Kim n Karen....On the Road: March 2024

Saturday, March 30…Hummingbird (Seals and Croft)

Today was predicted to be clear, windy, and hot; it was correct on all three accounts. Didn’t want to do anything that required walking outdoors because of the heat and full sun. Of course, staying in camp and essentially doing nothing wasn’t on my list of things to do either because we’re down to our last two days here. Discussed some options and finally decided to drive up to Madera Canyon again to watch the birds. It’s about 85 miles from camp but it’s worth the drive on a sunny Saturday it, in my opinion. The three of us went there last year and Kim and I were there earlier in the month, so we all knew what we were getting into. No walking during the heat of the day.

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First, we went to Coolidge to pick up my last bunch of pictures to send to the grandkiddos. Then we did a little backtracking to get to I-10 to be on our merry way to Madera Canyon.

On a busy Saturday afternoon, we were lucky to find a parking space at the Santa Rita Gift Shop where the bird watching happens. I headed right for the patio off the gift shop because the whole yard is visible from there plus that’s where the hummingbird action usually is. We weren’t there long before a broadbill hummingbird showed up in all its colorful splendor. It was stunning! And there wasn’t just one, there were four or five flitting after each other. Put my camera on rapid fire and clicked away. I was wearing a purple sequined visor and a tie-dye shirt and there were times that one would hover right in front of me like it was trying to decide what I was before it wisely flew away.

The male turkeys were still fanning their tails and strutting their stuff; the females were still ignoring them. Beyond that I didn’t spend much time watching the turkeys because…well, they’re turkeys. Mom was more observant than me; she noticed that these turkeys had a couple of white stripes on their tails. She didn’t realize that there was more than one type of turkey because Michigan turkeys are all she’s ever seen. They don’t have a white tail band. She would know because turkeys hold conferences in her yard sometimes; she knows their look. I googled it and she is correct…Michigan has the Eastern Wild Turkey and one of the breeds that is native to Arizona is the Gould’s Turkey, which has white tail stripes.

There was a bird who looked like The Penguin on Batman, although initially I thought Uncle Fester from the Addams Family. But, no, it definitely resembled The Penguin…wearing a red beanie instead of a top hat with its tuxedo. It has an unusual look and I remember seeing it last year, but I had to look it up again to put a name to it: Acorn Woodpecker.

There were Yellow-Eyed Juncos, various finches, Mexican Jays and nuthatches. But the bird that captured my attention was the Broad-billed hummer. A few weeks ago, I saw one but only got a picture of it from behind with its head tipped up; I identified it by its red bill with a black tip. Today, when it came to the feeder, I saw the bill and was proud of myself for remembering what it was but was unprepared for its beautiful colors. Sapphire neck and emerald body with that striking red and black bill. Everyone who came out on the patio was oohing and aahing over those birds. The Rivoli’s Hummingbird also showed up again, although I still didn’t get to see its purple head and emerald throat. And its larger size was especially noticeable with the tiny Broad-billed for comparison.

Madera Canyon was a good choice.

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Then it was back to camp to have supper and wait for the SpaceX launch. It was scheduled for 7:30, then was pushed back later and later until it was postponed again with an undetermined launch date. Kim read that weather was a factor. I checked the radar and sure enough there was a big green blob with a yellow center moving across southern California. Vandenberg Space Force Base is north of Los Angeles on the coast and part of that green cloud looked to be in that vicinity. Mom went to bed when it was pushed to 10:30…way past her bedtime. I told her I’d take a video of it but that didn’t happen. So, unless it’s rescheduled for tomorrow night, Mom won’t get to see the fireball streaking across the sky because we’re leaving Monday morning.

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The sky was so clear tonight; however, the wind messed with the tracking of the telescope. Kim wasn’t very hopeful that anything would turn out. Suddenly the wind died down and the tracking stabilized. He had to give up on that target when it got too close to the horizon; but there was still time to pick another target. Less than two hours later, the wind picked up again and he shut it down. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain all day so this was probably the last night for imaging in Arizona in 2024.

Friday, March 29…Should’ve Been A Cowboy (Toby Keith)

Up early again, getting spiffed up and making plans for the day. Had a substantial breakfast…pancakes by Chef Kim, so our bellies were full. Then I ordered tickets online for Old Tucson which didn’t open until 10:30 so there was time for bird watching and hair drying before we had to leave.

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Didn’t know what to expect from Old Tucson; it’d been recommended but Kim and I have never been there. First time for all of us. This is from the website: Old Tucson is an active film ranch with 300 acres of available space for movie and television production. Over 500 films and television shows have been shot at Old Tucson including classics like Arizona, El Dorado, Tombstone, Joe Kidd, Winchester ’73, Three Amigos, and more. The central town is comprised of over 60 buildings on 20 acres of land just 15 minutes outside Tucson, AZ.

Nestled between Saguaro National Park and Tucson Mountain Park, Old Tucson offers unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains and desert landscape. Filmmakers can shoot in any direction without modern distractions and the vast property provides the space and privacy needed for major productions.

Several of the buildings contained eateries, a candy store and gift shop. There were ‘immersive entertainment’ shows staged out on the street and live shows staged in a theater setting. But right away, my attention was snagged by the old-time photo studio beyond the courthouse. It had just opened for the day and didn’t have any appointments booked yet. She could take us right away, so I tracked down Mom and Kim for a photo shoot. I’m a sucker for dressing up in old Western clothing, holding a bottle of liquor that I would never drink in real life, and hamming it up for the camera. My mom and I had a good time with it, not sure if Kim enjoyed it but he put up with it. He transforms so easily into a badass cowboy.

