More meandering near camp, and another mural.

 Sunday, February 27

Relaxed at the campsite most of the day, enjoying the warm weather.  I did reposition the VRRV in terms of blocking the occasional gust of wind, resulting in feeling even warmer conditions.

Sometime in the morning, the "Eye of Sauron" appeared overhead.  This is from skyandtelescope.org: 

A Sun halo, a circle of light that creates a circle 22° wide around the Sun, is a related phenomenon. As with sundogs, hexagonal ice crystals suspended in cirrostratus clouds refract sunlight to create the halo, sometimes also called an icebow, nimbus, or gloriole.

Monday, February 28

Went into nearby Ajo for groceries, before that though, I went to the County Dump off of Rasmussen Street and paid $5 for the privilege of recycling aluminum cans and glass bottles.  Sigh.

Got the groceries and then stopped to photograph the murals I'd spotted before on the side of the NAPA store nearby:

The opposite wall has a great motorcycle-themed mural of sorts, see what you think:

Here's the mural in sections for greater detail perhaps:

Meeting up with CCjon and looking for Rock Formations

 Friday, February 25

A view of the campsite in the early morning light:

Nearby rock formations that were being painted nicely by the rising sun:

Today's highlight was riding Scarlett, my Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig the 30 miles or so to the town of Gila Bend.  CCjon, is enroute from California to New Mexico where he's checking on a vacation property in Angelfire.

CCjon recently completed a motogroup ride in the Baja California peninsula.  Here's a link to his blog for your viewing pleasure:  Riding The Horizon

We met up in town and adjourned to the local Burger King for coffee and eventually lunch.  We chatted about his trip, he gave me lots of good info about traveling in Baja, for which I am very grateful.

Presently, after lunch, we spent some time next to his BMW GSA Rig with an EMS sidecar, quite the sweet rig!

It was around 1:00 PM when we said our goodbyes, Safe Travels CCjon!

I headed on back to the camp, stopped for some recycling that I wanted to drop off at the dump near Ajo.  Then I headed to this town to pick up a parcel from home and an item from Amazon.  Of course, heading back to camp, I forgot about the recycling!  Maybe tomorrow.

As the golden hour occurred at the campsite, which I now have all to myself since this morning, I got some more pics:

It only got into the low 60s today but with little to no winds, it was just fine under a bright sunny sky!  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow!

Saturday, February 26

It was indeed a warmer day today but there was still gusting winds on occasion which would induce an unwelcome chill factor.  Still, no complaints here...and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer!

Most of the day was spent just enjoying the solitude, listening to the third audio book of a series.  Some light cleaning, and changing out the oil filter on Yagi since I received a new one from home via a care package from Martha.

Unfortunately, my faulty memory resulted in a replacement ignition switch being sent out at my request, but it was actually the original ignition switch!  Not only that but the connector was unusable.  I must have forgotten that I'd butchered it before.  So, my cobbled together second ignition switch remains in Scarlett, and I'll move to a two-pole switch next I guess.

Chores done, I rode Yagi to make sure no oil leaks from the oil filter cover, across the highway to get pictures of the rock formations therein.

This split rock reminded me of prime rib slices....mmmm

Later, around 4:00 PM or so, I rode out again with Yagi to capture the lights and shadows of late afternoon.

I think the light was before for this shot eh?

All for now, I might go into Ajo tomorrow to pick up some more groceries and maybe do a recycling run as well.

I'm also researching options about taking the VRRV perhaps, maybe, possibly...into Mexico by way of Puerto Peñasco aka Rocky Point.  Turns out its part of the Sonora Free Zone so vehicle permits and a visitor visa aren't required!

Vehicle insurance is a possible show stopper, but perhaps I can stage from a campsite closer to the border and just drive down with Scarlett and stay overnight in a motel....we'll see.  More research needed, and finding an insurer for a sidecar rig!  Or, perhaps take the T-Dub?  It's about 68 miles from the border crossing.

Another cold front passes...and now boondocking in the Barry Goldwater AF Range, again.

 Wednesday, February 23

I spent the day mostly inside the VRRV, well outside temperatures never got above 55° at best.  Overcast skies, sporadic light showers and windy conditions made it an inside day for sure.

The day started pretty clear in terms of sky conditions and would steadily turn into solid overcast gray clouds.  Before it did however I got this picture of a nearby cluster of campers with the ironically named fifth wheel:

Speaking of irony:

I used to wish for snow so I could gear up and go riding in the snow with my Ural Patrol side rig.  Now I shelter inside and hope for sunny weather and warmer temperatures.  I've become such a wimp when it comes to cold weather!

The solid overcast started to thin in the late afternoon and resulted in a decent sunset:

Thursday, February 24

A coordination email with CCjon, here's his blog, led me to displace from the Gunsight Wash BLM site this morning. I was on the road by 10:30 AM and was setting up camp by 1:30 PM.  It was perhaps 30 miles, no more, to the new campsite.

The plan is to meet with CCjon as he drives back from the Southern California area where he stashed his truck/trailer.  He's back from a Motoventure trip with a bunch of riders into Baja California, Mexico you see.

He and I will be in the nearby town of Gila Bend tomorrow morning and meet up.  I'm looking forward to it, it's been quite a while since I met up with Jon.

Here's pics of the campsite:

Verizon Cellular Data isn't as fast as I seemed to have had before on other trips, had to use the weBoost antenna to get mediocre speeds, but less people around here!

Slow Couple of Days, Errands in Ajo and some more Murals

 Sunday and Monday this week were spent doing pretty much nothing but reading, listening to audio books and relaxing.  Sunday was nice and warm, Monday not so much warm as extremely windy!

I did, seemingly successfully and once again under RichardM's guidance, diagnose a metallic sounding impact noise experienced when Scarlett negotiated rough terrain conditions.

It appears, that the driveshaft on the sidecar rig had slid back out of the "donut" which functions as a coupler between the front of the driveshaft and the output shaft from the transmission.  Sliding back, it would impact the base of the final drive's input shaft, causing the metallic noise.

The driveshaft's yoke now flush with 

the rubber "donut"

You can see, the shiny bit, how much forward the

drive shaft portion was pulled.

A short test drive on semi-rough terrain failed to reproduce the metallic sounding impact noise I'd felt/heard before, so I'm calling it good for now.  More testing to follow of course.

Tuesday, February 22

Rode Yagi the 12 miles or so to the town of Ajo to get cash from the ATM at the bank ($5 surcharge!) and pick up an Amazon package from the General Delivery service at the Post Office.  It's the oil filters for Scarlett's upcoming (in 1000 km) oil change.

After errands were done, it was time for some pictures:

I found the rear of the town's main church more photographically interesting than the front side.

The arches at the town's main business/shopping plaza:

I'd taken pictures of the murals at the town's Artist Alley before, here's murals outside of that alley, along the walls of nearby buildings.  LINK to previous pics.

As before, interpretation is up to you:

My favorite mural, weird, but eye-catching

artist: Mike (DaWolf) Baker

Sedona

artist: Harriet Wood aka Miss Hazard

I like the solitude expressed here....

The winds had picked up while I was in town and it was a very windy 12 miles back to the campsite!  It would get up to 65 degrees today but would feel much cooler due to the wind chill!

Supposed to be even cooler tomorrow with a good chance of rain, sounds like an indoor day for me.