October 27, 2007

October 27, 2007

Happy 50th Birthday. No, not me, the Arizona State Park system. To celebrate, the park system sponsored a “Hike the Peak” challenge at Picacho Peak State Park. Picacho Peak is a very noticeable “witches hat” volcanic crest rising from the desert floor partway from Tucson to Phoenix. Long a regional landmark it was also the site, oddly, of the only Civil War battle in Arizona.

We haven’t hiked in several weeks so Aimee and I thought scaling Picacho would be a fun restart to our winter hiking season. The weather is predicted to be in the 90’s again so we rose early and got to the trailhead at 8AM. Less than a hundred yards into the trail I was stopped by the biggest insect I have ever seen. Crossing my path was a centipede, a huge scary looking one worthy enough to star in an Indiana Jones movie. A later search of the Internet identified it as the Giant Desert Centipede. This armored and venomous and normally nocturnal creature eats mice and medium-size lizards. I wouldn’t want one of these things crawling in my sleeping bag.

Back on the trail we made it to the mountain summit in less than two hours. It was one of the more difficult trails we have hiked. Several sections near the top were more like rock climbing with the route assisted by a series of cable ropes sunk into the rocks. Amazingly enough Aimee followed me the whole way with little thought of turning back. She is getting braver. From the peak we got great views of the surrounding desert countryside and the near-constant line of I-10 traffic speeding between Tucson and Phoenix.

At the bottom, the state park employees had a couple tents where we could buy lunch and learn more about Arizona state parks. After lunch they served birthday cake and raffled off prizes. Of course, my persistently lucky wife won one of the prizes.

October 20, 2007

October 20, 2007

Moving is a lot of work. For us we need to rent furniture, clear out the RV, put it in storage, setup all the utilities, and update our addresses. We have it down pat now and it only takes us a few days.

This morning while I was working on emails, Aimee yelled at me from the patio. My wildlife spotter did it again. She eyed a pair of large cats walking across the small patch of desert separating our second-story patio from the golf course. At first glimpse I thought they were baby cougars. But short tails and tiger-like face means they are bobcats! For the next hour we watched them sneak around below our patio stalking the rabbits and quail filling this desert golf course “rough”. The bobcats were incredibly patient but in the end unsuccessful while we watched.

First rabbits and dozens of birds. Now coyotes and bobcats. Having our patio be a wildlife observation platform is an unexpected bonus of this apartment.

October 18, 2007

October 18, 2007

We found an apartment in the Tucson vicinity to spend the winter. Even though we know the area it is still hard finding an apartment that meets my desire for a great view of the mountains. It seems all the available ones are staring at the parking lot. Our old apartment was long gone. That one was probably a dream we can only count on once in a blue moon. We found one with a reasonable view of the mountains overlooking a golf course. It is in the northwest suburb of Oro Valley facing the west side of the Catalina Mountains. Unfortunately the pool and fitness center are on the other side of the complex. To compensate we do have a much nicer patio from which to enjoy the weather and the scenery. We also have a second bedroom for visitors wanting to escape the winter chill.

The most surprising aspect of the apartment is the nightly noise. Last year it was the all-night parties in the Jacuzzi below our bedroom window that kept us up. This time it is coyotes howling. We can’t see them but a coyote pack howls for some 30 seconds every hour. Very strange considering we never heard a single one while sleeping in National Parks all summer.

October 10-17, 2007

October 10-17, 2007

We are staying at an adult snowbird resort in Tucson till we can find an apartment to rent. This park is huge with space for over 1500 trailers of all sorts. It is an RV park, gated retirement home, trailer park, and adult summer camp all rolled into one. Like many communal living establishments, this place has strict rules and Aimee seems to be running afoul of them almost daily. Security has cited her twice already for parking the car in the wrong place on our spot. Like who really cares? Despite this Aimee likes this place and even wants to check out more permanent living accommodations. The facility has lots of activities for crafty residents like Aimee. She thinks she would enjoy quilting on Monday, stained glass on Tuesday, pottery on Wednesday, painting on Thursday, jewelry making on Friday, and lapidary on Saturday. On Sunday she and I can play tennis, golf, swim, shuffleboard (of course) and pickle ball (whatever that is). You should have seen her face when I told her she wasn’t 55 yet and couldn’t stay.

