JANUARY VISIT TO GRANDDAUGHTER SAMANTHA’S FAMILY AND GARDEN RAILROAD IN LAS VEGAS

After leaving Indio, we made the now familiar run up to Mojave CA to visit my granddaughter and family. Chris Gustin left home for his job in the I T department of Union Pacific the morning after we arrived. Sorry that he is not in any of my pictures. Samantha  took us to the nearby Mojave airport to look at old planes hangared there. The ones which are flyable sometimes are rented to movie and commercial makers.

 

 

French two place  trainer jet.

 

Great-granddaughter Tabithia in the French jet

 

“Mighty Mite” Jeep. Its aluminum body makes it light enough to be transported by helicopter!

Samantha and great-grandson Luke, now 13 and taller than his mother!

 

Me, Luke and Samantha. I sill have the facial hair started in the rafting trip down the Grand Canyon.

 

 

My two great-granddaughters are just 1 1/2 years apart , but Tabitha, the younger, is almost as tall as her sister, Ivy. Ivy is sitting on Luke’s lap here.

 

GARDEN RAILROAD IN LAS VEGAS

We left Mojave a day later than planned, leaving us with one day in Las Vegas. We hoped to visit with 4 folks there , and in one day we were able to see three! The first were our friends Ed and Shelly Clary. They moved to Henderson NV last summer from Grants Pass OR and already have their garden railroad well set up.

Narrow gauge train, with water tank, coaling tower and depot in background.

 

Here is the busy depot awaiting arrival of the passenger train.

 

Downtown of village of Pine Lake and two other views of downtown.

Here is the bait shop. The boy is displaying his latest catch. Below is hobo jungle and next is the farm..

 

Rhonda was my legal secretary for almost 9 years in Phoenix before she moved to Las Vegas. We were glad that she was able to visit us in our motor home parked at Sam’s Club.

JANUARY TRIP TO INDIO CA FOR REGIONAL FMCA RALLY WITH GOLDEN SPIKE CHAPTER, PLUS VISIT TO PALM SPRINGS TRAMWAY

For 11 of the past 12 years I have attended the Indio regional Family Motor Coach Association rally. Jo has attended all of them since we were married. Our Golden Spike chapter parks together and we treat the rally as one of our chapter rallies with our own events interspersed with events of the main rally. For better coverage of the rally, you can look at the blogs in early January done by a member of our Golden Spike group, at http://travelbychance.blogspot.com

 

 

On Sunday Jan. 8 chapter members gathered at the parking lot of the closed Sams Club in LaQuinta about 3 miles from the Indio fairgrounds where the rally is held. We gathered so that we could arrive as a group Monday morning and be parked together. We were given extra space for holding our chapter events in  the midst of all of our parked motor homes.

 

After parking our motor home Monday morning and setting up, Jo and I set off for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, perhaps a 30 minute drive from Indio. It was completed in 1963. The parking lots are just off I10 a few miles up Chino Canyon. Here we had just started up the tram. Neither of us had ridden it before. We highly recommend it!

There are five towers from which the cables are suspended. In passing each one to car swings back and forth a bit. The car takes its passengers from about 2600 ft. to 8500 ft.(a little over a vertical mile!) in 10 minutes!

 

The views from the top are spectacular, especially on a clear day such as we enjoyed. Below, Palm Springs is in the Cochella valley foreground and Indio is in the far right distance.

 

 

 

A great view of the wind turbines lined up to generate electricity in the windy pass.

There was snow at the top, but we nevertheless took a 3/4 mile walk along Long Valley.

 

 

Jo enjoyed a bit of a rest along the trail while waiting for me to catch up. The sudden change in elevation made walking uphill a challenge because of my mild COPD.

 

On the way down I caught the other car coming up. The cars are quite new and most of the car rotates as they go up and down, except for a few feet in the center where the operator is stationed.

 

As we were coming down afternoon shadows highlighted the topography of the surrounding mountainous area.

 

Our group gathered at all hours for camaraderie . My railroad lantern adds to the illumination behind the white bowl.

 

Bob and Dottie Poole were given a cake in recognition of their 50thweddding anniversary.

 

 

About 35 members of our group are gathered  in front of a mural in the auditorium building. Jo and I are near the far right. This usually is our Golden Spike Chapter’s largest rally during the year.

Here is a daytime view of our socializing area. We had two group meals here, with a few happy hours, too!

 

One of our chapter’s jobs at the rally is to distribute ice cream bars for ice cream socials at noon on Friday and Saturday. We enjoy making so many people happy. We gave out over 5000 ice cream bars in the two days.

