The day started out cloudy and
windy. I’ve been wearing shorts around
the campground and jeans only when we ride the bikes. We
explored in the truck today…stayed off the bikes. I wore shorts but had my jeans and socks along with me, just in
case.
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Last night Kim said that he’d be timing his
walk again today so that meant we’d be doing it separately again. I was ready first so I fired up the iPod and started
out before him. He caught up with and
passed me within the first mile and made it back to the campsite about 20
minutes before me. Classic tortoise and
the hare. 😎 Got over 7600 steps for my effort.
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The Fitbit can show different types of
activity, such as the number of flights of stairs climbed in a day. That seems
to just be in indicator in change of elevation because when I walk up hills
back home, the Fitbit gives me ‘stair credit’.
So out here I’ve been walking on level
ground. However, the Fitbit has been
giving me credit for climbing stairs…one day it indicated that I walked up 21
flights of stairs; there are no stairs in my world right now, no change in
elevation. Then it occurred to me that maybe it was tracking the step up into
and out of the trailer. I tested that
theory by going in and out many times but the stair number didn’t move. Since I don’t know what’s causing it to give
me ‘stair credit’ and I really don’t need that information anyway, I removed
the stair icon on the app. 😏 That’s the end of that!
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There’s a horse arena and pasture next to the back
of the campground. We can see a section of the pasture from our campsite. Currently there are a few horse trailers over
in the parking lot and more horses running around the pasture than there were
last year. One weekend during our stay
here last year, the parking lot was full of horse trailers and there were people
milling around. Otherwise it’s a fairly
quiet place…not usually a lot of human activity.
The last three days when we’ve been out
walking we’ve been passed by a man on horseback...I’ll call him Cowboy. We’ve greeted each other every time. Yesterday I saw him ride into the area next
door and today I saw him ride out of there so I flagged him down when he passed
me to ask about the horse arena next door.
Turns out Cowboy is from Saskatchewan,
Canada, and a horse trainer by trade. That would explain why he looks so
natural on a trotting horse because not everyone does, you know. He’s not here on vacation; he’s actually
working, training horses over the winter.
This is his 3rd winter coming down here…last year he and his
son brought 3 horses and this year 15; that explains why I’ve seen more horse
activity in the pasture this year. He
said that the horses are young and haven’t had much saddle time so that’s part
of what he’s doing when we see him on our walks. It apparently hasn’t been the same horse each
time either…couldn’t prove that by me. When I asked how he found a training arena
in Picacho, AZ, from up in Saskatchewan, he said it was actually a client of
his who had been down here and subsequently requested that he train his horses
here over the winter. The training arena is owned by a champion roper who’s
very particular about allowing people to stay on site; Cowboy said he considers
it a privilege to be one of the few. Oh,
and the owner of the arena holds training events sometimes…there was one going
on today.
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The Superstition Mountains
are breathtaking! The only drawback are
the electrical lines marching across the mountainsides. Don’t know why there are so many lines but
they muck up some great landscape photo ops.
Last time out here I only had a vague awareness of the mountains because I
had to pay close attention to the road. Today being in the passenger seat of
the truck I could fully appreciate the beauty. From a distance the rocks and
mountains have a green-ish glow in the sunlight…turns out to be moss! Oodles of cacti dot the mountainsides,
also. There were a couple of one lane bridges in the Canyon Lake area and a
marina/campground near one of the last bridges. Lots of people were milling around in that area. Heavy traffic today on
AZ 88, the road to Tortilla Flat.
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The road into the mountains was one of the
twistiest roads I have ever been on.
When we took the bikes up there it was impossible to go more than 10 mph
because of the bumps and chuck holes in the road. Attention to the bumps took my mind off the
twisting road back then. Today the twisties were my issue…I’m not a big fan of
continuous curves, switchbacks, blind curves around rock walls or outside
curves that end in a big drop off if you misjudge. Kim handled my anxiety better than I did. He
took it slow and still I whimpered. That was part of the reason I wanted to
continue east of Tortilla Flat…I didn’t want to ride back over those 17 miles
of twisting hell. Had to anyway because
Rapunzel wasn’t cooperating. Once Kim
suggested I just close my eyes but couldn’t do that either. Just had to grit my teeth and hold tight,
gasping now and then and occasionally leaning away from the edge of the road
like that was going to help the truck keep from plunging off. I really think it’s a control thing for me on
those types of roads…the curves don’t affect me that way if I’m in the driver’s
seat. And yes, Kim would have let me
drive but I told him that he really didn’t want me driving the truck through
those curves…my car, yes...the truck, no.
Anyway, here I am, still alive and able to write about it. 😰
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It was cloudy most of the day and Kim was
convinced that it wouldn’t be clear enough tonight to image. It was also windy and there was a lot of dust
blowing up in the fields. Because of the
dust it was tough to tell what the sky was like in the distance. By the time we got to Coolidge it was dark
but stars were starting to peek out and the moon was visible as a tiny sliver. Totally clear sky filled with stars when we
got back to camp about 7:30 and Kim was almost giddy about being able to image. 👍
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At Tortilla Flat I bought a tacky plastic
cactus that lights up to add to the Freddie and Flossie display. Put the batteries in it and nothing…no
lights. I put it out there anyway and it
visible because the solar lights give plenty of light…but a lighted cactus
would be so much better because it would be just the right kind of tacky. The back comes off so maybe Kim can fix
it…all I know is that he certainly can’t break it.
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The evening is a bit cooler than we’ve experienced so far…it’s sitting at the edge of 50o. Still warm compared to back home, though.
The evening is a bit cooler than we’ve experienced so far…it’s sitting at the edge of 50o. Still warm compared to back home, though.
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No bike riding today
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