Arizona's town of Sedona gets all the credit from the New Age crowd on its power vortexes, claiming four or more of them. A vortex is an opening to the heavens or higher planes and its supposed to make things easier to communicate with the Other Side and make yourself more spiritually open when you're in the presence of one of them. There's lots of nanu-nanu hoodoo associated with vortexes but it doesn't mean in order to feel one you have to be wearing tie dye and dreadlocks.
I sort of think that Apache Leap and the surrounding mountains of the old Silver King Mine and areas of the Magma Mine are mighty rich in the powerful vortexes. You don't have to be specially 'sensitive' psychically to feel the vibrations of this place. We took a walk up Queen Creek today, past the remains of the old Silver Queen mine and the beginnings of the old Magma mine. It's a gorgeous amble past burbling streams and majestic white barked cottonwoods still waiting for the spring greenery to leaf them out. On both sides of the canyon wall you can see scabs of mine tunnels or boring holes and other man-made efforts to dig out the treasure from these mountains. It's enough to get me hot to learn more about the rocks and pebbles strewn underfoot to know what is what and what's valuable or not.
But atop these same mountains, ablaze in the red afternoon sun were these towering peaks of dripping red rocks, looking like dripping candles ablaze on an overloaded birthday cake. And you can't stare at these peaks very long without feeling the power in them. There's a lightness you feel around them, a lessening of your worries and fears, sort of like a big hand said, "Here. Drop your load here and I'll take it up for you." Maybe it's 'cause they are so large, you feel so small below them, but it doesn't make you feel inconsequential. Not at all. If you close your eyes and ponder the feeling these mountains give off while you're standing in their shadows, it's enough to make you feel like you are Superman and you can accomplish whatever you set forth. I guess it's that sort of vortex. Sort of a vitamin-enriched one. It's pretty heady, actually.
I don't know if you can bottle this stuff. Probably not. But if you could feel what I'm feeling, it's pretty impressive. So maybe Sedona won't be the only town in Arizona for making people feel the vibrations. Maybe they'll start making the trek up to Superior to see for themselves what the people who make this town their home have known all along. Maybe I should be the one to keep my Big Mouth shut and not let the secret out. But mainly, I just want to share. This secret's too good to keep to oneself!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
STOOPID - SIMPLE
It amazes me how sometimes the most simple, easiest things are those that collect the most raves or mean the most to those you love. Take this recipe, for example:
Last week, we got together with my aunt and uncle from Bullhead City. I hadn't seen Aunt Mary Jane in two years and she's one of my favorite aunts. Vivacious, fun loving and a go-getter, plus one of the best cooks left on the earth. And my Uncle Ralph... well, just say "chocolate" and Uncle Ralph is happy. We met them for a pot luck on Saturday and both my sister, Gloria and I surprised everybody by both baking brownies. And not just any brownies, either. Normally, Glo and I would 'go all out' and prepare brownies-from-scratch, but we'd been busy this week and preparing other pot luck goodies, as well, so we both (unbeknowst to each other) prepared made-from-mixes brownies. We laughed over it when we got together and had to do a Taste-Off to see if Glo's Wal-Mart mix was better than my Betty Crocker mix. (I believe Wal-Mart's was fudgier.)
The next day, being's it was Super Bowl, we decided to get together again and pot luck it once again. Now, Bill and I have an hour's drive either way from Glo's house where all this partying was going on, and since I'd cooked my fool head off the day before, I really didn't feel like baking up a storm once we got home on Saturday night. But.... but there was a pot luck to bring something to the next day and besides Uncle Ralph likes chocolate. So I threw these cookies together. They are sort of Last Minute, Good Ol' Standby, Never-Fail Cookies. But you could call them Stoopid-Simple because they are so darned easy. And.. best of all, everybody loved them! Nobody wanted to stop eating at just one. Aunt Mary Jane asked for the recipe and I saw Uncle Ralph raid that cookie can a time or three! So, I'm sharing this with you. When you need a really good cookie and you don't have a lot of time and you want to shine like a queen when you serve them: Bake This Cookie! (You're welcome!)