 

Of course, the ladies handing out ice cream bars require supervision!

 

Here are just a few of the motor homes lined up for display and sale at the rally. Many of them this year were used top-of-the-line models, with pricing accordingly!

OUR DECEMBER ACTIVITIES

I have fallen a bit behind in blogging, but I will catch up in the next few days. Stay Tuned!

I went to a Phoenix Suns basketball game and tried natural light photography from our seats with a Cannon A1100 IS point and shoot digital camera. It has no sports setting, so there always a little delay between pressing the shutter button all the way down and the camera actually capturing the image. I set the camera to a mild telephoto and kept the shutter button pressed half way down to have it focused when and where I expected the action to be. These are some of the better shots I made. It helped that our seats were in row 9!

 

Outlet pass after a rebound. The passer is Channing Frye, with center Marcin Gortat beginning to run and all-star guard Steve Nash at the far right.

 

The shooter here is somewhat fuzzy (38 year old Grant Hill?), with Gortat in front of him and no. 3 Jared Dudley with his back to us.

 

Here the second unit is on the floor. Guard Sebastian Telfair just slammed the ball while our no 1 draft pick, no. 11, Markieff Morris starts back down the floor. He is showing skills which make me think that he will be an excellent player in a year or two. The player at the free throw line is our tallest center Robin Lopez. Guard Shannon Brown is at the far right.

 

 

 

I have no idea who put up this long shot, perhaps a three pointer. Morris in the center is “boxing out” an opponent to deter him from getting the rebound in case the shot is missed. Who says that basketball is not a contact sport!  It is late in the game and the Suns are behind, so the second unit is getting more than its usual floor time.

 

Late in the game with the Suns behind, the crowd has started to leak out! Telfair is shooting a free throw.

 

Lopez’s free throw is in the air and two Sixers are boxing out Hakim Warrick to keep him from getting a rebound if the  shot is missed.

 

This is a bit fuzzy, but Telfair is just launching a jump shot, with Lopez cutting toward the basket looking for a rebound if the shot is missed and Warrick is looking on.

 

 

My son Monty and Jo by our Christmas tree. Monty loves to sing Karaoke and perhaps is dressed up to go out to sing.  Audiences really appreciate him.

JEEPERS CREEPERS OUTING DEC. 08, 2011

 

 Jo and I led this Jeepers Creepers trip through high desert on the Bloody Basin road from I 17 southeast to the Camp Creek road and south to Seven Springs and Carefree/Cave Creek. We originally planned to take the “Back Way to Mt. Lemmon” on the Oracle Control Road, but winter storms just before the outing caused the Forest Service to close that road.

There were 4 Jeeps carrying 11 members and guests on this trip. We assembled at the Superstition Springs Dillards store, as usual, and our first comfort stop was the Chevron station on Anthem Way.

Our coffee stop was at the Sunset Point rest stop. The cold travelers, left to right, are Steve and Linda Robertson, Jo Strong,  Marv Jeck, Edna Julien, Marsha Jeck, Mike and Barb Williams, and Tom and Elsie Holz.

 

The Bloody Basin road is well-graded in the northern part through the Agua Fria National Monument. There were remnants of snow in the sheltered areas as we wound down to the dry crossing of the Agua Fria River.

 

We had a fire at the lunch stop for cooking the tube steaks.

With our efficient crew, it takes little time to set up the serving tables and chairs for our lunch. The food was great!

 

We took the 3.5 mile side trip to the top of Humboldt Mtn, el. 5000, to the FAA control facility at its top.

FAA dome and warning sign at the very top of Humboldt Mtn.

 

 

We are looking down at what would be Horseshoe Lake on the Verde River if there was water behind the dam. Yes, that is snow on the peaks on the skyline.

The blue in the bottom of the canyon is the Verde River, with Four Peaks at the far right top

 

More rugged country lies southeast of the facility. Four Peaks is far left and Weavers Needle in the Superstitions is skylined at the far right.

 

The trail leaders – yes, I still have the facial hair begun in July on the Colorado River!

 

Our last stop was the Sears-Kay Hohokam ruins near Carefree. The hilltop village was inhabited from 1200 to 1350 and the rock walls have been restacked. This was a one room structure. Only Jo and I did the 1 mile round trip hike to see the ruins.

 

This is the remains of another one room structure adjacent to the one shown above.,

This was a central courtyard serving two rooms.

Although were  no really challenging  4 wheel drive roads on this trip, we all enjoyed the scenery on a clear winter day in Arizona. Most of us had not previously visited either of our stops.

We concluded the day with a glass of wine at the Williams home.