Serene Wandering

We spent a wonderful week in Mexico with friends Darrell and Cindy.  When we made our reservations last fall, Delta was our best flight option. Through the intervening months, Delta changed times, routes, airlines, and even our departure date!

Our Boise to Minneapolis to Mazatlan route stayed the same but Delta’s change meant we had to leave Boise at 5:30 a.m. on Friday instead of mid-morning Saturday. Fortunately, Cindy was able to take the extra day off work but Delta didn’t pay for our extra night at the resort.

We have time-share weeks at Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay in Mazatlan and have been there many times.  Darrell and Cindy came with us previously in 2012.  We traded for Cabo the last two years so were very glad to be going back to Emerald Bay.  From the welcoming Tequila Sunrise forward, it was our Happy Place all week long!

We spent a lot of time by the pool lounging, playing cards and enjoying nachos, pina coladas, miami-vices, chi-chis and other adult beverages.

We enjoyed painting our Mexican pottery. You paint a pre stamped design and the people providing the opportunity make them look beautiful!

 

The resort grounds are lovely with a variety of flora and fauna.

There are iguana!

 

I went para-sailing right off the resort beach!   Here I am getting strapped in and receiving instructions.

Randy para-sailed on our honeymoon – 36 years later it was my turn!

The servers around the pool and in the restaurants are wonderful. One of the waiters had us giggling. He was so efficient that he was removing our dishes before we were finished with them. We finally had to hold on to our glasses so they didn’t disappear.

We did leave Emerald Bay and go into town a few times. We went to Randy’s favorite restaurant – Fat Fish.   It isn’t fancy AT ALL but is #7 of 300+ on Trip Advisor.

They offer  ‘2 for 1’ ribs, steak or breaded shrimp dinners for 220 pesos (currently $11.73) With drinks and a tip – it was about $15 per couple.

 

We ate at Panchos in the Golden Zone. We were having a fine time enjoying our meals, complimentary tequila and complimentary kailua and cream when our waiter noticed I wasn’t eating my carne asada (too rare).  So, he gave us another round of tequila and a piece of cake to share.

When we got our second round of complimentary kailua and cream- mine was HUGE and went unfinished!

Our time wasn’t totally spent eating and drinking!  We went on a City Tour one evening.

 

Another day we walked along the maleacon and enjoyed sites and views along the way.

There are a variety of statues along the maleacon.

This statue commemorates pulmonias – Mazatlan’s famous open air taxis.  They were called pulmonias because opponents tried to discourage their use by suggesting that those who rode in them would get pneumonia. The discouragement didn’t work. Pulmonias are everywhere and riding in them is fun!

We rode a city bus (also an experience) into the historic district to see the Cathedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción, begun in 1856 and completed in 1899.

This Roman Catholic cathedral has 28 stained glass windows featuring a Star of David.  This was done in gratitude to a local Jewish family who provided funds to complete the church.

We visited during Mass and there was no English translation this time. Mass is celebrated many times each day.

We visited Mazatlan’s main market.  We’ve been there before but enjoyed experiencing it with Darrell and Cindy.

The “on the hoof that morning” meat market is somewhat shocking to our American sensibilities. We visited in the early afternoon and there was still a lot of meat sitting out. I asked what happened to the meat that didn’t sell and was told that it was purchased and frozen for sale in grocery stores.

All too soon our week (plus one day) at our Happy Place was over and it was time to re-engage with Delta. That meant a 2:30 a.m. alarm to catch our 3:30 taxi to get to the Mazatlan airport at 4:00.  (That was NOT the original plan!)

Our Delta revised route home took us from Mazatlan at 6:00 a.m. (on AeroMexico) south to Mexico City (five hour delay), back on Delta to Salt Lake City and then into Boise at 9:30 pm. It was a long day.

We appreciate that the pilots and flight attendants got us there and back safely.  We are trying to remember that, ultimately, this is the most important thing.   But, we still don’t like Delta!

We traveled north through Nevada intending to visit two intriguing state parks: Valley of Fire and Cathedral Gorge. The pictures and reviews for both parks were great but, unlike most states, Nevada doesn’t take campground reservations. Everything is first come-first served and our plan was to try to make it work not once, but twice! Because of our RV size, and my discomfort with winging it, we almost always have reservations.

