MEANDERING MOOSE

A Saguaro Cactus standing at "attention" with its arms in the "I surrender" pose.         We are now in Tucson, Arizona on the Sonora Desert.  The Sonora Desert stretches from Mexico into southern Arizona and California and, for a desert, is full of beautiful green vegetation.  The fun part about life in this desert is that it will either eat you (cougars & javelinas), bite you (snakes & tarantulas), sting you (Africanized killer bees & scorpions), prick you (cacti), or just scratch you to shreds (creosote bush). The Saguaros creep up a mountainside. The Saguaros can create some bizarre forms.      The Sonora Desert is the home of the Saguaro Cactus.  These sentinels of the desert stand up to 60' tall, can live up to 200 years, and no, they do not contain a potable water reservoir.  These fantastic cacti only exist on the Sonora Desert and fill the desert floor and mountains by the tens of thousands. The Saguaros fill up the deser

     After growing-up watching the western movies in the 50's and 60's, the Arizona towns of Tucson, Tombstone and Yuma still stand out in my mind.  I think I've seen about 100 versions of the "gunfight at O.K. Corral" in Tombstone.  So traveling into these towns brings on a feeling of nostalgia. O.K. Corral Tombstone, AZ       I was very excited about visiting Tombstone, Arizona due to its history with Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers, as well as the big "gunfight."  It seems that between the years of 1881 and 1883 everybody shot everybody else and the survivors were hanged.  The town is littered with markers indicating all the gunfights and deaths.  Given the number of shooting deaths, I bet the streets must have been colored "blood red" rather than mud-brown. One of the many markers indicating the violence in Tombstone. Our stagecoach driver and tour guide for Tombstone.      Tombstone's Boot Hill, in a beautiful desert

Has anybody lost a 2-headed goat lately? We found it at the Adobe Deli in Deming, New Mexico.     Lately, it seems as if we have been immersed in rocks.  After leaving White Sands we went to Rockhound State Park, then we went to City of Rocks State Park, and finally we went to Chiricahua National Monument whose primary feature is canyons full of rock formations.  Even though the rocks we were finding did not fit into her jewelry fabrications, Nancy was in her glory. View from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain in Chiricahua National Monument.      Rockhound was a tiny park in New Mexico were thousands of semi-precious stones laid at our feet.  However, all the stones were very raw and beyond the ability of Nancy's equipment to put into jewelry condition.   City of Rocks was another New Mexico state park but its rocks were weirdly shaped boulders in a garden-like setting.  The boulders in this park seemed as if they shot up from the desert floor.  The coolest part of this park

Notice the plowed drift along the side of the road. Notice the icy white sheen to the road. Could this be snow in New Mexico??? Nah.  Welcome to White Sands National Monument.     We just got back from a great trip to Connecticut.  After so many months of absence it was so good to be surrounded by our family and friends again.  Once again we had a hectic schedule and could not see everybody we wanted.  However, spending a lot of time with my 92 year old mother was very important.  We had some great meals prepared by gourmet chefs Liz and Gordon Hines and Rob and Penny Finlayson (well, Liz and Penny anyway).  We got to see Acacia and Adam's new kitties.  And we had a lot of time hanging out with Bryce, Acacia and Adam.  Also, we were very fortunate to arrive in the middle of a fantastic fall foliage display.  Time seemed to pass way to quickly and before we knew it we were flying back home to Albuquerque. Acacia and Adam's new kitties-Gregory & Josie. Alamogord