Cool Down

Today's weather:
Sunny
High - 77
Low - 48

As you can see, we're having a nice, if brief, cool down.  Early in the afternoon the pool was deserted.  But by 3:00 there were a few people out. The pool is the perfect temperature.  Warm, but just cool enough to be refreshing.

Cool decor, huh?

Last year I was really disappointed in the local produce available.  We tried to find a farmers' market without success.  But as I mentioned previously, we have a new market very nearby.  We've gone every Friday since it opened, and it gets better every week.  In addition to produce, we now have local grass-fed beef, cheese and butter, and now eggs, among other things  The produce has been very impressive.  We've had wonderful green beans, amazing red potatoes, and a really nice summer squash called Mexican gray.  It's a light green squash like a zucchini but shorter.  Very good.  But our real find was melons.  I bought one called Magnificent, which truly lives up to its name.  It has salmon pink flesh and is the sweetest, juiciest, most flavorful melon I have ever had.  I'm hoping they still have some next week.  Because the winters here are so mild, apples and pear don't grow well here.  But there were some at the market from Wilcox, which is southeast of here and obviously at a higher elevation. 

David keeps saying he's worried that we might get trick-or-treaters tonight, even though it's a gated community.  Actually, I think he just wants me to buy some candy.

Happy Halloween!

Big News!!

Today's weather:
Sunny
High - 91
Low - 58

Maybe it's all the free time here, or maybe it's the dry air, but we did a lot of soul searching and talking today.  We've decided to take our house in Salem off the market.  I know, you're all saying, "What took them so long?"  I guess everyone else was right to question our decision.  So even though the house is too big for us, and the yard is too big for us, we'll stick it out a while longer.  We really do love our house!

As for our cottage here, we continue to add things to make it our own.  We bought an outdoor dining set, and a small wicker set for tea and reading the newspaper in the morning.  For the last two days we've been able to eat all three meals al fresco.  And as we've done in the past, we put the old white plastic table and chairs out on the curb and they were claimed almost immediately.  I don't think anything ever leaves this village.  It just gets relocated.

With the weather being quite warm, we've been spending time at the pool every afternoon.  This is living!

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

Today's weather:
Sunny
High - 88
Low -51

Today we decided to visit one of our favorite places in Tucson - the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  We've been there several times.  In fact, we are members.  The weather was perfect.

The Desert Museum was founded in 1952 on 21 acres to the west of Tucson.  It's in the middle of the desert and re-creates many different habitats with the native plants and animals.

Here are a couple of photos of the museum.

This is the desert's idea of fall color.  The ocotillos are turning yellow.

This beautiful mesquite ramada provides an overview of the whole museum.

The wolves pace almost constantly, but at least they look healthy.

Sometimes the javelinas are hard to spot, but today four of them were lined up in the shade under a bridge.  They look cute here, but they're quite large.  They also stink!!

A lot of the wildlife is contained for viewing, but there are lots of critters who are there by choice.  We spotted these two large lizards sunning themselves on a rock.  The lower one was green and was about 18" long.

It was a fun day and interesting to see the museum in the fall for the first time.

We've Been Busy!

Our first week in Tucson has been very busy.  We had a number of projects we hoped to complete, and so far we're doing pretty well.  We've had our heat pump replaced.  We haven't had to turn it on yet, but we have faith that it will work when we need it.  We also bought a new refrigerator.  The old one was original (15 years old), so it was time.  We've also ordered new carpet.

The last village newsletter had a plea for someone to take over maintenance of the library.  So, being library lovers, we decided to take it on.  We were encouraged to make changes, and we've done it in spades.  It's really looking good, and we've had lots of compliments.

 

The other thing I've done, which will come as no surprise to anyone, is I've planted some vegetables. I found a planting guide and discovered that this is an excellent time to plant lettuce, carrots, spinach and chard.  So I got some seeds and a few plants to get it started.  I also found a small tomato plant, which may or may not produce, but I have to try. The biggest challenge is putting them high enough so the rabbits can't get to them.

Last Friday we learned about a new farmers' market just a few blocks from here.  We've been to it twice now, and it's really nice.  They have several produce stands plus cheese, bakery goods, tamales (yum!), tea and coffee, and several other things.  We hope to walk there next week. We're still looking for a couple of used bikes, and we have some good leads.  So maybe next time we can bike there.

