ALBUQUERQUE, NM

Here we are in another big city USA, Albuquerque, NM.  It's another opportunity to stock-up on food stuffs,  prescriptions and items that are not otherwise available in smaller, friendlier towns. 

The Isleta Indian Reservation is our home for a couple of days and then we'll begin this year's Iron County Cancer Unit fund raising bike ride.  Our buddy, Earl Norman, 84 years young, flew in yesterday and we'll be meeting up with him shortly.  He will be riding with us again this year, from here to his home in Bellevue, NE.

The picture is of the Hard Rock Casino/Hotel/Golf Course/RV Park/Recreation and fishing area.  A VERY large undertaking to say the least.  All this construction south of Albuquerque, on the Islata Pueblo Indian Reservation, just outside of the cities urban sprawl, got me to wondering who finances these mega-construction projects.  A little "Googling" and I now realize building and bankrolling casinos is very big business indeed.  The Orrick's Indian Tribal Finance Group pops up frequently as do major banks across the country.  Looking down the road I wonder what happens when/if the tribes default on repayment.  What have the tribes put up as collateral?  Should a non-repayment occur, will the banks/financiers own/control large chunks of reservations?  My happy thought for the day.

If you'd like to help out folks that are currently battling cancer, send a couple of bucks in support of our cancer fund raising ride. 100% all-volunteer, no administrative costs and your donation is 501(C) 3 tax deductible. You can get the particulars here  www.tcoinc.com/iccu   Thanks for your support, you have made someones life, that is suffering with cancer, a little easier.  You've heard, "What goes around comes around"  it's true.

THEN AND NOW

A courting pair of CANYON TOHEES

                                                   

A few miles east of Pie Town, AZ an old,  livestock drop-hold and sell corral sits in the sun.  No more horses or cattle will be run through the sorting gates, nor will cowboys stand on the rails trading stories and bickering prices.  Its use now is for memories and give testament of a slower paced life on the high desert.

 Weathered cottonwood and barbed wire speak quiet volumes.

Fast forward to the 21 century on the Plains of San Agustin 50 miles west of Socorro, NM.

This is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, VLA, Very Large Array, astronomy without glass eyed telescopes.   It's the worlds premier radio observatorie utilizing 27 dishes 81 foot in diameter weighing 270 tons each, spread over 100 thousand acres in a large "Y" pattern.  Impressive! 

Jacob Metius applied for a patent, 1608,  in the Netherlands for the first telescope,  " A tube with glass that would make far away objects seem nearby."

      
　

FOLLOW THE MOVEMENT

We had finished fueling, restocking the cupboards and were on the way out of town when I saw these two bronze gents; Just couldn't pass up this photo-op, especially with a nice big church for a background.  Jackie is always eager to help "set the stage."

Show Low has seen it's share of "boom" in the last five years. Property values are holding steady and Walmart has set up shop.  A great place for folks of the hot southern towns to escape to in the summer. 

Between Show Low and Socorro, AZ stretches lands too high, 7,000 ft plus, for agriculture but fine for beef cattle.   The same scene unfolded for the entire 100 mile ride, fields, fences and scrub red cedar. 

The number one revenue generator of Pie town revolves around the Elk. The place is overflowing with huge-rack Elk attracting trophy hunters from around the world. Second in line for income is beef and third is pie. We split a slice of strawberry custard and except for my mothers lemon merinque, it was the best I’d ever tasted.

((((READ ALL THE LETTERING ON THE HONEY WAGON))))

Jay Carol, an enterprising fellow here in Pie Town, has three businesses, a RV park with a 5 rig capacity, a building contractor and sewer cleaning. Total employees, "one," himself. "Business is slow but steady, just how I like it." he tells me with A contented smile.

