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Catching Interstate 17 in Phoenix

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Journeys, tagged arizona, Black Canyon, Fird Focus woes on October 22, 2015| 6 Comments »

I made a brief stop at Sunset Point Rest Area north of Phoenix, but didn’t stay long as it was crowded. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.” – Lawrence Durrell

Then Sedona Side Trip Woes

My favorite road trips include backroads. But this day’s road trip, I knew, would not include them. I had 400 miles to drive before I would lay my head to rest at a Super 8 Motel in Page, Arizona, and most of that would be on freeways. I did expect, however, that Interstate 17, once past Phoenix, would have less traffic than Interstate 10. I was wrong, it had more.

I stopped in Sedona to enjoy the red-rock scenery, despite Cayenne’s woes. Road trips are too precious to be wasted. — Photo by Pat Bean.

The scenery, however, was somewhat more interesting, and during the 150-mile journey from Phoenix, where I-17 begins, and Flagstaff, where it ends. the landscapes and my journey climbed 6,000 feet in elevation.

Just outside Phoenix, my route took me through Black Canyon Recreation Area, with marked exits to such places as Horsethief Basin and Bloody Basin Road, leaving me wondering how those places had gotten their names. If I had time, I would have loved to have explored them. My mother claimed that I had inherited my grandfather’s wanderlust, and the need to explore every sideroad I came across. The only thing is there are way more sideroads these days then there were in his time – and I’ve discovered I can’t explore them all.

Cayenne, Pepper and me shortly after I bought my Ford Focus.

On this day, I did get off the interstate to take the back route through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. I expected to leave the traffic behind but nearing Sedona it became even more congested. And the stop-and-go 15 mph and roundabouts in Sedona brought out the worst in my 2014 Ford Focus, which has a stuttering/rattling problem when it’s in first gear, a problem that already had my car on a waiting list for the manufacturer to fix. I’m just one of many Focus owners with the default.

I believed my mechanic when he said it was OK for me to drive Cayenne, and that the problem wouldn’t leave me stranded; I just hadn’t expected it to be so grumpy and loud, but then that’s what I was when I returned to my Ford dealer back home. The mechanic drove my car when I returned to Tucson, but of course it’s didn’t misbehave as badly for him as it did for me in Sedona, where it was almost constantly in first gear.

But once past Sedona, Cayenne drove fine, with only an occasional and silent stutter in first gear, and gave me 40 mpg as well. Maybe I’ll forgive her, and Ford, too, if she drives as good as they tell me she will once she’s fixed. Too be continued …

Bean Pat: Glenrosa Journeys http://tinyurl.com/ocb7n5n Fall birds you might see if you live in Arizona. I especially liked the juvenile green heron photos.

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Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Writing, tagged arizona, Ira Hays, Palo Verde tree, Sacaton Rest Area on October 20, 2015| 2 Comments »

Palo Verde Trees

The trunk and branches of a Palo Verde at Sacaton Rest Area. — Photo by Pat Bean

“The more often we se the things around us — even the beautiful and wonderful things — the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds — even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less.” — Joseph B. Wirthin

In a Historical Setting

My second stop of the day was at the Sacaton Rest Area at Mile Marker 183 on Interstate 10. I wasn’t tired, (Pepper and I were only about 75 miles from where we started our road trip) but I had discovered that Arizona Rest Stops are usually scenic and informational – and this one didn’t disappoint.

In remembrance of two Arizona police officers who died in the line of duty near Mile Marker 183 on Interstate 10. — Photo y Pat Bean

A large bronze marker at the site informed me the rest area had been the site of the first Government Indian School for Pimas and Maricopas, as well as Pima villages that served as friendly resting places for travelers heading west during the Gold Rush. The site was also the birth place of Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who was one of the flag-raising Marines at Iwo Jima.

I remembered seeing the 1949 movie, “Sands of Iwo Jima,” in which Hayes actually portrayed himself. It was one of those unexpected memory recalls that left me wondering what other trivia was hidden in my brain that might never be brought into the light without a jolt to shake it loose.

Continuing its tribute to heroes, the rest area also contained grave markers of two Arizona police officers, Mark Dryer and Johnny Garcia, who had died in the line of duty.