Big Storm

Late yesterday afternoon, as we were going to Home Depot to buy a new toilet, we noticed that the sky was getting really dark.  By the time we came out, there were very high winds and dust was blowing everywhere.  The temperature dropped rapidly from 86 to 66 in a very short time.  Soon we had thunder and lightning, and eventually rain.  We're not sure how much rain there was, because our rain gauge has stopped working (sigh, another project!).  Because of the storm we had a wonderfully cool evening and night.

Here's what the mountains look like normally:

Here's what it looked like during the dust storm:

 

The really good news is that we now have a working toilet!

October 13 - We Made It!

We got an early start out of Show Low, a little after 7:00.  The final leg was really gorgeous.  Mike had suggested that we take Highway 77 and it was good advice.  Thanks, Mike!  The road had some very steep and curvy patches.  This photo is looking back where we had been.  Notice you can see the road going back and forth on several levels.

The highway goes through the Salt River Canyon on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.  The views from the overlooks were amazing.

About 80 miles from Tucson we saw our first saguaros and ocotillos.  We knew we'd be home soon. 

We arrived at Far Horizons at 11:45.  The temperature was 90 with a nice breeze.  Our trip ended up being 1850 miles.  Our Prius averaged 53.5 miles per gallon for the trip.  Not bad. 


In general, our cottage appears in good shape.  A number of units had had some wind damage recently, but ours was fine.  We had a few minor glitches.  The air conditioning wouldn't come on.  It turned out to be dead batteries in the thermostat.  It's fine now.  We also have a leak around the toilet, so we'll deal with that tomorrow.  After cleaning house, unloading the car and stocking the pantry we're pooped.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to relax a little, maybe take a swim.  It really feels good to be here.

October 13 - More Rocks!

After yet another sumptuous breakfast we reluctantly left Robert and Mike.

We left Colorado, but it seems we didn't leave all the interesting rock formations.  This one is in New Mexico.

This is Shiprock, which lends its name to Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation.  We stopped there at a grocery store.  We felt like we were in a different country.  I think we were the only non-natives in the whole town.  The grocery store was a real eye-opener.  Now I can understand why the they have such a high incidence of obesity and diabetes.  We tried to find some whole-grain crackers and cheese for lunch.  The only crackers were things like Cheezits, and the cheese was American.  The produce section was very small.  How can you be healthy when your food options are so dismal?

Our next stop was the welcome center at the Arizona border.  Again, rocks!  This one is called Painted Rock. 

We stopped for the night in Show Low, Arizona.  After a trip to a local wildlife area to look for birds (we found a couple) we returned to our room for an early night.  Tomorrow, Tucson!

October 12 - Mesa Verde

Today Robert took us on on a tour of their town, Dolores.  It's a beautiful little town of 900 people.  The town sits along the Dolores River just below a mesa.

Next, Robert took us to Mesa Verde National Park.  We ended up spending most of the day there.  It is so amazing.

The area was inhabited by Pueblo Indians about 1400 years ago, and they remained for more than 700 years.  They first built pit houses, which were dug into the ground and covered with logs and mud.

Eventually, they built their communities along the cliffs, under protecting eaves.

In the late 1200s the Pueblos left Mesa Verde and headed south to Arizona and New Mexico.  The move may have been prompted by many years of drought, or perhaps the soil was depleted.  In any case, they left an amazing complex of buildings for us to enjoy.

We really hate to leave here, because we've enjoyed visiting with Robert and Mike, and the weather has been beautiful.  But tomorrow we're off to Tucson.

October 11 - Moab to Dolores, Colorado

The town of Moab is not particularly exciting.  The main street is lined with overpriced motels, restaurants, T-shirt shops and Indian souvenir shops.  But the setting is spectacular.  The town's main focus is adventuring and you can do anything from rock-climbing to cycling, river boat trips to Hummer tours.  Just north is Arches National Park and to the west is Canyonlands National Park.  We had limited time, so we decided to visit Arches.  The formations are composed of Entrada Sandstone (salmon colored) and Navajo Sandstone (beige).  The scale of the formations is hard to comprehend from photos.

 

 

From the Arches we headed southeast.  Just off the highway was another wonderful structure, Wilson Arch.

