Here we are about to end another week. You know how the week started. It was Super Bowl Sunday, so you know what was going on in most households. We were pulling for the Giants, so I guess it was a good day. The temperature has finally gotten up to about what is considered normal in these parts, the 70’s and 80’s. We are glad that Arizona has overcome the “Parsons affect,” and is getting warmer weather. The flip-flop in the weather from east to west has not been good. We hate that our home county in Tennessee had more tornado disasters to contend with, but glad that family and friends are safe.
We are still doing our three mile walk everyday along with a little bike riding. We decided also this week to take a walk out into the desert, which we had not previously done. We slipped through the fence around the campground and started out into the desert, heading toward the mountains. Of course we didn’t intend to walk to the mountains, that would be a little far.
We were surprised somewhat by the look of the desert. The first picture above is a general view. The surprise was the small rocks strewn across the desert. It looked almost like someone had dumped out two-inch gravel, but it was natural. I suppose the rock was spewed out from the surrounding mountains. It had a black volcanic look to it. You may see it more clearly by enlarging the picture.
Another surprise was the tracks. As best we could determine, they were made by horses without shoes. We determined that they were horses also by the droppings we found about. Other tracks appeared to be made by cattle. This we could also tell by the “cow pies.” What either type animal was doing roaming in the desert, far from any ranch, we could not say. And of course, no desert would be complete without the ubiquitous cactus. They come in all sizes. The one Carolyn is standing beside above appears to be at least three or four times taller than she. You will also note the small, round hole near the top of the cactus. This was probably made by a Cactus Wren, the state bird of Arizona.
Mid-week we decided to take a little trip in a direction we had not been before. We went on a tangent (about a 45 degree angle) North-East from Gila Bend to a town called Maricopa. As a side note, Gila Bend is in Maricopa county, as is Phoenix, but Maricopa (the city) is in Penal County. We know that some of the inhabitants of the campground go that way on occasion, so we decided to see what was there. Our general opinion----- not much!
Oh, the town looked all right. It is much larger than Gila Bend, everything is, but we didn’t find much that we had interest in. We couldn’t even find a restaurant for lunch that was not “fast-food.” We roamed around awhile and found a Casino that is run by the Ak-Chin Indians. As you may know, there is an Indian Reservation almost everywhere one goes in Arizona, and every Reservation has a Casino. Since we couldn’t find a restaurant to our liking, we went to the Deli at Fry’s Supermarket (part of the Kroger family) and bought a sandwich. Then we shopped for a few grocery items and went home.
Now I ask you, was that not an exciting week? The greatest highlight was the books we read while sitting in the trailer. We are grateful that Gila Bend, for all it’s smallness, has a fairly decent Library. Since we have rented a P.O. Box, and are Winter residents, we could get a library card. This saves my cache of books for when we have no such opportunity. We will try to do something more exciting next week to tell you about, but don’t hold your breath. If we do nothing then, I still have a few stories of distant times I can share with you. After all, this is our Winter “down time.”
We are still doing our three mile walk everyday along with a little bike riding. We decided also this week to take a walk out into the desert, which we had not previously done. We slipped through the fence around the campground and started out into the desert, heading toward the mountains. Of course we didn’t intend to walk to the mountains, that would be a little far.
We were surprised somewhat by the look of the desert. The first picture above is a general view. The surprise was the small rocks strewn across the desert. It looked almost like someone had dumped out two-inch gravel, but it was natural. I suppose the rock was spewed out from the surrounding mountains. It had a black volcanic look to it. You may see it more clearly by enlarging the picture.
Another surprise was the tracks. As best we could determine, they were made by horses without shoes. We determined that they were horses also by the droppings we found about. Other tracks appeared to be made by cattle. This we could also tell by the “cow pies.” What either type animal was doing roaming in the desert, far from any ranch, we could not say. And of course, no desert would be complete without the ubiquitous cactus. They come in all sizes. The one Carolyn is standing beside above appears to be at least three or four times taller than she. You will also note the small, round hole near the top of the cactus. This was probably made by a Cactus Wren, the state bird of Arizona.
Mid-week we decided to take a little trip in a direction we had not been before. We went on a tangent (about a 45 degree angle) North-East from Gila Bend to a town called Maricopa. As a side note, Gila Bend is in Maricopa county, as is Phoenix, but Maricopa (the city) is in Penal County. We know that some of the inhabitants of the campground go that way on occasion, so we decided to see what was there. Our general opinion----- not much!
Oh, the town looked all right. It is much larger than Gila Bend, everything is, but we didn’t find much that we had interest in. We couldn’t even find a restaurant for lunch that was not “fast-food.” We roamed around awhile and found a Casino that is run by the Ak-Chin Indians. As you may know, there is an Indian Reservation almost everywhere one goes in Arizona, and every Reservation has a Casino. Since we couldn’t find a restaurant to our liking, we went to the Deli at Fry’s Supermarket (part of the Kroger family) and bought a sandwich. Then we shopped for a few grocery items and went home.
Now I ask you, was that not an exciting week? The greatest highlight was the books we read while sitting in the trailer. We are grateful that Gila Bend, for all it’s smallness, has a fairly decent Library. Since we have rented a P.O. Box, and are Winter residents, we could get a library card. This saves my cache of books for when we have no such opportunity. We will try to do something more exciting next week to tell you about, but don’t hold your breath. If we do nothing then, I still have a few stories of distant times I can share with you. After all, this is our Winter “down time.”
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