Line a greased jelly roll pan (15"x10"x1") with saltine crackers. I use Club brand. It takes about one third of the package. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt 2 cubes of butter (1 cup) and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. Stir it until it melts, then keep stirring it while it boils for five minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers in the jelly roll pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 6 to 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with two cups chocolate chips. (You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet or white chocolate or even peanut butter chips, whatever you choose.) Wait a moment or two until the chips melt, then spread them with a spatula like icing. At this point, you can either put the pan in the refrigerator to set up or sprinkle with butter brickle chips or chopped nuts, then chill off in the refrigerator. When they are set, break apart and serve. It's that Simple. And I promise, you'll be asked for the recipe more than once!
Good snacking to you!
Last week, we got together with my aunt and uncle from Bullhead City. I hadn't seen Aunt Mary Jane in two years and she's one of my favorite aunts. Vivacious, fun loving and a go-getter, plus one of the best cooks left on the earth. And my Uncle Ralph... well, just say "chocolate" and Uncle Ralph is happy. We met them for a pot luck on Saturday and both my sister, Gloria and I surprised everybody by both baking brownies. And not just any brownies, either. Normally, Glo and I would 'go all out' and prepare brownies-from-scratch, but we'd been busy this week and preparing other pot luck goodies, as well, so we both (unbeknowst to each other) prepared made-from-mixes brownies. We laughed over it when we got together and had to do a Taste-Off to see if Glo's Wal-Mart mix was better than my Betty Crocker mix. (I believe Wal-Mart's was fudgier.)
The next day, being's it was Super Bowl, we decided to get together again and pot luck it once again. Now, Bill and I have an hour's drive either way from Glo's house where all this partying was going on, and since I'd cooked my fool head off the day before, I really didn't feel like baking up a storm once we got home on Saturday night. But.... but there was a pot luck to bring something to the next day and besides Uncle Ralph likes chocolate. So I threw these cookies together. They are sort of Last Minute, Good Ol' Standby, Never-Fail Cookies. But you could call them Stoopid-Simple because they are so darned easy. And.. best of all, everybody loved them! Nobody wanted to stop eating at just one. Aunt Mary Jane asked for the recipe and I saw Uncle Ralph raid that cookie can a time or three! So, I'm sharing this with you. When you need a really good cookie and you don't have a lot of time and you want to shine like a queen when you serve them: Bake This Cookie! (You're welcome!)
Line a greased jelly roll pan (15"x10"x1") with saltine crackers. I use Club brand. It takes about one third of the package. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt 2 cubes of butter (1 cup) and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. Stir it until it melts, then keep stirring it while it boils for five minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers in the jelly roll pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 6 to 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with two cups chocolate chips. (You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet or white chocolate or even peanut butter chips, whatever you choose.) Wait a moment or two until the chips melt, then spread them with a spatula like icing. At this point, you can either put the pan in the refrigerator to set up or sprinkle with butter brickle chips or chopped nuts, then chill off in the refrigerator. When they are set, break apart and serve. It's that Simple. And I promise, you'll be asked for the recipe more than once!
Good snacking to you!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Trash Town
I cannot comprehend this one. This town that presents itself as being the perfect example of Small Town America.... this town that begs you to love it for its vibrancy and tiny little individual homes... this town that has seen better days but knows there's something better in store for it soon... This Town Has A Problem!
It's trash. It's litter, litter everywhere! It's scads of bottles and cans and garbage strewn around its streets. I don't mean the occasional tossed item. There are streets where it looks like garbage cans were dumped out. There's broken glass from bottles just about everywhere. I'd be afraid to have my grandsons walk alongside the road, there's that much glass around.
Why? How could any community allow this to happen? Do you suppose it's "A Cultural Thing"? That something like this has been going on for so many generations that people just don't bother to notice anymore? That's it's sort of expected to toss your soft drink cup when you come home from a fast food joint? If that's so, the folks that live in this town must have really clean car interiors.
Bill and I have embarked on a mission. We're going to clean up our town. One street at a time. Hey, Superior isn't a very big town. There can't be THAT many streets here with a population hovering around three thousand. We should be able to get it cleaned up in what remains of our lifetimes, don't you think?
It's a simple proposition. Our garbage is picked up twice a week. Rarely, do we have a full trash can. So at least once a week on the night before a pick-up, we each take a really big Hefty garbage bag and head for the street. We pick up until our bags are about two-thirds full, then go home and stuff them in our garbage can. We started on our own street, just that block. Then, on the next week, we turned the corner and did the block on the connecting street. There was one lot that looked like it might have substituted for the town dump and we mostly just picked up our two bags of stuff on that lot alone. Then, this week, we did the next block up, still on our street. It's on a hill and I guess it's a thrill when you charge down the hill to lob your garbage out on the hillside. It had cacti and Salt Cedars festooned with plastic bags and bottles and cans, and glass, of course. The ubitiquitous glass.
