the parts man asks how sheis doing and what can he do for her. She replies, "Fine, I need a seven-ten cap for my car." The man asks," A seven-ten cap? Where does it go, I've never heard of such a thing?"  The blonde angrily replies, "It goes on top of the engine and don't thinkj ust because I'm blonde I don't know what I'm talking about!!" Perplexed,the parts man asks if she would draw him a picture and maybe help him out in figuring out what it is she needs.  She wrote the number 710 in the middle of the paper and drew a circle around the whole number.  Still confused the part’s man looked at it then turned the paper around.  ‘Aha’ he said, so that’s what you need……………………

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- So Moses is up on Mount Sinai and he says to God, "God,  I have a pounding headache!  And God says, "Here, take these two tablets."

- What did the Yogi say when he walked into the Zen Pizza Parlor?  "Make me one with everything."  When the Yogi got the pizza, he gave the proprietor a $20 bill. The proprietor pocketed the bill. The Yogi said "Don't I get change?"  The proprietor said, "Change must come from within."

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