Sunday, November 24, 2013 (Midland LTVA, Blythe, California)

As I sit in my recliner with a cup of coffee this morning, sunshine is breaking through the clouds and streaming through the window beside me! It makes it a little hard to see the screen of my laptop...but I'm not complaining...come on sunshine!!

We did a little work this morning...Steve washed the outside of the trailer windows while I did the dishes and cleaned up inside. Then he unloaded the ATVs while I washed the windows inside. With that done, we loaded the garbage and recycling onto our quads and headed to the garbage bins near the entrance. On our way, we stopped to talk with Ann and Armand who were on their way to see us. They welcomed us back and invited us down to their place for happy hour this afternoon.

After dropping the garbage off, we went for a short ride, basically taking the long way back home and then decided to get the chairs out and sit in the sunshine.

We sat for a bit and then I got a little restless, so decided I needed to get a little exercise and go out for a walk. Steve decided to join me...

On our way back, we stopped to say hi to Wolf and Marge...they have quite a set up. They too, welcomed us back. This is the spot where Thanksgiving Dinner was held last year. We were invited again this year, but decided to take up Dennis and Charlene's invitation to join them at a gathering in Bouse, AZ.

Back from our walk, we sat outside...I was reading and Steve was just relaxing. After a bit, Steve decided to go inside and take care of some things he wanted to do on the laptop.

At 4:00 we strapped our chairs onto our quads and headed down to Armand and Ann\s and joined everyone down there for happy hour. We were welcomed back by the the group and enjoyed chatting with them for about an hour or so before everyone headed home. It gets pretty chilly once the sun goes down!

Saturday, November 23, 2013 (Midland LTVA, Blythe, California)

We woke to another cloudy cool day. According to the US Weather Service, it is supposed to be sunny starting tomorrow with temperatures gradually rising. By Tuesday temps are expected to hit 70F...YAY! I hope they are right!!

We had a very leisurely start to the day and then did our dreaded "resistance exercises"...something we didn't do while at Valley of Fire because we figured we were out getting lots of exercise hiking. After showers and breakfast, we carried on with our leisurely morning until noon when we decided we should walk down to the host site and pay for our Bureau of Land Management (BLM) camping permit. This year we purchased the season permit (September 15, 2013 to April 15, 2014) for $180...good at any BLM long term visitor areas (LTVAs) throughout the USA.  After a week here, we plan on moving over to La Posa South LTVA at Quartzsite and will be there...well...at least until the end of January.  No firm plans in place but as we mentioned, after a busy summer travelling to Alaska, we plan on slowing down and plunking our butts down in Quartzsite with our ATV friends sounds like a grand idea!

After our walk, Steve stayed out and took pictures of our new location that overlooks the wash and mountains...

Wolf and Marge's place in the distance...

Our neighbors...Dennis and Charlene, are in the motorhome up there....

Rather than run the furnace so much, Steve has set up the small catalytic heater inside connected to the propane tank. With the local propane dealer being closed tomorrow (Sunday) and closing today at 2:00, he headed into Blythe to get the tank filled. While he was gone, I sat in my recliner, listening to the wind outside (not quite as bad as it had been yesterday) and continued working on our travel blog. I will be caught up today and should be able to remain up-to-date as our Verizon MiFi has good service here and in Quartzsite (from what I remember from last year).

At 4:00 we walked up to Charlene and Dennis' place for happy hour. It is so good seeing them again and catching up! After a wonderful visit, we headed home so that we would be available for a Skype call from back home.

Steve's brother, Dave, is visiting from Thompson, Manitoba along with his lovely lady, Kerry and daughter, Robyn. There is a big family gathering at Nadine and Mike's (Steve's sister and bro-in-law) and we are joining them via Skype. They had quite a house full...about 19, I believe, including Steve's Dad, Chris and Angela, who traveled over to the island from Burnaby, some very close family friends...and, of course, Rob, Angie and Conner.

They also had an early celebration of Dad's and Kerry's birthday...







Dad and Kerry blowing out the candles...with a little help from Conner...

Nadine sent us this great picture of her 3 nephews...Chris, Rob and Conner...(thanks, Nadine!)