Passing by a local resident

Today I was walking down a trail toward Pima Canyon...  after a geocache farther up the trail, of course...  and I was surprised to run into a local resident.  He was one of the really strange desert folks that you hear about.  These guys keep to themselves, and rarely come into town.  He was walking down the trail in the opposite direction from me.  When we came upon each other, we both stopped and looked each other over briefly.  Neither of us spoke, and after a little bit, I just brushed past him without a word.  I figured he was not in a talking mood.  As I continued on down the trail, I glanced back to see him also continuing up the trail in the other direction.

I hiked on down the path for a tenth of a mile or so, found the cache and logged it. Then I headed back toward my car, back up the trail the way I came in.  I hoped I would bump into the fellow again, but he had disappeared into the desert.  I don't see his kind often as I am out hiking around through the cacti and Palo Verde...  so it was nice to know these strange desert folks are still around.

Oh, and I also saw a turtle today.  Here are a couple of pictures.....

The encounter

Heading down the path

Just kidding...  of course the turtle was the local resident.  :-)

Ruby, and some recent geocaching

Ruby, AZ

We have had some interesting caching events of late.  Earlier this week, my friend Bart C and another friend, Mel H, (a N. Tucson cacher)... made a trip down south to Ruby, Arizona.  We did some caching along the way, but the real plan was to visit the old town.  Ruby is a real ghost town just north of the international border.  It is a mining town with a rich past, but has been deserted since the late 30s or so.  A lot of old buildings around to explore...   Below are a few pictures.

Rock Art near the "Turkey Lurky" cache, on the way to Ruby, AZ.

Fake tanks (used for Air Force target runs) in the desert near a cache on the way to Ruby, AZ.

Tailings "beach" from Ruby mining operations.  Tailings said to be 35' deep.

Bart inspecting the old bunk houses, Ruby, AZ

A little fellow hiding from the heat in one of the old residences

Child's slide behind the old school house, Ruby, AZ

Old piano in the school house, Ruby, AZ

Inside the Ruby School classroom

Old Ruby Jail house

Mel, looking through the old assay office

Also, of caching note....   Kathy and I made our 2,000th cache find today.  Kathy spotted the cache on this one. Afterwards, we celebrated with beer and pizza.  2K was our goal for the year, so hopefully we will log a couple more than expected considering we still have a few months  left in 2013.  Along the way to making this goal has been my good friend, Bart C...  (known as "AZ Sahara" in the caching world) who has kept me motivated.  It has been a lot of fun.

Just another beautiful morning

The Nature Trail at Catalina State Park

Took a brief walk in Catalina State Park, near our community today.  It was early, and a bit cloudy this morning, but cool.  As I walked the trail, I noticed that the desert was particularly alive and beautiful, with lots of animals, flowers, and gorgeous mountain views.  Saw a number of creatures including a small rat snake that quickly crossed the path in front of me, some leaping mule deer, some caterpillars, lots of ants working back and forth on their own paths, and many lizards.  Got the geocache I was after, but mostly enjoyed the couple miles of trail.  I never saw another hiker, never heard a car or train, just the breeze and peacefulness of the beautiful Sonoran Desert.  Here are a few other shots from the morning:

One of many active fellows along the trail

A vacant cactus wren nest in a cholla cactus

Along the Nature Trail in Catalina State Park

Snakes Alive!

While geocaching this morning in Catalina State Park, I came upon a small, 3 foot long, rattlesnake.  It was right in the middle of the trail, coiled, scared, and ready to strike.  The rattling alerted me to it's presence long before I saw it.  Unfortunately, it was right in the middle of the path, and just adjacent to a cache location I was trying to find and log.  

While I was inspecting the snake, another couple came down the path from the other direction, and also stopped short.  And, after that, two young ladies came up from behind me and also stopped.  It was an amazing sight to see this small snake, holding up five large humans.  We all just stood there, trying to figure how to get past.  Finally, I made my way around the snake by bushwhacking off the trail to the the left.  I kept careful lookout for other friends of the trail blocker.  As I looked back, I saw that the other folks were following my lead, and made it around.  I figured I would come back to the nearby cache after I went on down the trail to two other caches.  I hoped the snake would be gone by the time I returned.   When I did return, the snake had moved about 5 feet, but was still in the middle of the trail, rattling away.  Knowing I was not leaving without finding and logging the nearby cache, I carefully started looking around.  The cache turned out to be about 15 feet away from the coiled snake.  I signed the log, and headed back to the parking  lot, about half of a mile away.  As I walked down the trail,  I heard others behind me exclaiming about the little fellow.

