Anybody feel like getting a New Year ?

 Well I am...

MP and I haven't missed a day for a long time now, we walk three miles every morning. Three miles is about 7200 steps for me which pretty much guarantees that by the end of the day I will get the 10,000 I want....moss don't grow on a rolling stone ya know. So here in Green Valley we've found the best 3 miler we've ever encountered. Its the old Canoa Hills golf course which inexplicably couldn't make it and was closed and then turned into hiking trails . In Mexico when you do an urban hike you really have to look down and watch your feet as all the sidewalks and curbs have different heights not to mention holes in the road etc. When people have asked me if Mexico is dangerous I say that it's VERY dangerous, you must look where you're walking. So it's cool that this has the old cart path everywhere.

The vistas along the way are beautiful and there's surprising wildlife and birds.

Not only is the hike 3 miles but it has enough elevation change to get you a little cardio every now and then...and how nice of the local recreation committee to know their people and warn you...I wonder how many heart attacks they had before they bought the first sign. In any case you guys at GVR, thanks for thinking of us who think we are but ain't forever young.

The above sign of course is there liability release so the next one is my favorite....Slow down and take a breather amigo no sense crashing...

We've got some people here with some serious time on their hands. Me, I'm not the get bored type but I understand those who do and of course with the covid crisis all of the GVR activities are closed so people just have to free lance, us musicians call it impromptu.

This guy I named Big Nose Baldy and he and his neighbors watch over our hike from discreet tree limbs. They are hand carved wood and really well done. I find a new one it seems every day. Someday just like the guy who always left the bottle of wine for Edgar Allan Poe on the grave on his birthday it's a mystery worth cracking....and Inspecter Cluesou #003 is hard on the job.

This guy I named Baldy....do you see a pattern here ? mmmm....I do believe there's clue here.

Who wouldn't call this guy E.T. ? and once again, no hair...It must have something huge to do with the mystery because the hint went from subtle to extreme. Marty and Rick Lagina investigating Oak Island would be firing up the backhoe about now.

This guy is Woody Elvis and I believe him to be a caricature of the investigator who is in search of the Bald Cartel and put himself out there as a deterrent...to let the Bald guys know that someone is watching for any nefarious activity here along our southern border .  ( that's another blog entry to come )

Not only is our new favorite walk furnished with wildlife, beauty and mystery but it also comes with a bar cart...what a great idea !

And if you get the munchies or you get low sugar there's citrus everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

So this morning Green Valley ended it string of 79 days in a row without rain. It was gorgeous watching the clouds move through and I learned what they say about the catcus is true. They suck up as much water as fast as they can and you instantly see a difference in them. This little Barrel cactus went from dull orange / brown to this,,,

Storms over the Santa Rita's and Madera Canyon.

I got MPeasy some really nice new binoculars for Christmas and I have to say that I'm getting into the bird deal...who'd a thunked it eh ?  These two are the holy grail around here. It took us forever to see a Road Runner and as happens in life now we're seeing them everywhere.

Well this old world has certainly changed in this last year and I'm not sad to see it move on. We wish you all a very Happy....ah, ya know just even a normal New Year would be great eh ?

This is my favorite pic that I've snapped so far on this trip. I like it even better than seeing  Nomad. I spotted her sun worshipping and it was so quiet and so pretty that I got it....that same feeling I get on the beach sometimes when life is just right. I like the angle and the lighting and......of course the sun always comes up .

Papillion : " How do I look "

 

So we've gone in search of a new life, maybe a slower life, maybe one that's all our own, I don't know....but I do know this, like most people we needed / wanted to slow down the way our years were shooting by and by making so many cha cha changes we've done that. As I reflect it feels like MP's early Kenai King was caught years ago and it was just May 20th, 7 months ago.

Things are certainly slower in Arizona. Alaska is a young place and of course the snowbird migration is for us older folks of which we're still on kinda the young side of. Certain things you just can't get away from and the ageing process is one of them . Just the other day we met a new friend named Edith when we left the condo for our walk and heard a not so distant " hello, hello , hello" . MP spotted her on the ground first and took off running. She had slipped on some water, maybe even frozen and was scared and bleeding from the back of her scalp pretty well. We got her up and slowly walked her to her condo where we waited for the EMS and tried to comfort her. She was dizzy...One night in the hospital with some internal bleeding from a small skull fracture behind her ear. She brought us chocolate yesterday. This pic from the church across the street tells the tale....

