Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Lynne's Birthday Trip to ... Phoenix.

Phoenix?  Phoenix Arizona?  How exoctic... really Paul, you shouldn't have...

Well, you know, it's her birthday, and all, and nothing's too good for Lynne, so ... Phoenix.

30-Jan-2020.  Thursday
So we flew to Phoenix today.  Got a Lyft to the fancy shmancy hotel, and checked in.  Very classy, we were.  We went up to the rooftop bar to celebrate really getting the trip underway.  A pretty good Manhattan, I must say.  Not quite a Josh Manhattan, but what is, really?

Obligatory pre-departure airport picture.

Oops.  Ahem... perhaps we didn't wait until the rooftop bar to celebrate the start of the trip.
(Forgot about this...)

View from the roof.

Just waiting for Lynne.

C'mon Lynne!

Okay now we're REALLY celebrating!


We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, and as we were getting ready to head up to our room, we noticed that there was a woman with an acoustic guitar singing in the lounge-y area.  And there was NO one paying her any attention.  So we did.  It was pretty nice... we stoked the tip jar, ordered a crazy fad whiskey drink, and sat an listened to her for an hour.  Hey, we can do this, we're on vacation.

Mesquite smoked...

... crazy fad whiskey drink.

It was okay... I actually liked the smoke flavor, but some of the other things in the mix didn't really blend that well.  I mean, we drank it (sheesh!) but wouldn't order it again.


31-Jan-2020.  Friday
Had some coffee in the room, and then walked around toward downtown.  Where we were staying was on the edge of downtown in an area that's definitely being gentrified a bit, and it is also becoming somewhat of an art area.  Gross.  (Mom: "What?!?!  Wait just a minute, buster!!!")  It was actually pretty cool.  Had some of the creative big city vibe happening.

Oh, where we are and where we're going...  We're in Phoenix.  We'll be driving up to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Arizona to camp for a couple days, and then we'll drive through the Sedona area, and head down to Lost Dutchman State Park just east of Phoenix to camp for a couple days.  Then back to Phoenix.

There are a couple badly drawn Xs where the campgrounds are.

Had a coffee at a place that was way too hip for us to be in (as evidenced my me calling it 'hip' no doubt), and walked some more.  Eventually had a really good breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast before heading back to the hotel.  Um, after we stopped in at a bike shop and got another coffee and chatted about local riding a bit.

Saw a Gila Woodpecker on our walk.
(best get used to the bird theme of this blog entry)


Art outside the bike shop coffee house.

Saw a Chevy truck that reminded me of someone.
(Oh, Hi Mark!)

Got back to hotel, and it turned out our van was ready early, so we took another Lyft down to Escape campervans to get our sweet new home for the next four days.  Sweet it was... it's name is Nectar.  We threw our stuff in the back, and drove to the market to get some food for the next few days.  After shopping, we drove up to Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood.

Wait!  Quiz time!  So there was this big painting in the lobby.  Probably 12 feet wide?  The quiz here is ... how many of these characters can YOU name?  Or at least what show are the characters from?

Lobby art.  Who's who?

Okay, we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog update...

Our van, Nectar.

Got to camp and set up the table.  Plenty o' room!

Well, best start celebrating the fact that we're on vacation!  Camping Kentucky Mules. 

Cookin' in the kitchen.

Okay, some van details.  It included a table (seen above), and a queen size bed that folds out in the space that the table is up there.  It also has a kitchen in the back that has a shelf for the stove that pulls out, a small 12V fridge, and a sink (see last picture above - fridge is right behind where I'm standing).  We got a package deal that included some options that are normally extra.  Our deal included the complete kitchen which was pots and pans, plates, silverware, cooking utensils, etc.  They included in a can of propane for the stove, and some folding chairs for the camp.  We also got the basic bedding kit that included a lightweight comforter and pillows.  And... we also got the electric kit which was a long extension cord, an outlet strip, and a small heater.  Right, electricity?  Are you kidding?  We're going to be so far out in the wilderness, we may not see another person for days!!  (Disregard the motorhomes behind Lynne's head in that picture up there.  Um, and the following pictures seeming to show 'civilization' too.  I'm pretty sure we photoshopped out all the wild animals and replaced them with RVers.)  Aaanyway... keep these last two kits in mind for later: the lightweight comforter, and the heater...

