RAIN!!!!!

    They call this area "The Valley of the Sun" and for good reason. We have lots and lots of sunshine - and little rain. That makes it a desert area and we like the dry and sunny days. The last time it rained in Phoenix was in late October and that was just a light sprinkle, they tell me. Sometimes, when rain clouds roll in, the rain produced does not even hit the ground - you can see it leave the clouds but nothing hits the dry ground. That is called virga.
    But yesterday we had RAIN! Thunder and lightening and what seemed like lots of rain. Actually it was only .5" but we got lots of puddles and pooling of water. The ground is often so baked hard that the water runs off and does not penetrate. But desert plants are adapted with shallow roots that take in the water when they can. Hopefully, this rain will help to germinate the seeds from last Spring, and we will have good wildflowers next Spring.

                       The Christmas decorations looked really nice reflected in the rain puddles!

Zoolights

  Each year during the Christmas season, the Phoenix Zoo re-opens in the evening with a spectacular light show. The animals have gone to sleep in their dens or hidden behind walls in quiet places while hundreds of families and lots of small children come to see the mulitcoloured light displays.

Lions, giraffe, monkeys and hmmm...squid?

Lots of lights on the trees and the cacti

The finale was a wonderful laser light show with a globe in the middle of the lake with dancing lights and synchronized lights on the surrounding trees and tall saguaro cactus. It was magic!

Pass Mountain Hike

  Our Monday hiking group broke into two this past week. Bruce, our leader wanted to hike the Peralta Trail - this is quite a strenuous hike with 1500' of elevation and Jack and I felt that it would be a bit too much for our second hike of the season with the group. So Bruce suggested an easier hike to Pass Mountain in Usuary Park. We were a group of five that did this hike - 5 miles and 550' of elevation. Monday saw a change in the weather and it had turned quite a bit cooler - it was only 48F and quite breezy when we left at 8am but the skies were bright blue and clear!

We hiked to that saddle between the hills with the yellow streak of volcanic "tuff". It's a fairly easy trail (meaning not full of small and large rocks to walk on) and the elevation is quite gradual.

                                                    SOME of the rocks are big though!

                   Getting closer to the top

So - Jack - do you think you can just push that big rock over the edge?

The view from the saddle - Four Peaks is in the distance. The trail continues all around Pass Mountain for another 7.8 miles but we only take a side trail to a cave, then continued about 1/2 mile to a place for our lunch before we hike down from the saddle. After all - this was supposed to be an "easy" hike!  On the way down I took this picture of a saguaro cactus giving himself a prickly hug!

McCormick-Stillman Railway Park

Friends had told us about this railway park in Scottsdale, so we went there on December 6 to have a look. If anyone is a railroad buff - this is the place -especially if you have children with you on the visit. They have an old engine and a pullman car that FDR used to travel the country when he was campaigning. They also have a small railway the you can sit on and traverse the park.

We thought this fellow looked like Jack's brother Arnold!

It was in this drawing room of the "Roald Amundsen" pullman car that FDR met with Sir William  Lyon Mackensize King, Prime Minister of Canada and signed the treaty that created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

                                                         Cargo?

   There is also a large new building with many tracks of model railroads of all gauges. It was fascinating to watch the different trains going around and across each other. Scenery had been recreated to resemble small towns, large metropolises .......

                                        and even Thomas the Train and Sir Topham Hatt!!

And you thought Santa lived at the North Pole

We have found him hiding in a trailer at our RV park! He looked rested and I think that he will head for the North Pole before Christmas and take those reindeer out for a drive

Lighting Christmas Nights

One of the most lovely things about the Christmas season is lighting up the dark nights. While many homes are lit up, we decided to seek out some other interesting Christmas lights. Friday, December 7 we drove to the suburb of Gilbert, to the town center for a balloon glow. Ten hot air balloons were aloft glowing in the night.

Powerful propane burners activated in bursts, help to keep the balloons aloft

LIGHTED BOAT PARADE Saturday night, we braved huge crowds that gathered at Tempe Town Lake to see the parade of boats decked out with lights, music and Santa suits. One of the boats even have the Grinch on board. One would think that Arizona was all desert and not have enough water for a boat parade, but that certainly is not the case. There are many large lakes, rivers and canals that are mostly man made but used for recreation and this is one of them - in the middle of the city!

Monday Mesa Regal Hike - Black Cross Mesa

We have great memories of Monday hikes with the group from Mesa Regal (our RV resort)from years past and are happy to go on this first hike of the season for us. We meet at 7:45 on Monday, December 3 and car pool together about an hour's drive to Tortilla Flat. This is an old time saloon at the end of the paved road going into the Tonto National Wildernesss. It has a real old west feel has good coffee and toilets - essential for beginning our hike. We drive about 20 more minutes on a gravel road to the traihead. The road continues 3 more miles of zig-zagging down into the canyon of the Salt River to the Horse Mesa Dam. But the road is only for dam workers so we park and start our hike from here. Bruce is an experienced hiker and is the leader of our group of 16 today. We will hike up to and around that yellow cliff face

At the lower left hand corner we can still see the parked cars. Our elevation gain will be 780' by the time we get to the top of the mesa.

One of the first "creatures" we see on our hike is this large tarantula. As our leader, Bruce knows what to look for on the trail - especially at the base of bushes and rocks along the trail. The call goes out from our leader and a sudden stop -"Rattlesnake by the trail!" Sure enough, there is a good sized rattler with at least 14 rattles on his tail, curled up sunning himself on a rock by the side of the path. We all halt - but pass our cameras to Bruce so we can get photos of the snake. We do not often see rattlers when we are hiking because it is often too cool in the winter months for these cold blooded creatures to be out - they are semi hibernating through the winter months but November has been unseasonably warm so they are still active. We all quietly walk around him - not easy to do as the path is at the edge of the canyon.

