Saturday, November 26, 2016
Today we move to Willcox, AZ. As we left Alamogordo, the clouds were low on the mountains. Dusty was not driving in the beginning, so she took several pictures of the low hanging clouds. See below.
Well, as you can tell, Dusty really liked the clouds over the mountains.
Tic drove until we got out of the mountains, about an hour. Then I started driving. It's been a good while since I've driven so it was good to get practice again.
Tic took this picture. The clouds are starting to thin. Dusty drove about 2 hours. Then Tic drove the last hour.
Here we are at Sagebrush RV Park. The area where short-term RVers stay is just a gravel parking lot. We do have FHU and it is basically level. We are just staying overnight so no problem.
We plan to leave early tomorrow morning and arrive at our winter home of Desert Gardens in Florence, AZ no later than noon.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Today is scheduled as a lazy day. We started by sleeping in. I took my time at getting breakfast ready. It was such a beautiful morning that I decided we needed to go to the local zoo which would give us time to walk around outside.
The zoo here is pretty small and only cost seniors $1.50. We took pictures of most of the animals that we saw except the ones that were curled up asleep. Here goes.....
This bearded dragon was inside the admission office.
This tortoise weighed about 200 pounds.
Capybara is the largest living rodent from Central & South America.
We never learned the name of these pretty ducks.
These ducks with the 2 black stripes on the back of their head are called Barred Ducks. They are known to fly extremely high at around 29,000 ft and migrate over great distances.
This is part of a large duck pond. As you can see there are mostly mallard ducks.
Not sure the name of this duck, but I thought it was really pretty.
Then there was this unique little duck. I wish they had more signs posted describing the various ducks.
Here's the rest of the duck pond. There were lots of turtles in this part of the pond. See below a row of turtles sunning themselves.
This American alligator was hiding in the green muck. Tic zoomed in so you could see him. Otherwise he looked like a bump on a log in the muck.
This hawk and the other predatory birds below are all here due to illness or being shot. They are all recovering.
Horned owl.
There were actually 2 bald eagles in this habitat.
This little sea otter was having fun swimming around then sunning itself.
This North American Badger is extremely fat. We wondered if it was a pregnant female.
This little red fox looks so sweet and cuddly.
This ocelot was just sitting looking out. It was sad.
The mountain lion was eating half a chicken. The chicken looked frozen because the lion could not bite or chew it easily.
Another sad scene. This black bear was pacing around.
There was an aviary there. We saw this bird. I believe it is a sort of pheasant.
There were several of this type of guinea running around.
There weren't any signs around talking about the kinds of birds in the aviary, so we just took pictures.
We saw at least 5 or 6 of these little nests attached to bamboo stalks. The unique thing was the entry opening was always on the bottom side of the nest.
Guanaco are ancestors of the domestic llama.
This is a rhea. I thought it was an emu until I saw the sign.
African Crowned Crane. Tic says it is having a bad hair day. Ha Ha
This iguana was the last critter we saw at the Alamogordo Zoo. At least it was a beautiful day for walking around outside.
After we left the zoo, we headed to Rockin BZ Burgers. We were told they had the best burgers in town.
Part of the name Rockin got cut off, but this is the exterior of the building.
The forms on the table are your order. Then you seat yourself. Below if the form.
We both ordered a Champ burger. The green chilies were fantastic. We were glad we went. However, only salad for dinner tonight.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We got to sleep until we woke up this morning. My sister-in-law told us about Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. So after breakfast we decided today would be a beautiful day for a hike.
Both above and below were our views as we were driving to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. The clouds are especially beautiful today!
We have arrived! This part of New Mexico has its own beauty!!
As you can see, Dog Canyon still has few trees with gold colored leaves.
This is the ruins of Francois-Jean "Frenchy" Rochas home. He lived here alone at the mouth of Dog Canyon for about 8 years, raising cattle and cultivating an orchard and vineyard. He built rock walls separating cattle areas from his gardens. Look carefully at the line going up the mountain in the background. That is one of the walls. See the picture below for a closeup of part of this wall.
Frenchy had about 400 head of cattle. Frenchy's good fortune ended suddenly when he was found dead, shot in the chest. Speculation is that he was murdered by cattlemen who owed him money. The murder was never solved.
Looking farther up Dog Canyon.
The golden trees are absolutely gorgeous!
Down along the creek running in the bottom of the canyon. Apparently when it rains the water is much higher.
Tic got this cool picture of a small pool in the creek.
Can you tell I'm enthralled with the gold leaf trees??
The same tree is pictured both above and below just from different angles. It is a very large tree that is mostly dead with a huge burl at the bottom. Looks like most of the roots don't even reach the water.
Another view of the little creek at the bottom of the canyon.
Last look back up Dog Canyon as we are leaving. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful hike.
Since it is Thanksgiving Day, the Dallas Cowboys play football today. We watched them win AGAIN. We thought we were having Thanksgiving Dinner at a local church. I must have gotten the day or time wrong. So we had Thanksgiving dinner at Denny's. We are so thankful for our many blessings including our health and many friends!
