Happy Birthday Timm!

WOW!  The big 50!  Happy birthday Timm, I hope you enjoy your special day. 

This is his birthday/Christmas present...an East Texas Smokers RK250.  He is loving the heck out of it.  He got it early since there isn't really a way to hide it or the money spent on it.  We'll be using it again New Year's weekend in California at a contest. 

Today's agenda:

Pancakes for breakfast...yummer.

Got called in for an emergency at work...bummer.

A day trip to Hoover Dam to walk the new bridge and get some really pictures of the dam.

Lunch at Grimaldi's for a free birthday pizza...and be honored with superior service by our sweet daughter-in-law.  Always a treat.

Take in a movie...maybe True Grit.

Dinner and some TLC.

Than Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

Once again, we hit the mountain for the annual hunt for the perfect tree.  It was a pretty, sunny day that made it a great day for tree hunting.  Lots of snow this year, more than last year even.  That being said, it was hard to hike into where the trees were off the road. 

I love Timm's hat!

The boys finally took the plunge and headed into snow to cut two trees.  The snow was deep.  I tried to go in only to get stuck, fall over and had the dangest time getting back up.  I was banned from further snow treking. 

Christy trekking in after the boys with a hand saw.  They got a couple of really nice trees. 

This year, Christy's mom was in town for Thanksgiving and she went with us the day after Thanksgiving. 

The dogs go with us every year.  They love to play in the snow.  Cassy and Roxy were pretty tuckered out and had a hard time climbing back up the snow bank,  they had a great time though.

Obviously, Zoey and Shelby had a wonderful time in the snow as well. 

The Gift of Lights

We headed out to the Gift of Lights this week. It was moved out the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this year from Sunset Park.  We've not been out to see it in years but since it's closer to home we thought...what the heck.  Troop 50 was still selling hot chocolate, Kenny was there as as Asst. Scoutmaster now.  It was nice to see him and catch up on what's going on.

Please excuse the antenna...I didn't even think about it when I was taking photos. 

The displays go under the grandstands, wrap around the entire NASCAR race track, up on Guchi row and more.  It's amazing! 

Here is part of the Christmas train display. 

I love this one!  It's so pretty. 

It was a great event to enjoy.  Light displays for everything.  Hannauka, Kwanza, Christmas, and more.  The display presented by the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay was full of fishes, dolphins, starfish and more.  There was an Elvis display...this is Vegas afterall.  The fire departments had displays too.  Christmas music on a special radio channel for the event and more.  It was awesome. 

A Quick Trip Over Hoover Dam

We made a quick trip out to the dam the other day.  I still can't get over how low the water level is in Lake Mead.  That first island in the photo used to be totally underwater.  So sad.  Could someone please let some water out of Lake Powell please.

This is the view was you cross over the new bridge.  Not much to see, I know...and we were in the truck.   The sidewalls are so tall, guess they need to be that high so people don't stop on the bridge...besides it's 900 feet to the river below. 

There are a couple of bridges actually, this is the one on the Arizona side heading back to the main road (US-93). 

There is a place for people to get out and walk onto the new bridge.  We didn't stop because we has Cassy with us and I doubt they allow dogs on the bridge since they don't allow them on the dam.  Anyway, I snagged this photo from our friend Chris' FB page.  It's quite a view for sure.  Obviously, you can see how high the water level used to be...that's quite a bath tub ring. 

Man, we need an outing!

The weather is getting nice and I'm itching to get out.  But alas, it will need to wait a bit.  I really want to get out and take a ride on my quad, it's been calling my name for a while now.  But the truck is down...the transmission went out.  :0(  A new one has finally been ordered and next week Scott should be putting it in for us...a benefit of putting your son through mechanics schooling.  Maybe after that we can get out and go somewhere.  Until then, an outing will have to wait.

Cassy enjoys time with her mom

Well, she always enjoys time with me.  lol  Last weekend we went to the Old Capital Arts Festival to sell BBQ and we stayed with Jim and Irene.  (you can check the BBQ blog for more on that subject)  Lucy is Cassy's momma and it's amazing...they look identical in almost every way. 

We took the dogs for a walk before we left on Sunday.  They all had a great time and you know how dogs will do...they covered 3-4 times the ground we did.  Seriously, you couldn't tell Cassy from Lucy on the walk...the both even have the same wiggle.

