Lots Of Ideas Not Much Action Today

You know something is wrong when you wake up and the room is filled with more sunshine than usual. Both hounds still sleeping, they have not had breakfast yet as far as I can remember. I don't recall ever waking up during the night nor do I remember a bloodhound nose nudging my arm if it's near the edge of the bed. It's 10 minutes until 7am and we haven't slept this late since we moved here. Not even the hounds.

All three of us jump into the normal routine. The hounds seemed confused since it's me waking them up instead of them waking me up. Once they head down the hallway they begin to realize we are starting our day and breakfast kibble is only a few minutes away. They both trot for the back door to be let outside. As I set the two dishes up to pour out the kibble, Stella lets out a loud bloodhound howl telling me she is happy breakfast is being served. Heidi trots around in excitement trying to get the best position once I set the dog dishes down full of kibble.

It was going to be either hiking or a roadtrip today but I needed coffee first, at least a cup before Stella and I took our two hour late walk. What would it be like, walking at 7:30am instead of 5:30am ... more people out walking their dogs or more bicyclist passing the house? I was almost shocked that we saw no one, no dogs, and only one car leaving the area.

That included a walk to the mailbox that is around the corner and down the block. I thought that was a pain to go that far for mail but it's nothing compared to those people that live outside of town and have the same set up. A cabinet of mailboxes on the side of the road for those that live locally. I get the idea that some of them drive a long ways to their mailboxes.

Instead of just grabbing some water, my cap, camera and heading out to the nearest trail, I was in a state of paralysis. Hiking or a roadtrip? I wanted to do both. Take the hounds or leave them home? Well that is pretty easy to answer. With the temps in the 90's by 10am most every day, if I plan to stop to eat somewhere or go see someplace interesting the dogs can't stay in the car due to the heat. Not all small restaurants allow dogs. So If I even think I might stop somewhere they stay home. The hardest part was trying to decide where to drive to.

Then I started thinking of all the stuff I'd like to buy for hiking in general, things suggested by a couple of readers. Like a First Aid Kit, some trekking poles, some t-shirts ... you know, just things on my mind that do nothing but distract me from doing what I planned on doing. Each time I glanced at the time, 30 minutes had past. The day was passing me by.

Around here if you don't get your outdoor activities finished by 10am, it is going to be too hot, possibly too dangerous to do much outside. I like hot, have no problems with temps 90° and higher but there are days I'd prefer to stay inside and just hang out. That's basically what the hounds and I did, not counting the short trips to the library, post office and the sporting goods store for those hiking items.

After that it was ok ... were do I go? I looked through my book of trails, looked at maps and even thought of going  back to the San Pedro River area. That's it ... I could go late in the afternoon. Yet by 5:30pm, even the hounds stood on the small patio and they did not want to move either. Zero motivation. It was still 90°.

Before I could decide what to do, I was deep into that book I have mentioned a few times Going Back to Bisbee. I couldn't stop reading it. It was not only describing the San Pedro River area, he was giving me a history lesson about the area I walked in just a few days ago. He was going back to 1830 in his paragraphs. I was totally unaware what I was walking through and taking photos of the other day, until I read this book today.

Stella decides even at 5:30pm it's too hot and she wants back inside. Since our move she basically doesn't let me out of her sight, following me from room to room. When I let her back inside she laid down by the door right inside with the AC while I sat outside reading my book. Although as I type this I am in my computer room and she is sleeping in the living room, so I guess it's not as bad as I think it is at times.

As I kept looking at the sky today I realized that some days I do not need to go anywhere ... I can enjoy the mountain views, the cloud changes and wide open skies right from my patio. Each day is still pretty amazing here as well as the night skies. I might have to start a little research on basic telescopes to use at night.

I went back to that book on local hiking trails, each having a detailed description and all hiked by the book author. Between the book I'm reading and the book describing local trails there is one thing in common I keep seeing. Each says the best time to see these specific areas are in September and October. Those are options with cooler temps, less people around but if I can go hiking on the mornings I don't ride a bike ... I can take some of those hikes now instead of waiting.

I wasn't going to do anything when I saw their news but this morning I clicked that link provided by Equifax to see if my information was in their 2017 breach. Within a minute they told me I was. Since I was also involved in the Government OPM breach many years ago, I have lifetime ID protection provided for free. Since I could prove to Equifax that I would have ID protection for the next six months I could chose the option for them to send me a check "up to" $125 ... whatever that means. How will they determine the amount of payment? Information is the same for everyone .. with financial risk different.

By 9:00pm the skies were calling it a day. Heidi had not moved for hours sleeping deep in the dark bedroom on her dog bed. When it comes time to sleep for the night she is still on Eastern time and does not hesitate to get up in the living room and walk back to the bedroom to go to her bed. Thats 5:30pm local time for her calling it a day.

