Reddington Pass

On Sunday, John and I went on a ride through Reddington Pass. It's where you end up, if you keep going east on Tanque Verde in Tucson. It was a beautiful day for photos, and we each took a bunch.







Cacti were blooming!




I love ocatillos! They are still my favorite desert plant. A common name for them is "Devil's Walking Stick."




We didn't see many animals, but we did see some cattle. One little green lizard was WAY too fast for us! He was well-hidden before we could get out of the car with our cameras.


Here's John!


We went left instead of right, at the intersection, and ended up in a little town called San Manuel. We gassed up there (thank you, John!) and enjoyed an Italian BMT at the Subway which was inside the gas station/store. Anyone know what BMT stands for?

Catching up: Ghost Town and Diamondbacks

Tonight I'm catching up a bit. I've been sick for the past week or so, off and on, but I've managed to squeeze a little bit of living into my days, along with the coughing and sneezing. I started feeling much better yesterday, and continued feeling good today. I'm going to give you a bunch of photos, and I hope you find them interesting! This first one is me on my bike:


"Ghost Town" would be good for describing the Village right now... or for describing the adventure I went on yesterday with Jack! Cameras in the back of my car, and armed with a book about AZ ghost towns, we headed north, past Oracle Junction, and past a minuscule town called Mammoth. After we crossed a bridge, we turned off on a small road, which got smaller and smaller. Eventually, we arrived at a road that was "not maintained." That was a polite way of putting it!




About 8 miles down this road, the road went downward into the canyon, and we saw evidence of the long-abandoned copper mine.


Along the way, we saw gila monsters! Two of them, in different places. Of course, we got out of the car to photograph them!



I think that he thought he was hiding from us here:


The desert is beautiful right now, with so many lovely flowers in unexpected places.




We came to one point in the road, where there was cliff to the left, cliff to the right, and COWS in the road ahead. We stopped the car, and Jack was going to get a photo of these cows. I thought that they were .. big.. so I stayed behind. Yes.. this cow is actually peeing:


Eventually, the cows turned around and walked the direction we were heading, so we walked along behind them.

More cows were down in the canyon, following the coppery stream.


Backing up in time a bit, on Tuesday, May 6, I went up to Phoenix to meet Ron. Actually, Jack went up with me, because the trip home was going to be quite late, and he had things that he wanted to do up there.

Ron took us on a tour of the university, and I got a few shots.



We went to a seminar, where they were talking about a weak premise and even weaker conclusions, punctuated by reasonably good pizza. Then we went back to Ron's house and Jack took off to the museums while Ron and I took in some ice cream.

Then came the ballgame! Ron took me to see the Diamondbacks meeting the Phillies in Chase Stadium. What fun this was! We were in Row 9, but we were not 9 rows back, since we were right behind the Diamondbacks' dugout! I had a corndog and Ron had a burrito, and we enjoyed some libations along with the game. Ron keeps score on the program, and this was interesting to me. And the Diamondbacks won!

End of the Week

I've been busy! On Tuesday, I went hiking with Jack up on Mt Lemmon. We went on the Aspen Trail, linking up with the Marshall Gulch Trail, forming a pleasant loop. This was supposed to be the same trail that Duane, Herb, and I took a few weeks ago, but .. this was different! Duane had led us up a very steep hill to start our hike, but this trail went up much more gradually. The day was wonderful for a hike -- hot down in the valley, but quite nice up on the mountain.

After our hike, we stopped at the Cookie Shack for a treat. Then Jack said, "Wanna go up and check out the Ski Resort?" "Yes!" And we drove on up. The resort lodge was closed that day, but we could still oooh and ahhh and photograph the scenery!

There is a road that takes off upward from the parking lot, and we decided, since it said that it was closed, to walk up this. We went probably a mile, with many cars going around us, up and down. So we went back down and took the car up! This road went to the very top of Mt Lemmon. A short trail took us to a rock which overlooks all of Tucson. What a cool place, and a great day!

Wednesday I drove up to Phoenix to meet Ron, whom I'd "met" on Yahoo Personals. We got along well, talking as he showed me around his house and then around his part of the city. We had lunch at a neat little restaurant, talked more, and went to the part of town where the Diamondbacks baseball team plays. A Rube Goldberg machine was displayed outside of the stadium, and we enjoyed watching it for awhile.