We had a pretty nice sunset which I neglected to get a good picture of while it was at its best, and then some dinner in the van before setting up the bed.  First night in the back of the van.  We were super-roughing it here... sure, the campground had hot showers, and heated bathrooms, but no one brushed your teeth for you, or brought you your slippers when you got out of the shower.

Camp twilight.

Dinner!  


1-Feb-2020.  Saturday
Woke up, and ... yeah, coffee first thing.  What is it about coffee when you're out camping on a crisp cool morning?  Just. So. Good.  We sat and enjoyed the coffee and sun and watched the birds that were attracted to the dripping water at the campsite next to us.

Coffee at the campsite.

Mountain Bluebird.

Cardinal!
Cardinals in Arizona?  Who knew?
(And don't tell me that their football team is the Cardinals, so of course they'd have cardinals in Arizona, because I'd be forced to remind you that they used to be the St. Louis Cardinals!)


We walked down the Mesa Trail, and over to the Canopy trail.  The Cottonwood trees were all without leaves, so there wasn't much of a canopy, but there were some feeders out at the end of it, because it was an all-access trail, and I guess they wanted to be sure there'd always be birds to be seen.  And there were definitely birds.  Lynne's new binoculars got a definite workout!  We walked back to camp via the River, and then back up Creosote Trail to Mesa Trail to our camp.

Cottonwood.

Not creating a lot of canopy.

Lynne by the Verde River

Arizona Cardinal.
Which is just a Cardinal that happens to be in Arizona.

Oh, and then we walked back down the way we came, looking for the cover to Lynne's new binos, which we found (yippee!).  And NOW back to camp for breakfast.  And looking at more birds, of course.  Oatmeal with nuts and berries mixed in (sorry Dad, no chocolate cake), and then we went for a little exploration adventure up to Tuzigoot National Monument to look at some ruins.  And then after we went to Tuzigoot, we stopped by a local park and walked around.  And since we were there, we threw a few discs because they had some baskets.  But, really, I could stop any time I wanted to,... (Right, Christian?)

The ruins on top of the hill as we were driving in.

Top of the hill is right there on the left.

Lynne's in ruins.
(Ha, see what I did there?)

Looking down.

Looking up at the top.
(And at a bit of a nutty professor...)

Looking down again.

Teeing off!

The window through which I missed my putt.

After hiking and exploring and discing, we came back to camp and relaxed a little before going for another little hike just up to the top of the ridge near our camp.  And then having dinner, and retiring to the boudoir for some serious excitement.  You know, dice and cards...

Relaxing with Nectar and our Andrew and Jenny koozies.

Ditto.

When not looking at birds, we're looking at pictures of birds!

View from the top of the ridge.  We photo shopped in all the other vehicles, but really, we were way out in the wilderness with scary wild animals everywhere.

Serious excitement.

Dice and cards.


2-Feb-2020.  Sunday

Yeah... Groundhog day.  Nothing else special, but groundhogs are sure cute.

We woke up and made coffee (duh), because we're part of the new generation of movers and shakers that like a cup of coffee to pick us up and calm us down.  Then we went for a little morning hike up the Mesa Trail to the top of the, um, mesa, next to our camp.  Same place we walked last night, actually, though I called it a ridge then because I wasn't as clever.

From the top of the mesa, you could actually see over to the Tuzigoot ruins where we had hiked the day before.  Pretty cool to see it from a distance; gives a better overall perspective.

The ruins on the left, and the visitors center on the right.

Closer view of the ruins.

Nectar amongst the behemoths.

We hiked back down the trail to camp, and we made a special birthd Groundhog day breakfast of chilequiles, and more coffee, and then Lynne opened a couple Groundhog day presents which have always been special in our family...

Chips and eggs, and avocados and salsa and coffee.
Yum.
Uh,the beer bottles were from the night before.  Really.

We packed up our stuff and departed camp to go back down to the Canopy Loop to see if there were any more birds that needed viewing, and then we headed out toward Sedona, and other parts red-rock, before heading back south toward the Phoenix area.

While watching all the little birds, we heard a noise, and all the birds scattered as a small hawk came charging in trying to catch dinner.  But the birds all got away (as far as we could tell), and we just sat and watched some little ones go about their day chowing down.

Ready to go look for dumb birds.

Lesser Goldfinches

Junco
(Wait, are we in our own back yard??)

No... we're not.  There's a Gila Woodpecker (I think) in there.

Again... not a lot of canopy.  But the trees looked pretty rad anyway.

