Murphy Keeps Raining on Our Parade!

I was all set to do a blog on our first trip out to the Colorado River today in our boat but as luck would have it, right after a marvelous lunch parked on a midstream sand bar, our motor broke down.

Marc wasn’t exactly sure until he gets it torn apart a little more, but figured it could have been a plugged fuel filter because when he bypassed the system we were able to get the motor started again and limp back five miles to the boat ramp. Needless to say, with less than 40 hours on this motor and hating to have motorboat problems, he is not happy. He plans to fix it tomorrow and we may try again on Monday. That could be better anyway because today was very crowded on the river. But we did find out—it is beautiful there! Especially now that it is triple digits, being on the water or in the water is so much cooler! Plus, I’ve got a good story to tell…

Stay tuned.

Wild Adventure, Part 2

Is that a street sign up ahead with what appears to be a little bit straighter and wider road? By golly, it is! “Yeehaw, we’ve found our way out” we yell as we head down the last incline and up and over the two foot deep plow berm left by the last dozer to plow this road. We find a sign saying Picacho Peak Recreation Area, which we know runs alongside the Colorado River at road’s end, “9 miles” more, so we head in that direction. Pichaco has a boat ramp and we’ve wanted to check it out; but so far the state of the road has us shaking our heads that we would never haul our boat down this road. We are amazed to see others do so though.

We start ascending elevation and the topography abruptly changes. We enter that mountain range we had been viewing of the pinnacles all day, as the road traverses rougher terrain and then drops to enter a canyon and eventually, the sandy wash. Yes, the wash becomes the road, only still plowed, but with a thick sandy bottom and very little gravel it becomes like a motocross trial for the large, heavy Dodge to stay on top. We wallow side to side in 4 wheel drive; Marc over-steering to make corrections in the sand and me gawking at the increasingly interesting scenery around us. When it’s not gully-washing sand, it is washboard enough to rattle our teeth and beat us up. I even drop off my seatbelt because I can no longer take the chafing on my shoulder and chest. Didn’t we just get through marveling at what a good 4 wheel drive vehicle the Dodge made? Revise that for Arizona desert driving please: good on rocky hillsides; not so good in sandy washes! We pull over to take pictures. Wow, what a colorful venue we have entered! I feel a little as though I am back in Utah.

Farther along we come to a razor-wired fenced hillside; the fencing continuing high above us alongside the road for a time until we note a wide spot and some old buildings. We pull over to investigate and see there is a small pioneer cemetery in the distance with a very faded sign and a plaque explaining that this area was originally an old gold mining claim, eventually being worked by over 700 miners with an attendant settlement called El Rio in the late 1800’s. The mine has since changed hands many times, now being leased by a firm who is supposedly actively working it, but we saw very little evidence of that, with closed and locked gates, weedy driveways and little-maintained buildings. However, in the 1800’s they removed over $15,000,000 worth of gold (in 1880’s) dollars from these hills. Hum: maybe we should come back with our metal detectors we’re thinking….

A few more twists and turns and gunning the truck through the quicksand and we arrive at the pay kiosk for Picacho State recreation area, a California park. We take time to talk to the ranger and see if there are any maps available but only receive the typical paper pamphlet handed to all registrants of the campground. Since the ranger inquires if we have paid our entrance fee (“You’re not allowed to drive around in here without paying the day use fee”), we quickly thank her, dive out of the truck for some hasty shots of the boat launch and beautiful Colorado River and take our leave. After all; we’ll be able to eventually see all of this area we want via the boat by launching downstream. Nineteen or twenty dust-ridden miles later we are back in Yuma, headed home to inspect the damage to the tire. Yup—that one is history—with a rock slash two inches in length, there will be no patching this new tire.

What we learned: next time we definitely need to have the official BLM maps with all designated routes for any area we are going to explore. We need to be more cognizant of weather conditions—the Ranger outright told us we were foolish to be fooling around in this area this time of year by ourselves (meaning only one vehicle). As we were speaking, she indicated they had three lost people they were searching for right then and that rescue is by helicopter and more expensive than you want to know.

