Saturday, November 26, 2022

Visitor and a long, long Jeep ride

 Woke up with the sun again today.  It is rising later each day and finally it is up with my waking habits.  It was 37 degrees outside but no wind so I didn't notice it inside the White Lion.  I stayed in bed doing puzzles till it had warmed up enough to put the coffee on and start my day.

We had our breakfast and Yuma, me and Deb were just ready to get in the Jeep for a 20 mile drive on Jeep roads around the Kofa Mountains, when a blue GMC truck started coming our way.  Deb asked if I was expecting company, and I said I wasn't.  

Yuma ran towards the truck and soon the truck stops nearby and a tall thin man jumps out of the cab and said "I'm a park ranger!"  I knew he wasn't.  Dressed in shorts, bright red shirt with a blue truck.  To my surprise, he introduced himself as Ivan.  Deb, On a long and lonesome highway.... knew who it was because of the blue truck even though she had never met him.

It took me a moment to realize it was "the Ivan" that has been on the road forever and has posted since the days of Al of Travel With The Bayfield Bunch back in 2007.

He has been staying south of Quartzsite for a week and knew we were here, and finally figured out where we were staying and came by to say hello.  A few minutes later and we would have missed him.  Ivan, Roadtrip, said he met me at a Bloggerfest back in 2015, way past my memory banks and had followed along on occasion.

We talked for a long while until, Ivan had to run into Quartzsite on errands and Deb, Yuma and I hopped in the Jeep for ride in the desert.  Some folks may think a desert is just sand.  It is, but a lot of things grow in it and of course there are pretty mountains.

Ivan, Riley, Deb, Doug and Yuma

 


The weather was beautiful with only a slight breeze for a cooling affect in the hot sun.  We went from blacktop to any high clearance vehicle to 4-wheel drive vehicle recommended. The views were really great, so I may have too many pictures because I couldn't figure out which ones to leave out.






As we neared the halfway point of our 20 miles or so of desert road, it did start to have quite a few washes we had to navigate.  On one particular wash there were large boulders.  I hit one so hard I thought I bottomed out and was stuck.  One side was on boulders and the other side was in sand so I was spinning a tire and going nowhere.  Deb got out and moved several big rocks to help.  

I finally put the Jeep in low four-wheel drive and it finally crawled its way up the other side.  I thought for a moment things were going to go sideways miles from any help and no cell reception.  I think it was only the second time I moved to low gear.




Look at all the Saguaro cactus heading up the mountain.


Finally back on good road.
As we were nearing highway 95, we ran into Ivan coming the opposite way.  He had been in town all afternoon and lives just back a little way from where we had just driven.

Finally made it home at 4:30, a little saddle sore, but glad to be home.  I immediately went inside and warmed up four pieces of pizza and Yuma and I gobbled it down.  I'll save the last two pieces for lunch tomorrow.  Didn't want to over indulge like yesterday.  Time to finish my post and call it a day.

Thanks for stopping by.

12 comments:

  1. Looks like another beautiful day
    It was good for Ivan to stop by and meet you. Love the photos of your jeep trip.

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    1. We were surprised and happy Ivan stopped by before we left. Had a long conversation and I'm sure I'll see him again in Yuma.

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  2. Nice to meet up with you and all glad to catch you at home! See you down the road later ...

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. It was great to meet up and I'm glad Deb and Riley now know you other than through posts. Hopefully, see you in Yuma.

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  3. A very good day with some nice views. Meeting Ivan was fun and we hope to chat with him again over the winter.
    A few rough spots but enjoyable. I will admit I was a little concerned until you dropped into low, and the Big Bang did give me a wince. Otherwise I found the ride to be pretty good. Thanks for being the chauffeur!

    Deb

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    1. We had a good day even if it was a long ride and we weren't any worse for it. I need to look under there and see if the big bang did any damage.

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  4. That was great Ivan dropped in to see you guys. Yes, Ivan goes back to the early blogging days when all this blogging stuff was so new to everybody. We've met Ivan half a dozen times over the years with one of those times just south of where you are. We jeeped out to 'Horse Tank' one afternoon. The last time I saw Ivan was in the grasslands near Sierra Vista. As Kelly and I well know, those Jeep Wranglers can be pretty rough riding at times but they sure are great for digging themselves out of tough spots. I've had to use that low gear as well a few times when we had our Wrangler.

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    1. We were glad we met Ivan. We were going real slow not to put any more hurt on us than we had to.

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  5. I used to follow Ivan's blog. But it seems he stopped for awhile??? I'll have to start following again. Glad the Jeep did its job.

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    1. Me too. I was getting a little worried, but finally thought of going to the low drive then it just walked out. Haven't looked to see if I did any damage underneath.

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  6. Great pic of all of you! How nice Ivan found you for a visit! Sounds like quite the ride! Silly Al's yesterday, yum! Great pictures Doug!

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    1. Thanks Shirley. Been a busy few days. Lots of fun and memories.

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