WALNUT CANYON AND EXTRA

On April 23  our group visited the Walnut Canyon National Park a few miles east of Flagstaff.  I had been there about 20 years ago but this was a new experience for most of our group. We were happily surprised when we drove up to the toll gate that there was no charge for visitors that day. The day was very windy. Our group did not attempt the  Island Trail as it involved an elevation change of nearly 300 feet.

These pictures were taken in a CanonSX150 IS with a 12x zoom. The image stabilization worked well when using telephoto feature.

This is the central canyon. Water would flow on the left side toward the camera station and then make almost a U Turn to continue out of the right of the picture. The dependable supply of water is what made this canyon attractive to the cliff dwellers between about 1100 and 1300 AD

 

Here are a few of the many cliff dwellings in the park.

Above is a normal angle shot of some dwellings and below is a telephoto shot of part of the same area.

 

 

 

 

This is the Island Trail as seen from near the top. It takes the hiker to dwellings for inspection up close and personal.

 

From the top near the visitor center  the residents had a great view of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff.

 

There were more dwellings at the top. The ones outlined here by foundations could have been for storage of grain.

 

 

 

A week after the trip to Flagstaff,  Jo’s son Jeff, Monty and I went to Chase Field to watch the Diamondbacks lose to Colorado Rockies in a fairly close game.

Monty and Jeff are shown below.

TUCSON GATHERING OF STRONG COUSINS APRIL 16, 2016

Abby Jane Hodges and husband Morrison visited Tucson in April 2016 for an conference of a medical association, and the members of the Strong family in Arizona seized on the occasion to get together at the home of Todd and Jill Keller in the western foothill area of Tucson. I apologize for not making sure that all folks present got in the pictures. Missing are images of Jill Keller, Margaret Strong, and  sisters Teagen and Sophie Keller (daughters of Justin). Included in the pictures  are A J and Morry Hodges, Bill and Jo Strong, Caroline Keller and sons Craig Keller (visiting from the Pittsburg area), Todd Keller and Justin Keller.

Todd and Jill --  Thanks so much for hosting the crowd totaling 12 at your beautiful home.

Craig Keller, A J Hodges, Jo Strong and Morry Hodges. AJ is using a cane while she recuperates from a hip replacement six weeks ago.

 

 

A J Hodges, Jo Strong and Justin Keller

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Caroline’s sons on Todd’s patio: Todd, Craig and Justin. Caroline’s dog Simone just happened by when the shutter went off.

Caroline, Morry,  me and part of Jo

Caroline Keller and Morry Hodges

 

Here is an “extra credit” picture. A couple of days before the Tucson gathering, Jo and I took a day trip to Payson AZ, about 75 miles north of our home in Mesa. There we found a replica of Zane Grey’s cabin which he used  a couple of months per year from 1921 to 1929 for big game hunting and writing. His cabin was  located near Kohl’s Ranch and Tonto Creek east of Payson. After he stopped using the cabin in 1929 it sat abandoned and vandalized until 1962 Then it was  restored by Bill Goettl. He was the owner of the company which mass produced evaporative coolers beginning in the 1940s to make the Phoenix summers more more bearable. I toured the original Zane Grey cabin many years ago. It was on the National Register of Historic Places.

The large “Dude” forest fire in 1990  burned the original cabin. In 2005 it was  faithfully reproduced as Zane Grey used it as a project of an historical society. Guided tours are interesting.The docents give a lot of information about the life of Zane Grey. If you are a Zane Grey fan, this is a must see! 28 of Zane Grey’s 57 novels were set in Arizona.

ROADRUNNER FEB. 2016 CAMPOUT

 

We parked or RVs at the Pima Country Fairgrounds south of Tucson in an area just opened for RV parking with full hookups and 50 A service. It was a bit remote from the city, but the price was right.

On Friday we visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum for a few hours.

 

At the entrance to the museum was parked this nice looking station wagon. What is its make, model and approximate year?Answer at the end.

In the cave exhibit we learned about bats in Arizona, and Herb had the opportunity to pose with bat ears. I prefer hearing aids!

 

The rest of the guys posed with vulture wings. Above is Wayne Mitchell, I am below, followed by Mike Williams. I guess that the ladies were too reserved to avail themselves of the photo op!

 

 

And here is the boojam tree. A sign explained that when an U S botanist saw one for the first time he gave it an English name  after a mythical tree in a poem The History of The Snark by Lewis Carroll. The tree is found only in Baja California and  a few in Sonora.

 

 

We walked into the hummingbird aviary to get close to the tiny birds. A little patience and sitting still paid off with these shots.

 

 

 

 

Friday night we went to El Chorro Mexican Restaurant in downtown Tucson for their good food. The restaurant has been in business since 1922 and is still operated by the same family.

Above are Wayne and Terry Mitchell and Mary and Herb Fust. Below are Jo Strong and Barbara and Mike Williams.

The car is a Studebaker Lark, circa 1960.

QUARTZSITE 2016 AND SNOW ON FOUR PEAKS ROAD

 

Here are a couple of our January activities.