With no guarantee, we left at 7:30, two or three hours earlier than usual. It was mid-week and our destination was an hour east of Las Vegas. We arrived at Valley of Fire well before noon and the campground was “filling up fast.”  We had to pay the $10 entry fee to drive several miles in to see if staying was possible.

The views from the main road were beautiful and we saw RVs headed out of the park so we were hopeful.  When we arrived at the campground there were just a few open spots and the only ones we could fit into were handicapped sites. The camp hosts explained the rangers would release those sites to anyone once everything else was full but the rangers wouldn’t say when they were likely to do so.

Basically we drove 50 miles out of our way, paid $10 to drive to the campground to find out we couldn’t stay, and then couldn’t explore the park because we had the trailer attached. We are not fans of Nevada’s no reservation policy!

We decided to drive several more hours to our second park, Cathedral Gorge State Park. I spoke to a ranger from there earlier in the week who told me they are rarely full this time of year so we felt good about our prospects.

After a LONG day in the truck we found a site and I took Elko for a walk.   Randy set up, opened the slides, and discovered more disarray and damage than we’ve ever had in a prior move. He remembers a big rise and dip over a railroad track so maybe that did it. We had cupboards opened that never open, clothing off the racks in the closets and a box valance came loose. One of our rocking chairs rotated and tipped so when the slide opened, it broke one of the rocker bases.

A brief history on the rocking chairs….My parents bought two of them while living in Panama in the late 1970s for $10 – $15 each. The leather was cured with urine so in hot weather they were a bit aromatic!   My parents had them for 20 years or so and then we acquired them. We had them in our house and they “made the cut” for the trailer. We could have sold them over and over again.

Of all the things that could have been damaged, the rocking chair was not a great option! I strap them down with velcro and put rugs and blankets around them each time we move. The velcro was still holding but most of the chair was elsewhere. We are headed towards our friend Darrell who is a master wood worker. I am hopeful that Darrell can help Randy figure out a fix or rebuild.

After we regained focus, we found Cathedral Gorge State Park to be a barren and dusty place with the most interesting rock formations!  An early mining camp resident named the area Cathedral Gorge because the formations reminded her of European Cathedrals.

The park has broad expanses of eroded siltstone and we have enjoyed hiking and exploring.

Most fun were the nooks and crannies that hide openings into slot canyons. Some go just a few feet and some go a hundred feet or more. It was much cooler inside!

Elko didn’t like the slot canyons we explored in Utah, but the walking surfaces in these were mostly level and he did well. Some surfaces in and around the formations were like smooth concrete.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked at the site in the 1930s and some improvements are still around.

So, Nevada parks were a mixed bag.  We are less likely to visit more parks in the future because of the no reservation policy.   Someday we’ll take a day trip to Valley of Fire from Las Vegas but we won’t try to stay there again.

Continuing north, we saw snow along the sides of the road and in the mountains.   We spent last night in Wells but it was mostly just an overnight pull-through and laundry stop.  After a week without sewer hookups (thus unable to do laundry in the trailer) we had quite the pile.  I did four loads in the trailer and four in the park facilities.   We have clean clothes, towels, bedding and rugs heading into Idaho!

We have meandered through Arizona since mid-December and, with temperatures teasing into the 90s, it was time to move on. We enjoyed ourselves in the resorts and loved the time spent in desert parks. We appreciated seeing family and making new friends. We especially enjoyed reconnecting with friends that we see here, there and everywhere. Thinking of you Beth, Mark and Teri, Gerry and Kathy, Kevin and Karen, and Kent and Pam.

Kent and Pam met us near Lake Havasu City on their way south and our way north – our final stop in Arizona for this season.

We enjoyed the scenery and commentary on a Colorado River Jet Boat Tour.

We learned paddlewheel steamers first came onto the Colorado River to transport Army supplies north from Fort Yuma.  A comedy of errors resulted in 30 percent of the 150+ steamers sinking due to sand bars or flooding. Fortunately, there was little loss of life.

The waters were the right level for travel if the eye opening was visible on this reclining rock face. If waters were too high or too low, the eye was not visible.   We were good!

There was also an area of petroglyphs.

