Up early to get some wash done and get
yesterday’s blog/pictures posted before church at 11. The First Baptist Church of Picacho is about
the distance of a Babe Ruth homerun from our trailer…easy walk. Small church…14 pews, 7 on each side. Maybe 30 people in attendance today. The pastor noted that there were visitors
today (at this point, the lady I sat next to last week, who texted me the picture of Bluegrass from
Heaven, turned around and gave us a big wave) so let’s go around and
greet people, which we did…every man, woman and child circled around that room
greeting people. Last week there was a
special music presentation; this week there was no special music. In fact, there was no music as the piano player is recovering from surgery but there
was singing. Wait, the first song we
sang to the accompaniment of a computer.
Then we sang two old hymns acapella (How Great Thou Art and The Old
Rugged Cross), all led by a sincere but slightly off key song leader. So the 1st
song had music by way of computer but most of the congregation was a beat or
two behind the music through the 1st verse but we eventually pulled
it together by the end of the 3rd verse. And after that someone still thought acapella
was a good idea? J Our collective
attempt at acapella, started off by the aforementioned song leader, was sincere
but a bit comical---at one point I caught Kim’s eye and when I saw his slight
smile and his eyes twinkling, I dissolved into shoulder shaking silent
laughter, almost uncontrollably. Managed
to pull myself together, but didn’t look in Kim’s direction again. I wasn’t laughing at any one person, just the
whole situation, at all of us, but I felt bad about it. Didn’t want anyone
thinking the visitor was being critical.
But then the pastor got up and pretty much acknowledged that the group
needed help and that he himself was laughing a time or two also. Several people
humorously echoed the sentiment; the attitude in the room was very endearing. Perfection our singing was not….however, a
joyful noise unto the Lord it was. 😊
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This is our last night here….we’re
heading over to Tucson tomorrow to spend a night with Bryan and Linda Shumaker
and then we’ll be heading to New Mexico.
The Picacho KOA has a restaurant on site called Frankie’s Chuckwagon. They specialize in steaks cooked on an
outdoor grill. We ate there last
year….it must have been on Kim’s ‘Must Do’ list for this year because he made
reservations for us for tonight at 6:30.
Just finished up….he had a 24 oz. Porterhouse and I had a Grilled
Chicken Salad with sweet potato fries. I
also ordered Jalapeno Coleslaw just to see what it tasted like….ooh, doggies,
was it hot! Kim liked it but the heat
was too much for me.
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| Walking in Saguaro National Park |
After church, we decided to take a ride
to Saguaro National Park because last year it was a nice place to just wander
around the desert environment. We wanted
to go somewhere we could hopefully sign of desert life, besides cactus that
is. This year, I sat in the shade of a
saguaro, waiting and watching, trying to blend so the critters would feel safe
to come out. Didn’t work but it was
cooler than walking in the hot sun. We
weren’t very far from the road which has two sets of rumble strips alerting motorists to
the entrance to the visitor’s center.
And there were a lot a vehicles out and about in the park today…those
rumble strips were fairly buzzing from the traffic. So our location wasn’t real conducive to a
quiet peek at the desert. Still fun to
look at the variety of cactus and other desert plants…and marvel at the
adaption it takes to stay alive in such an arid and harsh environment. Came across a tall saguaro that was brown and
rotting; it had big gaping wounds and was leaning slightly. However, about
halfway up the length of it was a bright green arm reaching upward. It’s decaying yet it’s alive. Interesting, but confusing…😕
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Highway 87 is the way to get to
Coolidge from Picacho….been that way many times by now. And what I’ve noticed is that are a couple of
sections in about a 5 mile span that cool down, very noticeably. Not so bad on a hot day when the sun is out,
but in the evening it can feel dramatic.
Especially if I’m still sweaty from riding in the sun. Kim said the coolness happens when there are
green fields on both sides of the road.
Plowed and unplanted fields absorb the heat and reflect it back…in a
field covered by a growing crop, the sun doesn’t penetrate to the ground. The plant absorbs the sun’s heat and uses it
for other things. So last night as we came through that area just as the sun
was going down and the moon was already up, I decided to watch, not just feel, the
difference. My bike provides current air temperature on the display screen with a push of the
information button. Coming out of
Coolidge it was 83o, so I watched it for a couple of miles….yep,
holding steady. Then as we were riding
through the first green area, I watched it drop to 74o, then it
climbed back up when we were past it. It
went down again as we rode through the next green area. Each green area may
have been ½ mile to a mile long. By the time we were back at camp, the temp was
holding steady at 80o. Just a
way to pass the time….
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The roads in the Picacho KOA have a
western theme…John Wayne, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp and more. Yesterday on my walk I encountered ‘Pete
Phelps Pass’. Didn’t have a clue as to
how Pete Phelps fit into the western theme because I had never heard of
him. So I googled it and
found out that Pete Phelps is an Australian actor, singer and writer, whose
most notable role has been on Baywatch.
I really didn’t think that was the Pete Phelps I was looking for. Next up was Pete Phelps, a swimmer who
represented Australia in the 1964 Olympics.
Again didn’t think this was the right one. Third time’s the charm…I found a Pete Phelps
featured in an article in The Daily Courier, website dcourier.com:
Horse racer, "Ranch
Manager of the Year," bull judge, Cowboy Artist subject, and war survivor.
Growing up on a family
farm with dreams of becoming a cowboy, Pete Phelps might have welcomed spending
most of his life rounding cattle in a vast ranch land somewhere in the West.
But life unfolded somewhat
to the contrary.
The 81-year-old said he
moved from Kansas to Arizona at the age of 30 prior to managing the
60-square-mile Santa Margarita Ranch in southeastern Arizona, where he said he
raised horses, and started working in the racing business, many of the summers
he remembers racing horses at the track in Prescott in the 1970s and '80s.
Phelps established the
Arizona Quarterhorse Racing Association with a fellow board member of the Arizona
Quarterhorse Breeders Association to promote quarterhorse racing, holding the
first meeting in the grandstands with a half-dozen organizers at a Tucson
track, he recalled, adding that he served as the second president and returned
for additional terms when the organization experienced some downturns.
"I was always a
horseman. I had long had a feeling that the quarterhorse breed, whenever you
get away from speed, the quarterhorse breed goes down hill. I still believe
that, and in order to maintain the ability of the quarterhorse, you have to
keep putting that speed in them," Phelps said by phone from his home in
Elroy, Ariz., where he has lived the past 20 years.
There’s more
to the article but this is enough to see why this
is the Pete Phelps that has been honored with a Picacho KOA road, although I
don’t really understand his comments about the quarterhorse.😏
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Rode 89 miles today
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