A nice place for a road trip stop. — Photo by Pat Bean

After reading all the honorary plaques and informational posters, and pondering their meanings, I finally let myself simply enjoy the landscaped picnic area and the Sacaton Mountains that formed the rest area’s backdrop. What I liked best were the Palo Verde trees with their green trunks and branches.

The Palo Verde is Arizona’s State Tree. Numerous of these trees grow around my Tucson apartment, where they turn the landscape into yellow eye-candy when they blossom in early spring. Then, depending on the desert’s dicey water situation, they drop some or even all their leaves to conserve moisture. Their green bark can do everything that leaves do, making these trees one of the most drought-tolerant in nature. Appropriately, their name in Spanish simply means green stick.

This second stop of my road trip, where Pepper and I took a short walk taking in the views, reminded me, yet once again, just how amazing Mother Nature is. Don’t you agree? To be continued …

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Extraordinary http://tinyurl.com/pzc6svh Beautiful photographs, meaningful words.

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Slow Start, Then Picacho Peak

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Travel, tagged Civil War in Arizona, Interstate 10, Picacho Peak, Tucso on October 16, 2015| 4 Comments »

Picacho Peak looking north. This is a Wikimedia photo because there never seemed to be a safe spot to pull over and take a photograph from this angle on Interstate 10 — and it’s the view of the peak I like best. — Wikimedia

“It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place … I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliott Erwitt

Road Trip

I began the first day of my road trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, so I could see aspens in their shivering-in-the-wind golden fall leaves, by singing and dancing around to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” The song put me exactly where I wanted to be: excited about my upcoming adventure.

The overcast sky that started my day soon gave way to a sunny day. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I had the car all packed and ready to go, it was 7 a.m., a great time to start a trip. Five minutes down the road I realized I had forgotten my binoculars, something no birder – which I am – never travels without. Fifteen minutes later, I was back at the spot I made the U-turn.

Fifteen minutes after that, I realized I hadn’t had my morning cup of coffee, which I had planned on making and pouring in my to-go cup for the trip. I assume it slipped my mind when I packed a cooler with sandwiches and other goodies for the trip, since I didn’t want to spend money for food.

Another 15 minutes later, my pocket book $4 lighter after waiting in a lengthy line at Starbucks for a latte, I again headed out of town. It was after 8 a.m. when my canine companion Pepper and I finally took the ramp to Interstate 10, leaving Tucson in the rearview mirror.

It was a pretty typical start for one of my road trips.

The morning was overcast and dusty, as a stiff breeze rolled across the desert roadsides. But I was upbeat, unhooked from all electronics, including my car radio, and scanning the landscape for surprises on a route I had traveled quite a few times before since moving to Tucson almost three years ago.

Those trips, however, were for taking my daughter to the doctor in Phoenix, or to the Phoenix airport, not just for the pleasure of it, which in my experience is the beginning of a whole new book. The first thing that caught my attention after I turned onto the interstate was Picacho Peak. It intrigues me because of how it stands out in the Sonoran Desert landscape, presenting different and distinct profiles depending on the viewing angle.

What I didn’t know before the trip was that Picacho Peak is the site of a Civil War Battle. The skirmish was fought between an advance party of Confederate soldiers from Texas and a Union Cavalry patrol from California. The site marks the westernmost battle of the war. The Confederates won the April 1862 battle, but by May of the same year, a stronger force of Union soldiers from California pushed the Confederates back to Texas.

But the history of the 1,500 peak, which served as a landmark for travelers well before my time, goes back much farther than that, It’s all explained by exhibits at Picacho Peak State Park that now sits at the base of the 1,500-foot peak. It was well worth a stop on my way. — To be continued…

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Write like a weed http://tinyurl.com/nwtm53n Good writer’s advice.

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October

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Quote for the Day, tagged fall colors, Ocotober, road trips on October 9, 2015| 15 Comments »

“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir. We must rise and follow her. When from every hill of flame, she calls and calls each vagabond by name.” — William Bliss Carman

Autumn color in my son Lewis’ Texas Gulf Coast front yard. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” – Humbert Wolfe

Road Trip Fever

October is my favorite month of the year. I thought about this while I drank my cream-laced coffee this morning and looked out over the Catalina Foothills from my third-floor balcony.

I slept in until after seven, and so the sun had already crept down the mountain, bathing Mount Lemon and the valley with a warm glow while a brisk October breeze brought the feel and scent of desert freshness, after two days of on and off again showers, to my body and nose. It felt and smelled delicious. From my viewpoint, the valley was dominated by a rustling green sea of tree tops, their verdant hues enhanced by the monsoon rains that visit the Sonoran Desert.

