The Biosphere 2

     Its been another fun week here in Mesa, Arizona as we relax, explore and spend time together.  One sunny afternoon we went to a county park, called Usery Mountain Park, to take a hike and check out their nature center.  Since we bothed worked at MetroParks in Ohio for quite a few years, we really enjoy checking out other park systems.  Of course then we spend the drive home either critiquing what they did wrong, or speculating about what we would do with our new ideas if we were still working!  LOL

This is Usery Mountain Park:

Don't worry, this was in the nature center!  I didn't get this

 close to a snake in the wild!

One afternoon we went shopping at a new destination, called Tempe Marketplace.  It was basically an outdoor mall - but it was fun to window shop, I bought a new small purse and some new sandals.   On the way home, we saw an antique store that said it was going out of business, so we went back the next day.  Oh, how I love a good bargain, and having had my Lemon Tree Vintage site for a few years, I was salivating over all the lovely items and bargains!  I couldn't help myself and bought a few small things, but since we have limited space in the trailer, I had to really reign myself in.

One morning we drove down toward Tucson to tour the Biosphere 2.  The Biosphere 2 (planet Earth is Biosphere 1) was built in the 1980s as a completely sealed environment, complete with 5 unique ecosystems, including an ocean with a coral reef, a grassland, a desert, a rainforest and a marsh.  Originally, a handful of scientists were sealed in it for 2 years.  Now it is owned by the University of Arizona and a variety of studies on air, soils, plants, etc are researched there.  We were able to tour the entire facility, including the "lungs" that controls the air pressure, the basement where all the water, cooling and heating systems are, the 5 ecosystems, even the kitchen and rooms where the original scientists lived.  It was very interesting and educational.

They even have some birds and insects in there that help pollinate

and break down the dead leaves, etc., back into soil

     On our way home, we took a longer route in order to check out some of new areas, and we stopped in a town called "Globe", where we stopped into some art galleries and antique stores.  Here are some pictures of the drive home:

A good reminder to drive carefully - this was waaaay down at

the bottom of a steep, rocky ravine.

Here's a good geology lesson of how the mountains

were formed, pushed up from the earth eons ago!

The Gila River

A tunnel right through the mountain

See the hummingbird?

this pretty purple finch was singing so beautifully

And here is a few of the adorable things at the antique store:

This was a bank, you put your coins right in the baby's butt crack!  LOL

I should have bought it!

This is the old courthouse, now turned into an art gallery

There was a quilt show going on - isn't this lovely?

While in Globe, an old man offered to give us and another couple a tour of the old jail built in 1910.  Built of solid cement, this jail house prisoners from 1910 until the early 1980s.  It is said to be haunted, but the names and scratch marks in the walls to count the days and nights were haunting in and of themselves.  I hope I'm never arrested, I wouldn't last long in jail!  

He showed us the sheriff's old offices - we saw these blasts from the past:

For you youngsters, they used to sell cigarettes

from vending machines!

And "text" on these old typewriters!

A rotary phone, anchored to the wall?  How did we

live without cell phones?

On the 3rd of March, the RV resort celebrated Mardi Gras with a parade and party.  We didn't go to the party, but did watch the parade.  Some of these folks really got into the spirit of New Orleans!

Keep in touch!  Would love to hear your comments or to hear how you all are doing!  Till next time, another beautiful Arizona sunset!

The Highs and Lows, the Smiles the Woes....

Its been a rather eventful week.  There were highs and there were lows, but its never been boring!  We started the week out with me setting up a table at the RV resort's "Resident Craft Show".  I set out my jewelry and was happy to have sold a few pieces and was impressed with the quality of arts and crafts the folks here are able to produce on the road.  I met a few nice ladies and shared artist insider information about the local area.

  One of the ladies teaches a "scratch art" class here.  I signed up and this is what I was able to make at my first class:

It was really fun and easy to do - I think I will be doing more of this.  I'm also working on another stained glass project.  I think I chose something a little too ambitious for a 2nd project, but its coming along.  And in the meantime, I have been making some jewelry.  Noel has been doing some work in the lapidary workshop as well. 

One day we decided to drive the Apache Trail, a road that leads through the Superstitious Mountain range.  It is a harrowing road, 22 miles of it is un-paved, and some areas are one lane, with steep drop offs and no guard rails.  It was AWESOME!  The views were amazing, and the road passes three of Arizona's reservoir lakes that are sapphire blue against the mountains and cactus.  It was really pretty, and we were excited to have seen a few mule deer and a real, live gila monster, the only poisonous lizard!  It took us ALLLLLL day.