Once you are out in it, you see how truly vast and empty an area it becomes. And the roads don’t appear as rough in pictures and from a distance as they are when being traversed--full of sharp rocks, sudden wash-outs, drop-offs, and hairpin turns at the top of steep hillsides. We need to carry at least two spare tires and probably also carry more food for an emergency. She added that 5 gallons of water is the minimum, which we had with us. It would be great to have a GPS but we don’t have one and this is not the time to be purchasing one. After all, we’ll spend all that now having to buy at least two new tires for the Dodge. When you run duals, the tires have to match for the four wheel drive to work properly. So we had another adventure (for our pocketbook) and a real learning experience! Did this deter us? No, not in the least. Stay tuned for more desert doings with the Duskes!

The Wild Adventure: Or How We Had a $150 Day

There is a mystery area known to some snowbirds but rarely by Yumans, north and west of Winterhaven known simply as the Graffiti Fields. They don’t show up on any map and without word of mouth directions, it would be very easy to miss them entirely. We set out on Memorial Day in the Dodge to see them and do a little exploring with a packed picnic lunch and plenty of water. Once clear of Yuma, the pavement ends and a two lane wide washboard dirt road takes over. We pass little traffic however and are soon enveloped in the blissful silence of the wide open desert. We bounce along thinking we may have driven too far and missed some turn-off before we finally suddenly come upon the “field”.

What’s mysterious about this place is that it has existed since probably at least the 1970’s without any vandalism from the public. Its purpose: unknown. Its originator: unknown. Why in this location: unknown; save for the fact that there are slight undulations in the desert floor conducive to the “show”. For at least a square mile, as far as the eye can see in some cases--people have been writing (primarily) their names and sometimes the date in rock art. Some have enhanced their art with such things as solar lights, flags, flowers, and even a couple of favorite beer bottles. It is akin to those experienced with western travel coming upon a shoe tree in the middle of nowhere to walk among all these people’s names and wonder at the time it took to gather the rocks and make the art. The fact that it exists out here without any vandalism or heedless damage is almost beyond belief. People respect this graffiti!

Seeing our fill of graffiti, Marc and I resume our travels in the Dodge heading farther north towards some pinnacle looking peaks, as the road greatly deteriorates and narrows. At one point it hovers mere inches from a 100 foot drop-off into a giant wash; a wash large enough that trees grow and gather along its mid-section. People have driven in it though, as evidenced by the tire tracks. Actually, this is all BLM land and the small marked trails criss-cross everywhere, but some are in much better shape than others. In winter it probably crawls with ATVs and Jeeps but today we are solo with nothing but the blowing wind to keep us company.

By now we have spent over an hour bouncing about on different spur trails getting ever nearer to the peak when we decide after one last steep ascent in 4 wheel drive to stop at a flat spot and have our lunch. It’s not yet too miserably hot but the sun is intense as we step outside and I hear an “Oh no” from Marc, who is standing on the passenger side of the truck bed. “What?” I say with an edge of panic to my voice. “Shit, we have a flat tire!” Since the Dodge has dual rear wheels, a flat on the outside dual is not the ends of the earth, even if we did not carry a spare. Fortunately also, Marc had earlier decided to throw in a high-lift jack, making the task that much easier. The problem grew from trying to twist and break free the lug nuts which had been attached just a week earlier with an air wrench when Marc had purchased new tires. For awhile, we thought he wasn’t going to make it. Yes, this was a brand new $150 tire—now more than likely shredded!




Back in action with one rear dual wheel on the passenger side, we continue on the dirt trail hoping it is headed in the right direction (we have no GPS or maps) to meet up with the original gravel road called Pichaco Peak. We climb more hills, scoot down and through yet more washes and hesitate at each trail junction as meaningless numbers confront us at every turn. Why did we come out here without a map?! Did you see how wide open and alone we are out here if we get into trouble? Do you know how hot it is going to get today if we just drive in circles all day? “Relax Dear; we’ve got plenty of time” he says to me…To be continued….