Our tour began and ended near the London Bridge.  The city of London put the bridge up for sale in 1967 and Lake Havasu City entrepreneur Robert McCulloch bought it for $2,460,000. There were higher bids but the London folks liked McCulloch’s plan to use the bridge for foot and motor traffic over water.

Bricks were individually numbered, deconstructed and shipped. With some structural modifications,  the London Bridge was reassembled in Lake Havasu City.

The damage on this bridge support was from an air battle during the second world war. Bullet holes and missing rock are evident when viewed from water level.

There were “love locks” on two fences symbolizing the devotion of couples to each other. This tradition began in Paris.

Kent and Pam stayed in town but we stayed at Cattail Cove State Park. Arizona has some great state parks and this was another of them.

Elko enjoyed wading in at the Dog Beach several times a day.
Kent and I took our canoe out and enjoyed a paddle!  Notice the interesting erosion barrier in the background.  Our TxDot friend, Mark told us that pocketed fabric is laid, liquid concrete is pumped in and allowed to dry.  The fabric eventually decomposes.

This area is above Parker Dam and the facility on the right is where water is pumped out to go to southern California.

Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world with nearly three-fourths of its structure below ground. It also has an interesting construction story!

In 1934 the Arizona governor declared martial law and machine-gun nests were put in place to deal with one of “the gravest threats ever faced” – water-thieves from California.

Water rights along Colorado River system were divided amongst New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California but Arizona refused to sign on to the plan. They believed that California was taking more than its fair share.

Governor Moeur was unhappy when the Bureau of Reclamation started building the dam and he sent National Guard troops to take whatever steps necessary to prohibit the workers from even touching “the sacred soil of old Arizona.”

The Navy of Arizona had only two old ferryboats but the Supreme Court ruled for Arizona saying the dam had not been properly authorized.  Congress then passed the Rivers and Harbors Bill, authorizing the construction of Parker Dam.

Another of our pleasures was hiking the trails along the river in Cattail Cove State Park. The river views were very nice but best were the wild flowers and cactus blooms!

Those cold, rainy days and nights in Tucson in January were rewarded with so many wild flowers! The beauty of the desert in bloom is astounding. We may never see it this good again!

So, our stay in Arizona is done for another year. We decided we will not return to two of the resorts we visited this year.  We didn’t have bad visits but, in both cases, there was continual jet noise that we tired of. Done and done!  There are other parks!

When we drove into Yuma three months ago, my hopes for this season were to see javelina in the wild and to NOT see a snake. Because and in-spite of many miles and hours walking in the desert, both hopes were realized!  Arizona: Done and Done!

When we planned this stop at the Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, Arizona we thought we’d see our friends Gerry and Kathy and go to a couple Mariners Spring Training Games.   We did most of that, and even had a couple surprises!

Oddly enough the opponent for both games was the Texas Rangers.  It is odd because we saw two major league games last summer both involving the Rangers.  The first was at Safeco Field in Seattle and then a few weeks later against the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. This spring both games we went to were Mariners playing the Rangers.  I’m hoping that when we see a game in Seattle this summer it won’t be the Mariners and Rangers AGAIN!

We had a surprise meet-up this week with Boise friends who came south for Spring Training – Cubs fans Kevin and Karen!   Thanks for the visit!

We had another most wonderful surprise! Our nephew, Sean, married his Lisa last night and since we were in the valley, we were able to go. When Sean and Lisa were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, it occurred to me that there were (at least) three other couples in attendance who were also Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, we being one of them.

This picture shows two of Sean’s siblings,  Tim (blue tie) and his wife Christal, and Michele (holding the baby) and her family.  (Tim and Christal are also a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.)  Michele’s husband is also a Tim but they are not a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. This part of Randy’s family is the crew we play Fantasy Football with and three of the eight owners in the league are named Tim.

It was terrific to be able to spend quite a bit of time with Tim and Yvette this winter.  We are already looking forward to next year although we’ll be in Yuma so it won’t be quite as easy.

So, some other odds and ends from our week in Surprise….

We were liking Phoenix more than we thought….and then it took us 90 minutes to go 30 miles from the west valley to Mesa!

When I took Elko out at dawn our first morning here, we saw three coyotes in this wash about 100 yards from our trailer. There is a fence between the resort and the wash but it was still pretty interesting!

