I scream, you scream

Mittry Lake near Yuma, Arizona

I could hear the wind this morning when I woke and that is never good.  Looked outside and it was cloudy.  Looked at the temperature and it was 53 degrees and that was good.  At least it is not chilly to the bone out there.  Going to get up to 67 degrees this afternoon.  Can't beat that.

Got up and had another slow breakfast and read blogs and wrote my comments.  I thought about going into town and getting a haircut,

Now that's plain scarey.

but when I stepped outside, the sun was popping out and the skies were now a puffy white and blue.  Still a breeze, but not bad.  Decided to skip the haircut.  What's another month?  

Yuma and I decided this would be a perfect afternoon to take a little drive and get some ice cream.  I have been a good little boy for over a year and with my great glucose readings lately, I decided it was time to splurge. 

We headed North to Laguna Dam Road and took a left towards Imperial Dam Road.  I think I pass into California somewhere, but see no signs.  We passed a pretty little lake,   

 then Laguna Dam,

and then Imperial Dam.

As we were rolling along beside the canal,

I saw several prime real estate properties.

Comes with a fancy boat too.

Nice saloon.

 As I rounded the curve heading towards Bard, California we spotted our destination among the Date Palms.

There is our destination--Imperial Date Gardens.

We coulda had a date shake, but thought that would be too messy for Yuma, so we decided we would have  ice cream. 

Bet you can guess which one's mine!

We then drove just a little further up the road to Cloud Museum while we ate our ice cream.  I've taken the tour before, so we just looked at the stuff at the entrance.

Then we headed home to wait for the last sunset of the year.

Happy New Year to family and friends!  Hope 2020 is another great year.

Love you Dolly!

See you next year!

Tried Fry's

Mittry Lake near Yuma, Arizona

For some reason, I just didn't want to get out of bed this morning.  I could see from my window, it was cloudy out which is always disappointing.  I kinda knew when I saw the large mass of clouds coming in from the West last night.  Made for great sunset pictures but a lousy next day.  Fortunately, no rain.

 By 10 o'clock I was making bacon and eggs for breakfast and starting my second cup of coffee.  I had stepped outside earlier and I knew immediately it was going to be an inside day.  Very chilly out there.

While doing nothing, I checked my list of grocery items and decided Yuma and I would kill some time today shopping.  My favorite pastime - NOT!

Left at 2 o'clock and returned after 4.  Decided to check out Fry's because I wasn't having any fun at Walmart.  It was also crowded, but I did find a few aisles to hide in and it wasn't the liquor aisle.

 

Found almost everything I needed and was surprised to find almost every checkout lane was open and no waiting in line.  I like that.  Stopped for gas and five gallons of water and we were done for the day.  Good to accomplish something on a cloudy and cold day.

Got home and put things away and started dinner.  Had steak and the rest of the French Style beans and pudding with lots of whip cream for dessert.  Turned on the TV but couldn't find anything after Wheel of Fortune, so turned it off.  

That was our day.  Not even a sunset picture to close with tonight.

See you later.

Football Games and culinary cooking

Mittry Lake near Yuma, Arizona

Another cool morning but no wind and sunny without a cloud in the sky.  Had a nice leisurely breakfast and by 11 o'clock it was warm outside and promised to be a nice day.

I had bought a package of six beef boneless chuck style ribs when at the store last.  I thought they would be just like steak since it was beef.  But when I called Dolly to find out if I could cook them on the stovetop I was surprised.

Nope.  These have to be cooked in the oven for three hours with lots of seasoning and BBQ sauce.  Of course, I don't have BBQ sauce, so Dolly suggested mixing ketchup and mustard.  I do have that.

That solved my dilemma of whether to run around in the Jeep or stay home and watch football.  Last regular season games and they are all so important for the play-offs.

Not to miss the beautiful weather, I took the TV outside and watched it while cooking and getting a suntan.   First time using the oven this year and didn't dare leave and have the place burn down.

Oops!  A misfire.  Sorry Yuma.

