WE HAD TWO GOALS TODAY, LAUNDRY AND TRAVEL....AND WE DID ACCOMPLISH ONE OF THEM

When I woke up Wednesday morning I had no idea we would have the big wheels rolling a couple hours later but that's not unusual for us when it comes to travel plans.  Kelly asked me what my plans for the day were and I told her I didn't have any.  She didn't have any plans either and that started the ball rolling.  Well Okay if we don't have any plans maybe we'll just head out then.  And that's what we did.

ENJOYING WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S  SUNSET ABOUT 165 MILES AWAY FROM WHERE WE ENJOYED THE MORNING'S SUNRISE

Sorry about the irregular spacing of photos and text sometimes but this finicky Blogger platform can be and is a real frustration for those of us who prefer our blogs to look the way we want them to look!! 

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It was about 9:30 when we waved good-bye to the Muchacho Mountains and headed south on Ogibly Road to I-8 heading east.  Quick stop at Walmart on Pacifica Ave in Yuma for some groceraries and that was it.  We soon had Yuma disappearing in our rear view mirror.

THERE ARE NO COLOR ENHANCEMENTS ON THESE SUNSET PHOTOS

Traffic is always light on the section of I-8 between Yuma and Gila Bend so we had us an uneventful drive on what turned out to be a mighty fine weather day.

Stopped at Gila Bend's east end Shell station for gas, water, and propane.  Dumped the gray and black tanks as well.  The big orange and black Gila Monster in Wednesday's post was taken here.  It was early afternoon when we made our way from Gila Bend down highway 85 to north of Ajo Arizona and pulled into the Rodeo/Roping Park area east of the highway.  There is a dry camping RV section here but with half a dozen rigs parked around we decided to boon-dock in the parking lot near the roping arena.  There is actually no arena building here just an open air corral type of arena

Nice sunset and soon as darkness fell I was outside with my binoculars and camera marveling at all the activity going on in the night sky over the Barry M. Goldwater military range.  Many twinkling aircraft lights in the air plus the mysterious bright hardly moving amber lights.  At one point I saw 5 of them in the sky at the same time.  Sometimes they would be single lights and sometimes in pairs.  My first thought was flares because I've seen military flares before but with my binoculars I was able to determine these were not flares.  Flares move vertically in a downward motion and these flares were moving horizontally across the night sky and way to slow for any winged aircraft.  Helicopters maybe but I thought even too slow for helicopters.  They basically hung in the sky moving horizontally.  Some kind of military craft no doubt but for me they were Unidentified Flying Objects simply because I myself could not identify them.  Should mention these objects were in no other area of the sky except over the Goldwater range to our north and northwest. 

STRANGE SIGHTS IN ARIZONA'S SKIES OVER THE BARRY M. GOLDWATER MILITARY RANGE

THIN SINEWY LINES IN THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM JET AIRCRAFT TWISTING AND TURNING IN VARIOUS MILITARY MANUEVERS

PLANET VENUS AT LEFT WITH THE GLOW BELOW FROM YUMA FAR OFF TO OUR NORTHWEST

ALL THESE NIGHT PHOTOS ARE VARIOUS TIME EXPOSURES AND THE LONG WHITE HORIZONTAL STREAKS ARE ACTUALLY THE MYSTERIOUS AMBER LIGHTS....BECAUSE OF THE TIME EXPOSURE THE AMBER LIGHTS ARE ELONGATED AND THEIR AMBER COLOR APPEARS AS WHITE

THE LONG THIN STETCH OF LIGHT AT THE PHOTOS BOTTOM IS A CARS HEADLIGHTS DRIVING BY ON THE ROAD BUT IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY IN THE SKY YOU CAN PICK OUT SEVERAL SMALL SEEMINGY STATIONARY AMBER LIGHTS VERY FAR AWAY