After watching a couple of gunfights type show on the street and a short musical based on Billy the Kid’s involvement in the Lincoln County Wars. It was well-done and it struck me that this must be the main employment of most of the actors, due to how time intensive it would be to learn the part and perform it multiple times throughout the day. The blacksmith is indeed a real blacksmith, and not only does he work at Old Tucson 6 days a week but also teaches the art to kids, doing his best to make sure it doesn’t become a lost art.

“See a carousel, ride a carousel” is my motto, which is exactly what Mom and I did. Had it all to ourselves. Kim opted for taking pictures instead of joining us.

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On our drive through Picture Rocks, a little town just before entering Saguaro National Park, Kim saw a food truck selling Sonoran Hot Dogs. He wanted to stop on our way back to get one for a comparison with Hot Dogs Alvarado. We each had one and all agreed that, while they were good, Hot Dogs Alvarado was better. These were made with beef hot dogs which scored points with Kim but the buns weren’t grilled which lost points from all of us. But it was still a tasty lunch.

We topped off our day out with a stop at Dairy Queen.

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Kim’s request this morning was that we be back to give him enough time before dark to install a mount for the TV. The 32” TV didn’t fit on the existing mount apparatus, so it was just standing on its legs. That wouldn’t work in a moving camper, so he bought a new mounting system. We were home mid-afternoon and he got to work. The television is now secured tightly to the wall.

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The StarLink launch has been postponed to ‘no earlier than 7:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Saturday, March 30^th. So, we’ll look again tomorrow night.

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Felicia stopped by tonight to say hello to Mom and then bye to all of us because she won’t be here over the weekend nor on Monday, when we leave. Can’t believe our time here is coming to an end soon. We’ll be putting in a request for ‘our’ lot again for next year and looking forward to returning.

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No imaging due to clouds and wind.

Thursday, March 28…The River (Bruce Springsteen)

We are early risers now…well, if one considers 7 a.m. to be early, which I do. Mom is up and heading for the clubhouse around seven for a shower and we’ve been getting up when she leaves. We deflate the air mattress, fold up the bedding and stash it in the bedroom, put the table back in place, etc. The living area is then ready for the three of us to sit at the table, plan our day, eat breakfast, whatever. We don’t necessarily leave for our day’s entertainment early, but we get up early to talk about it.

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Kim and I have been to Sabino Canyon several times; we’ve always walked/hiked the pathways. Today the three of us took a ride aboard the Sabino Canyon Shuttle. In an effort to cover all the ‘Mom’ bases, I made sure that we ate a good breakfast and that we’d be riding instead of walking today. I also knew that we’d be out of direct sunlight because the shuttle is covered. What I didn’t do was buy tickets online beforehand. We arrived at about 11:30 to discover that the next available tour was 2 p.m. Ugh!! I bought tickets from the kiosk and then we had two hours to fill. Walked the Bajada Loop then went to Arizona Pizza Company for lunch. Then it was back to the shuttle stop to wait.

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A saguaro is an amazing sight and sometimes, there’ll be one with a ‘crest’, which makes it even more amazing. The top of the crested saguaro grows outward in a fanlike formation instead of upward and each cristate, or crest, is different. I’m always on the lookout for cristates whenever we’re driving through areas where saguaros grow. Saw one today in the front yard of a house on Ina Rd. on the way to Sabino Canyon. I like to take pictures of them but sometimes have to be satisfied with just seeing them; such was the case today. No picture of that cristate because traffic didn’t permit a stop but it was added to my mental list.

However, on our walk through the Bajada Loop, we came across the most splendidly crested saguaro ever and so many pictures were taken of that one. Every other cristate I’ve seen, the crest is the top of the cactus; however, this one looked like the crest had crested again and then there were many healthy arms growing out of both crests. Simply a marvel to look at! From a nearby sign: Though a crest is a matter of great curiosity, to date no one knows exactly the cause of it. Many theories have been proposed including viruses, genetics, lightning, frost, microscopic insects, and abnormal lateral growth tip division. However, none of these have been confirmed. From the National Park Service: Cristate saguaros are fairly rare. Scientists once estimated that for every 200,000 normal cacti, there is only one abnormal crest.

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The shuttle ride was worth the wait. The road snaked over three miles into the Santa Catalina Mountains, crossing over the Sabino River five times. A very twisty river! The guide made sure to tell us that we were not crossing over bridges, but ‘vented low-water crossings’ instead. I could see there was a difference between a typical bridge and what we were driving over but didn’t have a clue as to why a vented low-water crossing was preferable. Found this on Wikipedia: A low-water crossing is a low-elevation roadway traversing over a waterbody that stays dry above the water when the flow is low, but is designed to get submerged under high-flow conditions such as floods. This type of crossing is much cheaper to build than a high bridge that keeps the road surface consistently above the highest water level, and is usually deployed in semi-arid areas where high-volume rainfall is rare and the existing channel is shallow (which requires extra ramping on the banks to build a more elevated bridge and thus costs more), particularly in developing countries. Now I understand why the river was flowing over the road surface at a couple of these low-vented crossings.

Anyway, we listened to a recorded audio description of what we were seeing and some of the history of the area. There were nine stops; one could get off the shuttle at any of the stops and either catch another shuttle or walk back to the visitor center. We chose to ride up and back in the shuttle.

Probably the best part of the ride down was being followed by a man riding an electric three-wheeled wheelchair with hand brakes. We were sitting backwards in the last row, so we were able to watch him the entire return trip. He got a lot of smiles from hikers that he passed along the way. And one time he was able to ‘ride to the rescue’ when a backpack fell off the shuttle. The shuttle stopped and the owner of the backpack went hustling back up the hill to retrieve it. The ‘Lone Ranger’ scooped it up, came riding around the curve to meet the woman who lost it and gallantly returned it. Turns out this man was riding the ‘trike’ back down for his wife who was on the shuttle. Don’t know how it got up there, but it was fun watching it come back down.

