Beluga's excellent adventure

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Tuesday on the Waterfall Trail

We're enjoying our time here in White Tank. The birds coming to our feeders are fun to watch through the windshield (still pretty cold this morning).

We took a 2+ mile hike on the Waterfall Trail this afternoon with Cindy P and Walter. The first half is flat and wide, winding slowly up to the base of a beautiful cliff over which water cascades during the rainy season. Even though there was quite a bit of rain recently, there was only a slow drip sliding into the pool at the base of the dry fall. No matter, the setting was fantastic and we passed through many petroglyphs on the surrounding boulders.

We were treated to peeks at the valley below as we walked along. The day was sunny and warm in the sun but a brisk wind reminded us it is still winter.

Ocotillo are beginning to leaf out

do you see Cindy P taking a break on the trail?

a new crested Saguaro

Walter and Dave at the base of the waterfall

stains on the rocks above show the water's path

reflection in the pool below

Monday, February 1, 2016

Monday in White Tank

Sunday's drive to White Tank took just a few hours and the weather was a little windy but no problems. The Pond's had arrived a bit before us and were pretty much settled in as we arrived.

Our site (#31) is beautiful and spacious with no one behind, in front, or on one side. A small wash winds along in the rear. Large Saguaro dot our view. This park is a real gem.

Even with the White Tank Mountains so close, we get many over the air tv channels, good verizon signal and a strong internet connection. The site itself, however, is pretty uneven. Our driver's side is much lower than we like it and our jacks aren't able to bring us up to any semblance of level.

After we got organized and settled in our site, Cindy P, Walter and Geneva walked over and we enjoyed happy hour outside in the sun. No sign of the storm that was brewing.

buildings in downtown Phoenix catch the sun's last rays

We have a beautiful view of downtown Phoenix especially at sunset and after dark its lights shimmer in the distance.

By about 8 p.m. our storm arrived in earnest. The wind started to blow seriously, lightning flashed and the rain came in sheets. We went to bed with the slide toppers banging and flapping. In hindsight, we probably should have brought the slides in before retiring, but we didn't. By about midnight poor Lewis crawled into bed between us and heaved a big sigh. He was scared and trembling.

We got up to bring the slides in and quickly found out that the uneven position we were in made the motor on the living room slide work just a bit harder than it wanted to....it clicked and hummed and wouldn't come in. Long story short, we removed some of the weight in the slide to counteract the bad angle and it retracted, finally. We decided we'd try to re position Beluga in the morning.

It was cold this morning, cold all day as a matter of fact, but the wind was gone so after second cup (inside) we unhooked and Dave turned Beluga around backward in the site......Perfect solution to our problem. We hooked back up, moved our bird feeders to where we could see them again and now we can start to enjoy our stay.

lots of birds were waiting for our offerings of nectar, oranges, seeds
and water.

We even found a crested Saguaro not too far away at the beginning of the Bajada trail. Many of us are fascinated by their grotesque (or are they beautiful....) shapes and, I suppose, by their relative rarity.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Saturday - last day in Catalina

Today is our last day in Catalina State Park. We were scheduled to stay another day but have decided to make the short trip up to White Tank Regional Park, west of Phoenix, tomorrow instead of Monday. We're due for a weather change Sunday late afternoon, one that will bring strong winds and heavy rain (if the weather guessors can be believed) through the night and well into Monday. Since time and rigid schedules are no longer an issue for us, we opted to drive on a nice day instead of fighting weather. We'll miss it here. We never seem to have enough time to simply enjoy the park, much less see all there is to see. We'll just have to come back!

This morning was spent, as usual, outside in the sun watching the birds. We've had 4 different kinds of hummingbirds visit and yesterday a pair of Pyrrhuloxias
dropped by.

Mr. Pyrrhuloxia waiting patiently for his turn at the seeds

They are as shy as their cousins, the Northern Cardinals, but are fascinating to watch flit from tree to tree, homing in on the feeders and water.

Later today we're taking Carm out for lunch and then finishing a few shopping stops before we leave.