Randy bought a “new to him” golf bag and push cart at the resort patio sale for $20. Such a bargain!

I mentioned to Randy a few weeks ago that I missed hearing cactus wrens this year. They have a very distinctive “start the engine” song and we’ve heard and enjoyed them on previous trips. Here is a link if you’d like to hear what they sound like.

And here at Sunflower, we have had a cactus wren hanging out in the light pole at our site! It has been a nice ending song for our Arizona winter. One more stop…and then north.

After a month in an RV Resort, we’ve spent the last few days back in the desert at White Tank Mountain Regional Park.  Randy has told me several times a day that he really likes this park!   This is our third stay at a Maricopa Country Regional Park and they have each been very nice. We have three more to explore in coming years.

We have been fortunate to be here at just the right time to enjoy the desert wildflowers. They are everywhere!

As always, we enjoy the saguaro and the many shapes they exhibit!

I learned from an Arizona Highways article this week that plural cactus can be called cacti or cactuses.  Webster’s and Oxford dictionaries list both forms but show cactuses as preferred. Although I’m not sure I can change my ways after years and years of referring to more than one cactus as cacti, I am glad to have learned this.

We also learned the White Tank Mountains were named for depressions scoured into the white granite from water runoff after torrential rains. There hasn’t been any rain during the past week, so we were surprised to see water on the Waterfall Trail.  There was even a small stream of water in the waterfall.The walk was long and hot for our boy Elko so at least he was rewarded with a stroll in the white tank!

On the way to the waterfall we passed through the “Petroglyph Plaza.” These are the most petroglyphs in one place that we have ever seen – and we didn’t even wander off trail. The Hohokam lived here from 500 AD to 1100 AD and, in addition to extensive petroglyphs, there are seven village archeological sites.

Nowadays the park is “home” to extensive trails for hiking and mountain-biking. Randy has done both and enjoyed it thoroughly. His hikes have ranged from 8-13 miles in length. Mine were much more modest!

My favorite cactus – that isn’t really a cactus- is ocotillo. Ocotillo are only in the White Tank Mountain area at the highest elevations. Randy saw some on one of his hikes – almost ready to bloom – so he emailed me a picture.  If they were blooming, I might have had to go see!

We did venture out of the park one day to meet our friends, Gerry and Kathy, for a Mariners game and dinner. We met them in Tucson last year and met up in Phoenix this year – the way of RVers!
Segura on second, Cano on first, Cruz in the batter’s box, and Seager on deck.  We got the big boys for our spring training game!

We’ll see the Mariners again next week when we move 11 miles east to Sunflower RV Resort.   It is probably our shortest move ever – and shorter than Randy’s hike today!

We started our month with a Night Glow Balloon Festival and finished with a Night Glow Golf Tournament! Randy played the Palm Creek Golf Course earlier in the week so as to be familiar with it, but it didn’t matter. It was dark enough out there that you couldn’t see anything anyway!

Randy with the glow balls for his team. They stay lit for five minutes after striking.

Glow sticks were placed at the back of the green and others were mounted on the pin so you had an idea of where to hit to. There was a glow rope in the cup that was visible when you got close enough. It was a unique, fun, experience for him to play and me to walk along.

Randy’s team got an even-par for the five hole scramble tournament and tied for first place. Each player got six (regular) golf balls and a free round of golf.

So, even though it was overcast and windy, he played again yesterday.

We saw an egret hunting for lunch in the creek that runs through the back nine.

Randy loves, loves, loves his new watch. It does a jillion things including identifying yardages on golf courses. That feature was especially helpful in the Night Glow Tournament.

We’ve enjoyed our month at Palm Creek and were glad to make some new friends! Iris and Ron are from California and we’ll likely see them again as we traverse north and south.

Iris told people she met from Elko, Nevada about our Elko, so they came by to meet him.

Rick and Diana (and Buddy) are from Iowa and were gracious “across the street” neighbors. We enjoyed afternoon chats and dinner out with them. The Iowa sticker is missing on our map so, hopefully, we’ll see them again too!

Elko and Buddy snuggle up for an afternoon snooze.

Rick and Diana, like many others, have been coming to Palm Creek for years and years. It is their winter home away from home. We certainly understand the appeal of this beautiful park.