THE SOFT GLOW AT BOTTOM RIGHT IS FROM AJO'S MUNICIPLE AIRPORT'S BEACON LIGHT ABOUT HALF A MILE TO OUR NORTHWEST....SOME MAY REMEMBER WE OVERNIGHTED AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY ABOUT A MONTH AGO WHEN TRAVELING FROM SIERRA VISTA BACK TO YUMA AND BORREGO SPRINGS

VENUS WITH A WISPY CLOUD HAIRDO

TWIN AMBER LIGHTS MOVING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

AGAIN, THE AMBER GLOW OVER THE MOUNTAINS IS YUMA ABOUT A HUNDRED MILES AWAY AS THE CROW FLIES

THIS GLOW ON OUR NORTHEASTERN HORIZON IS FROM PHOENIX ARIZONA

THIS GLOW TO OUR SOUTHEAST IS TUCSON

Wednesday night under the stars was windless and warm while early Thursday morning stepping out with Pheebs under the stars we were greeted with a cold north wind and it kind of hung around for most of the day.

LOOKING CLOSELY ONE CAN SEE THE EARLY EVENING LIGHTS OF AJO ARIZONA

THESE ARE THE LIGHTS OF AJO ARIZONA TO OUR SOUTHWEST AFTER DARK

Our two part goal was to hit the laundromat in Ajo this morning then continue our journey in a southeasterly direction.......and yes we do have a definite destination in mind somewhere in southern Arizona.  Well we at least accomplished half of that plan by getting our laundry done.  We were soon back to the rig with plans to hook up the Jeep and head out but gol darn it

our plans changed again.  I did get the Jeep hooked up alright but think it was somewhere between our egg salad sandwiches and my peanut butter sandwich that we decided it was already too late in the morning to go anywhere and that was that, we decided to stay a second night north of Ajo.

CAMPED OUT NEAR THE OPEN AIR ROPING ARENA

And a coincidence for us this morning when Kelly and Pheebs were out for an early walk.  Another dog came running excitedley over to see Pheebs and Kelly thought the dog looked familiar.  The owner walking nearby his small Scamp trailer came walking over and Kelly recognized him.  It was Rick and his dog Lady whom we had met over on Darby Well Road back in early December of 2011  How nice to see him him and Lady again after all these years.  Truly a nice fellow Rick has been spending his winters here in the Ajo area for the past 17 years.  Like us, he prefers the quiet solitude of the desert and generally boon-docks in areas away from people.  An experienced desert dweller Rick is a good 'go-to' guy for answers to many many questions and this morning he explained those high altitude slow moving amber lights in the night sky over the Barry M. Goldwater military range.  He said they are indeed flares and the reason they sometimes travel horizontally is due to the winds aloft at higher altitudes.  Made perfect sense to me so my UFO sighting quickly switched to an IFO sighting.  Identified Flying Object.  Still doesn't explain just exactly what purpose they serve for the military but at least the wind drifting flares made sense to me.

DECEMBER 2011 FILE PHOTOS OF PHEEBS, LADY, AND RICK

When we talked to Rick first thing this morning we mentioned we were on our way into town to do our laundry.  Well by cracky that's right where he was headed too so we all had us a fine old chin wag at the laundromat.  Here's one of my posts from when we met Rick and Lady on Darby Well Road entitled Schmoozing With Our Neighbors

TOOK THIS PHOTO FROM IN THE MOTORHOME WHEN I SAW PHEEBS PLAYING WITH ANOTHER DOG LITTLE KNOWING THAT WAS OUR FRIEND RICK

THAT'S RICK'S WHITE PICK-UP TRUCK AND SCAMP WAY OVER THERE ON THE LEFT

AND OF COURSE NOT ALL OF MY LAUNDRY MADE IT HOME DRY AGAIN

A lazy afternoon for us with the only excitement being a lady who drove in pulling her horse trailer with  2 horses aboard.  She unloaded them and gave the beautiful horses a big run in the roping arena.  She had bales of hay on the trailer's roof and we think she may have stayed the night with her horses overnighting in a covered corral beside where she was parked.

