TooBusyForWork

Update on the new RZR 900 Trail side by side

Since we got home Kevin has been keeping the delivery folks busy. He’s been having a blast getting the new RZR ready for the trail. The version we bought is really stripped down as it comes from the dealer. It didn’t even have a roof, mirrors, or turn signals.

Here is the front so far. Notice the roof, front bumper, winch, low mounted fog lights, a split front windshield (it opens into three separate positions), a manual windshield wiper, side mirrors, a center mirror, and removable side windows that attach with magnets. The 2” lift kit isn’t obvious, but it gives a significant benefit for the rock climbing needed in Arizona. He also got 27” tires all around (the original 26” tires were different widths too).

From the side the windows are a bit more obvious as is the custom GoPro attachment he 3D printed for me! He also installed rock guard at the bottom of the doors to protect the plastic lower doors.

At the back you can see the tail lights, turn signals, lighted license tag holder (we have a tag from Arizona), spare gas can, water can, fire extinguisher, and a spare tire mount (plus tire of course). One of the real advantages of the new tires is now all five tires are the same size. There is lots of storage now for a lunch ice chest, spare parts, tools, two flag pole holders, and emergency gear. We are pretty cautious with emergency gear since we frequently ride by ourselves. Food, water, extra clothing, emergency shelter, and an In-Reach emergency communication device. A few things you can’t see include a radiator rock guard, power outlets in the dash plus custom switches for the new stuff, hangers for our ear protection/radios, and grab handles to make getting in and out of the rig a lot easier for old joints like ours LOL!. Oh, and Kevin had to modify the wooden ramp in the truck so the bottom of the door is just above the side rail of the truck. With the old RZR he just took off the door to climb in or out. This one has OEM doors, and they don’t come off easily.

Since we have had wet weather in the last few weeks we haven’t taken it out to the local OHV area, but it is looking like we can do it next week. We have been busy working on other things and putting off. I did get my garden weeded by my fantastic granddaughters, we have gone to concerts, and then my back ablation added to limited opportunities to ride. Kevin has made sure we have stickers for riding in Iowa, Arizona, and South Dakota (both the state one and the one needed for the Black Hills). We are still waiting for the ones for Oregon and Utah, and we need to order the Wyoming one. Wow, I guess that is enough.

As for sewing, I have another quilt sandwiched just waiting to get on the machine. This one is very modern, and I am looking forward to doing straight lines and circles on it. But my daughter is graduating with her MS in Midwifery, and is planning on taking her boards in the next couple of week. We are heading down in the RV for a few days to make it easier to get to the graduation. We will be staying a few days just to relax too.

Back in Iowa for a while

When we got home, we had a fabulous Easter dinner with most of the kids and grandkids. This time we had butterflied leg of lamb, and it was lovely. Because Kevin cooked it in the sous vide, it left the oven free for roasted carrots. It takes a LOT of carrots for 13 people! We also had green beans with bacon and onions cooked in the Instant Pot. It took two Instant Pots to cook the four pounds of fresh beans, and it took Kevin and I both working about 45 minutes to snap them all. Memories of my grandmothers house came back when we would snap a lot of beans on a regular basis during summer. My grandmother did all kinds of canning out of her 1 acre garden. She basically provided vegetables for her, my grandfather, my mom, my sister and me all year.

As I noted last time, the cats were very busy exploring. I tried to put the first load in the dryer, and I was treated by this! Good thing she has bright eyes, because she was really hard to see until I called.

Luna is also a bother downstairs isn the sewing area. She only occasionally will sit with me upstairs, but as soon as I go downstairs she is fully involved! She sits on the quilt while I try to quilt, tries to climb on my lap while I am doing anything, and she is fascinating by seeing the thread moving from the thread stand to the machine. As soon as I took this picture, I moved her away. Cats and thread are a dangerous combination!

