Canyoneering

On the edge of the Grand Canyon

Another long span has developed since I last posted, and a lot of water passed over the dam. We got Bill and Pat moved into their new house in Mesa, with relatively few incidents. The moving company dis most of the work, but we helped some. They're having a great time finishing the move, putting up photos, fixing odds and ends. Just like newlyweds!

We cruised back to Tucson once we finished our time in Tempe. Our Pincher Creek friends Art and Sharon had moved there, and we wanted to visit, play golf, and eat some more. Art and I got our 3 times to play golf. Two of the courses were tough, but we kept under 100. The third course was a par 3, which I finally got into the hang of by about the 15th hole. We also worked on finishing their shed update.

Hummingbird in Saguaro National Park, Tucson

On our last night there, Consuelo and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, a few days ahead of schedule, but we wanted to dine with friends. We had a great meal at Olive Garden, topped off with Asti Spumante.

We then left for northern Arizona, with a fast oil change for our motor home on the way out of town. We slipped through Phoenix and made our way to a casino in Camp Verde, AZ for an overnight stop.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

The next morning we explored Montezuma Castle, one of the Sinagua cliff dwellings along the Verde River. The site was misnamed by early settlers who thought that Montezuma had a summer home here in the hills, but history assures us that Montezuma never got this far north.

Leaving there, we rolled up through Flagstaff, headed NW to Tusayan, AZ, just outside the Grand Canyon National Park. We spent 3 nights there, wandering around the park, taking the free shuttle buses to and fro. I went out one night to try for sunset photos, but the sunset was blah. We tried to celebrate our real anniversary at El Tovar Lodge, but they were booked up.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is quite a place. My photos are but a suggestion of the immense size of the canyon, and the beautiful colors of the canyon walls. The canyon width is about 8-10 miles from the south rim area. It's about 4500 feet down to the river from Hopi Point (elevation 7008) on the south rim. The mules were making their journeys down to the river, but we didn't even consider trying it.

It was cold there, especially compared to Phoenix and points south. Overnight lows were down to the low 20s. We had all of our heating devices running, and we were cozy.

Red Rock mountain on US 89

On Tuesday, 3/30, we hooked up our bug and traveled out the East entrance to the Canyon, connecting with US 89 up to Page, AZ. This route traveled through wonderful scenery, close up views of the various layers that appeared in the Canyon, reds, pinks, greens, tans. There is so much of this stuff out here. I suppose that the locals don't notice it anymore, but it's quite a change from Maine!

We passed by Page, crossed the Glen Canyon Bridge and found our reserved campsite in the Wahweap Campground, inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We have a great view of Lake Powell to the north from our campsite, just a mile or so south of the Utah border.

Glen Canyon Bridge and Dam

Today we visited the Visitor Center, located at the dam. Currently the water in Lake Powell is down about 80 feet, somewhat lower than normal for this time of year. Also, the snowpack is somewhat less than average, meaning that the lake won't be filling this year. Unusual, considering all the rain that fell in Arizona this winter (but not here).

We were surprised by the warmth when we arrived here. I knew that the temperatures at the Colorado River were higher at the Grand Canyon (by 20-30 degrees!) but that was conceptual. When we left the south rim, it was a relatively warm day, with temps around 60 degrees. But when we arrived in Page, it was 82, with an overnight low last night of 57. Back to shorts!

Today has been quite windy, with gusts up into the 45 mph range. Sand and dust have been blowing into everything... our car, my camera, our hair and Thumper's fur. Rain and perhaps snow are coming this way, and cooler temperatures. Such is the environment for travelers like us.

The Ides of March

Us and the Canadians in Yuma

Consuelo and I search all through our motor home for our togas to celebrate the Ides, but alas, they were not to be found. Instead, we'll wear our jeans and shorts to celebrate this famous Roman feast day. Not that we need another feast day. We've feasted enough of late. It always seems that when we get together with our rowdy friends, we add a few pounds onto the frame. It seems that we've been doing so since the first of January.

Arts and Crafts in Tubac

February was a short month. It usually is, but our faster than ever activities cut it to what seemed 12 days. We spent the first week in Yuma, playing some golf and wrapping up our activities there. Our campsite benefactors, Rusty and Mary Ann returned from Mexico, and we partied with them a bit. Then we cruised over to Tucson for a very brief week playing with Curt and Beth Kraft, who escape Rochester every year to SE Arizona. Curt and I played golf for 3 days, we tripped to Tubac for the Art Festival, and we had a wonderful Valentines day dinner with other friends of theirs.

The sewing sisters

We then journeyed up to Fountain Hills where Consuelo and the sewing sisters had their annual sewing camp in Arizona. Lots of cutting, stitching, patterning, and fitting was done, along with comfy food. The ladies did an outing to the Art Museum to celebrate Deb Wilkinson's birthday (how many years is that, Deb?) and Denny Robertson and I hiked out to the Dixie Mine, a round trip of some 6 miles. One night everybody came to our little house for dinner, where I served up salmon stuffed with bleu cheese, bacon and pears, and Ming's pork fried rice.

Consuelo selling garlic graters

After the sewing camp ended, we walked through "The Great Fair", another art event in Fountain Hills with Denny and Andrea. At one point, Denny decided to buy some garlic graters from a man who was alone in his booth. While the man wrote up Denny's order, Consuelo took over pitching the product to the folks walking by. She was pretty good at it, too.

Four Peaks from McDowell Mountain Park

We parked our house in McDowell Mountain Regional Park while we visited Fountain Hills. This large Maricopa County park (actually in Scottsdale) hosts about 95 large wonderful campsites, miles of trails for hikers, trail bikes, or horses. Coyote bands roam the area, yelling to each other at night. We might have extended our stay there, but they have a 2 week limit unless they are full, and they had folks waiting in overflow every night soon after we arrived.

Bill and Pat's new house

Soon after we arrived in Fountain Hills, my brother Bill began moving from their modular home in Apache Junction to a real house in Mesa. He and Pat have decided to abandon Massachusetts as a summer retreat and spend full time in Arizona. Prior to the move, after they got the keys to the new house, I helped them get some things ready to move and packed a load of things over to the new house. Logistics required scheduling, as they needed to have the ceilings painted and tile laid in the kitchen before they could completely move in. I helped some by rehanging the ceiling fans, installing a new stove and oven, repairing one miswired outlet, and odds and ends that I could help with. The final move was completed on March 10th, the evening of which we celebrated with pizza in the new house. I think they'll be very happy there, except perhaps for the days when they need to vacuum and realize how much more square footage they have.
We had departed McDowell Park on March 1st, arriving at the Elks Lodge in Tempe. It is a handy location to get to places in the city. For example, one of our sling chairs broke and it was a short haul over to Phoenix to get it repaired. Shopping is all around us.

In the midst of this, we've been refinancing our house in Maine, a long distance event that is proceeding quite nicely. Consuelo has been doing marketing for Oregon Woodworkers online, also proceeding quite nicely. And lately I've been fighting with a nasty bug my computer has of just hanging in the middle of a project, with no clear success yet. Very annoying.

We've started to fill in the blank spaces in the calendar between now and when we arrive back in Maine in mid May. Stops along the way include Tucson for another week, Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Arches National Park, Rochester, Croton Point NY, and Ipswich. And of course, a bunch of gas stations and Walmarts.