Arizona - blue skies forever

 They said go to Arizona for the winters.  The skies are always blue and its a desert so it hardly ever rains.  

Hmmmm.

The last week has been wet, cloudy and cool.   Perhaps we have been teleported to Victoria.

Oh well.  Im sure this little cold snap will end soon and sunny skies will return.  In the meantime its perfect weather for painting inside.

While out picking up some groceries we had a break in the clouds which cast some beautiful light on the Superstition mountains just out our back door.  By the time I got home, gathered my equipment and headed into the desert to find a spot unencumbered by buildings, telephone lines and highways the skies had turned dark and ominous again.  

Still managed to get a nice shot.  Sometimes wild and wooly weather provides a good backdrop for capturing memories.  

Arizona Trail at Picket Post

 This is possibly the last hike before Christmas.  We went back to Picket Post but did the other side of the mountain today on the Arizona Trail.  Im told the trail runs hundreds of miles from Mexico up to Utah.  I will take their word for it.  3 miles out and 3 back was quite enough for me today.  Only 500 ft elevation gain but with all the ups and downs through dry river beds and up the side of the mountain I'm sure we did that 3 times over. 

Much of the area was burned out this summer but it is alive with colour as Mother Nature recovers.

Don't know what the red ground cover is but it is everywhere and provides a nice burst of colour.  

Mrs Claus (my dear wife) joined us on our hike. 

Mark came over today with his truck (if you don't own a truck sure is nice knowing someone who does).  We hauled our 2 old recliners to the goodwill store.  One more load of construction remnants and our yard will stop looking so messy. 

Lori and I would like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year.  I can tell you that my wish for the new year is no more variants.  It is getting increasingly difficult to maintain any sort of optimism that this will ever end.  Im starting to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  

That's it for now.  More, no doubt, after Christmas.  

Lost Goldmine Trail

 Another day another hike.  

Early morning makes for nice soft side light and a blue haze on the distant mountains.  Results - a moody Arizona morning. 

Full disclosure.  This was shot mid morning with no Milky Way anywhere in sight.  But when you have the technology a little experimentation makes for interesting results. 

Saguaro forest.

Next hike the Arizona trail at Picket Post.

Hieroglyphic Trail

 Here are a few shots from our hike last Wednesday up the Hieroglyphic trail.  Its a short trail but gets pretty rocky up towards the top.  Great views is the reward for the climb.

Not unusual to see a cactus at the top of a rocky outcropping but where this deciduous tree gets its nourishment from is a mystery.  

Seen better days. 

Love this shot with all the different layers in the background.  The haze in the distant mountains makes for a very mellow feeling.

Don't do a lot of B&W but this shot seemed to call out for it.  

Took today off to rest the weary body and hoped to get caught up on the blog.  Still have pictures from one more hike to edit but its time for bed and another hike tomorrow morning so it looks like getting caught up will have to wait.  

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

 Our reno project is coming along and the outside should be complete by Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then we can move inside.  We are hoping the flooring will be installed by the 1st week of January and furniture delivery shortly after.  Will keep you posted.

A few weeks ago we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum for our first time this year.  We got memberships so we will be making a few more visits before the winter is over.  The following pictures are just a few shots from our brief visit.  

BTA sports a little rose garden which is 
pretty much at its seasons end.
Still a few good blooms left.

A crested Saguaro in the background.

This tree seems to shed its bark.

This tree has a very smooth bark the colour of copper.  

Eucalyptus trees are massive with very smooth white bark

There seems to be a theme: BARK.  Or perhaps more accurately the texture found in some of the trees found at BTA.  

I've got pictures from a few hikes we have done so those will be coming up next.  

Till then. 

Picket Post Hike

 A little 9.5 km hike today plus a trip to Superior for lunch.  

Picket Post is one of our favourite hikes as it takes us through a canyon with beautiful views when looking up the canyon walls plus a stream running through the canyon floor and lots of large trees.  Unfortunately the fires of this past summer took its toll on this area plus the river bed was bone dry.  While not as lush as usual it was still a great day shared with friends. 

Lunch after a hike at Porters in Superior is always a favourite but in January Porters was bought out and is now a smokehouse.  Food was still great and they fixed the place up a bit but I did miss their Superior hamburger and the atmosphere wasn't quite the same.  We did notice a Porters sign down the street so perhaps they have moved to a new location.  We will check it out on our next trip to the area.  

No progress on the construction today as I was plum tuckered out after our hike and the beer at lunch had me ripe for a nap as soon as we got home.  Hoping to get some of the siding up tomorrow and then things should start to take shape.

Here are some shots of our walk today. 

The sun rising behind the mountains made for excellent light.  

