Free Day at The Gardens

For a small city, we are fortunate to have a very nice botanical garden.
The first Sunday of every month is "Free Day" at the Western Colorado
Botanical Gardens and I took advantage of the pleasant sunny morning
to get some last minute vegetation into my five senses before heading
down to the Ice. There, I won't see greenery of any kind, so I figured
I needed to soak in as much as possible. If the WCBG were only a
desert botanical garden, it would be more than worth the visit. My
favorite part of the entire facility is their large cactus garden. The
pathway meanders through some of my favorite plants. This is how
I wished my yard would look! As I said though, the gardens are so
much more. There is a Butterfly House, a rain forest, Japanese and
Grass gardens. Also, a Western Heritage and Children's Garden. All
of this in a cozy, seventy acre spot near the Colorado River. What's
amazing is fifteen years ago, this was all a junk yard. A salvage
yard once covered this entire area, but the land was acquired by the
city in efforts to make the riverfront a more beautiful place. I think
they were successful!

The Great Basin

What exactly is the Great Basin? It's not a sink. But in a way, it kind of is.
Although a number of rivers flow into the Great Basin, none flow out to
the ocean. Hence, the name Basin.


It's also a very very large desert. In fact, it's the largest desert in the
United States, covering approximately 190,000 square miles. To give
you a comparison, England is only just over 50,000 square miles.
It's big.


It's also a land of wide wide wide open spaces. If you're looking to
get away from it all, this is the place. My history teacher in high school
told us that the Native Americans in the Great Basin basically ate dirt.
I scoffed at the time, but now I almost believe it. Although we drove
through the Great Basin during the day, I can imagine what it looks
like at night, with a moonless sky. Imagine the sky that your
grandparents or great-grandparents saw. No light pollution. The
clearest sky you will ever see. That's what the night sky in the Great
Basin looks like.


Finally, this pretty much sums up the Great Basin. There are no services
available for a long long distance. We are lucky that we can cover this
distance in about an hour. The early pioneers would have taken almost
a week to cover 80+ miles. There is just nothing out there.

If I had to choose one word for the Great Basin? EMPTY

Here Comes The Monsoon!

Monsoon: traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied
by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe
seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated
with the asymmetric heating of land and sea. Usually, the term monsoon
is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally-changing pattern, although
technically there is also a dry phase.

Our annual "Monsoon Season" is starting a bit early this year, and as a result,
our swamp cooler is less efficient, water glasses (and humans) perspire more,
drawers stick and it seems to rain every afternoon for a brief time. This weather,
sweeping up from Mexico affects millions of people here in the Southwest. It's
not one of my favorite times of the year. There's a reason I don't live in the Pacific
Northwest. I don't like rain, and typically Western Colorado is pretty devoid
of it. Luckily, the showers don't last long. Unfortunately, the humidity does, and
we just have to deal with it.

The First of How Many?

Today, we hit our first 100 degree day of the season.
Yes, we live in the high desert, and yes, it is summer. But we
average only five 100 degree days per summer, and it's only the
end of June. Our hottest months of July and August are still
ahead of us. Luckily it really is a dry heat. That will all change
when the monsoon starts in July. For now, we'll enjoy our
warm days and cool, easy to sleep nights.

Caliente!

Today we tied a record (albeit only 4 years old) high temperature
when the thermomether reached 101 degrees. It was also the
highest temperature in the state of Colorado for the day. Our
Swamp Cooler is getting a real workout, but is performing like
a champ. Luckily the humidity is only 12%. The main saving
grace is that it's supposed to get down to 65 degrees tonight.
The benefits of living in a desert that isn't near a big city like
Phoenix or Las Vegas that hold in the heat at night.

Driving to Las Vegas

Last year, when we visited Las Vegas, we were borrowing Lynn's
sister's truck and drove in from Arizona. We then flew home from
Vegas to Grand Junction. So this time we were going to be driving
from Grand Junction to Vegas and back. I was looking forward to
seeing scenery I hadn't visited before. Our favorite part of the
trip was driving through the San Rafael Swell. A huge rock out-
cropping that runs for miles and miles through the center of
Utah. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see how
large it is by comparing it to the dark car on the highway.
When we pulled off the road at a rest stop, I learned that Marie
Curie had visited the area around the turn of the last century
because there is so much uranium in the area. Our seven
hour drive through the desert brought us to Las Vegas at
about 6:30, but we forgot about the time change, Vegas being
on Pacific time, so we ended up making great time!