We are also keeping the Amazon delivery drivers busy. Our English friends Tony and Anne showed us pictures from their game camera when we were in Quartzsite. I bought one myself, and set it up at night in the living room to make sure I had the settings right. I didn’t, but the picture below is pretty cute anyway. I have since set the camera for videos and corrected the AM/PM issue.

One of the things I am working on this year is a Block of the Month from Kona Fabrics. It includes a Zoom class with a quilt shop about 45 miles away. She includes all kinds of methods to do the class which is interesting. I pushed my technique in April, and I am not thrilled with the result. I didn’t dislike it enough to take it apart though!

The may version was much easier, and I only had one spot I should have re-done. You can see if you notice it. I am just not too picky anymore.

I finished the quilting for the partner of one of my son’s. She is a Broadway theater fan, and I was pleased to find the feature fabric.

I quilted it with golden yellow thread (hello Tony Awards!) in a random meander with loops and stars.

I used the same color in the binding. I really like doing machine binding this way. I serge the edges first for a nice firm edge, cut binding at 2.25”, sew on front, press well, turn over the edge holding the fold with clips, then sew the binding from the front with a decorative stitch. This time the stitch was a 3 step zigzag, but I have used a number of other stitches in the past.

Iowa had had a terribly dry winter, but we finally got a bunch of rain. The flowers are all considerably delayed, but they are finally coming out. My pink and white bleeding hearts are doing well. Ignore the massive infestation of weed! My local grandchildren are coming over tomorrow to week for me.

And in a statement of really good news, I got another radioablation on my back that has really helped in the almost two weeks since I got it. I am also keeping up my pain meds – gabapentin and cyclobenzaprine plus lidocaine patches occasionally. I still have problems with any walking over a block or so, but I have no real pain when I am not moving. This is a huge improvement over how I felt before the procedure.

I am now working on quilting some other tops that I have been ignoring for far too long. I am also taking a sampler class offered virtually and sponsored by the Arizona Quilt Guild. The guild is well worth the $15 a year in dues!

Iowa – home again first time in 2025

It was time to get home. Always something to look forward to, and something we regret since we love the Southwest so much. I did some serious medication and lots of heating pad use, and I was able to drive semi-comfortably.

We left Monument Valley and went to Page, AZ, staying at the Elks Lodge 4 April. It was a gravel parking lot, and they charged $15 for dry camping. I thought that was fairly high, but, then again, Page is a big vacation spot. Very friendly people though. The next night we went to the Twin Arrows Casino outside Flagstaff, AZ. It is always an easy spot to stay, free, and not too noisy. On 6 April we spent the night at Santa Rosa State Park, NM. Lovely place. It is a bit of a pain to get to, but worth it for a beautiful and quiet spot. We thought about staying two nights, but there was weather coming in, so we kept going.

Monday saw us all the way through Texas and into Elk City, OK where we spent the night at the Elks Lodge. Again it had no hookups, but we were able to find a nice spot. We got to Oklahoma City fairly early on Tuesday. We stayed at the Edmond Elks Lodge. Not very nice due to crowding. We could hear a lot of conversations from surrounding coaches! We stayed two days because a group of elementary and high school friends were getting together. I keep forgetting how little I have in common with the people I went to high school with! I think this will be the last time I try to get together with them. Life definitely does go on.

We spent 10 April on the trip at the Kansas Star Casino south of Wichita. Great place to spend a quiet night for free. The lot we stayed in was gravel, but it was pretty flat and relatively unoccupied. There is an alternative spot closer to the casino that was asphalt, but it was slightly more occupied. Our last night was spent at the Walmart in Osceola, IA. Lots of reefers running all night, but it was handy. A bad wind was coming, so we left early and headed straight home.

We got here this morning and put the motorhome at Big Woods Lake County Park. We are about half unpacked, and we will finish tomorrow. The cats are enjoying the space. Each of them is rubbing their faces over pretty much every surface, marking the place as theirs after so long.