2BZFY (Too Busy For You)

I've never taken to texting. Something about the sending of acronyms evokes excessive hurriedness in our already blinding-speed-age of technology. This could suggest that I’m just too old to adapt to the new and inevitable; Or possibly my mind isn’t able to wrap around the cold and impersonal stringing together of letters to convey an idea. Whatever, I’ll stick with whole sentences to communicate my thoughts and leave the texting acronyms to the more agile thinkers.

I like to think of the slow process, like a seed dropping from the parent, being nourished, sprouting, growing, flowering, reproducing and dying. Beauty stands as testament in death with this 100 year old pine.

Leaving Show Low, AZ this morning and moseying on east toward our rendezvous with Earl and the ICCU's 2011 fundraising bike ride.  www.tcoinc.com/iccu

GGNCUL (Gotta Go Now See You Later)

SHOW LOW, AZ

We left the San Carlos Apache Reservation while the palm tree trimmers removed the frost-kill fronds with high-lift and chainsaw.  We headed north on Hwy 60.

Between Globe and Show Low, AZ a set of switchbacks through the White Mountains are as spectacular as any I've ever traveled.

At the bottom of Salt River Canyon the Salt River erosion has created a cleft that takes second only to the Grand Canyon.

With the higher elevation in Show Low, AZ,  the nights were going to be cooler so we thought it best to fill up the propane tank in case we needed to warm up using the furnace.

Juniper berries

Red, Ponderosa or Lodge Pole Pine,  refreshing to see trees that grow back home. 

Pine snag

The temperature drops fast after the sun sets at an altitude of 6,500 ft.

Fool Hollow Lake

Show Low, AZ

CASINO DOLLARS

Our RV park on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation is 1/2 trailer park for the local road and mine workers with enough spots left over for we short-stay nomads.  

This is a huge complex more than a couple of square miles in area.  It includes a top flight golf course, temporary horse stables, rodeo grounds, casino, separate night club and sports complex. Problem being things seem to be only 1/2 completed or poorly maintained.  It's hard to tell if the place is on the way up or down.  Has prosperity come and gone or possibly never achieved?  Maybe poor management of the casino dollars, too quick of an expansion with too many irons in the fire or the overall decline in the economy has left the tumbleweeds to gather at the fence lines.

Were heading on up north today, across the rez,  along a twisty mountain road, Highway 60, toward Springerville, AZ.  A switchback road across the White Mountains guarantees great vistas, I just hope it's well maintained, and even better yet, it's a 4 lane highway.

Oh yeah, we're leaving our "Apache Gold Casino"  blackjack experience $11 dollars in the black.  I suppose we could have played our cards a little more reckless and left a couple of bucks to help them with thier maintainence projects....Next time.

DRIVE SAFE

Phoenix, AZ. Population 1½ million packed within its 517 square mile boundary;  Include the metro area and the total count of  inhabitants jumps to 4½ million.  Phoenix is known as the “Valley of the Sun” but when we arrived it was raining. This picture was taken just after the rain, masked and disguised, clean and washed dust-free it makes the city seem almost tranquil and inviting.

East out of Phoenix, over Signal Mountain, through the town, Top Of The World and into Miami, AZ.

OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CATHOLIC CHURCH  1915

Miami, AZ  Freeport Mcmoran Copper & Gold mine seems to have made a resurgence with the price of gold and copper at all time highs.

Grotto snuggled next to the church.

                                                     40 ft.  Callistemon or Bottle Brush Tree

We rode through Globe, AZ and on to the San Carlos Indian Reservation.  The Apache Gold Casino, golf course, Smoke-shop, and RV park has been carved out of, or better said, "into" the desert hills and is beginning to yield much needed revenue for the Apache Nation.   The smoke shop was doing a brisk business when I walked over to have a look.  Natural Light beer was on sale and the line for the 30 pack was stretched to the back of the store.  Drive safe kids.

EACH TO THEIR OWN

Desert Wildflower unknown

DESERT TRUMPET

Arizona's LONG NOSED SNAKE non-poisonous but darn if I'd touch it.

