We have a crappy internet connection so this will be short.
We’re in Monument Valley for a couple of days. We had an uneventful drive from Flagstaff and got here in time to check into the RV campground and get all hooked up to the utilities.
Stay tuned for more in a couple of days.
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.
Damsel and I attended the annual “Cops Who Care” Cruise and Toy Drive today at the community center downtown. There was a pretty good turn out of folks who brought their prized antique and classic cars to the event. Each one of the attendees was required to bring an unwrapped toy as a gift to our underprivileged kids in the area. We brought four unwrapped toys (not required but just to help out) as we usually do for this event.
Image above: Damsel posing next to a 1927 Ford farm truck.
We stayed for the better part of an hour, taking photos and gawking at the goodies on display. Here are a couple of photos of classics we deem to be very cool:
Image above: 1957 Red Chevrolet Hardtop Coupe
Image above: 1960’s Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird
We headed back home to prepare our Sunday Dinner which was a Keto version of Ham and Spaghetti Alfredo. Yummers!
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.
Image above: one of the aliens that abound in these parts pointing to his “other” home.
We’re camped in the central area of Roswell, NM this evening after driving from the Texas Panhandle I didn’t get a photo of the camp site, but showing the little green greeter at the campground instead.
I did get a photo of the RV while we were still in Texas at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, however, pictured below.
The “Little Grand Canyon” of Texas, near Amarillo, is nice, but having been to the real thing many times over the years, this place was OK, but not on the same scale as our Arizona “5th wonder of the world” Grand Canyon. Damsel got a couple of photos of the little canyon one of which is shown below.
We will be taking another rest and relaxation day tomorrow with only a couple of chores, Damsel may want to do some shopping for creepy little UFO and Alien souvenirs at the gift shop here. We will be headed southwest Thursday, planning to get back closer to Arizona, but still at a leisurely pace.
I’ll post anything significant (or maybe mundane) tomorrow.
Lot of driving and stops for supplies and fuel today. There will be no camp picture until tomorrow since it was too dark to get a decent photo this evening. We are safely camped and getting ready for the eclipse tomorrow. We paused at Petrified Forest NP today and got a picture of painted desert. We didn’t go through the entire park due to time restraints.
Painted Desert:
Balanced Rock near I-40 in western New Mexico:
Giant Navajo Pot Gallup, NM:
All Photos courtesy of Damsel.
Maybe some “Ring of Fire” photos tomorrow.
Now that the 2023 Red Bird of Paradise Flowers are opening, the butterflies seem to know that they are available for nectar browsing. This little beauty visited this morning.
These flowers dominate the courtyard in the summertime. This is one of the first flowers to appear this year.
The “Red Bird of Paradise” a.k.a. “Pride of Barbados” shrubs are ready to “take over” in the courtyard now. More about these from Desert Tropicals:
The Red Bird of Paradise is a relatively frost sensitive Caesalpinia, and it is generally better to trim it close to ground in winter. This keeps it more compact without seeming to delay it in spring. The canes tend to freeze in all but the warmest areas, and even if they don’t, the new growth in April is somewhat ungainly. For this reason many gardeners cut the bush to the ground at the end of November, and it will grow back green and compact in mid spring.
Image information: Canon EOS Rebel J6i, Action Program, ISO 100, T=1/800 sec., A=F5, Lens EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. Click on either image to enlarge.