Coronado Trail

When passing through Springerville, AZ, be sure to stop for the blue-plate special. A tasty place to eat.

Camping a Hannigans, snow remnants and wet wood from thunderstorm.
Stock ready to go fight fires on the Apache-Sitgraves NF.
Mimi making friends.


Our favorite open-pit copper mine, at Morenci. Would the Grand Canyon fit?

Monument Valley & Gouldings

A nice arch just above Gouldings RV Park where we stayed.
Mimi chumming up The Duke. The first movie "Stagecoach" (1938) filmed in Monument Valley brought some money and jobs, and the tourists followed.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

We went on a jeep tour with Navajo guide called "Geronimo" by his friends.

Some favorite rock formations.
And petroglyphs. The males, according to our guide, have 5 legs in the drawings.

The tough climb to the top is worth the view!

Mimi under the arch.


One can even get their picture taken while on a horse. $2.00. We met many tourists from England, Japan, Germany -- all were intrigued by the wide-open emptiness.

Monument Valley

Mimi at the tribal visitor center, with left and right mittens in background.

Navigators beware, open range, livestock roam everywhere and return in evening to water at corral. All water is trucked to dwellings, corrals, and other use areas.

The old Oljato Trading Post, last operated in the 1950s. With better roads and pickups replacing wagons, larger towns got closer.

Navaho NM & Cliff Dwellings

Stairstep pot holes in the slickrock. Slickrock openings near the campground ranged in size from 1/4 to 1 acre, with some larger ones around. The naked desert bares all, down to the bones.


Mimi at overlook to Betatakin cliff dwellings.

Navaho NM

A hike after dinner leads Mimi to her explanation of desert soil formation.


Then, into the sunset

Grand Canyon Canyon View

On leaving the park, the Desert View with the historical (1932) Watchtower has great views west into the canyon and the Navaho art work.

Anniversary at the El Tovar

Snowed all day at the rim, cold, windy, 5-layer weather. Memorial evening out on the 23rd at the El Tovar hotel at the South Rim, originally staffed with "Harvey Girls," when the railroad first brought tourists to visit the big empty in the early 1900s.

Grand Canyon Redux

Now that we have a good internet connection here in Silver City, NM, it's timely to add a few of my favorites from east of Yaki Point.

Mimi on the edge

With an ever-lurking squirrel awaiting the core.

The Abyss

The day was warm and calm on our hike from The Abyss to Pima Point.


And we found our own vista with requisite overhang (3,000 feet straight off!) a bit off the user trail system.

Kaibab & Pipe Creek Vista

A nice spot to hang out and enjoy the views.

And that's where the mules go up and down the South Kaibab Trail!


Nice socks! Are we ready to hike?

Airing It Out

No wonder it is called Hermit's Rest

Arrived At The Rim

What a view! Isn't she a beauty!?

A lot of perspectives from the edge.

When You Really Need It

Cheap, at any price, here at Furnace Creek, Death Valley.

Portend of the future?

On The Road

Always a great spot for lunch, in Gardnerville, NV, on our way south to Bishop.

Movie: Black Snake Moan

Went to the movies tonight with Margaret, as she had wanted to go and asked about it the day before. I was still packing for our trip, but I had to break away, for the title sounded interesting, and that's before I even saw the poster.

It's worth watching, if just for Samuel L. Jackson's singing and bluesy guitar playing.



Christina Ricci

Spring Blooms

At the door step, a variegated camellia.


Flowering dogwood next door.


Camellias in front of bay window.


Wisteria climbing up in the oak. Latest blooms before the predicted rains tonight and tomorrow.

Tree House

From off the deck is the tree house, framed by flowering honeysuckle and white dogwood.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Today's been my annual contribution to global warming. Mulch and compost what I can, use the big stuff for camping, burn late in the day all the rest. Later in the day keeps smoke out of the neighborhood, as it drifts downhill with lower temperatures.

Time to get ready for fire season; clean up what you can, fallen pine and oak limbs, leaves and needles. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow. the benny is the burn, getting it all disposed of before the onset of fire season. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is 53% of average at the start of April, so we'll be seeing wild flames hereabouts before September is finished.

Hey, after reading the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that was just released, we are in line for drier and hotter conditions with more frequent forest fires. Bummer. We will have to burn under controlled conditions, or be subject to the wild. Our choice.

Today was predicted showers; a good day to burn with an oncoming front to keep conditions moist. I think, at best, there was only a trace of measurable precipitation. It sure didn't affect pile burning. And the rainy season is now about over.

Belgium Gets Swift-Boated

Sam Fox, a businessman and big GOP donor, was made United States ambassador to Belgium today by Pres G. W. Bush, who used a recess appointment to circumvent Congress to secure Fox's position. His nomination had previously been withdrawn following Sen. John Kerry's objections to his contributions to Swift Boat Vets For Truth(iness).

We now have, fittingly, a low-life back-door political appointee to the Low Counties; I'm sure the Republican Party's interests will be well served, but what about mine?.

See Bush Bypasses Senate

A Slice Of Light

Morning time, time for pt, physical therapy, per Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest).

What a pretty place to work out: the back deck. An hour here stretching and lifting outside, then off to the gym for weights and aerobics. Here, the sun slices of light stream downward, the animals finding their comfort. Follow the sun (or, if we all wait long enough, warm will come to us sooner as the average temperatures rise throughout the US -- rising continuously over the last nine years, moving from South to North; your warm time is coming, even to Idaho and North Dakota).

Or easier, follow the animal menagerie to one's sunny work-out spot; they've already found the first rays, even before you finish your coffee and paper to emerge from the house warmth to check the outside temperature, only 48F. Nice. And sunny. Warming to 70 later in the day.

All Lined Up

Tell me, how do they know where to be?

What's Ahead?

The purple wisteria are ready to burst, bringing the bees. And such a sweet smell. It's a race between the wisteria and the California black oak, who will be first, blossoms or leaves? Intertwined, growing high, supported, reaching skyward, what a sight in bloom!

After MRI, cortisone, and heavy duty pt, my frozen right shoulder is responding, with still lots of work ahead to reduce the tendinitis. Looking ahead to full range of motion, and ability to again get that kayak up on the truck roof rack! Soon enough.