PALLID WINGED GRASSHOPPER

EXERTED INDIAN PAINTBRUSH

SUN SPIDER or WIND SCORPION 

Neither a spider or scorpion, classed as an arachnid---ain't touching this one either.

WHITE HEART MOTH

DESERT POPPY

The stocky, rugged man, ruddy of complexion with an averting glaze behind thick glasses and clip on shades walks the road on which our rig faces. I see him coming and go out to meet him. We pump fists and exchange names.

“Howdy, I’m Art from Colorado,” his glaze deflects toward his dusty boots, sold our home north of Boulder when the time was right and been full-timing, yanking an old 5^th wheel trailer around the country since,” He continues without so much as one solid breath. Art is an intense talker without abrasive volume; I listen. His attention now seems to be affixed to a nearby, flowering ocotillo cactus. “My kids got it tough today and their kids ain’t got a chance, we’ve done gone and used it all up, hell-bent on good times, thinking, or not thinking, that we would ever run out of what runs our economy, oil and gas, he says “Oil and gas” with great emphasis on gas. Art finally takes a big breath and without hardly missing a beat, continues, now gazing off into cotton clouds that seem to be sitting on a far mountain peak, “ I’ve got a little money invested in natural gas but that Ken Salazar (Our Secretary of Interior)  has put the kibosh on new exploration, wants to make the whole of Colorado one big, no drilling, wilderness area. I’ve got nothing against those greenie tree-huggers, mind-you, but this country runs on energy, that’s what made it great.” He gives me a quick, sharp look eye to eye and then inspects a large, nearby saguaro cactus with a preening wren perched atop. “How does anyone expect this country to get back on track if we don’t get our own energy from our own land,” He poses the question but gives me no time to answer. “It’s like having something (He’s talking about the gas reserves on his property.) and the government not letting you use or sell it; It ain’t right.”

I wanted to ask him about our species being the only animal detrimental to the health of our planet; about our bent passion of surplusage pollution, about the need for clean alternative energy; primitive areas and wilderness where humans are able to recharge their personal batteries and find the genesis of our being in places untouched by industrial intervention. Our unique string of chromosomes; the genome that must be revisited or suffer devolution.

I looked at his crimsoned face and thought better of  *smacking the hornet's nest* by posing any “tree-hugger” questions, he had already riled himself enough without my assistance.

SMALL POTATOES

Like McDonald's or Burger King, Carl's Jr, popular here in the west,  is just another fast food with a pretty sign set out to attract the hungry and decay their health for personal profit.

We dropped out of Kingman's 3,500 ft altitude riding through heaved-up clusters of rounded boulders and endless miles of valleys and mountain tops.  Spring is on it's way.  Rains are rejuvenating and greening the landscape, giving color to winter's raw tans. 

 Our destination was north Phoenix so we could get our computer connection back/repaired.  Kingman, AZ. is without "direct" Verizon service which translated to not allowing the needed re-configuring.

One of the EARLESS LIZARDS of Arizona.  I've scoured the Interweb trying to find which one exactly, but no go, there must be at least a couple of dozen varieties.

Half way to Wickenburg, AZ, where we are at present, at a stretch-leg pull-off, here were two tires some thoughtless idiot has felt it just fine to discard his used tires.  It galls the hell out of me that anyone with a conscious could dump their garbage along side of the road.  It takes all kinds.

So, the computer connections is back-up and running with NO help from Verizon.  It is amazing to realize we put our electronic fate in the hands of people with only slightly more understanding of a product than the end-user.  The trip here (advised by a Verizon representative)  ended up being completely unnecessary.....But, as my dad used to say, "Small potatoes in the big scheme of things."  

STICKTOITIVENESS IN KINGMAN

Pigeons are pretty when they live in the country.

 

One mean looking Boat Tailed Grackle

Riding the bikes around Kingman, AZ we saw this house for sale.  You might have to have a rock damage exclusion on your insurance policy to be covered.

MALLARD

TREE CHOLLA CACTUS

We all could use a little perseverance and sticktoitiveness.

