All things Phoenix

It may seem weird to show pictures of Phoenix Freeways, but unless you've been here you can't understand how beautiful & clean the roadways are. There is never trash on the sides of the roads & the art on the walls is beautiful. They also use colored sand & pebbles to create desert pictures on the road banks. The sky is almost always blue & the sun shines at least 300 days a year. I just love it here. I think the city should hire me to promote the area.

Here comes Evan!

We met Evan in Old Town Scottsdale for lunch. (see pictures) He's in Phoenix for 3 weeks of BLM training before heading back to Las Vegas. It was great to see him & catch up in person; it's been almost year since he left Asheville.

On our way home we stopped at, "I swear", the worlds largest dog park. It was somewhat overwhelming; there must have been 100 dogs there. The park is divided into two areas, one for active dogs, the other for more subdued/smaller dogs. Each section has its own entrance & exit. There is also a dogie water fountain next to the people fountain. Till next time...

Casa Grande Ruins

Today Joe & I went to the Native American Indian Festival at the Casa Grande Ruins. At the entrance you can see the snow on the mountains in the background.

I'm standing in the entrance to one of the ancient buildings at the ruins. This four story high and 60 foot long building is the largest known structure from the Hohokam Indians. This structure was completed around 1350. Early Spanish explorers called it Casa Grande (Great House). It's walls face the four points of the compass and a circular hole in the west wall aligns with the setting sun.Joe relaxing before the concert starts. This guy is one of the American Indians that performed at the festival. For those of you who live in Asheville, this guy is good, but can't compete with the street performer that plays the nose-flute.

Morning Ritual

           Tazzy's new morning ritual - she enjoys a cup of Hills Bros English Toffee Coffee & a scone for breakfast every day. She's addicted to the stuff. Another favorite treat is almond biscotti. How British of her.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

After 3 weeks of sunny, warm weather in Tucson we had to move on from Davis-Monthan AFB. Our timing couldn't have been worse. It poured all night long. By morning the rain subsided, but the wind was picking up. The weather channel was reporting severe storms heading our way. We hit the road about 11am. Casa Grande is about 70 miles northwest of Tucson. Halfway there, the winds really picked up with gusts up to 55 mph. Dust & tumble weeds were swirling around us. Visibility was low, but we slowly pushed onward. We pulled into Palm Creek RV Resort & went into the office to register. The woman behind the counter asked how we found them. Joe said, "The wind just blew us in." Sometimes he is so funny. No sooner did we get settled into our RV site & it started pouring-sideways! I took this picture through our window right before the rain started - look at the palm tree & how gray the sky is. This is the same storm that hammered California.

Today we took a ride around Casa Grande which is about 25 miles south of Phoenix; many of the roads were flooded. Reports say Phoenix got it's annual rainfall all in this one day & monsoon season hasn't even started.

AZ Tint

I took this picture this morning on my walk around the campgrounds with Tazzy.

Some things never change - the Arizona sun is so bright it's blinding at times. I remember when we moved to Phoenix from PA some 13 years ago, one of the first things we did was get our car windows tinted. It's a necessity here, especially at sunrise & sunset. AZ allows for a heavier tint then most other states - obviously it's a safety issue, but it also helps to keep the interior of the car cooler. Since we will be spending a lot of time RVing in the southwest, we got the car windows tinted. This should make our sightseeing excursions much more comfortable, not only for us, but also the dogs.

Thought I'd add the above map so everyone could see the route we've taken since we got our RV in Grayson, GA. We went back to Asheville, NC to tie up some loose ends (doctor & vet appts mostly) before starting our journey. I also included our next 2 known destinations ending in Las Vegas for now. You can click on the map or any of the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

Agility Test

Yesterday I helped Joe get set up to use the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus. He did a few basic workouts & some balance games. Then last night he pulled the swivel rocker over by the sofa, got a glass of cranberry grape juice, sat down on the rocker, flipped backward knocking the juice off the counter onto me & jumped back up like he had just completed a somersault. He's fine:) We both just laughed at how agile he was - Joe, the man with rods in his back. I chalked it up to the balance exercises he did early in the day.

Thunder Phobia

I know many of you are aware of Liam's thunder phobia. He starts to quiver & pant before we even realize there is a storm coming. He also wants to be close; so close that he will jump on our laps & he's no lightweight. We recently noticed Liam having these attacks nearly every morning for the past week, but we haven't had any thunder storms. Well, we finally figured it out - the jets at the air force base do their practice runs every morning. They fly so high we don't even hear them, but Liam can. Mystery solved, but reaction remains.

Sonoran Desert Museum

The Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum is a zoo, botanical garden & natural history museum all in one. It's a self guided walking tour of living animals & plants native to the Sonoran Desert region. Some of the animals we saw were the bobcat, mountain lion & the small Mexican wolf, aka Lobo wolf (there are only 50 left in existence).

On our way to the Desert Museum, Tazzy took in the view from the car window.

Joe relaxing on a turtle - how ironic, they both move at the same speed... slow.

Some of our favorite birds - the woodpecker, humming bird & desert cardinal.

The Elusive Roadrunner

I have been trying to get a picture of a roadrunner since we were in Texas last march. Every time I tried to get one of these little critter in focus, they would quickly run just as I snapped the camera. All I would get was picture of the bird's tail. Well finally, almost one year later, I got the shot I wanted while walking the dogs on a trail in the desert. Roadrunners have a head crest that opens when they run - I'd hope to get a picture of that some day.

FYI-These birds are so quick on their feet they are one of the few animals that prey upon rattlesnakes. Using it's wings like a madador's cape, it snaps up a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracks it like a whip, repeately slams it's head against the ground until it's dead. It then swallows its prey whole. Even if it can't consume the entire length at once it goes about its business with the snake dangling out of its mouth as it slowly digests.

Saguaro

Went to the Saguaro National Park in the Sonoron Desert today.

Me posing as a Saguaro cactus.

Desert Danger-Watch your step

Look at this beautiful sunset.

Happy New Year

12/31/09
We moved to Davis Monthan AFB yesterday. What can I say; yet another spectacular RV Park w/gorgeous mountain views and natural desert landscaping.

All was going well until midnight - That's when the fireworks started. Both dogs had panic attacks & jumped into our bed & squeezed as close to us as they could, like Velcro.

01/01/10

Happy New Year!
A typical morning in the RV. Joe & the dogs read the morning paper while I'm on the computer.

01/02/10

Today we took a guided tour of the University of Arizona Biosphere.

Construction of the Biosphere, to research & develop self-sustaining space-colonization technology, began in 1984 & was completed in 1986. Two missions, between 1991 & 1994, sealed Biosphereans (8 individuals), inside the glass enclosure to measure survivability. If your interested in finding out more about this experiment, Jane Poynton, one of the first participants wrote a book, called "The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2".