We gain the top of the mesa and have a wonderful view of Four peaks in the distance

We're going to hike over to that cave to have our lunch.

See that mesa ahead? that's Black Mesa and we'll hike to the top and walk around the flat grassy area. Jack and 3 others decide to stay back and wait for us.

From the top of the mesa, we have wonderful views of the surrounding area - canyons that rival the Grand Canyon. The Salt River winds through the deep cut canyon and we can just see Horse Mesa Dam - one of the several dams that help to control the water flow for the Phoenix area.

    The mesa top it flat and easy to walk around - mostly grassy with differnt kinds of cacti. We find the black cross that gives this mesa it's name - we don't know why it is here or what it means.

    After climbing down from the mesa to the saddle and picking up the four left behind, we begin our trek down to the trail head. It has been a 4.5 mile hike but over lots of rough terrain and quite a bit of climbing. We had a great time!

First Hike of the Season - Fat Man Pass

We have been in Mesa for a week now and are getting anxious to get out and hike in the mountains that surround the city. One of our favourite hikes is in South Mountain Park. We have invited Keith and Nancy Goudy to come with us. We met them 2 years ago when we were in neighboring sites. They are full time RVers and are work camping at Mesa Regal. That means that they work 12 hours a week each in the park and get a campsite for free.

The skies are wonderfully clear and blue as we begin our hike. Typical of Arizona mornings, it is a cool 55F but it will be up to 85F by this afternoon. The hike begins in the shadow of a hillside as we wind our way further into the mountains. Some rock formations are quite interesting!

After a turn onto the Hidden Valley trail we come to the "Fat Man Pass". It's a huge rock that has split with a narrow opening - only 9 inches wide - where you have to slither through to the other side. The rock has been worn smooth because of so many bodies pushing into the narrow opening. It was not hard for any of us but you have to remove your backpack! You can also go on top of the rock and watch people going through.

Further on the trail, we come to another challenge - you have to lie on your back and slide down the rock to a lower area through an opening that is about 2 feet high. It was fun! We also go through a tunnel of jumbled rocks - but this is high enough to walk through

After the Hidden Valley loop, we rejoin the other trail and return to the carpark. It was a 5.5 mile hike with only about 350 feet of elevation but a good one to begin the hiking season. We are proud of ourselves!

Heading South for the winter - 2012-2013

After not posting for more than a year, we have decided to again try to communicate with family and friends through this blog. It has been an eventful summer and fall for Jack and I. We put our home up for sale in May and waited through many Open Houses and showings for the right person to some and make us an offer. Only after a fall while on a cruise in September and injuring my shoulder, did I make contact through the receptionist at physiotherapy and someone came to see out townhome and subsequently made us an

offer and we sold our home on October 5 with a short closing of only 4 weeks. We had bought a townhome in Oakville, near our son and his family back in June. We had had renovations done and painting throughout and it was ready to move into by the end of October. But it was not Jack and I that moved in! Greg and Tara began a big renovation on their home and needed a place to live for 4 to 6 months, so they moved into our home in Oakville, we moved out of our home in Brantford and most of our goods moved into storage. The RV now became our primary home and we took it on the road on Monday, November 12 after lots of good byes to family and friends. We drove to Goodrich, Michigan to spend a couple of days with our son Derek who is working on my sister's horse boarding farm. Jacque and Chuck have given Derek a home for the past several years and he works in the horse barn each day. He has a new Indiana Jones leather jacket and outfit so we took some pictures of him with the horses.

It was COLD at night - down to 22F - and despite the electric blanket and 15 amp plugin on the farm, we were ready to begin our trip down south. Thursday, November 15 was bright, sunny and dry and we headed down through Indiana, spending the night at a Walmart near Terre Haute, Indiana. The next day we drove through Illinois and crossed the Mississippi River at St Louis.

Misssouri and Oklahoma were the next states to pass through and we stayed the following night at a Flying J Truck Stop. We like Flying J's because they have dedicated RV island for fuel as well as dumping and water fill ups. The temperatures are moderating now and we are enjoying high 60s during the day and only down to high 40s at night. We LIKE this!

I-40 takes us across the top of Texas and through Amarillo.

We saw several of these feedlots full of tomorrow's steaks.

We are definately in the southwest when we see the sign for the state of New Mexico. We spend a night in Alburquerque at a Walmart then stop for fuel and a truck wash for our RV and car that were very dirty mostly from Michigan and the rain and dirt road to the farm on our first day of travel. Our friends, Gary and Carlene Hoeksema, live in Gallup, New Mexico. Carlene introduced Jack and I to each other 44 years ago and we had a great time connecting again over dinner. We parked the RV at Rehoboth - a mission of the CRC for the Navaho. The elevation here is quite high - 6300' and it is cold again at night - down to 25F! But tomorrow we will be in Phoenix!!!

Finally - after six days of travel, we turn south from I-40 onto I-17 toward Sedona and Phoenix

Loooong trains and free range cattle are part of the western tableau.

We have spent several seasons at Mesa Regal RV Resort and we really like it here. Our spot this year is on 6th Street and it is very near the main Activity Center. This means that the pools, computer room, yoga room, laundry and lots of other activities are just a short walk away.

A well deserved rest for the driver!

We have a grapefruit tree right on our site!

After at busy, busy month - selling, packing, storing, and traveling - we can now rest and recuperate in the Arizona sunshine!