2013 was a great year.

We left home last Friday, December 27th heading to Yuma, AZ then to Quartzsite ("Q") to meet up with our friends for the annual "Q" get-together.

Stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, Charlies, in Las Vegas, NM for a late breakfast/early lunch. There is a large mural downtown depicting the history of the town.

Here are the first two panels that clearly depict the Spanish conquest of the southwest and of the Indians. 

I read a very interesting history book recently. Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson.   He goes into great length about the cruelty of  the Spanish Conquistadors to the Indians they encountered in their relentless search for gold and silver.  A very interesting book. As we drive through "Indian Country" our here, it's hard to not recall the cruelty our American ancestors imposed on the native population during the great western expansion of the 1800's.  Not sure we were much better then the Conquistadors.   Carol and I are rereading some of the Tony Hillerman mysteries. The setting is the Navajo Nation. We read them years ago when we first started traveling in the southwest. A very interesting and informative way to learn about this part of the country.  The story is fiction but the geography, and Navajo Indian information, is quite real.  Hillerman's research was right up there with James Michener.

We arrived in Yuma on Monday the 30th and went to the BLM camping area; Fortuna Pond (32.72395  -114.45423).  It's a free area where you park right on the pond.  The dirt road running around the pond is hard enough for Carols scooter so we walked the pond two or three times a day.  The plan is to stay here until we head up to "Q" next week.  As  would be expected, whenever there is water in a desert, there are lots of birds. We saw a Roadrunner, Kingfisher, herons, a Northern Goshawk(we think), an Osprey and an assortment of blackbirds. The Osprey caught a fish right in front of where we were sitting.

New Years Day, 2014.

We made it up to ten last night talking about what a wonderful year 2013 was for us. We tried to recall when the last time we rang in the New Year at midnight might have been  but our collective memory didn't go back that far.  At any rate, we agreed that 2013 was one of our best years ever. We sold the Fort Pierce house and moved to Longmont. Given our age and everything that's involved in selling and moving cross country we were very proud of that accomplishment. It's just so wonderful to be near Suzanne and her family. We talk about it constantly.

New Years Day. 2014

The plan is to hang our here until next week.  Do one last WalMart and Fry's grocery store shopping. Get caught up on the laundry, top off the propane tank then head to "Q". We expect to stay there through early February.  After that our plans are uncertain.

Happy New Year everyone.

Ed and Carol and Gopher the Dog.