Sandy's back and we're leaving Arizona.

I met Sandy at the airport this morning, February 20 at 11:30 AM. She was very happy to be back in the warm weather because when she left Aberdeen, SD at 7:00 AM the temperature was ZERO degrees and it was 70 degrees in Phoenix when I picked her up. Also, it started snowing back in Minneapolis and they ended up with a foot of that white stuff. Here are a few pictures that Sandy took while back home.

Our friends, Jerry and Donna (on the left), met Sandy at the airport when she flew into Minneapolis on February 2nd. That evening they met up will our friends, John and Pat (on the right), for supper.

Back in Aberdeen they had one morning where the trees were heavy with frost. Here are a couple pictures of winter. Sandy says it's too bad the pictures don't show how they were glistening in the sun.

Sandy's Dad, doing a little reading by the fireplace where it's nice and warm.

Sandy's parents, Dalles and Erwin, getting cozy on the couch.

Sandy's Sister, Cindy, brother-in-law, John and their dog, Sophie.

This morning,2-23-2009, Sandy and I went to Yuma, AZ to visit and have lunch with friends Chuck and Lorraine. It’s a 420 mile round trip, but this may be the last chance to see them for a couple of years as they are going to Alaska this summer and we will probably be going to Texas and Florida next winter. The lot they are staying is owned by a friend of theirs. Their fiend’s motorhome is on the left and Chuck’s is shown. Their lot was very nice as it backs up to a natural area for privacy. 

We took this picture of Chuck and Lorraine sitting in the rocking chairs in front of Cracker Barrel where we had lunch.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple of ocotillos in full bloom. Arizona has had a lot of rain but the weather is a little warmer in Yuma than in Phoenix, so the bloom has progressed earlier in Yuma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were several fields in bloom with these purple flowers. When we went into the field the fragrance was almost overwhelming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t know the name of these flowers, but their orange color stood out along the road.

 

The same goes this yellow flower.

 

The following pictures are of the Tank Mountains on the road between Yuma and Quartzsite. As you can see, the Sonoran Desert is very green.

 

 

One afternoon I had been outside reading and was heading back into the motorhome when I spotted this 2 Plus foot Diamondback Rattlesnake by our front door. Sandy had just walked in the door from that direction and hadn't noticed it.

A little later Sandy and I went for a walk and took some pictures of flowers and we came across a 3 footer. They start to appear when it gets warm--guess it's time to leave.

Here are more flower pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one in bloom and a bud that will probably open tomorrow.

Today, Tuesday the 26^th, we left Cave Creek (Phoenix) and are heading to Red Bay, AL for our appointment at the Tiffin factory to have some warranty work done. We prefer to stay off the freeways so we took the scenic route on US 60 to Globe, AZ and caught US 70 to the New Mexico border.  Here are a few pictures on US 60.

 

This is a Copper mine outside Globe.

 

Once we drove out of the Globe area we started to descend into the Gila Valley where the crop of choice is cotton. We followed US 70 down to Lordsburg, NM and took I-10 to Deming, NM where we are spending the night. It's a good thing we stopped when we did because the wind really started blowing so it's better to be off the highway. Looks like we will have to slow down a little and stay behind the storms that are crossing the country right now. I saw on the news that our old home area of Lakeville, MN had 4 inches of snow in one hour with more to come. Can’t say I miss that.

Friends and Sandy leave so I'm on my own.

Sandy Left for the north country on 2-2-09 and is coming back tomorrow, 2-20-09. I missed her during that time but she had some family matters that she wanted to attend to.

This post is set up using "Windows Live Writer" to write the Blog, then I can import directly into Blogger. It seems to take well less then half the time using this method and that is mainly because pictures are a pain in the butt to load using Blogger. I like the other format better but we will try this for awhile. And as always you can DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM. Also this post is with out my able editor who fleshes out my outline and helps with the grammar.

On Saturday the 31st Mike, Mary Jo, Sandy and I went on a Mineral/Geology walk on the Slate Trail. The guide for this walk was Tom, (white hat & denim vest) who is a local Cave Creek resident with a geology background. He was very informative about the geological formations in the area and the mining that took place here up to the mid 1970’s.

Also on the tour was Steve, a park ranger. He is the animated one.

Here is the group heading up to a mine pit. The people standing at the top are looking into the pit. It’s not very big so my guess is that they did not find any gold there, as was typical in most digs. If I remember right, I think there were 56 digs in this park.

On Sunday Mike and Mary Jo left early morning for Casa Grande to meet some friends there and watch the Super Bowl game.

Later in the day I found out the hard way that one does not want to spend time getting ready for the Super Bowl game when one’s spouse has a camera available.

Sandy left this morning, Monday the 2nd, back to Minnesota. The low up there this morning was minus 7 with a high in the low 20’s. See what happens when you take unauthorized pictures. Siberia will be next.

I guess I should not have threatened Sandy because for the first 5 days she was gone the temperatures were in the low 8o's, which is real nice,then for the next week the temp's were in the mid 30's for a low and in the low 60's. There were even a couple of days where we had some rain.

On the 8th there were showers coming and going for most of the day. This is looking to the north.

Here we are looking to the east.

About 6 PM the same day I watched these two coyotes move through the campsite across the road from me. I thought for sure I would have to go out and scare them away when they got into the food containers, but they never even took a sniff, so I was able to just sit and enjoy watching them.

Now that Sandy is coming back tomorrow on the 20th, the temp's are going to be in the upper 70's. I'm glad she is coming back, and not just because of the temp's. I kind of missed her. Sandy, don't worry, the laundry and dishes are done.

Bye for now

Dave