Here is my TV setup. Chair for Yuma and chair for me.

Looking to the North across the lake toward the Imperial Dam area.

A few short walks with Yuma and both of us resting in our lounge chairs mainly just listening to the games, we had a wonderful and relaxing Sunday.  We did meet a Yuma pal on one of our walks.

It was 5 o'clock when I pulled one piece out of the oven and tasted it.  It was falling off the fork delicious.  Just the right mustard spicy taste.  I thought I would eat three and save the other three for tomorrow, but they had shrunk a little bit and tasted so wonderfully good, Yuma and I ate all of them with a pile of French Style beans.  

Thank you Dolly for being such a great long distance cook.  Tasted just like roast beef, which I guess it was.  I think George would be proud of me.  From TV dinners to a culinary expert.

One last Sunday night game to watch and then to bed.  Looks like clouds are coming in from the West.  May be a cloudy day tomorrow.

See you later.

Imperial National Wildlife Refuge

Didn't have a clue what I was going to do today when I woke at 8:30.  But I did know how my morning was going to go.  

It was cold out at 38 degrees but with sunny skies and not much wind it wasn't bad.  Supposed to get to around 60 by afternoon.

When breakfast was over and blogs read and commented on it was afternoon already and it was pleasant outside.  I looked on my Google Maps and saw Dome Landing on the Colorado River only about 45 minutes North of here, so that's where we decided to go.

Hopped in the Jeep, well Yuma did, I kinda slowly slid in my seat.  The canal along the road looks pretty today.

We turned right at the blacktop heading past Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) and ended up at highway 95 heading North.  Wasn't long when I saw a sign saying Ferguson Lake to the left so took that road.

Somehow, instead of ending up at Domes Landing, I ran into a welcome sign to Fisher's Landing on the Colorado River.

Went through the town and took a picture of the river at the boat launch area.

I had seen a sign just before getting to Fisher's Landing saying Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, so I went back and followed that road North along the Colorado River, although I could not see the river till I got to the Refuge.

At the Refuge there were maps showing the lookouts over the Colorado River.  This area is a bird refuge, so the river is wide and full of reeds much like Mittry Lake.

Yuma and I stopped at each lookout and took the best pictures I could.  The river area is very marshy, so the lookouts were back from the river unfortunately.

We then stopped at a Painted Desert walking tour.  It was a just over a mile.  I thought they were a little stingy on the paint.

Yuma loves to run the trails.

Here he comes lickity split.

I won't go into the 15 miles of bad road going North towards Cibola and the 15 miles coming back.  I read the little map they gave me wrong and I thought I was going along the Colorado River but I wasn't.  

I mistook a boundary line for a road.  Oh well, what's another bad road in Arizona.  They're a dime a dozen.  Another day of errors but everything came out okay in the end.  

It was still a great day and we got home before dark just barely.  I'll have to find Domes Landing another day.  

See you later.

Palms in the Lake

Mittry Lake near Yuma, Arizona

Woke up to a partly cloudy morning and cool, but not bad.  Today, I don't have much planned so after our breakfast, Yuma and I decided to take a little drive toward the South entrance to the lake.

Before we left I took a few pictures of our new location from the road.

View to the West toward the lake.

Our new home on a hill overlooking the lake with a circular drive.

It was only about two miles to the boat dock area where it is the prettiest section of the lake.

Boat dock ahead just around the bend.

  Most of the lake is surrounded by reeds with cut-outs for people to get to the lake.  Night time around here belongs to the mosquitos.

This particular area has small man-made peninsulas with full grown palm trees.  May be date trees because I don't know the difference.  There are a lot of date tree farms around this area.

Just on the other side of the road they are building a nice RV parking area for visitors to use.  In fact, they are starting to use it now.  I first thought, how nice, then a bad thought entered my brain.  Wonder if this is the beginning of the end to parking along the lake in relative privacy.  Oh well!  We'll find out soon I believe.

Nice addition.  But read the sign.

It is almost time for Gold Rush so enough of this blogging for tonight.

See you later.