Adventures in wanderland
Back from our walk. It has been raining lightly for the last two days, and the desert is beginning to bloom. I found tiny pink flowers, lavender ones, blue ones, yellow ones. I found several of what I call desert dandelions, fleabane, yucca; the prickly pears are blooming with yellow flowers; the Arizona Rainbow Hedgehog is blooming with fuschia flowers, and the saguaro are blooming--they are so tall that it is hard to see the flowers, but I think they are white. I saw an unknown reddish-pinkish flower on a runner. There is a lot of Mojave Century Plant, but I've seen no blooms yet.
I've got to get a flower ID book for the western US. I have some for the eastern US, and some flowers cross over, but I'm still in the dark about most of them. When we go out this evening, I'm taking the camera so that I can get photos to add to my already overflowing flower album.
I am also fascinated with rocks. My rock collection is getting too big--actually too heavy. I've picked up rocks from Virginia to Arizona. The colors and patterns are amazing, as are the numerous fossils I've found. Most of my fossils are in storage back in Virginia, along with much of my rock collection.
Right now I have two small buckets filled with beautiful rocks. When I get them home, I soak them in clear water and scrub with a brush to get the dirt off. Then, I use an acrylic sealer to give them some shine and to bring out the colors. One thing I have never found, and that I really, really want to find, is a geode. I've found numerous gemstone rocks, none of them really worth anything except my pleasure. I have several agates, jaspers, one that could possibly be malachite, lots of quartz, and others that I can't really identify. Rocks have stipes, rings, sworls, other rocks, etc., and a variety of colors in them.
If I can figure out how to post a picture on here, I may just show some of my pretties.
Most of the pictures that I have seen in the photo section seem to be about motorhomes and campsites, so I am hesitant to post any of mine.
As I said earlier, I think I will write of some of my RVing adventures over the years, both to refresh my memory and to put some of these things in writing.
When I bought my first camper, I had just experienced several major losses in my life and was finding it difficult to cope. I bought a ten-year-old Coachmen Catalina, named it Auntie Anne's Anti-depressant, and hit the road.
My first trip was to Darlington, NC, for the NASCAR. I am not a race fan, but my neighbors were; so, we took off.
I was not prepared for the traffic. To exit the interstate, traffic was backed up for miles; but, as we had TV, food and potty, we were quite content to poke along at 1/2 mph. It was raining when we got settled in and headed on foot to the raceway. I had my favorite umbrella that I had bought in NYC; as this was shortly after 9-11, I had to leave it at the gate, and, of course, it was gone when I went back for it.
I thought I was prepared for a race. That was one of the stupider thoughts of my lifetime. I knew that I would not care too much for the racing--why would anyone want to sit and watch noisey, smelly cars go round and round and round? So, I took my walkman and a book on tape to keep me occupied. As I said, it was raining, and that was no biggie for me, except that the race kept being delayed. Anyhooo, I did get a kick out of people-watching; OMG, the sights I saw. Redneck rednecks, cracks, thongs, drunks, lovers, show-offs.
Once the race got underway, I made a show of being interested for about 50 laps Then, I decided that it was nearly time for the race to be over--after all, by now we'd been here for several hours. One of my companions pointed out the laps board to me, and when I saw that there were still over 200 or so laps to go, I nearly lost it. By this time I was deaf, my butt hurt, my knees kept getting knocked by the drunk in front of me, I was hungry and thirsty--I must have been the only person there who doesn't drink beer; nothing against it, I just don't like beer, and they weren't serving mixed drinks and finger foods.
I decided it was time to put on the Walkman and listen to my book--WRONG!. The absolutely incredible noise completely drowned out the walkman. So, I gave that up and went for a walk. Too bad I didn't have my camera; the sights from the walkway at the top of the bleachers were unbelievable. It looked like a plumbers' convention from the rear with a few red, black, pink, blue thongs thrown in here and there.
I think it was sometime around midnight when the race was over; then, we had to walk a couple of miles back to the camper, where we out-waited the other fans while we ate and drank and did some people-watching.
Being my first trip made for some interesting mistakes in hooking up sewer, water, electric, opening the awning(I never did master that); I am not a little person by any stretch of the imagination, and climbing up the ladder into the over-cab bed was an interesting process--my friends slept in the real bed. The close quarters were really fun, since one of us is a male. If I recall correctly, we went to the restrooms to do our business.