  

  Peter and Sue Hanewall from Beloit  visited us in January, and we took them for a ride over Four Peaks Pass. A winter storm had come and gone, and I expected the road to be fairly clear. But the higher we got, the more snow we found.  Here at the top the snow was 6 to 8” deep. Other vehicles had packed the snow on the road, so we did not slip around much. Here we had traveled 18 miles from highway 87 and had 10 more to go to drop down to highway 188 at Roosevelt lake. Duane Steen accompanied us in his yellow Jeep with a guest. We had lunch at Ma’s Kitchen near Roosevelt Lake.

 

 

 

Our Roadrunners group was at Quartzsite late in January during the annual RV Show. The number of attendees and of vendors seems to be shrinking every year. The proprietor of the Main Event area had a little car show and a “Hit or Miss” engine show. The latter turned out to be mainly an antique tractor show. Interesting.

 

Here are a couple of the custom vehicles The one below billed itself as a Rat Rod.

We have seen this tractor before. It is controlled  from the cart as one would control a wagon pulled by horse.

 

 

 

 

I had never noticed one of these before – restored Sears Roebuck tractors  powered by a Model A engine.

 

 

Here is another one I had not seen before – a large Ford tractor.

VISIT TO FLORENCE AZ

 Monty and I visited Florence AZ in December 2015 and took in some interesting sights.

I tried a case in the Pinal County courthouse  in the 1970s, and during a lunch recess I wandered into a local museum.  I was somewhat shocked to see dictation equipment there identical to that used by my mother when she worked at the Freeman Shoe Corp. in Beloit in the 1940s.

 

The same  Ediphone equipment remains on display in a museum in Florence,  but in a different building and much better shown. Dictation was recorded on a rotating wax cylinder, which was played back by the secretary to transcribe it.

 

They also had the shaving machine, used to shave off the wax on the outside of the used cylinder so the cylinder could be re-used for more dictation.

Here is the old courthouse, nicely restored and still in use for some county offices. The courts have moved to a much larger building.

 

 

The interior was decorated for the Christmas season.

I now dress much more casually than I did  the last time I was there!

MONTANA MOUNTAIN 4 WHEELING WITH STRONG COUSINS

Cousin Marilyn and Paul Uselding visited us in Mesa in mid October, and Jim Strong flew down from Kennewick Washington to join us. After our day of 4 wheeling on our favorite run for visitors, Montana Mountain, the Useldings took Jim with them  to Tucson to visit cousins Margie, Caroline, her children Todd and Justin,  and their families.

 

 

I am at the left, Jim Strong, his sister Marilyn and her husband Paul Uselding at the back our our Jeep  at our coffee break. Jo’s son Jeff Clyde went with us, and Paul was quick to accept a ride with Jeff whose Wrangler Unlinited is at the far left.

 

There is a natural arch along the road which often is hard to pick out, but the light was right to see it this day . It is the dark arch at the tip of the tallest saguaro cactus.

 

 

We had lunch at a nice spot near the end of the ridge.

Jim, above, Marilyn below and Paul relaxing at the lunch stop.

 

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JEEPERS CREEPERS RUN - TELEGRAPH CANYON Feb. 11, 2016

 

Our Jeepers Creepers group had a great day running the Telegraph Canyon road southwest of Superior AZ. We began with 8 vehicles; the Carlsons could go only part way as they needed to be back in the valley by 3 PM.   Covert Bailey was the trail leader and I was the tail gunner. We were the only two  with CB radios. Only two other members of the group had traveled the road before, so it was  a new experience for most of us.

 

With all of our little side trips and stops for coffee break and lunch, we were on the road over 6 hours. I would rate it as a 2.5 difficulty mainly due to the many rocky stretches and washouts. Most of the rocks were rounded, but some seemed a foot tall that we had to go over.

Here is where we turned off Highway 60 in Superior. The camera station is on U S 60 looking west. Picket Post mountain is in the center.

 

We are viewing the east side of Picket Post mountain here. The road continued around its south side.

We found this wide spot in the road for our coffee break.

Here is the table for goodies.

 

This is typical of the terrain we crossed. Lots of saguaro and prickly pear cactus, with brush on both sides of the road to give us more Arizona pinstripes!

 

Covert took us on a short side trip to see an abandoned stock watering tank and this multi-armed saguaro – very unusual.

 

On another side trip we found this old cabin. Trail leader Covert is in the middle and Robertsons are at the left.

 This shows all 7 of the  vehicles making the whole trip – our Grand Cherokee (left rear) two Jeep Libertys, a Toyota FJ  and the rest 2 door Wranglers. Matt Peak and daughter Meagan were in the open Jeep.

 

Lunch time! From the left – Jay and Diane Olson, Fred Scharringhausen, Chuck Severt,

 

Meagan Peak, Matt Peak, Covert Bailey, Tom Gerken

Beyond Tom Gerken in white is daughter Diane, then Linda and Steve Robertson.

Several parts of our road are in this shot. We wished that it was all this smooth.  Only three of us aired down.