Elfrida is in Hummingbird Heaven

We have seen the odd hummingbird in the wash behind the house, so we decided to put up a hummingbird feeder to see if we could lure them into view.  After cogitating on how and where to mount this, we settled on an iron stand that we could press into the soil on the other side of our iron fence.  

First, I held the stand while Elfrida mulled its left vs. right placement.  Then to test the height, Elfrida hung the (as yet empty) feeder on the stand and held the stand while I went back inside to check the view from the kitchen window.  Within seconds, Elfrida heard a buzzing sound and turned to see an Emerald hummingbird checking out the feeder, inches from her nose!  With this sign of approval, we installed the stand and filled the container with sugar-water.  Elfrida was still grinning an hour later. 

We also installed a conventional bird feeder, stocked with Nyjer seed, to attract songbirds.  Within the hour, we had our first visitor, a male cardinal:

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show

This is an annual event which brings in dealers and customers from all over the world.  If you have even a passing interest in rocks, this event will make your jaw drop at the sheer variety of stuff available.

If you are into making your own jewellery, you could get anything you want, from strings of beads, to individual pendants pieces, or just chunks of raw rock – in 40-gallon drums, sold by the kilo.  

I am more into natural art, so I was looking for fossils or rock which is beautiful on its own.  I left with some magnificent pieces:

• A jewellery box, carved from black fossil-laden marble.  The carver usually works the fossils into the piece – for example, a straight cone shell becomes the handle of box lid.
• A 36-inch string of turquoise beads for several dollars per foot
• A 2-inch fossil shark tooth
• A tiny trilobite carefully exposed emerging from its base rock, with antennae and eye pods intact
• A fossilized ammonite shell, bisected symmetrically to provide matched opposite spirals
• Two adjacent slices of petrified wood from Madagascar, one for me and its sibling to give to my sister Elfrida
• A blue agate sliced in half and polished, to mount on a shelf.
• A dendrite from Utah that you would swear was a Chinese painting of landscapes with trees, but is actually a fractal caused by seepage of manganese oxide into tiny cracks in the base rock

When I got home, I regretted that I had passed up an opportunity to acquire a Moroccan trilobite fossil the size of a dinner plate.  So I went back on Sunday (the last day of the event) to get one.  Of course, I also saw other great things and came away with more stuff:

• Sliced blue agates that I put some felt feet on to make some beautiful coasters
• Some more dendrites
• Some nice onyx figurines
• A vegetable tray and dip tray carved from that black marble with white fossils.  These dishes have a spiral form, centered of course on a spiral fossil ammonite

I must get my new camera working so that I post some pictures.

Tucson

Another sunny but cold morning - 30F in Flagstaff.

There was a final section of Route 66 west of Winona.  This was very pretty, winding through Walnut Creek Canyon and stands of ponderosa pine.

An interesting mine near Winona

A disused 1920's bridge near Winona

Terry at the bridge

The San Francesco mountains in the distance

At Flagstaff, we said goodbye to Route 66.  We will drive the bit from Flagstaff to Santa Monica on another trip.  We then took Interstate 17 south towards Phoenix.

At pretty much the last minute, we decided to swing west to drop in on Sedona.  The drive down Oak Creek Canyon was beautiful, but crowded!  Why are there so many people here on a weekday in October?

Red Rocks in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona

It took us two and a half passes through Sedona to find a parking spot.  Basically, we just wanted to stretch our legs and avoid some interstate driving.  The place was very busy.

Oak Creek Canyon

Plan A was to have a picnic at a rest area shown on our driving map at mile 224, just before we entered metropolitan Phoenix.  Oops.  Map was made in 2004, and Phoenix has since expanded and rest area was no more.  Which meant 90 minutes of intense urban freeway jockeying before we came out the other side to a rest area our map showed at the intersection of US60 and US79.  Alas, also no longer in existence.  At this point, driver and passengers were tired and hungry.  We found a dead end loop where the rest area was supposed to be, and just set up there.  No seats, not much shade, but we made a sandwich and cup of tea on the tailgate.

Recharged, we took US 79 about 70 miles down through Oracle Junction to Oro Valley, where we will have a little R&R before returning home.

Thanks for viewing.  Catch us later for Part 2 of the trip.

Arizona Route66

Morning was cold but sunny, low of 32F and high of 54F.  Canada keeps sending cold air masses south trying to recapture me, perhaps. 

