Gila National Forest

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Boondocking in the Gila NF

I left Deming and headed north to Silver City. I have never been there so wanted to see what it was all about. My trusty co-pilot Chica decided she wanted to do the driving for a change.

I decided that this time I was not going to let Chica lie in her bed unprotected while I drove, but put her in her carrier instead. You would think I was killing her the way she screamed. She yelled at me most of the way to Silver city although there were some times that she must have realized that I wasn’t going to give in and decided to sleep instead.

I stopped at the Gila National Forest Ranger Station and inquired as to where we could camp. They suggested a few campsites about an hour from Silver City in the mountains. That sounded good to me so I headed up there past Mimbres, NM and pulled into the Sapillo Campground. It was all primitive sites but there were outhouses and water available.

I found a nice site and we stayed there for the night. It is a beautiful area among the Ponderosa pines.

A trip to Roosevelt Lake

The next morning I decided to check out some of the other campgrounds close to here. I unhooked the Sami and headed off. I didn’t take Chica because I new I wasn’t going to be gone too long. It was only about 3 miles to the Mesa Campground where they had electric/water sites. The place was packed and it was not the place I wanted to spend the next couple of days. Plus it is not on the lake so that was out. The second campground was called Land End. It was nice but the remaining few campsites were not very level. So I guess we will stay where we originally stopped. Besides the price was right and the campsites were very far apart with lots of Ponderosas everywhere.

Before heading back I turned into the boat launch area at Lake Roosevelt. There were quite a few fishing boats on the lake and several people fishing from the shore.

On the return trip I stopped and took a couple pics of the beautiful rock formations. They were really magnificent.

Moved rig to a more level spot…

Upon return I decided to move the rig to a more level campsite. Chica and I went for a good walk in trying to locate a better site. We finally found a nice spot and moved everything over to it. It is a nice spot and close to a trailhead where we plan on hiking.

No Internet or cell phone service

The park ranger in Silver City had told us that there was no Internet or cell phone usage where we were going. I even turned on my wifi booster but still couldn’t get any connection. Thursday night I got out my Kindle Fire and did some reading. It is really quiet out hear at night. During the day there is a group with some ATV’s but they do not really bother us.

Friday night I decided to hookup my Satellite TV and see if I could get any reception. I am in a small clearing and it is surrounded by tall Ponderosa pines so I didn’t think there was too much chance I could get any reception. But it was amazing that I was able to get a lot of channels. I couldn’t get all the channels and some of them were not HD but I could watch a movie at night. By the way I do not have the dish on the ladder as I normally would. I do not want to travel with it up there and even though it is rather lightweight it is very awkward going up the ladder holding that as well. So I laid it on the ground.

Since I don’t have Internet I am writing this post and will upload it when I move.

Staying for a few days…

I will be staying here until Monday and then maybe head over to see Old Town Silver City. Then I am going south to Rockhound State Park where I will meet up with Jim and Gayle of Life’s Little Adventures. I plan on spending a few days down there before making my way to Elephant Butte State Park outside of Truth or Consequences, NM.

Below is a view taken on a short hike from our campsite.

Chica loves to go on hikes and is very curious about all her surroundings. I would love to let her go off leash, but am concerned about any other dogs or other animals, even hawks overhead, that might look at her as if she was their lunch.

Life is good!

I am camped in a beautiful location with my “best bud” Chica. The weather is perfect and we have enjoyed many short hikes around the campground. Then when I am kicking back I can enjoy reading a good bock with Rascal Flatts or even Mark Koepler playing in the background. I was also able to watch the Masters Golf Tournament. It just doesn’t get much better then that.

A visit from my son

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Jim Melvin

My son stops in for a couple of days…

My son Curt is traveling from California to Texas and stopped in to see me for a couple of days. We went out to dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery in downtown Tempe. It is a great restaurant overlooking Mill Street.

We also walked around the Mill Street?University Drive area. It was a great place and lots of people out.

Off to see the MIM again…

He hadn’t seen The MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) so I suggested we go there on Tuesday. We spent most of the day walking around this fabulous museum. They have an “Experience Gallery” where you can experience playing the many instruments they have on display. Or should I say trying to play them. HA!! It was a lot of fun. Here are several pics from the Experience Gallery.

While there I found several things that I had not noticed in my prior visit.The first was instruments made out of cans.

Bamboo

and even a brake cylinder. It is amazing the different instruments that people use to make music.

I can’t imagine paying $27.45 for this organ, but back in 1902 that was probably a fortune.

Gourmet meals in the MIM cafeteria…

After touring the museum we were hungry so stopped in their cafeteria for lunch. What a pleasant surprise. The lunch was all gourmet meals. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had commented on my previous post about the delicious meals so I just had to see for myself. What a pleasant surprise. Of course I had to have a Monkey Shine ale to wash it down!

