On The Road Again

After the hustle and bustle of the San Diego area our first stop was back in the desert at Quartzsite dry docking. It was a free night's stay and very restful.
Tack was happy to be off leash for the first time in quite a while.
The sunrise and sunsets are beautiful here.


There we are all by our lonesome in the big vast desert of Quartzsite. Well us and the rattle snakes that are now out. We didn't see any thank goodness.
Before we left San Diego we took one last trip to Balboa Park to the new cactus garden. A great place with lots of trails that wind in and around many varieties of cacti/cactus...which is correct?
Anyway there are signs posted all over saying that it is against the law to pick or damage the plants in any way and doing so can result in a $500 fine.
As we were walking Mikey spied this old babe yanking, pulling and actually cutting (with her little red handled scissors) every plant species that she could find. Mikey did tell her that it was illegal to do this but she pretended to not understand and continued to collect specimens.
Mikey got on the phone to security and I followed her around snapping pictures for proof. OMG we felt like private detectives making the world right! Too funny. The security person came as well as a local police lady. As they talked with the offender she went from English to some other non understandable dialect. They found her bag full of plants but told us that having found out that she was 87 they could not 'throw an old lady in the clink'. We did see her going off in the police car though to who knows where. What an afternoon!
On our way through the Palm Springs area. These always make a great photo op with the mountains in the background.
Why yes here we are in Arizona finally. We traveled up a mountain to the very top at 7223 feet elevation. The snow had melted quite a bit but there was still lots left. That would be me playing in it in sandals, shorts and a sleeveless shirt.
Snow capped mountains do make lovely pictures.
Another view of our mountain drive.
While in the Sedona area David and I spent two entire days driving around looking at the sights. It really is beautiful here. One of our day trips was to Jerome and the mining town right next to Jerome. This town now has a population of one. The one is the character below and a character he is. He runs a sawmill that he mills wood to make things out of in his old old woodworking shop. The town is an old mining town and everything it seems has been left just as it was when the people moved out one by one. Junk....oh my it is a junkers dream. However nothing is for sale!
Mike (I think his name was) is a tinkerer. This is a 1928 Studebaker in line engine on a 1924
Essex frame (getting this info from David). The rest of the car is hand built. It is an Indy car that he is building purely for pleasure and not for real racing...can you imagine. David was oh so impressed with not only the car but Mike himself. Oh by the way, he cranks the car to start it, the crank is in the front.
Now I became impressed when I spied this nice old Harley. Mike says it is a 1942 and he uses it to got the mail. He tried to kick it over for us but it had been raining and the magneto got wet. He even tried to get it dried out for us but it just wasn't working...oh well.
One man's junk
Is Bob Geldner's dream (hi Bob:) Mike does have a shit load of junk. It was a fun day.
We also got to spend the evenings with Rachel, Melvin and Dezbah either at our camper or at their apartment. Rachel whipped up a great meal of salmon and Melvin threw together soup another night...yum. And once again, it is great to have adult children especially those that can cook:)
Here are Dezbah, Poppa Dave and Teeko (she just cant quite get the P )
She even warmed up to Grandma Bobbi as she told her dad one day, 'I want to go to Grandma Bobbi's house and give her a hug'. Here she is reaching out for a Grandma hug.
Doing a ballerina pose and yes those are Poppa Dave's hands ready to catch her if she falls.
It was hard to leave yet another grandbaby dang it!
On our way to our next overnight stop on the way to MN this is what we ran into through most of New Mexico. Snow then rain then horrible gusts of wind. Not such a much unless you are pulling a camper......
Pretty ominous looking skies.
But we made it to Albuquerque and are parked for the night in a casino lot. We filled our tummy's at the buffet and I promptly lost $20.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another interesting travel day weather wise. We plan on spending the night in a truck stop somewhere...seriously...it's free and just a place to sleep. We do stay cozy with the generator running and can even watch TV and blog.

Beach Art, Blooms and Bricks

While walking along the beach one afternoon Mikey spotted what appeared to be a painting in the sand.
architecture

We found a few more

Each was very unique as the water washed over the rock or other item leaving the black colored sand to paint the picture.
These are especially for my gardening friend Mary. The one place that she wanted to be sure we went was the gardens at Balboa so Mary, here are some great blooms for you.
This is obviously not a flower but the above ground roots of this tree is very interesting.
A potted arrangement inside one of the gardens
And in the Botanical garden many colors and the smell....even I, with my none working sense of smell, could enjoy the fragrant flowers.
There are tons of paths to enjoy on the grounds of Balboa Park. One of them is the Old Cactus Garden. Not that the cactus are old (some are) but it is the original cactus garden of the park.
Once again in the botanical building
Many of the other gardens were not in bloom but we did find a few.

The reflecting pond at the entrance to the Botanical Building
Balboa also has interesting architectural structures.
Lots of arches

And steeples...I could go on and on as I took a boat load of pictures but I will spare you all.
The Hyatt Hotel is 40 stories high and according to Mikey and Jan on a windy day you can feel it sway when you are on the 40th floor. The 40th floor hosts a bar and small restaurant as well as great windows from which you can view the harbor
The Coronado bridge
And gorgeous sky scrapers
With interesting roof lines
Lots of windows
And just plain cool looking
And then there is the Midway museum. The 'museum' is an aircraft carrier that was used in WW11 as well as Viet Nam and it actually started dear Mr Bush's invasion in Iraq-it was a command ship. There was an admiral running the invasion from the ship and the captain of the ship was in charge of sending out the planes. The invasion of Iraq was all done from the Midway. The Midway was the last ship run by fuel oil and diesel. The remaining 11 carries are all nuclear powered. Needles to say both Mikey and David being ex Navy men certainly enjoyed the tour. In fact they spent three or four hours touring the Midway.
Jan and I walked around the park looking at the sights with our cameras in hand.
This was a great statue.


There is a tribute to Bob Hope that was kind of moving!
Here are the boys on the ship's flight deck
Our time here is coming to a close. This is fast becoming our favorite place, one that we will spend more time in next year. We hate to leave but are anxious to get home....I miss Julia terribly!

Cancer Survivor's Park

Through the trees are the structures of the park. Within the park is the

Within the park is the 'Road To Recovery Plaza' At the center of the plaza are eight life size figures passing through a maze, the maze representing the stages of treatment.

You can see the look of concern and bewilderment on the faces of the figures just entering the maze. These are those just beginning treatment.

This figure is passing through the mid section of the maze. Her face seems more relaxed as she comes to the end of her treatments.

And the survivors coming out of the maze with looks of joy not only on their faces but in their body postures.

A meaningful structure it is.

There is also the walk of Positive Mental Attitude......

And the statement at the end.......

As you enter your maze and remember the above summary

The park was donated by the Richard and Annette Bloch foundation. The park was inspired by Richard's successful treatment and recovery from what was thought to be terminal cancer. was diagnosed with a supposed incurable cancer that was treated successfully.

The Bloch's believed that the second greatest cause of cancer mortality (smoking being the first) is relating cancer and death. Many of us have been brought up to believe that a cancer diagnosis means death and some believe that the treatments are worse. Thus if diagnosed many may then tend to give up rather than fight. This park hopes to give those diagnosed reason to hope and to fight but also give healthy people who may be diagnosed the knowledge to fight.

This survivor says that this park is pretty awesome......Thanks to Jan for taking the time to assure that I experience the park.