Trip to Yuma

We just got back from a week-long trip to visit with Jennefer's sister Janine and her husband Jerry in Yuma, AZ. We took the southerly route on the way out, and drifted more northerly on the way back. I think my original plan was to make a big loop without retracing our drive, but that idea got lost in the fog of letting Google Maps find our way. We planned for two 8-hour drives each way, for a total of four days and 32 hours of driving. In order to keep ourselves alert and rested for driving, we resolved to change drivers every two hours. We found it easy to forget to switch, so I started setting a reminder on my phone, using a 2-hour countdown timer, and that worked remarkably well. I'm starting to remember that one great benefit of flying myself places, was getting there in less than half the time of driving. 

Day 1 - Driving from Littleton to Gallup NM:

Driving south on I-25, we saw a little snow left on the mountains, north of Trinidad CO.

 

The sign says "Trinidad" on top of this interesting mountaintop, west of I-25 in Trinidad CO. 

We saw lots of interesting geography on our drive. This starkly rocky hill was just west of Albuquerque.

Pretty forest scenery while passing through Flagstaff. I used to have a friend who lived there. We stopped to visit him, when we drove our car from San Diego to Littleton back in 1995.

Looking west toward Sedona AZ, after heading south from Flagstaff. I've heard good things about Sedona, from various friends, including my neighbor friend whose granddaughter was conceived there, and my other friend, who flew his home-built Sonex plane from San Diego to Oshkosh, and spent the night there.

I've been acutely aware of the Continental Divide ever since I first visited Denver, and went for an exploratory drive up into the Rocky Mountains, and a short hike on the Divide that just about knocked me flat, due to lack of oxygen. It's a fascinating concept, about the ridge line that defines where rainfall goes - to the Atlantic or Pacific ocean. As we were driving west on US-40, just before reaching Gallup NM, I became aware that there's also a little town named Continental Divide. ;-)

Day 2 - Driving from Gallup NM to Yuma AZ: 

Up and at 'em! Enjoying the sunrise and a hotel breakfast in Gallup NM, before heading out for the second day of our driving trip to Yuma. There's a very active railroad line that runs next to highway 66 past our hotel. It's a good thing I love trains!

 

I caught this memento photo of the Route 66 highway sign before we left Gallup. My Dad was such a fan of the history of that road, that on one of his road trips, he brought us a large chunk of asphalt from Route 66, so we could also enjoy/treasure the history. (!) (?) We weren't feeling it. But now I always think of him and his enthusiasm, any time I see, or hear of, that highway. 

 

We saw all kinds of different scenery along the way, of course, but I really enjoyed seeing the large expanses of the stereotypical Saguaro desert cactus, after we got into southern Arizona. 

Visiting in Yuma:

We enjoyed seeing this friendly "Welcome to Yuma!" sign, at an intersection not far from our hotel. It was a cheery reminder of where we were, every morning, as we drove over to visit with Janine and Jerry.

We visited with Janine and Jerry every day, at their house in Somerton, just south of Yuma. We had fun watching the Barrett Jackson car auction in West Palm Beach on TV, with a running commentary by Jerry, the classic car fanatic in the household. Here's Jennefer giving their poodle Chez some love.

Janine with her curious and very energetic dog Sweet Pea, who really wants to meet Mandy. Janine says from experience, that meeting won't go well, so she's holding Sweet Pea and letting her look but not touch.

Mandy was invited to use their poodle Chez's dog bed, and she pretty much monopolized it for our entire visit. They told us that Chez doesn't normally use it, because he has difficulty getting into it, with his back leg problems. Of course, once Mandy started using it, he started taking another look at his prized possession...

Janine has soooo many chickens! They respect the tall fence, most of the time...

 

It was unseasonably warm in Yuma, just short of 100 degrees, so we spent most of our time indoors, relaxing in their cool house. My skin was prickling a little from the heat, when Janine took us for a walk around her yard in the sun, showing us all the southwest-desert-friendly flora she carefully chose for her yard. She really knows a lot about that stuff - no surprise, I suppose, as she is a master gardener.

Janine with one of the cacti in her yard. Those things are huge!

 

Janine picked some of her tangelos for our lunch. They were some of the tastiest tangelos I've had.

 

Pretty yellow blossoms in Janine's back yard

Janine's chickens love roosting in her trees. I guess that's not uncommon, but I was tickled, seeing so many of them up there.

 

We saw beautiful sunsets every day, while visiting in the Yuma area, usually as we were driving from their house back to our hotel.

I really liked the evening view of the moon above the nearby palm trees, while walking Mandy around our hotel. Yuma also has many places where they are growing large areas of date palms, and those gardens provide a large percentage of the fresh-fruit dates eaten throughout America.

