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I
played a couple of games of Scrabble last night before I went to bed. This morning in that hazy time of not quite
asleep but not quite awake my brain was trying to figure out the best way to
use the letter ‘J’. Of course, in
reality that all depends on what other letters are available but, really,
that’s a weird way to wake up.
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Hung
around the camp until almost 11 a.m., then jumped on the bikes. We had a ride planned but then got
sidetracked after we started. For us
that usually leads to the best kind of adventures. Usually it’s me that suggests a deviation
from the plan but today it was Kim’s suggestion that we turn left at the light
to see what Arizona City was all about.
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There
are a few businesses on Battaglia Road which is the way to get to Indian Route
15…we thought that was the extent of Arizona City. But the other day coming back I realized that
there was more to it…those buildings could have been houses, could have been
more businesses. Kim decided on the spur
of the moment to turn at the light to find out.
There was a ‘business district’ and several housing developments. The road continued on but we turned around at
the end of the inhabited area. I’ve noticed that houses in the desert area
generally fall into two categories: 1) those
that are making do with whatever they have; these are older, sometimes a bit
more randomly placed and speak of lower income and 2) those in a walled/fenced
development community; these tend to be newer, the same style (one story) and
color, and speak of more affluence.
There are not many individual grand homes like we have back in
Charlevoix. In fact I think I’ve seen one multi-story house…it was block style
and adobe colored…and for sale. On the
outer edges of Tucson there are housing developments going up like crazy but
there’s not much individuality. We were
told that about 50% of the population in Arizona City is made up of ‘snowbirds’
and they are the driving force behind the housing developments. Not many RV parks around Arizona City. Whereas in the town of Quartzsite there was
one RV park after another with very few homes.
Or maybe they were cleverly hidden. 😏
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On
our slow ride through town, we saw a house that looked very much out of place in a
community where every other house is adobe colored. This house had thick white siding…think igloo,
that’s what it looked like. We surmised
it had to have something to do with energy efficiency. I can’t find anything about the exterior
online…just can’t find the right search phrase.
But I did find the house in Google Maps street view...a picture from
2011 shows it had the same exterior just a lot dingier. And the neighborhood isn’t nearly as built up
as it is now. Huh…
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 |
| Selfie stick time at Weird Kid Records |
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Because we spent a couple hours in Arizona City, we only rode as far as
the Gu-Achi Trading Post instead of riding onto Why, AZ. Sat at our favorite picnic table and drank a
Gatorade then hopped on the bikes for the return trip. As we’re riding along I start thinking…Ya know, we really should’ve bought a Weird
Kid coffee cup…and I should have bought that Bob Seger album. Dang!!
Wait, I wonder if they’re still open….Hey, Kim, what do you think about
stopping at the record store on our way back through? We stopped, they were open and I was able to
make my purchase. Got an improvised
sticker to put up on the ceiling, too. I
was off my game, though, because I should have thought to ask about the name of
the store.
**Side note:
Their son is named Sinatra…not necessarily because they’re big Sinatra
music fans. They said it’s because of
his stand against racism and prejudice.
They wanted to honor that attitude.
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It must be reported that we saw a rattlesnake
today…it was dead but Kim was still excited that he actually saw one. It
confirms that they’re out here. It was on the road and it wasn’t squished so
it’s a mystery to me as to how it died.
Kim was a good Samaritan and removed it to the side of the road. It was probably about 2 ½ feet long and only
had two rattles on his tail.
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No
scorpion sightings yet. I think it might
still be kind of cool at night for them…although tonight is very balmy.
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We’re
starting to formulate plans for heading back home. I’ve been getting calls for work and am
afraid I’m going to be jumping back into it instead of easing back in. I’ve been feeling a low grade kind of antsy
for that reason. We paid for a month
because it was cheaper so we technically have until April 6th, but we’ll
won’t be here that long.
Update on Hannah
Hummingbird: On Tuesday we saw a hummingbird flit in
towards the nest then dart out again. Other than that we haven’t seen any
Hannah action. And I haven’t had a
response to my inquiry on the hummingbird website. So it’s anybody’s guess as to whether this
nest will be used for its intended purpose.
Kim suggested we post this picture up on the office bulletin board…😉
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Bike miles today: 142
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