A short note ... the book about this area had a great description on the history of a small town NE of me called St. David, as he was following the development along the San Pedro River. This book was written in 1992 but many things he wrote then are still obvious today. The book is so good that I took the one I was reading back to the library and bought my own copy on Amazon.

Everybody talks about water here in the Wild West ... it's like gold and I don't take my water for granted.

Spur Of Moment Hike To Hereford Bridge

Stella and I could tell today was going to be much different than yesterday. She was ready to take her walk before I could even change into some clothes. Of coarse she and Heidi had to have their breakfast and they did ... at 4am !!!!  So this photo was around 5:30am and Stella was raring to go.

I could tell while walking Stella AND HEIDI !!!! that I was wanting to ride my mountain bike today and I wanted to ride a lot of miles for a long time. I wanted to climb some hills, ride some trails and check out some new roads I had not been down. I got more than that and may really pay for my riding today sometime Saturday morning.

Yes, you see Heidi's name in the sentence above. Only this time she figured out she could walk on the pavement and the dirt and not have to trot away from anyone ... that no one was chasing her. So she walked the pace she used to in the field back in 'the tropics', sniffing as many different scents as she could in that .66 of a mile walk. It was a cool 68° and that might have been a factor in her decision.

When we got back I didn't waste a lot of time changing into some bike shorts (padded seat area) and a bike jersey (keeps you cooler flicking off sweat). I had intended to do a lot of climbing on the "crossroads" where I ride on my road bike. My definition of "crossroads" are the streets that cross Cherokee Rd on the way to Ramsey Canyon Rd. All of them have long slight inclines. I also wanted to take a right turn onto a dirt lane I see people walking their dogs sometimes. .... that was all loose sand, a lot of rocks and a two track for a truck to someone's house. I turned around before getting to their gate.

I ended up riding out to the Brown Canyon house again but only this time I rode their "Natural Loop Trail". At the end of the trail is where I took my first fall. A large rock hiding in the tall grass on the edge of the path knocked the bike out from under me. I wasn't hurt and was able to ride back home.

I also checked out that area that I talked about yesterday and the satellite map was right ... what I thought was a trailhead was blocked by a locked private gate and a stone wall going each direction along the property line. I ended up riding the compressed gravel road to the left  to check out the property that had For Sale signs on it. I rode almost 29 miles for over 2 hours 30 minutes.

When I pulled into the driveway ... a beautiful long snake was laying stretched out by my garage door in the shade. As I backed the bike away, the snake turned around and crawled away quickly ... so quick that I could not find him.

With a ride like that I knew the only place I could replenish all of the burnt up carbohydrates and calories was Papa's 50's Diner. I was going to try something different on their menu this time. The air conditioning felt great as I walked in from 96°.

A nice size salad, meatloaf, mash potatoes, brown gravy was fantastic. But I needed some desert.

Texting my friend in Chicago last night during each of our different baseball games. She was in shock after they blew a 5 run lead in the last two innings of the game, losing by a Grand Slam HR. I wanted t show her that Papa's Diner supported her Cubs all the way out here in SE Arizona.

The desert was hot cherry pie ala' mode ... I didn't expect two scoops of ice cream. I told the waitress it tasted so good that I was tempted to lift the plate to my lips and lick the plate clean.  LOL Stella would have had a string of drool a foot long if she had seen that pie and ice cream.

My plan was drive through and look at Hereford, AZ. The town and area was evacuated in June 2011 when that forest fire, started by accident of course, ripped down the side of the mountains and across the dry fields of brush. My neighbor told me that large embers were blowing onto our rooftops. So I am driving out Hereford Rd., thinking I knew where I was going.

At first I turned left on Ramsey Canyon Rd because I wanted to see the condition of the road and how many miles it was to the base of the mountain or what I found out ... where the pavement road ended and turned to dirt. It was 5.9 miles from Hwy 92. When I turned around and took a left turn on Moson Rd heading south toward Hereford that was my error. I was checking out that road as a potential new place to ride my bike.

I did not realized when Moson Rd and Hereford Rd intersected that I was east of the town. It turned out great though because I ran into, by accident ... the Hereford Bridge Trailhead. I drove through Hereford on Hereford road after driving on the Hereford one lane bridge ... I did not see anything that suggested a town was there.

I had the whole area to myself, I had my cap that I had bought the other day and enough carbs stored up from that pie and ice cream I could have walked all the way back to the San Pedro House. It turned out to be a very short walk to the bridge. The whole hike if you want to call it that ... was no longer than Stella's walk in the morning.