With the new RZR and tariffs being on and off, Kevin has ordered all kinds of things for it. We had them delivered to my oldest son’s place. A lot of things are big (front and rear windshields, bumper, etc.), and our son has joked that he will give us the bill for the storage unit the items required! He also said we owe the poor UPS guy who has to walk up 20 steps or so to their front door! Kevin will be fully employed getting everything put on. I have a list of things to quilt, and I need to get them done before we leave again around Memorial Day, so most posts going forward will probably be quilt-related.

What can be said about Monument Valley that hasn’t been said?

Wow, wow, and wow. We are absolutely overcome with the beauty of Monument Valley. I have wandered around a lot of red rock country, but just never made it here before. We got here on Monday and just rested up. Here is looking out the door of our motorhome at Gouldings RV Park.

We also went to the Mitten viewpoint. On the 31 of March (Monday) the West Mitten shadow shows up perfectly aligned with the East Mitten. We were ready to take pictures, but at the last minute the clouds covered the sun and the shadow was lost. We did get some preliminary pictures though.

On Tuesday we took full day tour with a Gouldings Navajo guide named Marvin. It was cold and windy, so we were glad we had a regular enclosed van for the tour. Most of the 3 hour tours were in open vehicles!

We started the trip by visiting the lesser traveled Mystery Valley and having lunch cooked over a fire mostly by his wife. Oh, and we got stuck in sand! It took Marvin, Kevin, and Rick (the other person on our tour) to push the van while I put it in low and gunned it. They really shouldn’t send guides out in an 2 wheel drive van when all the signs say 4WD required! After lunch we visited Monument Valley. Instead of posting pictures chronologically, I am going to arrange the pictures more by type of scenery.

Arches. There were lots of arches.

And then there were the remnants of the ancestral Puebloan people (previously called Anasazi).

They were a small people based on the size of their hands

Notice the craftsmanship still present in the ruins. Square corners and a combination of large and small stones to keep the walls straight.

And then there is just the raw. beauty of the place.

We stopped at a hogan in Mystery Valley where an older woman explained the process of weaving beginning with the sheep shearing (manual because no electricity!), washing, carding, spinning, and weaving. She had some beautiful things for sale, but it was out of my budget. Maybe I will have to save up for the next time we come.

We didn’t see much wildlife; this is a hard country. We did see this hawk.

We had dinner on Monday at Gouldings Inn Restaurant (Navajo tacos for both of us) and breakfast at the same place (French toast combo) today. Food was good, and service was quite adequate despite a number of reviews saying the opposite. We had wanted to visit the various museums, but my back is still giving me fits. I have another radioablation on my medial nerve scheduled for 23 April, and I can hardly wait.

We have had some wild weather while we have been here. Monday it was windy with a big dust storm, overcast, and cool. Tuesday it was cold and windy with more dust. Wednesday we got rain, snow, cold, clouds, and sun. Today wasn’t as bad though it did rain a bit and snowed a bit more.

Tomorrow we go to Page to register the new RZR then head to Grants for Saturday, assuming the weather is ok.

Out of Quartzsite for this year

We left Quartzsite on Monday, 23 March, planning on gradually working our way home to Iowa. This is the picture Kevin took on Sunday night of the sunset. It was taken through a long lens, and then it had be reduced in quality some, but it is an impressive sunset view from our campsite.

We first went to Lake Havasu City, spending 4 nights at the Elks Lodge there. I went to a “Staycation” with the Havasu Quilters guild Monday through Wednesday. The problem was that I was still very, very sore from my back spasms. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I intended. I finally sewed up the quilt block for March’s Block of the Month, but I am not very happy with it. It is not only not my best work, it isn’t even my average work. Oh well, it will do though. I made some little scrubbers for gifts from a kit I have been hauling around for a couple of years. They will be cute in a gift package of a mug and hot chocolate mix (the fabric is hot chocolate related). I also finished all the 8 star blocks I needed for my Christmas quilt, but I didn’t get much more accomplished. All day Monday back would spasm for 30-60 seconds while I just tried to breathe through it. It really sucked. Tuesday was better with no spasms, just soreness. Wednesday the pain was bad. The staycation is normally a treat with lots of good companionship, good food, and lots of sewing time.