We saw some interesting wildlife

Get a load of this gila monster!  See his claws?

The buckeye state's bird came all the way from Ohio to see us!

 

 We stopped at a fun little place in Tortilla Flats with dollars stuck to the walls and taxidermy animals.  We ran into a group of Ohio Amish folks from Holmes County!  Small world!  We talked a bit with them and they were really enjoying their group tour of the west.

We climbed up and up to see these cool 600+ year old indian ruins

We packed a picnic

the Roosevelt Dam

One afternoon we played some miniature golf and both got hole in ones!  Another afternoon I was eating dinner and felt something sharp.  I had broken a tooth - the upper right, furthest back molar.  With no help from Suri, who I'm finding to be a clueless bimbo, I found a dentist that could get me in quickly.  I made the appointment for 7 am, because we had lunch plans with a friend at 11.  In the morning I quickly took one of the Ponds cleansing wipes to my face, threw my hair in a band, put on some mascara and drove to the dentist.  After 3 hours in the dental chair (I can't open my mouth very well because of the car accident and it causes me much pain), we got home at 10:15.  Since I wasn't going to have time to take a full shower before our lunch plans, I stuck my head in the shower and just washed my hair.  The water ran into my face and made my mascara run.  Rather than use another Ponds cleansing towlette, I reached into the wastebasket (without my glasses) to grab the one I used in the morning.  Good, it was still moist.  I started to wipe my eyes when I thought to myself  "Man, this thing stinks!"  I looked at it carefully (without glasses, that means really close to my face) and realize, this is NOT my Ponds makeup removing towlette,  its one of Noel's baby wipes that he used to wipe his BUTT after pooping!!  Ewwwwwwww!

Flushable camper toilet paper is like tissue paper, so he's been using the baby wipes (you can't flush them into RV toilets).  At first I was completely grossed out and ran to wash my face with antibacterial soap.  Then I started laughing.  and laughing.  and laughing.  I was tired, I was in pain, I hadn't had any coffee - a dangerous combination for me that leaves me with a tendency to get the uncontrollable giggles.  Noel just shook his head and said "I can't deal with  you right now!" and walked away shaking his head.  Now you tell me, is that not the funniest thing you've ever heard??  Especially since it happened to me and not you? LOL


So after that we had lunch with an old family friend that I haven't seen in like 20 years.  He took us out to a wonderful lunch to a farm restaurant he saw on the show "Diners and Dives".  The food was great, but this sign in the outdoor dining area struck me funny.  I originally read it as "falling scorpions"!

An old friend, Ken

Our friend Ken brought us some grapefruits from the tree in his yard.  They are huge - and delicious!!

Once the numbness wore off my mouth, I realized the temporary crown the dentist put on was hitting before the rest of my teeth were, so I called and asked if they could grind it down a bit.  They said to come on in, so we hopped back in the truck and went back to the dentist.  When done, we entered the back driveway to the resort, which has metal security gates for entry and exit, and there is supposed to be a security person in the guard shack until 4 pm.  It was 2:30.  Since we couldn't get in, we started to turn around when the "going out" gate opened on its own and hit the truck.  Hard!  So Noel went up to talk to a manager, who wasn't in.  Once we saw how bad the damage was, we wondered if the gate was damaged as well, so we rode our bikes back to the gate.  Low and behold, there was a maintenance man there with a can of spray paint!!  He was planning to cover up the evidence that the gate hit us from an opening position!  Man was I mad.  I took pictures and told him we would see them in court.  He stuttered and stammered and called a manager.  The manager of the place met us back at our site and admitted the gate opened on him in the golf cart as well, even though it shouldn't open from the outside!  He told us they would pay for the damage and to get some estimates.

Noel went out and got some estimates all right - $2,200!  Ouch!  Thank goodness they agreed to pay for it!  I imagine we'll take it in sometime this week - I hope they don't have to keep it too long.  We have things to see and places to go!

We went to see a movie - August: Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.  It was a bit of a dark story, but it was very good and I can see why they were nominated for Oscars.  We rented "Nebraska"; a bit slow but also a good story with great acting.  We also saw "Captain Phillips" with Tom Hanks - he should have been nominated!  The number of channels we get are pretty limited, so we get a lot of movies from the Red Box.  I'm watching the Oscars now as I write this.  Ellen is a hoot!

It rained a lot here yesterday, so we are looking forward to taking some hikes out into the desert to see what is in bloom!

And of course, I'm still in awe of the gorgeous sunsets here....