Here is a pic taken in the courtyard of The MIM. This statue moved ever so slightly that you could not even tell if you were looking at it.

Chica pic

Curt also had a good time with Chica and she enjoyed his company.

Rangers game and then off to Texas

Curt is a Texas Ranger fan and went to the game on Wednesday. Then it was off to Texas. It was fun getting together and I really enjoyed seeing him.

Finally meet my soul mate!!!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Working the Angels Spring Training Games

I am still working the Angels Spring Training games in Tempe. It has been fun and I am meeting a lot of fun people. I usually work 3-4 games per week. I am not making a lot of money, but it pays the expenses.

Weather has been beautiful…

You really can’t beat the beautiful Arizona weather. The days have been in the high 70’s with a slight breeze at times. However it will be changing shortly as they expect the temps to dip into the low 60’s tomorrow with a possibility of rain. There is a game scheduled and hope we don’t get rained out. After a couple days in the 60’s it is predicted to go back into the 70’s with more great weather.

Found my soul mate!

After many years of searching I finally found my soul mate. I wasn’t even looking for her. She just happened to run into me. I was talking to my sister on the phone and just happened to look out and see her. I went outside to meet her and we both knew we were made for each other. Here is a neat pic of her.

She was very hungry and had crusty eyes. She came into my rig and made herself at home. I have been looking for anyone that may have lost here, but without any success. I checked with the office and they did not know who her owner was. However she did say that there have been many little Chihuahuas running wild in the area.

I checked Craig’s List and the SPCA here in Mesa without any luck. I have had her over 2 weeks so decided if nobody claimed her that she and I would make a nice pair. HA!!

Potty training

Although I don’t think she is a puppy I have still had to housebreak her. It was not very easy at first and there were a lot of accidents. It was probably mostly my fault as I didn’t let her out often enough.

We have finally gotten into the swing of things as far as potty breaks go and she is much improved. She still doesn’t bark to let me know when to take her out or even go to the door. But when I see her sniffing around I know it is time.

Vet day…

Since I haven’t heard from anyone who may have been her owner, I decided to take her to the vet and have her scanned to see if she had a microchip implanted that would tell me who owned her. They scanned her and came up with nothing. I decided at this time that she and I would be soul mates for life so I had her checked out by the vet who gave her two shots (which she did not like at all). They also implanted a microchip and trimmed her nails (which she also hated). A couple of her nails where almost ingrown and it looked like they hadn’t been trimmed in a long time. Here is a pic of her at the vet.

I have named her Chica (which means little girl). It was a great name that my sister suggested. We are both happy with each other and she hates when I leave to go to the ball park for the games. She is very excited when I get home. She is really a lot of fun and a very happy girl!

Back from a California visit

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Jim Melvin

To California and Back

It has been a while since I last posted and I apologize for that. I spent the last 11 days visiting family in Southern California. I hadn’t even planned on driving there but I had to sign in at the Elks Lodge in Oceanside where I transfered my membership. The Elks that I originally joined was in Benson, AZ but they were closing that lodge due to lack of new members.

I was also able to visit my mom several times and went out to lunch with my sisters on Valentines Day. I even got in a round of golf on the last day I was there. It will probably be a while before I get back there again so it was really a great visit.

By the way I drove my new (to me) Sammy (Suzuki Samurai) over there and back. It was almost 400 miles one way. Although I don’t intend to drive it that far again it handled beautiful.

Dish Network up and running

Yesterday my friend Phil came over to see where I had been. Hopefully I will be working for either he or Sindy at the ballpark when the Spring Training games start on Saturday. He helped me lift my Satellite dish on the roof where I was able to attach it to the bracket. I tried doing this myself, but it was just too awkward.

I hooked everything up and it found the satellite very quickly and I had TV.

Employee Orientation and then first ballgame

I have an employee orientation tomorrow where I find out all the details about my job such as where I will be working and what I will be doing. Then the first game is Saturday with the Angels playing the Cubs. I am really looking forward to it.

Dropped by the stadium where I will be working

I decided after lunch to drop by the Tempe Diablo Stadium and see if I could get some pics. I was hoping they would be practicing at the stadium but the players had closed practices in the other fields in the area of the stadium. I managed to get a few pics of the stadium as well as a couple players.

There were a lot of photographers taking many pics of Mike Trout.

While CJ Wilson was busy signing autographs.

This was a banner on the road to the stadium.

I was hoping to see some batting practice but will have to wait until a later time.

Spinning yarn and meeting good friends!

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Learning how to spin yarn..not tales

I spotted Melinda spinning yarn on her spinning wheel. Melinda is from Alaska and spins her own yarn and weaving is her passion. You can read more about her at her blog Woven Journey

Before long I was sitting at the wheel learning to spin yarn. It is not easy. She taught me how to work the foot pedals first. You have a tendency to move the wheel back and forth which is not what you want to do. You must have it going in the same direction all the time. Not easy to do, but with a lot of Melinda’s patience the wheel was going in the correct direction which is clockwise. I still had difficulty feeding the material.
I can really appreciate how difficult it can be.