We parted with plans to meet again, and I made the drive home, singing along with my None Too Soon CD the whole way. I love the music I have, but I do need some new tunes.

Thursday I set about painting the rest of the deck (finally!) and John helped. We got the little deck tables painted, and the top deck edged and most of the railing painted. Yesterday, I finished the railing painting, though it still needs another coat. :/

Today I tried to make some headway on my email, but I'm still way behind.

And Dave's book, Miracle Myx, arrived this week! It's wonderful to see it in print, to hold it in my hands, finally, and to read it again! I just love Myx, the sneaky, fascinatingly quirky, frightfully intelligent young man who takes on the mystery of some grisly murders in his small Massachusetts town. Somehow Dave makes us like this fellow who stops at nothing to learn all he needs to know about people.

And I not only love Myx, but I love the storytelling! Dave weaves this tale in a way that keeps us thinking, wondering, and laughing. Every page is interesting and fun!

If this sounds good to you, put out the $16.47 and do this. (Read more about this book at DaveWritesBooks.com.) This is NOT a paid advertisement! LOL! And I don't love this book just because Dave is my friend.

Let's see.. so what was today? I didn't feel very good today. I'm having more breathing difficulties; I do hope this is not a new trend for me, but I rather think it's something that'll be "cured" when I get out of this very dry and very dusty air.

It's tough to think about leaving right now, though. The weather here is fantastic right now -- really perfect. Now at nearly 11 pm, it's 70° here and 44° in Bloomington. I'm thinking at least another week here, and I can still make it home by mid-May, or maybe the 20th.

Monday in Tucson

Saguaro Green seemed appropriate for my font today. The saguaros are beginning to bloom around Tucson now! The buds form large upon the tops of the cactus and sometimes its arms. Then the flowers come out huge and white, with yellow centers.

Today Jack and I took off on our bikes, riding a total of 20 miles. We went down Sarnoff, Golf Links, Escalante, Irvington, around a nice little neighborhood, and then back on Old Spanish Trail. The ride was fun and challenging, of course, with wind in our faces the whole time, it seemed!

There were not as many hills as there were in our ride on Saturday, but with the headwind, it was like hard hills in places. We had some good downhills, too. In one place, we got up to 25 mph on a downhill. I guess that means that we must have had some uphills too then, eh?

On this ride, I got a buzz like I get from hiking. I think I'm a roadie!

The hardest part of today's ride had to be the left turns. I don't really like turning left in traffic, and we must have had a dozen left turns today. I'm getting better at maneuvering leftward, being a bit bold, while being careful and predictable. For one of the turns, I did a "box turn," crossing on over to the appropriate forward lane of the cross street, and then waiting for the light to cross, ending up where I would have been if I'd done a "normal" turn.

I have to say that Tucson is an amazingly bike-friendly town. While crashes can and do happen, there are great bike lanes and bike routes. Love it! And of course, I wouldn't even be doing this, if not for the wonderful bike safety class that I took here.

I pre-treated for my asthma, too, and felt much better than before. I was careful to drink enough during the ride, consuming very nearly all of my 65 oz of fluids. What I did screw up, though, was my hands. I had forgotten my gloves, and got a couple of near-blisters between my thumbs and index fingers. Urgh.

When I got home, Jack, John, and I worked on getting my new vertical blinds installed up high to cover the clerestory windows, as needed, and I DO need them covered now, with the piercingly hot direct sun.

Tonight, the boys and I went to Chuy's for a delicious supper. I had broiled fish tacos with cabbage, beans, and rice. :)

Janee's new haircut

Miracle Myx has arrived in my mailbox! Yeppers, folks, Dave's book is finally out there. It's not on the brick-and-mortar bookstore shelves till May 1, but it's available now at Amazon! Read about it, and meet Dave at his site, DaveWritesBooks.com. Be sure you click his Where's Myx and MySpace links, too. Dave's got a lot to say, and most of it will make you laugh. Here's the book trailer. I love this!


I just got another email complimenting me on my new haircut, and I have not even posted any pics of it! I'm thinking that you may be seeing that picture of me in my slideshow, in which I'm wearing light blue and my hair is quite short.. with bangs.

