Realized after my walk
yesterday morning that what our camp has been missing is music. Last year Kim rigged up a receiver and
speakers for the trailer…we just hadn’t gotten it set up this year. But that was quickly remedied and we now have
music available at the touch of a button.🎵
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Kim and I did our own
thing again for the morning walk. We’ve
been using our phones to track our time but yesterday his phone app quit part
way through his walk. Discovered the
Fitbit has a stopwatch function so that’s what we each used today…he left his
phone behind, I took mine so I could take pictures. He wants to see how quickly he can do the 3
miles…I want to see how long it takes me.
Same thing, different words.
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The road we walk, Picacho Hwy, gets very
little traffic. I think there’s some
type of agricultural venture down the way because occasionally pick-up trucks
with logos pass by and there’s a lot of loose cotton along the roadside. However there are no cotton fields in the
section that we walk…a pecan orchard, yes, but no cotton fields. There are a
few houses close to the camp but other than that it’s desert on either side. And to be honest, I find walking the same
stretch of road to be boring but I’m determined to push through the boredom. Music made it much more enjoyable yesterday
so when we were in town I bought a better pair of ear buds…ones that will
actually stay in my ear. I made it even
more enjoyable by doing some upper body dancing and it took me longer than it
should have to realize I could also sing along and nobody would hear me. Well, maybe a few dogs were within range but I
had to listen to their barking so they could put up with my singing. Mrs.
Robinson became a trio with me singing along with Simon and Garfunkel…or maybe
it was an a cappella solo. That would
depend on which side of the ear buds a person is. 😉
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After my walk and a shower it was time to do
some laundry…got the washing machines going then I headed out to the little wi-fi hut to watch the birds on the saguaros and just enjoy the warmth and freshness of being outside. Kim was in
the clubhouse processing last night’s pictures.
It wasn’t a time of great activity for either of us but I’m learning to let that be okay. I have to fight the urge to be in motion because that’s my inclination when I’m away from my
home routine…I want to see and do new things, I want to explore. The flip side of that is to do nothing and
that doesn’t work for me either…just leads to falling asleep. So the happy medium for
me is to sit back and relax while doing something enjoyable. This morning was about relaxation….hanging out taking
pictures of the birds while the washers and dryers did their thing.
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Kim wanted to go to Casa Grande today and I wanted
to go to Coolidge. His trip would
involve buying lumber for a project so he needed to take the truck. My trip just involved picking up some
pictures at Walgreen’s and I wanted to take a ride beyond that. So we thought about it and each went our separate
ways to do our own thing. Met back at
the camp in a couple of hours…his project was almost completed and I got in a
90+ mile ride on a beautiful sunny warm afternoon. Both missions were accomplished!
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Last night Freddie and Flossie were hanging
out underneath a nearby tree with the solar lights arranged around them. The
ground is hard and the light stakes weren’t very stable. Kim thought they
should be more prominent and thought of a non-permanent solution but needed to
get some materials, hence his trip into town.
There’s a box out front of the trailer filled with electrical stuff, tools,
etc. Kim built a frame for the top of
the box to attach the lights to and then fashioned a little ‘stage’ for the
gnomes to stand on. Painted all the wood
black to match the box and voila! Freddie and Flossie are front and center of
the trailer, standing guard over the camp.
Everything is removable so the box will be accessible when it needs to
be. And we have a couple more ideas but
it will take time to find just the right items.
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I ordered some pictures last night for pick
up today at the Coolidge Walgreen’s. That’s only about a 30 mile round trip and I
wanted more. I was itching to spend a
couple of hours just riding aimlessly. I
plotted a route so it wasn’t exactly aimless but Kim needed to know where I was
going. I wanted to go to the Tom Mix highway (AZ 79) through Florence and then
back to the frontage road near Marana via E. Park Link Rd. I gave Kim all the details and then set
off. What a glorious day for a
ride!
Before I left camp I knew I would be
stopping at the Tom Mix Memorial. Every time we ride AZ 79, we stop and I feel
compelled to read the account that someone has affixed to the table there…by
now I can recite all the details of his death with my eyes closed. Today I left
a purple smiley rock in among the Tom Mix stuff. Wonder if anyone will take it…besides the caretaker of the monument.
Saw lots of orange and delicate purple
flowers whose names I don’t know but I do know they were a noticeable splash of
color out among the cactuses. The
cactuses out along the highway don’t seem to have suffered as much damage from
the October hail as the cactuses in camp.
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My wrist vibrated with my 10,000 step
fireworks before I left for my bike ride; I still took the Fitbit off because
I’m participating in a challenge. While
it’s fun to win a challenge, it’s better to lose honestly than win dishonestly.
I realize that no one else in the challenge would know how I got so many steps but
I would and I have to live with myself…my conscience wouldn’t let me rest easy
if I cheated. So the Fitbit has to be
taken off when I’m on the bike for my peace of mind. 😏
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Found another Mexican pastry at the grocery
store in Eloy…this one called Empanada De
Cajeta. It was the color of a little
piggy or donut cookie so I figured it was worth a try. Opened the package and ate
one as soon as I was in the truck.
Hmmm…not overly impressed with this one.
It had a filling and the pastry was kind of crumbly. I think I described
it as a tasteless Fig Newton kind of cookie…and I’m not a fan of Fig Newtons at
all. To research this new pastry I had to break the words apart...an empanada is defined as a Spanish or Latin
American pastry turnover filled with a variety of savory ingredients and baked
or fried. According
to Wikipedia cajeta is a confection of
thickened syrup usually made of sweetened caramelised goat's milk. It is a type
of dulce de leche. Cajeta is made by simmering goat's milk, or
occasionally a sweetened liquid, stirring frequently, until its viscosity
increases due to evaporation of water, and caramelized. Also referred to as Mexican Caramel. From this I assume I purchased
pastry turnovers filled with some type of Mexican Caramel. Neither of us were bowled over on the first
try so we gave it a second try…nope, still no taste. The remaining pastries were thrown in the
garbage. 😐
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Miles today: 96
Miles today: 96
Total miles: 255
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