The shuttle made one more unplanned stop when a Western diamondback rattlesnake crawled up onto the road. Probably more pictures were taken of that snake than during the rest of the tour. 😮

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Made a detour on the way back to camp to see the burrowing owl site. Mom knew that we had helped with the initial burrow building stage of the project and was curious to see what it looked like with the tents up. From her surprised reaction, it did not look like she thought it would. We continued on past the tents and saw some owls standing outside some older artificial burrows. Also saw some owls hanging out by the canals on Hardin Rd.

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There was supposed to be another Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight. More Starlink satellites being sent into space. Sky was mostly cloudy, but we went out at the appointed launch time anyway to see what we could see. Which was basically nothing because the launch had been delayed, although we didn’t know that until we got back to the camper. It will happen ‘no earlier than 7:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Friday, March 29.’ Between the three of us, we should be able to remember that.

Wednesday, March 27…The S’more Song (Sonny Salsbury)

Finished the needle felted hedgehog last night. Sent a picture to Clayton this morning so he could name it; Pokie the Hedgehog has taken his place with the Critter Crew.

My next project was going to be a burrowing owl. Started it while watching one of the documentaries last night and didn’t use a picture as a reference. I was just going from memory, which was a big mistake. It looked like a pill with hairy black legs…but it gave us all a good laugh. However, this morning, I decided to salvage my epic owl failure by giving it a face, hair, arms and at Kim’s suggestion, armpit hair. That last detail made it look like a chicken because the arms now stick out like wings. Added a beak-ish nose and voila! I have an unidentified critter waiting to hang with the others. The critter is waiting for a name and I’m in the process of rethinking how to do the burrowing owl.

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My mom knows that Wednesday is delivery day for Piggy cookies and she wants to take some home. But before we went to the grocery store, we needed to go down to Nutt Rd. to see what was up with the cell camera. I had watched the four videos of the cows investigating it…two of them were caught licking it. Maybe they thought it was a salt lick? And they didn’t knock it over as I initially thought…it was simply turned backward. So, maybe the licking loosened it, and the cow sideswiped it as it walked by, turning it around as it did so. Anyway, it has been turned back around so we won’t be getting 70 pictures of the rising sun tomorrow.

Then it was on to the store where we bought plenty of Piggy cookies to make the trip back to Michigan with us.

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If Mom felt it was doable, I wanted to go to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, which is in the vicinity of Saguaro National Park. It’s not a building museum; the website says that 85% of the museum is outdoors and it’s primarily a walking experience. It was highly recommended by several friends; when I mentioned that my mom was 88 and not really fond of the heat, I was told there are plenty of places to sit and rest. And indeed, there were.

It was a sunny day but since it was only in the 70s, we decided to go for it. It was a lot of walking but nothing too strenuous. Plenty of shade opportunities and as expected, there were plenty of benches for sitting. There was a small aquarium and a zoo with native animals. Lizards/iguanas don’t let fences keep them out or in; and while the hummingbird exhibit probably had a wider variety, it certainly didn’t have as many hummers as are flitting around our yard. We decided to skip the Desert Trail due to the time of day and the uphill return trip, but otherwise we followed the map and spent almost 2 hours enjoying the sights.

Highlights of the day for me: finding Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguanas hanging out in the bear enclosure (bear was not on display). There were two females and one male, who was flexing his muscles by doing some head bobbing…almost looked like push-ups. Then as one female moved higher up the rocks, the male took off after it in what looked like a mating pursuit. When nature calls, you gotta answer.

Saw and learned some new things at the museum. But most importantly, what we learned is that Mom needs to eat a better breakfast and possibly pack a cookie in her purse if we’re going to be out in the heat and gone over lunchtime.

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I found an active hawk nest on Park Link Rd., inhabited by a Harris’ hawk currently. It’s too high to get a peek inside which is probably a good thing as that hawk didn’t look too excited that I was taking her picture. Near mile marker 10.

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Found a crested saguaro on Sandario Rd. that I don’t ever remember seeing before. We are rarely that far down on Sandario. Kim was kind enough to turn around so I could get a picture.

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We have wood to burn up and have been talking about having a fire when my mom came out. Earlier today, Kim asked the neighbors if they wanted to come over for s’mores. Made a date for 7 o’clock and right on time they all came over with their chairs and marshmallows. We had the graham crackers and chocolate bars. Finally learned the mom’s name; it’s Casey. Tomas is a lineman and is in the process of interviewing for a job at Duke Energy in Indiana. They’ve been doing camper living since November but had only arrived at this campground about a week before us. Tomas works out of a union hall but would prefer to get employment with a utility company for a shot at a more normal life; that’s why he’s interviewing in Indiana. Casey got her nursing degree right before COVID hit in 2020; mentioned that working in the ICU was brutal during that time because none of the patients survived.

It was a fun time for us, and it seemed like the same for them. The kids were bummed to find out that we’re leaving on Monday. I know the kids enjoyed the s’mores…each had two.

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The night is clear and Kim uncovered the scope. He’s aiming for the Tadpole Nebula, a first for him.

Tuesday, March 26…Think Like a Scientist (GoNoodle)

On our way home from Coolidge yesterday, we took a slight detour so Mom could see the herd of the Traveling Sheep up close and personal. She was duly impressed, not only by the sheep but also by the roadrunner who did its best to hide from us. But it didn’t know that I am persistent and have a good zoom lens.