The glass, I think, must be leftover from the Heydays of the saloon. This town has been a haven for booze loving men for a hundred and twenty years. I don't know how many saloons there were here in the "old days" but there's still about five or six here now and that's a fair number for three thousand souls, wouldn't you say? And thinking back to the Wild West days, I bet it was sort of a sign of prestige to be able to lob a bottle out a door or window and watch it splinter into the desert sand. Maybe it sounded good. Maybe it felt good too, if you were really wound up and wanted to make your point. Maybe all of that turned into "A Cultural Thing" so that five generations later, people are still lobbing their beer bottles out their truck windows and watching them splinter into the desert sands.
Well, can I suggest something? Let's change this "Cultural Thing" and instead start picking up the crud that's littering our town. Let's enjoy the landscape that the town deserves so we don't have to pick our way amongst litter and broken glass when we walk the streets of Superior. If we started doing this now, maybe I won't still have to be hefting Hefty bags when I'm eighty and still trying to pick up the town. And maybe I won't have to still be blogging about Trash Town thirty years from now.
It's trash. It's litter, litter everywhere! It's scads of bottles and cans and garbage strewn around its streets. I don't mean the occasional tossed item. There are streets where it looks like garbage cans were dumped out. There's broken glass from bottles just about everywhere. I'd be afraid to have my grandsons walk alongside the road, there's that much glass around.
Why? How could any community allow this to happen? Do you suppose it's "A Cultural Thing"? That something like this has been going on for so many generations that people just don't bother to notice anymore? That's it's sort of expected to toss your soft drink cup when you come home from a fast food joint? If that's so, the folks that live in this town must have really clean car interiors.
Bill and I have embarked on a mission. We're going to clean up our town. One street at a time. Hey, Superior isn't a very big town. There can't be THAT many streets here with a population hovering around three thousand. We should be able to get it cleaned up in what remains of our lifetimes, don't you think?
It's a simple proposition. Our garbage is picked up twice a week. Rarely, do we have a full trash can. So at least once a week on the night before a pick-up, we each take a really big Hefty garbage bag and head for the street. We pick up until our bags are about two-thirds full, then go home and stuff them in our garbage can. We started on our own street, just that block. Then, on the next week, we turned the corner and did the block on the connecting street. There was one lot that looked like it might have substituted for the town dump and we mostly just picked up our two bags of stuff on that lot alone. Then, this week, we did the next block up, still on our street. It's on a hill and I guess it's a thrill when you charge down the hill to lob your garbage out on the hillside. It had cacti and Salt Cedars festooned with plastic bags and bottles and cans, and glass, of course. The ubitiquitous glass.
The glass, I think, must be leftover from the Heydays of the saloon. This town has been a haven for booze loving men for a hundred and twenty years. I don't know how many saloons there were here in the "old days" but there's still about five or six here now and that's a fair number for three thousand souls, wouldn't you say? And thinking back to the Wild West days, I bet it was sort of a sign of prestige to be able to lob a bottle out a door or window and watch it splinter into the desert sand. Maybe it sounded good. Maybe it felt good too, if you were really wound up and wanted to make your point. Maybe all of that turned into "A Cultural Thing" so that five generations later, people are still lobbing their beer bottles out their truck windows and watching them splinter into the desert sands.
Well, can I suggest something? Let's change this "Cultural Thing" and instead start picking up the crud that's littering our town. Let's enjoy the landscape that the town deserves so we don't have to pick our way amongst litter and broken glass when we walk the streets of Superior. If we started doing this now, maybe I won't still have to be hefting Hefty bags when I'm eighty and still trying to pick up the town. And maybe I won't have to still be blogging about Trash Town thirty years from now.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
A Room of Light
Have you had the opportunity to enter a room filled with like-minded individuals as yourself? The feeling is welcoming and warming and you feel as if you belong. When the intention is for the good of all, the feeling can be felt as being surrounded with light, making you feel you are treading the right path.
We had such a thing happen to us this past week. We attended a citizens meeting against crime in our small town. This meeting was a working meeting, unlike the bigger one I reported on last week (see "ODDITIES"). It was a small group. Only fifteen folks. But as each one spoke from the heart, there was nodding and agreement going around the table and we could see that we were all, more or less, on the same page.