While we wait for our apartment application to be processed Aimee and I take little advantage of the activities. At the end of our stay we finally take a Lapidary class together. In three hours we learn how to cut, shape and polish a rock into something worthy of mounting in a pendant. Since I threw away all my work ties and may need to attend a wedding next summer, I am going to polish a stone for setting in an Arizona bolo tie.

October 9, 2007

October 9, 2007

Over the course of the summer we have driven 10,400 miles throughout the western states and Canada. Our mileage improved this trip to almost 11 mpg. We have driven over 20,000 miles since starting our Big Adventure visiting 54 National Parks and Monuments, 27 National Battlefields, Memorials and Historic Parks, 26 state parks and innumerable other attractions and museums. Looking at our map we have covered lots of ground but still have much of the southeast and northeast sections of the US and Canada plus Alaska to go. And beyond that a very big world.

October 8, 2007

October 8, 2007

Yesterday we had few quality choices in RV parks. That was unusual and gives comment on how sparsely populated and little visited this region of eastern Arizona is. Our choice was to stay in a hole-in-the-wall RV park behind a bar or continue driving for two hours. We stayed, intent on leaving at first light. That plan was put on ice (pun intended). It got very cold last night unexpectedly. 24F, if my thermometer is accurate. That is cold enough to turn our water supply hose into a solid snake of ice. I hope leaving the hose attached didn’t cause any internal pipe ruptures to the RV. Cross your fingers for us. After the sun started to warm up the area a little I took Aimee’s hairdryer and defrosted the hose enough that I could unhook it. I tossed it in the shower to defrost while we drove.

I am glad we didn’t keep driving last night. Route 191 South (Coronado Trail National Scenic Byway) was one very long and winding road. It was very slow going and took us most of the day. After almost getting carsick the whole day, Aimee scratched this road off future itineraries. On the upside, the route went thru a rugged mountain pine forest that you would never think to find in Arizona. It was almost continuously downhill. We stopped at the Blue Vista Overlook for a great view of the Mogollon Rim, the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau.

The Scenic Byway ended in the middle of the giant Phelps-Dodge copper strip mine in Morenci, AZ. For probably ten miles the mountains on both sides of the road have been turned into barren rock terraces. A sign says this mine produces almost a billion pounds of copper annually.

Past the mine we hit the Arizona desert and surprisingly a few scattered cotton fields ready for picking. I have to stop and pick a cotton ball for myself.

In the town of Safford we take a break from this all-day drive and visit Discovery Park, a red dot I noticed on the map. This was a first for us. Despite going to some very out-of-the-way attractions, we have never been the only tourists. Here we were. The caretakers even had to turn the lights on for us. Inside were a bunch of exhibits on astronomy that are loosely associated with the nearby Mt. Graham Observatory.

Finally at the junction with I-10 we head west to Tucson where we find a spot at a “55+” snowbird RV resort. Aimee and I break out the wine and toast the end of another successful summer of traveling.

October 7, 2007

October 7, 2007

From Socorro, NM we take to the back roads west an hour to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory-Very Large Array. That is a mouthful. Most people will recognize the huge radio antennas from the Jodie Foster movie “Contact”. The VLA consists of 27 antennas arrayed in a Y-shaped pattern 26 miles in diameter. The array is supposed to mimic a single antenna that large. Each antenna is on a rail so that they can be spread out for maximum resolution or moved closer for maximum sharpness. Unfortunately they are spread out right now lessening the impact of my photography.

