Friday, January 14th, 2011
Joan found one of those little solar lights we had around the patio at Evangeline Beach that worked. Does it ever. It is as bright as can be sitting out here on the aluminium folding table we carry in the trailer. It must be the bright sunshine it collects all day here.
One could say the weather is ditto or the same as yesterday. Hard to believe it can be so nice and warm during the day, yet so cool at night. We have the thermostat on the furnace set at around 52F and it comes on during the night about twice an hour.
There are a lot of dirt trails in Arizona that only a mountain goat should use. They are used by two way vehicle traffic where it should be one way only. One sees a number of Jeeps that have been over them. At least they have been out in the dirt someplace from the amount of dirt they have on them. We have been over Cape Smokey in Cape Breton and over Steamboat Mountain on the Alaska Highway many times. One cannot make a hill steeper than Cape Smokey because no one could use it.
We have been over the goat trail called “Top of the World Highway”. Apparently the official name is the Klondike Highway in the Yukon and the Taylor Highway in Alaska. Anyway, that dirt trail is open a couple of months each year only from Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska. One looks down on the clouds and tree line on that trail. We have a photo we took of a very small tree trying to survive way up on that trail. We were tempted to cut it off and try and count the growth rings. The poor thing was only a yard tall and probably a hundred years or more old. One clears customs and immigration on that trail at Poker Creek, Alaska. It was awful tempting to ask the young agent what the heck he had done to get posted to the place. His answer would have been the same as ours when we were his age no doubt. For the isolation and northern allowance pay.
We have no desire to tackle these trails here in Arizona. No one wants to go over them. We are not going alone and definitely not taking this truck over them.
This is real Jeep country and there are a lot of them. The girl who lives alone in the motorhome across from Augie and Paula owns this one. She lives alone with her dog.
Mitch had one like this one for so long we were wondering if it would ever wear out. His simply had the wheels it came with. This one is built for something else. Some of the regular Jeeps have signs and a lot have rock this or that; Lets Rock, Little Rocker, Grandpa's Rocker, and so on. They must use them as amateur rock hounds. A friend was down here and found enough gold to pay for his trip.
This is Grandpa's Rocker. There are a lot of them around as stated and there were two red ones and a yellow more or less together. We did not feel like taking a photo of them in case folks thought we were up to something. We have seen one of the newer four door models only. The remainder have been the old regular two door model. This should give one a good idea.
That did it. Yesterday we decided to get up today with a little more ambition than usual and wash the outside of the trailer windows. We managed to get the big one next to the dinette, the one next to the back door, and while finishing the large back one we shook the four dollar special squeegee from Wal-Mart and broke the handle off. We reckon we will spend a little more on the next squeegee. We were able to get the kitchen window and the window next to the radio station with what was left once the sun swung around and away from them. We had to get the large ladder out we use for the antenna stand off insulator in order to reach them without the handle. Joan claims the bedroom windows are clean so we did not try and improve on that.
We put in another productive afternoon, at least most of it, sitting out in the shade reading. We walked up and checked the mail box once for a little exercise. There was nothing in it. The temperature was around 76F. Lyle, in the Hitchhiker fifth wheel behind us was over for a visit. He is from Michigan.
We did a dumpster run after supper to learn the wind had picked up and was blowing quite hard. We walked a little farther than usual and did not check in on the jig saw puzzle.
That was the day and another good one.