Showers Bring Flowers

The desert is incredibly beautiful since we received so much rain so far this year--almost 4 1/2 inches. That is unusual for Arizona for this time of year. Friday we went hiking with our friend Barbara and her friend Mickey. And it is also green, greener than we have seen before.

We found pots of gold everywhere.  Not the type you find at the end of the rainbow.  These were poppies and daisies in yellow, gold and some orange.

We also saw a lot more green than we usually find in the Arizona desert.

There was also a field of daisies along the road before we entered the park.

We are looking forward to seeing the cactus plants bloom soon.

This Isn't What We Came Here to See

Rain, sleet, snow, temps in the 30s and 40s.  And we're not in Colorado, Minnesota or the northwest.  We are in Arizona!

The rest of the country--with the possible exception of Florida--has bone-chilling cold with snow.  Here, we have had over 2 inches of rain.

The road in front of our house had running water.

This retention pond was really full.

A drainage ditch had running water.

Usually we can walk down the path that is underneath of center of this lake.

The Superstition Mountains had more snow than we have seen in all our winters in the Valley.

This is another walkway--full to the brim with happy ducks floating around.  They may be the only folks here who are happy with the weather.

If this area gets much fuller, the nearby houses will see flooding.

To the left rear of this photo, you can see the shuffle board court.  I hope the pucks float.

Sunshine and Rain

We all know that "into each life some rain must fall." Life is always full of both sunshine and rain. The main reason we came to the Colorado Springs area was so John could officiate at the marriage of our great niece Sarah. The rehearsal was Saturday at her parents' home.

The wedding was late Sunday afternoon in a garden near downtown Colorado Springs. Here is the wedding party. Don't they look snazzy?

While waiting for the wedding to start, I had time to check out the area where the reception would be held.  The cake topper here was first used by John's grandparents when they married.  Both of John's sisters had the topper on their wedding cake.  We did, too.  I'm not sure about John's brother or the other nieces and nephews.  But it really is a meaningful historical item in our family.

Sarah likes pie more than cake so these beautiful pies were being served at the reception.  They had been baked by her aunt, wife of her dad's brother.

Sarah and Jay recited their vows under this pine-festooned arch with the mountains in the background.

And here the happy couple leaves the ceremony with big smiles on their faces.

But it's not all sunshine around here.  Sarah's grandmother, Kendal, who is John's sister, has been undergoing treatment for cancer and Friday she suffered a stroke.  We visited her in the hospital today.  The four siblings, Tim, Kendal, John and Cindy, were all together in the hospital room.  As if that wasn't enough rain, brother Tim is having surgery tomorrow because of a brain aneurism.

We never know what the future will bring but when we see a new family begin in a marriage, we know life and the family will go on, even as the older--much older--generation faces difficult times.

Crossing Missouri

If you combine rain

a lot of green

some limestone walls

and many, many cows

and throw in the giant Mississippi River and it tributaries

you will have a good idea what our trip across Missouri was like this week.

We have seen a lot of cold weather and cold rain over the past week or so. The wind and cold and rain began while we were in Tulsa. We cancelled our plans and reservations to go to Branson because of the threat of more rain and flooding in that area. The rain you see on the first photo above was falling Saturday in Tulsa.

Of course it takes a lot of rain to bring out all the green fields and leaves we saw as we crossed Missouri.  Coming from Colorado and spending our winters in Arizona, all the green is a delightful change.

We had no idea Missouri had so many cattle ranches.  The fields we passed as we drop east on I-44 were full of cows.  Maybe we were driving in Mooosouri!

The limestone hills and walls seen in this part of the country are so picturesque.  Of course the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers get most of their water from snow melt and rain. 

We also saw a farm that had camels as we drove east.  Our GPS doesn't understand that Missouri names county roads with the letters of the alphabet.  When it told us to turn onto Missouri MM we were told to turn on "mo millimeter."  We really laughed at that.

We also saw a sign on the back of a septic tank pump-out truck that read, "Yesterday's Meals on Wheels."

We get most of our weather news from the internet, so we surprised when we saw on the local news while we were in Springfield, MO, that there was a lot of flooding east around St. Louis.  In fact I-44 was closed at Lebanon due to flooding.  When I call the Missouri Department of Transportation on Tuesday morning before leaving Springfield, it was suggested we drive north to I-70 and take that road in to St. Louis.  The detour added about 100 miles to our drive.  We are now just east of the state line and the Mississippi River in Cahokia, Illinois, for a few days.  It rained most of the day and will do so again tomorrow.  We hope we don't have to figure out too many more detours.  But the good news is we haven't been caught in rising water and have traveled safely.