With landscape like this it is still hard to believe this is the state of Arizona.

Although my iPhone was telling me it was 96° at 1:49pm, it didn't feel that bad. The nice thing is that I am not attacked by bugs or gnats or mosquitoes like I would have been on an August afternoon walk through the field with the hounds. When I stood still and just listened ... only the sounds of different birds were all I heard.

I think a lot of the burned trees I saw was from that 2011 fire .. maybe not.

I came to an intersection where I had three choices to chose from ... left right or cross this road and follow that thing that looked like a path. I did that.

I was hearing a bird from above me telling me hello ... I found it in the middle of the photo.

The friend in Chicago told me this looked like I was hiking in the African brush. The grass was taller than I was.

There it was ... out of nowhere. The solid steel ONE LANE Hereford Bridge on Hereford Rd. I took a short break from the sunshine and stood in the shade under the bridge. Some people have asked me about illegal immigrants in the area. On my two hikes, all my bike riding south of town and within 10 miles of the border ... I have never seen any signs of illegal immigrant's traffic.

Another tree that I think was in the June 11 fire.

After that I wanted to check out Best Buy ... no ... not for electronics or cameras ... I had a $25 reward left from my June purchase of a washer and dryer ... they gave me more but what I had left had to be spent by the end of this month or loose it. Online I had found what I call a velcro watch band for my Apple Watch, they call it a nylon watchband. Either way it fastens the way I wanted. They actually had some in the store ... so I walked out with the new band and only had to pay sales tax.

I wanted to check out a store at the mall called Dillards. I was pretty sure what type of store it was but needed to see it. I was happy to see it was very very similar to Macy's back in Indiana. I like buying quality clothes when they are on sale. This place will always have sales and has good quality for clothes and shoes. Even if I do live in t-shirts and cargo shorts.  LOL

It does not feel like a Friday.  If I don't ride tomorrow, deciding in the morning by the way my legs feel, I will definitely go hiking somewhere. I think the iPhone camera is about all I need to take on these hikes for taking photos.

I hate to repeat myself ... but it really was a great day here in the Wild West.

The Weather Couldn't Make Up It's Mind

The day started with a lot of plans and just as I hoped, at 5am instead of 3am. It's always nice to look at the Mule Mountains to the left as I step out on the patio. The hounds are stepping into their yard to relieve themselves and hope I have their breakfast kibble poured by the time they are finished. But sometimes I have to grab my camera first because the sky can change quickly, even that early in the morning. The weather nor I could make up our minds today, so I might have to ramble a little in this post.

The only decision that was made and kept, I had decided today I would take all of my photos, no matter where I went or where I was, with the older dusty Nikon D3200 and the Tamron 18-200mm lens. they both look as if they've been through the desert and back. Yet, any dust seen on either piece is dust from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana and not SE Arizona.

My first shots of the day are always the same three, moving from left to right as I stand on my small patio. Just like I did when standing outside on the step overlooking the highway and taking a picture the corn or soybean field 365 days per year back in Indiana. I always thought it was a nice way to see the change of seasons, the changes in weather and crops planted.

I expect to see the same changes within these three photos each day. It's hard to believe that sometime here, I will not be living in shorts and t-shirts every day ... I did bring a pair of jeans with me and the lined Wranglers just in case ... or was it more paranoia?

Another decision I made was before I did any walk I was going to have a cup of coffee, the school bus could be damned. So what if it was parked as we finished our walk? Stella likes kids yet some adults we have met in the early morning walks are afraid of a dog her size ... but they eventually come around when they see that Stella is harmless.

She starts every morning after she eats doing this ... taking a few steps in the yard to sniff the air, working her nostrils as he turns her head from one corner of the yard to the other. Is it the scents she has picked up or has her ears found something far away that she can't quite figure out what the sound is? At that time of day the sound of different birds are everywhere.

It seemed like my day was planned before I finished that first cup of coffee with the huge urge I had to go hiking locally instead of riding my bike. The feeling between the two choices were not close and I knew exactly which trail I was wanting to see. I see it every bike ride, south of Ramsey Canyon Rd and the dirt path looks like it goes straight up the side of the smaller mountain. As I make the right turn riding I thought I saw a small parking area at the trailhead ... but the satellite map told a whole different story.

My first clue that the day was out of whack and not my braincells was just about the time Stella and I were crossing the street on her walk on the way back into the the neighborhood I was hearing, then feeling some really big rain drops!!! How could that be?? No chance of rain, sunny skies with scattered clouds and two different joggers had just crossed in front of us.

Rain ???