Our motley crew

The fire did a number on this saguaro.  
The ones higher up the canyon seem
to have fared better

The fire burned hot and fast.  
The bark is black and crispy but the inside
trunk looks untouched. 

In the midst of a burned out section this plant is thriving,
complete with beautiful white flowers. 

The foreground would usually be filled with
shrubs and small trees blocking the view.

A few pools of water fed by underground streams provided Chewie
with his favourite activity.  Brings back memories of Charli, sob.  

So glad the fire didn't take all the large cottonwoods and ash trees.  
The small shrubs and grasses will recover in a few years but
these beauties would take decades to replace

Met this group near the end of our hike.  
They are all from different states and bring their
horses with them for the winter.

First hike under our belt.  Many more to come.  In fact we have one scheduled for Monday and possibly a visit to Boyce Thompson Arboretum set for Tuesday.  

Till then.  

Riparian Preserve

 We have been here 3 weeks now and our first desert hike is scheduled for Friday.  Don't think we have ever taken that long to go for a hike but we have been busy.  The fridge and kitchen cupboards are starting to fill up and the liquor cabinet/fridge is well stocked.  We have purchased a couch, picked out some flooring and got a good start on the construction project.  Our long awaited delivery from Lowes containing lumber, windows and doors arrived today so tomorrow we can move ahead in earnest.  

Weather has been great.  Lows at night dipping into the 50s and highs touching the 80's most days.  Phoenix broke a long standing record for most days over 80 in Nov  at 25 days. 

Last winter we ordered 2 e-bikes.  Lori found them a bit big and heavy so we brought one down with us for me to use and she ordered a smaller e-bike for herself.  We will keep them down here which leaves me the other bike to use when at home.  We will probably get more use of them down here anyway.  Her bike arrived Monday and we are ready to hit the road which will be a nice supplement to our 6 KM daily walks.  

Yesterday we took a drive to Gilbert and took a walk around the Riparian preserve.  The preserve is a water reclamation project with numerous ponds and the feathered population can be quite a sight.  

Here are a few of the preserves residents. 

Log rolling competition is about to start.  
My monies on the duck.

It appears we hit siesta time.
Many of the animals were pretty sedate.
Next time we will have to arrive a little earlier. 

This guy saw us across the pond and made a beeline for us.
I think he figured we had treats.
Made quite the wake. 

Hike on Friday so hope I will have some shots of that plus perhaps some construction updates.  

Till then. 

  

Feathered Friend

 We had a feathered friend pay us a visit yesterday.  In fact 3 Harris Hawks were patrolling the field behind us on the hunt for dinner.  This one stayed perched on our fence long enough for me to search for my camera, attach the big glass and get a few shots.  Beautiful birds and so majestic in flight.

Project update.  Framing for one window done yesterday.  Still have all my fingers.  There is a construction ban on Sundays so we went for lunch to Dana Park mall with Mark & Jan and a quick browse of a few stores and an outdoor Craft sale in the parking lot.  Now its time for a bit of reading which will no doubt turn into an afternoon ZZZZZZZ.  

Tomorrow we are headed out to the Premium Outlet Mall to hopefully beat the Black Friday rush plus pick up a few more groceries and some construction accessories.  My neighbours will shortly be longing for the quiet that they experienced last year in our absence.   

We have arrived

We made it safe and sound to GC on the 11th and the last week has been a whirlwind with greeting old friends, stocking the kitchen and finding a water leak in the bathroom.  The bathroom now has a new sink, fawcett and under counter shutoffs which were all well past their prime.  While I am somewhat handy between Youtube and a very helpful lady at Lowes who had all the right answers to my questions I managed to fumble my way through this project.  When I produced pictures on my phone of the offending plumbing she plucked all the right connectors off the shelves and I was off to test my plumbing skills.  I didn't even have to phone my son who is a plumber by trade.   

We discovered a rather large rodent hole, also in the bathroom.  This was a bit of a disturbing surprise but desert rats are common in the area (I prefer to call them rodents as the term rats gives me the chills).  There was no evidence of any furry creatures inside and the hole is now boarded up inside and out with a liner of steel wool and rodent proof spray foam.  I have also placed a few large glue traps under the unit and may be phoning a pest control company to ensure we don't have any unwanted house guests.  Other than the layers of dust in the screen room everything else was in pretty good shape considering we were away for 20 months.

We did a little pruning of some unwanted shrubs which were blocking our view and have contacted park maintenance who will be taking out a couple of dead cactus and cutting down an overgrown tree from the unit next door.  Our neighbour moved out over a year ago due to failing health and while the unit was empty and up for sale he had a flood and it has been sitting vacant since.  We are hoping that either the owner gets the place sold or more likely the park takes it back, pulls it out and puts in a new unit.  It is becoming a bit of an eyesore and empty units can become a home to neighbours we don't want.  