 

 We took a side road to see Newspaper Rock National Historic Site.  It's a large rock wall with 2000 years of petroglyphs.

From there we went to Dolores, Colorado.  We stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center, where Robert works.  It's a really beautiful museum, with a trail to the top of the mountain.  There were Pueblo ruins and 360 degree views of the surrounding area. 

 

We had dinner at Robert and Mike's gorgeous home, then off to sleep in their cozy guest room.  Tomorrow we visit Mesa Verde!

October 10 - Moab, Utah

Utah has lost any charm it may have had.  It's Sunday, and it seems that NOTHING is open on Sunday in Utah, at least around Salt Lake City.  The wildlife refuge is closed, as is the old train station, as are most restaurants, stores and gas stations.  So we decided that we'd get out of Utah as quickly as we could.  We started east for Colorado.  However just as we were heading out, we got a call from our friend Robert, whom we planned to visit in Dolores, Colorado.  He suggested that we go through Moab, Utah, and visit several national parks there.  So we stayed in Utah on Highway 40, then 6, then 191.  While on 40 we saw a sign in Heber City for a historic railroad, so we stopped.  We found the Heber Valley Railroad, a restored excursion train.  There were a number of old engines and cars.

The scenery in Utah varied from dry and desolate to really spectacular.  There was lots of fall color, but the Aspens appeared to be beyond their peak.

As we neared Moab, the scenery became more rocky.

We arrived in Moab late in the afternoon, anticipating some great hiking and photo taking tomorrow.

October 9 - Ogden, Utah

From Boise we continued on I-84, headed for Utah.  Outside Hagerman, Idaho, we saw a sign for fossil beds, so we got off the highway and onto State Route 30.  Unfortunately, at the information center we found out that the fossil beds were closed due to a recent wildfire.  So we continued on 30, passing through some very pretty rural areas, heading for Twin Falls. 

We had read about a bridge in Twin Falls that spanned the Snake River gorge, over 400 feet above it.  So we decided we needed to check it out.  We had also read that this bridge is the only place in the country that allows base jumping without a permit.  The tiny figures in the photo are about to parachute to the river bank below!

We had enjoyed our side road travel so much that we decided to continue on it.  We continued to Burley, where we picked up Highway 81, which paralleled I-84.  Idaho is potato country, and the harvesting is going on now.  We saw lots of trucks loaded down with potatoes, and lots of big piles of potatoes.

Just inside the Utah border we rejoined I-84 and traveled to Ogden.  Ogden is a very small city with not a lot of charm.  We found a wildlife area nearby, which we hope to visit the next morning.

October 8 - Boise, Idaho

We left Pendleton and headed for Idaho.  We stopped just outside Pendleton at an overlook.  Even though it is quite desolate, the view was spectacular.


















Just across the border into Idaho there is a rest stop above the Snake River.  Again, the view was quite impressive.  The weather continued to be overcast, although we haven't had any more rain.

We arrived in Boise early enough in the day to be able to do some walking.  We found Kathryn Albertson Park, a lovely 43 acre wildlife sanctuary.  We were able to add a few birds to our list, but nothing exciting.
Things are definitely looking fall-like.

In the evening we went into downtown Boise for dinner.  We had a wonderful walk downtown.  We really fell in love with Boise.  It's a small city, very clean and lovely.  It's a college town (Boise State) as well as the state capitol.  All in a very manageable size.

October 7 - Pendleton, Oregon

Our first day on the road was overcast, with light rain beginning late in the day.  We drove north to Portland, then took I-84 east along the Columbia Gorge.  The drive is absolutely gorgeous, until you get to Hood River.  Suddenly things turn desolate and boring.  We arrived in Pendleton late in the afternoon.  Pendleton is a "cowboy" town (the Pendleton Roundup had just ended the previous weekend).  It's also the home of the original Pendleton Woolen Mill. 

We're Off to Tucson!

Hello Family & Friends!

We're off on another Arizona adventure.  We'll be pulling out momentarily for points north, then east, then south.  Part of the purpose of this trip is to take a lot of stuff to our new home in Tucson.  Our little Prius is packed to the gills.  Here's what we're hoping to take:

We almost made it.  We have a few things to save for the next trip:

Our first destination is Pendleton, Oregon.  So far the weather looks decent.