A thunder gourd?

As long as I had to take an almost hour’s drive to town (Yuma), I thought I’d visit a couple of local interesting spots along the way.  One I visited last weekend when I had to get a new battery for the car, but the other one I’d just seen off the roadway.

Right along US 95 is the sign for the Pause, Rest, Worship Church.  It was built in 1995 by Loren Pratt as a memorial to his late first wife.

                                                                       This church is tiny!

The church was destroyed by a freak microburst storm in 2011, but an outpouring of donations helped rebuild it complete with stained glass.  On the pulpit, there is a Bible and a notebook where prayer requests can be written.

Outside, the small place of worship is surrounded by gorgeous blooming bougainvillea bushes.  It was a peaceful spot in the midst of farm fields.

I continued on to stop at Walgreens and Fry’s grocery store.  Last week when I was at Fry’s, I wanted to get some pork ribs for grilling, but I felt $7.99/lb. was too expensive.  This week the price was the same, but if you bought one full rack of ribs, you got two more for free.  So, I ended up with 14 lbs. of ribs for $2.14/lb.  I like ribs, but I’m thinking I ended up with more than enough to last me the five months I’ll be here!  It’s a good thing there’s a small chest freezer for volunteers to use to take advantage of good sales.

On the way home, once again on US 95, I stopped for the second time at From the Farm.  When I first stopped here on Sunday, I thought it might be a vegetable stand.  Turns out it’s more than that.

There’s a garden area that has various ornaments from Mexico (I think).  See that cool frog on the left?  I thought my brother Kurt might like that to put on a section of the wall surrounding his pool.  He’ll have to let me know.  In the middle of this area is a ‘shack’ where you can also eat your lunch at a table in the shade. 

Inside, you can order a lunch, buy local jams, honey, and pickles, and shop for antiques and local artists wares.  There was no fresh produce.  I got the tour of the store on Sunday by the owner along with some free samples.

I ended up buying a jar of dill pickles, and let me tell you that if you like pickles with a little kick, this is the place to get them.  I think it’s the red pepper flakes in the jar that spice them up.

There are also four kinds of iced tea and lemonade that you can buy.  When I was there on Sunday, the guy gave me a sample of artichoke tea.  I’m not a tea drinker, but I had to give it a try.  He told me to just take a little sip, and then give the glass back to him.  I did.  It tasted like tea.    Then he put in a squirt of lemonade, and it made all the difference in the world to me.  It was very refreshing and tasty.

I had never heard of artichoke tea, and he went on and on about its virtues.  So today I purchased a full glass of the tea/lemonade mixture.  It does quench your thirst in the desert, and just look at all the benefits.  I also found out that this is a U-pick farm, but crops won’t be ready for three or four weeks yet.

Now here’s the real reason I stopped here once again today.  It was to get a Thunder Gourd.  There is a local artist that paints and carves these gourds.  These gourds just caught my fancy on Sunday.  I thought about it all week, and decided to get the one with the lizard painted on it.  It’s not just pretty.  There is a kind of skin covering the bottom that a coil hangs out of.  If you twirl the gourd in a circle, it makes the most amazing sound.  I just love it.  I hung it from the visor of the driver’s seat, and every time I go up front I twirl it to hear the ‘thunder’.  Emma is not as fond of it as I am…  It’s hard to describe the sound.  I guess you’ll all just have to come to visit so I can play it for you.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

The Painted Desert Trail

Fairly early this morning, six of us decided to take the 1.3 mile hike on the Painted Desert Trail on the refuge.  It’s really part of the orientation for us newbies to this refuge, but it’s also the trail all the school groups will be taken on when they come to visit.

                                   Fellow volunteer and friend Linda, brown shirt Lupe, intern Lydia, and myself.

Lydia will be leading the school kids, and a volunteer is needed to bring up the rear.  This was kind of a practice run.  New volunteer Norm took the picture, and Linda’s husband Jay had gone back to the truck to find some missing notes.

Jay caught up to us, and we were off.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to do what with my back problems.  Luckily there were six stops along the way where Lydia practiced what she was going to say to the kids.