I have started my delayed renovation project and are now awaiting delivery of the windows, door, siding and lumber to turn the screen room into a closed in Arizona room.  I am hoping to have it more or less done by Christmas however my projects are notorious for taking much longer than planned.  Already we have faced delays as delivery of my supplies won't happen till Dec 1 so in the meantime I will do what I can and we will start looking for furniture and flooring.  Sure would be nice to have my truck.  

2 years ago we attended a Home Show and came across a booth that specialized in refinishing countertops, bathtubs and showers.  Much cheaper than replacing and the results looked very nice.  We had an estimate done at that time and have contacted them again to see if we can get that project restarted.  

I am really hoping that once this year is done the projects will be done and we can reduce the cash outflow and just enjoy.  Although Lori keeps on noticing other little things that need tweaking.   

We have been doing a 6 KM walk each morning before it gets too hot and a few dinners out with friends.  I'm going to give Pickleball another shot this year and hope my wonky ankle holds up.  Lori even bought herself a paddle and is promising to be my training partner.  

JC (my photography buddy) and I made it out to the Salt River for a little scouting trip and what did we find.  About 30 wild horses just waiting for our return.  

More verbiage later but for now here are some pictures of our experiences so far.  

Taking out the screens and framing the existing support structure for windows.  Should leave us with a better view.  Main challenge is to find a way to screw the wood framing to the existing aluminum structure.   

The picture below show the shrubs that have grown blocking our view.  
They are  now gone and we await the removal of the tree
which will open up the view.  

Out with the old.  

The grey plumbing is called Butyl b and is a predecessor to the white pex.  
Some day all the butyl will have to be replaced but for now a couple
of the proper connectors and its as good as new.  

Now for the reason we are here.  Another beautiful hot day with no
snow in the forecast. 

The horses were pretty docile.  In the early spring they seem to be a
little more rambunctious.  

There has been a local debate abut how much water to let through the
dams into the salt river.  People with watercraft want a higher river
level but it appears that they lost this battle as the river is pretty low.  

I applied a couple of textures to this shot to create a different effect and
make the horse stand out from the background.  I am not very proficient
at this technique but will keep working at it.  

  

Doing 75 in a 65 is OK, right!

First of  all I apologize for the formatting of my last post.  I don't know what happened but I think I have it fixed.

This was a 5 state day and the second 13 hour day in a row.  I am pretty much bagged.  I'm good for about 8 hours but then muscles start tightening up and basically the ol' body just starts to fall apart.  

First day was all interstate but today I decided to avoid the Toll highway which left us on mostly local highways and almost all 2 lane roads.  Its actually a much better way to see America as the Interstates avoid all towns and there is no scenery to speak of up close to the road.  

We even met a very nice young man just outside Greensburg, Kansas.  He was sporting a very dashing Movember stach and looked very dapper in his all blue uniform.  He kindly informed me that he was representing the Highway Patrol and that I was going just a tad fast.  75 in a 65.  I gave him my best "Who Me" look and handed over my drivers license.  He went back to his cruiser and got busy looking me up on his computer.  He was taking a rather long time so I suspected a ticket was coming.   He finally finished checking me out and came back to inform me that no court date or ticket was in my future but counselled me to slow down as Arizona wasn't going anywhere.  What a relief.

The rest of the day I stayed much closer to the speed limit as the highway patrol cars were everywhere and I didn't know how many warnings I was allowed in one state.  

Something that we really noticed is all the large trucks on the roads.  It seems like well over 50% of the vehicles are semi's hauling much needed goods to feed the pent-up demand of people like you and me.  

Well that's it for tonight.  Having a tough time trying to focus my eyes and the last 2 days are all a bit of a blur right now.  We hope to get into GC about 2:00 tomorrow and then it will be cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping for a few days until we can settle into a relaxing routine.  

More to come.    

Snowbird 6. Day 1

Just a quick recap of the 1st day of our first trip south without a 14,000lb 5th wheel in tow. Packing, driving, filling up with gas and the amount of fuel consumed all so much better than before. The downside is checking into the Travellodge in Platte City, Mo. It looked so much better in the pictures. The bed will be nowhere near as comfortable as the memory foam mattress in the 5er. Guess I have some learning to do on picking out hotel rooms. 