Cassy loves to bark at cows, and she got her chance.  Apparently, they were interested in what she had to say.

This is Joey, Lucy and Bosco after the walk.  It was only 20 minutes but by the look of those tongues you'd think they'd been out for hours.  I should've gotten a photo of just Lucy and Cassy but I didn't think of it until afterwards...oh well, next time.

Adventures Around Williams, AZ...Part One

Wow, it's taken me a while to get these posts up lately...stupid computer.  Anyway, it's about time.  After our BBQ competition (you can read all about it on the Trailhound Smokers BBQ blog) we stuck around the Williams area for five days and enjoyed an imprompto vacation. 

We rode the train in Williams.  The Cateract Creek Rambler was running for the holiday weekend.  Did you know it runs on recyled vegetable oil?  Seriously...I'm all for saving our planet but this is just a little wierd for me.  I like the steam engines better.   It was Christy's first time to ride a train and she enjoyed it.  As for the rest of us Martin's, we all enjoy trains so I'm glad she did too.

After the kids and my parents left the BBQ, we took a day and headed to Sedona and Jerome...after dropping the truck off at the Ford dealer in Flagstaff.  We had the transimission serviced since the warning light came on outside of Kingman...at least we didn't buy a new truck on this vacation.  lol  Yes, we did that one time if you must know, and we didn't regret it either.

We left Flagstaff, which is a beautiful place, and headed to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon.  That is one beautiful drive along the creek, I can only imagine how gourgeous it must be in the fall.  Not a lot of places to pull off and enjoy the area though without paying to park.  As we got closer to the bottom of the canyon there were more places and they were full of cars and people carrying ice chests, chairs, and stuff as they made their way to the creek.  It's quite a popular place.  We only drove through Sedona, but it was full of upscale art type shops, tourists running amuck...and Pink Jeep Tours vehicles. 

Our real destination was Jerome so that's where we headed.  It is really is built on the side of mountain with narrow, winding streets.  It reminded me of Virgina City, in fact. I'm glad we had the Trailblazer because parking is at a real premium there.  At the end of town, there is an interesting little 'ghost town' full of old buildings and a huge selection of old trucks and cars...over a hundred of them. 

Chris and Scott, especially Scott would have been here all day checking each and every one of them out.  Man you could take a million pictures there...if only I had me a uber cool digital camera...hint, hint.

Cassy toured the 'town' with us, and even tried to make friends with the goats..well sorta. They didn't like her very much.  Had it been a cooler day we would have spent more time there but Cassy was getting pretty warm.

Another day was spent at Grand Canyon.  It's been so long since we were there, and it still takes my breath away everytime I see it. We hiked along the rim trail and a little more.  Cassy was great at first but as time went by she was on the hunt for shade every chance she got.  We hiked about 2 miles that day so I think she did really well.  We took the shuttle bus back to the car...she was thankful for the cool air in the bus and her service vest...as were we.

How do you like Timm's shirt?  It's just one of many sayings on the shirts you can get from Sin City Smokers.  It's BBQ people...what were you thinking?

Since we were all pretty much done walking, we drove out to the east enterance to the Watch Tower.  I don't recall ever going out there.  It's a long way but the drive is relaxing, full of trees and viewpoints.  The road is right at the edge of the canyon at many points.  There is reconstructive work being done on the tower so no great photos of it because of the scafolding and a boom lift. The canyon view is amazing though.  The river turns at that point and the views in all directions is incredible. The river is visible for a long distance.   We even saw 3 cow elk near the campground...and the road.  They could care less about people.

 

Adventures Near Willams...Part Two

Camping without our quads was kinda unusual for us anymore.  In Arizona, you can license your ATV and drive it on the street...they were all over Williams.  Since we didn't have ours, we resorted to road trips...which were still enjoyable but a little different for us these days. 

Did you know there are 7 lakes within the city limits of Williams?  The city limits are extended out for quite a ways.  We were on a mission to let Cassy swim in as many as possible.  She enjoyed swimming and retrieving in 5 of the 7 lakes.