It’s an interesting hike through the desert.  Lots of ups and downs.  I did fairly well until we came to a flight of rustic ‘stairs’ leading up.  One step was so high I wasn’t sure I could do it.  I’m so happy Jay was behind me, and gave me a boost up. 

Stopping places along the way included this hoodoo.  Not as dramatic as Bryce Canyon, but interesting none the less.

There’s lots of evidence of feral burros along the way left over from times past.  They’re not native species, but are tolerated even though they compete for sparse resources that are needed by native bighorn sheep.  We didn’t see either species along the way.

It seems there are lots of burro trails going off of the main trail making it a little difficult at times to know the true trail.  Apparently last year, due to poor signage, a woman got lost in the desert on this trail and had to be rescued.  A few more outlining rocks and arrows have been placed along the trail so that doesn’t happen again.  I can just imagine how that woman must have felt lost and wandering around in this rather desolate terrain.

It took us an hour and a half to do the 1.3 miles, and I’m sure some of that time was due to my slow progress.  I did make it the whole way though, and I felt good about that.  It’s a far cry from what I used to be able to do, but it’s progress.  I don’t think I’ll be doing this trail with a bunch of exuberant fifth graders, but I’ll man an overlook station with a scope and binoculars to interpret the Colorado River Basin instead.

On the home front, I checked with the refuge manager, and no seed type bird feeders are allowed.  Hummingbirds feeders are allowed though, so the Hard Rock Bird Café will only be for those darting little darlings.  Putting up poles to hold the feeders has been a challenge, however.  The ground is like cement.  I zip tied one pole to the electrical post, and surrounded the other pole with cement blocks to hold it in place.  Now I have a feeder on each side of the rig.  When I sit at my table in the rig, I can watch the red feeder out the window.  When I sit outside with Emma, I watch the orange feeder.  There’s plenty of action on both sides, so I don’t lack for entertainment.

                                                                              THE END!

Those mountains in the distance are the Chocolate Mountains in California.  Chocolate?  How tasty!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Settling in at Imperial

It’s taken me several days to get all set up on my site at Imperial.  Temps in the triple digits since my arrival have limited my outside work to early morning.  There’s really no need to rush, so I’m taking my time.  I’m learning where things are located, and some do’s and don’ts.  For example, no one drinks the water that comes out of the water hook up.  There’s a reverse osmosis machine in the volunteer building where drinking water can be obtained.  I’ve got a two gallon jug with a spigot from my days at Anahuac, so that’s not a problem.  My only complaint about that is that it’s a small unit, so I can’t even fill up two gallons at a time.

There are two washers and dryers in the building, so I’ve done several loads of laundry.  Fellow volunteer Jay, helped me wash the car.  It was a mess after that three miles of dusty bumpy entrance road drive.  There’s a power wash station down in the maintenance area.  I’ve also located the dumpster and the recycle bins.  Remembering that tooth jarring drive, I also discovered it broke one of my drawer latches, so that will have to be replaced before I leave. 

Having spent an inordinate amount of time inside the rig because of the high temps the last few days hasn’t meant I haven’t seen anything interesting.  As I sit at my booth table while on the computer, I have quite the view out the big window by it  Yesterday I watched this red-tailed hawk steal a catch from a smaller hawk.  The pics aren’t very good, but it was quite dramatic as the red-tail made the other hawk drop its prey, and then stole it and flew off with it.

The ground around here is like cement, so yesterday I had the brilliant idea to strap one of my bird feeder poles to the electrical post with zip ties.  I went inside to juice up the hummingbird feeder, and believe it or not, I had a hummer zoom in within 30 seconds!

By this morning, I had three hummers visiting.  I’ve identified them as Anna’s hummingbirds.  Having spent almost all of my years in the east, I’m on a real learning curve to figure out the birds of the west.  I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Tonight, I even found this female phainopepla nearby as I sat outside with Emma.  I’ll be keeping myself busy trying to get much better pictures of my new avian friends.