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The day dawned cool and partly sunny, which meant shorts and two shirts for me and sweatpants and a jacket for Mom. As the morning warmed up, she did change from sweatpants to capris, but wouldn’t give up that jacket.

Mom had heard of Biosphere 2 on a TV show and wondered how far away it was and if we could go there. No problem! And since it’s located in Oracle, there was no doubt where we’d be having lunch…DeMarco’s Pizzeria.

The tour of Biosphere 2 is self-guided using a smart phone. Don’t know if it’s possible to do the tour without a phone…no other options were mentioned. Anyway, install the app, press ‘start the tour’ and play the appropriate video at each numbered stop. Ear buds make for easier listening. That all sounds good and well, but the app took forever to load and then the videos were hit or miss as to whether they played. Finally, hooked up to their wi-fi and it was much smoother.

The name “Biosphere 2” comes from the idea that is modeled on the Earth, which is Biosphere 1. It was built on 3 acres in 1986 as a facility to research and develop self-sustaining technology that could be used in space-colonization. Eight ‘Biospherians’ were selected to spend two years in this self-contained facility, researching and documenting their findings. The biosphere contained 7 biomes: an ocean with coral reef, a marsh, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert, farming areas and a micro-city. Biospherians made it through the two years but not without tarnishing the lofty ideals of the experiment. The plants contained within couldn’t convert the amount of CO₂ to the proper level of oxygen to maintain the health of the occupants, so oxygen was pumped in; extra food was also brought in. Those in charge tried to keep this a secret and when the story broke, the public felt that the mission of the experiment failed. However, even though the integrity of the experiment was questioned, there are some in the scientific community who feel that there were beneficial outcomes of the closed ecological experiment.

It’s been owned by the University of Arizona since 2011; the biomes are being used for research into understanding the consequences of global climate change.

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On the way back to camp, I discovered there had been a documentary made in 2020 about the Biosphere 2 experiment, called Spaceship Earth. We watched it and by the time it was over, I was a little confused. Based on words like ‘scientific experimentation’ and ‘research’, I had assumed that the Biosphere 2 project was undertaken by scientists and researchers because research is typically done by those who have knowledge or an expertise in a certain area. Not the case here. Biosphere 2 was the brainchild of a hippy theater group, led by a charismatic man named John Allen. No doubt this group had vision and courage by conceiving of and building this facility but there was not a science degree or researcher among any of the Biospherians. But then I guess if we mucked up Earth enough that we’d have to build a space colony, not everyone involved would be a scientist or an expert. So, there is that.

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Oracle is not a big town…there appear to be 3 eateries and they’re all closed on Tuesday. What are the odds on that one? So, no BLT after all; we hit the Dairy Queen in Picacho for a very late lunch.

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There’s been a lot of press in the past week or so about the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the ‘Ghost Army’ of World War II. It’s been more than 80 years since the more than 1,000 members of the 23^rd Headquarters Special Troops landed in France; seven of them survive and three were in attendance to receive the medals…the average age of the survivors is 100 years old.

The story of this unit is fascinating…tricking the Germans with the use of inflatable tanks, illusions, and sound effects. And the most improbable part is that nobody talked about it afterward; it was kept a secret for years after the end of the war. The mission wasn’t declassified until 1996. Tonight, we watched The Ghost Army, a documentary made in 2013 which detailed the exploits of this unit. I think most of the men interviewed for the film are no longer alive. It’s a little over an hour long and I wish it was longer with more interviews.

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We didn't realize until after dark that cows have found the cell camera and now it’s sending lovely pictures of the sky. Guess we need to check that out tomorrow. 😎

Monday, March 25…Brick House (Commodores)

We all survived our sleeping arrangements. Kim and I slept on a 24” high air mattress us and Mom slept in our bed with a make-believe pillow. Set-up and take-down of the entire air mattress arrangement went smoothly…the living area was back to normal before Mom got back from her shower.

We changed the position of the table; instead of having the table perpendicular to the back ramp, we turned it so it’s parallel to it and pushed it up against a wall. That allows for one chair on each side and one on the end with plenty of room to walk around it. Plenty of room to have two chairs on one side also. This setup seems to better accommodate three people.

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Warm enough outside today for Mom to sit and enjoy the bird show we have going on during daylight hours. At one point, there were at least 10 hummers competing for the perfect spot on the feeders. Haven’t seen the Hooded Oriole for a couple of days or the cardinals either, for that matter. Plenty of hummers and sparrows, though, to entertain our guest. 😎

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The Regal Horned Lizard came skittering into the yard to surprise all of us. It came from the back corner of the camper which makes me more certain that it’s taken refuge in the small pile of wood laying in that area. Although it seems to like being underneath the camper also. It blends with the dirt so well that every time I look for it under there, I don’t see it.

Mom was surprised by how small it was…thought from the pictures that it was much bigger. Unless there’s something nearby for size perspective, pictures don’t always tell the size story. And this little lizard is too wary and too fast for us to be able to lay a quarter beside it for size comparison.

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After lunch, we visited the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge. When Mom was out here in 2020, the Ruins was closed due to the emergence of COVID-19. And neither of us know why we didn’t go in either 2022 or 2023…we just didn’t. We’ve been talking about various things we could do in the next couple of days. Some require a bit of walking, but since she’d had a chiropractor adjustment just before coming out here, Mom declared she was ready to do some walking. The Casa Grande Ruins was a good place to start.