After LHC, we headed north to Monticello, UT. We spent one night at the NavajoLand RV Park in Tuba City, AZ on the way. It was decent but not really set up for a rig our size. In Monticello we are staying at the Western RV Park. It is another older campground where we barely fit, but they obviously just redid their sewer system with a lot of fresh gravel on all the sites.

The reason we are in Monticello is because Kevin bought a new side by side! The shop is in Grand Junction, CO, and we drove the truck with the old RZR in the back from Monticello to there. Why? Because when we leave here tomorrow we are headed back to Monument Valley, UT and then to AZ to complete all the paperwork. We had planned on picking it up after we left Monument Valley, but they had rebates that expire tomorrow. But first a bit about the trip up to Moab on the way to I-70. I don’t think we had ever driven the road headed north, though we have done it southbound a few times. It is a glorious drive. There was haze and we had a schedule to meet so only a couple of pictures, and those were through the windshield. The first was the lovely La Sal mountains south of Moab. Lots of snow on their peaks.

And then we started getting to the fabulous rocky outcroppings as we got nearer to Moab. I loved this one the most, and I named it “Haystack.”

And here is Kevin in the brand new rig! It is a Polaris RZR 900 Trail Sport. We got a very good trade in, rebates, and additional deals because they had a bunch of 2024 rigs still in stock. It is a 900cc engine with 75hp and real doors that don’t require contortions to get in the rig. Even the seats are more comfortable. Now he gets to keep the UPS driver busy bringing all the accessories to make it street legal and comfortable. Things like roofs, windshields (front and back), mirrors, and storage boxes are all aftermarket. Kevin has a great time shopping for them, and putting them all on will keep him busy when we get home. I can hardly wait until we can take it out on the trails!

We leave tomorrow for Monument Valley. I will post as we finish that portion of the trip.

Edited to add: We had an absolutely fabulous late lunch at Bella Thai in Moab. It is probably the best Thai food I have ever had! I wanted to make sure I had it in the post because I look back a such info later on.

Quartzsite Redux

We are staying at a different location in the Tyson Wash LTVA than we were the last time we were here. The crowds are gone, so we moved a bit closer to the entrance. We back up to a wash, and there have been quite a few birds coming by – quail, hummingbirds, doves, and some other ones I don’t know. A friend has a trail cam, and I am definitely going to buy one before we head out for the summer. She puts it out every night, and she finds lots of cool creatures. One time a bobcat came by! Not here luckily.

We definitely have done a bit of riding since we arrived and my back has improved. I am still taking it easy, so no long, rough group rides. We enjoyed this view from the “Q” mountain (someone put a rock art Q on it). I have posted other pictures from a nearby spot, and the reduction in campers is significant.

One of the interesting things in the area is this old mill just outside the town. It is always fun to wander around it.

We took one 55 mile jaunt out past the famous Quartzsite golf course. You are advised to bring colored ball, orange being the most popular. The 9 hold course has marked holes with flags .There always seem to be people on the course.

We also took a side trip to the old Scott’s Lead Well. There is an old corral, a broken watering tank, and water storage tanks. They aren’t working anymore, so the fish and game folks installed a new wildlife guzzler. The tank is underground, and it has a well to pump. If the water gets low, they come out and fill the underground tank. When we were there we startled a bunch of birds away. The video shows the ride up to the old tanks, and the still picture shows the guzzler and the old tanks in the background. As usual, click on the link to get the video.

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Sadly the desert will filled with trash. We collected 1 1/2 sacks of small pieces of garbage since we couldn’t take any big stuff. This is a burned out fifth wheel someone had taken out to a lonely spot and torched. Probably an insurance scam: “Oh officer, the rig was in perfect shape before it was stolen!” Disgusting..