Well, I just got my hair cut again, just a week after the first time, because I was not happy with the layering. Now it's .. well, rather than describing it, I'll just post a couple of snaps that John took when we were on our way to the lasagna supper on Friday evening:



Yesterday, Jack and I went for a bike ride. We rode to the 0 mile mark for the Mt Lemmon Highway and then I waited, panting, as Jack rode up to the 1-mile mark and back. Then we rode together to Agua Caliente Park, where, to our delight, they were having a pancake breakfast for $6. Sausage, juice, and pancakes! Yum! They were giving out door prizes and I won one -- an insulated coffee mug, which I really needed. ;) It's always fun to win, though!

After getting our bellies filled, we rode back to the Village, over hill and dale. There was one hill that seemed to go forever -- up, of course! So I'm pedaling as hard as I could, using my "baby gears," seeing about 5 mph on my speedometer. Pant.. pant... and then I see the sign. "Hill," it read. What? What WAS this thing that I'd been climbing? I had to stop and rest while Jack drummed his fingers on his handlebars, far up the road at the top of said Hill.

Once I got my breath back, I steeled myself and oomphed up the hill. Yay! Then came the downhill which seemed equally huge. Looks like they could have saved us some effort, by leveling things out there.

LOL.. so my spellcheck didn't like "oomphed." Usually spellcheck offers suggestions for correct spellings, and I was curious what it would suggest in this case. Here are the suggestions:


So we got back and I was plenty tired. I'd mentioned before that I was thinking that my breathing difficulties were at least partly due to my asthma, and now I'm convinced. I did a few things to help myself for this bike ride, and it seems that the combination helped. This time I drank 20 oz of water an hour before the ride, I took one puff of my inhaler just before leaving, and I took another puff at the 0-mile mark. I was also very careful about staying hydrated on the ride, and tried to not mouth-breathe. That's a toughie, though. (I hope that I'm not showing myself to be too much of a weakling. I'm really not, and I'm feel like I'm working to make myself stronger.)

Here's a video that a friend sent me and it made me laugh. I hope it makes you laugh too:

Orange-Cranberry

After a rapid walk today, during which I huffed and puffed as I talked to Dave, I went to Sunflower and brought back muffins for John and me. His hip's bothering him still, and he has an MRI scheduled for tomorrow. He chose the blueberry and I got the orange-cranberry. Sunflower Market has the best muffins in the world, I do believe.

I did some email and got pretty well caught up on that. Then it was off to Camping World to exchange that hitch lock. I measured it against the bolt that I had brought along, and the 1/2" lock looked perfect.

Well.. LOL... it wasn't! It was still too big! I ended up just using the bolt that came with the bike rack, and it's going to be fine. It's threaded into the receiver thing and then it's held with a cotter pin. To keep people from stealing the whole affair, I can chain the bike to the hardware that holds the spare tire onto the RV. Someone would have to want my bike very badly to get it off of there.

I got my estimate for finishing up my patio awning over my driveway (if I decide to put the RV in storage for the future), and .. $3000! I told them that I'll hold off on it for now. I think I'll go for a second estimate.

Tucson is getting more and more beautiful, with flowers and trees blooming everywhere. The palo verdes look like they are painted with an airy yellow brush on the tips of the green branches. The prickly pears are abloom with peach or yellow blossoms. Even my purple prickly pear behind my cottage is covered in yellow blooms! The chollas are blooming in red, orange, or yellow. Night-blooming cereus are cause for a gathering, as they bloom at night, for only one night per showy bloom. I just found this website which is an amazing collection of work, write-ups, and photos of Tucson flowers! Do have a look.

And as Tucson becomes more beautiful with her flowers, the streets are becoming quieter, particularly here in the Village. I would estimate that only one cottage in 7 has people still in it, and most of these people will remain here for the summer.

Be sure that you read my comment for my last entry. In that comment, I tell how I use Photoshop to enhance and save my everyday photos for this blog. :)

Photos from Ventana Canyon Hiking

I'm thinking that I have been having some episodes of exercise-induced asthma, and that's why I'm having trouble with getting out of breath, having chest tightness, and profound weakness. It's not constant, but i reach a point where I just feel like I can't go on. I rest a bit, do some pursed-lip breathing, and it clears. Recently, the pollen counts here have been very high and the air has been much drier than before.

