Friday, October 24, 2014

TOO HOT FOR US TODAY SO WE HAD TO CHANGE OUR ALTITUDE

I said Altitude not Attitude:))

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We’ve been making a point of getting out earlier for our morning walks.  The cooler air is always refreshing before things begin heating up around 8.  Jeeped ourselves a short distance to a different section of desert.  Decided on our walk the best way to beat the heat today was to get out of Dodge.  Congress is fortunately situated in the Sonoran Desert right at the foot of the Weaver Mountains.  In 10 miles or 10 minutes we can drop our temperature 10 degrees by simply driving up the side of the Weaver Mountains to Yarnell atop the Colorado Plateau.  Only this morning we went further & knocked off a few more degrees.

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TWO NEW BEST PALS RUSH TOWARDS EACH OTHER THIS MORNING

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PHEEBS LATER MEETS 2 MORE BEST PALS

Prescott Arizona is an hour’s scenic mountain drive from our house & at an even higher altitude than Yarnell.  We haven’t spent a lot of time in that area over the past couple years so this morning we figured we’d head on up to Prescott’s west side & have us a look around in the Prescott National Forest.  We pass right through here each time we make the trips between Bayfield & Congress & vice versa.  Tall Pine forests remind us of similar forests in Ontario.     DSC_0037

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COLORFUL AUTUMN VINES IN THE FOREST

We’ve been curious to check out campgrounds in the area case we decide to bring the rig up for a week’s change of pace sometime.  Yavapai Campground was our first look around.  Like the topography & there were some sites we could probably fit into with our 37 feet.  Most sites were small & uneven though.  Dry camping only.  Had we had the rig & decided to stay we would have been the only one’s in the whole campground.  Bonus:))  Continued on up the Granite Basin Road to Granite Basin Lake.  Again very peaceful & scenic & of course it’s off season so very few people around.  A lady there scooping up Dragon Fly larvae for her Granddaughter's school project said it’s unusually hot for this time of year & they generally have their first snowfall around Halloween.  Yes folks it does snow in Arizona.  We’ve been snowed on twice so far in Congress & Congress is in the desert.

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THIS LADY IS GATHERING DRAGON FLY LARVAE

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We toyed with the idea of slipping over to Prescott’s northern edge & checking out the GRANITE DELLS but decided we would save that for another time, possibly one day next week when the temperatures around Congress are to still be in the high 80’s.  Took us for a drive closer into Prescott & over to the Thumb Butte area.  Nice housing area & hiking trails at a Park there but we didn’t stay.  Kelly was feeling even more tired than I was so we headed back out of Prescott on Iron Springs Road for home.  I always like to see populated areas disappear in my rear view mirror:)) 

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Feeling a bit on the hungry side from our mornings exploring we knew where there was a nice little Café that we had been to a couple winter’s ago with Aunt Jean when she was here.  And it was right on the way home.  The Skull Valley Café is about the only thing in Skull Valley still on it’s feet.  General Store closed last year.  I was surprised at how busy it was for a little place out in the middle of seemingly nowhere.  Hunters, ranchers, & folks just passing though I guess.  Car beside ours was from Alberta.  As we sat at a table I looked across at the 3 stools where Aunt Jean, Kelly, & I had sat for lunch the day we had stopped there.  Nice memories.  Kelly had a pork burrito & I had a BLT with the best bowl of soup I have probably ever had.  I’m not a soup guy but the Chicken & Rice soup came with my BLT.   

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LAST TIME IN THE SKULL VALLEY CAFÉ I HAD THAT LEFT STOOL, AUNT JEAN THE CENTER ONE & KELLY THE RIGHT STOOL

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PROBABLY THE BEST BOWL OF SOUP I’VE EVER HAD

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Rolling through Peeple’s Valley we noticed an RV pulled over & recognized John & Jackie.  They were taking the rig back to Congress from Prescott where John has been undergoing treatments for prostate cancer.  He has one treatment left Monday morning & he’ll take the car back to Prescott for that one.  John said I could link his Facebook page but not being much of a Facebook guy I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

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 ALWAYS LIKE LOOKING AT THIS RANCH COMING THROUGH PEEPLES VALLEY

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Sure hadn’t cooled off any by the time we got home so we quickly fired up all our fans.  Luckily we also have big ceiling fans in all all our rooms & they do help some.  John dropped over later saying he had a portable/mobile A/C unit we could borrow.  So we did.  I followed John home & brought the unit back.  We’re still pouring over the manual trying to figure out how to get some cold Arctic air coming out of it. 

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For 2 nights in a row now I have set up the Critter Cam at 2 different angles trying to determine if Mr. Skunk has truly left the building.  First night the camera picked up the south end of a Pack Rat going north & the second night Miss Pussycat walked by.  Tonight as a final check I am going to place the Critter Cam right inside the hole in our foundation & if it does not detect Skunky tonight I will get to work in the morning sealing up that hole.

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I DON’T THINK SHE KNOWS SHE IS GETTING HER PAWS WET

Thanks to Sue Davis Worth for this CORNER GAS trailer on the upcoming movie due to be released on December 3rd.  The gang looks pretty much the same as they did in the series years ago.  Humor seems to treat aging well.