Driving to Delta

Because we get pretty good gas mileage, it's fairly cheap
entertainment for us to go for a ride occasionally for a
change of scenery. Just a short drive south from Grand
Junction is the small town of Delta. There's certainly not
much to see between Grand Junction and Delta as it is
mostly desert and not until just before you get to Delta
do you see the mountains that are just east of town. It's
a mostly agricultural area, with the farmland being watered
by the Gunnison River.


Once you get to town, it's pretty typical of most small towns
in Colorado, with a central Main Street and surrounding
neighborhoods. You can see that modernization is coming
to Delta though, either good or bad. Chain stores and fast
food restaurants line the roads leading into town. It's not
a bad little town though. The people seem friendly enough.
However, there's not a lot to do there. However, they do
have the Western Slope's only Drive In Movie theatre. We
plan to check that out when it opens later in the summer.

Back in the Desert

If you go north, south or west of Grand Junction, you will
find yourself in the Desert. For the most part, there is very
little vegetation and it's just plain dry. For some reason
though, I feel very comfortable in this environment. Lynn
and I took a drive today into the desert north of town near
the Bookcliffs and it was wonderful! I'm looking forward
to exploring more of the desert this summer!

Finally Home!

After a long flight and almost as long a layover in Dallas, I took
off for Grand Junction and found it to be a very snowy and wintery
scene.


It's always great seeing Mt. Garfield and the Grand Mesa. Two more
signs that I was home.


Of course Lynn was waiting for me at the airport, and she was the
main sign and reason I was home at last after being separated for
five plus months. It will be fun spending the next seven months in
our happy little desert town!

5 Weeks

Lynn reminded me today that I will be home again
in just 5 weeks! I'm sure they will go very quickly
as we are really busy at work but it will still seem
a long time since I can't wait to see Lynn. But also
it will be just 5 more weeks until I see our red rock
mesas, fabulous sunsets and get to hear Mourning Doves
in the back yard.

Snow in Grand Junction

Lynn sent me this photo today that she took
from our front porch. Grand Junction had
over ten inches of snow (probably the largest
snow in about 15 years) and made a mess of
things. This is a lot of snow for high
desert country that gets only eight inches
of rain each year! Luckily it's still
Colorado, and because it's so sunny, most
of this will be gone in a couple of days!

Saguaros

We drove up the Beeline Highway today to look at the
Saguaro cacti. We've been to Saguaro National Park in
Tucson before, but this is much closer to where we're
staying, only about a half hour away. Literally thousands
of Saguaros lined both sides of the highway. The only
thing that could have made it nicer was if they were in
bloom, but we're many months too late for that

Time on Our Hands

Combine the fact that it was a cloudy morning with the fact that
my back was almost as red as my Oklahoma t-shirt (too much
pool), it was a perfect day to drive around the Valley and see
some things that needed to be seen. In our case that means
things that are cheap (free?) and what we might stumble upon.
Finding the Desert Botanical Gardens ($15 admission each) and
the Frank Lloyd Wright House ($30 admission each) a bit beyond
our price range, we opted for old standbys. Lynn wanted to visit
a yarn store in Mesa called the Fiber Factory. No, not the place
where Metamucil is made, although that might be an interesting
trip for another time...but one of the "best" yarn stores in the
Southwest. I have to admit that it was pretty nice if you're into
that sort of place, which Lynn is and the people working there
seemed very knowledgeable about Antarctica and Colorado.
However, they thought Colorado was cold all the time...shhhh...
don't tell them it's not!


While I was waiting for Lynn to peruse the yarn store from top to
bottom, I sat on the "man couch" and read a small newspaper
distributed by the Downtown Mesa Association. In it, they talked
about a "favorite" local Mexican restaurant just down the street
named Mangos Mexican Cafe & Bakery. In a word, it was
AWESOME! Lynn had the Chimichanga and I had Enchiladas and
even the chips and salsa beforehand were great. I found out later
that it had received 5 stars on several internet sites. I especially
liked having to walk through the kitchen to use the restroom.
All very authentic and real comfort food. As much as I love Mexican
food, we hadn't had any real Mexican food in a restaurant since
we came back from Ecuador. I love Taco Bell, but that doesn't
really count...neither does our new discovery, El Pollo Loco.