It has been my experience that seeing a rattlesnake in the wild is actually pretty rare.  I do a lot of walking around in the desert here, and this is only the second rattlesnake I have seen.  I am pretty sure, it was more afraid of me, than I was of him.  Here is the picture I took this morning.

Seraphine Louis

This evening we watched a movie we received from Netflix called simply "Seraphine".  It was recommended to us by our sister-in-law, Peg.  It is the true story of a French housekeeper, who also paints.  And paints she does.  Here is an example:  

Wikipedia:    Seraphine Louis, known as "Seraphine de Senlis" (1864-1942), was a French painter in the naive style.  Self-taught, she was inspired by her religious faith and by stained-glass church windows and other religious art.  The intensity of her images, both in colour and in replicative designs, are sometimes interpreted as a reflection of her own psyche, walking a tightrope between ecstasy and mental illness.   

I had never heard of this artist, but her paintings are familiar for some reason.  The movie is worth a watch, especially if you are interested in art.  Here are a few other examples of her paintings:

Take me out

to the ball game that is.

Our son, Mike, treated Kathy and I to a Diamondback's game in Phoenix last night, complete with excellent seats just a few rows up from the home team's dugout.  Best seats I have ever had for a ball game.

Our team lost by more than a few runs, but the game was still a lot of fun.  Here are a few pictures from the game.

Matt Williams - DB retired veteran, now a third base coach

Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl

This TV mini series chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains --  followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s -- nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Kathy and I  recently watched the two episodes of The Dust Bowl, a film by Ken Burns.  Oh, my God. If you have not seen this, it is really worth it.  We streamed it from Netflix, but it is also available from Amazon.  If you haven't seen it, give it a try.

The Dirty Thirties ended just 13 years before my first birthday.  As I watched this documentary, I felt glad I missed this period of American history.  Between the economic depression, and this horrible environmental disaster, I am not sure how times could have been tougher for folks living then. 

I read a book about the Dust Bowl period just before I left the DC area, but this Ken Burns film really brings it home. The scary thing is, it could, and probably will, happen again.

The book I read a couple of years back

(worth a read)

Here are a few pictures I pulled from the internet...

Home Again, Home Again

Today, with windmills at our backs, we drove out of California, into Arizona, and home to Tucson.  

Our trip to the Northwest was a fun trip, and we learned a few things.  1) Maybe 30 days non stop in a little RV is a bit much for us.  2) Maybe best to stay clear of Northwest beaches in the summer...  too much fog.  3) Staying longer in one spot is better than seeing many spots in a short time.

Thinking back now....  we saw quite a few things, and visited many places.  Some of the best times were seeing friends and family along the way.  Would we do it all over again?  Well, I can tell you, it is sure good to be home.  Really good... if that tells you anything.  :-)

Visiting in Riverside

We departed early from Morro Bay in light rain and mud.  Heading toward Riverside, we traveled what seemed to be a large sample of different freeway systems in the LA metropolitan area.  It was pretty much five hours of straight multi-lane, heavily trafficked, driving.  It was less than fun.

After arriving at our RV park in Riverside, we picked up our son, Dan, and enjoyed an afternoon of nice visiting.  Later, we had a fun a dinner out.  The day turned out great. 

Tomorrow, we make an early departure to return to Tucson.  It will be sad to end our trip, but the thought of a real, (non RV), bed sounds pretty darn good right now.    :-)

Visiting with Dan in Riverside

Grape fields and Morro Bay

We're winding down to the end of our 30 day RV trip.  We are both looking forward to seeing our son in the Riverside area tomorrow, and then the last leg of the journey, the trip back to Tucson the next day.

Today, while driving south of the San Francisco area, we passed, literally, thousands of acres of grapes.  It struck me that this was more of a landscape than a vineyard.  It was amazing. 

As we turned westward to the coast and Morro Bay, it again turned to fog and chill.  Morro Rock, a mountain sized rock protruding out into the Pacific, was often totally obscured.  The Morro Bay harbor was fun to walk along.  Here are a few shots from the day's travels.

Point Reyes

It is not Sanibel.  It is cold and foggy, Pt. Reyes National Seashore.  Visited first by Sir Francis Drake, and now by herds of 21st century vacationers.  The beach is beautiful if you can get a glimpse past the crowds.

Today we visited a recreation of a Coast Miwok village, complete with displays and interpreters.  Descendants of the original inhabitants were there, on this original site.

Above, Kathy trys a whirl of a bull roarer used by many cultures in relation to various ceremonies.

We also visited the Pt. Reyes vineyard and winery.  All in all, a nice day.