Given that the border only opened the day before we thought an early start would be crucial to beating the lineups. Up at 3:00 after 4 hours of not so restful sleep. Packed the car the day before so after a quick breakfast, completed the rest of the items on our departure check list and we drove out of the garage at 4:02. After a quiet drive to the border we were the only ones in line. Provided the passports, verbally attested to being vaccinated and confirmed we had no meat, dairy or citrus fruits. None of the usual questions about fire arms, tobacco and my favourite, cannabis products. 3 minutes tops. 

The rest of the 13 hour trip was pretty uneventful. A few fuel stops, lunch on the road and we arrived at Platte City, Mo (just north of Kansas City) at 5:00. One of the things we noticed was the lack of masks. Most employees wear them although many are neatly tucked under their chin. Very few customers are wearing masks. Must be similar to shopping in Winkler. Another early start tomorrow for a 12 hour drive to Albuquerque, NM. Hope my hotel choice will be better there. A relatively short 6 hour drive on Thursday and we hope to check into Gold Canyon around 2:00. 

Weather forecast is calling for 2 days of heavy snow in Winnipeg starting tomorrow so i think we got out just in time. This ones for you Brad. More to come I promise. 

More later

A Dogs Life

 It has been a long time since I have even contemplated updating my blog.  The intent of the blog was to chronicle our snowbird travels.  For the past 18 months most of our travels have consisted of trips from the livingroom to the kitchen to the den and back to the kitchen.  As you may have guessed the kitchen was a popular destination.  We have made a few local day trips plus a one week retreat to our favourite Manitoba destination, Clear Lake.  While I have a ton of pictures to edit the never ending rendition of Groundhog Day did a number on my motivation.

The recent announcement of the opening of the US border has us preparing for departure on November 9 and excitement reigns supreme.  Our last Snowbird trip saw us leave in late October with our 5th wheel in tow and heading for what has become our winter home in Gold Canyon, Az.  While not part of the plan we ended up buying a Park Model unit in the Gold Canyon RV and Golf resort and we thoroughly enjoyed our first winter in our little home.  We completed a few updates to the unit and made plans for more extensive renovations the following year.  

Well, we all know what happened next.  The year's hiatus provided us with the opportunity to refresh our memories of what a Manitoba winter is all about.  As Manitoba winters go it was one of the milder ones on record but we reaffirmed our commitment to spend as many winters as possible in Arizona.  We are looking forward to renewing old friendships and making a few new ones.   

The desert awaits.  

This post unfortunately has a sad theme as for the first time in almost 15 years Lori and I will not have our shadow with us.  Charli had been our constant companion.  Often underfoot, always enthusiastic about the next walk or ready to snuggle with us on the couch.  The past 2 years have been an increasing struggle as her back legs started to fail with her discomfort becoming ever more apparent.  

We made the difficult decision a few weeks back and life has had a void in it since.  We are slowly adjusting to the quiet in the house although at times I find myself looking for her.  When I set my plate down on the end table I no longer have to worry about having the food vacuumed up by the hoover that was Charli's never ending search for snacks.  We are adjusting as we did 16 years ago when we had to put our little Sheltie, Niki, down.  Just like then we have promised ourselves that this will be our last 4 legged companion.  We will see.  

I have gone through the many thousands of pictures I have taken in the past few years trying to find a few that would reflect her part in our lives.  Of the hundreds that she was in I have cobbled together a few.

When Charli came to us she was a handful.  Literally

Come on dad.  Time for a walk
Too bad I missed focus but does give her a dreamy look.  

Willing the food to jump from Lori's fingers to her mouth

Always a great companion when out snowshoeing. 
One time she dug through the snow and came trotting back with a mouse gently held in her mouth.  
She was so proud of herself.  
Lori was of another mind. 

A couch potato one minute but in an instant she was ready
 for a 5 mile hike. 

No lap or chair too small.
We were definitely testing the chairs weight capacity.

Perhaps my favourite.  
Her intensity was at its peak when a stick was ready to be tossed.
She would circle forever till she found the stick.  

One time we stopped at a park by the Colorado river.  
A duck landed in the river and she was off to retrieve it.  
It was spring, the river was high and flowing fast.  
We called and called to get her to come back but
she kept swimming to get that duck.  
She eventually came back but we feared she would
be swept downriver.  
While not a pure bred lab the instinct was still there. 

A well travelled dog.  Here at the Grand Canyon.

Always ready for a hike in the desert.
Or anywhere else for that matter. 

Our first little girl.  
Not usually a lap dog but a very sweet disposition
and loved to herd everything.  

Well that's it.  Our home is now a little quieter, fewer slobber marks on the floor and travel plans will be a little easier.   Every time we see someone else with a dog in tow we will feel a few pulls at our heartstrings but we will carry our many fond memories with us where ever we travel.