We peruse the visitor center exhibits and then walk the self-guided tour alongside a couple of the antennas. We learn that radio telescopy was started in the backyard of a Wheaton, IL amateur engineer. The purpose of this observatory is not listening for extra-terrestrial life as in the movie but probing and photographing the structure of the universe. This radio telescope can delve deeper past dust clouds and nebulae than a normal light telescope can.

From the VLA we continue west for a couple hours thru pretty desolate pinon-juniper hills and ranchland before stopping for the night in the little town of Springerville, AZ. I am surprised how long a drive it is back to Tucson. Arizona and New Mexico are very big states.

October 6, 2007 PM

October 6, 2007 PM

I would have liked to have stuck around the Balloon Fiesta and enjoyed the party atmosphere, but I have a schedule to meet today. From Albuquerque, NM Aimee and I make a smooth getaway onto I25 and head south for some eighty miles. In the town of San Antonio we head east on Rt. 380 to the Stallion gate entrance to the White Sands Missile Range. After passing thru an army checkpoint we drive another eighteen miles thru the range to the Trinity site. It is only open to the public twice a year and based on the steady stream of cars coming and going I am not the only one interested.

Trinity is the code word for the location of the first atomic bomb blast on July 16, 1945. It was the test proof that the Manhattan Project was a success. After parking the RV we make the short quarter mile walk to ground zero. It is a little anticlimactic. The army placed a lava rock obelisk where the bomb exploded to commemorate the site but little else remains. Everything else was removed. Even the crater and the melted sand floor (called Trinitite) have all been bulldozed over. All that is left is a desert field surrounded by a round fence. You have to take the army’s word that this is THE Trinity site. We spend the night at a private park in the little town of Socorro, NM.

October 6, 2007 AM

October 6, 2007 AM

We wake up again before sunrise. Contrary to the forecast and last night’s winds, the weather is dry and calm. My lucky charm came through again. We save ourselves a long walk to the Fiesta field by hopping on the RV shuttle. We pass a huge line of cars trying to park for the event. Car parking is minimal and most non-RV attendees have to take a park-n-ride shuttle from far away. So nice to have on-site accommodations! We arrive at the field as a dozen balloons of the Dawn Patrol take off to test the upper atmosphere wind conditions. With their propane burners lighting up the balloons in the pre-dawn light they look like floating luminarias.

We stop to get a cup of coffee (and a free fried Spam sandwich) and then head onto the field. There is a sea of humanity on the Fiesta grounds but the field is huge. The size of 59 football fields, so we don’t feel hemmed in at all. The nice thing about Albuquerque’s Fiesta is that it is up close and personal. All the spectators can wander right up next to all the balloons and watch them get setup and inflated. We watch the balloons for the next hour and a half as all 750 balloons liftoff in a series of waves. It is unbelievable that they don’t all run into each other.

Seeing all these giant balloons is simply stunning and I take a lot of pictures. This Balloon Fiesta is supposed to be the most photographed event. Near the end a bunch of special shape balloons join the fun. Most are some roundish balloon face like Tweety Bird or Smoky the Bear. Others don’t look like they would fly. There is a stagecoach, a beer stein, a tree trunk with birds and a turtle. But the crowd favorite is Darth Vader.

October 5, 2007

October 5, 2007

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta goes on for nine days with different events scheduled each day. There is a Mass Ascension of all 750 balloons each weekend. On Thursday and Friday all the special shape balloons are going to fly. I want to stay and see all of it but I am torn. This Saturday is also one of the two days that the Trinity atomic bomb site is open and that is two hours south. Aimee and I are not sure if we want to drive back or even if we can get our spot back.

