Happy New Year !!!

Our holiday vacation in Vegas was great. We got to dog-sit our grandpuppies, Gooey, Willy and Gizmo, for 4 days, while Erin and Andy took a trip to Mexico. Brett and Nadia came just before Christmas Eve and prepared us a Christmas Eve feast and a Christmas breakfast. Every thing was soo yummy. We took daily dog walks around their beautiful neighborhood, sat in the sun, played a little tennis and ate way too much food. 

Thursday, Dec. 29

The perfect place to start our RV adventure again is Lake Mead – just 30 minutes away. Even though the water level continues to drop, it’s still crazy beautiful there.

Friday, Dec. 30

Our previous stays here have been short, so we had never ventured around this massive national park. Today, we drove to a few scenic view locations. At the last one, Christy and I took a short hike to view the Colorado River. 

Saturday, Dec. 31

Wind was the major event of the day. It was not enjoyable to be outside so we stayed inside and watched college football. 

Sunday, Jan. 1

The wind had died down overnight, so we took a long walk with the girls. Returning to the Ham, Christy decided she wasn’t done, so we continued on. As we walked past another site, a tied-up dog said, “Good morning” with a few barks. The owner stepped out of his RV and also greeted us. A short distance away from their site, Christy and I were surprised by a vicious dog attacking Christy. With the dog’s teeth clamping down on Christy’s back, I reacted by kicking the attacking dog in the face. It immediately released its bite and went flying. The owner came running out to the road where I verbally attacked him. He apologized and our uninjured, traumatized Christy and I left. 

Late in the afternoon, we drove to Boulder City to get a pizza. During the drive, a wire harness came loose from underneath the Ham and suffered a bad case of road rash. For the next 30 minutes, I laid under the Ham and attempted to repair the damaged and broken wires. With our incredible smelling pizza, we drove back to the campground, in near darkness with no lights on the back of the Ham – we must have also blown a fuse. All was quickly forgotten when our fun pizza party started.

Monday, Jan. 2

Erin and her dog Willy were going to visit us this afternoon, so we spent the morning cleaning the RV. When Erin arrived, we took a long walk around the campground. We ordered dinner from an English restaurant in Boulder City and ate various meals and desserts wrapped in a crust. It was quite a culinary delight!

Tuesday, Jan. 3

We’re off to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, but we’ll need a few overnights before getting there. With few RV campgrounds between Lake Mead and Phoenix, we regrettably had to stay at an awful RV park in Wikieup, AZ.

Wednesday, Jan. 4

Phoenix allowed us to get gas, groceries and lunch. We arrived at White Tank Campground in time for a hike in the desert with the girls before dark.

Thursday, Jan. 5

The bedroom was glowing orange when we woke up this morning. I lifted up the blinds so we could view this stunning sunrise. The almost silent desert hike this morning was interrupted by more fighter jets than we have ever seen and heard in our previous stays here. After lunch, I started working on our damaged wires again. We had been driving for two days without rear lights. On the ninth time of smacking my head on the bottom of the Ham, I finished the job – success! To celebrate, my bike took me on a ride to the base of some inviting mountains. Seeing such pretty scenery and getting a great workout made for an enjoyable afternoon.

Click on this link to view the bike ride. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Zx5o8RwgYjdUJhmh9

Friday, Jan. 6

Leaving White Tank is always hard to do, but arriving at Organ Pipe made us quickly forget. It was a pretty day but cool. Sitting in the Ham after supper, the winds started picking up. By bedtime, it was like we were flying through bad turbulence.

Saturday, Jan. 7

Christy and I were on our first-of-the-morning walk when we saw a dog that had escaped and was running loose. Wanting to catch it and Christy wanting to play with it, we approached the dog. As we got closer, it became apparent that the dog was actually a coyote. We turned and went off in another direction.

We were given a perfect weather day, so each of us had things to do. With Lois relaxing in the sun and Carol reading a book, I left for a nearby mountain to climb. There wasn’t a trail to follow, so I freestyle hiked for the first time. When I got to the top of the lower, green section of the mountain, I was surprised that the higher, brown section was another mountain. I then climbed down the backside of the green mountain and started climbing the brown one. The higher I got, the steeper it got. Close to the top, I was coming to the realization that I couldn’t climb any higher until I found a passable crevice to get me to the summit. I called Carol and she came out of the Ham to take pictures.

Close to the bottom of the mountain, something furiously attacked the back of my calf causing a jolt of pain. Immediately, I thought it was a snake. I whipped around to look and found a cholla cactus ball dangling from my skin. Knowing not to pull it out with my fingers, I tried flipping it off with a stick. The ball had over 30 spines hooked into me, so removing the entire ball in one stroke proved impossible. The one-at-a-time procedure I had to use was torturous and tedious. With blood drying on my calf as fast as it seeped out, I stopped into a campground bathhouse to clean my fresh wounds. 

Back at the Ham, while treating cholla wounds, I discovered the cactus is referred to as “teddy bear chollas” or “jumping chollas”. If you are within 3 feet of a cholla, a section can break off the plant and jump at you. I guess the cholla didn’t like me on its mountain.

Click on this link to view the mountain hike. https://photos.app.goo.gl/u2THTDBAu5NqYz2LA

Right after supper, we took the dogs out for a quick walk. As Lucy was sniffing around a rock, she must have gotten too close to another cholla cactus. She started fighting the ball with her paws and teeth as Carol tried to control her. I ran back to the RV and retrieved our cactus removing comb. Back in the Ham, Lucy, after an inspection, proved to be fine, but Carol found a spine in her finger. I did some minor surgery and successfully removed the painful little booger. After today’s events, we’ve decided to lock ourselves in the RV and never leave it again.

Sunday, Jan. 8

Overnight, we decided to unlock our door and venture out again. Licking my wounds and tired, I joined Lois and Carol in the sun for a day of rest.