B O R E D
Me on day 3 with no Hockey!
B. Bake
O. Or
R. Read
E. Easy
D. Decision
Pulled up a lounger chair, sat in the sun and read.
That’s it!
That’s how I survived this day!
Me on day 3 with no Hockey!
Pulled up a lounger chair, sat in the sun and read.
That’s it!
That’s how I survived this day!
We are spending the winter in Arizona at a RV Resort. Lots of activities to keep you busy. You wanna play crib? Cross crib? 2500? Bridge? Majohng? Poker? well do you?
I’m not much of a card player so to insert myself into the group here and get to know some of the fine people that surround me I decide to join some of the more physical activities that are offered here.
Pickle Ball?
I’ve played badminton in my younger years, I can hit a ball with a paddle, I’m pretty sure of that.. Off I go and sure enough I can hold my own out there with the others. What else can I join?
Billiards?
I’ve played some billiards in my younger years, I can hit a ball with a cue, I’m pretty sure of that… Off I go and sure enough I can hold my own in there with the others. What else can I join?
Hiking?
I can walk a mile or two or three, I’m pretty sure of that. It’s the desert, it might be kind of warm out, but we are leaving early. I’ll wear shorts and bring a couple bottles of water. I’ll be fine… Off I go…
Me and 12 of my new friends meet at the clubhouse at 8AM. They look innocent enough, they have white hair, grey hair, dark hair and are a cross section of your typical winter snowbirds. Tall, short, medium, stout, skinny, wood walking sticks, titanium walking sticks, fanny packs, bright orange hiking shirts, durable footwear, smiles everywhere. Looks harmless… right?
My assumption is that we are going to all go to the site of our hike and then break into our “easy” and “arduous” hiking groups and all will be good. One group jumps into a van and off they go. The rest of us separate in to 3 trucks and away we go. We drive in the direction of The Wild Burro Trailhead in Marano, Arizona. When we arrive the 3 trucks park and we disembark.
‘Where are the people in the van?’ I ask..
I am told: “They went on the “easy” hike on Casa Grande Mountain. But don’t worry you’ll be fine!”
We begin our walk along a flat trail. It’s beautiful. My new friends point out different flora, fauna and cute little sing song birds that we can hear and see all around us. We walk for 15 minutes and stop at the kiosk. The kiosk is where you sign in to the trail system ( I found out later it’s so they know how many bodies they may need to retrieve if you fail to survive the Wild Burro Trail…).
We casually continue our walk along the wash towards the Tortolita Mountains and pass the lovely Ritz Carlton Hotel and Dove Mountain which you can see up the rise and off to our left after walking about a mile. I’m having a great time, I’m seeing chain fruit chollas, saguaros, ocotillos, ironwoods, agaves and jojobas. This is fantastic!
We have now reached the end of the wash and my new friends have stopped for a break, we drink some water, discuss the hawks, bunnies and birds that we’ve seen so far. Then our fearless leader points to the purple sign post that says “Wild Burro Trail” and the climb begins.. Are we really going UP THAT MOUNTAIN? … well yes we are.. OMG and before I know it, the 7 brightly colored orange shirts are off and climbing with ease.. It doesn’t take long before me and one other skinny guy wearing jeans are bringing up the rear. My new friends are being pretty polite, they holler down the trail to ask if I’m ok… I weakly wave and give a thumbs up that yes, I’m OK.. (can’t they hear me and Mr. Jeans gasping for breath from where they are?).. This torture continues for at least an hour as we climb, stop and gather our breath, climb, stop, climb, stop, stop.. We finally arrive at our intended lunch break spot at the basin of the Wild Burro Trail. We have a beautiful view of Marana and the valley. There’s an old ranch site, stone walls and round depressions in the rocks called morteros. They are thousands of years old and it is hard to imagine how many years of grinding it took to wear an 18 inch deep hole in a granite rock. Were they grinding acorns? nuts? beans? Maybe all of those things? Archaeologists aren’t really sure.
After catching our breath, battling the little gnats and flies while eating our lunch, we begin our return trip. I’m relieved when I find out that we are taking an easier route back to the truck. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you I’m thinking.. then away they go. We begin to climb a little more (I’m officially horrified to learn that we have to climb around this little mountain before we begin our descent). The view was incredible, there was a nice cool breeze, and we saw a batch of colorful flowers along the trail.
The name of the return trail is called… wait for it.. The Alamo Loop.. (you know what happened to the guys at the Alamo right?). But there’s not much I can do now, here we go.. down, down down, switchbacks, rocks, ledges, head down watching every step, don’t trip, don’t fall, don’t grab a cactus for support (Mr. Jeans learned that on the way up when I stopped suddenly and he had no choice but to grasp at the nearest thing to support himself).. poor guy, I felt bad for him.
We safely negotiate our exit, arrive back at the wash and trudge our way back to the safety of our vehicles. All in all our hike lasted 5 HOURS and our distance travelled was 7 MILES. I had survivor’s euphoria when it was completed.