We heard that some balloons are probably going to have a practice lift-off this morning so we rise before dawn and start walking over to the balloon field. If the weather is bad tomorrow this may be our only chance to see some. Halfway there a guy pulls over in his truck and asks us if we are interested in helping crew a balloon. I look at Aimee and then tell him okay. We jump in his truck and drive onto the field where are introduced to a woman from Lubbock, TX who is taking her checkout flight for a Commercial Ballooning License. We help her get the balloon inflated and lifted off. There doesn’t seem to be much to it. Spread open the throat of the balloon, point a fan inside to billow it out, then shoot a flame inside to heat the air. All of a sudden you have to hold it down. While we are helping with the inflation, probably another fifty balloons are doing the same. So far this is already bigger than the balloon rally we attended in the spring outside Phoenix and it hasn’t even started. 

After liftoff, we hop back in the truck for the chase. The driver doesn't have a radio so we have to follow through the city by sight. Fortunately Aimee has an eagle-eye and the balloon is always kept in sight. After about an hour the pilot sets the balloon down in a wide-open new home construction dirt field. We then help the pilot get the balloon deflated, folded up, and back in the trailer. They encourage us to stick around and crew for them again offering the incentive of a free ride eventually. 

Back at the RV, we relax reading a book while RV's stream into the park non-stop all day. By nightfall there are several thousand RV's all around us and we are starting to feel claustrophobic with our tiny rig hemmed in by all these monster motorhomes.

October 4, 2007

October 4, 2007

The annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta starts this Saturday. We want to stay on the festival grounds tonight. We don’t have a reservation but I called and they do have some dry campsites available on a first come-first serve basis. All the water and electric sites are long gone.

Late morning we take the interstate to the Balloon Fiesta Park on the north side of town where we are escorted to a parking spot at the far end of the RV area. After lunch we take a walk around the grounds to get oriented. Wow, there are a lot of RV’s here. Most of the vehicles are the huge “Class A” bus motorhomes. There are very few of the smaller “Class C” rigs like ours. The “Class C’s” we run into are generally rentals units driven by Europeans (mostly Germans) on extended vacations. This fiesta must not be on their must-see list.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the largest balloon rally in the world. There are supposed to be 750 hot-air balloons all lifting off at once during the event. Unfortunately things are looking iffy for us. Everybody is saying the weekend forecast is for high winds, meaning the Saturday morning group liftoff would be cancelled. I am rubbing my Lucky Charm so she comes through for us again.

October 3, 2007

October 3, 2007

It is back to Old Town Albuquerque for us. This time we start at the National Atomic Museum. It used to be located on nearby Kirtland AFB until 9-11 shut down base access. I feared it might be redundant to Los Alamos’ Bradbury Museum but was pleasantly surprised to find little overlap. The museum is interesting and covers a wide variety of topics from the history of atomic theory to military uses to commercial power to nuclear medicine. We also watch a very good film on the development and dropping of the atomic bomb using entirely archival footage. Like yesterday’s museum, this one is all full of docents anxiously desiring to impart some knowledge to us. I can share some of their excitement because of our recent visits to many nuclear-related sites this summer. To keep Aimee interested though I have to give her a long lunch break at a French bistro complete with her favorite desert, mousse au chocolat.

October 2, 2007

October 2, 2007

In the morning we head to Albuquerque’s historic Old Town. Much of it is now devoted to shopping and restaurants. On one edge is Museum Row. I am feeling the symptoms of dinosaur withdrawal so I drag Aimee to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. We have been to a lot of museums in the last year, but this one is very well thought out and I find it very interesting. Over half of the exhibits are about the development and progress of life on earth. The section on the initial development of life is extraordinary. Initially the earth had a carbon dioxide atmosphere until blue-green algae transformed it into oxygen, precipitating thick beds of iron oxide ore, and opening the door to the development of animal life. The museum is also well stocked with mature docents just looking for somebody to talk to. One tells me that unlike mammals, reptiles continue to grow throughout their lifetime.

