Dancing in the Heat..........

 

   Yes, the heat is on!  While most of May has been great with temps in the high 70’s and 80’s, we’ve had some 90’s too and the air conditioner is starting to run more.  From the weather reports we hear, I know  most of you would love the heat, but try as we might to send it your way, it doesn’t seem to work.  With the nice weather and high gas prices, we revamped our summer plans and decided to stay at the Roost a little longer. 
    I’d always wanted to stay until May and see the Saguaro’s bloom,.  This was the year!   They are awesome to see, as the buds seem to appear overnight out of nowhere.   They first bloom when they are from 6-12 feet tall, about 35 to 70 years old.  The buds open between 10pm and midnight, only to close by late afternoon and never to open again.  Since I’m riding my bike every morning, it’s always exciting to check them out and see the new blooms from the night before.  Each arm may  have several dozen flowers.   The first one started budding the end of April and there are now 4 large Saguaro’s with blooms in various stages throughout the park.   The prickly pair are also blooming their bright flowers. The rest of the desert hasn’t had many wildflowers this  year.

         April 18th marked 6 years since we lost Robert.  We decided to take flowers to the Hall of Flame in Phoenix to recognize the day.  Besides one of the world‘s largest collection of firefighting vehicles, they have a Hall of Heroes that lists all the firefighter‘s who gave their lives in the line of duty.  Their curator was very nice, coming down to talk with us, assist with pictures, and tell us how honored they were to have Robert included in their Hall..  He really made us feel special and so proud to be there.  It was the perfect thing to do that day. 

\    Afterwards, we  had a picnic lunch at the park and found a few geocaches, all things Robert would appreciate.  While at the park, we noticed a few caches that were too far for me to walk on my ankle and made plans to come back up with our bikes.  We had just ordered  a bike rack to fit over the spare tire on either the motor home or our Honda CRV.  Since I’m no longer able to walk far and running is out of the question, I’ve been riding my bike about 4 miles a day.  We’re looking forward to having our son-in-law go though  it and redo the gears when we get to WY.  Until then, Gary has it locked into the first gear and it rides fine there.  At least it’s exercise and that feels good. 
    We went back to the park with our bikes a couple weeks later to get the caches we had missed.  We also stopped at Tempe Town Lake and rode our bikes along side their waterway, while finding more caches.  I included a picture of Gary sitting on the wall at the lake.  The bike rack worked great, so we’re looking forward to having the bikes with us this summer.
 

    We’ve talked with folks who will be up at our old campgrounds and right now the concerns are for the flooding everyone is expecting.   The snow is still really deep there, so opening dates are very uncertain.   I’m sure it’s difficult for those trying to plan campground openings, a guessing game this year.

    While my quilting has ended for the year, Gary continues to play pool.  After a dry spell, he's taken a 2nd and 1st in the last two tournaments he played in.  His pool league ends the 31st of May, and as of now, we plan on leaving the next day for Show Low, AZ.  It’s in the mountains and is usually about 20 degrees cooler than our area.  Temps will probably be in the triple digits by then, so it will feel good.  We’ll stay at an Elks lodge there and then go on to Canyon de Chelly, on of our favorite spots from a few years ago.  From there we’ll head through the four corners and into Cortez, CO, to another Elks. We want to revisit Mesa Verde National Park, some of the other National Monuments in Southwestern CO, and the Durango area.  Then we’ll head north thru Utah toward Wyoming.  We’re looking forward to a relaxing summer with family and old friends in UT and WY.    A quick picture of Spicy dreaming of chipmunks in the forest.

     We'll eventually wind up at our daughter's, Riki's so any mail can be sent to us there at:
401 Twin Ridge Ave.
Evanston, WY, 82930

Dancing north toward cooler temps……………………………
Hugs, Katy, Gary, Rusty and Spicy