There was a guest speaker from the Pinal County Sheriff's Office on crime prevention. He told us that the hardened criminal uses three things to his advantage: Motive, Ability and Opportunity. While Motive and Ability is nothing the Average Joe can do anything about in deterring crime, Opportunity is. So he supplied ways we can take away the opportunity for crime to occur and save ourselves the problem of being a victim. He wasn't trying to make us feel paranoid, just a bit extra vigilant so complacency (or laziness) doesn't result in a criminal getting the upper hand.
Agreement resounded on these points: That we are dedicated to seeing the "Same-Old, Same-Old" system of crime and punishment this town has used in the past go by the way side. That we all feel overwhelmingly that this town is worth saving and we're going to see it get cleaned up. That the days of hiding criminals behind familial ties is over. People are going to step up and do their duty: report crimes and suspicious activities; agree to be witnesses in court cases, if need be; look out for their neighbors and their neighborhoods; and refuse to be victims. The resounding affirmation was that no longer would people be afraid of reprisals by the 'bad guys'.
It's a big job. We have a lot of work to do. But we're going to start with small steps with our dedicated group of fifteen and we hope to recruit more as the tide turns and things change. We have the backing of the mayor and the town council and the chief of police and his staff. We're not some vigilante group charging out on a white horse to save the town. We're going to start turning over the rocks and cleaning up the decades of debris piece by piece. There are lots of things we could be doing if our numbers swell, but some important ones to get started with. Talk is of forming Citizens on Patrol groups that will go through neighborhoods to aid the police during periods of time when crime occurs and the police cannot be everywhere at once. We're going to do some publicity to get the word out to the general populace that our group exists. We plan to start a youth group to get the word out to young people.
Light will shine into the Dark and Light will rule the day. It won't be easy. But those of us in that room this week realized that something special is happening in Superior and things are going to change. I'm very grateful to be a part of this.
We had such a thing happen to us this past week. We attended a citizens meeting against crime in our small town. This meeting was a working meeting, unlike the bigger one I reported on last week (see "ODDITIES"). It was a small group. Only fifteen folks. But as each one spoke from the heart, there was nodding and agreement going around the table and we could see that we were all, more or less, on the same page.
There was a guest speaker from the Pinal County Sheriff's Office on crime prevention. He told us that the hardened criminal uses three things to his advantage: Motive, Ability and Opportunity. While Motive and Ability is nothing the Average Joe can do anything about in deterring crime, Opportunity is. So he supplied ways we can take away the opportunity for crime to occur and save ourselves the problem of being a victim. He wasn't trying to make us feel paranoid, just a bit extra vigilant so complacency (or laziness) doesn't result in a criminal getting the upper hand.
Agreement resounded on these points: That we are dedicated to seeing the "Same-Old, Same-Old" system of crime and punishment this town has used in the past go by the way side. That we all feel overwhelmingly that this town is worth saving and we're going to see it get cleaned up. That the days of hiding criminals behind familial ties is over. People are going to step up and do their duty: report crimes and suspicious activities; agree to be witnesses in court cases, if need be; look out for their neighbors and their neighborhoods; and refuse to be victims. The resounding affirmation was that no longer would people be afraid of reprisals by the 'bad guys'.
It's a big job. We have a lot of work to do. But we're going to start with small steps with our dedicated group of fifteen and we hope to recruit more as the tide turns and things change. We have the backing of the mayor and the town council and the chief of police and his staff. We're not some vigilante group charging out on a white horse to save the town. We're going to start turning over the rocks and cleaning up the decades of debris piece by piece. There are lots of things we could be doing if our numbers swell, but some important ones to get started with. Talk is of forming Citizens on Patrol groups that will go through neighborhoods to aid the police during periods of time when crime occurs and the police cannot be everywhere at once. We're going to do some publicity to get the word out to the general populace that our group exists. We plan to start a youth group to get the word out to young people.
Light will shine into the Dark and Light will rule the day. It won't be easy. But those of us in that room this week realized that something special is happening in Superior and things are going to change. I'm very grateful to be a part of this.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Hope (Less)
I began chatting with the young cashier at Safeway today about the mine. He said he used to do shift work at the mine in Miami but 'it was really hard work' and he seemed happier to have his current position in the supermarket. I agreed and said it must be really hard work. Yes, he nodded, but they paid really well. Still... it was hard.