One of the main goals as we headed out the door was to
visit some used bookstores. We've visited both Bookman's
in Phoenix already, so we wanted something less commercial.
We found it walking back to the car from Mangos. The Book
Gallery. A really nice used bookstore, all of the books are
in good condition and don't smell of mildew. Something we've
run across quite a bit in used book stores. Lynn found a few
knitting books and I found a good book on Colorado
geography and then I stumbled across the "Flag section". Yes,
they actually had a small section of flag books. In it, I found
"Flags Through the Ages and Across the World" by Whitney
Smith. He is the man who coined the term "Vexillology".
I used to check this book out of the Naperville and Denver
Libraries and have seen battered versions of it for sale over
the years but never found a really good copy of it. Here it
was. Only problem...$35...Ouch! However, since the book is
already 34 years old and has been out of print forever...plus
the fact that this copy was in pristine condition...I had to bite
the bullet and buy it. Maybe I can sell some plasma or
something down the road to afford it. Later on, I looked it
up on Amazon and the cheapest copy is available for $106.
Definitely not a price I would pay for a book. I definitely
made a good purchase.


I drove by my old condo in Chandler and took a few pictures
since I didn't have any digital copies (yes, that sounds weird to
me as well) and even past the place where I wrecked Lynn's
Camry leaving the Dairy Queen in 1995 (no photos here
however). Afterwards, we were driving up I-10 toward
downtown Phoenix when there appeared an IKEA in Tempe
on the right hand side of the highway. We'd never been to
an IKEA before and we felt like browsing. For those who
don't know, IKEA is a huge (store size) Swedish-owned
household goods store that has locations around the world.
Everything in the store is VERY reasonable and affordable.
We're looking at making some updates to our house in the
next five years so we were really encouraged that we could
shop at IKEA and make some of the changes we want down
the road without bankrupting ourselves. Only trouble is, the
closest location to us is in Salt Lake City. Not very convenient,
but maybe someday.


Lastly, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble (sorry Ben) at
the Chandler Fashion Mall. Mainly because they have free
internet! They've made a deal with AT&T (boo) for free
internet access in all of their store cafes around the country
and if we get a small coffee, I don't feel so bad about
abusing their bandwidth. I'm finding that more and more
places are offering free Wi-Fi although here's the part of
this post where I complain. Our hotel only offers it in the
lobby for free, not in the rooms. If you want access in your
room you have to pay $9.95 per day. How is it that
seemingly every Motel 6 or Super 8 across every interstate
highway in America can offer "free" Wi-Fi access in their
motels, but a "resort" charging much more charges a
ridiculous price to do so. There...that's been bothering me
for the last 4 days and it's off my chest! And yes, I'm
smiling as I type this!

Chauchilla Necropolis

20 miles south of Nasca lies a desert plain filled with...bones.
Lots of them. The area was the home of a large number of
burial sites of the Nasca people, dating over 1000 years old.
Over the centuries, grave robbers left the bones while taking
everything else. The local government has tried to restore the
site as an educational open air museum of sorts in a rather
macabre way.


The authorities have set everything up as closely as possible to
how their ancestors would have positioned them.


There are still whole bones and fragments lying everywhere!


Some crypts only contain partial bodies.


Mummies of babies have also been found (lower right corner of photo).


This stuff could keep you awake at night!


If it weren't for the cemetery, this might be a beautiful landscape.


The most intact mummy is kept in a small museum at the entrance.

The Nasca Lines

Just north of Nasca, Peru lie the enigmatic Nasca Lines and geoglyphs
that were formed by the Nasca people between 1400 and 1800 years
ago. Our flight lasted for 30 minutes and we saw almost two dozen
different distinct shapes. We definitely needed our air sickness meds
as the small six seater plane made some pretty scary dips and turns
to make sure we got great views of each drawing. Designated a World
Heritage site by the United Nations in 1994, it's not a easy place to get
to as we had to take a bus for six hours from Lima through miles and
miles of pretty bleak desert.


Click on Each Photo to Enlarge


The Astronaut


The Spider


The Condor


A Trapezoid


The Whale


The Hummingbird


The Monkey


A Trapezoid


The Parrot


The Tree and The Hands


Landing at Aeropuerto Maria Reiche