Palm Creek has tons of activities and brings in terrific entertainment. At a very modest cost, we have enjoyed one or two shows weekly.

Most permanent and seasonal people have golf carts and some are decorated in fun ways.

Of course, living in a traveling home means there is always some work to do or have done. Randy arranged for Jim’s Mobile RV to flush out our black and gray tanks.

Randy paid for the service, but then, of course, he helped!

As part of Randy’s cell booster project we acquired a new ladder mount flag pole. I was originally going to dispose of the ground level flag pole – but decided to keep it and get a Mariner’s flag instead! Flags tend to be conversation starters with people who walk by.

We are nearly done with our month in Casa Grande. Randy and I see a “winter home” like this in our future – just not anytime soon. (A Florida winter and a Texas winter need to happen first!) And as nice as it is, our eventual winter home isn’t likely to be Palm Creek because Casa Grande just didn’t do it for us. We did like, however, that Casa Grande was only 45 minutes from Randy’s brother Tim and Yvette’s house in Chandler! It is always fun to spend time with them.

A brief digression: We wondered about how to say the name of this town? We say Casa Grande the Spanish way (but omitting the rolled “r”) – “cossa gronday”. We’ve heard others say “cassa grand” and also several combinations of the two. A little research shows that there isn’t a “correct” way – even among locals.

So Casa Grande isn’t our answer but Arizona probably is. We like the southwest flavor, the mostly nice winter weather and the lack of bugs and humidity! Tucson still has Randy’s heart, and may be our answer, but we agree that the park we’ve stayed in the last two years is not. There are other parks in Tucson to try. Mesa, never on our radar before, is now there because I liked it so well when we were there in December. Time will tell.

Tomorrow, we move back into a more natural desert setting traveling to a Maricopa County Regional Park northwest of Phoenix. We have stayed in two Maricopa parks previously that were very nice and we are looking forward to visiting a new one.  More from there next time!

The main route between Phoenix and Tucson is 115 miles of  busy Interstate 10. A few dozen miles east of I-10 is the alternative – the slower, two lane, scenic Highway 79. The historic town of Florence we visited last week is along Highway 79.

While there we learned about Tom Mix, a silent movie star who was the iconic western actor of his generation. He appeared in more than 300 western films. He was “King of the Cowboys” before Roy Rogers was. His blazed face partner was Tony, the first horse to be a real movie star.

Along Highway 79, about 50 miles north of Tucson, is a roadside memorial to Tom Mix.

Mix crashed and died here after traveling too fast and missing a detour.  He survived the initial accident but was killed when his large baggage trunk toppled over on top of him, breaking his neck.

Further north we found memorials and monuments of a different sort.

A bit east of Highway 79 is St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery. Several people had suggested we visit the monastery but Randy was reluctant because he didn’t want to put on long pants, shoes and socks, and long sleeves. He has this thing about wearing shorts in the Arizona sunshine!

I wore the required long skirt, shoes and stockings, and long sleeved blouse but my blouse was apparently not modest enough as I was given another to wear over it along with a head scarf.

The monastery is an active community of monks living, working and worshipping on the grounds. They allow visitors in some areas.  St Anthony’s was established in the Arizona desert by six monks in the summer of 1995. They were sent from Holy Mountain of Athos in Greece which maintains a direct link from early Christianity. Holy Mountain consists of a few thousand monks in 20 independent monasteries and numerous hermitages around the world.

St. Anthony the Great lived from 251-356 and was the “father of monasticism.” The main church is dedicated to him. Other churches and chapels on the grounds are dedicated to other saints.

Currently about 40 monks and novices follow a schedule of prayer and work on the monastery grounds. Works include tending the gardens, vineyards, and orchards, woodworking, construction and food preparation. Other tasks are related to hospitality as Orthodox men and women from around the world are able to spend a few days at the monastery for spiritual growth.

The traditional Orthodox cross, also called the Russian cross, has three horizontal bars.

The top bar has the inscription “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.” The second is for Jesus’ hands. The third, and lowest bar, was his foot-rest. The third bar is sometimes shown slanted because the thief crucified on Jesus’ right repented and was saved – thus that side points toward Heaven. The thief to Jesus’ left did not and he went down to Hell.

