Sorry it's been so long since my last post. At Kevin's urging, I've been treating my diet a little more casually than I did before, so I'm not on FatSecret as much. So far, it's working well this way. Although I've gained 20 pounds since last August, Kevin thinks I look better. He told me I was too thin before.
Anyway, I wanted to check in and update all my friends on here. We're spending the winter at Imperial Dam, which is a recreational area near Bard, California. I'm within walking distance of the Arizona border, and it's a short drive to Mexico from here. We've been here since October, and we'll stay here until sometime in March.
Photo Captions:
1) We're camping near Senator Wash Reservoir, where there's a small beach. Boating and swimming is allowed in the reservoir. It costs a little extra to camp right next to the water, so we don't camp there.
2) Our campsite is on the mesa overlooking the reservoir. The mailbox is a joke, as the mail doesn't run out here. Some people get the joke and laugh and I catch people taking pictures of it a lot. Some people don't get it and think I really get mail out here.
3) Outside my door there are lots and lots of trails I can hike. The trails lead deep into the Little Picacho Wilderness. Some of the trails are man-made, created for people with dirt bikes and ATVs, but most of them were created by the wild burros that live in the wilderness.
4) This picture shows the Little Picacho Wash in the foreground. A wash is a channel that carries rainwater. This particular wash carries the rainwater to the reservoir. In the background you can see the Castle Dome Mountains, which is a landmark that can be seen for miles around. In this picture the mountains are 25 miles away.
5) This is the trail I use most often. It's a three-mile loop that starts and ends right outside my camper door. It's perfect for my daily walk. The trail runs along the edge of the Little Picacho Wash. People have stacked rocks and built a few pyramids along the trail.
6) This is the view from another trail I like to use when I want a more challenging hike. There is a lot of uphill climbing on this trail. This is the view from the top of the highest hill.
7) One of the most amazing things to see out here are the sunrises and sunsets. This is a recent sunset.
8) I don't see very many sunrises, as I usually sleep through them. On this morning I was an early riser and was rewarded with a spectacular sunrise.
9) I love having wildlife encounters. This Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) hung out by our campsite one day.
10) Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) enjoy the hummingbird feeder we put outside our window. I snapped this picture through the window as it sat on the pole that holds the feeder.
11) I finally got to see a wild tarantula this year! This is a Desert Tarantula (Aphonopelma iodius) that came past our campsite one afternoon.
12) I've been asked before what we eat while living in a camper. We eat very well, as we have a fully functional, albeit small, kitchen. We've even cooked a turkey in our little oven. This is one of the things we eat more often though. It's my chili recipe. I make it with ground turkey instead of beef, and I use three different kinds of beans; light red kidney beans, dark red kidney beans and pinto beans. It's great with a little hot sauce.
13) Another thing we eat a lot of is roasted chicken. I like the breast, while Kevin likes the rest of the chicken. We serve it over brown rice with gravy. On the side I like green beans, lentils and canned tomatoes. I like some chopped green onion on my lentils.
14) Here I am with the 20 pounds I gained. I'm surprised it doesn't show more. All my new pants still fit too, which is also surprising. Kevin says I look much healthier than I did 20 pounds lighter. He called me a bag of bones at that weight. I feel great, and it seems to be easier maintaining this weight as well.