So as I mentioned, we headed out toward Sedona before heading back south.  We drove up to Airport Mesa which I'd never done before.  We had a spirited discussion as to why it was so named.  We thought it was interesting that the native Americans had named it airport mesa, and that they must have been truly psychic in that this just happened to be where the airport was built.  Amazing.

Or maybe... maybe that's not how it went at all.

After driving up, we headed a little south, and did some hiking in the red rock at Bell Rock before heading back south.

Well-signed trails.
MikeB and I were at this very intersection on our trip here last October.  
We went down Courthouse Butte Loop toward Llama trail.  (I mean, duh.) 

Dang.  Really awesome red rock stuff here.

More still.

Again more still wow.

Moon just coming up over that point in the middle there....

After our hike, we got back in the van and headed toward Lost Dutchman State Park just east of Phoenix.  Filled the van with gas and went and found our next home for the night.

Whoa.  Nice!

The campsite.

Got into camp with plenty of time to go for a bit of a bird-and-scenery viewing hike.  Cracked an ice cold beer, wrapped them in the koozies that we totally like better than the people that gave them to us, and went a-walkin'.

Full tourist mode activated!
(Binos, sun hat, and a beer...)

Right behind camp.  The Superstition Mountains.

A Gila Woodpecker (I'm pretty sure)

The mountains and a saguaro.

A Great... Horned... Owl
!!!
He (she?) even hooted at us!

Look at his eyes!


The lighting was pretty great for our evening hike.  Saw a bunch of different birds...

A phainopepla, or red devil eye.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean red devil eye, but it seems kind of appropriate. For all I know it means jeweled ruby eye. Or maybe eye of Mars. Or cherry eyed black bird. 
Why do you listen to me?

The mountains again.
And that same evil bird (remember, don't listen to me) is there in that plant in the foreground.

A Curve-Billed Thrasher.

Gilded Flicker

Again with the mountain in the fantastic light.

Avec le path.
(That's French for avec the path.)

Fun fact for the day: saguaro cactus don't start growing their arms until they are 50 years old.  So any that you see that are one straight 'trunk' are less than 50.  Hmm, or at least any that you see that have arms are MORE than 50.  Logic rules say that the latter is more accurate... I don't know if they actually all start growing arms at 50.  Anyway, they live up to 200 years, and generally are about 50 feet tall when full grown.  But as we all know, there are always outliers, and the tallest ever recorded was 78 feet tall!  That's a lot of saguaro.  And I don't know about that particular one, but the 50 footers can weigh 6 tons.

Enough with the facts already...

It *is* Groundhog Day, and therefore they were holding the Super Bowl today.  All sorts of things happen on Groundhog Day...  When we got back from our hike, we made some dinner (pasta and Brussels Sprouts) and streamed the game on my phone for part of the 2nd half.  Ugh... perhaps we should have hiked for longer so we wouldn't have had to see the inept play calling for the 9ers in the 4th quarter.  Sigh.


3-Feb-2020. Monday
Our last full day out in the wild (um, less than 10min from the nearest town, really), and we're going to go for a hike and just check out the mountains behind camp and see what wee birdies we can spot.

Had a lovely pot o' coffee or two, and made some oatmeal for breakfast.  Again, Dad, no chocolate cake in there... not really sure what the point is, but there you go.  Made some sandwiches so we could dine in nature, cleaned up, and took off for a hike.

We went up the Siphon Draw trail which goes straight into the middle of the rocks behind camp.  We hadn't planned on going all the way to the top, and we didn't.  But we went up a ways, then turned back around, and came down part way and across another trail - Prospector's View - to the Treasure Loop.
A couple Cactus Wrens building a nest.

Just one of them (nest in bottom left).

We saw this little guy, which from our extensive research we immediately recognized as ...
... a small bird with a yellow head that we'd have to look up later.
(Turns out it's a Verdin.)

Looking up the trail.

Entering the Superstition Wilderness.

Looking back down the trail from whence we came.
(Phoenix proper is to the left... what you see below is mostly just suburb.)

The rhino horn.
You mean the one that looks like a rhino horn?
(We don't have any idea what this is actually called.)

A rocky trail here.

In the valley near the top.

