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(Note: Made it home today and finally have time to post the rest of the entries from the trip. Wi-fi has been very limited this past week.)
Salome
— Saturday
Mike and Sandy took us all out for a drive into the desert to a place where Patton trained the army's armored division (tanks), for the invasion of Europe in WW2. There's not much left there except paths upon paths, all lined with rocks. The desert here is loaded with beautiful rocks. I'd love to take a bunch home with me to landscape with, but of course I didn't disturb them.
We had a picnic then wandered around looking at the various plant life. The Saguaro cacti are so stately looking — until you get up close. Then you see just how old and beat-up they are. I understand they are quite old, like maybe 150 to 200 years old. They are found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I almost don't see them as plants at all, but as some sort of immobile creatures who watch over the desert. I just love the old guys (they all seem male in my mind... maybe it's their shape ). I'd love to be able to talk to them. In fact I did walk up to one and start to talk to it, but when Sam came too close I stopped. I don't need him thinking his wife has lost her mind.
— Sunday
Russ and Shannon had planned to fly out early Sunday morning and we were going to say our goodbyes to Mike and Sandy. We were anxious to take the motor home out to the desert and "boondock" some, before we had to head back North and home to the cold, cruel winter.
It turned out to be a cloudy, chilly morning in Salome. The kids got the plane ready to depart. I noticed the front tire seemed low, but when I mentioned it, I was assured it would be fine. (So what more could I say? After all, what do I know about airplanes?) When they climbed into the plane, I noticed it went even flatter. I could not take my eyes of the tire.
"What happens when you land a plane on a flat tire" I asked Sam, letting him know I was extremely uneasy about the tire.
They had already started to taxi away when, luckily, a gentleman from the airpark drove by and got Russ's attention pointing to the tire, so he shut down and took another look. Whew!! What a relief!! The tire indeed had gone flat. They were off to find a flat repair kit and fix the tire. After a couple more hours, we were finally off — them, to Albuquerque in the plane and us, out to the desert in the S.S.Cutter.
We found a great spot to park the motor home, out by ourselves like we wanted. It was still cloudy but had warmed up some. We walked out into the desert and again found ourselves among the Saguaros, my new buddies. We discovered a skeleton of a dead Saguaro lying on the ground and I found a piece of one of its arms that had broken off to take home with me. I like the thought of having a piece of one of these guys with me at home too. Besides they are very cool looking. There doesn't seem to be very many dead ones around. I wonder if it's because they just don't die very often, or if people, like me, haul off their bones.
We built a campfire and was about to roast some hotdogs for dinner when we noticed a beautiful sunset developing. I grabbed my camera and headed into the desert to get some Saguaro sillouettes with the orange/pink backdrop. It lasted about 5 minutes but I managed to get some nice photos.
Two bottles of champagne somehow disappeared. Not sure how that happened, but my pounding head thinks it knows what happened.
Monday
It rained last night, but the clouds have moved on this morning and we again have sunny skies. Darn it... the wind is blowing though. Still, compared to home, the temps aren't bad... in the mid 60's. We went for another long walk amongst the Saguaro.
We sat by the evening campfire with hot buttered rums after dinner and were visited by a fat, little kangaroo mouse. It ran around our feet, making me a little nervous. I thought it might run up my pant leg the way it stood with its front paws on my shoes. I finally threw out a pork chop bone and some wilted lettuce and it immediately grabbed onto the bone and drug it off — to its home I suppose, leaving the lettuce. Go figure.
Tomorrow, it's back on the road again... heading North.
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