Walking in West Wetlands Park:

Janine took for us for a walking tour of Yuma's West Wetlands Park, which is right along the Colorado River, and she told us a little about the area's history. She's a knowledgeable and fun tour guide!

 

Here's a teepee made from loose fallen branches in the West Wetlands Park. 

The Colorado River! This was our first time walking along the Colorado. Its water is highly contested, with the most basic water rights for states defined in 1948. I took this photo from the Charles Flynn Riverfront Trail, while walking through the West Wetlands Park. 

Tour of the University of Arizona's Robert J Moody Demonstration Garden:

We tagged along on Janine's tour of the Robert J Moody Demonstration Garden in Yuma, sponsored by the University of Arizona. Janine works for the university, and she is responsible for managing this garden. There is a volunteer group that also helps with the day to day maintenance.

 

Janine casually explained how the garden was established, to the small group of local people who signed up for the tour. Several of the people were there to take advantage of Janine's master gardener knowledge, to help them with their garden issues at home.

They had a nice concrete path leading around the garden.

Hybrid Torch Cactus

Here's a sweet little Moody Garden sign, accented by some beautiful and fragrant roses.

Butterfly and turtle sculptures

Sago and Pygmy Date Palms

 

Senita Cactus at the Moody Demonstration Garden

 

"Big Bertha" Trichocereus hybrid

 

I caught this fun photo of a bumblebee in flight, pollinating a pink cactus blossom. 

Golden Barrel cactus

 

"Hong Kong" Orchid tree

Mexican Petunia

Mandy was wandering pretty close to a spiky Prickly Pear cactus, with pretty yellow blossoms 

Prickly Pear cactus blossom

 

There are lots of different cactus plants in this picture. I neglected to include any informative signs, so I'll go with "Look at all the interesting cacti!"

Claret-cup Hedgehog

Cardon Grande Cactus

 

Pretty red Prickly Pear blossom

Serene little resting area with benches and a tractor

Costa Hummingbird perched in a tree at the garden

Janine had lots of useful desert gardening information to share with the group

The sign says "Native Plants" - which I guess must mean "Cactus" ;-)

One last look at the pleasant little path around the garden

 

 

 

 

Day 1 of the return drive - from Yuma to Farmington NM: 

This was a windy driving day. It wasn't long after we got through Gallup, that we found ourselves driving through a series of dust storms between Yah-Ta-Hey and Newcomb NM. 

Coming up on the first dust storm.

The second dust storm was worst, where it was blowing through a low spot in the road.

Heading into another low visibility dust storm.

 

 

 

 

 

Panorama view of yet another dust storm ahead.

 

We saw a series of old volcanic plug remnants, along highway US-491 between Gallup and Shiprock NM. The photos are mine, but I grabbed their descriptions from Wikipedia:

Barber Peak is a 5,778-foot elevation volcanic plug located on Navajo Nation land in San Juan County of northwest New Mexico. It is a prominent landmark set one-half mile east of U.S. Route 491, approximately 15 miles south of the community of Shiprock, New Mexico. Its nearest higher neighbor is Table Mesa, one mile to the west, and Cathedral Cliff is set 1.5 mile to the northwest. Barber Peak is one of the phreatomagmatic diatremes of the Four Corners area, and with significant relief as it rises 300 feet above the high-desert plain. It is situated about 11 miles southeast of Shiprock, the most famous of these diatremes.

Ford Butte is a 6,156-foot elevation summit located on Navajo Nation land in San Juan County of northwest New Mexico. It is a landmark set one mile east of U.S. Route 491, along with its nearest higher neighbor, Bennett Peak, on the opposite side of the highway. Ford Butte is one of the major diatremes of the Four Corners area, and with significant relief as it rises 450 feet above the high-desert plain. It is situated about 22 miles south-southeast of Shiprock, the most famous of these diatremes.

Bennett Peak is a 6,471-foot elevation summit located on Navajo Nation land in San Juan County of northwest New Mexico. It is a landmark set one mile west of U.S. Route 491, along with Ford Butte on the opposite side of the highway. Bennett Peak is one of the major diatremes of the Four Corners area, and with significant relief as it rises 1,175 feet above the high-desert plain. It is situated about 22 miles south of Shiprock, the most famous of these diatremes.

Table Mesa stood out from a long way, before we got to it. From Wikimedia.org: Northwestern New Mexico's Table Mesa is a moderately large, flat-topped hill bordered by subvertical cliffs and sloping talus piles. Mesas are flat-topped due to the presence of rocks relatively resistant to weathering and erosion. The bedrock at Table Mesa consists of fine-grained to coarse-grained siliciclastics of the Mancos Shale, a moderately widespread, marine unit deposited during the Late Cretaceous. In New Mexico, the Mancos Shale Formation is divided into three parts: 1) lower Mancos Shale - dominated by fine-grained siliciclastics; 2) Gallup Sandstone - a coarse-grained siliciclastic unit; 3) upper Mancos Shale - dominated by fine-grained siliciclastics. Stratigraphy: upper Mancos Shale Formation, Coniacian to Santonian to Campanian Stages, middle Upper Cretaceou. Locality: western side of Rt. 491/Rt. 666, between Newcomb and Shiprock, San Juan County, northwestern New Mexico, USA.

