Saturday, April 1, 2017
We decided to go the another Coolidge Fly-in. This will be the last fly-in this winter. As you can see below the Coolidge airfield used to be an Army Airfield from 1942-1945.
The 82nd Airborn Division is honored.
The Lion's Club serves an all-you-can-eat breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, coffee and orange juice for just $8. Of course many people went back for seconds. Above show some of the people having breakfast before walking the airport.
This really neat motorized kite lives at this airport. We see it flying over the park occasionally.
This Army helicopter flew in. It reminds us of the TV series MASH.
This little ultra flew in about 9am.
A grown man actually flew this tiny plane in.
This is an Ercoupe. It's claim to fame, among other things, was that it does not have rudder pedals. The "wheel" is connected to ailerons and rudder. Allegedly as easy as driving a car.
I thought this plane was beautiful. I love the shade of green. This plane is a Super Viking 550 Bellanca.
We saw this gyro-copter last month at the fly-in.
I don't remember what the name of this plane is but found it interesting that the wings were in the middle of the fuselage. The wings are usually at the top or bottom of the fuselage.
We had a fun time seeing so many different planes.
Later that day I was raking weeds out of our lot and saw this cute little horny toad.
Above is a closeup of the little fellow. Below includes the rake I was using. This gives you some perspective as to the size of this little horny toad.
We sure enjoy our winter home in Arizona.
March 26, 27 and 29, 2017
Sunsets are frequently magnificent here at Desert Gardens. Below are pictures of the March 26 sunset.
The sky looks like it is on fire. So awesome!!
Below is just one picture of the sunset on March 27.
Wednesday, March 29
Today we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Lots of plants and cactus are in bloom. Labels telling the plant names were scarce. The surrounding mountains just add to the beauty.
We saw several lizards. This one posed nicely for us.
These little purple flowers were labeled valencia peanut.
There was going to be a wedding in this area. They were setting up.
The cactus looks soft, but believe you me they are not!
Hedgehog cactus in bloom.
The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical
garden in the state of Arizona consisting of 323 acres. It is one of the oldest botanical
institutions west of the Mississippi. We had a wonderful day walking around.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Today we are going on another Jeep trip. This time we headed just outside Mammouth, AZ to Sibley Castle via Copper Creek Canyon.
Sibley Castle or the
Sibley Mansion was constructed in the early
1900's by mine manager R. Roy Sibley to impress investors
interested in backing the mining operations located further down
the canyon.
It had
a second-story balcony, fireplaces, plastered and papered
interior walls and a patio with fruit trees. It was built in the
Spanish style of quarried granite walls, adobe cross-walls, and
had a central patio with rooms all around. It had two fire places
and two porch columns. The windows had genuine glass in them. The
living room was 60 feet long. The home contained 20 rooms and
polished oak floors, which were later scavenged for a building
down toward Winkelman, AZ.
These are some of the exterior walls.
Today, there are
a few concrete foundations and the walls of a couple of stone
buildings that remain. In the 1970's a leaching operation was
conducted at one of the old mines. The settling ponds remain from
those days.
We stopped for lunch here at the castle. There was a creek close by. One of the Jeeps accidentally rolled backwards down into the creek. Here is a video showing him driving up and out of the creek. He made it look so easy!
Above is a large flat area close to where we all parked. Following the trail between the trees leads to the creek seen below. Notice the huge log/limb up in the tree's limbs. Wondered about that.
Beautiful views as we left the castle area.
Off and on we did run into a little snow. See the dark clouds. For the most part it was a beautifully sunny day.
We saw these pretty white flowers at one of our stops. They were down a sharp drop off and facing the opposite direction. This was the best picture.
Look at all the roads. We are glad someone that knew their way was leading us.
Look at those awesome clouds!
Many more roads. Crazy!
These are the settling ponds talked about earlier.
Towards the end of the ride we saw the blooms just starting on a saguaro. This is the only saguaro we saw blooming this day. We had a wonderfully blessed drive today!