This is a memorial to a local bicyclist. The bicycle was actually stolen a few months back, but they replaced it.

It is still very, very dry, but the ocotillos have started blooming even though there isn’t enough moisture for their leaves to come out. They are among my favorite desert plants.

Our ride took us out to the Cyprus Copperstone Mine. It is an open pit gold mine that was very profitable. Now they are planning to dig underground in the same disturbed area for more gold. We didn’t get too close; they have gates that are locked. The pit is off to the right.

On the way back we hit the sandhills that are northeast of town. So many people think Arizona is just sand dunes, but they are actually pretty uncommon. Here is a short sample.

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I have been sewing some as I recover from the back problems. This is what I am calling “Midnight in the Desert.” I am in love with the colors of this, and I really like the way the circular star pattern shows up as a secondary design. I was planning on sandwiching and quilting it here, but I have decided I really want to get the intersections super flat with the LaraStar ironing system I have at home. The colors in the first picture are accurate, but those in the second picture are quite washed out. It does show the fabric design of the print though. I have also sewn a few hundred Christmas squares together, but I won’t show that one for a while yet.

Tonight Kevin got a great picture of a doze camouflaged in the brush. It was easy to hear him/her, but it took a bit of work to see.

And no post in the southwest is really complete without fabulous sunrise …

…. and sunset pictures.

We are heading to Lake Havasu on Sunday. It will be getting hot here – upper 80s into low 90s – so it is time to head in for electricity and air conditioning.

After Death Valley – KOFA National Wildlife Refuge

We left Death Valley on 1 March and went back to the Needles Elks Lodge. We did the necessary tasks of laundry and grocery shopping, then we headed to our favorite spot in KOFA along King Road. This spot is so pretty, sitting between two rugged mountains. Except for a friend that pulled in a couple of days after we set up, there was nobody within 100 yards.

The first picture is on the north side of our campsite.

This is just a bit to the side, just as the sun was almost gone.

We did go back to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge one day. This time we took the highway, and our friends took the 4WD road. We beat them by only 5 minutes or so. The paddle cactus blow was just starting to bloom in the garden there. I think it is a Beavertail cactus, but I am not foolproof on identification.

At least some of the cranes were still there, but a lot have already headed south.

There is so many places to ride the RZR here! The landscape is generally more vegetated than in Quartzsite, so here is a sample.

One of the key things the Fish and Wildlife Service does is maintain watering spots, known as tanks, for the wildlife. Here is a natural catchment area that has been enhanced. In prolonged dry spells, they will bring large water trucks in and fill the basins. I am quite impressed; the trail in was rough and narrow.

Sadly I came down with a massive back spasm while we were here that resulted in a trip to the ER in Yuma. Some heavy pain meds (400mg Gabapentin, an injection of an NSAID, and a Lidocaine patch), and I was able to walk out. But I sure didn’t do much the next few days! It was over a week before I felt 75% recovered, so we didn’t get to ride as much as we wanted.

We headed back to Quartzsite on Monday, 10 March. I finally got some more sewing done. Here is my in-process inspector saying I better get going!

Goodbye Death Valley (for now)

“Goodbye Death Valley!” That supposedly was the phrase uttered by one of the 49ers that were stranded there. I think she said it as prayer of salvation, but Kevin and I are always a bit sad. It is a fabulous place.

We did do a few things since I last posted. I am trying to make new bag covers for the collapsable chairs we keep on the RZR, and it isn’t as easy as it might seem! I made one, and it is waaaayyyy too big, so I marked what size it should be and soon to rip out the stitches of the big one to remake it. Not my favorite task, but ripping is part of sewing so I will see it through. While I was involved with that, Kevin hiked Golden Canyon with our friend Ron. He said it was lovely, but I don’t have the pictures. They left pretty early, and he was still hot when he got back about 3 hours later. We definitely had a heat wave.

