Big Sandy Valley, Arizona

What's it like to drive around Arizona without the Interstates?  Beautiful!  Especially in the Spring! The Spanish Conquistadors Espejo were here in 1582 and Farfan in 1584 - almost half a century ago! Of course, they were walking or on horses, wearing METAL ARMOUR.  Unfortunately it was on their chest and head. Their legs were completely unprotected from this thorny situation!  The things lusting for gold will do to a man ...

About 300 years later, Lt. Amiel W. Whipple came a wanderin' through here probably surveying for a military road -- maybe this very one!

Here we are, almost 200 hundreds years after that, discovering the names and characteristics of some of the plants.

It is amazing that the spiny, needle-covered, menacing plants have such beautifully delicate flowers! This is the Ocotillo.  It is such a strange plant - even it's flowers are strange!

The Foothills Paloverde can grow up to 25 feet tall (that's the yellow tree on the right).

There is one plant, the Ironwood, that has wisteria-like flowers, but no thorns.  The wood is extremely heavy and hard - ordinary tools have absolutely no effect on it.  I kept looking for one, but I never found it.  Maybe you can?  It has dark green leaves.

One of the scariest plants to me is this one.

Take a closer look:

Makes my skin flinch for ever needle I see!!!  Ow!  Ooo! Ouch!!

They come in red, too.

These grasses are much nicer - but I don't know what they are.  They line all the roadsides here, and I think that they're beautiful!

And then there are these bluebonnets (?)  Hey!  Wait a minute!  They belong to Texas !!!

What are these guys?  I mean, really!  This is one bloomin' desert!

I believe this is a bloomin' Yucca - a Century plant to be exact.  It comes in red, too.

  

This lowly pear cactus has what we call in Texas a cactus rose - but this one comes in TWO colors on the same cactus.

Here is a Mimosa tree common in the desert.

You know what?  There are so-o-o-o many Spring flowers I have already been here half a day weeding out (so to speak) all of the pictures that just don't make the grade. But, there is one more that I simply will not pass up.  Saguaro cactus are the best!!

And that's the end of this post!

Did I Say We Made Yet Another Trip to the Grand Canyon?

Yeah.  He just can't get enough of this place...  Not bad for an iPhone picture!

This time we went to iMAX just outside of the National Park and watched their video.  It was good. Not enough history or facts, but that's not what folks go to an iMAX for, huh?  But on the wall in the lobby we discovered some interesting facts:

Turn-of-the-century North Rim (most folks go to the south rim) Forest Service warden, "Uncle Jimmy" Owens, killed a whopping 543 mountain lions during his 12 years of "game management." By 1930 the North Rim death toll for predators stood at a staggering 781 lions, 554 bobcats and 4,889 coyotes!

I just think it would be soooo fantastic to raft this baby!  I keep trying to talk our 20-year-old grandkids into being river guides this summer, but I guess I would have to join them to make it happen.  What is with these kids nowadays??  No sense of adventure.

Party Time!

One of the nurses Granpa works with invited us to a party at their house in the desert.  It's an all-day come-n-go affair.  I'm always up for a party!



Her directions said to head north out of town on Route 66 for quite aways, turn right at a particular spot, cross the railroad tracks, and follow the dirt road and signs to their place.

Seems they have been having this annual picnic for a whole bunch of years and so they are very prepared.  She's a pretty good artist along with being a wonderful hostess!




The road is enticing all by itself.

We didn't expect a dirt road, and we didn't expect it to go on and on and on.  We are drawn high onto the mountain.  These roads are well maintained, and they're wide.  Each one must lead to at least one home - and these homes are "off the grid."  They have no power lines going to them, they have their own water wells or haul their water in.  The homes are heated with fireplaces and old style cast iron wood-burning stoves.  Up on the mountains of the high desert there's not much need for air conditioners even at the height of summer.  The neighbors all know each other - but leave each other alone.  They are far apart and essentially out of sight of each other.  All in all, I'm very jealous!

But the road keeps going...

All along the roadside are beautiful desert blooms.

I can just imagine what this will look like in a week or so when all of these burst open!  They seem so delicate for the harsh dry desert.  God has put flowers among the thorns of life!

What might these be?  I've never seen anything like them.
But the yellow ones I'm more familiar with.

The party is at the top of the mountain, and we finally get there.  I am so-o-o jealous of them living out here!

They have bounce houses and - believe it or not - a stage for kids to dance on, farm animals right and left...

There's not enough level ground on at the top of the mountain for baseball or other sports.  The young children begin trying to do a line dance, and pretty quickly the teenagers step in and show them how. No adults directing, just kids playing - like we used to!  What a cool place to live.