One last shot going out the door

Having trouble posting stuff to my blog. Firefox browser is giving me fits this morning.

Last day in Apache junction

At the entrance of Phoenix desert botanical gardens you see these "blown" glass structures. Some guy does these and assembles them to fit in with the desert cactus and stuff. The "glass plants" stand about 12 - 15' tall and have lots of spears of blown glass in each one. The sun hits them and the colors are spectacular.

Our final day here in Apache junction, good byes to friends etc. We'll head out of here about 9:30 in the morning after rush hour traffic clears.

Some kind of a lizard

This fellow was sunning himself Wed. at Phoenix desert botanical gardens.

Supposed to hit 72 here today, nightime temps are about 50. Air tires up on the rig today and re-pack the bays for Tuesday's travel. Hate to leave Arizona but need to be closer to Pinedale as they've put my mom in the medical wing of the retirement center. At 105, who knows what may happen????

Phoenix

The buildings of downtown Phoenix off in the distance taken from the Phoenix Desert Botanical gardens....

Phoenix botanical gardens

Went with cousins to the Phoenix Botanical gardens today. Wow, what a neat place to visit. The butterflies are out now and there are always hummingbirds around.

Temp. was 75 degrees and sunny. Nice day for the visit.

Big really old Saguaro cactus.

Took this a while back, this multi arm cactus is really old, probably near 200 years old. Got the superstitions in the background. We're down to 2 weeks left here in Arizona. Up to see our friends in Hurricane Utah (Sutherlands and Schmidts). Should be up there About April 6th.

Hmm, only just over a year ago

Early February 2010 I was paying this for fuel down here in sunny Arizona. I paid $3.79 the last fillup with diesel. Yikes doesn't even come close!!

Yikes!!

Ouch, they never told me I'd be landing on my head.... (kidding)

Chute deployment

The moment the "chute" deployed. I have bruises near my armpits where the hide hit the harness. Kinda like getting kicked by a 12 guage shotgun....

The peanut gallery

Had quite a few folks from the RV park show up and cheer us on. The lady in the foreground is "Judy" activities director. She's from Canada "eh", a retired school teacher. Her heart is made of pure gold!! Was her first jump also

In the plane and out etc.

Goin out the door

Here it comes....

Yikes

Where the heck is the landing zone???

The landing

It was pretty darned cold at 13000' when we jumped. Glad I had the jump suit on. I was striken by how noisy the free-fall was then when the chute deployed how very very quiet it was. What an experience!!

Oh shit!

That was my feelings as I "free fell" at 13000'

Dragon boat races

The dragon boat races are this coming weekend. We went last year and won't go this year (if you've seen one, you've seen "em" all). Tomorrow is the big day when we jump out of a perfectly operating airplane near Eloy Arizona. There's about 5 or 6 of us from the RV park that are going to jump. For an extra few bucks they sell you a dvd of the jump and post it online for anyone to see. I'll definitely do that!!

Wish me luck!!

Happy St. Patties day

May the luck of the Irish hit you in all the right places!!

Tempe town lake

People enjoying a warm 87 degree day today at Tempe town lake in Tempe Az. Went down there with our cousins from Nebraska. Had lunch at "Olive Garden"!!

Misc

Was fooling around with my scanner trying to line pics up etc. I must have a thousand old pictures laying around in boxes. Got to get them scanned and on an external hard drive before they deteriorate.

The upper L is shot from near Gannet peak looking southward towards Fremont peak. Fremont peak is the one with the ice field in the upper L hand corner of that photo (the back-side of it that you never see). The Upper R. is when I used to carry old glory in the Rendzevous parade on my trusty mount "Mouse"

Lower Left is Cirque of the towers down by Big Sandy (southeast Sublette County) and the other was taken when we were searching for some lost guy from back east about 1998. That's Fremont peak in center. The clouds that day were kind of wispy and cool!!

I can see that I have to separate the pictures a bit more....

Salt river fields

Another picture of the new ballfield in Scottsdale. They go to great pains to attract spring training to the valley. There's a new casino and hotel very near this park too. Brings in lots of "spring breakers" to the area.....

Talking stick fields

Went to a Colorado Rockies Spring training game today in Scottsdale Az. About 35 miles northwest of Mesa, where we are located. Nice warm day (84 deg)., Pictured is the main ballfield at "talking stick" stadium. The stadium is locaged on an Indian reservation. It's brand new... I left at the bottom of the 7th (Rockies were trailing 3-2), to avoid rush hour traffic.

Helen Ruland and Gina

Reposting one of the pictures from mom's birthday today. Looks like these two are having a great time. That's Gina (Pape) Feltner with Helen, lifelong friend of the Ruland family! My mom asked the "distant" family not to attend as she worries herself sick when we travel this time of year. We'll celebrate her birthday in May when we get back to Pinedale. Wow, 105 years old, just have a hard time wrapping my little brain around that one.... Thanks to all who attended the birthday party!!

Happy birthday!

That's my mom in the center. She's surrounded by several of her brothers and sisters, she was one of 12 children. This must have been taken about 1907 sometime. She'll be 105 tomorrow.

Upper left: Sister Georgia, upper right, brother Joe, lower left, sister Evelyn, lower right brother Davis C. Ballard

Payson, Az

Kind of a neat little town lake and park in Payson. On the north side of houses there was a bit of snow. I don't miss snow, always see plenty of it in Wyoming in May...

Weavers needle way off in the distance

Took this just below Payson Az. today, just to the right of the big Saguaro cactus is Weavers needle.

Payson, Az

Another town another antique store and all the other stuff they sell there. These two guys were for sale. There was a bobsled for sale for a mere $4,500. No thanks.

Stopped by the local casino and both Debi and I actually won a few bucks. That's a rarity.

Payson is over 5,000' elevation so we got a tiny little taste of winter temps. Was 80 deg. F here in Mesa Az. today.

Update from two days ago

The hovering helicopter a couple days ago was the Sheriff's helicopter watching over a fatality a short distance from here. Seems as someone hit a school teacher that was bicycling to school, a good Samaritan showed up on the scene to assist and another motorist hit him and the teacher on the bike killing the school teacher. Sad

Trouble in the neighborhood

Helicopter hovering in the first photo. Just prior to that event a few minutes ago I heard many sirens just north of us. Probably some bad guy running around terrorizing the place. The second photo is the view out my window in the mornings. Fun watching the sun come up over the mountains.