WHen you have been to a place as many times as we have been to Death Valley, you tend to not re-visit the places that are nice but not awesome. We hadn’t been down 40 Mule Team Canyon for four years or so, because it is one of those “nice” places. The last couple of years it had been closed due to flood damage. We had a good short trip this time. The interesting thing about this little canyon is the amazing yellow mudstone backed up by black intrusions of volcanic-related rock. It was absolutely the wrong time of the day to capture this, so I increased the contrast so it might be at least somewhat visible.

We also took a drive down Greenwater Road, a dirt/gravel road that goes to Shoshone, CA. It cuts off just before Zabrisky Point. We were surprised at how many boondock campers there were. It is definitely a place where you could be by yourself if you had a very small rig. We only saw a couple of spots we would have fit in, and it was a long way from any of the standard Death Valley sites. The road ran through a broad valley most of the way with lots of creosote.

The first mile of the road was bad washboard, but it smoothed out to quite mild washboard. We stopped in Shoshone for lunch with an absolutely fabulous green chile burger at the Crowbar. Highly, highly recommended! Not only did the burger have thick slices of green chile and Swiss cheese, but the fries were divine. We rolled out rather than walked, but it was worth it. We then visited the lovely little museum next to the restaurant. Nice set of exhibits of Anglo settlement and mining, but also some good information about the local tribes and even some seriously pre-historic mammoth bones that had been found nearby. A university in California had returned them to Shoshone when they ran out of room. There were also tracks of some of the mega fauna that lived in the area 600,000 years ago. The mammoth track gives a good idea of how big they were, but I forgot to take a picture of the camel tracks which were very surprising.

We are back at the Needles Elks Lodge for a couple of nights. I had a video class on the Moda Block of the Month for March this afternoon, so we are waiting to do laundry tomorrow. It will probably take all day! Then we are going to a boondock site along King Road in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Beautiful site, but a long way from anywhere. We expect to spend a lot of time driving the RZR around.

Dark Sky Festival and West Side Road

The Dark Sky Festival was fabulous as usual. We attended the keynote addresses in the evening, and Kevin attended an astrophotography workshop that got his photography drive going. I also enjoyed the outside exhibits from the organizations participating. I am particularly interested in the autonomous rovers of all type – wheeled, winged, or snaked. The wheeled ones are obvious to most, and we have probably all see the helicopters too, but they actually had a fabulous 20’ long prototype of a snake-like “EELS” (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) designed to go into and come out of crevasses to be found on a moon of Saturn. I even got to drive it for a minute or two until two little girls came up who needed the experience more than I did.

(Click to see EELS in action)

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Monday we decided to drive the West Side Road, a dirt/gravel road west of the main salt basin. There are some fabulous views of snow-covered Telegraph Peak from the road. Telegraph Peak is 11,000’+ high, and is usually snow covered in the winter. It is such an amazing contrast to the warm desert below. Here are the views as we drove the road.

There are lots of historic sites along the road. Tule Spring, Shorty’s Well, and others come from the buried Amargosa River flowing underground. There are also human related sites like where the original Death Valley 49ers were stranded for over a month until their rescuers arrived. There is also an interesting gravesite for some early prospectors. Shorty Harris was famous for being involved in many of the gold mines in the area, but specified his grave should say “Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector.”

Gravesite of Shorty Harris and his friend Jim Dayton

Last year we couldn’t drive the West Side Road because it had large areas of washout from the historic rains that gave us back Lake Stanley for a while. I posted pictures of the fabulous sight last year. The salt is fresh here, and since the road sees orders of magnitude less traffic than the famous Badwater Basin area, you can see the way the salt pan looks before it has been walked on by tens of thousands of people. The salt begins as a polygon shape.

In Some areas the crystals build upon each other. These formations are 2-3” tall.

Eventually the crystals stop forming and get partially covered by the never-ending Death Valley Dust. This is an older crystalline area that developed before last year’s rains.