Tomorrow the plan is to head into Yuma for the opening day of the Yuma Farmers Market.  It’s located in the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Park.  I’ve never been there before.  Some history and fresh vegies are on the horizon. 

                                                                                THE END!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Imperial NWR, here I come!

When I left the Casa Grande RV Resort on Tuesday morning, I expected to have an uneventful 200 mile drive to my next assignment at Imperial NWR.  It didn’t quite turn out that way, but it wasn’t too traumatic either.

I had a couple of firsts for me along the way.  First of all, after gassing up in Dateland, AZ, at the easiest in and out I’ve ever had with the rig, I hopped back on I-8.  A short time later, an alarm started going off.  I’m familiar with the dinging if the levelers don’t come all the way up, but this was a new sound.  I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.  There was nothing flashing on the dashboard, so I was stumped.

As soon as I could, I exited the interstate and stopped.  By then, I had figured out that the warning sound was coming from my US Gear braking system.  Sure enough, after I put on the emergency blinkers I got out of the rig to check things out on the car and the break away line had become detached.  I reconnected it, but it took quite some time for the alarm to stop.  In the meantime, my mind was racing thinking about all the possible consequences. 

This particular exit didn’t have an easy back on to the interstate, so I had to drive down a skinny road another 15 miles before I could get back on I-8.  By this time, the temps had risen quite a bit, and as I mentioned before my cockpit AC is not working.  So for the first time ever, I revved up the generator so the ‘house’ AC would turn on to try to keep the temps below 90 in the rig as I drove down the road.  I know lots of other people use this method, but I was nervous about doing this.  As it turned out, it worked like a charm.

The rest of the journey went smoothly until I reached the unpaved three mile entrance road to the refuge.  Holy Buckets!  I’ve never driven the rig on such an awful washboard road.  Top speed was 5 mph, and I thought I’d lose all my teeth in the process and I don’t wear dentures!   I was more than thankful to finally arrive and have my friend Linda lead me to the RV sites.  I’m really liking my site with the mountains out my kitchen table window, but it sure has been hot.  Triple digit temps yesterday, and close to that today.

With those high temps, it’s taken me a few days to set everything up for my extended stay here.  I don’t function well in triple or single digits.  Yeah, it’s a dry heat, but give me a break.  It’s still awfully hot.

The best time to work of course is in the early morning, so it was almost noon before I could do any exploring today.  I decided to take Red Cloud Mine Road to see the four view points of the Colorado River.

This road would have been a piece of cake for a jeep or truck, but it was slow going with my little Focus.

The desert scenery is pretty stark here until you take one of the side roads to the view points.  What a difference the water makes.

I ended up driving to three of the view points.  The last one had a big warning sign that said the road was not maintained, so I skipped that one for now.

Not too many avian migrants have arrived yet for the winter, so all I saw were some distant ducks on the water and five white-faced ibis moving about the marshlands.

Not sure if this is considered an arch or a bridge, but it will give you an idea of the terrain on the refuge away from the river.

My favorite view of the day was as I approached the Painted Desert Trail on the refuge.  If it hadn’t been high noon, I’m sure the different colors would have been even more evident.  There is a hiking trail through this area that is a little less than 1.5 miles long.  By the time Emma and I got there, the temps were already in the mid 90’s, so we’ll do this trail when it’s a little cooler.

I’ve just about got everything set up for my stay here, and I’ve got another week or so to relax and get acquainted with the area before the orientation training begins.  The rest of the winter volunteers will be arriving next week.  Temps are forecasted to drop by about ten degrees next week, so I’ll be looking forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

The results are in

Back at the beginning of September, I entered five photos in the Tamarac NWR annual Photo Contest.  Some of you may remember my submissions.  The final vote was taken on Sunday, and today I found out the results.  I was very pleased.

                                                                         “Where’s Mom?”

                    This was my entry in the Wildlife category, and it received an Honorable Mention.

                                                                   “Pelicans in the Mist”

                                              In the Scenic category, I earned a Third Place ribbon.

                                                                       “Damsels in Caress”

                    And, finally, in the Nature’s Abstract category, I garnered a Second Place finish.