A side note here... we had been checking the weather before we flew to Arizona to make sure we had appropriate clothes and such, and it looked like every day was going to be 70-75ish, and the nights were mid-forties.  Perfect... we've got lots of clothes for that range, and we brought one lightweight sleeping bag that we could combine with the blanket that we got from Escape (were you keeping that in mind from above?).  But... a storm was coming in today that we hadn't seen on the forecast, and it was windy and cold up here, which was part of the reason we turned around where we did.  It wasn't supposed to rain, but it sure looked like it wanted to.  Checking the forecast showed that it was supposed to be in the low 50s today, and tonight would be low 30s/high20s.  Yikes, we're not prepared for that!  We DID have that small electric heater from Escape, but we didn't have electricity at our site.  So... our plan was to drive into town and get a blanket to get through the night.  We had asked yesterday if there were any sites available with electrical hookups, but they almost laughed and said that no, they were totally booked for awhile.  But we could check back at 11am the next day (today), just in case.  But getting there at 11 would have been right in the middle of the day and messed up our hike and our lunch and everything.  So we didn't.

Okay, back on the hike...

So we turned around and headed down and then across the foothills to the Treasure Loop intersection.

A Canyon Towhee

The rhino horn is still there.
(We still don't know what it's called.)
Phoenix-ish over to the left.

Again with the cool rocks.

A pretty big raptor that we are unsure of flew over pretty fast.
Hard to get a good picture, and the markings aren't quite like any in the books.

We stopped at the trail intersection to find a place out of the icy headwind that is common here in the great northwest.  Oh wait... UNcommon here in the great southwest.  WTF brother??  We ate our sandwiches and then started heading down the trail.  We were flying out the next day, and we needed to find a place where we got a good solid signal on our phones so we could check into our flight, so we'd be able to sit next to each other on the flight home.  One of the details that had been bugging us today.

Cool twisting rock atop this formation.

The view from the trail intersection down to the valley.
Our lunch spot ended up being in the lee of a little outcrop down there by the dark rock on the left.

Sitting out of the wind at the lunch spot.

Looking down the valley.

Looking back up at the mountain from behind our rock.

We hiked down a little further, and I looked over and saw our camp loop.  And Nectar, too.

Really, she's right there.
See?

Again, amongst the behemoths...

We hiked down the east side of Treasure Loop, and crossed over to the west side on Jacob's Crossing.  (Um, good name...)  And then we came down to near the campground and got a little signal, but not as much as we had hoped, and we both stood there trying to check in for our flight, and it wasn't looking good.  But... but... then it worked!  Yea!  Good fortune!  And we actually got a higher boarding priority than we did for the flight out here.  So that was one bit of good fortune that made us feel better... one of the day's tasks out of the way.

Looking back up the trail at the mountain and rocks.


Lynne a-walkin'.

Mountain/rocks with saguaro.  They were pretty cool, but ...
...hmm, are you getting sick of seeing the rocks yet?

How about now with me in the pic?

What about birds?  Getting sick of birds?
Another phainopepla.

A Cactus Wren.  I get the wren part because, well, it looks like a wren.  
But it doesn't look anything like cactus.  Wonder why they call it that?
I guess we'll never know...

Okay, so at this point, we've checked in for our flight, and we're all the way down near the entrance to the park.  It's after 2pm, and we need to walk back to the camp, and pack up so we can drive into town and buy a blanket in order to get through the coming freeeeezing night.  But we're right near the entrance, and ... well, it's too late in the day, but ... I mean is it going to kill us to ask and get laughed at?  So we went to the park entrance and asked someone if there was any chance that a site with electrical hookups was open.  We got someone who was brand new and just learning the system, so she had to ask someone.  And that person showed her how to look it up while telling her that no, they've been totally booked for awhile, but here (in the computer) is where you'd find it... Um, that's weird... someone checked out early, and there's one spot that JUST opened up.  What?!? Really?!? We'll take it!! Can we take it? We'll take it!  Amazing.  If we'd come back by at 11am when they said it was our only chance, we wouldn't have gotten it.  But we showed up after 2pm, and it had just freed up, and it was ours!  Yippee, no drive to town, and no buying a blanket that we wouldn't have been able to fit in our luggage to take home.  So we hiked back to camp, and semi-packed everything up, and moved Nectar down to the new campsite and plugged in the heater right away to make sure it worked.  Awesome!  Two bits of very good fortune after our hike.  And both of our tasks taken care of.

At our new campsite.

First thing we did at the new site was to crack an ice cold beer each in an effort to warm up!  And then we went for another hike because of course we did.  And if you're tired of seeing bird pictures, this might be a good time for you to go away...