Of course we're disappointed to miss Mexico for the first time in 20 years. But if that's all we're missing with what millions of people are going through I can't complain, and won't....I'll just carry on and find the things we love about Mexico that are right here in our neighborhood like my Sunday  Menudo and these gorgeous Chili Relanos with authentic Sinaloa style sauce. The Green there is to die for, At our favorite Mazatlan place Tacos Martin they make the avocado sauce real creamy with avo's and leche and it so good. But here it's more saucey with pepper's , tomatillo's , cilantro and onions etc....I think like it better. We're on our 3rd in 10 days .

And how about our lunch view. We go here often and will from here on out. Madera canyon rises from the desert only 10 mile away and the elevation is stunning, 7,000 feet where we eat after each hike. The desert kinda lacks dynamic colors ( I'm not complaining, it's beautiful ) but with elevation in Arizona come Aspen and other leaved trees that are just now saying it's fall...weird. 

From about 2000 feet lower than where I took the Pacifico pic I took this one looking across the desert back towards our house. That flat area is about the biggest Copper mine I could imagine... and I grew up seeing the Berkley Pit before it filled up with water having been closed. The huge trucks that traversed around and around to the top looked like tonka toys.

I tell people a sign of senior comfort is when you go to the store and get really, really expensive binoculars to watch birds....well we ain't done that but we do enjoy seeing and searching out the birds. We finally got our first really red Cardinals and the Jays here are familiar but not like we're used to....But Madera Canyon offers enough alpine area that Stellar's Jay's are included in the book, our favorite bird, ,,,,so far. 

Tourism...ahhhh...intersting sites !

Well there 's a ton of that around here and as many monasteries that we've seen I got he feeling there's way more to come. Growing up Catholic I knew they were a tenacious bunch, I can only imagine how hard it was to be the first to spread the word starting as far back as the 1600's in this severe country....It must have been one of those things we've all bumped into when you realize, you just gotta want to do it.

As cool as the these old churches are ( and still doing mass ) I 'm kinda drawn to this....the era when the midddle class had money and time to stop along the way. It's something that Alaska is to new for but how could a guy not stop at a place like this for a cool one...just one ? 

Now if you want to get lost in the desert here's the formula.... Our friends Bob and Dana Gerstaluer are here. Like us they hike everyday. BUT....don't let MP be involved in the navigation part of it... Turned around one time in Nevada ( temporarily ) she found a Deer trail for us .....mmmmm....One time in Portland as we raced to the airport behind schedule she read the map and said ' exit 92 south' and I replied that couldn't be right because PDX is to the north and she famously said " sometimes you gotta go south to go north ".....mmmmm.....well, that wasn't one of those times.

 

That hike is the surprisingly gorgeous Saguaro National Park... Those cactus are amazing. The few times it rains they store enough water to last for months, as much as 200 gallons I hear. 

My friend Bob and I started together building the SBS Supply store in Soldotna in the fall of 1977. When the construction economy fell in the mid 1980's he went south and I was saved by the guide industry. Those first winters in Alaska were exciting. We had a co worker named Jack who was also the job site night watchman. He lived in a cabover camper on the job that had propane heat. One night at 1:00 a.m. when it was -30 there was a knock on our Apartment door and it was Jack with ice sickles hanging from his beard , he had run out of his 3rd bottle of propane.  Here's a pic of Roberto and our crew in 1977 taking a break from concrete in August 1977.

From left to right. Bruce Passe, me, Mark Passe, Jack McHone, Bob, Mert Gertin, Craig Passe.

I'm feeling for all my Alaska friends. Chris said it blew up to 100 mph on the Hillside of Anchorage yesterday and it looks like the severe weather will continue...and of course with the longest day just last Monday there's a lot of dark. I put together this matrix to show the effect. For years my northern USA customers would say things like ' our winters in _______ are just like yours" and I think ' you don't have a clue' ....it's the dark. I've put Alaska in our same time zone so you can see the difference easily. 

Anchorage sunrise 8:14    sunset 1:47

Hamilton Mt,         8:20    sunset 4:51

Green Valley AZ    7:22    sunset 5:24

So ....we'll just keep grinding away on this migration route we've chosen. I'm going fishing around the New Year so we should have slimey photo's for the first time in a long time.

MP and I wish ALL of you a Merry Christmas and good riddance to 2020...stay healthy and love a lot...the world needs it right now.