I asked him if he was aware of what might be going on with the Resolution Mine down in Superior. His face turned somber. Yes, he was. His dad worked for an independent contractor company that was doing business with Resolution. He was afraid he would lose his job in March. I told him I was sorry, but that's essentially what I'd been hearing too. I wished him luck and took my leave.
Now, really... who's to blame here? Is it the lawmakers back in Washington dithering around with every other conceivable thing to do with the land swap bill that can't see they are messing around with people's peace of mind in this area of Arizona? Is it Resolution Copper's fault that they swooped into this community like the copper-clad saviors they professed to be and plunked Big Money into the area and awarded and promised jobs but now appear to be withdrawing that support and money because they aren't getting what they wanted? Is it the workers' faults for holding onto Hope that this company would give them a good job and a secure future and they could keep their families in the area they love and provide well for them?
I don't know. Maybe nobody. Maybe everybody. Resolution did pony up a hundred and five million and got the ball rolling. They provided jobs to lots of folks who didn't have them before. They never 'guaranteed' how long the jobs would last, just that the jobs were there, for a time at least. The government never promised they'd agree to the Land Swap deal with a foreign entity, even if it meant Big Money for the federal government. When they found out what a ruckus it was causing with the Native Americans and the withdrawal of previous promises from President Eisenhower that this sacred piece of mountain would not be touched, maybe they don't want to get involved any longer. The workers who left their old jobs that maybe didn't pay as well for new opportunities that might hold up and allow them to get ahead. Isn't that the right of the American taxpayer to have a job that will allow him to live comfortably now and put away something extra for his old age?
But somewhere around here in this Mine-Mess, hope is leaking out and running down the creek. Resolution sees it happening. The workers who currently (at least until March) have jobs with Resolution see it happening. And pardon me, but I don't think they really have a clue about Hope in Washington. But it's running away from them too.
I asked him if he was aware of what might be going on with the Resolution Mine down in Superior. His face turned somber. Yes, he was. His dad worked for an independent contractor company that was doing business with Resolution. He was afraid he would lose his job in March. I told him I was sorry, but that's essentially what I'd been hearing too. I wished him luck and took my leave.
Now, really... who's to blame here? Is it the lawmakers back in Washington dithering around with every other conceivable thing to do with the land swap bill that can't see they are messing around with people's peace of mind in this area of Arizona? Is it Resolution Copper's fault that they swooped into this community like the copper-clad saviors they professed to be and plunked Big Money into the area and awarded and promised jobs but now appear to be withdrawing that support and money because they aren't getting what they wanted? Is it the workers' faults for holding onto Hope that this company would give them a good job and a secure future and they could keep their families in the area they love and provide well for them?
I don't know. Maybe nobody. Maybe everybody. Resolution did pony up a hundred and five million and got the ball rolling. They provided jobs to lots of folks who didn't have them before. They never 'guaranteed' how long the jobs would last, just that the jobs were there, for a time at least. The government never promised they'd agree to the Land Swap deal with a foreign entity, even if it meant Big Money for the federal government. When they found out what a ruckus it was causing with the Native Americans and the withdrawal of previous promises from President Eisenhower that this sacred piece of mountain would not be touched, maybe they don't want to get involved any longer. The workers who left their old jobs that maybe didn't pay as well for new opportunities that might hold up and allow them to get ahead. Isn't that the right of the American taxpayer to have a job that will allow him to live comfortably now and put away something extra for his old age?
But somewhere around here in this Mine-Mess, hope is leaking out and running down the creek. Resolution sees it happening. The workers who currently (at least until March) have jobs with Resolution see it happening. And pardon me, but I don't think they really have a clue about Hope in Washington. But it's running away from them too.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Forty Years
Bill and I celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary yesterday. Forty years! Man, that's a long time to live with the same person, isn't it? In California, it's almost unheard of. We're a dying breed. It's few and far between. Down here in Arizona, at least in this little town, it's a ho-hum done-deal. A few weeks ago at Sally's Beauty Shop when I stopped in to get my hair cut and announced we were having our fortieth anniversary, the hairdresser patted me on the shoulder and said she and her husband were having their forty-sixth this year. Then, that "that gal over there is celebrating her forty-fourth", and somebody else under the drier was fixing to celebrate her fiftieth. So, I guess it just depends where you're coming from if it's an odd occurrence or not.