Personally, the ruins themselves don’t do much for me; it’s the stories of the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert that built the settlement that intrigue me. It’s estimated that they inhabited the area from the early 13^th century to the mid-1400s. They engineered and built canals to divert water from the Gila and Salt Rivers to sustain their farming. They built compounds which consisted of meeting areas, pithouses (homes) and ball courts where games may have been played. The buildings had 4-foot-thick walls made with a compound called ‘caliche’, a concrete-like substance made with sand, clay and limestone. It’s estimated that it took 3,000 tons of caliche to build just the Great House alone. All of this was accomplished without benefit of modern power tools, wheels, beasts of burden (horse, donkey, or oxen) or any type of support frame.

The Great House is a four-story tall structure, which was called ‘Casa Grande’ by a Jesuit missionary in 1694 who discovered it long after the Ancestral People had abandoned the site. It’s the main feature of the ruins, although there are remnants of other structures. Visitors are no longer allowed inside the structure, and it’s protected by a ramada, a roofed shelter with open sides. Its purpose in the lives of the Ancestral People is unknown and it’s huge considering how labor intensive it must have been to build; yet it seems small by today’s standards. It has a few unique features which makes one wonder if it was an ancient observatory of sorts:

*The walls face the North-East-South-West points on a compass.

*A circular hole in the upper west wall aligns with the setting sun at the summer solstice.

*Other openings align with the sun and moon 00pmat specific times of the year.

There is very little known about the Ancestral People, including what they called themselves. However, there are six tribes in the Southwest region that can link their histories to the ancient people who once lived here.

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We bought another TV for the camper. Earlier in March, I talked Kim into getting a 24” TV which I thought would be plenty big given how rarely we’ve watched TV in the camper. He was very dissatisfied with the size of the screen once it was mounted in place; there was nothing to do but buy a 32" TV. The other one will be used as a monitor for Kim’s desk computer at home.

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Went to Hot Dogs Alvarado for supper tonight. Mom has been waiting since last year to sink her teeth into one of these gastronomical delights. I look forward to the Piggy cookies when we head to Arizona; Mom looks forward to a Sonoran hot dog.

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Too cloudy once again for imaging so we sat in the camper and watched nature shows featuring David Attenborough.

Sunday, March 24…We Can Fly From Here (The Buggles)

It rained last night; there were a few rumblings before the rain started. I briefly thought about Kim’s helmet but didn’t act on my thoughts. He always hangs his helmet on his throttle grip…it makes a nice little bowl when it rains. Stayed snug in bed and figured it would just have to set in front of the fan…again!

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Woke to a definite coolness in the air. This was predicted…in the 80s yesterday and lows 60s today. What made it cool was the breeze. It started last night and apparently didn’t want to give up come the morning. Dark clouds approached from the south and by mid-morning it was raining again. And yes, Kim’s helmet was still hanging upside down out on his bike.

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My mom flew into the Phoenix-Mesa airport this afternoon. This morning, the truck got cleaned out, all the laundry was washed and dried, lunch was eaten…and then we sat around waiting to leave for the airport. I suggested we leave early to have another try at the geocache down by the state park. A try was all it was as we ran out of time before we found the cache. Hope to try again before we leave.

The plane was due to arrive in Mesa at 3:25 p.m.; it’s a small airport, so we left in time to arrive at 3:15. At about 2:11, I received a text from my brother, who was apparently tracking the flight, that it was now expected to arrive 29 minutes early due to a very good tail wind. “What?! No way are we going to be there in time.” I texted her when we were 15 minutes out and told her to hang tight. No problem, she was going to be sitting outside the rental car area. And sure enough, that’s where I found her.

This is the fourth time she’s visited us out in Arizona; it’s the first time she’s flown in during the day. Flying out of Traverse City meant departing at 10:30 p.m., and arriving in Mesa at about 11:30 p.m. Considering the airport is an hour away, we usually didn’t get into bed until almost 2 a.m. Today, she flew out of Grand Rapids at 2:04 p.m., with an estimated arrival time of 3:25 p.m. What that means is that we can get to bed before 2 a.m. Yay! Of course, she’s dealing with a three-time difference so there’ll be jet-lag in her future at some point.

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We treated Mom to supper at one of our favorite food trucks…Comadres. I think we’ve tried most of the Coolidge food trucks and picked out our favorite foods at each one. They all do a good job with carne asada quesadillas, which is what Mom and I had. Kim likes the carne asada burrito at Comadres. After supper, as we watched a couple of nature shows narrated by David Attenborough, everyone’s eyelids started drooping….and it was only 8 o’clock.

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Worked on the hedgehog today. I’m not following an instructional pattern of any sort, just following a picture I found. Again, I’m going for cute, not accuracy. And I must admit that I had it looking like a pale shrunken head with hair before I got it looking like the vision in my head.

My mom was surprised at the size of my critters; from the pictures I’d posted, she assumed they were much larger than they are. I try to keep them in the 3-4” range. I don’t have enough wool to make them bigger and I like the challenge of making them small, figuring out the proportions, etc. It’s still a learning experience: Sassy the Snake’s head is too big for her body and Jackson the Monkey has the opposite problem; his body is too big for his head. I’m all about the head/face. Get that right and hopefully, the animal is recognizable; that’s my goal.

Saturday, March 23…Dog Poop on My Shoe (Anthony Lee)

Gracious, but it was a slow-moving morning! Jumped out of bed to answer the phone, talked for over an hour while sitting at the table, then got dressed and sat back down at the table. Finally went out to watch the birds and paint a rock. Slow moving…it became the theme of the day.

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The day started out warm again but cloudy; we decided to go to Sabino Canyon in Tucson to walk instead of going for a bike ride. Somebody has been going crazy installing geocaches in this area and we’ve found a couple of them. There is one down by Picacho Peak that I’ve been wanting to find; it’s not in the state park but nearby. Since geocaching is best done in a vehicle, not on a bike, we made that our first stop…two big ditches stopped our approach from one direction and a big mound of dirt stopped us from another direction. Might have to do some walking to find this one…we didn’t want to spend the extra time today, but before we leave, I’m going to try again.

