Sunday, February 13, 2011

Yet Another Exciting Day in the Desert.

First off, I’d like to say how happy I am that the Donkey’s Al of the Bayfield Bunch  reported missing, and thought stolen, HAVE RETURNED!!! Hallelujah !! I was sure worried about them. If you don’t read Al’s Blog, you should. Al, in my opinion has one of the best Blogs there is! Plus, his pictures are OUTSTANDING!!  He is a neat guy that I really understand and enjoy. I think he and I are a lot alike in several ways.. His "Groaner's Corner" is also a HOOT!

Yesterday, we had another wonderful 30 mile ride in the desert out behind our place here at North Ranch, AZ.  Son Pat and his wife Michele stopped by Friday evening and dropped off their Polaris RZR 4 wheeler. They were headed to Scottsdale to see Michelle’s father who lives there and is celebrating his 80th Birthday. OP (my son) then came back yesterday with a friend and co-worker so we could do some riding.
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This is Pat on the left and John on the right. John is from New York (upper state) and is in Phoenix doing some work. He is also a Federal Agent, same as Pat. They arrived at 10:30 and were ready to ride!
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Here they are getting prepared to go out. The two pup’s, Rocky and Dudditz are my son’s and as bad as they wanted to, they didn’t get to go and had to stay home. OP loves dogs and they love him. He is seldom ever without them. They are good, well-trained dogs and never a bother. We were so pleased that OP and John came out to ride with us and the weather was perfect!
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It wasn’t long until we were way out in the vast hundreds of acres of BLM property we have right here in our back yard.
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Soon we found the Hassayampa River and were headed for BOX CANYON!  The river was quite low and we could easily ride across it when ever we need to. Those of you that were out here last year remember that the river was so high we didn’t  feel safe crossing it and had to walk into the Canyon.
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It wasn’t long until we came upon the famous and fabulous Box Canyon..
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Looking out of Box Canyon,
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OP made it way up into the top of the Canyon and here he is coming down. Note the “N” on his cap, that is his Trademark. “N” of course for NEBRASKA and Big Red. He makes a point of wearing that cap everywhere he goes, coast to coast and border to border.  Although we are both glad to be “from” Nebraska, we are quite proud of our Heritage.
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Now he’s about down. Rollie and Gina will remember that we had a piece of black plastic pipe to climb up and down with last year.  That has since broken and been replaced by these logs.
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Ms. Pat, the thoughtful one, brought us all some lunch which really hit the spot. We have been to Box Canyon many, many times and enjoy it each time. It seems to change every year, evidently by the high waters that hit sometime during the summer when we are gone. I will never forget the first time several years ago when our good friends Paul and Nancy brought us here.
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As you can see, I am so happy to spend this wonderful and enjoyable time with OP.  I am so proud of him and I know it shows! I enjoyed meeting John....he is a neat guy and I really like him.
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Gina, this one is for you!! God Bless you my Girl!
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After some real enjoyable conversing…..
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and some more steep trails into the washes, our ride came to an end. Just in time for OP to take his dogs for a nice run and then….Yep, you guesses it.....Happy Hour!!

Again, I Praise the Lord for days like this and thank Him so much for all he provides for us.  We are off to Church.  This afternoon, OP and Michelle will stop by and pick up there Polaris RZR 4x4 on their way home.

Tomorrow we are expecting our good Friends Larry and Geri, x-owners of the Broken Arrow RV Park and Horse Camp in Custer, SD.  They'll be spending some time with us and we know there'll be lots more trail riding days ahead with them.

Thank you all for stopping by and riding along with us on our beautiful ride. We sure enjoyed having you along!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Travel safe and God Bless!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

8 comments:

Sam&Donna Weibel said...

So good to see you had a great day with your son Pat and his friend, that is one of the things I miss about the PD the bond you had with co-workers and some of the neat stuff we used to do together, now that were all retired and scattered to the winds and I hate to say it but a lot of them are no longer with us, I was once told that if you make it from 50-60 as a policeman without a heart attack ypou have a good chance of making it to retirement. Well I made it and now I have my Grandkids to spoil.Be safe out here Mike & Pat. Sam & Donna.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike and Pat,
I sure was glad to hear the donkeys came back. As Al was saying, it sure sounded like they had been stolen for pack mules for the drug trade.
Take care and safe travels. We sure enjoy your blog site.
Don

Ron and Thelma said...

Did they sell the campground. We stayed there about 4 years ago Nice campground

KarenInTheWoods said...

What a fun day you guys had! And how great of Ms. Pat to be sure to pack that cooler with mid-day goodies. Looks like a wonderful getaway-----

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Karen and Steve
(Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

Janna and Mike said...

Sounds like you guys had a great day with Patrick and his friend--Gina will be proud of you Mike!

Sue and Doug said...

what a great 'boys day out'!!..nice to share interests with your son!!..Box Canyon looks interesting!!!

Al Bossence said...

Awwwwww shucks Mike, ya got me all red & blushing now. Thanks for the 'shout out' & by the way, checks in the mail. Nice that you had a great day in the desert. My kind of outing for sure. We desert folks are sure a differnt kind of critter with our appreciation for this type of environment. Just as well the majority of RV'ers hang out in RV Parks or these lands would be way too crowded anyway. We'll just keep the serenity of the desert our little secret, OK:))

Sharon Del Rosario said...

What a nice outing! It almost makes me want to go 4-wheeling. Good thing Ms. Pat was so thoughtful to pack a lunch.