OUR DAYS IN THE SOUTHWEST ARE WINDING DOWN

 

Today was a battery recharging day.  Human batteries that is.  Stayed around the rig doing some reading, snoozing, & computer stuff.  I did pull everything out of the car this morning to reorganize it for our long journey home soon.  I'll maybe start on some of the bins Friday morning.  The heat builds up very fast here so I like to get those kinds of jobs done in the earlier & cooler morning air.

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE SHADOW OF SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN (wide angle photo so the mountain is actually much closer)

Our neighbor with the big security light left a couple days ago & the park has been returned to glorious darkness at night again.

TEDDY BEAR CHOLLA (Checkers tangled with one again this morning)

I think one of my favorite things about this Lost Dutchman Park is the sounds of many birds all day long.  Many cactus wrens, hummingbirds, & others.  What a true shame it is that the State is closing the gates here in a few months.  We have noticed that urban sprawl has spread right up to the very fence lines of the park.  We look out our front window & see a housing development right up to the base of Superstition mountain complete with a restaurant.  I wonder if land developers with dollar signs in their eyes have their greedy little sights set on this valuable piece of desert property.  This urban sprawl comes out this way from Phoenix which is well over 50 miles away.  What will this Lost Dutchman State Park look like in another 5 years.  Are the bulldozers ready to roll with their massive blades to flatten this park into oblivion & make way for paved streets, row upon row of houses, malls, pizza joints, & convenience stores.  It seems nothing is sacred when it comes to man's greed!!  Maybe none of the above will happen but I'm just not very optimistic anymore when it comes to man vs nature.  Money rules:((

SUBURBIA STANDS POISED TO CLIMB SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN (there is actually a restaurant where you see the American flag)

When hiking up Superstition Mountain a few days ago I looked out over the valley below & wondered what this ageless old mountain thought about the encroaching human blight.  It has survived for millions of years.  Will it survive in it's present state for another hundred years.  Already, the pristine night sky has been destroyed by light pollution in this area.  Can the wandering deserts of the great American southwest be far behind..........:((

THE PARK IS IN THE FOREGROUND WITH HOUSES RIGHT UP AGAINST IT'S BORDER.....WONDER WHAT THIS PICTURE WILL LOOK LIKE IN A FEW YEARS:((

Not likely we will return to this area again once we leave.  Just waaaaay too populated for us folks & there are many beautiful areas of the southwest we have not seen yet.  This Apache Junction area & trail drive had been on my radar screen for about 3 years so now I can focus my thoughts elsewhere.  Northeastern Arizona comes to mind & if we can ever get away early enough in the Autumn (September) I'd like to spend some time there in the 4 Corners area.  I have been through a part of Monument Valley back in the early 90's but would like to do it again & do it right this time.  Sleeping in the back of an unheated Mazda pick-up truck on cold desert night's was not the best!!!!  And would you believe, I didn't even know where the Grand Canyon was at that time:((

LOST DUTCHMAN STATE PARK IN FOREGROUND & WITH THE CREEPING BLIGHT IN THE BACKGROUND

We have no idea which route we'll choose for heading home soon.  Will it be down through Tucson to pick up I-10 for our journey to Alamogordo & over the mountains at Apache Pass or will it be north through Scottsdale & up to I-40 before swinging eastward.  A tried & true route versus a new & challenging route.  I'm leaning a bit towards the northern route simply because it would allow us to see some new scenery along the way.  The weather of course will be a deciding factor as well.  But as usual, it will probably all boil down to whether we make a right or left turn somewhere in Apache Junction.  And, at this late blog writing we may even be going sooner than later.........

                    

THIS IS OUR SIDE YARD & PICNIC TABLE AREA...TO THE LEFT OF THE MOUNTAIN IN RIGHT SIDE PICTURE IS PHOENIX

SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN AT SUNSET

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Bill was short of money and was out looking for a job. Pastor Nelson offered Bill $500 to buy paint and paint the church. Well Bill went out bought some paint and started painting the church. He discovered that he was using more paint than he expected so he added some thinner to the paint.   It still covered but not as well as it did at first.  Bill was still using more paint than he wanted to use.  The paint was too thin to cover well but Bill still kept on painting.  All of a sudden there was a bolt of lighting and a loud voice from the sky proclaimed, "Bill!!"......."Repaint and thin no more."

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.