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Ate lunch at the Arizona Pizza Company before heading to Sabino Canyon, which is just up the road. The sun stayed under the clouds and there was a slight breeze which kept our walkabout from being unbearable. We’ve learned that walking in Arizona is best done earlier in the day. Walking in the early afternoon means carrying extra water because of hotter temperatures. But with it being cloudy and breezy, I grabbed just one bottle of water, which was enough for the hour or so we were out walking.

Sabino Canyon was a busy place today. Split our time between the paved roads and the off-road trails. I was on the lookout for critters and birds but was excited to see a saguaro with two flowers at top. Have only seen a flowering saguaro our first year out here. We did see several birds on saguaros and a lizard skittering along the path. At one point, I saw a bird on a tree limb and asked Kim to check it with his binoculars. He thought it was a small hawk, which was my conclusion also. It didn’t fly away as we got closer; as I looked at it, I asked Kim to check it out again. Yep, it was a broken off branch on a tree, not a small hawk. We had a good laugh at ourselves over that one and had fun coming up with names for the new species that we’d found. 😎

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About ten days ago, we saw crews out on the highway doing clean-up. After a clean-up weekend in Michigan, there might be a couple of bags every half mile or so laying alongside the highway and it seems like they're picked up rather quickly. Along I-10 between here and Marana, there is a mound of

bags maybe every tenth of a mile or so. And as of today, the bags are still heaped alongside the road. Don’t know if they stopped at the city limits of Marana or what, but the stopping point is very obvious in the amount of trash scattered in the median of the highway. There’s so much trash along I-10 in this area…I wonder if it’s due to the wind blowing trash around until it snags in the weeds and bushes along the highway or if people just don’t give a hoot about littering. All I know is that the big heaps of garbage bags along the road are just as unsightly as the trash in the median.

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On our way to Agua Caliente the other day, I noticed a strange ad at several bus stops. It said, “We scoop poop”. There was a picture of a dog on the sign along with some writing that I couldn’t read because I was driving. I wasn’t sure if this was a real thing or not, and I wondered how scooping dog poop could be a viable business. Forgot about it until I saw the same ad on a yard sign today. And because I wasn’t driving, I was able to do a deep Google dive into the world of ‘poop scooping’. It is a real thing and there are several businesses available in Tucson to take care of all of a homeowner’s or commercial business’ dog poop scooping needs.

The names were the fun part: Scoop Soldiers…Poo Guys…Poop 911...DoodyCalls…and Scoop Doggy Logs. There’s also Loren’s Pooper Scooper, which claims to be the pioneer in the poop scooping business in the Tucson area…in business since 2001. Most of these companies offer a variety of pick-up options, as well as sanitation and deodorizing add-ons, to residential and commercial customers and some will pick up after cats or other small animals also. There’s low overhead which makes it a great side hustle with the potential to become a full-time business. And this isn’t just a Tucson thing. There are Scoop Soldiers franchises in major cities in 16 states. Isn’t picking up after one’s pet part of pet ownership? My mind is reeling from this.

While thinking about this, I may have questioned out loud how it seems like there’s laziness on the owner’s part that they would pay someone to come pick up dog poop on a regular basis instead of doing it themselves. Kim said it didn’t seem much different, in concept, from someone wanting to hire a live-in maid for 3 months so they can fully enjoy their time in Charlevoix over the summer. Vastly different jobs but yes, maybe the same mindset.

Suffice it to say that I spent way too much time today thinking about dog poop.

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Started needle felting a new critter…a hedgehog. I went for realism with the hammerhead shark (Basher) and the swan (Blanca). Not going for realism with the hedgehog…I’m aiming for cute. And when it’s done, Clayton will have naming rights.

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Clouds lingered into the evening, so Kim isn’t imaging tonight. The wind also picked up, which means the cell camera is probably going to go crazy with notifications.

Friday, March 22…Joyride (Roxette)

Last night a lone Javelina showed up after dark on the cell cam, as well as a pack rat. Earlier in the day, a jack rabbit came hop walking through; with their long legs, a slow hop looks like a walk. It’s about time the wild things showed up again.

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Maya and Miley came over to invite us to check out a bird nest in the kingpin area of their 5^th wheel (Kim gave me that description). The kids had a tire positioned so they can stand and look in; claimed there were three baby birds in the ‘cotton type nest’ in the front. I am tall enough to look in without the need to stand on a tire but couldn’t see what they were trying to point out to me. Kim didn’t have any luck either. Got a flashlight…that wasn’t any help either. Don’t know how they ever figured out there were three babies in there.

Hey, wait! I think I brought the endoscopy camera. I’m sure that’ll work. I think this type of camera is used to look down pipes, drains, etc., but I use it to check the birdhouse in the front yard. The camera is on the end of a flexible tube…plug the other end into a phone, let the camera establish a wi-fi connection, and then just open the app on the phone. Whatever the camera sees is displayed on the phone screen; the app also allows the phone to take pictures. It’s really quite fun and impresses young people. So, I got the camera ready and with Maya holding a flashlight, was able to take a picture of three little naked bird bodies. Then we got the heck out of there so mom could come back and make sure her babies were okay.

Now that three curious children have found the nest, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether those babies reach adulthood or not.