A New Rant

Ok, so we’re here in Yuma checking out all possible job sources and one especially mentioned, particularly by my daughter, is Craigslist. I want you to know I applied for six jobs this past week!

About the only other source locally is the Yuma Sun, where predictably this time of year, about three new jobs a day appear, for a population suffering from a 27% unemployment rate.* On top of that is the fact that many positions require bilingual, which I am not. Yeah, I know: this is the USA but that doesn’t count south of I-10. And now schools are letting out—all the high school kids and two colleges, and that comes on top of the fairly recent news that some of Yuma’s major employers, employing hundreds, are shutting down permanently. No wait; there’s more!

You may have noticed lately that I’ve let my hair take its natural course; which is now grey! Personally I think I’m in fairly decent shape for someone my age (which I’ve never kept a secret); I walk about two miles daily and feel as though I am in good health and still fairly astute. But let me be perfectly clear here: trying to land a job in this economy at my age is not for sissies!

Back to Craigslist. Here in Yuma, it actually has an entire column of jobs as compared to the Yuma Sun—oh heaven! I was applying left and right; personalizing each resume like the current wisdom tells us to do; including a cover letter, taking hours of my time. I have a separate email set up for my job search stuff—just common sense, right? It’s included on my resume, but of course when I send off an email to a blind job ad it originates from my main email domain.

Not even the next day; as a matter of fact, just hours, and the emails started hitting my “junk file” on my main domain. I’m all excited: someone is reacting! Until I check to see I am receiving absurd letters citing my “qualifications, experience, etc etc” but I need to just click on this link because: employer will not hire without a complete credit check in advance of even interviewing me (yeah right); or “our CEO requires that all resumes be sent via the Job.com Career Network for consistency and easier tracking” or try this one on for size: “To be considered, ca n d i da te s must possess strong co mm un i ca t i o n/interpersonal sk i l l s, the ab il it y to interact w it h people at al l levels of th e firm, and excellent organizational skills. Ca n di da te s mu s t be se lf starters and be ab le to undertake responsibilities with limited supervision. They must also be able to multi-task, and have a working knowledge of MS Office.
Familiarity with other types of software is a plus.” I tried sending an entire copy of this email to a friend and my spell checker about froze up!

Who are they kidding? Not this grey-haired ol’ gal. Ah, one of the wonders with age—you gain a little wisdom! Craigslist? It’s off the list!

For those of you who may be going through something similar a great check-up site is www.flakelist.org. It’ll separate the wheat from the chaff in no time. Every single email I have checked on this site in response to my job inquiries has proven bogus. One has to truly wonder about people who have nothing better to do than add insult to injury to those of us unemployed for so long.

From today's Yuma Sun:
*"This is depressing times for several Yuma businesses and their employees.

Comings and Goings has learned that Tritium Card Services has closed its doors, leaving about 50 employees without jobs. Tritium, located at 3280 S. 4th Ave. in the Mervyn's Plaza, opened in mid-2007.

Meanwhile, Friday was the last day for NCO Customer Management at 1801 W. 32nd St.

A letter in March to the center's Yuma employees from Tim Luft, vice president of operations, announced that the office would be closing effective May 28 "due to business decisions and requirements."

At the time, the call center had a work force of 332 employees. There are reports that a few of them will remain with NCO at another Yuma-area location that hasn't been announced.

Comings and Goings also has confirmed that Hollywood Video at 1555 S. Avenue B is having a liquidation sale and is slated for closure by mid-June. The store currently has nine employees."

The Gilas

They loom over our lot regardless of what we do, what time of day or night, whatever the weather. I’m talking of course about the rosy-hued mountain range of rugged rock practically right outside our doorstep, the Gila Mountains. They run northwest-southeast, about 26 miles long is all and are a *fault-blocked range attached in the south to the Tinajas Atlas which continue onto into Sonora, Mexico for another 30 miles.
*According to Wikipedia: Fault-block landforms (mountains, hills, ridges, etc.) are formed when large areas of bedrock are widely broken up by faults creating large vertical displacements of continental crust. Vertical motion of the resulting blocks, sometimes accompanied by tilting, can then lead to high escarpments. These mountains are formed by the Earth's crust being stretched and extended by tensional forces. Fault block mountains commonly accompany rifting, another indicator of tensional tectonic forces. Tilted type block mountains have one gently sloping side and one steep side with an exposed scarp, and are common in the Basin and Range region of the western United States. Lucky for us, we get the steep side here on the west.

