Late this afternoon, just before dusk, we took a walk down the road to witness this rare phenomenon of anti-crepuscular rays. This image is looking toward the opposite horizon from where the sun was setting. Clouds and atmospheric particles contributed to this glorious array of sun rays that had to travel from horizon to horizon to get this effect. Click on the image to enlarge.
Tropical Storm Javier, currently over Cabo San Lucas on the Baja California Peninsula, is sending lots of moisture northward in its wake as it slowly meanders north-westward along the Baja Coastline. The storm is forecast to diminish into a post-storm depression in a couple of days, but will continue to churn up tropical moist air which will find its way to the southwestern US.
Infrared image: Tropical Storm Javier (Credit NOAA)
The effect we expect here, according to the National Weather Service, is monsoon activity starting tomorrow (Tuesday, 8/9) and lasting through next weekend. The NWS has issued flash flood watch for our area over the next couple of days.
We have an appointment Tuesday afternoon in Sun City West with a specialist who is supposedly going to render a second opinion on an MRI test I had way back in April. Why I have to be present for that opinion is unclear, but we’re going to go. Besides, it gives an excuse to write off the IRS medical mileage which will conveniently include a stop at the Walmart in Surprise. Damsel already has a shopping list for that.
We think that we will be back home before any serious rainfall takes place, but if it does start up while we’re on the road, we know enough to find high ground and stop to wait it out.
We’re camped once again in the Sunny Southern California Desert to visit the yearling grandson. We have been doing these trips for a year now at about monthly intervals so the baby will know us from visit to visit. Of course, we also enjoy visiting with his parents and the other set of grandparents.
Next month, we are going to deviate from the usual back and forth across the two deserts to head out for a scenic road trip with the goals of:
We’re still trying to get the other family members to get on-board for the reunion and to get the granddaughter to bring her son to the reunion from the Bay Area to not-to-distant Stockton. This weekend we will get a go/nogo from the kids and grandson as to whether they can participate in the reunion.
Regardless of all the particular commitments, we will still be heading out for the scenic part of the road trip. We’re overdue for a trip like that, but when you live in a scenic and rustic town with lots of activities and attractions, you still feel like everyday is vacation. That last item may be why we haven’t felt the need to hit the road for a vacation from our permanent vacation.
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.
The monsoons bring lots of cumulus clouds when they come. Sometimes, the clouds line up to form sunbeams late in the day. This image is from last evening when we got this nice display of Arizona sunbeams before dusk. I took the picture from the road in front of our house. Click on the image to enlarge.
Late this afternoon, a moderate shower fell on our little patch of the desert and elsewhere in the area, of course. We have been needing the rain for a while, although, a couple of weeks ago, we had a little shower that lasted only a few minutes. Today’s shower fell at a moderate rate over a period of forty minutes or so, typical of the monsoon showers we usually get.
I took a photo looking through the patio at the RV drive at the time when the rainfall was at a rate suitable for a little runoff, but with a lot of it soaking into the water table. This rate of rainfall is much preferred to the millennial event we got a year ago when five inches fell over the area in 90 minutes. Most of that ran off and down the Hassayampa river via the numerous local washes flash flooding as it went downstream.
It would be nice if we get a couple more of these moderate events this summer without the massive rain we have seen in the past. Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel took this image of Newspaper Rock, an Anasazi petroglyph site in Canyonlands National Park exactly eight years ago today. We were on a summer vacation about a year before we retired. Newspaper Rock is just along the roadside on the drive through the North part of the park.
We have been planning another vacation trip for the fall that should find us in Utah again, but visiting places that we have not seen before. We will also be seeing a few of our family who will be meeting us along the route. All of that is in the planning phase now, but we need to solidify the plans before too long in order to coordinate lodging, family, meal planning and the whole nine.
We’re anxious to go, but old enough to know that we can’t just charge out there as we may have done in the past. Soon – very soon.