Considering that photography is just a hobby for me, and this was the first contest I ever entered, I was thrilled to be recognized at all.

                                                          “Meanwhile, back at the cabins”

To top it all off, my daughter Robyn submitted this photo of the two grandgirls that was shot during their visit at Tamarac in July.  Robyn earned a Second Place standing in the Recreation category!  Cool beans!

I didn’t know what she had titled the photo until today, and I had to chuckle.  You see, we visited those early settler’s cabins before the girls had their imaginary drive, and during that time four year old Phoebe asked what happened to the people living in the cabins.  We had to tell her that eventually they died.  She thought about that for a moment, and responded, “Meanwhile, some of them lived, and some of them died.”  It was the ‘meanwhile’ from a four year olds mouth that brought that memory back to me.

This morning, I packed everything up and left Casa Grande RV Resort for Imperial NWR.  It was an interesting journey of 200 miles.  I’m too pooped to talk about it tonight, but suffice it to say that I made it here.  The minor trauma along the way paled to finding out the results of the contest.  I will leave you with tonight’s hot sunset taken from my site however.

                                                                             THE END!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

A trip down memory lane

Back in 1980, my parents sold their house in Chicago, and became RV fulltimers.  They towed a 30’ Avion trailer, and traveled for close to eight years.  When they ‘hung up the keys’, they lived in a park model in Apache Junction until the prices of the RV park became too much for their budget. 

At that time, houses came on the market in Ajo, AZ.  Ajo was a copper mining town, and when the mine shut down folks had to leave their company owned homes.  After about five years, those houses came on the market as the mine was destined to never reopen.  It was then that I bought a three bedroom house in Ajo so my parents would have a place to live, and as a possible retirement home for myself.

They cleaned the house up, I paid the taxes, and family members from the north had a place to visit in the warm south for a vacation during the cold winters.  My brother, sister, and I made yearly pilgrimages down there to visit and help them out.

Kurt and Jody were married in Ajo in 2011, and I went down to be ‘best man’ for my brother.  We all had lots of memories of our visits to 9th street.  Little did we know, that later that year all of us ‘kids’ would take weekly turns visiting to help out as my step-father slowly succumbed to esophageal cancer.  In late August of that year, all four of us returned for his memorial service and to move my mother up to Minnesota to live with me.  A year or so later, I sold the house.

So it was a bittersweet journey for Kurt, Jody, and me to return to Ajo yesterday to drive past that house, and revisit some old haunts.

It was disappointing to see the condition of the house and yard.  Weeds everywhere, and the paint was peeling.  It appeared that no one lived there.  We couldn’t see the back yard where we spent so much time as it had been walled in.  I wondered if the orange and grapefruit trees were still there.  Not easy to see, so we didn’t linger.

On the bright side, we had two other destinations in mind.

The first was Cabeza Prieta NWR.  We had all been here before, but I needed to get my passport book stamped.  Our plan was to drive part of the refuge on our return from out next destination.

                                Thirty or forty miles south of Ajo is Organ Pipe Cactus Nat’l Monument.

After a stop at the visitors center for the movie and museum, we headed out on the 21 mile auto tour loop.

The gravel road was pretty much as lumpy and bumpy as I had remembered it from 20 years ago.  I was happy we were in Kurt’s truck rather than my little Focus.

Regardless of the road, the scenery was outstanding and we even enjoyed finding a couple of arches.

That 21 mile drive took us about four hours, and we didn’t even do any hiking.  We saw a couple of roadrunners and a red-tailed hawk along the way, but I really didn’t expect much wildlife in the afternoon desert heat.

                                              The monument’s namesake – the organ pipe cactus.

We spent so much time marveling at the scenery of the monument, that we ran out of time to visit Cabeza Prieta NWR.  That will have to wait for another time. 

We did stop in Ajo at Pizza Hut for a very late lunch/early dinner as a tribute to my mother’s favorite place to eat in town.  I ended up with indigestion, but there really wasn’t any other place to get a bite to eat anymore.  Kind of sad.  Things change, and life moves on.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy