Too Hot To Hike This Afternoon

I keep forgetting how hot it gets outside starting around 10am. By 1-2pm it's like an oven outside and any thoughts of taking an afternoon hike have to be slid to the side for another day. Those hikes I did last week and blogged about were in temperatures in the 80s, so that is the difference. I had looked in my book for more details for hiking the Lower Brown Canyon. It is about 3 miles out and another 3 miles back with some southern exposure on a sunny day like today.

Just like any other morning the hounds wake me up with their head shaking, ears flapping, metal tags making noise. I have no doubt they are on Eastern time and may never change. This morning felt different though. A clear sky, a warm breeze from the SE as I opened the door. The sun was barely rising when these photos happened.

Hard to believe that small mountain sits inside the Mexican border.

If you look closely to the right you can barely see the Aerostat was launched for the first time in weeks. Right after taking this photo I did not even bother to make coffee. Changed into clothes for the day and tied my shoes while Stella whined for her walk ... and we were out the door. She was energetic today ... trotted down the block and just about the time she crossed the street ... she stopped and turned hard enough to swing my arm around with the leash in hand ... there was a scent in the middle of the street she had to check out and it was only a scent ... I saw nothing in that area.

As we stepped into the lot she kept trotting, tail upright and a smile on her face. (mouth open) She ran out ahead of me as far as the 25' retractable leash would let her. She was in the mood to run today I guess but like I said a few posts ago ... here is no way around here she can be off the leash. She would stop and sniff the air in certain spots ... like that huge smell of bacon coming from the exhaust vents of a nearby hotel. I couldn't get her to move.  LOL

After the walk I had just sat down with my first cup of coffee when I hear a loud distinct bird call. I have no idea what it is but it was loud and sharp enough to wake Stella up. She turned to look where all the noise was coming from. She had finished her walk and she was very interested in getting back to sleep. The increase of bird calls have not bothered her like this since she moved here.

Once Stella rose to her feet I knew our visitor wouldn't be staying long. A couple of steps into the stone yard and the bird was gone.

With her walk finished, some bird watching, she decided the best place to sleep was in the shade while I changed into my bike riding gear. I wasn't wasting time today as I went from dog walking to coffee to riding. Those blocks sitting next to Stella bother me so I guess I'll do some "yard work" and carry them into the garage and stack them them in the corner. Out of sight out of mind.

It doesn't happen every day but it could later even with high temperatures and a day full of sunshine. Storm clouds will blow in and before you know it, it's raining. Not good for surprised out of town afternoon hikers or bike riders.

These were not from today but from the SD card I downloaded from the Nikon D3200 from a few weeks ago. Notice the blue skies on the other side of the mountains.

The typical afternoon for the hounds are the two photos you see right here. They might move from the computer room where these were taken, to the living room and to the bedroom as day moves into early evening. They did the same thing as you know, back in 'the tropics' so there are no changes to their afternoon routine most of the time.

Along with that download I found some photos from our Sunday drive that either did not download properly or it might have been user error, not giving the card enough time to download. If I remember right this is Hwy 90 heading east toward Tombstone/Bisbee. I love traveling through this open land.

This was on Hwy 191 north of Pearce, I think. To me it looks like some sort of power plant and on the right side of the highway a possible nuclear plant yet I found nothing online about it. Anyone that is familiar with the area know what this is?

Again, I kept my eyes on the road and one hand holding the camera up in a general direction not knowing if the camera would succeed with what photo I wanted taken. No, I don't use the monitor on the Nikon while driving and still only use the view finder when I'm not driving.

I am thinking about contacting Canon about my G9X and see if they will do anything under the 1 year warranty about the black spots that are on the sensor. I am even a little motivated to package in it's original box and put that into a bigger box to ship it to them via UPS. After checking my memory banks I bought that camera just last January, sad that it didn't work right for at least a year based on how much it cost.

I've been fooling around with different browsers again. Currently I am using Safari with no problems. With their latest updates it is easier than ever to move an icon to my address bar that I can click to unblock the "blocker" so I can open forms I need from certain websites to view them. I may pay everything automatically but I still like looking at the actual utility bills for electric, gas and water.

Google is still the #1 ranked browser but just that word leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, just like Facebook ... but I still use them. I tried Firefox again for a few weeks and it supposedly gives you privacy while on the internet, but when Facebook can figure out I've been talking to someone about cars, then floods my newsfeed with advertisements for the exact cars we have discussed ... I guess Firefox can't do anything about that.

I have been attempting to drink 100oz of water per day. I know that is between 4-5 glasses with the glass that I use. Even after bike riding in the mornings and the hot afternoons living in the high desert I find it hard to drink that much water.

No ... I don't miss the thunderstorms nor the tornado warnings I left back in Indiana.

Another laidback day here in the Wild West.

Hounds To Tired To Do Anything

The day arrived early and the sunrise was fantastic to see develop. With temps at 72° it still felt cool that early in the morning. As usual the day activities would be planned as I go, nothing solid. I think you can tell what kind of day it was when you see what the hounds did for most of the day. I didn't know that their Sunday road trip would make them lazy today.

By the time we were back from the morning walk ... the sky had brightened up quite a bit.

Stella waited until that first cup of coffee was finished.

After we cross the street for the walk we have a better view of the sun rising. Today I brought my camera because I was looking for some plant ideas for my yard. Nothing that grows too tall but would add some color.

It was a short 17 minute walk but Stella didn't take long to get  back to sleep.

Heidi had not moved and was in the same spot as she was when I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk. She barely opened her eyes to acknowledge my question ... I took that as a 'no.'

Today's photos were taken with the Canon G9X ... I edited out the black spot that must be on the sensor ... how it got there, I have no idea since the lens does not come off.

Not many words today ... the day passed fast and it was already time for baseball before I knew it.

97° today in the Wild West ... so much cooler compared to Phoenix or Tucson.

The Hounds Take A Road Trip

I was positive we were going to do one or two things out of three options today. It was the second day in a row sleeping late (6am) because I couldn't get out of my chair last night while spending hours outside looking at the sky. It was 11:45pm before I realized how late it was. Stella was sleeping under the light of the moon that had moved into her spot on the bedroom floor.

Although I was positive we were going to do something today, early ... that didn't mean I knew for sure what we were doing, so I had to decide quickly before 'analysis' set in. In an instant my brain moved from a short bike ride to hiking some trails in Brown Canyon. As I was moving some trekking poles, my small day pack and water into the car ... "ding ding ... ding ding" ... road trip!!!

Stella also woke up late this morning and in fact didn't rise until I was outside drinking my cup of coffee. She likes to sniff the air to see what might be happening in her neighborhood. The birds have never bothered her but that is what she will hear mostly at that time of morning. She takes it slow analyzing what's going on.

When I asked if she was ready to take her walk, she turned toward me quickly and started whining but once she realized I was still drinking that first cup of coffee ... she did what she always does, takes a short nap and waits for me to finish.

Once she saw I was taking things to the car she started getting excited while Heidi was back in the computer room sound to sleep. While I was loading the car I kept thinking about taking the hounds or leaving them at home. Although they would be traveling in air conditioning I have always followed that temperature scale converting outside temps to temps inside a car without AC. Seriously.

New car with AC, what could go wrong? Probably nothing but what if it was 92° and we had a flat tire or a car breakdown. You get the idea. Plus like I have mentioned here in the past, I am not really sure that Heidi enjoys riding anymore like she use to. She does not act like she does. She lays down and sleeps instead of sitting and looking out the window like she use to.

The hounds came  with me today.

We headed toward Tombstone driving through beautiful country. When my map display in the dashboard showed Davis Rd up ahead I knew to make a right turn and head to McNeal. There were no highway signs telling me McNeal was that direction, but it was ... 22 miles away near the Central Highway.

The temp was still in the 80's and that is cool to me. We left town probably around 9am, can't remember now. Many places to pull over to take photos but never in the spot that had the best landscape for the best photos.

This is looking back West.

Luckily while I was out of the car taking photos, neither hound tried to get into the front seats. Once the car stopped they thought it was time to get out like they always do, but this wasn't the area to take a hound break ... too close to the highway. Yes ... that dried bloodhound drool will come off the leather seats easily with a damp cloth without staining the seat.

When the car started moving again ... they both laid down and went back to sleep. Where's the adventure in that?