FLOWER POWER

DESERT DANDELION

DESERT PHACELIA or SCORPION WEED

BROWN EYED PRIMROSE

DESERT STAR

This is dedicated to Helen House of Marquette, MI. who recently duked it out with death and made the conscious decision to live while lying unconscious.  Helen is a true inspiration to all that have been touched by her. 

Also to the countless thousands that died during the Japan earthquake this past week and to all those that will continue to suffer from its consequence.

And to the brilliant minds that introduced nuclear power as "clean and safe" energy.

To Edward Paul Abbey (1927-1989) whose warnings of our folly fell on deaf ears.

Abbey's final wishes were for his body to be taken to the desert in his old pickup truck and placed in the ground as fast as possible. He chose to have NO undertakers, embalming or coffin.  "I want to be tucked-away in my old, dirty sleeping bag. Disregard all state laws concerning burial. Let my body fertilize cactus, cliff rose, sagebrush or tree.”

Hoisted from the Interweb without permission

Abbey’s body was buried in the Cabeza Prieta Desert, in Pima County, AZ, where “you’ll never find it.” His friends carved a marker on a nearby stone, reading: EDWARD PAUL ABBEY 1927—1989  Final statement, "No Comment."

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Six miles of washboard road and a thousand foot of altitude decline and we finally reach the drastically retreated, by a 100+ foot, water line of Reservoir Mead, aka, Lake Mead. The view is alarming, appalling and yet calming, comely and comfortingly encompassing. The fake-lake’s retaining walls are gradual sloping multicolored mountains and has what looks like a bright candy stripe across the horizontal of its face. Sweet-it-ain’t. The line shows the one-time high-water point and is no more than a salinity crust at 120 ft. above the reservoir’s ripples; It remains a giant, scum-white ring, not much unlike a dirty bathtub.  Edward Abbey, (“The Monkey Wrench Gang,” guy) chuckling from his grave, must be saying, “It wasn’t wise trying to fool Mother Nature.”

Silence, so pure the only sound is the ringing in my ears.

Not a soul to be seen, unless you count wild horses, rabbits, birds, lizards and burros as soul bearing. The view is clean and clear for 20 miles on three horizons.  Turn your gaze and you be rewarded with the snow capped Mormon Mountains standing 50 miles to the north, peaks stretching majestically 7,000 foot into an afternoon azure sky.

We leveled the rig on a rare, somewhat flat plain, extended the slide-out and were generally giving our selves congratulatory pats-on-the-back for enduring the long rig-rattling ride-in to find such a peaceful, people-less solitude when along bounces a huge tired, high-rise jeep, packed to it’s overflowing gills with camping supplies. I wanted to feel that “my” space had been violated but this land is their land too. They were polite and parked next to the water about a half mile away.

Young male burros "Jacks" practicing for the time when they are old enough to fight for the pleasure to breed. 

Jacks and jennys scope-out the intruders.

BLACK TAILED JACK RABBIT

Rabbits in the desert are at the bottom of the carnivorous food chain so they must produce new frequently, and they do.  At three months old the female can breed (4 or 5 times a year) and the babies leave the nest at two weeks.

One speedy fellow, the ZEBRA TAILED lizard is abundant in number, most likely because it can zip out of sight quickly enough to stay clear of the raptor's talons.

Young invasive species, tamarisk, SALT CEDAR, consumes more water than surrounding vegetation and is the predominate plant introducing itself to the defiled, salt sediment land left by the declining waters of the reservoirs.

BARK SCORPION only 1 inch, but potentially lethal.

Young kids, nice enough, but left their "brights" at home.  Jackie and I took our shovel over to dig them out of the sand and put them back on the road.

GIANT BLUE-TAILED CENTIPEDE - 4 inches

Rollover enough rocks and you'll eventurally find little critters that prefer moist shade to the searing sun.  The bite is painful and will last a few hours to a couple of days but isn't considered life threatening