After last night’s poker games ending around 11pm, we got off to a late start.  We played horseshoes at the clubhouse:

In the afternoon we did some letterboxing.  We added another four letterbox stamps to our book.  He we are during the hunt:

I took the kids to the pool tonight, and they made it to bed at a more reasonable hour.  Tomorrow we say goodbye to Grandpa Glenn and Edna and once again hit the road.

I found this when I woke up.  I think our daughter is trying to tell us something…

…So Grandpa Glenn took us to a local pond:

I took our daughter for a walk around the pond.  She fed the birds:

Our kids went swimming, and later everyone played horseshoes and putted…

…While I rode to Tortilla Flats and back.  I took the same 40ish mile route we drove yesterday:

The road is in pretty bad shape, but there were great views on the way back as the sun set:

This guy’s hoping for dinner:

Tonight, Edna taught us how to play poker.  We had a great time!

This morning, Grandpa Glenn and Edna took all of us up to Tortilla Flats.  The route was steep and had plenty of sharp curves.  We stopped on the way to look out at Canyon Lake, which like Lake Mead is a canyon held back by a dam:

Torilla Butte overlooks Tortilla Flats:

It’s a tourist trap type of place:

The restaurant’s walls are covered in patron’s dollar bills:

Cute sign for sale in the gift shop:

Our son tested the bar stools, which are saddles:

On the way back, we were treated to some nice views of the Superstition Mountains:

We stopped a Goldfield, a recreated mining town where every storefront is a gift shop:

Horseshoe art:

Our last stop was the Superstition Mountain Museum:

We looked at a model of a gold mill.  A full size mill stands in the background:

This mill has twenty 900-pound stamps that are raised and dropped by the camshaft-like drive system.  The stamps crush the rock which allows the gold to be extracted:

Here’s a horse powered well driller:

Another warm and beautiful day in Arizona!

We are heading out this morning from our weekend BLM dispersed camping area called “Hi Jolly”.  There aren’t many folks here this time of year:

We stopped at Gem World on the way out of town.  It’s a large store with a selection of gemstones, rocks, and all the tools and accessories needed to make jewelry:

Quartzsite takes its camel heritage very seriously:

On the way to Apache Junction, we stopped at a Love’s truck stop to dump tanks.  The kids showered in the RV before we dumped.  I don’t think we fit in here:

Gotta love Arizona gas prices:

We will be spending a few days in front of Grandpa Glenn and Edna’s house with them and Tricia’s sister and Stephen in Apache Junction, AZ.