This little feller was on the ground right behind our van.
(Rock Wren)

A Cactus Wren on the ground.

Okay, I like this pic... another phainopepla.

Oh, I should have mentioned that if you were tired of seeing the mountain behind camp, you should go away, too.  Sorry.

Another damn phainopepla.

Another another damn phainopepla!  These things are like weeds out here! 
Weeds with wings!  (Sorry Vanessa...)

Curve-Billed Thrasher in the cactus.

Another Curve-Billed Thrasher on the saguaro at our campsite.

So... there was one other little detail that we were going to take care of today when we went and bought a blanket... we were going to buy some food for dinner.  See, we decided that we'd probably end up grabbing some food and watching the super bowl in town, so we hadn't provisioned ourselves properly for when we didn't do that.  And we didn't want to buy extra food, because we couldn't take anything home, so... we were running lean on dinner fixin's.  So... dinner was broccoli with the remaining slice of cheese that was bought for lunches.  And... a can of TJs dolmas (which are actually pretty good).  And a piece of bread.  And the last of the whiskey.  Which we ate at the table in the van with the heater plugged in because it was coooold out there!  We watched the sunset as one should do more often than one does, and then we played some cards.  We played gin... which is funny because Lynne doesn't even like gin; she's definitely a whiskey woman.  And actually, with a streak of luck that I had, she probably likes gin even less now.

Dinner.

Sunset.

Also sunset.

Streak of luck.
This is what I was dealt.  I needed one card to go out... just one!
As soon as I arranged the hand, I grabbed my phone and took a picture.  
Lynne just looked at me and said, "uh oh."

One last bit of good fortune for us with the whole camp-switching thing was that there was a bathroom nearby.  Lost Dutchman is a pretty big campground with 135 sites, plus hiker/biker and overflow.  And there are only two bathrooms.  And the closest bathroom to us at the first spot was over a quarter of a mile away (yes, I clocked it!), which made for a pretty long walk when ya really needed to go.  At the new site, there was one just two sites away from us.  The campground is just really set up for big 5th wheels, and full on RV motorhomes and such that have facilities inside, and it's not that great for van camping like we were doing.


4-Feb-2020.  Tuesday
Well, first and foremost, the heater worked!  I was actually too warm in the van overnight, and we were sort of wondering if it really got down as cold as they said it was going to be.  So we opened the door, and ... yeah.  It was cold!  First step... boil water for coffee!  I had left the stove set up on the table with a pot of water on it ready to just come out, turn the dial, light the burner, and get back in the van.  Which I did, but not before noticing that the water had frozen over.  Not all the way through solid, but definitely an ice layer on top.  So yeah, it got cold.

We had a couple cups of coffee, and sat enjoying our last morning at camp when we realized that we'd been sitting a bit too long enjoying our morning, and had to rush to pack everything up, and drive the hour into Phoenix to return the van on time!

We made good time on the road, filled the van around the corner, and turned it in with less than 10min to spare.  The people at the van rental place were really nice, and they told us where we could get a little food, and let us keep our bags there since we were walking at this point.  We walked down to a parking lot that had a semi-permanent food truck parked there, and got a pretty good breakfast burrito.  Not many pictures today.  But we had seen these green-barked trees, and thought they were pretty cool.

Palo Verde trees.  Which means "green stick".
(And I know you think I'm lying about that.)

The fun is over... we called a Lyft and got a ride to the airport in a Dodge Charger which seems like an odd car to be driving around all day trying to make money, but hey, it's got a Hemi, right?

Another obligatory airport photo. 
In front of an airport MUSEUM Mom!!

And then we were home, and our Groundhog Day celebration was over.  Put stuff away and made a fire to relax at home.  Where we are happy to have a heater.

Celebrating the fact that we were on vacation.

Fin

Oh wait.  Not fin.

How'd you do on the quiz?

Left to right-ish:
Robot dog Muffit from Battlestar Galactica, Alf from Alf, Barbara Eden from I dream of Jeannie, Parachuting army man from Toy Story (I think?), Robin Williams as Mork, Mr Rogers, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (but I don't know which one), Eddie Murphy as Gumby, Captain Kangaroo, Bob Ross, gopher from Caddyshack, Twiki the robot from Buck Rogers, Sloth from the Goonies, Herbie the Love Bug, Lynda Carter who I may or may not have had a crush on as Wonder Woman, and, finally the Pink Panther, of course.

Okay, fin.