We got off to a rough start.  I'd left the car fridge plugged in overnight, so the battery on the Ford was flat.  Luckily, the hotel maintenance guy had cables and a pickup handy.  Meanwhile, poor Terry had gone out for a walk and tripped on the curb, doing a face-plant, and scraped his nose and bruised his upper lip.  Looks kinda like he'd been in a fistfight.

Elfrida took a few more shots of the El Rancho:

Fireplace at back of lobby.

View from mezzanine

Another view from mezzanine.

Eventually, we got the truck going, found an ATM, gassed up, and were on the road again.

Terry's favourite American beer brand...

... and its alleged effect.

The pass from New Mexico into Arizona

Same spot, looking backwards

We spent a lot of time and pixels at the Painted Desert:

From here, we dropped down into Petrified Forest National Park:

The Teepees formation

A largish Teepee mound

The horizontal petrified log forms the Agate bridge; I think the real tree behind it is almost as interesting.

Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock

Every pullout had a [large] resident raven looking for handouts

Petrified log segments in gully of Jasper Forest

Petrified log protruding from eroding cliff face; when exposed segment gets too long, it will break off.

We returned to Route66 and headed into Holbrook, AZ to see the famous Wigwam Motel:

We found the Jackrabbit Trading Post:

And we went to the corner of 2nd & Kinsey in Winslow:

The painted mural looks like a reflection in a shop window.  I love the details on the second floor too.

Terry and Don Healey statue, hanging out.

We managed to make it to Meteor Crater before it closed for the day.  The crater was formed 50,000 years ago by a 150ft-wide iron-nickel meteorite impacting at 26,000 mph.  The resulting crater is 550 feet deep and4000 feet across.

Arizona's second-most famous hole in the ground.

Acoma – Gallup, NM

Day started cloudy with periods of sunshine, but very cool, almost cold.  Wind picked up, with periods of rain.  High 53F.

An interesting gas station remnant on our way out of Bernalillo.

An interesting vista as we broach the hillside on the way to Gallup, NM.

 

We took a side trip to the Acoma Sky City, a pueblo on top of a remote mesa.  

The road made hairpin turns around 100 ft bluffs.  Just past Dead Man’s curve we spotted this deer.

A pretty vista on the way to Sky City.

The Sky City Mesa, from afar.

On the Acoma reserve there are strict rules about photography, and there is no videography allowed.  No images can be taken of tribe members, the cemetary or inside the mission,on pain of confiscation.
No sketches or paintings.  There is a well-done visitor centre, and we took a guided tour of the pueblo. 
Here are several views from the top of the mesa.  

The homes on the mesa have been built and rebuilt many times.  The mesa has been inhabited continuously since 600 AD.  All descendants of a single grandmother would live in one home.  Most tribe members now live in family homes closer to the highway; mesa homes are occupied daily by the clan chiefs, by others only on special occasions.

Originally these homes were mud and straw adobe, with eisenglass (translucent crystalline rock) windows.  Some still are; most are now brick with adobe, with windows and doors from Home Depot. 

The houses are grouped by clan (there are twelve; they are matrilineal.  Each is generally two or three story, the higher stories reached by external ladder.

Several naturally occurring cisterns are used for watering animals.

Corn is sacred, and is often planted by the front door of Corn clan members.

A view over to the nearby Enchanted Mesa.

A view onto the plains below, traditionally planted in corn, squash.

The Sacred Tree, a cottonwood, the only tree on the mesa.

 We then got back on Route 66 and headed to Gallup, with a brief stop at the New Mexico Mining Museum in Grant. (Sorry, no pictures.)  On the way, we had some magnificent views of the Ambrosia [?] mountains, obscured by low clouds, with only the foothills exposed.  Note how the cliffs look square slabs of rock:

Terry at the Continental Divide.  Elf is keeping the getaway car running.

A good excuse for a market, nu?

We then had a pleasant run into Gallup along a lightly travelled section of the route.  We stopped for the night at the El Rancho Hotel and Motel, famously frequented by Hollywood types in the day.  

Each room is named after the most famous person that stayed there.  I got the Jack Benny suite.

 The decor is, shall I say, somewhat idiosyncratic.  I love the player piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNLIc_5HNeg

There are two spiral staircases. The steps are made from split logs.

This is my personal nomination for Most Hideous Chair Ever.  Note complementing side table.

Some lobby artwork.  Was Gaddafi related to Geronimo?