Oct. 2, 2010

Saturday brought amazing changes in weather and landscape, both worthy of remark.  But first, it was tough leaving the Wagner Family (Matt, Emily, and Isaac)early Saturday morning.  Knowing that when I next see Isaac, he will have changed dramatically, and becoming familiar with his little stretches, smiles, and vocalizings, I will miss him, and his parents.

But I had to move east, and so I climbed into my wagon and set off for Arizona and Nancy and Marc Pearlman's near Tuscon.  For the first hour things didn't change much from the LA scene ... yes, it is desert, but there are buildings and houses, and it's deceptive in appearance ... just one mega-city rambling on and on with a palm tree and cactus here and there.  But once beyond the city and its environs, the landscape opened up.  There were many more mountains than I'd anticipated, and they would become clear through the fog and overcast sky as I would approach them.  Luckily, rain had been predicted and the sky looked somewhat threatening ... this was good from my perspective because it was cooler and I had no sun in my eyes.  But when I got near Palm Springs, CA (I would have looked for it on a map near the ocean, but no ... it's inland), I stopped for gas and coffee because I desperately wanted to take a picture of the largest wind-farm I have ever seen, bar none.  I would bet there were at least 1,000 turbines. Obviously, my picture doesn't begin to show this, but the density of what you see may give you an idea of the awe I felt.

Only some of the 1000's of wind turbines in Palm Spring, CA

I think the reason for the location of these turbines is that Palm Springs is in a pass between two mountain ranges forming a natural wind tunnel.  This farm is truly amazing to see.

Shortly after leaving the Palm Springs area, signs were posted that I was entering desert.  The first mentioned was the Palm Desert.  And yes, once I got into what truly was the Palm Desert, there were more palm trees.  The Palm Desert is at sea level and shortly after passing through Palm City I started to climb to higher elevations ... I wish I could have gotten a picture of the view from my rear-view window.  The climb was probably 2000 feet and the mountains surrounding the area were barren basically, but dotted with sage.  It was through this desert region that I first encountered rain.  A sign suggested turning off the a.c. in cars to prevent overheating.  I did, even though it wasn't that hot (thankfully), and so every so often I opened the car window just to get a little air.  The fragrance of the wet desert was really something ... fresh and clean smelling.  At the end of the desert is a town called Blythe where a huge orchard was being farmed ... I couldn't believe it, and I don't know what kind of orchard it was, but because of later, Arizona orchards I saw, it may have been a pecan orchard.  Also in Blythe were huge palm trees with ladders hanging from them and bags covering what I assume were coconuts ... very interesting!

Passing into Arizona brought an immediate change in vegetation and landscape.  I started seeing cacti, and though the mountains were still rocky, I was seeing mesas.  A road sign warned "Blowing Dust Area" and it certainly looked possible as there was a lot of land that had nothing growing in it.  I stopped at a very windy crossroads, Vicksburg, AR, for lunch.  I'd wanted to take a picture so this was a good spot.  I ate at a little Mexican restaurant that looked as if it had seen better days: all display counters (at the cash register and two near the front windows) were empty of the usual knick-knacks patrons expect to see in them and there was one waitress for the entire dining room.  She took orders, delivered food, cleaned up, etc., so lunch took a little longer than expected.  But the good news is that the food was fine and filling: I had a cheese quesadilla!

Vicksburg view of mountains and sky

After lunch, I continued my drive and soon passed over a couple of canals that are part of the Central Arizona Project, a huge water system for bringing Colorado River water to the central and southern parts of Arizona.  Shortly after that, I stopped along the highway to take a picture of a mountain formation that is hard to see in my photo, but if you look at the left end of the mountain, you may be able to see what looked like three people in conversation.  Right as I pulled off the road, a police officer pulled off behind me.  I was a little stunned, but he was just checking to see if I was okay, and we had a good conversation about the mountains, the central project, nuclear energy (there's a plant close to where I was) and a military base.  What do you know ... he was sort of like a welcoming committee!

If enlarged, you might get a better view.  If not, just enjoy the spaciousness!

As I drove on, I started to see limited signs of agriculture and wondered where Arizonans get their food.  Not a whole lot can be grown in this desert without irrigation.  One interesting thing I saw, after passing Phoenix, was a huge pecan orchard.  It was immense!  I'd been observing a mountain formation that looked like a jujubi candy atop a mountain when all of a sudden, there were green, lush looking trees in front of me.

Irrigated pecan grove

The temperature on my car thermometer was rising to about 104 in this central part of the state, very near Phoenix.  But it didn't last long because I was driving toward a huge dust and rain storm.  Look at these photos of the sky and storm front.  The beige color in the picture is dust and it was an intense, short storm with little rain, lots of lightning and wind.

I arrived at Nancy and Marc's in Vail around 5:30.  It was great to see them and to renew this friendship!