As soon as I walked inside I grabbed the camera and headed back to the front yard to capture the sky I was talking about ... but there were signs in the backyard that yes ... it was raining. The smell of rain was strong but it was a light rain.

This threw doubt into the plans for the day. I guess I could take a light rain jacket and still enjoy the morning. I needed another cup of coffee before I could make a clear decision.

This was toward the trail I wanted to hike and as you can see it was raining. So with that in mind I sat down to take another look at that area on Google satellite map and hit the wall. Not seen by where I was on the road just ahead of where I would have parked the car, was a huge gate spreading across not only the small dirt lane but across private property. I'll have to take a drive out that way and see if they have no trespassing signs as many of the other property owners do in that area. Hiking that trail may not be an option.

It was still very early in the day and plenty of time to change my mind and for the weather to change. I thought about going back to the San Pedro House and take their longest trail and I was ready to go right then ... problem was that is a gated property and they did not open until 9:30am. It was barely past 6:30am when I had this idea.

What about a road trip?

The hounds could ride in the back and sleep as I drive over to check out McNeal, Elfrida or even as far as Pearce if I were to continue north. I could circle back to I-10 to Benson and refresh those memories of the day I arrived. I drove that part of I-10 an hour after sunrise driving from Truth or Consequences, NM in the early morning hours. I had stopped there for a short 1-2 hour nap to carry me through the rest of the way.

This was a day I couldn't make up my mind what to do either, so basically I ended up doing nothing ... no hiking ... no road trip. Stella as you see couldn't decide whether to stay outside or comeback inside. Heidi had not woke up since her breakfast at 5am ... oh she did one time ... to flip one ends in the deep corner of the computer room.

So with them sleeping so well ... did I really want to wake them up, load them in the car just to take a road trip?

Stella decided if I was going anywhere I was going to have to leave through the garage because she wasn't moving no matter what.

We spent the rest of the morning waiting for 9:30am so the gates would open at the San Pedro House. Of course in my life an hour of waiting is like a lifetime and I can come up with a 100 more ideas by that time. And ... I did. By 9am I had the urge to take a ride around the town on the mountain bike. I stepped outside to check the weather to smell rain and hear big rain drops that I cannot see ... riding cancelled.

When 9:30am came around I didn't feel like heading that way. Just after lunch while Heidi and I stayed inside enjoying the AC, Stella went to the door to be let out ... this was as far as she got. It was 94° by this time and that warm patio must have felt good to her. It wasn't long before she was standing at the door. She NEVER barks to come back inside ... she just stands quietly, knowing I will show up eventually.

Since I had basically cancelled the day ... there is always time for a mid-day siesta. After all by noon I've already been up for 7 hours so why not. Maybe a short siesta would give me some ideas on where to go when I got up and the energy to finally do something.

It did ... Big5 Sporting Goods just a few miles away to check out some backpacking stuff ... but I'd rather to go REI in Tucson for that ... but not a surprise ... I don't feel like driving to Tucson today.  LOL When will the insanity end???

I was deep into my latest read, Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton, when a loud roll of thunder woke up both hounds and made me flinch on the couch. As always I grabbed the camera and headed for the patio.

Rain to the SE ...

Rain to the South ...

And you can barely see if you squint ... where it is raining in my backyard. A very strange rain pattern showing most of it dry ... can you see it? To the left only half of the yard was wet but the boundary was so light that the camera could not show the difference.

Even with the sound of rain drops, thunder and a strong scent of rain ... the sunshine was going to fight hard to break on through.

Looking to the left ... rain was only a rumor.

Stella was curious enough to come outside to see what was going on. She must have been really curious because when I left her she was under my computer desk sleeping and snoring lightly.

Actually over that ridge there are a lot of houses and a few businesses that I cannot see nor can I see any of their lights at night.

Stella working those nostrils again to collect data ...

The old pug next door doesn't like storms. It's rare when I hear him bark but he was today with no one home yet. Stella is always concerned when she hears a dog nearby barking. That is quite a switch from living where we did but it's a very nice trade-off. Like I said recently, I did not realize how much noise that highway made until I was no longer living a 100' from it.

So a few barks from the neighborhood dogs is fine with me. Overall this place is extremely quiet and not as busy as I thought it would be.

My old friend that lives in Phoenix and is pretty knowledgeable about weather told me yesterday that this year's monsoon is the strangest of his 29 years living in Phoenix. He asked me what the dew point was where I was and it was at 51° He said normally it would have been above 65° during the monsoons. (He does NOT call it a season). He mentioned that I might be seeing the new norm of the driest monsoon of the year.

Others on a Facebook group that post photos of the local area are wondering the same thing ... where are the monsoons ??

Even with a lot of indecision it was a great day here in the Wild West.