THESE HORSES WERE SO HAPPY TO BE OUT RUNNING AND KICKING UP THEIR HEELS

NO THIS HORSE DID NOT FALL IT JUST STOPPED AND FLOPPED ITSELF ONTO THE GROUND FOR A BIG OLD ROLL AROUND DUST BATH

THAT'S RICK ON THE LEFT WATCHING HIS FRIEND'S HORSES RUNNING

HERE'S A COUPLE OTHER FAMILIAR LOOKING COWPOKES

Our plans are to roll out in the morning seeking out new green pastures but of course you know what kind of planners we are so who knows where we'll end up Friday.  Maybe nowhere..............

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A young woman, pursuing a graduate degree in art history, was going to Italy to study the country's greatest works of art.  Since there was no one to look after her grandmother while she was away, she took the old lady with her.  At the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, she pointed to the painting on the ceiling. 'Grandma, it took Michelangelo a full four years to get that ceiling painted.'  'Oh my, 'the grandmother says.  'He and I must have the same landlord.'

WE ARE ON THE MOVE AGAIN:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The district attorney stared at the jury, unable to believe the "not guilty" verdict he'd just heard. Bitterly, he asked, "What possible excuse could you have for acquitting this man?" The foreman answered, "Insanity." The attorney responded, still incredulous, "I could understand that, but... all twelve of you?"

- There is one big difference between genius and stupidity; genius has limits.
- Things could be worse; suppose your errors were counted and published every day, like those of a baseball player.
- And did you know that things go right so they can go wrong.

An elderly woman had just returned to her -home from an evening church service when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the burglar red-handed, and yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38 (meaning, repent and be baptized...)!" The burglar stopped dead in his tracks. The woman then calmly called the police and explained what she had done.
As the officer cuffed the burglar, he asked, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you." "Scripture?" replied the burglar, "I thought she said she had an axe and two 38's!"

HAD MYSELF A FEW 'WOWSERS' MONDAY NIGHT

Not long after the Sun had settled itself over the western horizon I had my tri-pod set up and my Celestrom 15x70 binoculars mounted atop it.  I was about to 'WOWSER' myself.  The constellation Orion was straight overhead slightly to the south and that meant it wasn't going to be any kind of easy feat for me to get myself into some kind of configuration to have those binoculars tilted straight up on that tripod.  Luckily when I bought the Manfrotto tri-pod years ago I made sure it was solidly adaptable to many configurations.  I had to somehow get my eyes underneath those binoculars and look straight up.  Because of the strong magnification with these binoculars they really need to be on a solid and steady tripod and not hand held.  Below are 2 selfies I took and 3 photos Kelly took while I was leaned back in my gravity chair with the tripod tipped towards me holding the binoculars over my face.

My first 'WOW' came when I looked at the Orion Nebula.  Not my first time seeing it but Monday night it just seemed to jump right out of the crystal clear sky.  I was momentarily startled when lights suddenly flashed through my field of vision from left to right.  It was an airplane heading west.  From Orion's Nebula I swung the binoculars even higher and contorted myself even more as the Pleiades came into view filling my field of vision and giving me my second 'WOW' for the night.  From there I wandered around the sky checking out a couple Planets.   Both Venus and Mars were visible with Venus shining like a great white and green beacon in the sky.  Maybe tonight I will haul out my 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk refractor telescope and have an even closer look at things.

ENJOYED SOME NICE OUTSIDE TIME TODAY PLUNKING AWAY ON MY NEW LAPTOP COMPUTER AND BEHIND ME YOU CAN SEE THE WHITE WATER HEATER DOOR THAT WE TEMPORARILY LOST EAST OF OCOTILLO WELLS  A WEEK OR SO AGO

Monday morning was my turn with the Jeep and this morning it was Kelly's turn so she headed off into Yuma to check out a few stores in the Yuma Palms Mall.  Pheebs and I had the house to ourselves and not long after Kelly left I was overcome by a rush of rare energy so right away figured I had better take full advantage of that while it lasted,  A week ago while pulling out of our tight spot south of Borrego Springs I got the passenger side of the coach up against an old half dead Creosote shrub rounding a corner.  What the hard knubby branches of the Creosote bush did was to make for some rather creative Picasso type erratically wavy scratches along the bottom passenger side of the Motorhome.  In the southwest these scratches are commonly referred to as 'desert pin striping' and is a common fixture on most every boon-dockers vehicle.  A right of passage you might say and worn proudly by many. 