While this may be a case of "sophomoritis" -- a condition of 2nd-year med students who think that they have every disease that they study -- with my long history of asthma, I think it's reasonable to think that I have this, and that that is my problem. I'm going to try using my "rescue" inhaler as a prophylactic, before I go cycling or hiking again. I'm basing this treatment on my interpretations of this article. If you're a doctor, or you know one, and this is a dumb idea for me, I appreciate your letting me know. I miss one certain doctor very much.

So the hike yesterday was.. difficult for me. We hiked in Ventana Canyon, one of the hikes that we did when Dave was here in early March. That hike is about 1200 feet of up.

There were a couple of young women who were hiking and had gotten a bit off the trail, it seemed. They were ready to head back, but the guys (Duane and Jack) convinced them to come ahead with us. We all meandered around a bit, before finally finding the proper trail.

I hike more slowly than just about anyone, I'm convinced, so they were all scampering on ahead of me, while I plodded along at my own pace. But while I was lonesome for conversation, I did enjoy the scenery and the wildflowers.. and these cute little lizards that like to pose:



When I arrived at the Maiden Pools, Duane was already there, with his feet in the water. I enjoyed my sandwich and trail mix, along with Gatorade. I drank very nearly all the water and Gatorade I had brought -- 65 oz total.





There were little frogs which had come up out of one of the ponds, onto the grayish stone face. The frogs matched the rock very well, don't you think?




I shot some photos of the pools and the scene looking down toward Tucson.








Today has been a busy day for me! I called a locksmith to remove the hitch lock that we had put onto our RV's hitch last spring. I have no idea where the key is, but I suspect that Michael took it with him. The locksmith had no way of getting the thing apart without drilling out the lock, which he did. $70 for that lost key, plus the cost of a new hitch lock -- about $15.

I grabbed John and we headed off to Camping World and found a hitch lock. Then we went to Performance Bicycles and got a bike rack. The bike rack went together easily with John's help, but the hitch lock is too big! I'll return it tomorrow.

Riding my new Fuji

This color is the color of blue that fades into white on my beautiful new bike! I don't have a picture of the bike yet (duh..) but here it is!

Today I took her for her maiden voyage, riding up to Saguaro East with Jack. I had to learn how to do the gears and get onto the pedals (getting my feet into them after a stop), but it was easy. The bike has 27 gears, with 3 chain rings in front and a 9-gear cassette in back. And notice the white! The handlebars are wrapped in white, the seat's white, and all the components are either white or chrome -- no black in sight! Yes, it's clearly a chick bike, and it goes perfectly with my white helmet, too. ;)

The ride was really fun, though, of course, difficult for me. I am always finding myself searching for air, huffing and puffing, and all of this heavy breathing makes my mouth dry. I go for my CamelBack and take some swigs.. and then I'm even MORE out of breath, since I can't breathe and drink at the same time. I think that it would be pretty dumb to drown riding a bike, but I suppose it's been done.

Today I brought my large bike bottle full of Gatorade, and my CamelBack full of water, and drank almost all of both. Today I went 21 miles, making my total for the season (not including my park bike outings) 41 miles! Pam told Jack to go 1000 miles before fall, so that's what I'm going to attempt to do as well.

I want to do the Hilly 100 this year, as well, so I'm in training! :)

I was exhausted when I got back from the ride today, and sunburned! The burn came because, while we were planning to leave at 7 am, we actually didn't get away till after 10. That's because Jack experienced some flat tires, patched them not quite well enough, and then had to buy another tube and replace it. The sun was up higher by 10, of course, and I was ill-prepared.

John's sick today, and I went and got him some Pepto-Bismol -- one of Michael's favorite remedies. His other favorite for GI stuff -- Gaviscon chewables! I always keep some of those on hand, too. There seems to be some tummy flu running through what's left of the people here in the park. So far (knock wood), I've remained very healthy this season.

I don't like to talk future in here, but... here I go. I am planning now to leave Tucson on Sunday, the 27th. I'll go up to Sedona and spend 2 nights before heading up north to Zion National Park. An internet friend of mine (who also has a Navion) will be there with his daughter and we'll tour around together a bit and do some hiking before I point my Navion eastward. I should still be back by the 20th of May... or sooner.