But forty years? Well, pardon me, but I'm going to pat Bill and me on the back right now for sticking with each other for that long, okay? Forty years ago, Bill married a naive little eighteen-year-old who knew practically nothing about anything. He, himself, was a precocious, (sometimes) swaggering young man who would say "No!" to nothing. Bring it on! And what he didn't know he'd find out while he was learning it, thank you. We've both weathered and tempered and settled down and learned a lot in the intervening forty years. Thank you, God! that we're not the same people we were forty years ago. But part of the recreating ourselves every few years with a new hobby or interest has what's held us together and made our union so happy and long lived.
At first, it was fishing. Then we moved on to when he was a pilot and we flew to Mexico for fishing and diving vacations in his small plane. Next it was scuba diving for both of us and we experienced some wonderful underwater vacations all around the world. We morphed that into underwater photography, stills for me and videos for him and learned lots more on the computer and how to put on slide shows and make videos. Harleys came into the next phase of our interest and again, more adventures and more trips. So, Fun just keeps on coming. Right now, we've added golf (I believe there's a law some place that says you gotta play golf if you live in Arizona or Florida or Hawaii, isn't there?). And I would never say there won't be more new hobbies or interests somewhere in our future, since I am married to the man who just keeps re-creating himself.
We celebrated with a nice little family party here in Superior. It was a foul day, by Arizona standards, on Sunday. It rained three inches and was dark and chill. But my folks came up from Casa Grande with Al and Gloria. Brother Tom arrived from Apache Junction. We barbecued ribs and steaks in the garage and served some chilled Mexican shrimp. I made Bill's favorite dessert from forty years ago, a Refrigerator Chocolate Angel Cake with chocolate whipped cream. Since it was so cold outside, Bill lit a fire in our fireplace and we sat around and enjoyed the warmth all afternoon.
No, maybe it wasn't the most wildly exciting celebrations we've ever had. (Our twenty-ninth was on the beach at a table overlooking the rocks at the finesterra [end of the world] in Cabo San Lucas. And when the young waiter heard we were celebrating that venerable of a number, he beseeched Bill, "Pleeze, sir! How you stay weez de same woman for dat long? I only have my wife fo' fo' year and dat too long!") But this anniversary was definitely one of the Best Ones in all of the forty.
As my dad left, he gave me a hug and said, "Nancy, I'll be around to help you celebrate your eightieth!" and I just bet he will!
But forty years? Well, pardon me, but I'm going to pat Bill and me on the back right now for sticking with each other for that long, okay? Forty years ago, Bill married a naive little eighteen-year-old who knew practically nothing about anything. He, himself, was a precocious, (sometimes) swaggering young man who would say "No!" to nothing. Bring it on! And what he didn't know he'd find out while he was learning it, thank you. We've both weathered and tempered and settled down and learned a lot in the intervening forty years. Thank you, God! that we're not the same people we were forty years ago. But part of the recreating ourselves every few years with a new hobby or interest has what's held us together and made our union so happy and long lived.
At first, it was fishing. Then we moved on to when he was a pilot and we flew to Mexico for fishing and diving vacations in his small plane. Next it was scuba diving for both of us and we experienced some wonderful underwater vacations all around the world. We morphed that into underwater photography, stills for me and videos for him and learned lots more on the computer and how to put on slide shows and make videos. Harleys came into the next phase of our interest and again, more adventures and more trips. So, Fun just keeps on coming. Right now, we've added golf (I believe there's a law some place that says you gotta play golf if you live in Arizona or Florida or Hawaii, isn't there?). And I would never say there won't be more new hobbies or interests somewhere in our future, since I am married to the man who just keeps re-creating himself.
We celebrated with a nice little family party here in Superior. It was a foul day, by Arizona standards, on Sunday. It rained three inches and was dark and chill. But my folks came up from Casa Grande with Al and Gloria. Brother Tom arrived from Apache Junction. We barbecued ribs and steaks in the garage and served some chilled Mexican shrimp. I made Bill's favorite dessert from forty years ago, a Refrigerator Chocolate Angel Cake with chocolate whipped cream. Since it was so cold outside, Bill lit a fire in our fireplace and we sat around and enjoyed the warmth all afternoon.