And the color of October in Maine’s Scarborough Marsh. — Photo by Pat Bean

But elsewhere, in higher climes, the aspen trees are turning golden, the maple leaves are burning with fire, and the forests are wearing coats woven of lemon yellows, apple reds, pumpkin oranges and plum purples.

Such splendor calls to my heart. I especially want to see the sun-illuminated glow of aspen leaves as they wink to me in the wind. I’ve got road fever.

So o-dark-hundred tomorrow, I am heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on a route that will take me through some of this country’s most scenic landscapes, which hopefully will be lit up with the colors of autumn.

It will just be me and my canine companion, Pepper. And that’s my favorite way to travel. I’ll tell you all about my trip in upcoming blogs. So stay tuned.

Blog pick of the Day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Dreaming in all the right ways http://tinyurl.com/ph982gs Give somebody a hug today, for me.

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20-Minute Cliff

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Journeys, tagged 20-minute cliff, Blue Ridge Parkway, pondering on July 24, 2015| 2 Comments »

“The high road of the Blue Ridge Mountains is like a long museum corridor lined with nature’s treasures.” — National Park Service

A sign to ponder. — Photo by Pat Bean

Back to Pondering

I was looking through the many photos I took a couple of years ago when I drove the Blue Ridge Parkway when I came across the one pictured above. The sign left me pondering its significance.

Along with sight-seeing and pondering as we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pepper (who joined me after Maggie died for the last eight months of my full-time RV travels) and I did a a lot of exploring of the parkway’s many trails. — Photo by Pat Bean

But it was autumn when I was on the parkway, and the golden, scarlet, purple, lemon and orange hues along the way kept me from pondering too long. It was more important for me to drink in the Technicolor views, which often magically appeared from behind layers of thick white fog and mist as each day grew older.

Now, seeing the sign without the awesome scenery to distract me, I’m back to pondering again.

The sign reads: “In June and July, during corn-choppin’ time, this cliff serves the folks in White Rock community as a time piece. Twenty minutes after sunlight strikes the rock face, dusk falls on the valley below.”

Who in the heck figured this timetable out, and what would people be doing at this exact spot on the ridge right before dusk? Pondering, I guess, is what a wondering, wanderer does best.

Blog pick of the day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Ranting Crow http://tinyurl.com/p9qsfk6 Thought of the day. If you get to be my age, you have to wonder why history keeps repeating itself. Perhaps it’s time for a change.

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Arivaca Cienega

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Hikes, Journeys, Nature, Tucson Points of Interest, tagged Arivaca Cienega, Buenos Aires NWR, red-tailed hawks on July 18, 2015| 4 Comments »

These two trees captured my attention along the Arivaca Cienega Trail because they so accurately represent the circle of life. — Photo by Pat Bean

I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods. Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup. ~Wendell Berry

Birdy Backroad Heaven

I woke up restless the other morning, and solved it by reviving a weekend morning tradition from back when I was putting in 50-hour work weeks. I packed a picnic lunch, gathered up my canine companion, Pepper, and we took off looking for a backroad and hoping it took us someplace where we could be away from the crowds and in one of Mother Nature’s wondrous landscapes.

Not the best picture, but in person it was magnificent. — Photo by Pat Bean

I found my backroad off Interstate 19 near Arizona’s border with Mexico. It led to the small town of Arivaca 23 miles away. I passed a Border Patrol stop near the interstate, but was waved on and told I only had to stop on the way back.

Speed limit on the narrow, twisting and bumpy back lane was mostly 45 mph, but it wasn’t often I was able to go that fast. But traffic, except for a couple of pickup trucks and a half-dozen motorcyclists traveling together, was non-existent. It was exactly what I had been hoping to find.

I didn’t have to search hard to find this abode of Mother Nature. This sign set right beside the road just east of Arivaca. — Photo by Pat Bean

I found myself singing “On the Road Again.” I couldn’t belt it out with the grace of Willie Nelson but, it was good enough to put me in a yippy-I-got-away-from-the-world mood, especially when I had to dodge a greater roadrunner dashing across the road.

