Arizona

Cloudburst Runoff


We finally got some rain and hail today after several weeks of storms missing our area. It got quite noisy in our little house when it started hailing outside. I took these photos of the road in front of the house with lingering runoff looking toward the east (top) and west (bottom), both clickable images. The runoff was gone within 15 minutes and the hail had already melted save for a small pile or two below the rooftop drain spouts.

While all this is going on, we and the pups are warm, dry and safe indoors. Our house is on a slab which is about 10-12 feet higher than the road below us out front. The retention walls we had built behind the RV driveway diverts the water behind the house to the east and west and thence down to the road.

We appreciated getting the rain. Even though it is normal to have rain this time of the year, we have been a little short of normal and today should get us back to the usual amount.

Looking at the radar forecast just now, it looks as if we will be having a couple more showers before this system moves off to the east-northeast.

2024 Wickenburg Fly-in
and Classic Car Show

Damsel and I attended the 29th Annual Wickenburg Fly-in and Classic Car Show at the local airport. We have gone to this event just about every year since we moved here 13 years ago. This one, in spite of not much sunshine and under mostly cloudy skies, was the largest we have seen to date in fly-in aircraft, classic cars and attendees. We had traffic jams both coming in and going out of the airport.

Since the show was an order of magnitude bigger this year, we only can post a few highlights here. Below are some photos of a few of the classic cars . . .

1958 Chevrolet Convertible w/Continental Kit:

1958 Edsel:

1955 Hudson(!) Metropolitan:

There were hundreds more.

And for the aviation part of the show (again just a small sample) . . .

Classic Stearman biplane (Boeing) with Continental seven cylinder radial engine:

An Army Blackhawk Helicopter flew in:

And, finally, a MTOSPORT Gyroplane:

That’s it for this post. There were so many great classic cars and aircraft that we took photos of and may post about some of those later.

Home Again!

We’re relaxing at home after the last leg of our vacation. Damsel and I saw a number of cool things on the return voyage. Here are some of the pix from the days collection of over 500 images in the Damsel Camera:

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson, AZ:

Picacho Peak near Eloy, AZ:

Casa Grande Native Ruins, Coolidge, AZ:

Now that we’re back, we have numerous things we need to attend to pertaining to our normal retirement routine, plus a couple of other business items that popped up. We’re prepared for all of that and we’re glad to be back home in our little desert paradise.

Camping Day 11 – Last Day Out

We’re still in South Tucson today, relaxing and dining. We had a delicious Chicken Pepper Casserole for late lunch today.

Since it is warm outside here (95°), we spent most of our day inside the RV. There was a power failure for about an hour but, luckily, we were able to run the 6KW generator to keep the A/C and other appliances going.

We will be heading for home tomorrow morning with a rest stop and visit at Casa Grande on the way. Our route takes us through Coolidge, AZ where the ruins are located. Then, its about two more hours to home.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our outing, particularly watching the eclipse on Saturday 10/14. We’re already thinking about another outing before the big trip to Waco, TX to watch another eclipse next April.

Camping Day 10 – South Tucson

Today’s travel was along I-10 from Deming, NM to our current location. We made a stop on our way out of Deming to take on provisions for the remainder of our trip.

The trip was uneventful except for some nice scenery. The lighting conditions were sub-optimal due to an overcast thanks to the upper atmosphere effects of Hurricane Norma which was approaching Cabo San Lucas on the Baja peninsula. Damsel did get a couple of good photos along the way seen below.

Scenic Mountain in SW New Mexico:

Roadside Rock Formations in SE Arizona:

Tomorrow, we expect to have yet another R&R day with an afternoon feast prepared by The Damsel. We’ll post about the feast tomorrow.

Camping Day 1 – Holbrook, AZ

Just a quick post to let y’all know we’re on the road headed for Albuquerque to witness the annular eclipse on Saturday 10/14/2023. We’re camped in Holbrook, AZ tonight and will head out tomorrow to the next stop at American RV Park.

We may post some pix from Painted Desert and/or Petrified Forest tomorrow night after the commute.

We saw these on or way here:

Saguaro Forest AZ on Hwy SR74

San Francisco Peaks approaching Flagstaff on I-17

UPDATE: We had a dramatic change in weather – the overnight low in Holbrook was 29°F!

Almost Cloudless
Plus an Irish Feast

The (clickable) satellite image above was taken the morning of August 4th showing the southwest and Arizona in particular having virtually no cloud cover. There are a few cumulus clouds forming over the mountains north of the Grand Canyon at the time this image was taken. We seem to be having a lack of our usual monsoon rains with a side effect of warmer than usual temperatures. Rest assured that there will eventually be a return to normal to come hopefully sooner than later. The global climate scammers are unnecessarily worrisome over normal weather deviations.

Now that we’re about halfway between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox it is again a Celtic Cross Quarter celebration of Lughnasadh which means (to us) that there must be a traditional Irish or Scottish meal to be consumed. So, Damsel is being creative and will offer a hybrid Western/Gaelic feast consisting of a Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato Chicken Salad (western) served over Homemade Soda Bread (Irish). There may be a traditional Irish Cocktail involved.

We will be posting about our feast on our Food Website later this weekend. Meanwhile, everybody please enjoy your weekend with whatever you consider to be relaxing.