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Right from the get-go, it was obvious today was going to be a warm one. Walked out in the morning and the air felt silky warm in the shade. We had nothing on the agenda, except figuring out how to arrange a queen-sized air mattress in our living space. My mom is flying in on Sunday; she’ll get our bed and we’ll be sleeping on the air mattress instead of on the couches as we have in the past, since we removed them. A 24” queen mattress takes up a lot of space and is cumbersome to move around; but we came up with the best plan of where to put the table, chairs, computer bags, needle felting paraphernalia, etc., so we can set the mattress up in that space. Now we can just spring into action come bedtime Sunday night. It’ll take about 10 minutes for the mattress to self-inflate so we’ll be able to stash the stuff while that’s happening.

After struggling with the mattress in the hot camper and getting all sweaty, it was time to get out on

the bikes and cool off. Knew if we started early enough, we could take a longer ride without having to deal with the setting sun. Decided to start with lunch at the Sky Rider restaurant which is on the way to Saguaro National Park.

Arrived at the Sky Rider at 1:45…they close at 2 p.m. The cashier told us to come on in and sit anywhere. We were the last customers in the door and the last customers out the door. We left a generous tip.

Decided to ride Sandario Rd. to AZ 86, then loop on around to IR 15 on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. From there we took Battaglia Rd. into Eloy and on around to the campground. Gone for over 5 hours and put over 180 miles on our butts. It was a good ride with plenty of stops. And I saw one of the crested saguaros that I’ve mentally collected over the years.

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There is a ghost bike on Sandario Rd.; we stopped to check it out. It identified the bicyclist as Lauren Harvey and listed a date, which made it easy to research. Her obituary was eloquently written and gave a real sense of who she was, how she lived her life and that she would be dearly missed. Lauren was 60 at the time of her death, and I don’t know why but that surprised me. I had imagined that she was much younger. At 6:40 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2020, she was attempting a left hand turn while riding south on Sandario Rd., when she was struck by a vehicle heading in the same direction. No citations were issued at the time, and I couldn’t find any follow-up articles on the outcome of the investigation.

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Thin wispy clouds are keeping Kim from imaging tonight. The clouds do stand of a chance of moving on, so he does a sky check every now and then. On one of his reconnaissance missions, he noticed the moon had a big circle around it. Time to take some pictures and then to figure out what phenomenon is behind it.

The "moon halo" or "moon dog" is fairly common — especially as the weather gets colder. The ring is actually an optical illusion. It is caused when the moon light refracts off ice crystals in a thin veil of cirrus clouds. Those crystals create a giant lens 20,000 feet above us.

Thursday, March 21…Turtle Blues (Janis Joplin)

I finished needle felting a hammerhead shark last night and had to wait until this morning for a name. As soon as I was out of bed, I texted a picture of it to the Charlevoix WonderKids to see if they could tell what it was (yes, they all got it right) and then asked Dylan for a name. He didn’t have to think about it, his reply was instant. Basher has been welcomed into the group and is comfortably nestled in between Bill the Turtle and StarBright the Hippo. Clayton will get the opportunity to name the next critter.

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Last night we talked about going somewhere today where we could walk around and see nature in action. Listed all our known places, then Kim suggested ‘that place with all the red-eared turtles’. Took a minute for us to come up with the name: Agua Caliente. So that’s where we went.

Agua Caliente has multiple ponds with walking paths around and between them, some paths are paved and some are dirt. The main pond is near trees, which provide shade and a constant breeze; the other ponds are in a desert environment. No shade and sometimes a breeze. And it has birds, as well as turtles… red eared slider turtles, river cooters and a big ol’ spiny soft-shell turtle.

There were so many red eared turtles. Heads visible above the water, then suddenly gone, only to resurface a distance away. Very difficult to get a picture of those red ears in the open water like that. Have to catch 'em when they're sunning or they swim under the bridge. We watched an interesting show being put on by of them…a little one was chasing a bigger one and then it would get face to face with it, as if to slow it down. The bigger turtle would bat at it and swim away. The little one would not give up…and then a second joined in the chase. We soon wondered if it was an attempt at mating. Walked over to a bridge where the shade made it a perfect spot to turtle watch. Watching from above, Kim noticed a strange behavior: when the smaller turtle (male) managed to get in front of the object of his affection (female), it would wiggle its claws in the female’s face. But, the female would push it aside and swim away. “If Boaty McBoatFace (David Attenborough) were here, he could tell us what’s going on.” We saw this happen many times and figured it had to be a mating thing.

When we got home, I googled “red eared turtle mating ritual” and a 4-minute video entitled “Red eared slider turtles mating dance” popped up. Of course, I clicked on it and watched as a pair of red eared turtles named Glen and Maggie performed a mating dance, complete with claw wiggling. The difference between Glen and Maggie and the pond turtles was that Glen and Maggie were wiggling their claws together and the female pond turtle was pushing the male away as he wiggled his claws. So, no mating dance for the male pond turtle, despite his persistent attempts. The female’s indifference might have had something to do with the fact that the male was less than half her size. Turtle watching at Agua Caliente is fascinating.

Walking to the back ponds, a bird flew in front of us followed by a flash of red, then another and another. Three males cardinals were simultaneously trying to woo a female and chase each other away from her. She seemed to be hiding deep in the middle of a bush. They were still stalking her when we walked away.

Finally, we made it to the back ponds where we saw a Great Egret stalking its lunch. Kept my eye on it as we circled the pond and managed to pick up on its routine: it would walk slowly and deliberately, stop dead still, quickly jab at something in the water and then tip its head back to swallow. As we got close, I tried to get some video and thought it interesting that it was audibly clicking its beak. I googled that and found that egrets make that clicking sound during aggressive displays. Since we were the only ones around, I’m sure it was clicking at us. Didn’t think we were close enough to be a threat but maybe it thought differently.

