Back in Amado

 

I forgot to show a couple of pictures in the last blog that I’d promised to show for Mom.  When we went through Nevada we started to see these beautiful purple bushes around buildings and beside the freeway.  I didn’t know what they were and asked around until I finally found out they were called “Texas Sage”.  They are absolutely the most beautiful shade of purple.  Another plant we saw a lot of was “Datura”.  It grows wild in the area around Mesquite and is really quite an interesting plant.  Some part of it does have hallucinogenic qualities and we’ve been told that the native Indians used to use it in their ceremonies.

Well, Tom has been thinking about and researching various dune buggy type machines.  Quite a few people in the RV park have them and he’s gone out with them for rides a couple times.  Anyway, he finally decided he had to get one so we went looking.  We found the “Razor” at a place in Tucson.  It is very similar to what a few other people have here and we’ve already been out in the desert with it a couple of times.  This morning we went out with Oso…he loved it too!  I knew exactly where he’d want to sit and hang half way out the side window and that’s where he does like to sit.  Tom let me drive this morning and it was sure fun.  We went way out into the desert on a trail that criss-crosses the roads that the border patrol uses to look for illegals travelling north through the desert.  I sure don’t envy those poor folks…it’s not an easy journey when it’s hot and when you have to maneuver through cholla forests.  The cholla is sometimes called “jumping cactus” because even if you just lightly brush up against it the thorns will stick into your skin or clothing as if they had jumped off the plant.   There are small ones and ones as big as trees…and tons of them around here.  The skeleton of the cholla looks like a hollow stick with criss-crossed strips of wood on the outside.  We cut some down and wrapped some tiny solar lights around it and will use it for our outdoor Christmas tree this year.  It really looks good when it’s lit up.

We came across an old cemetery out there today…was kind of interesting to walk through and see some of the headstones that actually had writing on them…most people born in the 1800’s and passed in the early 1900’s.  Some graves were unmarked or just had a worn cross or piece of wood marking them.   What a lonely place to lay to rest. 

We also saw a snake.  It was HUGE…about 60 inches long and about an inch and a half thick at the thickest point and was of all things, pink.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of it because it slithered under a cement slab above one of the graves (creepy!) before I could get the camera.  Oso could definitely smell lit though and we had to hold him back.  I looked it up when we got home and found that it is called a “coachwhip” (apparently the name comes from the whips the stagecoach drivers used).  Quite an interesting snake…it eats other snakes including rattlers, and other reptiles and rodents that inhabit the desert.  I guess it’s a good snake!

The other day we went to the Pecan Festival in a little town near here called Sahuarita (sa-wha-rita).  It was fun.  We learned that this particular pecan grove is the largest in the world and that the way they harvest the pecans is quite innovative.  They have a big machine with arms on it that grabs the trees and shakes them.  At first they were afraid the shaking would damage the roots but it doesn’t seem to hurt the trees at all.  Afterward another machine that has big disk-type wheels on the front comes along and picks up the pecans.  The pecans look just like walnuts when they grow…they have a husk around them that opens when the nuts are ready for picking.  It was really interesting to see this all.  Oh and did I tell you they took us out through the pecan groves in a horse drawn wagon…it was fun!  The pecan festival was a lot like a fall fair in other ways…they had lots of food vendors, music, old vehicles and tractors, rides for the kids, petting zoo, etc. 

This old car was pretty interesting.  Tom loves to look at the old farm machinery too…he even found a Farmall tractor that was older than the one he used to plow snow with…ha, ha!

 After the pecan festival we talked about going down to Tubac, another little artsy kind of town just a few miles south of the RV park.  There was going to be a hot-air balloon festival there that night and all of the balloons would be lit up at dark…the pictures I’d seen were beautiful.   We decided against it because we’d got a fair amount of sun already that day and it kind of made us tired.  Anyway, it was a good thing we didn’t go…they were expecting between 1500-1800 people and over six thousand people turned up.  I guess traffic was absolutely horrible and they had to turn people away who had bought tickets for the event because they were simply overloaded.

We have a hummingbird living on our RV site.  There is a really bushy tree on the site and it has some sort of nut that looks like an acorn.  Anyway the hummingbird has a nest in the tree.  I’ve yet to find the nest but we hear it chattering all day long and he comes to the hummingbird feeder I bought quite regularly.  He or maybe it’s a she, is a little cutie and posed nicely for me the other morning.  The bird doesn’t have a lot of colour so maybe it’s a female.

These little brown birds are plentiful down here…they must be some sort of sparrow.  They travel in huge groups of 40 or more birds…when they land in a bush it just vibrates with them!  So cute.