Just outside downtown Arivaca, which sits on the edge of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Pepper and I stopped at the refuge’s Arivaca Cienega site, which is a designated Audubon Important Birding Area. Thankfully, leashed pets were allowed on the trail, which cut through what was clearly a marsh during the desert area’s monsoon season. Cienega, in fact, translates as swamp. Birds twittered all around us, and among others I identified song sparrows, cardinals, Bell’s vireos and western kingbirds. A deer watched us a minute or two as we rounded a bend in the trail before scampering out of sight.

I didn’t think my morning, which was cooled by a light breeze still fresh from the desert night, could have been any more perfect. Then a pair of red-tailed hawks circled overhead and it did.

Blog pick of the day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Luckenbach Loop http://tinyurl.com/n9cgt9v One of my favorite bloggers also enjoys a backroad trip.

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Thoughts about Writing

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged raymond chandler, toni morrison, walter mosely on June 24, 2015| 2 Comments »

“Not writing for me would be like not breathing.” – Pat Bean

It’s hot in Tucson right now, so I have been doing more inside reading than outside birdwatching, which I love to do as much as I love writing. But I saw this gila woodpecker on a recent early morning walk with Pepper. — photo by Pat Bean

And Writers

“A writer who hates the actual writing, who gets no joy out of the creation of magic by words, to me is simply not a writer at all … how can you hate the magic which makes a paragraph or sentence or a line of dialogue or a description something in the nature of a new creation? – Raymond Chandler, who liked to think of his words as those that got up and walked.

Chandler introduced his hard-boiled detective, Phillip Marlowe, in The Big Sleep, which was published the year I was born. He decided to become a become a mystery writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression at the age of 44. The Big Sleep has been named one of the top 100 fiction novels of the century.

And right beneath the woodpecker, in the same tree, was a white-winged dove. — Photo by Pat Bean

“The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you have to do every day. There are two reasons for this: Getting the work done, and connecting with your unconscious mind.” – Walter Mosely.

Mosely is Black, Jewish and grew up in poverty. One of his writing teachers told him that these things provided him with riches for the page. Mosley started writing when he was 34, and says he has written every day since, turning out over 40 books in a variety of genres. Perhaps his best known are the Easy Rawlins detective series, which are a favorite of Bill Clinton, and which became more popular when the president said as much.

I remember back when JFK said his favorite author was Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond series. I had already read all of Flemings’ books at the time, but they got more popular after Kennedy said he liked them.

“Writing is really a way of thinking – not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.” –Toni Morrison

Morrison, who has writing awards too numerous to list that include a Pulitzer and a Nobel, takes on epic themes in her books, the best known of which are Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula and the Song of Solomon.

Blog pick of the day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Laughter Therapy http://tinyurl.com/qxpht3q I’m all about the chocolate – and belly laughing.

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Great Horned Owls

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Journeys, tagged freat horned owls, Rodger and Hammerstein, South Pacific on June 22, 2015| 11 Comments »

“There was an old man with a beard, who said: ‘It is just as I feared! Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren have all built their nests in my beard.’” – Edward Lear

Two of the three great horned owl juveniles now making themselves at home in my apartment complex that sits in the shadow of the Catalina Mountains — Photo by Pat Bean

Treasured Moments

Pepper and I were taking a walk late yesterday evening when we came upon two great horned owls sitting on the lawn, one no more than 30 feet away. They stopped Pepper in her tracks. She stared long and hard at them, but made no move in their direction.

The third owl mostly watched me, but this was the only usable photo I was able to take in the late evening light. The others were too blurry to redeem. — Photo by Pat Bean

I watched for a while, and then hurried Pepper along, thinking to return her to our apartment, grab my camera and return to the owls. The light had pretty much faded by the time I did just that, but the owls were still in place. I snapped of a couple of dozen shots, but they were too far away for the flash to work, and my hands weren’t steady enough to get any good shots, although I did manage, with the help of PhotoScape, to salvage two of them.

The owl farthest away got nervous and flew away, joining a third owl sitting on the roof of one of the complex’s buildings. The other stayed put, until I got within about 15 feet of it.

This was the second time I had come across the trio. The other time was in broad daylight, when they were high up in a tree with about a dozen people ogling them. I was walking Pepper that time, too – and again did not have my camera with me. Darn it!

Earlier in the year, I had watched and listened to a lot of hooting as the owl parents had courted, chased off ravens and a red-tailed hawk, and nested here in the apartment complex for the third year in a row.