As you continue on the road you will eventually get to the back side of the famous Badwater Basin salt pan. It is truly amazing.

Those tiny dots are people. The water is from springs that are almost always present.

I have also been doing quite a bit of sewing, though I don’t have much to show for it yet. I am putting together block after block for both of the quilts I am working on, and I am making good progress. I also cut out a new bag for the folding chairs we use on the RZR. The existing bags are nylon, and the sun has really destroyed them. My finger went right through one bag when I pulled it out for measurements! Kevin has been playing with his 3D printer and the telescope.

We also did a bunch of housekeeping tasks. We dumped our tanks and got water yesterday, so we did some laundry. It has been getting into the mid 90s in the afternoon, and I like my AC with those temps! We have been running the generator from 2-5 to cool off the last two days, doing the laundry at the same time. I think we have decided to leave on Saturday and head somewhere back into Arizona, though we haven’t decided where. We will almost surely go to a private campground to have electricity for the AC.

Arriving in Death Valley and trip to the Racetrack

We arrived in Death Valley on Monday, 17 February. We got lucky again and got an end site looking east to the mountains. My favorite spot! We are here for the Black Sky Festival in the park this weekend plus this is one of our favorite places! We didn’t do much but settle in and look at the glorious views on Monday. Tuesday we also just relaxed. A friend, Ron, came on Tuesday, so we chatted a bit and sat around the propane fire pit (no charcoal producing fires in the campground). Another motorhome came in near us towing an F-150, same model we have. The man came and asked Kevin to help him get it out of tow mode; it was brand new and he was having problems. We invited them over to the same fire, and they had all kinds of questions about the park. They were only going to stay two days, but I notice they are going to the Racetrack today. Glad I convinced them to stay longer.

Wednesday we went to the Racetrack ourselves. Ron has a 1 ton 4X4 pickup to tow his fifth wheel and we had our F-150 4X4 so we were all ready to do it! We stopped at Uebehebe Crater first. Pretty impressive as usual. We didn’t hike down it or anything, but I enjoyed the view. It had been a few years since we have been there. First the road was washed out, and the next time we just didn’t get around to it.

(As usual, click on the link to get the video)

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Then we started down the high clearance 4X4 road to the Racetrack and the moving stones. Ron said this was almost the #1 item on his DV bucket list, and we hadn’t been for years. The road was definitely rough. Due to how good the image stabilization is on the GoPro, it is hard to tell. Look toward the end of this video to get an idea though.

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Here are Ron and Kevin walking to the Grandstand, a black chunk of rock in the middle of the Racetrack. Without some humans for scale, the size of the rocks and mountains is impossible to show. And sorry for the truck antenna in the way.

I took more pictures come back than I did going down because the light was better. Here is one showing the layers of rock in the area.

To get to the Racetrack, you have to go by Tea Kettle junction. Why is it there? Lots of stories, and no one knows the truth. Occasionally the NPS has to pull off some when they get too heavy.

Why would it be named “Tea Kettle Junction?”

Another interesting spot is an entire forest of Mohave yuccas. They look a lot like Joshua Trees from a distance, but they are obviously different close up. Like Joshua Trees, they are found at a very specific elevation.

The campground we are in got its name from the fabulous sunsets. They look different each direction you look.

On Thursday we had to go to Pahrump to pick up Kevin’s meds, and we again ate at the fabulous Chai Thai restaurant. We also had dinner at the Furnace Creek Inn, quite upscale. You have to make reservations for dinner, and we never got around to it before. The meal was scrumptious as were the cocktails before hand. Expensive though. $40 for cocktails and another $100 for dinner before tip. Occasionally a splurge is worth it. The only problem was my right side was so beat up from the drive to Racetrack that I was in real pain. I ended up taking 10mg of Flexeril, and I slept like a log. Still a bit sore this morning, but not in agony like yesterday.

The Dark Sky Festival begins today, and we have tickets for the main speakers tonight and tomorrow. More on that later.