Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Retirement

Camping Day One – Williams, AZ

Williams, AZ

Our first day out was pretty entertaining except for some congestion on I-40 due to road construction, but enough about that. Elsewhere, traffic was pretty good considering we were traveling on a getaway Friday along the main route between Phoenix and Las Vegas.

We made our first stop at Wickieup, AZ, after going through some pretty scenic areas like rock formations, a Joshua Tree forest and just beautiful places in general. We also stopped in touristy Seligman, AZ, where Damsel did some souvenir shopping at the Roadkill Cafe. We arrived here in Williams this afternoon, checked in and set up camp in the quaint Canyon Motel and RV Park.

Tomorrow, we’re going to top off the fuel tank here in town before heading up US 64 towards Grand Canyon. We checked fuel prices at our next stop and thought it best to tank up here even though we’re still half full. We can refuel when we get up into Utah where prices get lower again.

We will have more tomorrow from the next stop.

09 Sep 2016 by Arizona Photography Retirement Wanderlust

Throwback Thursday – Blogger Rendezvous

Blogger Rendezvous

This goes back to January of 2010 when Damsel and I were vacationing in Arizona just about a year before we moved here. We were towing a trailer that we rented in Mesa, AZ and parked it at a campground in Apache Junction. Glenn B who blogs at Ballseye’s Boomers happened to be in the area and we arranged an eating meeting there in Apache Junction. My little trusty Canon A710IS (on autopilot) took this photo of Me, Damsel and Glenn just after we finished eating. We enjoyed the visit with Glenn and continue to read his blog to this day.

I found this old photo in an archive I had on a memory card that had been languishing in a box in the desk drawer for some time. Click on the image to enlarge. Our original post of the encounter with Glenn is here.

04 Aug 2016 by Arizona Blogosphere Retirement

Clearing the RV Drive

RV Drive Now Clear Pile of Cut Branches

I took the Roadrunner (our 32 foot Georgetown RV) to top off the fuel tanks yesterday in anticipation of a planned excursion this month. On the way back in the RV drive, I noticed that the large mesquite adjacent to the concrete was hanging in the way and I made contact with some of the small branches as I drove up to the back of the house.

Damsel and I cut a lot of the tree down before, but it has grown a lot since then. We cleared the tree in June when we brought the RV back, so it must have grown a bunch in less than a complete month since then.

We removed three large branches and sawed the closest to the driveway trunk flush to the ground. The remaining part of the tree is growing away from the RV drive and shouldn’t be a problem anytime soon.

I didn’t take a before photo of the tree, but the after is the image on the left above. On the right is the pile of branches that we drug across the road to be further cut up and disposed at another time, possibly later this week or next. Click on the images to enlarge.

06 Jul 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Retirement

Pruning Day


The little lemon tree next to the RV drive has been sprouting a bunch of new growth this spring and summer. The new stuff is fine, but it obscures the lemon fruit currently growing on the tree. Since it was a cooler day today (only 98 degrees), I decided to prune off some of the excess. The images above are the before and after photos of the lemon tree. Click to alternate between the two.

Damsel came out with me and took the shears to the mesquite tree by the drive (not shown) and took off a lot of the “suckers” (unwanted new growth on the lower branches). There were a lot of them even though we did this not too long ago.

The cooler weather is due to a moist parcel of air in the southwest that has, and will continue through Saturday, triggered thunderstorms and light rainfall. Well, light meaning not at flash flood stage yet. It also has made the humidity climb way above that which we are used to (NOT our famous Arizona “dry heat”). It feels as muggy as it does in Florida at this time of year.

30 Jun 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Retirement

Snake Season

uninvited serpent

My first chore when I got home after yesterday’s medical procedure was to roust an uninvited serpent from the garage. Damsel noticed that a curve-billed thrasher had chased a gopher snake into the garage while the door was open. The bird flew off, but the snake hid itself behind the shop-vac along the garage wall.

I fetched a non-lethal corn broom from the back of the garage and proceeded to move the shop vac out of the way and to firmly but gently sweep the snake in the direction of the vacant property to the east. Damsel took this photo while the snake was still hissing at us before retreating over the rocks to the desert habitat on the unimproved land. I shooed it in that direction because I know that the curve billed thrasher that was chasing it has a nest with probable chicks or eggs on the west side of our property.

I seem to be doing a lot of good deeds for the thrasher population recently.

28 May 2016 by Arizona Critters Photography Retirement

First Saguaro Flowers of 2016

First Saguaro FlowersAs of last Wednesday, we have been on the road, visiting friends and enjoying the scenery. Just before leaving Arizona for points west, I saw this saguaro in Parker. I believe this is the first one that we have seen with open flowers this year. Click on the image to enlarge.

We are currently in Palm Desert, California where we meet our son and his wife and our grandson who will be nine months old in a few days. The other set of grandparents, who live near here, are away in Mexico and the kids are watching their house while they’re gone.

We stayed the first two nights along the Colorado River on the California side visiting our good friends that live there. We had a pleasant visit with them and some of their family where we played cards Wednesday evening and went to dinner at the BPOE across the river in Parker on Thursday for Mexican Food Night.

Image: First Saguaro Flowers

Yesterday, on the drive from the river, we took the scenic route across the desert and through Joshua Tree National Park. It is always a beautiful drive through there; we entered the park near Twentynine Palms and exited near Yucca Valley. I took a lot of pictures in there and may post some of them here later.

23 Apr 2016 by Arizona Flowers Photography Retirement Wanderlust

Spring in the Outback

Hedgehog Buds

By the term “Outback,” I mean neither the vast wilderness in Australia nor the not-so-well-known Arizona Outback, but the part of our little plot here in town up on the hill behind the house. Our outback is mostly still virgin desert with flora and fauna indigenous to the wild areas of this region.

I took a hike up there this morning to see if some of the flowering cacti were sporting spring buds – sure enough, this hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus) near the north property line has quite a few flower buds getting ready to open.

We seem to have several varieties of hedgehog cactus around the property. Two of the hedgehog depicted are in the outback and several that were either natural or transplanted to the lower part of the lot among the landscaping rocks. Most have pink flowers but some have flowers that are darker pink or purple. The Damsel will be sure and photograph the ones on the lower property and I plan to venture into the outback to capture photos of the ones up there. Click on the image to enlarge.

19 Mar 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography Retirement

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