It just comes second nature to Melinda and is very relaxing to her.

Meeting up with my wonderful Canadian friends…

Yesterday I saw a large van pull into our camping area with a big sign on the side that read “Island Tours”. I don’t know of any islands in the Quartzsite area and the closest body of water is probably the Colorado River. But out pops my good friends Peter and Bea. I first met them back in 2011 at Belle Starr’s Ranch in Douglas, AZ. We worked on a shed of Belle’s and Peter was the driving force behind the work as he is an experienced carpenter. You can see the blog here.

They had dropped in to see me. We chatted a bit and told me where they were camped so I drove to their campsite in the afternoon.

Peter and Bea are from Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. By the way if you ever travel to Campobello Island give them a call and they will give you a great tour.

They both love the southwest and drive down here every winter to get out of the cold weather back home. Bea is a great cook and also has a great cooking blog Dinner For Two She made chocolate chip cookies and brownies and had coffee and we tried to catch up on all our travels both past and future. You can read their blog at American Traveler

This is a pic of Mollie who loves to travel with them.

It is always fun meeting up with Peter and Bea. We have run into each other at many places and without even planning it. It is amazing how there are so many people at Quartzsite, but you still manage to find those people who are friends and not even be trying.

While having coffee and cookies with Peter and Bea a friend (Sandie) stopped who happens to be a regular commenter on my blog. They stopped to ask Peter and Bea if they needed anything at the store. I re-introduced myself to them. Sandie writes about their travels at Where Are The Dixons Today?

A beautiful end to a wonderful day…

There are a lot of clouds in the sky and I managed to get this pic. It came out better then I thought it would.

Dinner at the Main Street Eatery

A bunch of us decided to have someone cook our dinner for a change. Ten of us went to the Main Street Eatery which is located in the front of the laundromat. It doesn’t sound too glamorous but the food is excellent. I had chicken friend steak with garlic mashed potatoes. YUM YUM!!!!

From 2 channels to 200

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Cool weather! Brrrr!

The temps have been rather cool here in the desert at Quartzsite. It has gotten into the low 20’s at night and only up into the 40’s during the day. On a few days it has even been windy making it seem even colder. But fear not, it is slowly getting warmer and should be in the mid 50’s tomorrow and 69 by the time the RV show starts on the 19th.

Going from air to satellite TV…

I took the big plunge and entered the world of satellite TV. Previously I only had a batwing TV antenna and relied on those channels I could get through the air. But when I could only get 2 channels I decided to check out the cost of adding satellite. Then Jim came over and told me about a setup that a local satellite dealer was offering using the Dish Network. He drove me back there and I wound up buying it.

Now for the fun part. Installing all the equipment and hooking up to the appropriate satellites. The installation was fairly easy. The dish would sit on the top of my ladder still giving me access to the roof when I needed it.

Now for the fun part. Getting it to acquire the satellite signals. I called Dish and set up my account with them, then after making several calls and speaking with their tech support I still could not pick up one of the satellites which I needed. They put me through to Tailgater tech support (who makes the dish) since they could not find anything wrong with my setup. Tailgater said their dish was working properly as it had completed all the tests successfully.

Now it is back to the dealer with the receiver to see if it was faulty. He put it on his bench and found that one of the settings was incorrect and once he corrected it I got a picture. Now it was back to the rig and now the system is working properly. I set it up to see the Los Angeles stations as I am more familiar with them.

I got lots of help during this whole process from all my friends who would come over. This is Cookie, John, and Linda. THANKS EVERYONE for all the help and support throughout this entire process.

Going to be working at the Angels Spring Training

I got word that my background check passed and I will be working for Aramark for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Spring Training games. I am really excited. I made reservations with a campground only 6 miles from the stadium in Mesa to stay there for 2 months. I am not sure what I will be doing but my friends Phil and Sindy will also be working there as well. I worked with them at Amazon and they told me about this job. The job only entails working for 5-6 hours during the 18 games that are played in Mesa. I will not make a lot of money but just the experience of working around and seeing the Angels is a great opportunity for me as I have been a fan of them way back when they moved to Anaheim.

Gathering around the fire….

Everyday we gather around the fire and chat about our day while enjoying appetizers and beverage. It is a great time that we all enjoy. It also gives us an opportunity to meet the new people that come in during the day.

Sunset alert…

I received a “Sunset Alert” from Roger on my cell phone. I was inside my rig with the shades down so didn’t even notice. I grabbed my camera and took this beautiful shot of the sunset.

What a great finish to a wonderful day!

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