 

Cathedral Cliff was just beyond Table Mesa. From Wikipedia: Cathedral Cliff is a 5,810-foot elevation volcanic plug located on Navajo Nation land in San Juan County of northwest New Mexico. It is a prominent landmark set alongside U.S. Route 491, approximately 13 miles south of the community of Shiprock, New Mexico. Cathedral Cliff is one of the phreatomagmatic diatremes of the Four Corners area, and with significant relief as it rises 400 feet above the high-desert plain. It is situated about 9.5 miles southeast of Shiprock, the most famous of these diatremes.

The next thing we knew, we had gone by Ship Rock without seeing it, passed through the town of Shiprock, and were settling down in our room in Farmington. We grabbed a delicious vegetarian dinner from the Pizza-9 next door, and hit the sack. 

 

Day 2 of the drive home - from Farmington NM to Littleton: 

 

We had breakfast at Weck's on the east side of Farmington. They served us a tasty well-made breakfast, although they had a very basic ambience, with a large rectangular room full of mostly-unmasked diners and servers.

 

It was cold and windy, with some snow-frosted hills nearby, at the rest stop in Del Norte CO.  I froze my buns off, walking to and from the Mandy around in the trees, without a jacket on.

 

Impressive elk sculpture on Lookout Mountain above Del Norte CO.

 

Heading east from Saguache toward the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

 

The Sawatch mountain range, as seen when driving north on US-285 toward Poncha Pass.

Climbing north on US-285 toward Poncha Pass, with the Sawatch Range in the background.

Climbing up to Poncha Pass with the snow-capped Mount Ouray visible off to the left.

Wind-whipped snow on Mount Ouray, viewed from just after crossing Poncha Pass.

 

 

Our accomplished traveler Mandy is cooperatively snoozing in her bed, as we leave the Sawatch Range behind. 

We had a great view of the snow capped TenMile range, as we approached Fairplay. After we passed through Fairplay, things got busier, as we climbed the mountains west of Denver, crossed over Kenosha Pass, and saw a few more cars as we approached Bailey. The next thing we knew, we were back in town, gassing up, and washing and vacuuming the car. 

It's always fun to get home, say hi to Jennefer's kitty Cleo, make sure the house is intact...

 

 

and enjoy our visiting birds...

 

 

and feed the squirrels!

First ride of 2022

I *finally* took my first bike ride of 2022, now that the nasty winter weather is easing up. This was a great day for it - slightly cool, but nice and sunny. There were only a few patches of ice in the shady spots on the trails, and they were easy to avoid. Chatfield Lake had some nice sun reflection sparkles on its rippling surface.

Here's a different angle on the South Denver Cardiology building, where I was on Thursday, for a scan that turned out well. I'd much rather be seeing it from here on the Highline Canal Trail during a bike ride.

No Statins for me!

I’ve been here, to South Denver Cardiology, so many times with Kristan… and I’ve walked past this building so many times on my dog walks around South Park… but it’s the first time I’m here for myself. I got a precautionary scan for calcium in my arteries and heart, because the simple ASCVD analysis, that they do with my annual physical, again recommended I start on statins, and who wants that? 

I liked the nice clean lab layout

The overseers (lab techs) in their separate control room

The body of the scanner. It was so tall, and I was so close, that I had to take two pictures and merge them together. The StitchPics app didn’t do a very good job.

The core of the scanner, where they slide me in. It was nice, that there was no noise associated with this non-magnetic scanner. And also no need to disrobe, to avoid getting burned by any metal in my pockets, on my wrist, or my glasses. 

Instructions for interpreting the result

My results - zero plaque present - woo hoo! Thanks mom and dad, for the good genes, that appear to allow me to process cholesterol efficiently. No statins for me… I hope…

Snow-covered deer

I loved seeing these now-frosted deer in our back yard this morning, as I was taking Mandy out. We've been seeing groups of deer out back more often this year, sometimes a small group like this, and one time there were around a dozen of them, munching on the grass.

Sounding Spring-ish

It’s starting to look and feel sound a little like Spring in Littleton! Today’s high temperature is supposed to be 66°F, which I expect will feel like a heat wave, after the last week of single-digit lows, and highs below freezing. This was my view this morning when I took Mandy out. I was probably a day or two premature with wearing shorts, as it was only up to the high 30’s, when we headed out to pick up our breakfast. Brr! One of these days, I'm hoping to get back on my bike and hit the trails, but I'm reminded every time we drive to pick up our takeout breakfast, that there are still many large expanses of ice to be found on the road, albeit mostly in the shadows, and there are plenty of shadows on the trails.