Even with the dress code requirements, those who had encouraged us to visit the monastery were correct. It was well worth the drive and inconvenience!  St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery is a beautiful and interesting place.

 

We finally ventured out of the RV Resort and went east 30 miles to Florence. We knew there was some interesting history there but didn’t realize just how much there was to discover.

We began at McFarlane State Historic Park. This building is the longest standing courthouse in the state of Arizona. It was replaced as the courthouse in 1891 and subsequently served as a county hospital, public health office and county historical society office.

The building is named for Ernest McFarland who is the only known American to serve their state in all three branches of government. He was a United States Senator, Governor and Arizona Supreme Court Justice. As Senate Majority Leader he led the effort to intern United States citizens of Japanese ancestry. He is also considered to be the “Father of the GI Bill.” Surely, he has a mixed legacy.

We learned about the Florence Prisoner of War Camp which held Italian and German prisoners during World War II. Camp Florence was Arizona’s largest prison camp holding 13,000 men over its 4 year operation. It was one of 666 prison camps around the country.

Many prisoners were placed in temporary agriculture camps in rural America creating a “work force” to replace the one that was depleted because most able-bodied men joined the war effort.

The second Pinal County Courthouse was built in 1891 with a belief that there was future prosperity in mining and agriculture. Over the years there were four additions to the original building and a multi-phase renovation project from 2003-2011.

This courthouse was the site of trials or hearings for three notorious Arizona women, Pearl Heart, Eva Dugan and Winnie Ruth Judd.  Pearl Heart was charged with committing one of the last recorded stage coach robberies in the US in 1899.    Pearl  was initially acquitted but an angry judge ordered a second trial and she was then convicted.

Eva Dugan was convicted of murder in the 1930s and sentenced to be hanged. Her hanging resulted in her decapitation and influenced the State of Arizona to replace hanging with the gas chamber.

Medical secretary Winnie Ruth Judd was found guilty of murdering and dismembering two of her friends believing they were interested in her lover. She traveled with their body parts in trunks and luggage from Phoenix to Los Angeles.   The crime was notoriously named the “Trunk Murders.”

Florence has a long and interesting history of crime and justice.  It is also the site of the Arizona State Prison which  replaced the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1908.

At the Pinal County Historical Museum we saw more exhibits about prisoners and executions. The Florence prison was, and still is, the site for executions in Arizona.

Pictures of prisoners are surrounded by the very ropes that were used for their hangings.

The Hernandez brothers sat in these chairs and died in the gas chamber in 1934. They were the first to die using the gas chamber in Arizona.

There is even a display showing those executed and their last meal choices.   There were 141 people (140 men and 1 woman) executed in Arizona from 1865 to present.  I don’t know if all were represented in this display but there were pictures for most, if not all.

Fortunately there is much more to this museum than death and morbidity!  There are a huge variety of displays that could take days to fully peruse! I’d be happy to spend more time there on another day.

Above is a display of furniture made using saguaro and chollo cactus in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is now illegal to remove or damage cactus on public lands but there once was a thriving furniture business!

We enjoyed our day out of the resort and hope to do another excursion soon. There is even more to see in Florence if we head back that way!

We found the sun in Casa Grande, Arizona! Our site has no natural shade in the afternoon so we put up our 10 x 10 picnic canopy. A resort ranger came by a couple days later and said it was not allowed so we ordered shade in a box, a screen that attaches to our awning, from Amazon Prime.

Our friends Mark and Teri, met at Farragut but last seen in Montana, came through Casa Grande on their way north and we enjoyed spending two fun days with them.

We are at the nicest RV Resort we have ever been to. We had heard from other RVers that Palm Creek was a “10” and they were right. About 3800 people call Palm Creek home in the winter and only 350 call it home year round.

The grounds are well cared for with a huge array of “active lifestyle” amenities. We have walked for miles and miles around and through the park (about 2.5 miles around), line danced, hot-tubbed, and been to a few shows.  We have barely scratched the surface.

We’ve seen a few musical acts including The Arizona Trio. All have been good!

There was a Night Glow Balloon Festival as part of the park’s Cancer Awareness Weekend.