Thursday afternoon we took chairs and drinks and an experimental jalapeno popper dip to Jodee and Bill's site for a visit of friends. It was another lovely warm day and we all enjoyed sitting in the sun, eating an array of delicious goodies and getting to know each other better. Not all of us knew everyone, so it was an afternoon of laughs and discovery.

enjoying hiking tips I expect

the famous Cindy P and little Luke

Cindy P, Geneva and Walter in front of Jodee and Bill's home

John acting out Alter Boy duties....or is he
telling stories about his new 310?

Mona Liza brought Dave and I a small container of her fabulous Pancit and we could hardly wait to get home to finish it off! I had all intentions of taking a photograph of it before we dove in, but.....

By the time I remembered I wanted to take a picture I had eaten half of it so I turned the camera on Dave's plate. (pardon the paper plate, we don't usually eat off them but we're in a site with no sewer hookup so water conservation is important)

He evidently eats faster than I do...... At any rate, thanks again MonaLiza. We surely enjoyed it!

Beautiful, gentle sunsets last night, in all directions.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Thursday catch up

Tuesday morning we moved about 18 miles north to one of our favorite places, Catalina State Park.

We've been here before, most recently just before Christmas, but we never tire of the quiet, the birds, the huge sites and the way the light changes on the mountain views in front of us.

I've set up our "bird spa" just outside Beluga's door and I'm happy to say it is very well used. The birds here are habituated to people feeding them and as soon as you step away from the feeder the stampede begins. We have placed cut oranges in the trees, hung a hummingbird feeder and a mixed seed feeder, along with a pie plate filled with fresh water. This set up makes our second cup a bit longer each day because we can't stop watching and laughing at their antics.

I haven't posted a blog since we got here because I discovered that our phone/internet coverage drops dramatically after the sun goes down - the time I usually sit down to do this blog. I'm taking a minute this morning, before we head over to Jodee and Bill's site for an early happy hour/lunch-ish get together with Pam/John, MonaLiza/Steve, Jodee/Bill, and Cindy P and her family. In this desert climate the early afternoon is warmest and most pleasant to be outside. After the sun dips, the temps dip and it is no longer nice to be out.

A quick wrap up of our last few days at Lazy Days KOA Tucson and I'll close this post.

We spent Saturday afternoon with a dear old friend, originally our next door neighbor at the farm, Carm. We've know her for 40 years and she is 91 years old so she definitely qualifies as an "old" friend! After seeing our pictures of Sedona and hearing our tales of the west, she and her late husband, Joe, sold their house, bought a van (Dave turned it into a mini-motorhome for them) and moved to Sedona in 1979! This was pre-Beluga days but even then we'd do anything to get to the west. To prove that, we volunteered to drive their moving van and follow them across the country. It was a fun trip.

They stayed in Sedona for 10 or 15 years and then moved down to Tucson, where Carm still lives. It was great catching up with her, she's dealt with a few tragedies this past year but her smile is still strong.

Monday morning Dave, John and Steve replaced Steve's slide toppers and MonaLiza prepared a fantastic lunch of pancit guisado, a Philippine specialty. Pam and I were lucky, we got to enjoy lunch without doing any work! I took no pictures, I ate.

Yesterday afternoon we took Lewis on a hike here in Catalina State Park. Its so great that the trails are (leashed) dog friendly and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

This was only the second time we were able to take Lewis along on a trail and he was definitely "on his toes" but he watched quietly when we encountered a few other hikers and we were happy with his behavior.

I got a chance to use my Christmas present lightweight hiking poles on the short ascent to the ridge part of the Canyon Loop Trail and I love them...Thanks Jess and Erin.

these two quietly watched us

It was another beautiful day, sunny and warm. We started out with vests on because the wind was a little chilly but quickly shed them and were sweating by the end of our hike.

The sky was the impossible blue you only see out here. If it looks otherwise in any of these pictures, its the fault of my photography!

We walked through forests of saguaros, stands of mesquite, through beside and across running washes and through dense, green bottom lands. A lovely hike.

water in the desert is always a delight

After the recent rains and mountain snows, the washes were running strongly. Some places deep, some shallow. We made 4 or 5 crossings, I made 3 or 4 crossings successfully. One not so successfully, but my trusty boots and wool socks dried eventually......

Dave spotted a huge and very unusual crested Saguaro near the end of our trail.
Pam told us we'd see one, we're very glad we didn't disappoint her!

After we finished and arrived back home Jodee and Bill came over for a proper Happy Hour. We sat outside until the the settling cold ended our visit.