But we did have fun, and except for the race itself, I would love to do it again.
TTFN
I've got to get a flower ID book for the western US. I have some for the eastern US, and some flowers cross over, but I'm still in the dark about most of them. When we go out this evening, I'm taking the camera so that I can get photos to add to my already overflowing flower album.
I am also fascinated with rocks. My rock collection is getting too big--actually too heavy. I've picked up rocks from Virginia to Arizona. The colors and patterns are amazing, as are the numerous fossils I've found. Most of my fossils are in storage back in Virginia, along with much of my rock collection.
Right now I have two small buckets filled with beautiful rocks. When I get them home, I soak them in clear water and scrub with a brush to get the dirt off. Then, I use an acrylic sealer to give them some shine and to bring out the colors. One thing I have never found, and that I really, really want to find, is a geode. I've found numerous gemstone rocks, none of them really worth anything except my pleasure. I have several agates, jaspers, one that could possibly be malachite, lots of quartz, and others that I can't really identify. Rocks have stipes, rings, sworls, other rocks, etc., and a variety of colors in them.
If I can figure out how to post a picture on here, I may just show some of my pretties.
Most of the pictures that I have seen in the photo section seem to be about motorhomes and campsites, so I am hesitant to post any of mine.
As I said earlier, I think I will write of some of my RVing adventures over the years, both to refresh my memory and to put some of these things in writing.
When I bought my first camper, I had just experienced several major losses in my life and was finding it difficult to cope. I bought a ten-year-old Coachmen Catalina, named it Auntie Anne's Anti-depressant, and hit the road.
My first trip was to Darlington, NC, for the NASCAR. I am not a race fan, but my neighbors were; so, we took off.
I was not prepared for the traffic. To exit the interstate, traffic was backed up for miles; but, as we had TV, food and potty, we were quite content to poke along at 1/2 mph. It was raining when we got settled in and headed on foot to the raceway. I had my favorite umbrella that I had bought in NYC; as this was shortly after 9-11, I had to leave it at the gate, and, of course, it was gone when I went back for it.
I thought I was prepared for a race. That was one of the stupider thoughts of my lifetime. I knew that I would not care too much for the racing--why would anyone want to sit and watch noisey, smelly cars go round and round and round? So, I took my walkman and a book on tape to keep me occupied. As I said, it was raining, and that was no biggie for me, except that the race kept being delayed. Anyhooo, I did get a kick out of people-watching; OMG, the sights I saw. Redneck rednecks, cracks, thongs, drunks, lovers, show-offs.
Once the race got underway, I made a show of being interested for about 50 laps Then, I decided that it was nearly time for the race to be over--after all, by now we'd been here for several hours. One of my companions pointed out the laps board to me, and when I saw that there were still over 200 or so laps to go, I nearly lost it. By this time I was deaf, my butt hurt, my knees kept getting knocked by the drunk in front of me, I was hungry and thirsty--I must have been the only person there who doesn't drink beer; nothing against it, I just don't like beer, and they weren't serving mixed drinks and finger foods.
I decided it was time to put on the Walkman and listen to my book--WRONG!. The absolutely incredible noise completely drowned out the walkman. So, I gave that up and went for a walk. Too bad I didn't have my camera; the sights from the walkway at the top of the bleachers were unbelievable. It looked like a plumbers' convention from the rear with a few red, black, pink, blue thongs thrown in here and there.
I think it was sometime around midnight when the race was over; then, we had to walk a couple of miles back to the camper, where we out-waited the other fans while we ate and drank and did some people-watching. Being my first trip made for some interesting mistakes in hooking up sewer, water, electric, opening the awning(I never did master that); I am not a little person by any stretch of the imagination, and climbing up the ladder into the over-cab bed was an interesting process--my friends slept in the real bed. The close quarters were really fun, since one of us is a male. If I recall correctly, we went to the restrooms to do our business.
But we did have fun, and except for the race itself, I would love to do it again.TTFN
Total Comments 2
Comments
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I love collecting rocks, I have a small rock garden from here and also Arizona, I will try to post a pic of it.
jwPosted 07-17-2009 at 11:27 AM by dugit999 
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Will try pic again.
Posted 07-17-2009 at 12:20 PM by dugit999