All in all, I enjoyed my hike, it was longer than I thought it was going to be, it was more exercise than I thought it was going to be, but my new friends were very supportive, made sure I had water, didn’t leave me behind and didn’t manage to kill me or Mr. Jeans. I will definitely join them on another day!
We are back home on the Island. We’ve been here since the first week of March. The cooler weather was a definite shock to our system… yuck.. back to damp clothes.. but yay.. back to the smell of the sea.
People have been asking what the best part of the trip was. You know what I tell them? I tell them that the best part was just “doing it”..
We had a dream, we hatched a plan, we started driving and here we are. It feels weird to have driven so far and now we are back where we started. 25,000 km (15,000 miles) and here we are back home again.
So why am I sad?
I’m sad because my sister died a few weeks after we got back from our trip. She wasn’t feeling well when we left, and throughout the last year she didn’t get any better. Every month or so another symptom, more medication changes, more unanswered questions, more pain. She did everything you would expect a sick person to do. She saw her doctor regularily, she took the medicines they said would make her feel better, she took all the blood tests, scans, MRI’s. And she died. She’s gone. And she’s not coming back and I’M SAD about that.
We took our trip, we crossed it off our bucket list and we have awesome and fun memories from the last year. The scenery, the stories, the food, the accents, the people, they all added value to the experience.
I guess I can get philosophical and say that this is an example and a reminder of why we should do what we want to do, do it now, because tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. This is true, very true and it’s good advice to follow. But I’m still sad, that I missed her last year here. She didn’t want me to stay, she wanted me to go, but I am still sad. The CIRCLE HAS CLOSED, our family circle has another hole in it and I’m sad.
Campbell River Scenery, a set on Flickr.
A collection of Scenery photo’s that I’ve taken around Campbell River.
Rocks, a set on Flickr.
A trip to the ocean to experiment with shutter speed and an ND filter
Christmas Ornaments 2013, a set on Flickr.
Here’s a collection of Christmas Tree Ornaments from our family tree! Many many years of memories in this collection!
Forest Stuff, a set on Flickr.
Some recent photo’s from my trip outside. A mixture of Moss, Mushrooms, Leaves and PineCones!
So then, that got me to thinking….. how many types of vinegar are there? turns out there’s lots and lots! Here’s some info I got from the Internet at :
recipes.howstuffworks.com
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Coconut Vinegar
If you can’t get your Asian recipes to taste “just right,” it might be because you don’t have coconut vinegar — a white vinegar with a sharp, acidic, slightly yeasty taste. This staple of Southeast Asian cooking is made from the sap of the coconut palm and is especially important to Thai and Indian dishes.
Raisin Vinegar
This slightly cloudy brown vinegar is traditionally produced in Turkey and used in Middle Eastern cuisines. Try infusing it with a little cinnamon to bolster its mild flavor. Salad dressings made with raisin vinegar will add an unconventional taste to your greens.
Now that you’ve got the idea of the wide variety of vinegar flavors available, perhaps
You never know what you’re going to think about while in the shower.. I was left pondering where the word “cobweb” came from, after all, we know that they aren’t made by cobs, but they are a web!
Yes, cobwebs are made by spiders. Arachnologically speaking, a “cobweb” is a web made up of short irregular strands arranged haphazardly, as opposed to the elegant and elaborate orb webs made by spiders of the family Araneidae. The “cobweb spiders” make up the family Theridiidae. One of the commonest in the U.S. is the common house spider Achaearanea tepidariorum. Because the strands are sticky, they gather dust, producing the long fluffy streamers you see. The notorious black widow spider Latrodectus mactans also belongs to this family. Another spider which may be responsible for webs around the house is the long-legged cellar spider Pholcus phalangioides of the family Pholcidae, which makes loose irregular webs in dark places.
Some stray strands of cobweb aren’t (and never were) part of a web, haphazard or otherwise, but are produced by spiders or other arthropods just the same. Jumping spiders, for example, trail a dragline wherever they go, but don’t make webs. A single filament like this can sometimes get into the airstream and land and stick somewhere. Likewise, as readers of Charlotte’s Web know, many spiders will disperse from their egg sac by “ballooning,” which involves trailing a long filament of silk from the spinnerets until the air currents catch hold (like flying a kite more than ballooning, I suppose). These filaments can obviously occur indoors if that’s where the egg sac was located, or they may blow in from the outside. Similarly, many tree-feeding moth larvae will make silk “escape” lines if they feel threatened, and these lines can break loose and get into the air.
While we’re on the subject, you’re probably wondering what a “cob” is. Here’s what the Word Detective says:
The most commonly encountered “cob” is the corn-cob, the cylindrical woody shoot on which grains of corn grow. That kind of “cob” comes from a very old English word that meant “head or top.”
It is possible that “cobweb” is related to that word, but a more certain ancestor is the Middle English “coppe,” which meant simply “spider.” Over the years “coppe” was gradually slurred to “cob,” and, voila, “cobweb.”
— George, Doug, and Ken