Isaac Asimov Quotes

I really enjoyed reading so much science fiction when I was in my teens. There are a lot of things I've forgotten over the years, but I do remember that Isaac Asimov was one of my favorite authors. After recently reading one of his quotes, "When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent", I went looking for more, and thought it might be fun to share these from medium.com:

• 
  Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else. 
• People think of education as something that they can finish. 
• To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well. 
• There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
  
• Above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. 
• My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning. 
• A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value. 
• It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. 
• People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. 
• Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. 
• The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. 
• Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. 
• All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. 
• When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent. 
• The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists. 
• Man’s greatest asset is the unsettled mind. 
• In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate. 
• Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. 
• Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome. 
• Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right. 
• The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying. 
• Science-fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. 
• If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist. 
• Uncertainty that comes from knowledge (knowing what you don’t know) is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance. 
• Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. 
• The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing. 
• Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

No excuses necessary

Lately I’m seeing more people posting listsisting the reasons why they might feel the need to keep following pandemic mitigation guidelines. I’m so sorry that people are feeling like they need to apologize or give excuses for still wearing a mask, now that they’re not legally required.

I don’t think anyone should need an excuse for wanting to protect themself and those around them. Especially in today’s environment, where authorities are rolling back protection measures more because of COVID-19 fatigue, than any reduced need for them.

I’ve been seeing stories about it in the news, but this article does a good job of summarizing the concerted effort in progress, to legislatively remove pandemic protections, regardless of their need or effectiveness.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-09-16/over-half-of-states-have-rolled-back-public-health-powers-in-pandemic

Birds love our cold days

Beautiful but bone-chilling -1°F morning in Littleton. The birds seem very happy about our feeders, especially on the colder days. We're enjoying more views of House Finches visiting our tire swing bird feeder today. I created this 2x2 collection of images with the PicCollage app, and adjusted the borders to light blue with rounded corners.

Lockdown effectivity?

Here's an interesting critique of a recent paper about the ineffectiveness of “lockdowns,” that is being picked up and pushed by deniers of anti-pandemic policies. This article, and the paper itself, are both interesting reading. In my opinion, no anti-pandemic policy will work, if you have enough people refusing to follow it. Y'all be careful out there! 

If Your Time is Short:

 

* Three economists affiliated with Johns Hopkins University found that COVID-19 lockdowns barely reduced deaths, but the paper has not been peer-reviewed and is considered a working paper. Johns Hopkins University did not endorse the study. 

 

* Other research has found that lockdown measures have helped save millions of lives during the pandemic. 

 

* Several experts have criticized the paper and point to issues such as the authors’ extremely broad definition of lockdown (to include any government mandate that limits peoples' possibilities), a limited focus on the first wave of the pandemic, a comparison of policies that look very different from country to country, and an exclusion of studies that look at the science of disease transmission.

 

* These authors have questionable credibility in my mind; one of them has expressed his opinion online about "fascist" vaccine policies and has made false claims about the pandemic.

Memories of NYC

I was trying to catch up on one of my recorded sappy movies from late last year... I guess I must have saturated myself over the past few years, as it seems I’m a lot less inclined to watch them these days. Or, it might have something to do, with having a partner that *really* doesn’t like them. Anyway, some of the movies that are set in New York City, like this one, have delightful scenes of the ice skating rink in Rockefeller Center. I was looking at this one, and realized with a STUG, that there was a moment decades ago, when I was sitting with Kristan and her aunt Joan and uncle Sal, at a table behind those darkened windows on the far side of the rink, munching on some delicious NY pizza, and watching the skaters drift by, slightly above eye level, with their big Christmas tree in the background. It felt like a bit of a magical experience. That of course triggered a bunch of other memories of that action-packed trip, all of which had been neatly filed away until this moment. Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of a few of the many fun experiences I’ve enjoyed over the years. Life is full of little tradeoffs, and if a STUG is the price of enjoying that memory, so be it…

Cold winter morning

It’s an *Arctic cold* -10°F in Littleton, on this Thursday morning. Yes, that’s *minus*, so we’re talking 42° below freezing. 🥶 The birds must be hiding out somewhere staying warm, as we’ve only seen this one House Finch on the tire swing bird feeder, so far. It looks like we got a frosting of snow after I finished shoveling yesterday. Not sure if I feel like braving the cold to knock off that thin layer, even though I know it’s important, as I hate the idea of it melting and refreezing into an icy layer later. I’m sure I’ll get some momentum, after I finish my coffee.