Friday, November 10 Leaving the Big Ditch

Mrouch!  Stop moving me!

Woke up to 30 degrees.  Brrr…. Put on my ski pants to do my morning walk.  There are great trails around here.  Spouse started with me, but went back early on.  I wandered up this trail, over to that trail and ended up on the Rim Trail.  The sun was shining and the thermometer might have said in the 30’s, but that sun made it quite warm.  I shed my gloves and beanie and unzipped the jacket.  I wasn’t exactly sure of where I was going, but if I looked for the first cutoff on the Rim Trail, it should take me back to where I need to be, right???  The first cutoff deposited me in the parking lot of the visitor center.  Sooo, where does the trail pick up?  I went down the first aisle down the street, and just followed the street hoping I would find the trail.  And I did… 

Back at Artee, we readied her for the road.  We are headed to Phoenix to visit friends.  Spouse wanted to take Hwy. 64 east to Cameron, the same way we came in.  Now, so many people think of the Grand Canyon as a desert.  But the mesa at the top is at high altitude, almost 7,000 feet.  We are in a pine forest.  Big, tall, lodgepole type pines for miles.  As we head east, smaller pinyon pines take over and the arid desert comes into view.  We stopped at ‘Desert View’ which is a medieval type tower created by Mary Coulter, one of the major architects of a lot of the projects in the park in the early 1900’s.  At this point, there is a great view of the Colorado River, and you can climb higher in the tower for higher views.  A TWA plane crashed here in 1956, and it is a historic site.

Moving on… Rudy complains every time we move him from the truck to Artee and back.  Don’t bug me… tough, kitty.  Sometimes, we are the bosses!

At Hwy. 89, we head south to the I40/I17 interchange south.  The terrain is mountain with pines.  The grasses are brown now, and you can tell there has been a forest fire.  It is rocky, and piney til we are south of the Sedona turnoff.  Then the pines start thinning out but the rocky terrain continues.  It isn’t til we are about 40 miles north of Phoenix that the Sonoran Desert makes its appearance.  Saguaros start popping up.  Saguaros are amazing.  They each have their own story.  Some have lots of arms pointing up as if they are being robbed.  Others might have their arms pointing down, being obstinate.  There is one that looks like it is holding a dance partner in a waltz.  That one looks like it is flipping the bird.  It is fun for me to imagine their story.

As we approach Phoenix, there is construction everywhere.  I17 is being widened.  Houses are being built.  Where Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, and friends used to be individual cities, they all run together now making a megalopolis just like Los Angeles, complete with traffic.

And of course…  As much as we need the GPS, I hate her.  She creates routes that are sometimes ridiculous.  Once I get to our destination, it is not unusual that I realize she is messing with us; making us take the wrong offramp and doubling back, you know, things like that.

We set up in front of Jake and Lynn’s house.  Jake is in a rehab facility after a stroke. We will see him tomorrow, and visit with Lynn tonite.  Always fun to visit good friends.