Friday, April 8
The sound of
light rain on the trailer roof woke up in the middle of the night. I first did a quick mental inventory of what
was outside…nothing that would be hurt by rain.
The little monkeys were still on the bikes, but they could stand a good
bath. The non-fragile telescope stuff
had already been wrapped in heavy duty bags and packed in the bed of the
truck. As I lay there thinking about
what was outside, the rain started falling harder; that’s when I thought about
all the ‘Flash Flood Area’ signs, hoping the campground wasn’t in one of those
areas. That's an adventure I
could do without. There was the low roll
of thunder mixed in; I assume there was lightning also but couldn’t see that in
the windowless trailer. Rain was over by
the time the alarm went off…7:30 a.m. The
air was a bit cooler and fresher…the sparse grass was a bit greener…the dirt
was a bit muddy…but the areas under the bikes, truck, trailer and picnic table
were still dry. Must have been a
straight down rain. **As the sun is
warming up, the ground is quickly reverting back to being dusty.
----------
There are so
many ‘Blowing Dust Area’ and ‘Flash Flood Area’ signs throughout Arizona, that
one wonders why the state hasn’t been blown or washed away.
----------
I had one last
conversation with our neighbor, Barbara, the Harley trike rider. She’d received some exciting news early this
morning from an editor about one of the books she’s writing and I guess needed
to share it with somebody. Even though
there’s more editing to be done on the book, she’s tickled that she’s one step
closer to get it published…even if she has to go the self-publishing route. She and I have a few things in common….we have
a need to ride, learned to ride in our 50s, have survived a bike crash and
we’re both widows. Yes, I’ve remarried
but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what Jeff’s death did to life as I knew it. Her husband passed away within the last
year…her bike trip is partly a way to deal with the anger/grief that she
feels. So we had some common ground and
some good conversation. She’s got a
couple more days at Holbrook before heading west to visit the Grand Canyon, get
a tire replaced on her bike, etc. Before
we parted ways, we exchanged email addresses and hugs. Told her we’d be looking for her name to
appear in print sometime in the future.
----------
----------
Today’s road
trip was all about weather and scenery. We took US 40 to Hwy 89, which took up
right into Page, AZ. From Holbrook to Flagstaff
we encountered driving rain, distant dark clouds with rain streams hanging
beneath, thunder and lightning, and eerie looking white clouds. Along Hwy 89 the layers, variety and
intensity or subtlety of colors are what made the rock formations so eye
popping. I kept snapping pictures
knowing it was probably an exercise in futility to take pictures from a vehicle
zipping along a bumpy road at 65 mph. Didn’t stop me from trying, though. About 1 in
5 turned out.
----------
We usually
falter when it comes to correctly describing what we’re seeing in the
southwestern landscape. Saying “that thing
sticking up out there” or “that crack in the ground” might do the job but that’s
a lazy definition. So I finally looked
up some of the terminology of the Arizona landscape:
Plateau---an area of relatively level
high ground.
Mesa---a land formation, less extensive than a plateau, having steep walls and a relatively flat top
Butte---an isolated hill or mountain with steep
or precipitous sides usually having a smaller summit area than a mesa
Canyon---a deep gorge, typically one
with a river flowing through it
Arroyo---a small steep-sided watercourse or gulch with a nearly flat floor; usually dry except after heavy rains.
Wash---A narrow, constricting dry bed of an
intermittent stream, as at the bottom of a canyon, typically dry but subject to
rapid flow during flash flooding.
Slot canyon---a narrow canyon, formed by the wear of water rushing through
rock. A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is
wide. Some slot canyons can
measure less than 1 metre (3 ft) across at the top but drop more than 30 metres
(100 ft) to the floor of the canyon. *Antelope
Canyon is a slot canyon.
----------
Did a little
geocaching tonight…found one at the John Wesley Powell Museum. Originally the cache was outside but was
repeatedly vandalized, so the museum agreed to be the keeper of the cache. Had to go inside, tell the curator that we
were geocachers and then we were allowed to see the cache, sign the log book,
etc. We got skunked on the 2nd
cache. According to the coordinates, we
were right on it but we just couldn’t find it. The online log indicates that no one else has
found it either.
----------
At the first
cache site, we looked around the museum a bit…found out there’s a movie about the
trip that Major Powell and 9 others made down the Colorado River through a
canyon, which became known as the Grand Canyon.
Decided to watch the movie “Ten Who Dared” tonight….made in 1960 by
Disney Productions…kind of cheesy by today’s standards. But we’ve been known to watch cheesy before.
----------
This marks the beginning
of our trek homeward. Don’t know if the
bikes will come out of the trailer again, playing that by ear. Going to take our time getting home, exploring
along the way. We’re taking a different
route back to Michigan...US 160 East. Kim isn’t anxious to drive through any more
snowstorms, but there’s no guarantees on that.
Snow on the ground here in KY this morn, dont be in a hurry !!
ReplyDelete