She swam in Dogtown Lake...what a great name for her first one.  They have a nice little campground with a great and informative campground host.  We'd like to go back and stay there sometime.   Cassy also swam in Kiabab Lake, White Horse, and Buckskinner lakes.  She had a great two days for sure.  JD Dam was gross with slime and weeds and we couldn't get to Cataract with a long walk so she didn't swim in them.

At Colman Lake, it's really more of a marsh land now.  We were out spotting deer one evening and came accross it.  There we saw 16 elk, 6 of them were babies.  We went back the next night to spot more of them...24 that night with 10 babies.  A couple of ladies said they counted +80 elk out there earlier in the week.  A small flock of Canadian Geese were also among the wildlife we saw there.  Cassy enjoyed herself romping thru the grass and water there.  The sunset was beautiful there.

On the advise of the campground host, we drove out to the Sycamore Canyon overlook.  It's a pretty place as well.  We didn't see anyone on that part of the day.  Solitude is a great word for that spot.

We saw lots of these flowering cactus out there.  Not sure which kind they are, some kind of yucca I think but the flower stalk is really tall on this one.  Timm is 6'3" so you can get idea of how tall it was. 

There is a new place open just outside of Williams called, Bearizona.  It just opened in May so there is still much work to do but the place is pretty cool.  It's a drive through wild animal park. 

Burros, buffalo, big horn sheep, dall sheep and more can be viewed from your car.

White buffalo, a sight I've never seen before.  How cool is that!

Baby Bears! So cute.  There were also baby wolves.  There will be many more habitats like these on the walk but only two are open now.  

Big Bears!  I think there were 7 or 8 of them.  Must be mating season because there was bear porn to be seen.  These two just wanted breakfast.  I highly reccomend Bearizona to anyone who is visiting the Grand Canyon-Williams area.  We enjoyed ourselves while in Arizona...our first BBQ competiton, the Grand Canyon, Williams, and the surrounding area.  We saw lots of wildlife, Cassy explored and swam.  It was a great trip!

Kick-off BBQ

Still time to join us on May 23.  See the flyer for more informtation. 

Spring Camping In The Desert

It's the end of April and I just have to say how beautiful the desert is this year.  We've had record breaking rainfall so far this year and it's paying off in a big way with tons of color and a green desert.  It's great to get out and see it. 

Timm lead the Dunes and Trails ATV Club weekend ride this month just a short 70 miles from home near Mesquite.  We headed out on Thursday...a cold, windy, rainy day...but we knew the weather was getting better each day.  No riding on Thursday, just relaxing and catching up with friends.  Friday we headed out with Keith in the lead on the way to Virgin River.  Upon reaching our location we found out that all the rain that passed thru (and headed north) had covered the sand bar and the river was just moving too swiftly to play with any safety in mind. 

On our way back we topped out on the mesa and actually found a place Timm had seen on the internet...Double Negative.  It's considered 'earth art' if you can believe that.  Here is the link for more info.

We had lots of day trippers show up on Saturday morning and ended up with 18 riders.  We headed down the mesa and across the river and up the mountain.  Our first stop was at the slot canyon. 

Our real treat and adventure for the day was Cabin Creek.  We were heading up it.  Years ago it was a paved road up the canyon to a mine operation but the road was totally wiped out by the creek and now it is just an awesome trail on an ATV.  Keith's Rhino had a few tight squeezes but nothing he couldn't handle, even the sport quad did an fantastic job.  We also ventured to the Great Eastern Mine and the Key West Mine, along with an old steam engine remains (why it's there I don't really know). 

Oh, Nickel Creek was flowing and had a great waterfall.  We all hiked up to it and had our pictures taken there.  Here I am (the short one) with my BBF Liz.

Cassy rode 80 miles this weekend (Friday & Sunday).  Here she is with her daddy at the stone cabins on Sunday's ride.  What an amazing dog she is.  It was great to get out for the weekend with friends.  We shared great campfires each night and good rides during the day.

It's a Cassy Day

On Saturday we got up early and headed for Cedar City to have some work done on Timm's quad.  Cassy, like us, loves a road trip. What a surprise it was to see snow on the ground in town!  They had gotten snow on Thursday...no tracks in most of it.  Cassy loves the snow, so while Timm was handling things at All Seasons I took her out back to stretch and potty.  It was 'game on' when she saw snow drifts against the buildings.  She got all excited, was running around all speedy like and rolling in the snow.  I couldn't help but laugh, she was having such a good time.  While they worked on the quad, we headed up the mountain for some much needed scenery.  The seeps along the road heading up the canyon were still full of icicles, and there was a ton of snow on the ground...way more than when we went to cut Christmas trees.  We stopped at Woods Ranch to let Cassy out to play some more.   