Montana Landsdape

As we drove north toward Glacier National Park we passed through the beautiful Montana farm and ranch country before reaching the mountains. There are great expanses of grass and wheat.

All that wheat has to be stored somewhere.

The sky began filling with clouds.

The mountains were striking, especially under that ominous dark cloud.

Then the fog came in.

Then came the rain.

The day we arrived outside Glacier it was cloudy and rainy. Since then we have had sunshine and beautiful scenery.

The Bad and The Good

This has been the coldest Arizona winter we have experienced in the seven years we have been coming here. Until this week, the daytime high has been in the 50s for several weeks. We were getting tired of it. We come here to be in shorts and t-shirts--not possible in these temps.

Look at what we woke up to last week.

That's right--frost on the truck windshield! Brrr.

Then came the rains. See the water, running in the street? And the rain running off the neighbor's roof?

Finally, this week, we are having highs in the low 60s and lots of sunshine. And the good side of the rain is the flowers on the cactus. Beautiful!

We've been seeing down coats, gloves, heavy sweatshirts, and even some ear muffs and ski hats. What is this all about? Well, it's winter in Arizona. We've had a really long cold spell. If you are up north, you wouldn't think it is cold, but to those of us who come here to wear shorts most of the winter, highs in the 50s (62 is normal at this time of year) and nights in the high 30s or low 40s are cold!

And this week, El Nino is bringing lots of rain. This is only the 6th of January and we have already received 1.2 inches of rain. Average rainfall in Phoenix is 8.03 inches. If it keeps up at this rate, we will be way over average. Here are two photos of small lakes left in our resort by the rain.

At least we can look forward to beautiful flowers in the desert after all this rain.

Odds and Ends #2

We see such interesting RVs and combinations as we travel around the country. This is a 1946 Curtis Wright travel trailer. We thought it was an early Airstream, but learned differently. You can check out this wiki for more information about the RV and why it looks like an Airstream.

The tow vehicle is a 1954 (I think) Jeep. Both units have been restored.

We have seen lots of vintage RVs over the years, but last night was a first. I saw an enormous motor home pull into the RV park and begin backing in an old, small toy hauler travel trailer! They unhooked the trailer and parked the motor home in the site next door. This morning, there was also a tent between the two RVs. There were six men and boys in the party. It wasn't long before the motor home pulled out and backed up to hitch onto the trailer. And off they went. 

On land next to our resort there is an old empty building. It looks like a house but has a sign hanging above the front door. I finally went close enough to read the sign. It says, "Rio Vista Club." I looked on line and found a Rio Vista Golf Club. Since it is in California, I still have no clue what the club here was.

This resort has lots of chipmunks, golden mantled ground squirrels, blackbirds and mountain bluebirds (all of which refused to pose for pictures). We did see this small squirrel who stayed still long enough to be photographed. I think it thought we might not see it if it laid flat and didn't move.

We have seen lots of rain while we have been here in Creede. In fact, the whole state has had more rain than normal this year. One day I took a slow motion photo of the rain near the Woodcarvers Rendezvous meeting facility. It will be interesting to see if the individual raindrops show up in this blog.

A Wet Colorado Spring

We are impressed at how green and beautiful the Eastern Slope of Colorado is this year. The average rainfall in Denver is 15.7 inches. So far this year in Littleton (where we are parked) there has been 20.56 inches--and it's only early June.

That is why everything is so pretty. Here are two photos taken from Chatfield Lake State Park in the SW Denver suburbs.












All that rain is also the reason Chatfield Lake is so full. These trees are supposed to be growing on dry land. In places, picnic tables are in water almost to the table top. The swim beach is closed and the restrooms there are halfway under water. One of the two boat ramps is closed.










But there are advantages. In addition to everything being green, the wild flowers are blooming all over the park.

It is supposed to rain even more in the next couple of days and there are flash-flood warnings all over the eastern part of the state. I don't think we have anything to worry about, though. The lake is down a few feet from the highest this spring. There is certainly room for a lot more water in the lake basin.