No, maybe it wasn't the most wildly exciting celebrations we've ever had. (Our twenty-ninth was on the beach at a table overlooking the rocks at the finesterra [end of the world] in Cabo San Lucas. And when the young waiter heard we were celebrating that venerable of a number, he beseeched Bill, "Pleeze, sir! How you stay weez de same woman for dat long? I only have my wife fo' fo' year and dat too long!") But this anniversary was definitely one of the Best Ones in all of the forty.
As my dad left, he gave me a hug and said, "Nancy, I'll be around to help you celebrate your eightieth!" and I just bet he will!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Battle Axe Mountain
We took a boonie trip out to Battle Axe Mountain on Friday. It was a crisp, sunny day, mid-sixties, little wind, a clear blue sky. Bill loaded up the Cruiser with Al, Glo, Tom and me and Chuy of course, snuggled in my arms. It's only a ten mile trip down 177 to the turn-off and we got out roughly eight to ten miles before the road disintegrated and we had to turn around.
Battle Axe is a monolithic slab of a mountain at the end of a box canyon (Walnut Canyon) in the White Wilderness in eastern Pinal County. The odd part is that it's far enough away from the main traveled highways that it is not even visible from the road and you feel like you have 'discovered' it when you get there. It is a picture taking opportunity! I thought the mountains and crags on this road were just about as pretty as anything we'd seen in Utah on our way to Sturgis last summer. Everywhere you looked there was another mountain to take a picture of. What joy!
While Uncle Al picked his way up a streambed looking for rocks at the first stop, Bill chose to hike nearly to the top of the first peak while Glo and Tom and Chuy and I climbed up the road looking for more adventure. We were passed by four retired gentlemen on four wheelers also rock collecting.
At the second stop, the Walnut Canyon ends with Battle Axe closing its end off and the road veered sharply up another mountain. That, in turn, opened more vistas on the southwestern side and we shot more videos. Strangely, even though we were probably about four thousand feet high, all the ocotillo were fully in bud here, and we even found flowers on one. None of the ocotillo in Superior or down in Casa Grande are budded out yet. It was like this part of the Sonoran Desert had its own climate control. The third stop took us nearly to the Gila River riverbed, we were just a few miles north of it, but the road petered out into sandy streambeds and the 'best way' was turning into too steep and bouldery a passage, so we had to know when to say "No!" and turn around. We hadn't retraced our footsteps very long when we came about six more four wheelers who were trying to figure out which way to go. We waved. They waved, looking doubtful. They likely figured they had this wilderness all to themselves and here comes a SUV stuffed with sightseers driving out, waving at them. Ya never know who you'll meet in the desert.
Anyway, it was a good day. We didn't pick up all that many rocks but we sure took a lot of pictures and discovering new areas is one of the best parts of Boonie Tooling!
Battle Axe is a monolithic slab of a mountain at the end of a box canyon (Walnut Canyon) in the White Wilderness in eastern Pinal County. The odd part is that it's far enough away from the main traveled highways that it is not even visible from the road and you feel like you have 'discovered' it when you get there. It is a picture taking opportunity! I thought the mountains and crags on this road were just about as pretty as anything we'd seen in Utah on our way to Sturgis last summer. Everywhere you looked there was another mountain to take a picture of. What joy!
While Uncle Al picked his way up a streambed looking for rocks at the first stop, Bill chose to hike nearly to the top of the first peak while Glo and Tom and Chuy and I climbed up the road looking for more adventure. We were passed by four retired gentlemen on four wheelers also rock collecting.
At the second stop, the Walnut Canyon ends with Battle Axe closing its end off and the road veered sharply up another mountain. That, in turn, opened more vistas on the southwestern side and we shot more videos. Strangely, even though we were probably about four thousand feet high, all the ocotillo were fully in bud here, and we even found flowers on one. None of the ocotillo in Superior or down in Casa Grande are budded out yet. It was like this part of the Sonoran Desert had its own climate control. The third stop took us nearly to the Gila River riverbed, we were just a few miles north of it, but the road petered out into sandy streambeds and the 'best way' was turning into too steep and bouldery a passage, so we had to know when to say "No!" and turn around. We hadn't retraced our footsteps very long when we came about six more four wheelers who were trying to figure out which way to go. We waved. They waved, looking doubtful. They likely figured they had this wilderness all to themselves and here comes a SUV stuffed with sightseers driving out, waving at them. Ya never know who you'll meet in the desert.
Anyway, it was a good day. We didn't pick up all that many rocks but we sure took a lot of pictures and discovering new areas is one of the best parts of Boonie Tooling!
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