I’ll leave you with another picture of our new toy.   Top speed is about 50 miles per hour though we don’t do anywhere near that even on paved roads.  It zips along on the road but is pretty noisy.  We have it licensed so we can take it on the side roads to get to the trails.  It is amazingly stable even when you’re going through some of the washes around here.  So far haven’t felt like it was tippy at all.  This picture is from when they delivered it and all the guys had to come over to check it out! I think we’re really going to enjoy playing in the desert with it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The Road Again - Winter 2015

On the Road Again…

Boy, it’s been so long since I’ve written on the blog, I’m not quite sure where to start…at the beginning I guess!

 

We left Spray Lake in mid September and went to Cranbrook to spend a couple days with  Lindsey…on to Castlegar where we visited friends and took a quick trip down to Spokane to see Kevin, Brenda and Rachel.  Then to Abbotsford and a good visit and Thanksgiving on the farm with Wilma and Jackie and my Mom.  After getting a few things fixed on the fifth wheel, we moved on to Idaho to visit with Alyssa, Matt, Wyatt and Barrett and with Marc.  It was wonderful to see everyone and be able to spend time with each of them!  We’ll do the whole thing in reverse in the Spring!

We headed south through Nevada staying at Mesquite for a few days.  We had a nice site in a very nice little RV park…palm trees and sunshine!  From there we travelled out to the Valley of Fire, an area formed by volcanic activity many thousands of years ago.  The rock formations there are really cool.  I climbed into this little cave like hole in the rocks and only afterward thought perhaps I should have checked for scorpions or spiders before I went in.

 

The Valley of Fire was really interesting.  We saw petroglyphs and hiked into a place where they’d made a cowboy movie years ago.  The hike wasn’t very long…only a couple miles, but it was steep in places and the sand was deep making it tiring to walk through.  At one point we drove out to a lookout and stopped to take some pictures.  We were up quite high so the vista was quite stunning.  On a ridge in front of far-away mountains a big horned sheep posed for pictures.  One fellow said he’d been there almost an hour and the animal hadn’t moved…he didn’t think he was real!  I don’t think sheep have all that much to do during the day other than just stand around so I know he was real…that and he moved his head a couple times while we watched!  He sure was beautiful!

The next day we decided to go on a Jeep-Tour of Zion National Park.  It sounded really interesting and we hoped to see sights that most visitors to the park don’t get to see.  Well, we were quite disappointed.  Though the guide was knowledgeable and spoke a lot about the area, we didn’t actually go into the park.  We went out onto the mesas and saw the park from a distance.  It wasn’t what we had hoped for.  Oh well, we’ll know better next time!

We moved on south and stopped at a resort/casino called Avi just south of Laughlin Nevada.  It really was a beautiful little RV park and the casino and area had just about everything a person could need.  There was a movie theatre, swimming pool, several different restaurants, and beach along the Colorado River, not to mention the casino itself…and yes, I shouldn’t have mentioned it.  We did not win!  One old fellow told me he never loses because he doesn’t go to win money…he goes for the entertainment value.  I guess that’s one way to look at it.

One day we drove over to Oatman, a little old west town way up in the hills.  Wild burros roam the streets looking for handouts and they walk up and down the sidewalks with the tourists.  One woman was telling us that there are usually about a dozen burros in town but more and more are coming into town and now there are about 30.  She said the town council was going to round some up and take them back out into the hills but so far hadn’t got to do that.  They were sure fun to see though.  A lot of babies in the group too. 

While we were there Tom was voted in as Town Marshall…unfortunately he got shot almost immediately and put in a box on mainstreet.  The sign above his head says “He was wearin’ his boots and a star on his chest when Jackass Bill laid him to rest”…ha, ha…don’t worry…he’s not as dead as he looks!

We went into the Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard went on their honeymoon.  You’d think movie stars, even in those days could have found a fancier place for a honeymoon!  Maybe Oatman was a beautiful vacation destination in those days…who knows!

A couple days later we went out to see some more petroglyphs in the Spirit Mountains.  A short hike lead us to a place where there were hundreds of etchings on the rocks and mountainside.  So very cool!

We moved on further south toward Phoenix and stayed a night in Buckeye.  There was a big storm that was rolling through Arizona and Texas…remenants of the hurricane that went through Mexico I think.  Anyway, we had some rain and it cooled off significantly that night.  (The temperature has been in the 80’s)  The next day was still coolish with dark clouds in the distance.  We decided to head for Tucson even though we’d arrive a day or so earlier than our reservation.  It was great to get here…sort of like coming home. 

Tom went for a jog our first morning here, I cleaned up my studio (I call it mine cuz nobody else uses it…nice big room set up perfectly for drawing/painting) and today I started painting…we’ll see if any masterpieces emerge this winter…ha, ha! 

We took a walk around the park and met up with quite a few of the friends we made when we were here last year…was good to see them and we’re looking forward to our winter here at the De Anza RV Park in Amado.