Salsa and Wind

Yesterday we visited the Chandler Salsa Festival in Tumbleweed Park. The idea was to sample all the salsas displayed and vote for our favorites. Although it was a chilly morning (for southern Arizona), the booths were set up.



At each booth, we would pick up a small plastic container of salsa.



When we paid our entrance fee, we each received the requisite wrist band, plus a bag of tortilla chips. Those were used to taste the salsa.



We saw a number of these chip-and-dip bowls.



Some entrants had obviously won other competitions.



Here I am, trying to fill out my ballot, not drop my bag of chips, and keep my camera both ready to use and clean of spilled salsa.



Salsa was entered in one of three categories, hot, mild, and unusual. We could vote for entrants in each category and for best overall. John chose the grape salsa from this booth as best unusual.



I thought the strawberry and jalapeno salsa from this booth was the best unusual. John selected their mild salsa as the most outstanding.



We agreed that these women had the best mild salsa.



John thought these folks offered the best hot salsa, whereas I try to avoid hot salsa.



The Chandler Police Department was there. I wonder if they really use this fancy cruiser?



Food trucks are all the rage these days. Have you watched Food Truck Wars on the Food Channel? This T-licious truck was selling food at the festival.



I mentioned that it was relatively cool yesterday. Friday, a cold front came in with lots of dust and wind. There must have been small microbursts of wind here in Valle del Oro. The dead leaf bases on several palm trees (certainly not all of them) were torn off overnight. Look at this pile of debris from one tree.



It doesn't rain much here, so there are no storm sewers. Instead, there are several areas in the park designed to contain run-off. It rained 1/2 inch or more during the night. This is one of the new-found ponds we saw.