Chilling out at Death Valley!

Bob and I relax in the non-generator Texas Springs campground overlooking Death Valley. Note Bob's Eddie Bauer luxury edition Airstream with full opening rear door and six solar panels generating over 400 watts! We spent six chilly nights up here in this beautiful location!

Sunset at Furnace Creek

Waiting for the sun to drop below the mountains, last rays reflecting on our two Airstreams, grill fired up ready for lamb burgers, satellite antennas tuned to tennis channel, cocktails in hand, end of another beautiful day in Death Valley

Death Valley Panoramic

Death Valley hike day 3

Midday sun in Death Valley... brisk walk out to lowest spot in North America at 282 ft below sea level.... lake floor is made of salt and snow has dusted the peaks around the valley... spectacular!

Badlands to Golden connector trail - Day 2

Between the Badlands loop and Golden Canyon there is a mile long traverse across the steep slopes of Manly Beacon which surprised us! Bob leads the way followed by Lisa and Margaret... It was a little more treacherous than we anticipated! I only fell once on loose gravel! No injuries except to pride!

Death Valley Golden Canyon - Day 2

Headed west from Zabriskie Point and did half the Badlands loop before joining up with the Gower Gulch trail and after a daunting transit across the lower slopes of Manly Beacon we took the gentle Golden Canyon trail down to 100 ft below sea level. Made easier by having two vehicles and dropping one off at our destination thus allowing us to do a one way 4 to 5 mile hike though these amazing geological formations.

Mosaic Canyon - Death Valley - Day 1

Our first hike was nearly two miles one way (approx 1,000 ft ascent over 10,000 ft) before we ran into a rockfall that blocked the canyon and would have required determined rock climbing skills from all four of us! Bob and I take a break and re-evaluate our plan! Note RivahFest staff neon green t-shirt!

Death Valley campground

Beautiful evening colors after a storm went through the area. Death Valley has highly changeable weather from high winds, sandstorms, intense rain, and bright sunshine. We are hoping our one week stay is bright sunshine since we are totally reliant on solar power! Photo by Margaret using Pro-HDR.

Arrived in Death Valley

Must be the coolest it's ever been here at 73F! World record highest recorded temperature on earth is 134 F at this location in July. Strong winds create a lot of dust storms....

Lake Havasu Winter Blast

Four nights of outstanding professional fireworks only interrupted briefly by wind and rain - magnificent displays from the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds campground.... more photos https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/47559204@N08/sets/72157678769475661/

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Getting our act together !

Living off the grid is a continuously developing art and science! Today we configured our satellite receiver with a new parabolic dish after the last one got knocked down in a storm in Florida, aligned the solar panels for max charge, cooked breakfast on the gas grill, set up our booster antennas for cell phone service and tried to tap into wifi service at long distance. Also time for a beer and a nap!

Special day today!

Birthday and Valentine's all wrapped up on one special day! Lunch out at London Bridge in Lake Havasu Arizona and be thankful for the years together. I see now why London was anxious to sell the old bridge - it's only three lanes wide! We walked across the new London Bridge this summer visiting my sister Allison and it was a much wider six lane bridge!

Special dispensation

I agreed to cook "chckn" tonight for Margaret on the charcoal and wood grill - this only happens once a season! It wasn't so bad after all...

Solar panels

Lovely free electricity! Delivers 13 volt at 11 amp all day during sunlight! Generator on back of truck just in case, feeds 120 volt at about 15 amp - perfect for making the espresso coffee and toast!

Victoria Mine

Abandoned late 19th century gold and silver mine in the Organ Pipe National Monument desert across several arroyos and through lots of spiky plants, saguaro, organ pipe, cholla, ocotillo, we clocked at 5.6 miles round trip and that took us 3 hours. Stone buildings in ruins, several capped off shafts, rusty equipment and cables, lots of mine tailings, the mine is one of oldest prospecting sites in Arizona and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Wall part 2

Arizona about 15 miles west of Hwy 85 "the wall" has become one iron bar and two wires. Mexican Hwy #2 runs parallel to the border and it's a summer stroll to start your hike into the US! Ran across an illegal (probably Haitian or Caribbean) about 5 miles in from the border in the desert! Plenty of discarded clothes and kit tell the bleak story!

The Wall

Not Pink Floyd! Just the topic of the new administration! This section at Lukeville AZ is 16ft high and only 20 miles long... all you have to do is just walk around the end of the fence! Even this section had gaps at the bottom of the fence that you could crawl through. Plenty of BP agents with happy smiles driving around - I guess they can actually do their job again... the Arizona Sonoran desert is very unforgiving - that's by far the toughest obstacle...

Good night from Organ Pipe!

Organ Pipe Cactus

Awesome organ pipe cactus densely populated the Ayo Valley near the Mexican border. Scattered around the organ pipes the more widespread Saguaro cactus adds upright uniformity with its flailing arms....

At last at peace with nature!

Our first dry camping experience this trip! What a treat! Quiet tranquil evening in Organ Pipe, beautiful sunset, nicely spaced out sites, and only $8 a night! A test for our new AGM batteries! Mexican mountains in the distance only 4 miles away...

Greek Orthodox Monastery

Somewhere in the Sonoran desert between Tucson and Phoenix, a few monks from Mount Athos in Greece started building a monastery from scratch. In 20 years they have built four churches in different styles, artistically laid out gardens, fruit and olive groves, beautiful landscaping and chapels, gift store (bread, olives and olive oil) and support infrastructure for sleeping and dining 50 monks plus lot of monastic interns from all around the world! Amazing dedication, faith, peace and shining example of devotion. Truly an oasis of peace and tranquility!

Hands up!

Exploring the Sonoran desert and Signal Hill Trail in the Saguaro National Park you have to wonder how illegal immigrants cross the border! Plant a wall of saguaro would do the job!

Fresh lemons

Arrived in the middle of the Arizona desert between Tucson and Phoenix and found a lemon tree in our campground and picked myself a couple of huge fresh lemons! I've been making Pico de Gallo regularly as a dip with corn chips so this will be a welcome fresh ingredient to add to the tomato, chili, spring onion, cilantro mix I've been creating every few days!

White Sands Proving Grounds

White Sands is also home to the military's missile testing base with an entire history of rockets and missile from WW II onwards starting with trainloads of German V1 and V2 weapons and the development onwards to cruise missiles and every combination including Stingers and Patriot. An amazing collection!

White Sands hike

Hiked a loop into the White Sands desert following trail posts around the sand dunes except these are moving sand waves and one set of posts had disappeared below the dune crest. We kept walking off in the wrong direction. Quick reference to the compass app put us back on track and as we climbed a higher dune we could see and rejoin the rest of our itinerary markers in the distance!

La Posta

Watering hole for Billy the Kid, Kit Carson and Pancho Villa, and more recently David & Margaret on their way through Las Cruces NM. Splendidly authentic Mexican cuisine and ambiance was enjoyed without any allergic reactions and high VFM (value for money) in this quaint Mesilla district of town.