One of the oldest sections of the interstate highway system in the US goes through two-tiered Telegraph Pass at the north end of this range. The I-8 road cuts in this area exposed some of the oldest metamorphic rocks in the state of Arizona, outside of rocks exposed at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Somehow, looking at the majesty of this small mountain range, you can feel the power of those eons of time etched on her face.

Sheep Mountain is the highest peak notable in this range, with a height of nearly 3600 feet which climbs steeply from the desert floor just beyond our subdivision at an elevation of 800 feet. The foothills just below it are criss-crossed with dirt Jeep trails, deceptively steeper than they look from a distance. On this day Marc asks me “Let’s go up and watch the sunset?” “OK”.

Marc enjoys four-wheeling in our old Dodge one ton dually—for one thing, it is geared very low with lots of low end torque and power and a 5 speed manual transmission which in low range first gear will cruise at idle speed without need of even stepping on the gas pedal. What it lacks in narrow maneuverability it makes up for with its slow speed power, allowing us to climb very steep hills without spinning nary a tire. The axles carry its weight and distribution evenly, which also helps as we wallow down one side of a wash and up the other side but unlike most trucks it is not light in the back end. The Jeep trails are very narrow however, skirting the tips of the flowing escarpments Wikipedia talks of as they climb yet higher. Sometimes with only the sky for a view as we crest a hill and not knowing what’s on the other side, Marc hikes his head way out his side window to see that all six tires remain on the trail and not over the steep hillside. This would be a nasty place to roll a vehicle.



Finally, we reach the apex of the circle loop of trail we are on and find a fire pit, obvious evidence of other sunset watchers and I take some pictures of the lackluster sunset and our neighborhood—appearing as an island in a sea of flat desert disappearing into the dusk. Just minutes later we creep down in low gear without lights; wrapped in the cocoon of desert solace and peace.

There Are Some Good Things About Living in the Desert

Given this time of year, I thought this was interesting! Looking at my weather-watch on Yahoo, where would you rather be for the next three days?

Our Personal Recession: From the Pan into the Fire

Despite applying for several of the few job openings which have occurred, our search for employment continues to be futile. I’m beginning to think we’ve both really hit that glass ceiling of age discrimination but how does one actually prove it? Does being asked the question if I can “keep up” while interviewing for a housekeeping job (while the inference was very obvious), qualify? The unemployment numbers here are the highest in the nation as evidenced by this recent article from the Yuma Sun, from which I have excerpted crucial parts:

“The Yuma-area's jobless rate inched downward, reaching 26.7 percent for the month of April, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Department of Commerce. But it's a statistic that isn't showing much stability from month to month....
Even the state's troubled construction industry managed to post a modest gain of 2,200 workers. But overall construction employment is still 19,800 below what it was a year earlier, and 134,700 below the peak in June 2006....
For example, the number of people employed in Arizona in April is still 38,200 less than a year earlier....
But Van Sickle said even the end of the recession - whenever that happens - won't translate into lower unemployment. He said statistics from prior recessions show that hiring usually doesn't start in earnest until sometime later.
"There's a lot of individual people represented by all these job losses," he said, citing the Arizona figures. "Their personal recession is going to continue for a long time."
Job losses are only part of the picture.
"There's a lot of people who had to take pay cuts," Van Sickle said.
"So they could come out and say 'the recession's ended,' but personal recessions will continue for a long time," he said.”

Boy, do we feel the pain of that truth, media hype to the contrary that the country’s recession has ended. One of my biggest fears is that we have no more than moved here than we will be forced, once again, to go on the road, like the itinerant Oakies from the Dust-Bowl in search of greener pastures. When does it end?