Our new experience has been learning to lawn bowl!  It has similarities to Bocci Ball but the bowls (balls) have a built in bias so you calculate the left or right roll in addition to the distance.  And calculating correctly doesn’t mean you throw it well!  We have had fun with it but have no idea when we’ll ever play again once we leave here!

There is a lovely 18 hole golf course that Randy hasn’t even played yet! He plans to and is signed up for a Glow Ball Night Tournament later in the month.

Randy has had a multi-day project trying to diagnose and find a solution for our poor Verizon cell and data service.   He purchased a cell booster and  three antennae for various circumstances.  It took the directional antenna, pointed directly at the cell tower, to show much improvement.  Mostly there are just too many people here at this time of year for the cell towers to be able to accommodate everyone. People who live here, or come for the whole season, get a cable-modem installed.

We understand why people choose to live here.  Palm Creek is a very nice, and very pricey, park – and probably worth it given all the amenities. We came in on a first timer’s half price rate and it was still $650 for the month.

There is so much to do here that we’ve barely left the park.   Randy and Mark played the local disc golf course and yesterday Randy, Elko and I went back and played it again.

Hopefully we’ll get out of the park a bit more in the next two weeks!

We have been hanging out at Patagonia Lake State Park and Sonoita Creek Natural Area (near the border in southern Arizona) for the last few days and have seen so many cows!!

When we asked about them we learned that a rancher pays $1500 a year to graze 40 head of cattle on Arizona Trust Lands that surround the park acreage. Trust Lands are Arizona’s equivalent of federal BLM land.

For the privilege of grazing on public lands, the rancher is to identify and limit his herd to 40 head (his chosen designation is an ear tag), keep others off the range,  and maintain a fence to keep the cows off state park property. We are not exaggerating when we say that an average of only one in twenty cows had an ear tag. There are likely hundreds of cows out here and they are not staying off park lands.

When we asked about the rancher’s obvious violations, we learned he had been sent a letter asking for compliance but that no one enforces the contract. It was discouraging to see such blatant disregard and abuse of public lands.

So back to our question, since these cows are here illegally, would it be a illegal to steal one? Most don’t have ear tags and some don’t have brands. Anyone need a cow?

People don’t come here in the winter to look at the cows, they come for the birds!  The area is a bird mecca!  We went on our first official “bird walk” and Randy liked it. He’s got a new app to identify birds and walks around with binoculars. I liked the long, slow walk but was fairly ambivalent about the birds. But regardless, Randy may have a new hobby!

 

There were so many people for the bird walk, they divided us into three groups. Our leader, on the left in the picture, did a great job of pointing out birds, and what features we beginners should look for.  Here are a couple of the pretty birds we saw.

Most of the people come here looking for the Elegant Trogon (below left) and the Green Kingfisher (below right). The pictures below were taken by our guide when he saw them last week.  These birds were on everyone’s birding wish list.

My wishlist for Arizona this winter was first, to not see any snakes and second, to see javelina in the wild. So far so good with the snakes…. and today we saw javelinas!

We went on a hike in the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area.

After about an hour Randy noticed a group of about six javalinas moving through the trees. I glimpsed the movement as well but it didn’t really feel like I’d seen them. We followed a bit and I had a good look at two of them moving up the hill. No time for a picture though…

Randy figured out how we could cross the creek and we spent the next hour climbing through rocks and brush following a game trail in hopes of seeing them again. We got close enough once that Randy could smell them but we never did see them.  It was exciting!  More exciting than the birds or the cows, at least for me!

These are pictures of pictures of javelina from the visitor center.

We enjoyed a cruise on Patagonia Lake. We learned the lake was man made (by damming Sonoita Creek) in the 1960s by developers who were trying to sell lake front properties.

This high bridge is for sailboats coming in and out of the still functioning marina.

The business venture failed but the lake is still here and now Arizona State Park property. The lake, out here where it doesn’t belong, is the attractant for all the birds, and birders.

The park has two distinct personalities, birders in the winter and water recreation enthusiasts during the summer months.   Patagonia Lake is the largest body of water in southern Arizona.

It has been nice to have this respite in nature for the last few days. Tomorrow we move back to a snowbird park, this time in Casa Grande. I am not expecting to see cows or javelinas there!  Hopefully no snakes either!