Fortunately, they must have gotten some nice sun on Friday to put a crust on the snow making it easy for us to get around on top of it.  Good thing I didn't wear my Crocs though.

After tromping through, running and playing fetch for a while, we were on our way back up the mountain.  We stopped at Midway to watch some snowmobiles...man those things are fast.  Had a friendly conversation with some of them who fell in love with Cassy.  

Again, play and roll around in the snow...silly girl. It must feel really good. 

We made our way to Duck Creek Village, along the way there was so much snow, especially for April.  The snowmobilers said Brianhead got 18"...we all know they are happy campers right now.  Navajo Lake was covered in ice and snow, couldn't even see it.  Where we stopped to cut Christmas trees, there was about 3-4 feet of snow and no place to pull over.  We stopped at Loose Wheels to get a drink and snack.  Cassy shared a cookie with mom.  The Yamaha dealer was having a BBQ, the guys were all bundled up hovering around trying to keep warm. 

Cassy guarded the truck and quad while we ate lunch at Timm's favorite little Mexican restaurant in town.  She was rewarded with her very own ice cream cone.  She had a good day.

Great Day For A Hike

The weather here has been absolutley gorgeous recently and we've been itching to get out and enjoy it.  We decided the girls needed out as well so out to Lake Mead we headed.  The Historic Railroad Trail was our destination for the morning hike.  It's an easy hike on the old railroad bed that led to Hoover Dam during the building process.   Take a look at the view from the trail...amazing.  Sailboats were racing that Saturday, pretty blue waters, blue sky, and just a slight breeze.  Yes, the water is extremely low...that island barley used to show years ago.  So much green on the hillsides!

Cassy and Shelby had a great time, exploring, sniffing, chasing rocks, greeting other dogs on the trail.  I swear they went three times as far was we did with all the running back and forth, but hey, they were there for exercise too.   

It's been a few years since we were out there, in fact, I think we were there with Boy Scouts last time we were there.  Check out the nice benches placed along the trail.  Cool views of the lake included with each of them and great places to stop and give the girls some water.  By the time we were heading back there were lots of people on the trail hiking, biking , jogging, running, and dog walking including one Cub Scout Den and one Girl  Scout Troop. Guess everyone else thought the same thing.  I wonder if they stopped at A&W on the way back home as well.

A Logandale Trails Getaway

All five of my family headed out to Logandale Trails for a day of riding.  Scott and Christy spent last weekend there camping for Valentine's Day and met some other people with RZRs.  That being said, Scott, Christy, and Chris went on a trail ride with the RZR club while Timm and I...and Cassy...went exploring on our own.  It's been a long time since we were out there and with all the recent rain it was great riding with very little dust.  There were lots of people camping this weekend, but according to Scott much less than last week. I forgot my camera...again...UGH, but I still had my phone with me so I did capture a few pictures to share. 

It started out to be a cloudy day but by 11 or so the some was coming out.  Because it was so cloudy I really thought we might see some bighorn sheep but none showed themselves for us.   We hiked back into the dam and petroglyphs, as you can see the dam has backed up a really nice bunch of water.  Just a couple of years ago we were able to ride all the way in here and to the rocks in the background.  There are petroglyphs all over them and unfortunately the abuse and destruction of a few has not closed it off to all so now everyone that wants to see them has to walk in...at least we can still do that. 

Cassy immediately made her way into the small lake and we played fetch for quite a while.  She didn't have to swim at any point but the water was on her chest in much of the lake.  Then of course, she has to roll around in the sand to dry off...what a fashion statement red sand is on a yellow lab.  I wish I could hide out with a camera to see all the wildlife that makes it way here for an evening drink of cool water.

I truly enjoyed myself today.  It's been a long time since just Timm and I went riding by ourselves.  Even though we didn't ride with the kids, we met up with them and finished off our day together.  Everyone had a great time riding, exploring, and watching others on the dunes.