Starvation is the only thing that drags me out of the museum early. We walk into Old Town and have a delicious Mexican lunch in an outdoor courtyard. After lunch we stroll thru many of the shops on our way to the RV. The ornamental shrub Pyracantha or Firethorn is growing all over the area. This evergreen has a beautiful dense cluster of orange berries. We like Albuquerque’s historic center a little better than Taos or Santa Fe. The atmosphere feels less touristy and more laid back. And it didn’t hurt that our food choice was much better this time.

October 1, 2007

October 1, 2007

Not far from the RV park, on the west side of Albuquerque, NM is Petroglyph National Monument. Another of the probably several dozen ancient Anasazi Indian National Parks in the Southwest US. If it weren’t so close and we weren’t trying to kill time we might not have gone to see it. At the visitor center we get oriented and then we head a few miles north to the Boca Negra canyon. There are several extinct volcanoes on Albuquerque’s west side. As a result the west side is full of black lava rocks and the Anasazi carved drawings into many of them. Aimee and I find them only mildly interesting. One problem is trying to differentiate this old graffiti from the more recent variety. After an hour of looking at rocks we head to a similar area just south of the visitor center.

After a few hundred yards, we get bored and head back but not before spotting dozens of giant Desert millipedes all over the trail. These dark brown bugs are about the size of a 5-inch long pencil with the requisite 1000 legs. Supposedly nocturnal, they are only seen during the daytime in mornings following overnight rain.

On the way back to the RV park we stop at Camping World to buy a few RV luxury items. On a whim I ask their service department how busy they are. I am shocked to find they have time to change the gasket on our leaky AC unit. The service guy takes one look under the hood and tells me all that is needed is some screw tightening. He does it for free and luckily just in time for another evening rain burst. Albuquerque has only 55 cloudy days per year and somehow we are getting lucky enough to experience one of them.

September 30, 2007

September 30, 2007

Late in the morning we head back north toward Los Alamos, NM. South of Los Alamos on the southern edge of the Valle Grande caldera are more eroded mesas that make up Bandelier National Monument. There is a line to get in and parking is tight because the monument is having their fall fiesta today. This weekend they have setup special booths about rescued birds of prey, cider pressing, and Indian crafts.

After a quick look around and a couple chugs of apple cider, we hike the main loop trail of Frijoles canyon. The cliffs here are composed of soft volcanic tuff. Tuff is so easily eroded that the walls are heavily pockmarked with holes. The ancient Anasazi Indians enlarged many of the caves and used them as houses. The loop trail takes us along one cliff up several ladders into several of the cave dwellings. Like Mesa Verde, they also built ceremonial Kivas outside them.

From Bandelier we head back south past Santa Fe to Albuquerque. Instead of taking the interstate we take the Turquoise Trail Byway. It mostly goes thru deserted countryside. Halfway along we pass thru the town of Madrid. Like a mirage in the desert, it is a cute touristy town in the middle of nowhere. The town of Madrid recently starred in the John Travolta middle-age motorcyclist comedy “Wild Hogs”.

In Albuquerque we spend the night at a private park just west of town. The park works for us but has absolutely no character. It is merely a barren treeless packed sand and gravel lot. But in fairness it does match the flat Rio Grande valley terrain surrounding it.

September 29, 2007

September 29, 2007

We went into Santa Fe today and mostly window-shopped. The arts and crafts stores were similar to those of Taos. Santa Fe to me is prettier. It looks like the old town that it is. The streets are narrow and winding like the original roads. The architecture is all Spanish pueblo adobe style. I was going to visit the history museum in the Palace of the Governors but after reading a synopsis on some outdoor plaques, I was bored and confused by all the very long Spanish names. For example the city’s original name was La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis. The history of English colonization is easier to remember with names like John Smith.

Santa Fe was the Timbuktu of Spanish outposts. I am not sure why the Spanish maintained this colony so far from all their other possessions for so long and why they prevented trade with the outside world. I don’t believe any gold or silver was ever found here. After Mexico gained independence from Spain, some enterprising Americans blazed the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to profit from trade between Mexico and the US.