In my search of real estate before moving, I really liked a piece of property that was for sale near McNeal. The house was built two years ago and had a small guest house to go with it. It sat on 75 acres and 8 miles from this general store in McNeal. I had seriously considered that house and tried to justify in my mind that it would not be too bad driving to Tombstone for groceries and I could buy gas here. I thought the highways I just traveled on would be great for bicycling.

These buildings were familiar to me because I had seen them on Google Satellite View when I followed the road from that property to 'town', as I looked around the area. The general store looked different than the view I saw because it had been freshly painted.

Postal service right across the highway.

But like I said, this move was about convenience, or at least that was one of the things I listed as a 'want'. I had been driving 12-25 miles for groceries the past five years and I was tired of that. It doesn't seem like much but a pain as they say.

We continued north after that short stop for taking photos. We would pass through Elfrida, Sunsites, outside of Pearce heading for I-10.

All of these photos with the car moving were pure luck. There were a few that did not turn out as good and were deleted in the editing room.

I would hold up the camera facing a general direction and snapped the camera without ever taking my eyes off the road. I had no idea what the camera would capture and what it would miss.

Yes, even out in the middle of nowhere, Family Dollar, Dollar General and Dollar Store are all present. We passed all of them along the way.

Not sure ... pecan trees ??

Somewhere in my photo library on my computer there is a file called "Local Drives". In a few of those folders are photos exactly like these next few. If you took the mountains out of the background some people would think these photos were taken in southern Indiana on Hwy 57 between Hwy 54 and 67. My friends in Indiana were shocked to know these were taken today in Arizona on Hwy 191.

Some of the tallest, healthiest corn you would ever see in Indiana. In Arizona.

On I-10 heading toward Benson I knew there was a Rest Area that I was going to stop at. It wouldn't be the first time I passed it but the last time I did was the day we arrived during our move cross-country. Then, I was in a hurry to get to the new house and knew the hounds could wait for any breaks until we got there.

Today I wanted to stop. We had driven 110 miles by this time and I thought Heidi at least needed a break. She seems to be peeing more often as she ages. I knew Stella had no interest in peeing nor getting out of the car. She did but the truck noise, highway noise, just this type of atmosphere in general scares her. Heidi headed right over to the pet area with her nose to the ground as I hung on to two dog leashes.

Photos were taken after the hounds were in the car, engine running and AC on.

It was about 17 miles from here to Benson but I had other plans. We would not be on this Interstate much longer.

I saw Exit 306 for Hwy 80 heading south ... down through St. David, a town I mentioned in yesterday's post and toward Tombstone, but I still had other plans.

I wanted to turn right on Hwy 82 and head to Huachuca City. I had read about that town in the book I am reading and didn't realize it was so close to the north part of Ft Huachuca. Originally the town was set up for all of the black soldiers to live assigned to the Army base. Of course now there is the typical gas station/mini marts, run down neighborhoods of house trailers and old homes, a new or new looking RV Sales Lot and I found out coming in from the east side ... a LOT of RV parks on Hwy 82 before the Hwy 90 intersection.

I drove up and down a few streets in the town ... wow ... what an eye opener. In some parts of town you could not imagine anyone being as poor as the residences I was passing. A surprise actually. It didn't take me too long to stop my exploration around the town and get back on Hwy 90 and head to civilization.

By the time we returned home, I could hear thunder from somewhere with bright sunny skies. Heidi sprinted through the house for the patio door to be let out. Stella was more interested standing by the dog food container letting me know that I was 45 minutes late for her lunch. She had not started howling yet but that was only because I started pouring out their lunch kibble BEFORE unloading the car and the water bottles I had taken with me.

Strange how a nice morning road trip leads to a short siesta a few hours long on a Sunday. The hounds take theirs every day after they eat, so everything was normal for them. I could tell that Heidi was happy to get home with her sudden burst of energy. She ran through the house and rolled on the living room rug growling at herself. That's a sign she was happy.

Tomorrow morning I'll be back on the bike right after Stella's walk. There is a fine line on when to start ... either before the school traffic or after the kids have been dropped off at school. I either have to leave way before 7:30 or wait until 8:00am .. I'd rather start early.

It was nice traveling through the Wild West today ... we will do it again sometime.