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DESCENDING THE YARNELL HILL LOOKING DOWN ON THE ASCENDING LANES & THAT’S HARQUAHALA MOUNTAIN ON THE HORIZON OUT THERE IN THE SONORAN DESERT…OUR HOUSE IS JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THOSE DARKER MOUNTAINS ON THE RIGHT

And this comment in our Shout Box a few days ago…. Guest:The weather's too cold in Ontario, too hot in Arizona. Complaining about the weather is a bad blogging habit that every blogger seems unable to avoid”.  Well I’m honored to be included with all my fellow ‘bad blogging habit’ Bloggers.  Were it not for we folks keeping weather conditions current we might all end up in some very boring passive weather conditions.  And besides if it wasn’t for the weather what the heck else would we talk about most of the time.  Could it be our ‘Guest’ lives in a ‘no weather zone’ somewhere & is a bit miffed the rest of us get to squawk & squabble about our ever changing weather patterns.  Not only Squawk & Squabble about it but by golly some of us even even express our creative thoughts & feelings about it.  Good & bad I may add.  Keep those weather thoughts coming fellow Bloggers & maybe we can eventually use our bad habits to turn our Guests sour grapes crop into the sweetest grapes on the vine.  D’ya think:))  Oh, & the temperature in Congress Az today??  91F same as Thursday.  And I may add under clear blue skies with no wind.  High 80’s predicted for all of next week.  Your welcome………………:))

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KELLY RESTS AT A PICNIC TABLE BESIDE THE LAKE

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Dear Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist:  While you guys were busy arguing about the glass of water being half empty or half full, I drank it. Sincerely, The Opportunist

17 comments:


  1. All good, AL ...... Glad you found a little change in temp on the trip..... Count me in as a weather club member...... We gotta check the waterfront and the atmosphere....... Gosh, that guest about whipped out a whole occupation....... Plus just our daily chit chat on the daily temp, wind humidity,rainfall, etc., etc, etc....... Sooo glad you stated our membership status clearly......thanks....

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  2. Holy molly - I can not believe a non - person would be enyious to the point of criticism re weather chatter. It is important to all travelers to be aware of what is in store when on the road (who trusts weather reports fully) ? I enjoyed your picture excursion - hope you worked out the air con - we have ours on 2-day 37 _ reckon we are in for a hot summer this year. As we live in country NSW hot, dry summers. Winter- cold frosty AND that's by weather contributions LOL

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  3. Silly me has been looking at Prescott homes for Winter Home location. A ranch home with reasonable weather year around.

    Did I mention I was dumber that a box of rocks?

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  4. You got to see some nice country side today at least.
    We love heat but will be mostly gone by the time we get to Arizona.

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  5. I always squawk and squabble about the weather! It's been in the 90's here, but after this weekend, it will drop down into the 80's!

    Cheers!
    Cheryl Ann~ We love the Prescott area. Beautiful...

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  6. Weather is a huge part of travel..We've been caught up in hurricane force rain and winds at Hickiwan..It wasn't fun, but sure gave me something to blog about! I'm LOVIN' that groaner!!!

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  7. Looks like you made good use of a warm day at home to go somewhere else. Love the lady "catching" dragonfly larva. Her daughter must attend an interesting school :-). A poll done years ago revealed that "weather" is the number one topic of discussion among both strangers and friends. Sadly this means that bloggers are normal :-)

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  8. I'm with you Al in regards to that ranch in Peeples Valley!! Would like to see the inside of the house!
    Great pics today!

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  9. It was 101* on the refuge yesterday. I should have found a mountain to drive up.

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  10. I tend not to complain about the temperature, if it gets cold I turn on the heat, if it gets too hot I turn on the AC but have a tendency to stay in areas that don't have extremes, nothing like snow covered mountains seen from a snowless distance.
    !00º heat seen through the window of a 73º room while eating ice cream.
    Mickey

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  11. We are having the same heat here in Boulder City, NV so we did the same thing and went to higher elevations to hike where the breeze actually felt cool at 6200 ft when we reached the top.

    Love those reflection photos:)

    Good to see Pheebs has some new friends.

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  12. Oh yeah....road trip!!! Beautiful pics.

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  13. Great colors in those pictures. Going up is a great way to keep your cool:)

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  14. That altitude shift may be one of the best kept secrets of living in the West. It works both ways actually. When we want to leave winter in Rocky Point, we simply drive an hour over the mountain to Medford or Grants Pass where it only snows very rarely, and doesn't stick much when it does. The trade off can be fog, of course. But folks in Medford use Rocky Point to get away from the summer heat as well. Or when I lived in California, you left the hot valleys for the coast and vice versa. Doesn't happen like that a lot in the Midwest or the East.

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  15. Beautiful pictures. Enjoyed seeing Pheebs and all her pals. What a great dog she is. Loved your response to the shout box Guest! By the way, the wind blew like crazy here in Eugene today and knocked out power to some homes. But the temperature was warm at around 65F. And that's your weather report for the Willamette Valley - over and out LOL!!

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  16. ...and Prescott is pronounced Priscitt as in brisket that's how the AZ folks will know you' re a tourist. I'm sure you know this ;-) I lived in AZ for a few years near the Superstition Mountains, so much hiking , I loved AZ and the no humidity factor too K~

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