Highway 93

 As a kid I remember seeing bumper stickers that read ' pray for me , I drive 93 ' and now I get it. MPeasy and I decided that common sense tells you that the shortest way between two points is a straight line so we took our snowbird migration directly south from Hamilton and Stayed on Highway 93 to it's terminus in Wickenberg Arizona. Boy howdy , it has to be some of the most remote parts of this USA. Here's a pic of Idaho's tallest mountain, just south of Challis...you get the idea...

Highway 93 in southern Idaho is damn dangerous. The potato economy is huge and semi trucks seem to out number cars. It took me 2 close calls to finally realize that you can't have semi's close behind you as when a car or pick up pulls out to pass he has to pass you as well and walla...no room and and an adrenalin rush occurs. So the solution is simple, drive faster and keep well ahead of the semi's....speaking of adrenalin..We arrived at the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls and it's sooo beautiful we stop for pictures and a potty break.

As is my nature I park at the very back of the parking lot at the visitor center and immediately meet this guy here. He's telling me that he's fifty years old and is an 82nd airborne alumnus with 900 jumps and he's just self taught himself  something new....and he's strapping on the smallest parachute you've ever seen....did I mention he had more than just a few tatoo's. His name is Nomad and what a cool convergence to be in the right place at the right time to meet this wonderful guy full of the adventure spirit.

Nomad tell us it's going to happen fast when he gets to the middle of the bridge. It was pretty obvious to me that the powers to be in Twin Falls probably discourage people doing Carl Wallenda's routinely from their photo op bridge....So with only us aware of it Nomad briskly walked to the middle of the bridge, climbed over the rail and immediately let out a war hoop holler and jumped. Now stupid me used my camera when I really should have shot a video but the second pic here is kinda cool if you look close. I had too much zoom to find him and he fell ( or flew ) so fast that all I got was the shadow but look close and maybe zoom in and you'll see his feet and lower body right in the very upper far left.

It's not everyday you see somebody jump off a bridge so Nomad you go first ballot into the Mile 14 Hall of Fame. Ya know as we drove on I got to thinking about my new buddy the risk taker, with what he's seen in life he's chosen to use it for adventure rather than be wounded by  memories...Carry on Nomad, you're a true inspiring American Hero, glad I got to meet you. This is on the tailgate of his Toyota,

Pre covid we would have spent the night at a Hotel / Casino in Jackpot Nevada  but our plan to stay safe was to avoid crowds and by driving onto Wells for the night certainly filled that bill...Without calling Wells a %#@&Hole I'll just say that it must have been quite the place 60 years ago. The town is full of closed , empty, broken dream stories like this one.

I had a reservation at the Sharon Hotel which I really didn't need as every surviving motel in town had no business. For many reasons we just couldn't do the Sharon so when told they had to keep the money we said fine and went to a Motel 8 where we watched The Curse of Oak Island and ate the best tacos from a food truck that we've had in a long time.

We had it planned so each days drive would only be 6 or so hours. Once we left Idaho the traffic stopped and through the high desert of Nevada there were stretches with no traffic at all...kinda lonely but gorgeous. We planned a hike in Alamo that we knew about from one of our Las Vegas side trips when we went to Rachel Nevada to see Area 51 and look for UFO's. It was warm, gorgeous around the lake and wildlife preserve...now we know where all those ducks and geese go that we we've seen leaving Alaska for the last 45 years.

That's  a pretty good shot of a Golden Eagle eh ?...here's the desert, if you haven't driven this way you must . It's huge country that kinda makes you aware of your place in the world.

It was hard not to  stop in Vegas but we drove right through it ( at rush hour no less ) and on to Boulder City where we hit a home run with the Sands Motel...It's funky and spotless clean. It's friendly and the town is small but vibrant, right on the last leg of Highway 93. How  could you not love a place that has a beer fridge like this ???

The drive into Green Valley was duck soup ( easy ). 93 is 4 lane through Kingman and onto Wickenberg where we end out 93 experience and get on our first Interstate Highway. We skirt around Tuscon and here we are, Green Valley which is way prettier than I imagined and has an interesting population that's going to be fun to write about....I'll tell you this much about next weeks Mile 14...it's kinda fun to be the young people. And it didn't take MP long to poach her first citrus fruit, and we're learning to watch out for what they call the ' Jumping Cactus' ....tell ya all about it later.