And each year, their offspring take a while to learn to fear humans, popping up unexpectedly and unconcerned about who is watching them. It’s the same with the young Cooper’s Hawk, whose parents also like to nest in the tall trees here.

It brings to mind a song from the from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific:

You’ve got to be taught To hate and fear, You’ve got to be taught From year to year, It’s got to be drummed In your dear little ear. You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a different shade, You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Bean Pat: Writing Advice http://tinyurl.com/p2lkjof This is really good.

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Change Your Seat

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, tagged perspective, points of view on May 18, 2015| 3 Comments »

The view from the west side of my patio table after a rain storm. — Photo by Pat Bean

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.” — Ivy Baker Priest

It’s All About Perspective

I sit on the east side of my patio table to have my first cup of cream-laced coffee for the day. In this seat, I have a grand view of the Catalina Mountains as the sun comes up.

A winter view of the Catalinas from the east side of my patio table. — Photo by Pat Bean

But in the late afternoons, when I and my friend Jean – whose dog Dusty is Pepper’s best friend – sit on my balcony to discuss the day’s events over a Jack and Coke, I’ve been plopping down on the west side of the table. From this vantage point, I have a view of red roof tiles, and the sky through the lacy pattern of tree leaves..

Both views are pleasant.

A few days ago, I took the west side of the table in the late afternoon because I had left my journal and some papers on that side. What I quickly noticed was that the shadowy patches on the mountain’s cliffs as the sun rose in the morning were now the patches that were highlighted as the sun began its dip below the horizon.

From her side of the table, in addition to the red-tiled roof and sky through the trees, Jean had a great view of Pepper and Dusty playing on my bed, a delightful sight that only I usually got to see while we’re laughing and chatting.

“I’m sitting on this side of the table from now on,” Jean said. Since it’s my table, and I can normally sit on either side of the table I want, that was fine with me.

What a different place the world can be when we look at it from a different perspective, I thought, sort of like walking in another person’s shoes.

Blog pick of the day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: Brevity http://tinyurl.com/lclbale As a writer, this is one of my favorite blogs. And I take today’s advice seriously to heart.

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A Disjointed Journey

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, tagged dreams on March 30, 2015| 3 Comments »

“The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment when you are between asleep and awake, when you don’ t know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” — Oprah Winfrey

Pepper, waiting for me to take her for a walk. Did she start or end my dream, I wonder? — Photo by Pat Bean

One Heck of a Dream

My canine companion Pepper woke me at the break of dawn, at the end of one of my crazy dreams. Not yet ready to get up and take her for her morning walk, I replayed the dream in my head.

In it, I was attending a writing conference in Vancouver, Washington, with an old boyfriend. As the workshop ended, we met up with one of my ex son-in-laws. He didn’t have a vehicle so we invited him to ride with us. On the way home, we got lost in Virginia City (not sure if I was in Nevada or Montana) because my old boyfriend couldn’t find the highway that would take us across Lake Michigan – yes I know, but it’s not uncommon for my dreams to be full of disjointed geography.

Some dreams fade into the background, while others stick out like this patch of color I find it all interesting. — Photo by Pat Bean

I suggested that we find a place to spend the night and try again in the morning, then I remembered that I had left Pepper home alone. I would need to call a friend to take care of her. When I couldn’t reach the friend, I had a brilliant idea, just as we were passing a Best Buy. We went in, bought a GPS, plugged in my address, and were home before dark.

As if she knew I was thinking about her, this was the exact moment that the flesh and blood Pepper scooted up to my face and began licking it. Or did my dream start when Pepper started licking my face?

Let’s see. I do attend writing conferences, and I recently came across a photo of my old boyfriend, taken when he was swimming in an off the trail pool during one of our outings to Zion National Park; I saw the ex-son-in-law at my granddaughter’s house during my Christmas trip to Texas; I have a son who lives close to Lake Michigan; I’ve visited Vancouver and Virginia City in both states; and I got a a GPS for Christmas.

What’s strange is how I put all the parts together.

Blog pick of the day. Check it out.

Bean Pat: 100 Beautiful Words http://tinyurl.com/ncdsjvo I found the list of what one person thought were beautiful words fascinating. My choices, however, would be different. At the top of my list would be the words cacophony and oxymoron, perhaps not beautiful but certainly intriguing.

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