Other notables were the ring-necked duck with their wonderfully colored beaks and uncanny ability to dive underwater just as I took a picture; the pied-billed grebe, a bird whose hind legs are so far back on its body that while they are great for swimming, they make it difficult for it to walk on land (it’s acenter of gravity thing); and a lizard, identified as a side-blotched lizard, who was accommodatingly sunning itself on a rock near the path, like it was waiting for a photo op. And I also saw a bird at the top of a tree that looked like a cardinal but I knew it wasn’t. The Facebook birding page identified it as a female Phainopepla. Say what?! Someone sounded it out like this: Fay-no-pep-la.

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We spent a couple of hours wandering round the park and then headed back to the campground. Stopped long enough to grab a bag of piggy cookies to take to Felicia before she left for the day and then headed to Coolidge where we bought an air mattress. Since we took the couches out, we need somewhere to sleep when my mom gets here. A 24” high air mattress ought to do nicely.

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Kim is out imaging the Cigar Galaxy again. Last night he ran into a problem with the micro SD card that the data was stored…it wasn’t playing nice with the computer when it came time to process the images, so he scrapped what he got last night and is trying again.

Wednesday, March 20…The Motorcycle Song (Arlo Guthrie)

When I realized what day it is, I was tempted to write ‘Whensday’ as a little rebellion against the Germanic god, Wodanaz. Just sayin’….

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Another alarm-setting day as I had to be up to Zoom into a Bible study group. It started at 10:30 a.m. Michigan time, so that meant 7:30 a.m. Arizona time. I’m usually up by that time but needed the alarm to make sure. Plus, I needed to have time to arrange my hair in case it was standing on end and I had to figure out the Zoom thing on my end. Hair required only a quick fluff with my fingers and Zoom was a matter of opening a link and waiting.

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After my meeting, I sorted pictures to send to the grandkiddos. With 11 WonderKids and 3 great-grands, it’s become necessary to make lists of what pictures are sent to each child. Don’t want to send the same picture three times to the same kid. Plus, it was time to send some coded messages, which are somewhat time consuming because of the process I’ve come up with to avoid mistakes. And still, there’s always a chance of a mistake making it through, and the kids will let me know. Also, painted a rock while I did the workbook for my class. It was kind of a low-key morning.

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Decided to take a bike ride to Oracle for lunch at DeMarco’s Pizzeria. Oracle is about an hour’s drive from here and is snuggled into the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, which means there is a change in elevation from here to there. An almost 2,000 feet rise in elevation. In the mid-70s when we left, in the mid-60s in Oracle. Those 10 degrees make a difference when out in the open.

When we reached AZ 77 and the air was getting cooler, the sky was partly cloudy and boy, was I glad when the sun peeked out from behind a cloud. The science community estimates that the sun will burn out in 5 billion years; glad that I won’t be around to see it because I rather enjoy the warmth it provides.

As we rode along, I saw 4 or 5 small tumbleweeds up ahead lift off the ground and dance around overhead. It was fascinating to watch. One of them acted like a boomerang; it flew to the right and then reversed to come back toward the road just as I was approaching. As I wondered whether I was going to get tangled up with a tumbleweed, I was surprised by a strong crosswind. Thing is, it shouldn’t have been a surprise because something was responsible for the tumbleweeds lifting and dancing around; the obvious culprit would be a big wind. But I got so caught up in watching what the weeds were doing that I didn’t even consider what made it happen…until it tried to push me sideways. It was short-lived but it sure got my attention.

While DeMarco’s has a wide-ranging menu, we have our favorites: Philly Cheesesteak for Kim and a BLT for me. It’s the bacon and the bread that draw me in: the bacon is just the right amount of crispy and there’s plenty of it and the bread is homemade. Before it gets to the table, the bread is heated so it tastes fresh out of the oven. That’ll get me every time.

Thankfully, the voltage gauge on Kim’s bike didn’t present any problems. His hip got angry, but the bike behaved.

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We made another stab at stabilizing the camper. We didn’t quite get it right last time. Kim determined that the stability problem was front-to-back not side-to-side. The wheel chocks were delivered today, so after our ride we had a job to do: lift the stabilizer legs, pull the camper forward, remove the leveling blocks from under the tires and install the chocks. It all went smoothly, and the camper is currently jiggle-free. Oh, and the Regal Horned Lizard showed up by the tires again.

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Tonight was the last special event up at the clubhouse for the month of March; we could either paint rocks or do something on a canvas. Audra finds a lot of her ideas on Pinterest and tonight’s canvas craft took a lot of preparation on her part: put a marble in a balloon, turn the balloon inside out and secure the marble to the bottom with a rubber band, then turn the balloon right side out and blow it up just a smidge. And she did it all with fingernails that are at least an inch long. Dip the bottom of the balloon in paint, dab it on the canvas and voila! there’s a flower with an open center. Seven ‘artists’ showed up tonight and we all came up with different ideas. It seemed that everybody had a good time.

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Kim is imaging the Cigar Galaxy tonight; the telescope was programmed to do a meridian flip at 10:30. A meridian flip is described like this: The most common amateur imaging mount type, the German equatorial mount, is generally held up by a tripod or pier. In certain positions, if the telescope were to track something from the east to west indefinitely, the telescope would strike the pier. To keep this from happening, when a target is directly overhead, or at the meridian, the telescope flips to the other side of the pier before it continues to track the object. This keeps the telescope above the pier as it continues tracking west, and so there is no worry of damage. It was interesting to watch…the scope flipped, the guiding camera found its target to guide from and the camera started taking pictures again. The technology available today makes the process so much easier than doing it manually.