Tammy came over last to visit so I didn’t
get my journal entry finished until after she left. Fresh air from 8 hours on the bike + late
bedtime = no get up and go in the morning.
Sitting at the picnic table, organizing pictures for the grandkiddos
while keeping an eye out to see who visited the feeders seemed like the right
way to ease into the day.
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The three days, our wall clock, which I can see from my side of the
table, has not been doing its job. We put fresh batteries in when we got here,
and because the clock was being sluggish, Kim changed them again three days
ago. Set the clock to the correct time and within an hour, it was fifteen
minutes slow. This morning it was two
hours off.
We
have alternate sources of getting the correct time…watches, computers, and
phones. But looking at the wall clock for the time is a years-long habit. Not easy to break in three days. We recognize
that this clock didn’t cost a lot, but we’ve given it every chance to be
accurate. It slows down, we put in fresh batteries. It has continued to slack
off, so we decided a new timekeeper is in order.
Costco doesn’t sell clocks, neither does Dollar General. The Walmart we ventured into was just a ‘neighborhood
market’, so no clocks there either. I’m
sure my face registered confusion as I wandered around looking for the
Housewares Dept. Apparently not every Walmart is a Supercenter. I thought we
had found a relic from the past but the Walmart website states that there are 671
Neighborhood Markets. Don’t know if that’s just stores in the U.S. or if that
number includes other countries.
Since
our efforts didn’t produce any clock, I reset the clock when we got back to
camp. It’s been almost an hour and it’s still going steady. If it’s still
keeping good time by tomorrow, maybe it will have earned a reprieve from being
replaced. It really only has to make it
3 more days and then it’ll be next year’s problem.
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Picked up Kim’s glasses at Costco and then set a course for a drive up
Mt. Lemmon. Driving up twisting
mountainous roads always leaves me breathless, but not necessarily in a good
way. We’ve driven up the Mt. Lemmon
Scenic Byway (or Catalina Highway multiple times; I know driving on switchbacks
along the edge of a mountain is going to ramp up some anxiety and yet I still suggest
we do it. It’s always me that say, “Hey, let’s escape the heat by going up Mt.
Lemmon today.” We both know what we’re
getting into. I know that I won’t be looking out the side window at the
incredible scenery while the truck is moving, and Kim knows that there might be
involuntary gasps and other noises from my side of the truck. He did a very
good job today maintaining a speed that wouldn’t create a long line behind us
but also wouldn’t cause me to hyperventilate. I appreciated that.
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The
little town of Summerhaven, at an elevation of 8200 ft, is a mile or so from
the ski area. There are cabins and some homes, a general store with minor grocery
items and tourist trinkets, and a restaurant.
And a school bus stop. Don’t know where the school is located but I’d
seriously consider home schooling if I was going to live up there. I wouldn’t
be too keen on my kids riding a school bus on those roads. We saw a UPS truck up
there today. I wonder if the driver gets
hazard pay for that route.
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Boulders stacked precariously
on top of each other, defying everything logical about stacking rocks are
called hoodoos. They are abundant in a certain area on the Byway and almost
look staged. Like there was going to be an open house and an interior decorator
came in and purposely stacked these boulders in an aesthetically pleasing and
gravity defying manner just to wow the people. Except they’re not stacked, they’ve been sculpted
by erosion. They’re amazing looking from every angle; each one seems more unbelievable
than the last. It looks like a good shake would topple everything down but because
the cause is erosion maybe their positioning isn’t as fragile as it seems.
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At about mile marker 6 on the way down the mountain, we picked up a
hitchhiker. Never got her name but she’s
a young lady from Colorado in her early 20’s who’s hiking the Arizona National
Scenic Trail (AZT). It’s an 800-mile trail that traverses the north-south length
of Arizona from Mexico to Utah. Apparently, hiking around, up or through Mt.
Lemmon is part of the gig. We dropped her at the closest Safeway. She plans on
going back up tomorrow after stocking up on supplies and getting a good night’s
rest in a hotel.
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Very cloudy so no imaging tonight.
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