Many of the flowers are gone this late in the season, but the rosemary bushes we planted five years ago along the RV Drive still have their tiny blue flowers. This butterfly was kind enough to pose while this photo was taken a couple of days ago. Click on the image to enlarge.
Now that the really hot daytime temperatures have abated, we have what we call “second spring” here in Arizona. That is the time when there are still flowers blooming, bees buzzing and of course hummingbirds and butterflies browsing the remaining flowers.
I captured this image of a black and yellow butterfly alight on one of the red bird of paradise flowers in the courtyard. The butterfly browsed there long enough for me to get my camera, go out into the courtyard and take several images of it before it flew away in the late morning breeze.
Second spring will be over within just a few weeks, giving way to actual autumn-like weather with leaves turning or falling and the red bird shrubs going dormant for the late fall and winter. Although we love the summers here, it will be nice for some cooler weather to prevail and, as we know, harsh winter weather seldom comes our way. In nearly six years of living here, we have seen snow stick to the ground only once.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel was in the courtyard just after sundown this evening when she noticed this three and a half foot long snake coming across the road out front. She called to me telling me I should bring a camera. After she pointed it out, we went down the RV drive to get a better look.
According to Wikipedia, the species Ctotalus scutulatus (Western Mojave Rattlesnake) is reputed to be aggressive toward humans and, in fact, this guy coiled up into a striking position as I approached. I took this photo before quickly retreating behind the landscape wall. We wanted no close encounters with some of the most toxic of rattlesnake venom.
We backed off and watched the snake slither along the RV Drive until finally disappearing under some of the native creosote on the lot to the west of us. We hope that it keeps on moving away from the area where we will be walking the dogs later tonight.
This beautiful red rose was fully open yesterday at my sister’s place in the Central California area. The rose bush is beside the driveway where our RV is parked while we are visiting with family here. Click on the image to enlarge.
We will be headed towards the southern part of the state in a couple of days for another visit with the southern branch of our California family as we make our way back home. We will see our newest grandbaby for a short window of time over the weekend. It has been a couple of months and we are anxious to see him.
We have arrived at the family reunion location in Stockton, CA. We’re not at a campground, but at Damsel’s Sister’s place where we were just about a year ago. We had a good drive today over Donner Pass and then down through CA Hwy 49, the California gold rush highway and then on to our terminus for the day.
We plan on being here for a while for the family reunion which will take place over the weekend. We will probably be here for a week and unless there is some very compelling reason to blog about something, we will unlikely post anything during that time.
In about a week, we will head south through California’s Central Valley, stopping to camp in another couple of places on our way back to Arizona. See you then . . .
We made pretty good time today driving most of the way across the mountains and valleys of Northern Nevada along Interstate 80. We started from Elko, where it was still raining a little bit and ended up in Fernley, where it was quite a bit warmer and mostly sunny.
The trip was a bit tedious for me as the driver and for Damsel as the co-pilot, since there were areas of gusty winds along the route. That makes me tense and my arms and shoulders get fatigued and sore after a while. However, after arriving at Desert Rose, setting up camp and having late lunch and a beer, all is good with both of us.
Damsel took quite a few photos along an otherwise boring highway: there were a few interesting rock formations, an interstate tunnel pair, several casino/gas stops and a truck with a happy load.
Tomorrow, we will be traveling to an undisclosed location in the Sacramento Valley. Our route will take us over Donner Pass (still on I-80) and thence via gold rush country to our destination where we will spend several days with family in a long-overdue reunion. Blogging may be light for a week or so.
We actually had a pretty good drive today, albeit not as scenic as the past few days. One of the most interesting things we saw today along Interstate 80 was the Morton Salt Facility and the famous Bonneville Salt Flats before we left Utah.
Here in Nevada, along I-80, the scenery was interesting with broad valleys and mountains typical of the Great Basin Area. We had some minor gusty winds along the way and when arriving in Elko, we had a cloudburst from a thunderstorm in progress.
Damsel and I parked the RV at a Smith’s Supermarket and went inside just before the cloudburst. When we emerged from the store, the ground was wet but it had stopped raining.
At the campground, the showers were intermittent enough that I didn’t have to connect the shore power, cable and city water in the rain. Note the front wheels in the image above are again off the ground due to the slope of our campsite. We saw other class A RVs in the park with the same situation.
Tomorrow, we have more I-80 traveling west, ultimately arriving in Fernley, NV, which is a small mountain town southeast of Reno. The forecast for our journey is for partly sunny skies and a slight chance of rain. It should be a nice trip.