I REALLY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN SOME PHOTOS BEFORE HAND TO SHOW HOW REALLY NOTICABLE THE SCRATCHES WERE

I always travel with waaaaaay too many vehicle cleaning supplies but this morning the rubbing compound and wax came in very hand as I worked away on our side door plus 2 bin doors a wheel well and our hot water heater section.  Always amazes me how well that rubbing compound takes out scratches.  Well not totally for some of them of course but standing back about 5 feet and from certain angles the scratches are completely invisible.  I threw a coat of wax on the cleaned up areas as well.  Still 3 large bin doors to go but I didn't want to blow out all my energy in one big shot.  Instead I slipped inside and relaxingly plugged away at cleaning up the whole Motorhome dash area.  A nice sense of accomplishment and any accomplishment for me is always a good feeling.  In between those two little jobs Pheebs and I had us a big game of toys outside.  Sometimes she gets a big crazy going on and races around about 600 miles an hour with sand and gravel flying every which a way.  So nice to see her run so fast. 

Be sure to check out Doug's post over at Miss Adventure Travels to see how he and Yuma got themselves into a bit of trouble they very nearly didn't get themselves out of.  Having been in a similar situation several times I know exactly how Doug was feeling.  It's what good and not so good memorable moments and adventures are made of.

Had a couple fellow Canadian RV'ers drop in this afternoon.  Gerrit Van Keulen has been reading my blog for a number of years now and dropped around to our house in Bayfield about 5 years ago one time to say hello.  Gerrit and his wife sold their home in Wingham Ontario a number of years ago and have been on the road happily fulltiming ever since.  They have a place on the east side of Yuma in the Fortuna Hills.

I FORGOT TO GET A PHOTO OF THESE FOLKS BUT BY GOLLY I DID GET A PICTURE OF THEIR NICE JEEP LIBERTY

Sorry for all the 'selfies' and 'me' photos today but I really didn't have much else in the way of new photos to post so it looks like you got stuck with me.  Well until I was able to get a few pics of Pheebs and Shuster the Rooster tearing around that is.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Ron and John, 2 Blonde Guy were building a house.  John was on a ladder, nailing.  He'd reach into his nail pouch, pull out a nail, look at it, and either toss it over his shoulder or proceed to nail it into the wood.  Ron couldn't stand it any longer and yelled, 'Why are you throwing some of the nails away?'  John explained, 'When I pull it out of my nail pouch, if it's pointed toward me, I throw it away.  If it's pointed toward the house, then I can use it.'  Ron replied, 'What's wrong with you?  Don't throw away the nails that are pointed toward you! They're for the other side of the house.'

When she got flowers from her husband on Valentine's Day, my daughter quickly opened the card. All it said was, "No."  What did that mean? She called her husband and asked him.
"I didn't attach any message. The florist asked if I had a message and I said, 'No'."

God first went to the Egyptians and asked them if they would like a commandment. "What's a commandment?" they asked. "Well, it's like, THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," replied God. The Egyptians thought about it and then said, "No way, that would ruin our weekends." So then God went to the Assyrians and asked them if they would like a commandment. They also asked, "What's a commandment?" "Well," said God, "It's like, THOU SHALL NOT STEAL." The Assyrians immediately replied, "No way. That would ruin our economy." So finally God went to the Israelites and asked them if they wanted a commandment. They asked, "How much?" God said, "They're free." The Israelites said, "Great! We'll take ten!"